Posts for category ‘oleksiy pecherov’

With Washington sending Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov and the 5th overall pick to Minnesota in exchange for Mike Miller and Randy Foye being reported by Chad Ford of ESPN, and both Wizards beat reporters, Mike Jones of the Washington Times and Michael Lee of the Washington Post, it’s time to get some initial thoughts blogged out.

If I know Ernie Grunfeld, he’s not done. Hell, he better not be done.

The drama is kind of exciting, knowing the President of Basketball Ops I’ve come to trust probably has more tricks up his sleeve. Judging by the roster after the trade, we might be calling Gruns “Mr. Wizard” if he pulls off something else nice to make the team complete (more on ‘complete’ in a second).

On another note, Thursday just lost a ton of luster … hey, at least the 25th is my birthday. Read more »

Player evaluation time has come again. You can find the evaluations from ’07-08 here. Up first for ’08-09 is Big Oily Pecherov. My thoughts and some images from the season are below, you can check on the full evaluation report on Bullets Forever.

I could cite some of Oleksiy Pecherov’s mediocre numbers, including his assist per 138.5 minutes rate, but they’re a moot indicator as to his value to the franchise. The 23-year old just didn’t get enough time on the court. However, when a guy’s player evaluation from last year can be easily recycled, a bulk of responsibility lies on his shoulders.

Rail if you will on the Wizards’ player development, or lack thereof, and whether or not Ed Tapscott stunted growth. The fact remains that if Pecherov gave more reasons for increased run, the minutes would have found him, especially in such an injury plagued year. The epitome of his season’s effort was more when he got blocked by the 6’2″ Boobie Gibson in the last meeting against Cleveland than the few positive moments.

Already behind a prideful veteran exempt from the bench (Antawn Jamison), a rookie with more fire and defensive instinct (JaVale McGee), a role player with court smarts (Darius Songaila), an inconsistent prospect with a much better skill set (Andray Blatche), and the occasional Etan Thomas sighting, the Ukrainian goof-ball dubbed ‘Big Oily’ was already in a position where working extra hard was a prerequisite for more time.

At one point, Pech seemed to want to rebound, which is more than you can say for many European big men with an outside touch. But it’s not encouraging that hustle on the glass decreased, while hovering around the arc increased, toward the end of the year, at least in practice as Kevin Broom highlighted on the Secret Weapon. I like Pechrov, but his comedic shtick isn’t much without meaningful contribution.

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Q1

7:14: Andray Blatche gets blocked by Mehmet Okur…..a very sad scene to witness. Okur barely jumped, if at all, and Andray took it to the hoop like a four-year old girl chasing after a puppy.

4th Minute: JaVale McGee has got a couple nice offensive boards, but doesn’t use his body/leverage to his advantage. He’s trying to be all arms and hops. So on one, he missed a forced hook and on the second, he got blocked byOkur (who the hell is this guy, Mutombo?).

In the first…..Utah’s passing looks good (6 assists on 9 made FGs = Swiss Cheese Wiz D)….but Deron Williams has four turnovers (two on the first two possessions of the game) to only one assist.

2:00: McGee gets an offensive rebound with two hands, keeps the ball high with both hands on it, and gets fouled on a missed attempt….now that’s the way to do things.

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Just like last Wednesday’s game against the NOLA Hornets, I attended Friday night’s game against the O-Town Magic and forgot to set my DVR to compose a game blog later. But twitter tweets provide a similar account and save me the time from having to watch a loss….again – suffered enough of that this season. So, here are the tweets from last night’s game with some guests.

The Wizards blew a huge lead in a matter of minutes in the 2nd quarter….so what? They won, didn’t they? [Game 54 Blog @ Bullets Forever]

Ok, so Antawn Jamison’s face at halftime above says it all. He was pretty much constipated over the 10 2nd quarter turnovers that let the T-Wolves back in the game.

One day this team will learn not to make it so hard on themselves…..but sucking wind is part of the growing pains, right?

The good part…..how ’bout that Javaris Crittenton fellow? Boy he’s coming along.

• Love him in the open court.
• He makes a mistake here and there in transition, but is not as erratic as you think.
• Quick decision maker when facing pressure on the break.
• Good court vision — becoming comfortable with where his teammates will be.
• Willing to pass first, but also looks to make aggressive drives to the basket.
• Gaining confidence in his shot — as evidenced by that huge bucket he hit with 55 seconds left and no qualms.

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Back to reality? We’ll see.

