Can't say that sitting in the stands for this disaster is making me super-optimistic about the nineteen home games left on my ticket package. Over the offseason I found myself becoming semi-convinced by the Dave Berri analysis that Gilbert Arenas was less central to the Wizards than was often assumed -- that he was being overrated and the non-"big three" teammates underestimated -- but now that we see Gilbert with a knee injury and the whole team looking awful, I'm provisionally back to the conventional wisdom.
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Powdery Blue Fiasco
10 Nov 2007 02:29 am
Comments (30)
Look at the bright side, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are playing there Sunday and Monday.
It's not GA's fault that Stevenson is 0 for the last two games, and that the Poet is out. Debrickashawn, by the way, is a perfect case of a post contract year slump.
As Edward Norton once intoned:
I am Gilly's wounded knee. I give the struggling Powder Blues an oasis in the desert.
I am the fluid in Gilly's knee. I grow and grow like the 'zards' loss total.
I am the raging bile duct of 'zards' fans. I go to games to check out the opposing teams.
I am Antawn Jamison's gigantic expiring contract. I give the possibility of acquiring some better defensive personnel next season.
(Odds are that Jamison signs next year with an elite team for the MLE and wins a ring. Dude's got a silky offensive game. He'd be a wonderful 20 MPG player for a good team.)
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I dig Blatche quite a bit, but he's a year or two away from being a positive contributor for a winning team. If I were the 'zards, I'd give up on this season and concentrate on developing Blatche.
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That's was J.R. Smith's best single game on both sides of the floor since The Brawl.
Karl decided to have Smith run the point when Iverson was on the bench, which was such a crazy move that it worked perfectly.
Smith looked to pass, got folks some easy looks, and looked comfortable playing within the team concept for the first time since The Brawl.
Now, if he can figure out how to not make horrible mistakes on the defensive end on a regular basis, he could be a real plus for the team.
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With Nene out and with K-Mart still hobbling, the Nuggets should be fine against teams without a strong inside presence like the 'zards.
But they're going to need Nene and K-Mart playing well to be able to compete against the elite of the West.
"Over the offseason I found myself becoming semi-convinced by the Dave Berri analysis that Gilbert Arenas was less central to the Wizards than was often assumed"
Dude. You're better than that.
That's a pretty bad loss, particularly at home to a team that was down 40 in the first half to the Celtics two nights before (unlikely Petey, I'm not impressed with the Nuggs, the talent is there, but they have a long way to go.)... Is the East even worse than it has been in recent years? The Celtics look great so far, but I'll be shocked if they're still shooting 54% or holding opponents under 40% come March. The rest of the East is abysmal, Orlando and New Jersey are winning ugly and Detroit is not particularly impressive, either. But it is early...
How about that Rockets/Bucks game, 200,000,000 Chinese watching at 4 AM and players from 6 continents:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=271109010
The disparities between conferences/leagues in the big 3 sports is pretty bad right now, AFC>>NFC, AL>>NL, and Western Conf>>Eastern Conf. It'll make for some poor ratings for championship finals.
"That's a pretty bad loss, particularly at home to a team that was down 40 in the first half to the Celtics two nights before"
That's what happens when your best player, the focus of your offense, is transformed by injury from an all-star into a below average player.
"unlikely Petey, I'm not impressed with the Nuggs, the talent is there, but they have a long way to go"
Indeed. They're going to be severely short-handed until at least New Year's. And they probably won't be able to properly integrate their returning players until February.
But if they get healthy, and if Nene can return to being the player he was at the end of last season, they can compete against anyone in the association.
And since I'll be a Sixers fan again once Iverson retires, check out what Sweet Lou managed to do - 19 points in the 4th quarter. The kid is Baby Iverson.
The disparities between conferences/leagues in the big 3 sports is pretty bad right now, AFC>>NFC, AL>>NL, and Western Conf>>Eastern Conf. It'll make for some poor ratings for championship finals.
And don't forget college football SEC>>Pac10>>Big10>>Big12>>ACC>>Big East
Petey, I like the Nuggs, but they just don't have any consistency, and with AI and Melo as the veterans, I just don't see them pulling together, particularly in the West where they're not going to get an easy 10 game run to catch a groove like you can in the East. With Smith and Nene and Martin, there are just too many inconsistent producers, and AI is not exactly like Nash w/getting those guys involved on a nightly basis. I think they'll be about a 6-7 seed bounced in the first round.
Karl, I don't really agree with you about college football, I'd put the Big10 and the bottom of that list, and I don't see a huge gap between the SEC and the Pac10. Plus, the Big East has been good, just everyone beating up on each other (no dominant team), doesn't mean the conference is bad. I'd say SEC>=Pac10>>ACC>BigEast>>Big12>>Big10. Which hurts, because I'm a Big10 guy, but aside from Ohio State, they stink, and I don't even think the Buckeyes are that good.
"With Smith and Nene and Martin, there are just too many inconsistent producers"
Once Nene finally got healthy last spring, he was a very consistent performer on both ends of the court. If he's physically OK, he's quite reliable, and a large part of the reason Denver can compete with the elite.
Try being a St. Louis Rams season ticket holder.
Boo fuckin' ho for you!
Is the East even worse than it has been in recent years?
No. In fact, precisely the opposite.
That's what happens when your best player, the focus of your offense, is transformed by injury from an all-star into a below average player.
