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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 56 contributors: Ryan Gracia (@rgracia2378), Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis), and Kyle Weidie (@truth_about_it).]
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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 55 contributors: Markus Allen, Ryan Gracia, and Kyle Weidie.]
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Another day, another loss for the Washington Wizards, this time 99-94 to the Detroit Pistons… no biggie. At least they keep trying, I think. Here’s the reaction…
Greg Monroe had the MVP numbers (18 points and seven rebounds), and Tayshaun Prince (14 points) made pump fakes look like a Picasso against Wizards rookie Chris Singleton. But why not give the MVP to Ben Wallace? Washington coach Randy Wittman tried to play Hack-a-Wallace late in the fourth quarter when the game was close, but Gentle Ben went 5-for-6 from the line (5-for-10 on the night). All Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell could do was chuckle from the bench.
Oh, Jordan. “If you in da D… Slide by the Palace of Auburn Hills tonight!,” Tweeted Jordan Crawford (@Jcraw55) at about 10:30 AM on the morning of Thursday night’s game. Hopefully his friends and family don’t start asking for refunds. A 2-for-13 effort from the field on this night makes him 4-for-25 in his hometown of Detroit on the season. Add Crawford’s 3-for-10 effort last season in Detroit, as a Wizard, and he’s 7-for-35 for his career in Motor City. The ‘check engine’ light is on…
John Wall. After very disinterested home court efforts against Milwaukee on Monday and Indiana on Wednesday, Wall suddenly engaged himself with the intent to attack the rim. He created off being an offensive threat instead of being an apathetic pass-first player. Because of Wall (28 points, 10 assists and three turnovers), his depleted Wizards were in the game. Read more »
[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 54 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis), Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]
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With about seven minutes left in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s Wizards-Pacers game, Jan Vesely, with hyperactivity as he is wont to do, got his hand on a deflection that sparked a Washington fast break. However, as the Wizards are wont to do, the transition opportunity was mismanaged. John Wall recovered Vesely’s steal and passed the ball ahead to Jordan Crawford (Wall probably should have forced the defense to commit with a dribble). Unfortunately, Paul George, the only Pacer back, was in the right position to defend against just about anything Crawford would try to do. And what he tried to do, from my seat above section 104 at the Verizon Center, was make a lob pass (perhaps even one off the backboard) to either Wall or the trailing Vesely. George consumed whatever it was with his 6-foot-8 frame and took the ball for Indiana the other way, where eventually Danny Granger hit a jumper. The official score-keeper credited Crawford with a shot attempt; because I guess if you are going to credit George with a block instead of a steal, someone’s got to attempt a shot. Crawford didn’t quite agree. “Naw, I was passing it,” he said, “You know I shoot a lot, so they added to the field goals.”
Let’s watch the play, Jordan Crawford’s post-game response, and where, exactly, he got his Galaxy Foamposite Nike shoes.
That’s right… the reaction to the Wizards losing to the Pacers 109-96 on Wednesday night and another video rendition of “The Wizards Said WHAT?” all rolled into one. Enjoy.
Danny Granger was methodical to an aesthetically pleasing degree. His best work came in the third quarter when he scored seven of his 20 points. Granger read Chris Singleton’s defense, turned down the screen from his teammate, and nailed a 3-pointer that put the Pacers up 67-63 with 7:21 left. The game never got closer than that. Going 8-for-12 on field goals with five rebounds, two assists and zero turnovers in 27 minutes, it was a rather chill night for Danny.
John Wall seems like he’s doing more to help the Wizards just “play basketball” while the clock ticks, and he’s not so much taking actions that would aid efforts to win. And while we don’t relish continuing to pile on Mr. Wall’s struggles, between his seeming refusal to attempt to finish at the rim, him feverishly shaking his head in frustration going into a late third quarter timeout, and his robotic blandness in the post-game session with the media, this is not as engaging of a John Wall as we’ve seen in the past, in any manner. Then again, his Wizards aren’t competitive in too many engagements these days either. So how much do we blame the 21-year old?