Q1

Wow, the Phillips looks emptier that the Verizon these days. The Hawks have the 4th best record in the East…..sad to say, Atlanta doesn’t deserve an NBA team.

11:45: Caron misses his assignment to protect the hoop after Songaila goes to double Joe Johnson and Horford gets an easy dunk on Atlanta’s first possession.

Hmm….long missed jumpers from Caron, bad P&R defense from Mike James….S.O.S. (Groundhog Day) – 6-1 Hawks.

9:00: Yep, it’s 9-1 when Tapscott decides to take timeout #1.

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DeShawn Stevenson is laughing. Andray Blatche is probably thinking about laughing. Brendan Haywood has a smirk on his face. Even that random guy you don’t know, but always see on TV, is chuckling to the far right.

But if you’re actually playing for the Washington Wizards, things aren’t so fun.

Not to say that the suits would rather be injured instead of playing, but they sure don’t seem to be having a bad time like their comrades.

Not gonna lie, I’m almost embarrassed that the Wizards will be on national TV against the Denver Nuggets this Friday. It’s not that the Wiz are bad and depleted, but their laziness and lack of effort are reaching epic proportions.

I just don’t anticipate enjoying the ESPN commentators ripping my team a new one and telling me what I don’t already know.

Oh well, that’s life.

On the other hand…..

The famed ESPN RV will be making an appearance in DC before the game. Here are the details:
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One Day We’ll Look Back and Laugh:
Wizards Game 46 Blog at Philadelphia

Previously on Deep Thoughts:

From: Gilbert Arenas Quote Trinkets

Q1

You’d think that it’d get to the point where when Phil Chenier discusses ‘Keys to the Game’, he’d just say, “don’t lose” — but I guess that’d be lazy.
Tonight’s key: Mike James…yes, an NBA vagabond is our freaking key to the game.

8:43: Caron turnover trying to pass to Jamison….that was just a horrible angle…..basketball instinct diminishing.

7:32: I don’t understand how the Wizards can appear to be pointing and communicating, yet completely turn their back on Igoudala who gets a lob from Miller and dunks. 10-7 Sixers.

7:05: Again…basic defensive principles. Mike James shoots, his man, Miller, runs…Butler, being the other guard, needs to take responsibility in getting back on D…against A RUN–NING TEAM. But he doesn’t…..enough of this “I’m not used to playing shooting guard” B.S. — pay attention (I know, he just doesn’t care to).

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The party has been effing ruined. I missed the Wizards game last night and have yet to decide if I’ll watch it on DVR….although, it will be damn hard to resist reliving an 22 point “thriller.” I guess I could always look for more Andray Blatche crop dusting incidents. But now that he’s in street clothes, he might get all fancy on us.

Best in Show:

[Wizards Insider]
How bad was it? Consider that the Wiz reserves were outscored 50-14 by the Heat reserves. Bottom line: this Wizards team looks a lot like the Miami team that won only 15 games last season. Some of these young guys have potential but the gap in confidence and NBA ability we’re witnessing on a nightly basis is scary.

[Wizards Outlet]
There’s no other way to put it other than this is a bad Wizards team. Only 14 assists opposed to 18 turnovers that went for 26 Miami points? The Heat didn’t shoot well at all — just 39 percent — but they made 10 3-pointers and 19 of 22 free throws. That made the difference right there.

[Washington Post]
“It’s the same thing we’ve seen so many times this season,” said Butler, who also had six turnovers as he and Jamison were again swarmed by an opposing defense. “Play well for a half or three quarters but then have problems in the fourth and lose. That’s just been our season.”

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A couple weeks ago, Rob Mahoney of Upside and Motor released an NBA Archetype Hierarchy chart [click on the link to check out the full blog post and explanations]. Here is Rob’s actual chart:

[click here for a larger view]

So naturally, I wanted to categorize each Wizard in primary and secondary roles. But before I get to that, here’s a Rob’s chart with the archetypes the Wizards do not have grayed out (the Wiz obviously have neither an elite point guard nor a refined big man):
And now, a fancy graphic representing Wizards players and their primary and secondary archetypes:
If you don’t like graphics, here’s the listing:

