Wizards Season 2012-13

I am only a casual fan of the Bullets but.... anyway, Wall is a talented player for sure, but he was not the only one to make a difference in this turnoaround it seems to me. Nene was just getting into playing shape from his injuries about the same time, along with Ariza, and Beal is a rookie that was finding his way without a lot of help. I think there were a couple other guys hurt that either came back at around the same time as Wall or were coming back from injury and just getting their legs back. Plus getting everyone back puts everyone into their correct position and minutes. This is not a great team, and I almost wish Wall had been out another 20-30 games so the team ended up with another top 3 pick. I really think they could be 1 really great rookie, and a year longer of Wall and Beal, and a coach, from being a playoff team and one that good players want to come to because they think they can win.

If you are making the playoffs consistantly, every once in awhile you are going to get hot at the right time and make a run at it. Just look at the Ravens for instance. As far as I am concerned they seldom have the best team, but they are good enough to make the playoffs every year, and if you are on a run and healthy at the end of a long season, you have a chance to go all the way on a given year. I say this because this basketball team, no matter how good they play, is not and will not be one of the teams that people mention as one of the top 3 or 4 teams to win it all. At least not in the forseeable future. So the next best thing is become a routine playoff visitor and then go for the "why not us" season when the timing is right.

One thing they do have goiong for them is you fans. Even as bad as they have been it looks like the arena was at least 3/4 the way full the other night, so if they were regularly competitive and in the mix i am sure they would sell out every noght like the Caps do. ugh the Caps. A whole post to themselves....

Woo-hoo!  We're number 29!  We're number 29!  We're number 29! ... 

But seriously, they're certainly a different team with John Wall and Nene in there, and you can really see the difference Wall makes to Beal.

Here's something I've been thinking about as I watch the games: are the Wizards' opponents looking past them to their next game, or do they play extra hard because they don't want to get beat by the lowly Wizards? 

Only 18.5 games out of the #1 seed! lol

Well guys pretty soon teams are going to not want to come to the phone booth to play. What a complete game they played to beat conference heavyweight Chicago tonight. I think that is 5 straight at home and 7-3 in their last 10. If they just could have won 3 or 4 of thoset first dozen games how differetn would their chances look right now with the way they ae playing. I know one guy that has to be sleeping better and that is RW. I bet therefor awhile he was afraid his name would be off the parking spot when he got to work. He looks safe now with his team mostly healthy and playing very spirited ball.

The Wizards are a completely different team with John Wall back. It is stunning. I would never have guessed it.
As stated above, getting Wall back puts a lot of other guys back into the proper position / role.
Plus Wall seems to have given the team a big jolt of energy.

* Okafor has totally stepped up his game recently. He got 3 or 4 key rebounds late in the game tonight, plus a nice jumper at a key point in the game
* Webster has quietly turned into a respectable 3-man for us. He fills a giant void at that position
* Jordan Crawford's proper role is as a scorer off of the bench. With Beal playing solid it allows Crawford to play the role of 6th man
* Nene is a beast. Not many dudes in the league can hang with him. I did not realize how good he was before he arrived in DC

We look like an actual NBA team!

p.s. Ernie should still be fired! I'm still ticked about the Vesely pick. Nothing against Jan,, but Kawai Leonard would have been a nice pick-up.

I've been saying that about nene for a while ... our best player.  arzia does help on the defensive end ... along with okafor, and on the boards as well.  and wall being back (Along with more minutes for nene) is huge and as other s have said it does allow others to ... well ... i guess be themselves and not worry about other things.   wall so dominates the ball handling time on our team(and rightfully so) he can just run the show effectively and the rest ... doing what they do well as just stated.

I complained about us getting killed on the boards earlier in the year ... more nene minutes and okafor getting into gear has helped that ... and i feel that (along with our improved defense this year) is as big a reason as any, team wise, that we have been doing better .   lets keep the positives rolling!!!    

KK2 ... i think we can finally put the w back in.   

Philly game insights:  the good, the bad, andthe ugly:

The good -- man has Okafor come alive on the boards.  he and Nene worked so hard on the boards tonight, that's great and something that was missing earlier on.  That's a big stat to improve on, and should keep translating into more wins.  Wall continues to look more like a point guard and not a guy trying to do it all at all times(except for the last half of the 4th when we had to push it).  

the bad -- our second team especially in the second quarter.  That was some really awful basketball in the second quarter.  I just going on memory here, but wasn't it a 1-11 fg stretch,and almost 6 minutes without a FG?   And dont let philly's lowscoring(even though it was alot more than ours) fool you during that time our defense was awful ... the only reason philly didn't go up by more was because they played poorly also, just not as bad as us.

the ugly -- turnovers... and not just the fact that we turned the ball over somuch, it was the turnovers we had ... just about the worst passing i've seen in an NBA game.   We were just throwing the ball to the Philly players ... I mean right to them.  And for the love of whatever, I am thrilled we are throwing the skip pass, it's a great weapon esp when Philly went zone, but we couldn't even do that right.  Think of it, just about every skip pass either missed it's target or the target had to jump so high for it that by the time he gathered himself the defense had already slid over.  Also how many times did we get beat down the court on breaks?  Shouldn't be happening.

