Armchair Coaching, Scouting, etc thread.

[nate33]

That lineup has nobody that can shoot.

Mike James should definitely start. He plays decent D and can stretch the floor. In fact, I think our starting lineup is about right. We play the most consistent guys and have a decent mix of offense and defense. You can make a case for going big and starting McGee instead of McGuire, but I'm not sure if it would work all that much better. A lineup of James, Butler, Jamison, Blatche and McGee would have sub par ball handlers at every position on the floor except Blatche at PF. There would be a lot of turnovers.

Overall, I don't have too much trouble with Tapscott's rotations except that McGee should get all of Etan's minutes. I'm just praying that Etan is being showcased for a trade.

[FreeBalling]

How about anything that has Nick Young in it. Just play the kid.

NY
DMAC
AJ /CB
McGee
AB

Have we seen this yet? I don't think so.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

How about anything that has Nick Young in it. Just play the kid.

NY
DMAC
AJ /CB
McGee
AB

Have we seen this yet? I don't think so.

A lineup consisting of me, my mom, my sister, my cat and my goldfish could press that team and force about 30 TOs per game.

[FreeBalling]

How about anything that has Nick Young in it.

A lineup consisting of me, my mom, my sister, my cat and my goldfish could press that team and force about 30 TOs per game.

I wasn't talking about winning, more like on the job training. Tap is in charge of player development, what better to way evaluate then playing the elite players in the NBA.

We all know what AJ,CB,DS can do. Lets find out what the young guns can do. We got 7 wins what could it hurt.

If it get real bad we can put your cat in.

[WashWiz54]

How about anything that has Nick Young in it. Just play the kid.

NY
DMAC
AJ /CB
McGee
AB

Have we seen this yet? I don't think so.

A lineup consisting of me, my mom, my sister, my cat and my goldfish could press that team and force about 30 TOs per game.

I don't know man, the cat and fish might have chemistry issues.

[dlts20]

The lineup is obvious to me. We should switch Critt with Dmac. The #1 thing everyone overlooks is that Caron is our best player without Gil. For the last couple of years Caron has been easily probably top 5 in the whole league in terms of consistentcy. He hardly never has a bad game unless he's hurt. However, since we moved him to the 2 he totally sucksway your going to win alot of games with Caron stinking it up. Thats why I say that people need to stop with the big lineup stuff. That should only be a spot thing at best. No way should Caron be starting at the 2. He doesnt have the handles or consistant range to play out there. 80% of the time now he catches the ball behind the 3pt line. What is Caron going to do out there? At the SF spot he always catches the ball midway on the wing at the logo which is his game. Now he's basically forced to take a ton of 3's or beat quicker guys off the dribble which is not his game and its killing us.

2nd, Im a huge Dmac fan but he isnt the great Offensive player in the world and James is the worst "PG" in the NBA. Someone on here said James plays good D. No way. He loses his man all the time. Dont get me wrong, Im not dissin him. I really like James but he's a straight up SG. He's only at the point because he's short and quick. He has NO PG skills at all. That means at the 1,2, and 3 spot you have 2 guys playing totally out of position, 1 guy who isnt a great offensive player, and NO PG to get guys easy shots. It spells doom. If you start Critt at the 1, move James over to the 2, and Caron back to the 3 then I bet that team can start winning alot more games. On D James can still guard the 1 while Critt guards the 2. Thats another thing that screws up the lineup we have now. I was talking alot about the O but on D we have Dmac guarding the 2 alot which he isnt as good at and worst of all it makes it much harder for him to rebound. The other good thing about the new lineup I suggested is that it allows NY to play more because you would have to bring out one of the PG's at the 2-4min mark and bring NY in so that same PG can come back in to start the 2nd quarter at the point. I bet anything that our team would run much smoother that way, Caron would be a beast again at the 3, Critt would push the ball and get guys easy shots, while James would light it up at the 2

[nate33]

