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What Is Andray Blatche Doing Here?

By
Updated: January 2, 2011

Andray Blatche’s play is becoming a thorn in the Wizards’ side. Sure, he puts up numbers here and there. Sure, he’s only whatever young age people keep citing as an excuse. He’s also induced boos from the home crowd on more than one occasion … and for good reason.

I’ve seen grown men, eyes reduced to glowing red from rubbing in despair at his ineptitude on defense (and I wasn’t looking in the mirror). It’s an abomination to the game of basketball, I say. And that’s why I’m here, simply as a concerned person for the game. There will be more to dissect and observe about 7-Day Dray’s defense, but let’s take a look at the equivalent of 4,000 words about his bad help defense on a particular hand-off in Saturday night’s 92-81 Wizards loss to the New Orleans Hornets.

Blatche’s man, David West, is in hand-off mode to Rashard Lewis’ man, Trevor Ariza. Lewis is trying to stick his hand in there to keep this from happening … and maybe Lewis’ own defense got him a bit behind the 8-ball in this situation, but it looks like Blatche will need to help nonetheless.

Yet, Blatche has yet to move his feet in this next shot.

Okay here, Blatche kind of moves his foot to the side, but they’re pretty much in the same spot on the floor. He seems to be doing more watching than defending here.

Yep … total, complete watching of the action going on here by Andray.

Blatche never even moved to help Lewis on the hand-off. Maybe he isn’t the only one falling short on defense on this possession, but he is by far the worst. One would hope that this isn’t what he’s being instructed to do … but it’s been an all-to-common occurrence throughout his career, and especially this season, his sixth in the NBA.

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Kyle Weidie
Founder / Editor / Reporter / Writer at TAI
Kyle founded TAI in 2007 and has been weaving in and out the world of Wizards ever since, ducking WittmanFaces, jumping over G-Wiz, and avoiding stints on the DNP-Conditioning list. He has covered the Washington pro basketball team as a member of the media since 2009. Kyle lives in D.C. with his wife, loves basketball, and has no pets.

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  • Just call him the Matador

  • iWitness

    Here we go again blaming Blatche.

    Yes, he plays inconsistent defense. How is that a surprise, considering his first coach was Eddie Jordan and his first role model was Antawn Jamison? On the next play didn’t he make one of his several steals on the night?

    Fans somehow magically expect this kid drafted out of high school to have acquired the training and commitment of a savvy hard-working veteran through osmosis. For that to work you have to surround a player with hard-working savvy veterans. And coach him. When has either ever happened?

  • Poname

    Blatche has run out of excuses. It is his six year and het still has yet to display signs of being a winning player. It’s time to cut our losses with this fools gold.

  • Tom

    Just plain lazy. Six years of this is enough. This is simple defense, stay between the man and the basket. This is one of several occasions of Blatche’s poor defense on full display.

  • For what it is worth, Blatche was the last person on the court during warmups, working with Sam Cassell.

    If he cannot move his feet to defend, then why is he a starter? The pick-and-roll is timeless basketball and it will always be difficult to defend, but if he is not doing it well at least part of the time, then why is Flip playing him?

    And how does this happen:

    in a game where you had a 13-point lead?

    http://www.nba.com/statistics/plusminus/plusminus.jsp

  • Blatche is terrible. he is a terrible shooter for a PF. He’s slow and extremely lazy on the court. It looks as if he absolutely doesn’t care. It’s a shame too, because he has shown so much potential, but if he is going to not show up to play, might as well cut him loose.

  • tired of this

    Either Blatche has to go or Flip haS to go. Blatche is the worse defender in the history of the NBA. Maybe he is not being coached or he just doesn’t want to play defense. Either way something has to be done I don’t see how this can continue for the rest of the season.

  • Robby

    I remember the good days he’s had… the post all-star stretch… 30 pts on 15-18 FG opening night last year… but he just gets murdered on the pick and roll… no concept of help defense, poor lateral quickness… tired of screaming at the television.

  • He’s weak in the post too. He would rather play on the perimeter. He’s soft in the paint. Some team was asking about him, I forgot who. If we get something good for him like a first round pick, I say go for it. We’re no better with him anyways.