Darren Collison completely out-classed Wall. He finished with 17 points on 7-for-8 field goals with 11 assists and one turnover in 32 minutes. It was almost too easy for Collison; having all those scorers at his behest is also a nice setup. His pretty crossover and step-back jumper over Cartier Martin to end the first half was one of the game’s highlights. Yep, getting Collison for Troy Murphy was quite the move by that Larry Bird. Read more »
[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 53 contributors: Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) with on-hand coverage at the Verizon Center and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) from behind the television screen.]
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The Washington Wizards lost for the 41st time in 53 attempts last night in a 112-98 contest against the Milwaukee Bucks; the result also marked the 219th loss in the last 299 attempts for the Wiz. TAI’s Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie are here with their reaction.
Brandon Jennings. The Wizards (led by John Wall, who hit four free throws) began the second half on 5-0 run to pull within two points. The Bucks then went on a 12-2 run that Jennings owned with eight points and two assists. He played all 12 minutes of the third quarter, ended up with 17 points during that time (19 total on the night to go with seven assists and six rebounds), and the Bucks stretched their lead from eight to 14 points. Meanwhile, Wall scored just one more bucket for the rest of the night after his four free-throws in the first 75 seconds of the third.
Fans during rebuilding. Can you really give any single Wizard the “LVP” tag? OK, surely some would like to designate Jordan Crawford — 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting — as such. Finding teammates for pick-and-roll dunks or drive-and-dish 3-pointers one minute (Crawford had six assists), and then taking shot jacks that only familiarize themselves with backboard glass or off-balanced attempts as if the sport was evaluated by Olympic judges looking at difficulty instead of a scoreboard the next minute, Crawford is truly a mixed bag. But don’t blame the sore thumb on a crappy team. Blame karma or whatever other unknown entity for the Wizards playing understandably unentertaining basketball featuring a bench of Cartier Martin, Roger Mason, Shelvin Mack, and Brian Cook, along with the youngest starting lineup in franchise history. This ain’t bringing a knife to a gun fight, this is bringing a wedge of cheese as protection in Kabul. Read more »
Once again the Wizards will understandably be without the services of Nene and Trevor Booker tonight against Milwaukee; the timing of their unavailability due to plantar fasciitis with the consideration of lottery balls in mind while Kentucky’s Anthony Davis squares off against Kansas’ Thomas Robinson in tonight’s men’s NCAA basketball championship game could not be more impeccable. Otherwise, the Wizards are playing for pride and the Bucks are playing for the playoffs (they are 2.5 games behind the Knicks for the eighth playoff spot in the East). For tonight’s 3-on-3 we have Jeremy Schmidt from the ESPN TrueHoop Milwaukee Bucks blog, Bucksketball, Michael Sykes from the hoops blog, What’s Left on The Floor, along with yours truly, TAI’s Kyle Weidie. Three questions, three answers starts now…
SCHMIDT: Jennings and Ellis mean a lot less to the Bucks offense working well than guys like Ersan Ilyasova, Mike Dunleavy, Beno Udrih and Drew Gooden. Jennings and Ellis take a lot of shots and occasionally score a lot of points, but the offense works best when those other guys are leading the team and moving the ball. Ellis has cracked 20 points once since the trade. But Milwaukee has been putting the league’s bottom feeders out pretty quick lately, and they could do the same to the Wizards.
SYKES: The game could be out of Washington’s reach by the end of the first half. Ellis and Jennings are both guards who play their best when hot. If the Wizards’ backcourt tandem of Wall and Crawford allow this to happen, the game will almost certainly slip through the cracks. The Bucks are deadly in the first half, averaging 51.1 first half points throughout the season and 59.9 in their last three games according to Teamrankings.com. The Wizards must play defense without gambling to prevent open looks for Ellis and Jennings.
WEIDIE: The Bucks move the ball so well as a team, sometimes in spite of Ellis and Jennings, that I’m not sure it much matters what the hot shot duo does on the court… especially with the Wiz again starting the youngest five-man unit ever to begin a game for the franchise (Wall, Crawford, Singleton, Vesely, and Seraphin). Even if Nene was in the lineup to more intelligently anchor the defense as opposed to the inexperienced Seraphin, I don’t think Washington’s perimeter players have the moxie. or interest, in stopping dribble penetration. The Bucks tallied 26 assists against the Wiz in their first meeting this season, 30 dimes in the second. Look for Franklin D. Roosevelt coinage to keep dropping on the floor tonight against Washington’s D.