The lineup is obvious to me. We should switch Critt with Dmac. The #1 thing everyone overlooks is that Caron is our best player without Gil. For the last couple of years Caron has been easily probably top 5 in the whole league in terms of consistentcy. He hardly never has a bad game unless he's hurt. However, since we moved him to the 2 he totally sucksway your going to win alot of games with Caron stinking it up. Thats why I say that people need to stop with the big lineup stuff. That should only be a spot thing at best. No way should Caron be starting at the 2. He doesnt have the handles or consistant range to play out there. 80% of the time now he catches the ball behind the 3pt line. What is Caron going to do out there? At the SF spot he always catches the ball midway on the wing at the logo which is his game. Now he's basically forced to take a ton of 3's or beat quicker guys off the dribble which is not his game and its killing us.

2nd, Im a huge Dmac fan but he isnt the great Offensive player in the world and James is the worst "PG" in the NBA. Someone on here said James plays good D. No way. He loses his man all the time. Dont get me wrong, Im not dissin him. I really like James but he's a straight up SG. He's only at the point because he's short and quick. He has NO PG skills at all. That means at the 1,2, and 3 spot you have 2 guys playing totally out of position, 1 guy who isnt a great offensive player, and NO PG to get guys easy shots. It spells doom. If you start Critt at the 1, move James over to the 2, and Caron back to the 3 then I bet that team can start winning alot more games. On D James can still guard the 1 while Critt guards the 2. Thats another thing that screws up the lineup we have now. I was talking alot about the O but on D we have Dmac guarding the 2 alot which he isnt as good at and worst of all it makes it much harder for him to rebound. The other good thing about the new lineup I suggested is that it allows NY to play more because you would have to bring out one of the PG's at the 2-4min mark and bring NY in so that same PG can come back in to start the 2nd quarter at the point. I bet anything that our team would run much smoother that way, Caron would be a beast again at the 3, Critt would push the ball and get guys easy shots, while James would light it up at the 2

It's worth a shot. Our rebounding would suffer but perhaps that would be offset by getting Caron back into his natural position.

[doclinkin]

Hey the nomad dlts20 made it back to his home board. Welcome back buddy. A prophet is never respected in his home land, right my man?

That line gives us the smallest starting line in the league though.

6'2" 'Chuck' James
6'4" JCritt
6'5" Caron
6'9" Jamison
6'11" Blatche

And we'd have sub-par defenders all over the floor. Now I don't mind going small for the sake of offense or speed or better shooting, but I'm not convinced this would solve our problems, we have no positive mismatches at any point on the floor defensively, and on offense Caron and Jamison carrying the load, again. Which hasn't proven effective.

Actually looking at the lines played there's one which has shown some effectiveness in limited minutes, but it would piss off a ton of fans.

James-Young-Butler-Jamison-Songaila

In our top 10 lines played (by minutes) this is the only one with a positive differential in our effective FG% (vs the opponent's) and where we score more FT attempts than the opponent.

Could be a fluke of small sample size, though it does get our best scorers on the floor in position to do something about it, and doesn't put two young guys out there who are still learning to put it all together (Nick and Blatche). Me I'm an appreciative observer of Songaila even though he's undersized. He doesn't rebound efficiently or score inside, but he does everything else efficiently and fundamentally sound. If our Bigs would emulate him (Blatche especially) with their athleticism and potential, we'd really have something interesting in a couple years.

That said, optimist though I am, looking back at that rundown of line-ups played, we have dang few options where we score more than the opponent. So right, we're losing, and absent the return of better players I don't see any likelihood for that to change.

As far as Caron at the 2. I see what you're saying dl and in part I agree, but if we're losing anyway I don't mind sticking Caron at the 2 for a time. He ain't comfortable out there right now, but he's a smart savvy guy able to learn, and experience out there makes him a more versatile player down the road. Over the summer I'd fully expect him to work the handle, the outside shot, the angles from the top of the key, do some isometric resistance lateral training, etc, and at least incrementally improve.

