Washington Wizards 2013 - 2014 Season Thread - Thanks for a great season!

Where will the Washington Wizards finish this season?

  • Out of the playoffs.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • In 8th place.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • In 7th place.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • In 6th place.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • In 5th place.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I'm delusional and believe the Wizards will finish in 4th place or higher.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
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the otto situation is exactly why i wish each team had a d league affiliate, and actually used it to develop players instead of crashing em on the end of the bench
 
Pickup Caron Butler (veteran shoooota) from FA right now. He'll be a great asset for when Beal is having a cold night. Send down Otto to the D league (my boy, but is useless as of now) and Chris Singleton to China or Turkey lol. Make room for Drew Gooden and Caron, by playoff time we have a 3rd seed worthy squad. Bench is deep, so we will see what Whitman draws up.

Starters: Wall, Beal, Ariza, Nene and Gortat

Bench: Webster, Miller, Butler, Seraphin, Booker, Temple, Gooden
 
 If we weren't going to play the 3rd overall pick then we should have just picked Nerlens. 
I'm tired of hearing this.

Nerlens is a risky move. We draft him...he sits...plays next year...tears an ACL again...or the year after and then this entire thread turns into "Why would Ernie draft a guy who had two serious knee injuries already....typical Wizards"
 
 If we weren't going to play the 3rd overall pick then we should have just picked Nerlens. 
I'm tired of hearing this.

Nerlens is a risky move. We draft him...he sits...plays next year...tears an ACL again...or the year after and then this entire thread turns into "Why would Ernie draft a guy who had two serious knee injuries already....typical Wizards"
its risk with every pick tho, especially in this past draft being so weak....if you not going to play the "nba ready" prospect then you might as well swing for the fences with a higher upside player like Nerlens.....Just like you said for Nerlens it can be "They picked Otto, he's still not good another season from now and another wasted pick...typical Wizards"
 
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This all just goes to the root of the problem.  We're stuck with a bad organization.  

If you draft Nerlens, our pitiful training staff comes into play.  Do you want the team that allowed Beal to develop TWO stress fractures managing a guy who's already coming in to the league with a major knee injury?  If Noel succeeds elsewhere, it doesn't necessarily follow that he would've succeeded here.  Our training staff ranks among the worst in the league.  Ask Gilbert.  Ask Nene.  Ask Beal.  Ask MJ.  Ask anybody who spent time here.  We're not Phoenix.  

The other side of the coin is that we also have poor coaching.  Player development is an essential part of any winning organization.  The Wizards are historically bad in that category.  Precious few players have ever flourished on our watch. 

It's for this reason that I was initially pleased with the Porter selection.  Admittedly, I'm not much of a college basketball fan.  It's a high energy, low skill game where massive size and talent disparities are addressed via a short three-point line and consistently inconsistent officiating, under which any close college game becomes a scrum in the last five minutes that more closely resembles rugby than organized basketball.  This to say: I didn't spend a lot of time watching Porter at Georgetown.  After reading the scouting reports, I was satisfied that he had the least "bust potential" of any prospect in our draft range.  At worst, I thought, this is a guy who can come in off your bench and bring something to the table.  He's not Jan Vesely.  He has an existing skill set.  He's a basketball player, not just a tall human being with nothing upstairs but "a high ceiling."  He also comes across as a great teammate.  Even now, you can see that he's engaged in each game even though he has no chance of playing.  He's not one of those guys who sits on the bench chatting with no concept of the game score or situation.  He wants to win and he wants his teammates to succeed.  

At this point, I could say, "the scouts were wrong.  He's a jack of all trades who does nothing well enough to warrant minutes.  He doesn't have an NBA body.  He's yet to adjust to the speed of the NBA game.  He doesn't have the range to play Trevor or Martell's role.  He can't do this... he can't do that..."  but we honestly haven't seen enough yet to make that determination.  Did he really fail us, or have we failed him?  We've done NOTHING to help him grows as a player.  Nothing.  

Darko and Thabeet are probably the last top three picks I've seen receive this kind of treatment.  There's no "career arc" for a guy in that situation.  Tayshaun Prince got burn in his first year.  What we're asking of Otto now is essentially unprecedented.  He's not even the "human victory cigar."  He's Wayne Knight in Space Jam.  

If the Wizards KNEW that they were going to resign Martell, and they knew that Randy's obsession with Trevor Ariza bordered on Lifetime movie territory, they never should've drafted Porter - but if you looked at our starting lineup this summer, the 3 spot was the clear weak link.  We had Okafor and Nene up front.  We had Beal and Wall in the backcourt.  

