Starting Line up???

[joe.linnen]

I'm a Laker fan but I was wondering whatline up would the Wizards run this year. Will Miller get the starting nod over Stevenson or will it be the other way around. If its Miller I would like to see you guys run a lot more and with Arenas back I think he can do as good of a job as Nash in a fast pace game.
SF:Butler
PF:Jamison
C:Haywood
SG:Miller/Stevenson
PG:Arenas/Foye


I wish this team the best and can't wait to see them play

[nate33]

Arenas, Butler, Jamison and Haywood will start. In theory, there's an open competition for the SG position but it's a pretty sure bet that either Foye or Miller will start there.

[dobrojim]

Nate and I and most other Wiz fans agree on who 4 of the starters
will be.

Competition for minutes and the starting job at the SG will
be an item of considerable interest.

I may hold the minority view on this but I think the opening
day starter will be Nick Young.

But it could be Foye, Miller, Stevenson, McGuire or even Crittenton (highly doubtful)
Or James (hopefully even more doubtful).

this has already been a topic of hot debate around here

[verbal8]

I think the starting SG is likely Miller. I can't see trading a draft pick for 2 guys on one year contracts and not starting at least one of them. If they bring Arenas along slowly and play Miller at the 3, I could see Foye getting almost as many minutes.
Unless something unusual happens I think Miller and Foye are ahead of Young and Stevenson.

[miller31time]

I'd like Miller to be a spark-plug off the bench as the 6th man. That leaves Foye and Young as the potential starting shooting guard. I highly doubt Young will start so that means Foye is who I would choose.

Who do I think will start a 2-guard? Miller.

[pancakes3]

i'd prefer miller to start. He's a good rebounder, and he can rain 3's. Between him and Jamison's inexplicable knack for chasing down long rebounds, butler will have 3-5 transition layups every game while playing minimal defense. look for him to challenge gil for the spot as the wiz's top scorer.

[mohammed10]

I'm pulling for MeShawn Stevenson....


















TO BE TRADED!

[Wizards2Lottery]

Doesn't matter as long its not DeBrick at SG. We built plenty of brick houses last season. No more this year please. I am tired of **** offensive shooting guards for the past three years.

[dlts20]

I always use to take up for Deshawn and when Gil was healthy, I thought he was one of the best role players in the league that year. He shot 50 from the field, 40 from deep, and over 80 from the FT line. He was also a very good defender and passer. He's been all downhill since then but that could change with him being healthy and us having Gil back. Still, he was very limited at times on Offense and looked so amatureish.

I love all of our young players and I dont think Flip will care much about the vet stuff since all our young guys have solid experience. Therefore I think Deshawn will be benched along with James & Critt. Sadly, I also think Dom will be benched. His play wont warrant it but we just have too many guys for him to get minutes and I think Flip will pick NY over him.

To me Miller has to start because its more about who fits better with the other 4 then it is about whose better. You cant start Foye because you want him to backup Gil. That leaves NY & Miller. Miller fits better than any other guy because he's a perfect spot up shooter and he will have a ton of open shots with the big 4 out there. Unlike Deshawn, he can also put the ball on the floor and make a play if something breaks down and he's a good rebounder. Most of all, he can play well without the ball and is not a hog. He wont cry if he doesnt get attempts and he can knock down a high percentage on a limited amount of shots. You cant start NY because there are not enough balls to go around. This is all assuming that Gil will be full go. To me you cant play Deshawn off the bench for the most part. He can be a solid backup PG because he has that type of game but if you ask him to come off the bench at the 2 or 3 then he wont make anything. Foye will be the backup 1 so Deshawn is out.

So I think we will start the main 4 with Miller and then come off the bench with Foye, NY, Blatche, and maybe McGee. Flip is like me in that he wants a small rotation and I think he will love NY. I think NY will thrive in this system like Rip did but obviously to a lesser extent. I love the rotation. Call me crazy but I also think that EG & Flip are going to use Dom as the 3rd string PF and will give him the oppurtunity to play 12mpg there if AJ or Blatche go down instead of getting a vet

[dobrojim]

I always use to take up for Deshawn and when Gil was healthy, I thought he was one of the best role players in the league that year. He shot 50 from the field, 40 from deep, and over 80 from the FT line. He was also a very good defender and passer. He's been all downhill since then but that could change with him being healthy and us having Gil back. Still, he was very limited at times on Offense and looked so amatureish.