Because hey best case scenario we get everybody back and healthy and also win the lotto? We add a front court monster in Big Griff for instance-- then what? We've got Dray, McGee, Griff, Jamison, Songaila, Griff, Haywood, McGuire ( and Pech if you still believe in him)-- all looking for minutes in the front court. The ability to slide Jamison to the 3, bump Caron to 2 adds to our versatility. Otherwise we're probably trading somebody, and Caron would be the piece we'd get the best offers for in trade.

And all said, it ain't like he's terrible at the 2. Check the positional match-ups:

http://www.82games.com/0809/08WAS8.HTM#bypos

He's pretty consistent out there, same numbers per 48 minutes as he is at SF. His opponents shoot better than him no matter where he plays, but at the 2-spot he rebounds better. He just shoots fewer FT's in part because his quix and strength at the 3 give him more ahtletic mismatches.

So in short, per 48 he's not awful out there (with the best nmeasure we have of 'by-position' stats, understandably flawed metric though it is). Not bad. And imagine if he actually improves out there with the experience. No reason he can't be as good at 2 as say Bonzi Wells (at the top of his career) probably could be better. And then at the 3, he gets to be Tough Juice again. Not bad to have a multiposition threat. Glue guy. I like the option of being able to play him there even when it's not his best position. Man's a professional, he'll be okay. Caron at the 2 is not our biggest problem. Way I see it.

dlts show up more here. We need another optimist or two 'round here.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Hey the nomad dlts20 made it back to his home board. Welcome back buddy. A prophet is never respected in his home land, right my man?

That line gives us the smallest starting line in the league though.

6'2" 'Chuck' James
6'4" JCritt
6'5" Caron
6'9" Jamison
6'11" Blatche

And we'd have sub-par defenders all over the floor. Now I don't mind going small for the sake of offense or speed or better shooting, but I'm not convinced this would solve our problems, we have no positive mismatches at any point on the floor defensively, and on offense Caron and Jamison carrying the load, again. Which hasn't proven effective.

Actually looking at the lines played there's one which has shown some effectiveness in limited minutes, but it would piss off a ton of fans.

James-Young-Butler-Jamison-Songaila

In our top 10 lines played (by minutes) this is the only one with a positive differential in our effective FG% (vs the opponent's) and where we score more FT attempts than the opponent.

Could be a fluke of small sample size, though it does get our best scorers on the floor in position to do something about it, and doesn't put two young guys out there who are still learning to put it all together (Nick and Blatche). Me I'm an appreciative observer of Songaila even though he's undersized. He doesn't rebound efficiently or score inside, but he does everything else efficiently and fundamentally sound. If our Bigs would emulate him (Blatche especially) with their athleticism and potential, we'd really have something interesting in a couple years.

That said, optimist though I am, looking back at that rundown of line-ups played, we have dang few options where we score more than the opponent. So right, we're losing, and absent the return of better players I don't see any likelihood for that to change.

As far as Caron at the 2. I see what you're saying dl and in part I agree, but if we're losing anyway I don't mind sticking Caron at the 2 for a time. He ain't comfortable out there right now, but he's a smart savvy guy able to learn, and experience out there makes him a more versatile player down the road. Over the summer I'd fully expect him to work the handle, the outside shot, the angles from the top of the key, do some isometric resistance lateral training, etc, and at least incrementally improve.

Because hey best case scenario we get everybody back and healthy and also win the lotto? We add a front court monster in Big Griff for instance-- then what? We've got Dray, McGee, Griff, Jamison, Songaila, Griff, Haywood, McGuire ( and Pech if you still believe in him)-- all looking for minutes in the front court. The ability to slide Jamison to the 3, bump Caron to 2 adds to our versatility. Otherwise we're probably trading somebody, and Caron would be the piece we'd get the best offers for in trade.

And all said, it ain't like he's terrible at the 2. Check the positional match-ups:

http://www.82games.com/0809/08WAS8.HTM#bypos

He's pretty consistent out there, same numbers per 48 minutes as he is at SF. His opponents shoot better than him no matter where he plays, but at the 2-spot he rebounds better. He just shoots fewer FT's in part because his quix and strength at the 3 give him more ahtletic mismatches.

