Posts for category ‘oleksiy pecherov’

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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I’ve been working on a piece about Eddie Jordan and his rotation size, specifically in comparison to the rest of the league and how it may or may not relate to team success in the NBA. The research is taking longer than I thought, so….spawned by a Slam Online blog entry today, I wanted to assess the Wizards role players for the upcoming season first.

In “Know Your Role,” John Krolik highlights five types of role players (plus Robert Horry) that every team wants. How do the Wizards stack up? Well, let’s see.

1. The Mistake-Free Backup Point
This one is easy….Antonio Daniels is even cited as an ideal example. AD is a leader who is willing to put his body on the line and the team first. In my player evaluation of Daniels, I cited negatives such as inability to shoot and defend. However, with Arenas back and Antonio going back to the bench, those inefficiencies will be somewhat masked in the bigger picture. The key theme is the steadying veteran presence Antonio provides as the point guard leader of a young second unit.

2. The Bona Fide Sniper
This is an big area of concern for me. Gilbert Arenas is the team sniper, but he’s no role player. Gone is last year’s sniper in Roger Mason, who will fill the role for the San Antonio Spurs. Sure, Nick Young will be expected to provide an offensive spark off the bench, but I’ve never been confident in his ability as a long distance threat. Are you telling me that the Wizards will look to Oleksiy Pecherov to be the unconscious jacker from deep? I sure hope not, and that’s assuming he’s not reporting for D-League duty during the upcoming season.

3. A “Three-and-D” Shooting Guard
Krolik cites DeShawn Stevenson as fitting this bill and I couldn’t agree more. This is where I really respect Stevenson for his personal player development in adding the three-point shot to his repetoire. It’s funny that at times, DeShawn seems to have a penchant to taking ill-advised shots (and perhaps this was accentuated last year with Gilbert’s offense absent), but at the same time, most of my observations tell me that DeShawn is a relatively selfless player on the offensive end and is well aware of his role on the team. Dominic McGuire, altough more of a SF and lacking trey-ball range, strikes me as a role-player-in-training in this area. Off the bench, I think McGuire will be able to defend multiple positions, and judging from his summer league progression, could bring a threatening mid-range offensive game.

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The 2007-2008 Washington Wizards player evaluations have begun on Bullets Forever. Second up to bat, Oleksiy Pecherov. My thoughts are below…..be sure and check out those of Prada and Jake the Snake as well.

Good ol’ Oleksiy Pecherov……the fun-loving Euro cut-up whom many have compared to Stewie from Family Guy. Personally, I like to think of O-Pech as the Ukrainian Balki Bartokomous…..a much more fitting, obliviously foolish, type of character than Stewie (although O-Pech and the youngest Griffin do favor each other in looks).

I think a player with Pecherov’s skills is necessary for the Wizards offensive style. You need a big man who can spread the floor and nail the long jumper off a pick-and-pop. Songaila currently fills this need, but Pecherov has more range.

I know many have clamored for Pecherov to get more time, sacrificing Songaila’s minutes…….let’s just calm down on that thought – or as Balki would say, “Don’t be ridiculous!” I admire Oleksiy’s lack of jump shot conscience, as killer instinct is always wanted. I also have been pleased with his aggression and desire in terms of rebounding.

However, as much as people talk about those who contribute positive intangibles which do not show up in the box score, there are those who bring unseen negative intangibles to the table. Right now, Pecherov lacks the strength to secure defensive rebounds, the lateral quickness to on-ball defend his man, and the basketball IQ to limit turnovers and make intelligent contributions to the system…..among other adverse traits.

Outlook: Oleksiy Pechrov may eventually replace Darius Songaila, possibly allowing Ernie Grunfeld to unload D-Song’s contract. However, I’d say O-Pech needs another year of seasoning in the least. He appeared in 35 games last year (he was injured until mid-January), averaging 9.1 minutes per….I wouldn’t mind if Eddie Jordan found a way to up that to 60-65 and 13+ per in 08-09.

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