And yes, you should never draft on need that far up - but who else from this draft class would be playing right now?  It's hard to say, because what few players in this class have stood out have been receiving consistent minutes - and consistent minutes at positions we already have covered (or our management thinks we have covered.)  Would MCW have been given a chance?  Otto had a few bad summer league outings and that was it for his career, as far as Randy was concerned, at least.  MCW looked awful in summer league.  His coach took the opposite tack with him and showed total confidence in his abilities.  With Randy, he'd be Shaun Livingston part two - and who would've taken MCW that high just to play behind John?  That's a James Harden situation waiting to happen. 

To this, some might say "well, then they should've traded the pick."  Yeah, but look who we'd have making the trade:  the same guy who flipped a #5 overall for near-expiring contracts of Mike Miller and Randy Foye.  

Let's face it:  with this organization, we were screwed no matter what. 
 
Tayshaun barely played his rookie year with the Pistons in the regular season.

But then he suddenly got playing time during the playoffs and played well.
 
^True, but Prince was also 22 years old. Otto is just 20 and I don't expect him to 'break out' any time soon.. with how Wittman shortens his rotations Porter won't even see the floor in the playoffs.

But I've liked the Prince comparison for Otto and still do. Us Wiz fans just have to be patient and remember that he's even younger than Prince was. He may not break out for another season or two.

With the #3 pick in the draft, I was hoping we could at least get another player on the level of Beal who could contribute right away. But it looks like Porter is going to be a project, and he'll have to be handled correctly or he could fail.

And yes, you should never draft on need that far up - but who else from this draft class would be playing right now?  
It's hard to say, because what few players in this class have stood out have been receiving consistent minutes - and consistent minutes at positions we already have covered (or our management thinks we have covered.)  Would MCW have been given a chance?  Otto had a few bad summer league outings and that was it for his career, as far as Randy was concerned, at least.  MCW looked awful in summer league.  His coach took the opposite tack with him and showed total confidence in his abilities.  With Randy, he'd be Shaun Livingston part two - and who would've taken MCW that high just to play behind John?  That's a James Harden situation waiting to happen. 


To this, some might say "well, then they should've traded the pick."  Yeah, but look who we'd have making the trade:  the same guy who flipped a #5 overall for near-expiring contracts of Mike Miller and Randy Foye.  

Let's face it:  with this organization, we were screwed no matter what. 
Agreed with the bold, out of this rookie class who would even be getting minutes for us?

Washington is a team trying to compete for the playoffs, with a coach trying to compete for his job. Wittman has already shortened the regular season rotation as if it's a 7-game series, he only plays 8 guys max and runs Beal into the ground for 38-40+ minutes a night. If we had Giannis he would barely be in Wittman's rotation.

If Otto was on Milwaukee or Philadelphia, teams focused on developing their young guys, he'd have a lot more opportunities to play and learn. But in Washington, player development is the last priority.

I don't agree that we're screwed.. yet. When Washington backs into the playoffs and Leonsis happily offers extensions to Ernie and Wittman, THEN we're screwed.
 
Tayshaun barely played his rookie year with the Pistons in the regular season.

But then he suddenly got playing time during the playoffs and played well.
Let's check it out: 
[table][tr][td]SEASON[/td][td]TEAM[/td][td]GP[/td][td]GS[/td][td]MIN[/td][td]FGM-A[/td][td]FG%[/td][td]3PM-A[/td][td]3P%[/td][td]FTM-A[/td][td]FT%[/td][td]OR[/td][td]DR[/td][td]REB[/td][td]AST[/td][td]BLK[/td][td]STL[/td][td]PF[/td][td]TO[/td][td]PTS[/td][/tr][tr][td]'02-'03[/td][td][/td][td]42[/td][td]5[/td][td]10.4[/td][td]1.3-2.8[/td][td].449[/td][td]0.5-1.1[/td][td].426[/td][td]0.3-0.4[/td][td].647[/td][td]0.1[/td][td]1.0[/td][td]1.1[/td][td]0.6[/td][td]0.3[/td][td]0.2[/td][td]0.6[/td][td]0.5[/td][td]3.3[/td][/tr][tr][/tr][/table][table][tr][td]SEASON[/td][td]TEAM[/td][td]GP[/td][td]GS[/td][td]MIN[/td][td]FGM-A[/td][td]FG%[/td][td]3PM-A[/td][td]3P%[/td][td]FTM-A[/td][td]FT%[/td][td]OR[/td][td]DR[/td][td]REB[/td][td]AST[/td][td]BLK[/td][td]STL[/td][td]PF[/td][td]TO[/td][td]PTS[/td][/tr][tr][td]'13-'14[/td][td][/td][td]24[/td][td]0[/td][td]8.9[/td][td]0.7-2.3[/td][td].286[/td][td]0.0-0.4[/td][td].000[/td][td]0.2-0.3[/td][td].625[/td][td]0.5[/td][td]1.0[/td][td]1.5[/td][td]0.4[/td][td]0.0[/td][td]0.3[/td][td]0.6[/td][td]0.3[/td][td]1.5[/td][/tr][/table]
There's your Tayshaun Prince/Otto Porter comparison.  42 games to 24.  Five starts to zero.  10.4 minutes to 8.9.  436.8 total minutes to 213.6 minutes.  Otto has played a total of 9 minutes in the last 15 games with 24 to go.  He'd need to average over 9 minutes per game to catch up.  Barring injury, it's unlikely he'll see half that. 