So in short, per 48 he's not awful out there (with the best nmeasure we have of 'by-position' stats, understandably flawed metric though it is). Not bad. And imagine if he actually improves out there with the experience. No reason he can't be as good at 2 as say Bonzi Wells (at the top of his career) probably could be better. And then at the 3, he gets to be Tough Juice again. Not bad to have a multiposition threat. Glue guy. I like the option of being able to play him there even when it's not his best position. Man's a professional, he'll be okay. Caron at the 2 is not our biggest problem. Way I see it.

dlts show up more here. We need another optimist or two 'round here.

SD errr, dlts, do show up more.

Doc, I don't have a problem with that small lineup considering how well Darius has been playing lately. Songaila has defended well and he's the team's mose reliable scorer in the paint because he's always getting free on backdoor cuts. Him, even at C, with Young on fire the way he is right now would work most nights IMHO.

I think a lineup that would be equally effective, however, would be

James
Young
Butler
Blatche
Songaila

Andray's much more inclined to pass for a score than Jamison is. Also, I want the young bigs to get minutes.

I'll concede that Caron's a SF and that lately Darius at C has been effective despite getting destroyed on the boards ... if you'll concede Blatche needs to be on the court.

OKAY, I know Jamison's not sitting long ...

[nate33]

Actually looking at the lines played there's one which has shown some effectiveness in limited minutes, but it would piss off a ton of fans.

James-Young-Butler-Jamison-Songaila

In our top 10 lines played (by minutes) this is the only one with a positive differential in our effective FG% (vs the opponent's) and where we score more FT attempts than the opponent.

Could be a fluke of small sample size, though it does get our best scorers on the floor in position to do something about it, and doesn't put two young guys out there who are still learning to put it all together (Nick and Blatche).

It is indeed a fluke due to small sample size. That 5-man unit data is utterly worthless. You're talking about 39 minutes out of 1872 played so far. On/off data in general doesn't begin to have any meaning until at least 2000 minutes are played. Frankly, most of the stat gurus aren't comfortable with the numbers until 2 or more seasons are included.

I think our current starting rotation is Tapscott making the best out of a bad situation. Butler and Jamison are undersized. Haywood helps hide that problem but without Haywood, we get exposed. The best solution is to find a Jared Jeffries type of long versatile defender to help hide Butler and Jamison. DMac is doing exactly that.

It would help if Tapscott would bring Young in a little earlier. For the life of me, I don't understand why he keeps Young firmly nailed to the bench for the entire 1st quarter, even when we struggle to score. Young should come in at the 8 minute mark of the 1st and 3rd and play the rest of each half.

[doclinkin]

I think our current starting rotation is Tapscott making the best out of a bad situation. Butler and Jamison are undersized. Haywood helps hide that problem but without Haywood, we get exposed. The best solution is to find a Jared Jeffries type of long versatile defender to help hide Butler and Jamison. DMac is doing exactly that.

It would help if Tapscott would bring Young in a little earlier. For the life of me, I don't understand why he keeps Young firmly nailed to the bench for the entire 1st quarter, even when we struggle to score. Young should come in at the 8 minute mark of the 1st and 3rd and play the rest of each half.

Agreed on all counts really. Songaila's PER numbers are below average (due to low rebounds which are valued high by PER) but his mismatch at C is pretty steep really. It's just pretty astounding to me that we have no line-up whatsoever with any real positives. Usually there's something possible for tweaking. Here, 8 wins looks about right even if we often carry a lead into the 4th quarter.

The DMac/Jeffries deal was one of the reasons I was amped when he was selected. It's too bad he has no real jumper yet though, even a spot up standstill J from the corner. Caron at 2 would be that much more effective if opponents had to follow McGuire out to the wing. Even without blow-by speed Caron could work in closer and really punish the weaker 2 guards, and if the SF collapses to help out, Caron has the vision and skeeyoze to swing the ball to DMac out alone.

