Posts for category ‘Injuries’

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.

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.

Read more »