[photo: K. Weidie, Truth About It.net]

A trademark of a Flip Saunders offense has long been exploiting the mid-range game for his wing players. This aspect of the game can be hard to master (especially considering shot location), but also tough to defend. Furthermore, working the middle gives a team good options to either create closer to the basket or beyond the three-point line (given that the intended mid-range shooter is also a willing passer). One thing Jordan Crawford hasn’t been able to grasp just yet is the mid-range game, at least not like Nick Young.

Maybe Crawford’s mid-range ability will come, but considering the progress Young made last season, his second under Saunders, the time for Crawford to advance might be warranted more sooner than later. Consider these stats:

Nick Young – Shots from 16-23 Feet Per 40 Minutes

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[Editor's note: Below is third piece Arish Narayen has written for TAI. He first broke down the Wizards' small forward situation in early July, and then wrote about the Wizards' third summer league game against the Mavericks. -Kyle]

If you haven’t had a chance to read this study linked on TrueHoop Monday, check it out. In the piece, Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference.com analyzes how NBA players performed against above and below average defenses in 2009-10.

Paine begins by ranking each team’s defense by using a defensive version of the Simple Rating System, taking into account margin of victory, strength of schedule, and home-court effects. Taken from the article, here are the relevant bits about the Wizards:

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The Wizards lost in typical Wizards fashion on Friday against the Chicago Bulls. Through three quarters, they fought hard against a team with playoff urgency … well, actually, the Bulls never really looked like a playoff team. But still, it wasn’t too shabby for the Wiz to be down just 76-75 after three quarters to a team 14 better in the win column.

Then the fourth quarter came. Before it started, Washington had 19 assists to nine turnovers and out-scored Chicago 40-32 in the paint as well as 19-10 on second chance points.

But in the final period, the Wizards didn’t score until the 8:29 mark when Fabrico Oberto hit a couple free-throws, and only scored two points on a couple free-throws after the 4:26 mark. Overall, Washington only made two field-goals and were out-scored 19-12 by Chicago to close out the game 95-87.

So what was the problem?

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The Wizards never really had a chance against the Utah Jazz Saturday night. The hope for victory was akin to a 15-seed wanting to beat a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament, especially since both Al Thornton and Randy Foye didn’t play because of injury.

This team just doesn’t have the talent to compete right now. They are not tanking. They are out there with the desire to work together to win. That is, I don’t get the impression that guys are playing for themselves so much, unlike before the big trades.

The players are just trying to learn and Flip Saunders is just trying to teach. Speaking of, before the game Saunders said that he put in a new offense a couple days ago; an offense with the intent to get more cutting opportunities for perimeter players and to get the big men working closer to the basket.

“The offense we ran, the first unit we had out there played pretty well with it. We had a lot of open shots and moved the ball well, had a lot of assists,” said Saunders after his team went down 103-87 to Utah, dropping their record to 21-51. “We turned to our second unit, we have too many role players playing. Now some of those role players have to be thrust where they have to become main scorers and they’re not comfortable as far as doing that.”

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Before tonight’s Wizards-Jazz game, Flip Saunders came out to talk to the media reminiscent of Johnny Cash.  The coach was dressed to the nines in all black, well, until he put on his contrasting gray sport coat on for the game. One thing you can say, this season has certainly been a Ring of Fire for Saunders.

New Offense

Since the last Wizards home game against Charlotte, and the Andray Blatche affair, Blatche, to the extent that I’ve noticed, has made more of an effort to operate closer to the basket on offense, something Coach Saunders has implored him to do since early January, at least. I asked Flip about this before the game.

“We instituted/kinda put in a new offense that would make it more conducive for some of our bigger players to stay more around the basket and try to give our perimeter people more cutting opportunities, taking pressure off Andray around the basket where there wouldn’t be as many trap type situations,” said the coach, also mentioning that this new(ish) offense was instituted two days ago. Read more »

With the Washington Wizards, I could point to a ton of self-induced actions that don’t go right during the course of a game. It boils down to a team that’s lacking focus, fundamentals, and a commitment to each other.

One specific time period that highlights much of the Wizards’ woes came over a three-minute span in the fourth quarter against Oklahoma City on Tuesday. From the start of the quarter, when the game was tied at 76, to around the 7:30 mark, the Wizards and Thunder traded baskets. A Gilbert Arenas three-pointer put the Wizards up 90-89 at the 7:43 mark.

Over the next 180 seconds or so, with breaks for two Flip Saunders timeouts, the Thunder went on an 11-2 run, effectively ending the game. Here’s how it happened.

{7:34 – 4th Q}

Eric Maynor splits Andray Blatche and Earl Boykins. Andray, you’re reaching instead of moving your feet to close the gap. Your feet were growing roots. Your argument is invalid. Read more »

There were several interesting quotes from the Wizards about themselves in Michael Lee’s report from Minneapolis on Wizards Insider. I’m unsure if it’s more frustrating that they actually realize what they’re doing wrong. Let’s first read a quote from Flip Saunders:

“Guys have to be disciplined. They have to be willing to turn down a shot at time. Tonight, we had no shot discipline. Tonight, it was, ‘I haven’t taken a shot, so I’m going to shoot it.’ when you do that, you shoot 38 percent from the field.”

A reoccurring theme … the players not trusting, or deviating from, Saunders’ offense. Lets see what Antawn Jamison had to say:

“We played selfish basketball at times. On the road, you can’t do that. I don’t care who you’re playing against.”

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Caron Butler is not all bad and he’s no scapegoat, but he’s also having the worst season of his career (aside from his second year in the league).

Sure, a new system is tough. But Butler sells himself as a pro’s pro, a vet’s vet. And not to say he doesn’t possess those qualities, but he still has a big step to take to be a ‘next-level’ player and not some flash-in-the-pan two time All-Star.

Flip Saunders has implored Gilbert Arenas to push the ball and attack the basket. With that, offense should be created. Caron shifting his role back to number two, where he’s rightly supposed to sit in the team’s pecking order, shouldn’t involve him fading into the background, nor should it involve him forcing it.

This season, Caron’s game has been everywhere on the spectrum except balanced. He needs to adjust his offensive approach to create for the team, and not just for himself. The him-first approach is why he is averaging a career low 1.7 assists/36 minutes and why he has a 41.4 FG% that’s only better than his sophomore slump season in Miami, Dwyane Wade’s rookie year.

Sure Arenas cools down many buildings in which he plays with 40.2% from the field, and sure the Wizards have 99 problems … but Caron Butler is one.

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