And when Arenas returns (at full speed) he'd really make 'em pay.

Until then, we're not likely to do much with any re-shuffle considering we're in the bottom third of production at every position except PF (top 10) and SF (middle).

http://www.82games.com/0809/BYPOS15.HTM

[Kanyewest]

I think it also just goes to show that the Wizards defensive scheme is just as bad even with the best defensive players out there. The problem appears to be the scheme more than the roster. That group of players could certainly be the best offensive group of players on the floor.

DSong is a good passer, sets picks, and moves well without the ball. Andray Blatche, Etan Thomas, and a rookie Javale McGee aren't exactly stellar competition. While Blatche has more physical abilities than Songailia, he is inconsistent from game to game (given his age and experience), doesn't always know his positioning on the floor, commits unnecessary fouls, doesn't move well without the ball, and makes low IQ moves on the offensive end. Maybe Young plays better with DSong instead of Blatche. Still in the longterm, Tapscott needs to play Blatche more and see if he develops.

Young is also a superior player to D-Mac at least in the form of a team's shooting guard. It might be the time to give Young the starting job.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Actually looking at the lines played there's one which has shown some effectiveness in limited minutes, but it would piss off a ton of fans.

James-Young-Butler-Jamison-Songaila

In our top 10 lines played (by minutes) this is the only one with a positive differential in our effective FG% (vs the opponent's) and where we score more FT attempts than the opponent.

Could be a fluke of small sample size, though it does get our best scorers on the floor in position to do something about it, and doesn't put two young guys out there who are still learning to put it all together (Nick and Blatche).

It is indeed a fluke due to small sample size. That 5-man unit data is utterly worthless. You're talking about 39 minutes out of 1872 played so far. On/off data in general doesn't begin to have any meaning until at least 2000 minutes are played. Frankly, most of the stat gurus aren't comfortable with the numbers until 2 or more seasons are included.

I think our current starting rotation is Tapscott making the best out of a bad situation. Butler and Jamison are undersized. Haywood helps hide that problem but without Haywood, we get exposed. The best solution is to find a Jared Jeffries type of long versatile defender to help hide Butler and Jamison. DMac is doing exactly that.

It would help if Tapscott would bring Young in a little earlier. For the life of me, I don't understand why he keeps Young firmly nailed to the bench for the entire 1st quarter, even when we struggle to score. Young should come in at the 8 minute mark of the 1st and 3rd and play the rest of each half.

+2

Like doc, I agree on all counts, nate. Best of a bad situation with the current lineup is what Tapscott's doing.

Young should come in sooner in the first. DMac's helped. I second KW in saying Blatche needs to play more and develop.

Last, I'll add my own gut feeling: Right now the Wizards would probably eventually win more without Butler and Jamison. If they had something like James, Young, DMac, Blatche, McGee I suspect that team's athleticism would eventually overcome the calls they would not get from the refs; and overcome the loss of Jamison's will and when he decides to play Caron's skill. As good as they are, in the grand scheme of things I think their minutes should be going to the young/new players.

I hate seeing two guys who've got nothing to prove (Jamison and Butler have not been all stars by accident) have to grind it out on this terribly lost season. I wish they could take some sort of leave of absence while the Wizards tank games with those young guys and the vets I mentioned before.

I'd just as soon see this 8-32 team without Jamison and Butler for the last half of this season.

I know the league rules, their two contracts, both players' professional pride and career interests all say they should want to be putting up good numbers (thus playing big minutes and taking the big shots), but that's not what I'd rather see given a choice.

On top of that, living in the real world I see it that Tapscott's gotta play them big minutes OR bench them for the bad defense and REALLY have the season get dicey. Demote them? Nah. Rip the young guys and turn a blind eye to the bad defense is pretty much what he's got to do.

I guess.

[FreeBalling]

I've come up with the answer, yes me!!!!

I know this is still about filling the seats. Play the vets when we are at home no more than 30 min and play the young guns on the road for the majority of the game.

We dont burn out the Vets and the young guns all get great OJT.