  • rjg9n

    as IWitness said, Dray hasn’t had the greatest defensive examples of PFs to learn from during his time here in DC, but his utter laziness on the court is something that can’t be taught.

    I’m tired of watching Dray get beat off of 1-on-1s, beat off the break, and beat when he should be rotating to help. His conditioning sucks which may have to do with his lack of effort on D, but now we’re in January of his 6th season and if he hasn’t shaped up yet, can you really back him when he says he’s going to?

    As a loyal wizards fan I don’t want to find myself at the game booing when Dray steps on the floor, but since I know he’s going to get blown by and then proceed to jack up 4 18-footers in a row, I can’t help myself.

  • Lady Wizz

    Trade yet another player. With the revolving door of players on this team who the heck would want to play here?? I would not be surprised if Andray’s woes had a lot to do with the fact that he is being supposedly shopped around. Who could play under those conditions without being worried that your life may be changed. Wonder how long it will take this dunce of an organization to figure out that maybe it is the coaching staff and GM and not the players. I guess once Blatche is gone and whoever is traded here comes here kicking and screaming and the team continues to lose, maybe Leonsis will figure it out. But it is awful strange that Wittman told Blatche to keep shooting he would get better and he did, in the first game. But then Flip and his inconsistent player rotations returned and so did the losing along with his constant after the game player put downs.

  • musicmanjr

    Part of the problem is that Blatche and McGee sat on the bench until the Wizards were forced to play them. If you remember, it took Brendan Haywood five years to develop into a serviceable center. Antawn Jamison gave 100%, but no one would accuse him of playing defense. So who is teaching Blatche the fundamentals of low post defense?

    I’m not making excuses for Dray, just pointing out some obvious facts.

    By the way, once we get rid of Blatche, who’s gonna replace his 17 points and 8 rebounds?

  • szr

    I’m sympathetic to arguments that it isn’t all Dray’s fault. Ernie Grunfeld should go out the door at the same time. Especially since he’s the one that gave him this albatross of a contract last year.

  • GABBO

    I just read the bio of every member of the Truth About It staff. There is not a single mention of any of the members of the staff having ever played/coached organized basketball. My conclusion then is that arguments put forth on the Truth About It web site are simply those of a group of fans who have little, if any, actual physical experience with basketball other than on the playground. That’s fine; everyone is entitled to any opinion, but just having a web site on which to express an opinion doesn’t make you an authority on the subject.

  • poppalaw

    John Wall – while learning (ahem) has cost the team at least two wins in the past week. I think he will be terrific and should be given time. BUT players like Blatche and McGee cogs to his wheel. To blame them for not playing defense is akin to blaming Mother Teresa for eliminating sin in the world. Defense is a team concept for ALL involved. I watch all the games and there is plenty of blame to go around but it is sure fun to blame the best lowpost player we have. He does lead the team rebounds despite being SOFT. Good golly you people amaze me.

  • Kris

    Blatche has the ability to play good defense, I have seen him do it four times this year. The other games he stands aside and lets penetration occur as easy as a baby taking a poop. His shot selection is horrible as well as his timing as to when to take a shot. He stands 10-18 feet from the rim and gets richochets rebounds that usually go to guards. No work, no positioning, no blocking out. He turns the ball over repeatedly. He leaves the center to defend the rim with no help. He rarely fights for tip ins. He gets popped in the face and holds his injury and misses and entire sequence. He is baby poop soft, lazy, bad judgment, and poor teammate. Has all the ability and none of the competitiveness.

  • Patrik Trimmer

    next time you talk to AB tell him to look up Liquid Ice Fitness, my man Tone will get him straight. His physical conditioning is turrabul *In The Chuck-Wagon Barkley Voice*

  • Robert

    Dear GABBO,

    That is a dumb argument. A good portion of the leauge’s GMs these days have never played or coached basketball – Chris Wallace, Rich Cho, etc. I actually would prefer the Wizards have a GM who believes in advanced statistics and has a business and/or law degree. I think that’s the best formula for running an organization these days. This website provides great analysis on the Wizards, and to dismiss it simply because the writers have never coached or played basketball is both short-sighted and closed-minded.