1. Gilbert Arenas – Surreal Scorer; Megalomaniacal small guard
2. Andray Blatche – Question mark; Skilled, but flawed post
3. Caron Butler – Salad Bar; Renaissance man
4. Javaris Crittenton – Question mark; Scoring ‘combo guard’
5. Juan Dixon – Scoring ‘combo guard’; Chucker
6. Brendan Haywood – Interior defensive presence; Skilled, but flawed post
7. Mike James – Scoring ‘combo guard’; Chucker
8. Antawn Jamison – Renaissance Man; Locker room chemist
9. JaVale McGee – Raw, project center; Under construction
10. Dominic McGuire – Intangible role player; Wing stopper
11. Oleksiy Pecherov – Three-point shooting big; Under construction
12. Darius Songaila – Hustle Player; Intangible role player
13. DeShawn Stevenson – Chucker; wing stopper
14. Etan Thomas – Brute rebounder; Question mark
15. Nick Young – High talent, low IQ wing player; Chucker

And finally, some explanatory bullets:
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Remember that video of various Washington Wizards talking about who would make the best President? (It looks like it’s since been removed from the internet.) Joking aside, most who eventually gave a serious answer went with Etan Thomas. Well, now we know why.

Ehh….we really already knew why….Etan is the Huffington Post’s “rebounder with a cause”, a stumper for Barack Obama, and “totally against war”…..basically, the guy is involved. Plus, he has dreads, they make him a politically active statement maker by default.

Flash forward to Wednesday night’s game in Atlanta…….I’m not sure what Oleksiy Pecherov said to Etan. Big Oily, by all accounts, is a silly dude….either that or anything he says with his Ukrainian accent is funny. Who knows, maybe Pech gave his best rendition of “Ukraine is game to you!?” But whatever it was, the American and the Euro shared an international chuckle.

So what does Etan do to return the favor of Big Oily’s gift of laughter? “Yo, bartender!” He turns around and not only orders a cold beverage for himself, but gets his new international buddy a drinky-poo as well. That, my friends, is a true diplomat.

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Orlando Pulse, blurred vision for the Washington Wizards
[flickr/Kyle May]

Had on the Washington Wizards-Orlando Magic game as I was getting ready to go out on Saturday night. Thanks to my laggard adoption of DVR technology, I figured I could just watch it again later and hack out a game blog.

But as the walloping swelled, it became more and more evident that I’d never be watching the game again. And a game blog? You’ve got to be kidding, right?

I’m certainly distraught about the beginnings of this 09-09 season, but surprisingly, any anger I should have is subdued as if my drinks were being drugged.

Not many teams have a Dwight Howard to expose ineptness in the paint, but preseason optimistic expectations of a deep Wizards front-court is seeped in irony. Tell me, what low post “banger” (on offense and defense, but the former applies more) do the Wizards have? I’ll tell you who other teams have: Detroit has ‘Sheed and Maxiell, the Bucks have Bogut, Big Z, Benny Wallace, and the Brazilian Spaz are in LeBron’s court, Boston has a Big Ticket, a Big Baby, and a Perkins, the Sixers have Reggie Evans and Brand (and not to forget Sam Dalembert), Bosh & J.O. are in Toronto….even the Knicks have Z-Bo. And that’s just the East….I could go on.

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The Washington Wizards, as proven last season, can manage to survive without Gilbert Arenas. They obviously had enough talent and depth, along with a coach who is able to make the necessary adjustments, to be a playoff caliber team in the Eastern Conference.

So, when the news of losing Arenas until 2009 hit, some where frustrated, but for the most part, Wizards fans did not press the panic button. However, now that Brendan Haywood is out, the absence of Arenas is compounded and the team outlook for ’08-’09 appears very bleak.

Not all is lost for the Wizards to possibly keep their head above water and hope for a timely recovery in the health department for a playoff push. But subtracting Haywood from the remainder sans Gilbert Arenas hurts the team more than losing Arenas by himself.

As I wrote in Haywood’s evaluation, during the course of last season, BTH displayed significant and noticeable improvement in the areas of maturity, hand strength, shooting ability, concentration and leadership. Aside from shooting percentage, it’s hard to measure those other intangibles. So, we much turn to stats to assist with the story of Brendan Haywood’s value to the Washington Wizards.

A new site, Basketball-Statistics.com, and blog, attempts to compile an all encompassing stat which incorporates a player’s value on offense and defense. You can read the explanation of ‘Composite Score’ here…..essentially, it combines a number of statistical measurements from other statisticians, along with various tweaks from the site’s creator, Jon Nichols. Nichols is the first to admit that Composite Score is a work in progress, as one can always find ways to tinker with a system. However, in its current version, the results pertaining to the Wizards, specifically Brendan Haywood, are interesting nonetheless.

Brendan Haywood 5-Year Composite Score

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