That's how I'd roll, make it happen Tap.

[doclinkin]

Not sure if I noted it in this thread but:

The last two games Dominic has been running as 2-guard on offense and forward on defense. He's looked good at both ends, driving and dishing in halfcourt sets and protecting the ball pretty well bringing it up court. His evident IQ for the game helps the starters stay organized, and on offense he's solidly efficient since he'd rather make the extra pass than take a bad shot. And his ability to climb the ladder to re-collect second chances helps erase mistakes from hasty shots elsewhere.

On defense, it's tough to argue with 12 boards and couple blocked shots (Sacto game).

In response Caron back at his usual spot has gone back to the swag of days past. So okay we lose badly in GState and narrowly dodge a loss in Sacto, still I like what I see down the line. Especially next to Gil.

Offensively I have questions about spacing and flow next to Haywood until Dom can develop that outside shot. But still 'Wood looked a little better last year with the face up jumper so ya never know. Either that or Dray figures out how to defense solidly without fouling. And defensively the Dom/Wood pair would be stout and intimidating. With lotto luck: Put Griffin next to them? Jeez. You could really build something out of that.

[DaRealHibachi]

Fast foward to next year, our line-up should be...

Starters:
Arenas
DMac (Needs to develop some kind of jumpshot though)
Butler
Blatche (Needs to get more consistent)
Haywood

Enough Offense (Gil, Caron, Blatche 50% of the time)
Defense (Haywood, Blatche, DMac)
Ton of rebounding (From almost every position)

Only thing is we might not have allot of outside shooters, but that is what we can sub in of the bench...

Bench:
Jamison of the bench or traded (Shooter)
Young (Shooter)
McGee
Critt
1 or 2 veterans trough trade
Draft Pick


Oh well.... One can only dream...

[beretta90]

can someone tell me why he sits out the experienced verteran juan dixon everysingle game. look at basketballreference.com n look at all juans games hes played n ull c he has more 20 point games than most players on the team besides jamison n butler. he plays every player but him. YYYYYYYYYYY????????? mcguire sux, crittenton is too young. mike james is overrated n has only like 4 good games. nick young is pretty god but shoots too much. butlers good but a ball hog n is inconssistent. blatche is below average n mcghee is too young n only has the occasional fancy dunk to make himself look good. Juan is the best pure shooter on the team. Eddie Jordan lovedjuan n made him the teams 6th man n tapscott is just stupid. get rid of him n get rid og erne grunfiield for being the stupidest gm in the nba

[Soup's Uncle]

Ed Tapscott = Jobless this summer.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

Taps is stupid, but Dixon not getting burn would be on the absolute bottom of my gripes. Juan has no future on the team beyond this year and there's a reason for him being bounced around before coming here for his second stint. Crit, DMac, and NY are young, developing, and in my opinion not sucking enough to merit a Juan sighting. IBTL, altho I'm sure we could rip into Taps for days...

[Ed Wood]

can someone tell me why he sits out the experienced verteran juan dixon everysingle game. look at basketballreference.com n look at all juans games hes played n ull c he has more 20 point games than most players on the team besides jamison n butler. he plays every player but him. YYYYYYYYYYY????????? mcguire sux, crittenton is too young. mike james is overrated n has only like 4 good games. nick young is pretty god but shoots too much. butlers good but a ball hog n is inconssistent. blatche is below average n mcghee is too young n only has the occasional fancy dunk to make himself look good. Juan is the best pure shooter on the team. Eddie Jordan lovedjuan n made him the teams 6th man n tapscott is just stupid. get rid of him n get rid og erne grunfiield for being the stupidest gm in the nba

In the vast buffet of problems facing this team and legitimate frustrations the fanbase has regarding Tapscott's management of his roster you have, like the family dog, brought to us this dead bird of a critique? Good for you, someone had to say it. We should definitely throw some of B.A. Blatche's minutes at Dixon, I'll throw Taps an email to that effect after my afternoon meeting with Og Erne about JaVhale McGhee.