I watched the Wiz-Nets game the night before, and Gil looked OK for the most part. He hit a bunch of his trademark 25-foot contested 3-pointers in the first quarter, while the Wiz built up a 20 point lead. But the rest of the game, he simply wasn't his old self while they let the Nets come back and beat them (1st time the Nets came back froma 20 point deficit in 5 years).
The telling part about Gil was the final play of the game: down 2, you expect Gil to walk down, pull up and hit a 3-pointer to win it. But he had to drive off to the right corner where he put up an aoff balance heave that was blocked by Vince Carter. If you are getting defended well by Vince Carter, of all people, you simply are not playing at a high level.
Clipper nation baby...
my theory has always been the wizards will suck until they change back to the Bullets.
Clipper nation baby...
my theory has always been the wizards will suck until they change back to the Bullets.
Clipper nation baby...
my theory has always been the wizards will suck until they change back to the Bullets.
Clipper nation baby...
my theory has always been the wizards will suck until they change back to the Bullets.
How about that Rockets/Bucks game, 200,000,000 Chinese watching at 4 AM and players from 6 continents
Yeah, I am impressed by that. And, BTW, Yi is turning out to be better that I'd thought he'd be. He's already a pretty good player, even though he's only a few games into his NBA career. They keep playing him 30 minutes a game, he'll progress a lot this season.
Maybe I am too cynical, but does anyone actually believe 200m Chinese were watching the Yi-Yao matchup?
I pray that Joe Klein's conscience was engaging in irony.
I saw about 10 minutes of that game. When I care more than the Wizards, a team I've never rooted for in my life, it is time to turn the channel.
I dunno Andrew, what is that, about 15% of the population? In a country in which 500 channels are not yet widely available (as far as I know), that doesn't seem too outlandish, although, there is likely some NBA puffery going on.
Dude, I was at that game. It was terrible. Nothing against Caron Butler and Antwan, but they're not good enough. It's like asking Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess to win regularly when the rest of the Pistons are replaced by Seattle Supersonics.
Yeah, Washington was always a one-superstar team capped at the B level - a lot like the Lakers.
It was worth showing up though just to watch Kenyon Martin blow two alley-oop dunks in a row at the end of the first half.
On the other hand, Gilbert Arenas had more steals than Eddy Curry had rebounds last night.
For basketball, statistics are like snapshots -- dramatic and memorable, but too static to capture the ever-changing fluidity of the game. If you're trying to break a game down, it makes more sense to look at it in terms of match-ups. Players' stats vary wildly depending on the nature of the team, the night, and the number of minutes played, but comparative performances do not. Hence words like "gamer" -- AI is going to be competitive at his position every freaking night of the week, regardless of who he's up against. A lesser player x will match up well against a certain y player, but usually be daunted. Coaches know this, which is why they put so much emphasis on winning the match-up; indeed, when Pat Riley had good teams, he made it a virtual commandment. If your guy scored, the ball would go to you, and it was your job to score back. If you couldn't, chances are before long you would be out of the game.
This leads to a certain toughness of team play. But how would you measure that statistically?
Matt, that you are even semi-convinced by Dave Berri really detracts from your credibility on all topics.
Also, he was locked down by my man Antoine Wright, not VC who merely came over for the help. Sometime soon Vince goes down with a hangnail for 2 weeks, during which Wright averages 20/5/5, book it.
Petey, Lou Williams is an enticing prospect to be sure.
Mike Conley showing flashes.
Remember this name: Brandon Bass.
Andrew, I agree, it's impossible to imagine a sizable percentage of any population (15-20%?) getting up at 5 AM to watch an early season NBA game, but even if the number is only 50 million, it's more than the total number of americans who watched any portion of the NBA finals last year.
I'm impressed with Yi so far (at least by the stats/replays), he's showing that those moves he used on the chair/5'6" trainer. I'm waiting for Bill Simmons to eat crow on this one, he's definitely the #2 rookie after Durant (and if he were willing/allowed to take 21 shots/game, I'd bet he'd have better stats). Not that I anticipated him putting up any numbers this year, looked like a project...
I disagree with the notion that Denver has as much raw talent as the top teams: Spurs, Suns, Rockets, Mavs, even the Celtics and Jazz. Iverson and Melo are terrible complements to each other. Melo is a good player, but he just isn't in the superstar category. He's a scorer and nothing else, without 3-point range or the ability to create much off the dribble. AI isn't the player he was 5 years ago. The rest of the team ain't bad, but K-Mart is washed up, Nene is nothing but potential, and Camby is too brittle to even pretend that you can fantasize about a consistently healthy Nuggets team. Again, they're a good team, but they're not one of the top 5 teams in the West. The #5 team is Utah, I think, and I'd rather have a core of Deron, Boozer, AK than AI, Melo, and Camby.
It could be much worse. Here in SoFla:
UofM lost again--and it was the very last game that will be played in the Orange Bowl, to make it worse.
The Heat has yet to win a game.
The Dolphins--well, enough said there. Wannstadt was a jerk and more, but at least he won a game here and there last year.
The Panthers, at 7-10, are the BEST team in town right now.
Kish, at least the Canes beat FSU, the Heat will improve when Wade returns, and the Dolphins will have the first pick in the draft. There's always a silver lining.
Comments closed November 24, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Dude,
It's November. Even the players don't care who wins these games. How about you try posting about the NFL for the next few months and then pick up with the basketball in February?
Posted by Harry | November 10, 2007 2:45 AM