His minutes per month have dropped precipitously.  10.7 mpg in December.  7.8 in January.  3.5 in February.  

For reference:  Darko totaled 159 minutes and appeared in 34 games.  It's entirely possible that, while Otto will receive slightly more minutes on a team that is decidedly NOT competing for a championship and has, for much of the season, held a losing record, Darko may nonetheless have appeared in more games during his rookie season that Otto Porter.  I'd call Otto the new "human victory cigar," but he doesn't even get those minutes now.  G Wiz spends more time on the floor each night than Otto.  

Jan Vesely played more as a rookie than Otto, for the same coach.  Jan, as we all remember, did NOT have an NBA body, an NBA brain, or an NBA skill set.  

If you're not going to play a guy like this, have the decency to send him to the D League.  It's more important for him than it is for Rice.  Rice has been there.  He's been dominant there.  He knows that he can perform if given the chance.  Otto's had no public success this season.  If he's done anything, it's been in practice, behind closed doors.  The "demotion" to the d league is less embarrassing than this.  Let him be a big fish in a small pond for a few weeks and gain some confidence.  

For Randy to play Wall, Beal, Temple, and Miller together before putting in Porter is humiliating.  It's a vote of ZERO confidence.  We invested heavily in this player.  We need to give him a chance to succeed. 

And for all this talk about how badly we need a backup 2 when Beal isn't playing well... we have that player.  Randy just sent him to Iowa because suddenly he's turned into Larry Brown sans the production.  It says something about our coaching staff that we're desperate to bring in geriatric players who need no instruction and have been around long enough to coach themselves.  "The young guys don't know how to play yet."  Well whose responsibility was it to teach them?   
 
It's the same old story. This team is run without the benefit of foresight.

I'm not sure what happens if/when Grunfeld's contract is extended. Surely, even Leonsis can see what a horrendous job he's done. Surely...
 
To be fair, we also don't know what's going on behind closed doors at practice. No whispers have gotten out about "Otto killin' it in practice, 3 on 3, etc." Say what you want about Wittman, but there is probably good reason why he's getting no burn. Still doesn't explain why he's not getting D-league minutes, but I've heard nothing from anyone about his development so far. All we can do is hope is that Otto makes a HUGE jump next year.
 
Ariza is on fire!

It's looking like the Houston game all over again for him
 
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Glad we came out with this kind of energy. Ariza and Wall playing perfect ball
 
So.. we're definitely resigning Ariza (unless another team offers him a super fat contract). Time to start shopping Webster, hopefully someone will wanna take his contract
 
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John Wall named Eastern Conference player of the week (2nd time this season):

John Wall and James Harden have been named the NBA's Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Feb. 24, through Sunday, March 2.

Wall led the Washington Wizards to a 3-0 week, behind averages of 25.0 points (seventh in the conference), 10.7 assists (tied for first in the league) and 2.0 steals.

Harden led the Houston Rockets to a 2-1 week behind averages of 27.0 points (tied for third in the conference), 7.7 assists (fifth in the conference) and 2.0 steals.

Via RealGM Staff Report
:pimp:


But he's not worth the max though.. :smh:
 
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I was following the game in my way home from work. At least they didn't throw the towel in and it appeared close through 2 & 1/2 quarters. It was a four point game and then ballooned to 15 in a couple of minutes.

Time for a new win streak.
 
jan-vesely-pump-fake-brick-a.gif
 
 
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