Let's face it ... right now we are a bit better, but we aren't good yet.  Many things, some of which i just mentioned, that have to get straightened out and done better.  Tonight we got beat by a Philly team that didn't come close to having their "A" game.


oh well, another eastern conference road loss(don't have a east road win yet) .. we are a bit better, dont get me wrong ... just disapointed in the way we played tonight is all,  we can and should do better.  expecting better things because i believe we are better than that. 

hear hear
 

the defense was good again vs memphis ... but man, i just praised us for the good job we have been doing on the boards , and we get  killed on the boards last night .   Amazing thing is that despite that, on the road, against a solid memphis team, we lost by 9 AND .... onlyshot 3 free throws???? wow ... they made 14 ... we really need to get to the line more often, so state the obvious.  

Let's see if we could stick it to the hottest team maybe right now, the Spurs, at their place.     go wiz. 

Funny, we are doing better, but are farther away from a playoff spot than 2 weeks ago.  I know that's due in part to the Celts winning in the current 8th spot, and we have no room to complain after our start.

But hey, these last few weeks, playwise and record wise, is what many of us on here envisioned for this team this year.  And the last few weeks record would put us in a position to be battling for a playoff spot, another thing many of us predictied(maybe an 8th or 7th spot).  What I am getting at is that it took a little time, but maybe this squad is now rounding into what it could be. 

If that is the case, maybe next year will be our trek back to the playoffs.  The moves last year and during the off-season pretty much quarentee that we will have this same team back next year.  And then after 2013-2014 money becomes available.  Making the playoffs next season and then evaluating and deciding at that point, and then being able to make moves needed. 

So maybe our long term status dosen't look so bad after all.  Just too bad we had to start this year so poorly.

I've been laying low.....Don't want to jinx 'em. Still, I find it incredible that this team's fortunes lie with.....just....one.....guy! (without a consistent jump shot, no less!) I can understand the ball distribution part. But, like Frankie10 says, they've shown improvement across the board.

It's another one of those mysteries wrapped deep inside an enigma.

I don't know how it's happening or how John Wall has such a profound effect on this team, but just like the late, great, Al Davis used to say:


JUST WIN BABY!! 



GO.................................
.WIZARDS!

That "W"'s for you Daubber! 

Sorry about that Daub! See how long it's been?

the less I watch, the more they win...I hate myself

Wall looks so much better than the prior 2 years, really has grown up from a point guard standpoint, makes better decisions, and is making others better, thus the team better.  A healthy Nene playing with no minutes restrictions hepls lots also. We completed the two game big apple sweep last night.

I had only seen Nene play a couple times before he came here, and since he has been here he has been dinged up alot. he is healthy now and that dud is flat out a beast. I am not a big pro bb fan, but i have watched the games a little the last few weeks. I watched last night and that guy was not stoppable under the basket. i was actually impressed that when Brooklyn made their comback and got it back to single digits to see the Wizard maintain composure and the lead. Well played. They have now beaten just about every good team in the east. Too bad they had such a horrendous start. it is funny how little disparity there is between the worst team and a playoff team. if they had won 6 or 7 of theor first 20 games they would be in the hunt instead of the hunt for the #1 pick.

If the Wizards win tonight, they make the playoffs. It's the domino that needs to fall next. If they miss it, it's over.

 They have now beaten just about every good team in the east. Too bad they had such a horrendous start. it is funny how little disparity there is between the worst team and a playoff team. if they had won 6 or 7 of theor first 20 games they would be in the hunt instead of the hunt for the #1 pick.  81

Sitting here watching them win #4 in a row at Milwaukee and was thinking the same thing. They are playing like a team that's 35-15 but that sad start makes it a 15-35 reality. They seem to be pretty good when all are healthy and all the parts are working together but it's too little too late for this year. Love the optimism CptMasterShake, but they would have to go 27-5 the rest of the season to just make it to :500. Not a big Grunfeld fan, (see Jan Vesely pick), but this group seems to have most of the holes filled when they are all playing. Maybe look for a young big man who's not Vesely in the draft to spell Nene and Okafor. Beal and Wall I think will be a formidable back court duo once they have some time to finally play together. I don't think it's going out on a limb to say this team could be a decent playoff contender in a year or two if they can keep them heathy and together.

10 games out, very possible still.

26 and 5 gets us to .500 at the end. 41-41. Not likely. Not impossible either. .500 has an ok shot at making it. Maybe lower than.500 does depends. It does happen. It think for u's to even have a small shot we need it to be one of those sub .500 years which would allow maybe a 22-9 or 23-8 finish to get u's in. Even that finish is a tough get for us, but I feel that's our Only realistic shot. Of course I'm always hoping and it's finally nice to be discussing this team doing well. My realistic thoughts though remain that next year could be the break through. I've stated on this board before about our contracts and cap situation and how it is most likely that except for a couple of draft picks , these guys will Be wiz next year also. Well if that is the case and we continue to move upward then good

reality check! ... loss at home to toronto.  When Wall and Nene go a combined 4-23 we are not winning that game.

Puts our hot streak in perspective.  Yes we are a better team than before, and can get better ... but playoff push will(if it happens) be next year, not this.