[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 52 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis) and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).]
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Below are my reactions to Sunday evening’s Wizards-Raptors game, as also pub’d on ESPN’s Daily Dime with a variety of other NBA-related recaps. I’ve also added the two additional sections and lineup stats for good measure.
Wizards top 5-man lineup (plus/minus of plus-5): John Wall, Roger Mason, Jordan Crawford, Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely – 6 minutes, 16 points, 5-for-8 FGs, 2-for-4 3PM, 4-for-4 FTs, 4 rebounds, 5 assists.
A close second (plus-3): John Wall, Roger Mason, Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphin – 4 minutes, 9 points, 4-for-6 FGs, 1-for-1 3PM, 0 FTs, 2 rebounds, 2 assists.
The worst (minus-7): John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphin (the starters) – 17 minutes, 32 points, 12-for-24 FGs, 3-for-5 3PM, 5-for-7 FTs, 10 rebounds, 8 assists.
The 12-39 Washington Wizards and the 17-35 Toronto Raptors face off for the fourth time this season, the Wizards winning two on their home court, one being their first win of the season and another going to overtime in early February, and the Raptors taking a Feb. 3 matchup in Canada (three days before the Wizards’ OT win). Per Michael Lee, both Trevor Booker and Nene will be out tonight, so the Wizards will have a true test — Toronto has started Jose Calderon, DeMar DeRozan, Linas Kleiza, Andrea Bargnani and Aaron Gray in the past two games and beat the Denver Nuggets, lost to the Miami Heat by 12. For tonight’s 3-on-3 we have Sam Holako (@RapsFan) of the ESPN TrueHoop blog Raptors Republic, along with TAI’s Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) and Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20). The Raptors are favored by seven points; Goodbye Sunday…
DIAMOND: Neither team is exactly poised for near-term success. A few weeks ago, ESPN’s John Hollinger and Chad Ford issued their annual “future power rankings.” According to the forecast (via ESPN Insider), the Wiz are No. 22 in the league and the Raptors are No. 26. So if I’m looking at Toronto vs. Washington, it’s not because I care about winning now — I’m drawn by peripherals. And which city offers more TV exposure? Which one has a bigger (potential) fan base? Which one has less confusing tax rules? Gotta be DC.
HOLAKO: I’d have to say Toronto. Even though both teams are on a similar trajectory in terms of talent and cap space, the Raptors have a better core of young players to build a team around. John Wall is probably the best individual player on either team, but the Raptors seem more complete as currently constructed. Also, paying Nene $13.5 million-plus for 14 points and eight rebounds isn’t a good idea; that’s just me, though.
MOBLEY: If I’m the type of free agent that Amar’e Stoudemire was in 2010, and I’m interested in going where I can be the man on the team, the man of the city, and the savior for a franchise that has fallen on hard times, I’m choosing Toronto. But if I’m the type of free agent who needs to be a part of a franchise who already has one great player, and I’m looking to be a sidekick type of player, I’m choosing the Wizards. The Wizards have the slight edge because of their chances of luring a high-profile coach.
NBA coaches are constantly tinkering with their five-man units. Whether someone starts or not really takes a back seat to the primary concern of which players work well together, and only then, how match-ups can be exploited. In the very least, lineup data can tell us which combinations of Wizards have best played together with success (must less whom they are doing it against… high- or low-quality opponents). The lineup statistics for these 2011-12 Wizards also tell of a failed plan from the start. But if the ultimate goal was to get a top four pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, then maybe Ernie Grunfeld & Co. haven’t failed after all.
Eighteen different five-man units have played 25 or more minutes together for Washington this season. Below is the distribution of those lineups ranked by minutes played, and including the plus/minus per 48 minutes for that lineup. Yes, one lineup this season played 41 minutes together and would have been down by 38.4 points had they hypothetically played an entire game together against hypothetical competition. It’s hypothetically pretty sad. I’ve bolded the five lineups with a positive plus/minus per 48 minutes, if that helps.
| MIN | +/- |
| 201 | -9.8 |
| 110 | -8.7 |
| 109 | -16.8 |
| 107 | -4.5 |
| 93 | 6.7 |
| 78 | -4.9 |
| 63 | -8.3 |
| 61 | -18.1 |
| 43 | -26.7 |
| 41 | -38.4 |
| 37 | -24.9 |
| 31 | 6.2 |
| 28 | 12.2 |
| 26 | 5.6 |
| 25 | -9.8 |
| 25 | 7.7 |
| 25 | -2 |
| 25 | -17.6 |
OK, so what if we were to rank those 18 lineups by best to worst plus/minus per 48 minutes, but hiding all names except for those of JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Nene. What if…
| Lineup | MIN | +/- |
| McGee.JaVale | 28 | 12.2 |
| Young.Nick | 25 | 7.7 |
| Hilario.Nene | 93 | 6.7 |
| Hilario.Nene | 31 | 6.2 |
| McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 26 | 5.6 |
| 25 | -2 | |
| 107 | -4.5 | |
| McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 78 | -4.9 |
| McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 63 | -8.3 |
| Blatche.Andray – McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 110 | -8.7 |
| McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 201 | -9.8 |
| Blatche.Andray – McGee.JaVale | 25 | -9.8 |
| McGee.JaVale | 109 | -16.8 |
| 25 | -17.6 | |
| Blatche.Andray – McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 61 | -18.1 |
| McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 37 | -24.9 |
| McGee.JaVale – Young.Nick | 43 | -26.7 |
| Blatche.Andray – McGee.JaVale | 41 | -38.4 |
[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 51 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis), Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20), and Arish Narayen.]
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The Wizards keep playing and they keep losing… Moral victories? Lottery losses? Who cares… just get the season over with already. Amirite or amirite? Sure, players are developing by playing, but who’s to say they wouldn’t benefit just as much by shutting the team down for the season and simply holding a training camp for the next couple of weeks? No, that won’t happen… but you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that anything good can come from the rest of this remaining schedule of 16 games. The Wizards are playing more like a team and now face the tough challenge of learning how to succeed in close games; but hopefully they don’t learn too much, because then it could hinder the future. How embarrassing would it be if the Wizards (11-39) put together a string of wins that pushes them away from Charlotte (7 wins) and New Orleans (13 wins) and more toward Cleveland, Sacramento, Toronto, and New Jersey (17 wins each). I’m analyzing this too much, aren’t I? Let’s just play basketball… For tonight’s 3-on-3 we have Matt Moore (@HPbasketball) of the TrueHoop blog Hardwood Paroxysm, CBS Sports and other locations on the Internet, along with TAI’s Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It). Start it up…
MOBLEY: It sounds simple enough, but the key to a Wizards victory lies in good ball movement. If John Wall is passing the ball into Nene or Trevor Booker, drawing attention inside, which leaves open shots and driving lanes for Jordan Crawford or Chris Singleton, scoring gets a hell of a lot easier. Sixers guard Lou Williams may be coming thru that Verizon Center door, but not to the Wizards locker room, and their current roster does not shoot well enough to rely on jumpers and contested shots to win games. This may need to be a high assist night for Wall.
MOORE: Just keep it close. The Sixers are horrible in close games, and the Wizards have some guys who can hit shots. Grind it out, slow it down, keep it tight, and wait for the Sixers to implode.
WEIDIE: John Wall has to get better at leading his team’s offense. Maybe that’s hard to do seeing as Randy Wittman has likely simplified things so much, and seeing that the Sixers are a squad that scouts their opponents well. Wall is shooting 43-percent from the field on the season; in the fourth quarter, that dips to 40.3-percent (his lowest FG% of any quarter). Wall’s free throw percentage also drops to 69.4-percent in the fourth (from 79.2-percent overall). His assists per 36 minutes (8.4 overall) lowers to 7.5 in the fourth — Wall’s AST/36 in other quarters: 1st – 8.6, 2nd – 8.9, and 3rd – 8.7. So when it comes down to the last 12 minutes of games, Wall passes less and shoots worse. Surely his teammates play a role in this, but still… that is soooo ‘Wizards’ of him.
[Numbers via NBA.com/Stats]
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