I love all of our young players and I dont think Flip will care much about the vet stuff since all our young guys have solid experience. Therefore I think Deshawn will be benched along with James & Critt. Sadly, I also think Dom will be benched. His play wont warrant it but we just have too many guys for him to get minutes and I think Flip will pick NY over him.

To me Miller has to start because its more about who fits better with the other 4 then it is about whose better. You cant start Foye because you want him to backup Gil. That leaves NY & Miller. Miller fits better than any other guy because he's a perfect spot up shooter and he will have a ton of open shots with the big 4 out there. Unlike Deshawn, he can also put the ball on the floor and make a play if something breaks down and he's a good rebounder. Most of all, he can play well without the ball and is not a hog. He wont cry if he doesnt get attempts and he can knock down a high percentage on a limited amount of shots. You cant start NY because there are not enough balls to go around. This is all assuming that Gil will be full go. To me you cant play Deshawn off the bench for the most part. He can be a solid backup PG because he has that type of game but if you ask him to come off the bench at the 2 or 3 then he wont make anything. Foye will be the backup 1 so Deshawn is out.

So I think we will start the main 4 with Miller and then come off the bench with Foye, NY, Blatche, and maybe McGee. Flip is like me in that he wants a small rotation and I think he will love NY. I think NY will thrive in this system like Rip did but obviously to a lesser extent. I love the rotation. Call me crazy but I also think that EG & Flip are going to use Dom as the 3rd string PF and will give him the oppurtunity to play 12mpg there if AJ or Blatche go down instead of getting a vet

I think you're being overly generous to DS. His career high in FG% is .461. His career avg is 41%.
He did peak at .404 from 3 one year but his career avg there is .345.
His FT shooting is especially woeful for a SHOOTING guard, career .700.
I also think his defense was overrated. He might have seemed better than he
was because the rest of the team was awful in that area.

You may be right about Miller starting although I continue to believe he
would be a great player off the bench having won a 6moy award.

[sCoTTYwIN]

all yall realize that Mike Miller is a 6' 8'' small forward right? ppl who think m&m will start at SG r fail lol

everyone knows that deshawn is gonna start at the two. besides being the only capable defender in the backcourt (he's from Norcal not LA) his three point shooting game is allegedly back, and this is a team built around our "success" from three years ago, so I dont expect EG to make any changes since Abe will be none the wiser, ever a century a older... if deshawn's offense isn't working, i think you will see a lot of Nick, which spells defensive liability. i could see caron playin some two since he did last year, but again, defensive liabilty. at the one Foye will backup Gil, javaris = dnp/cd, and mike james can go fcuk himself. hopefully foye can play good defense...he is from jersey.

[dlts20]

I always use to take up for Deshawn and when Gil was healthy, I thought he was one of the best role players in the league that year. He shot 50 from the field, 40 from deep, and over 80 from the FT line. He was also a very good defender and passer. He's been all downhill since then but that could change with him being healthy and us having Gil back. Still, he was very limited at times on Offense and looked so amatureish.

I love all of our young players and I dont think Flip will care much about the vet stuff since all our young guys have solid experience. Therefore I think Deshawn will be benched along with James & Critt. Sadly, I also think Dom will be benched. His play wont warrant it but we just have too many guys for him to get minutes and I think Flip will pick NY over him.

To me Miller has to start because its more about who fits better with the other 4 then it is about whose better. You cant start Foye because you want him to backup Gil. That leaves NY & Miller. Miller fits better than any other guy because he's a perfect spot up shooter and he will have a ton of open shots with the big 4 out there. Unlike Deshawn, he can also put the ball on the floor and make a play if something breaks down and he's a good rebounder. Most of all, he can play well without the ball and is not a hog. He wont cry if he doesnt get attempts and he can knock down a high percentage on a limited amount of shots. You cant start NY because there are not enough balls to go around. This is all assuming that Gil will be full go. To me you cant play Deshawn off the bench for the most part. He can be a solid backup PG because he has that type of game but if you ask him to come off the bench at the 2 or 3 then he wont make anything. Foye will be the backup 1 so Deshawn is out.

So I think we will start the main 4 with Miller and then come off the bench with Foye, NY, Blatche, and maybe McGee. Flip is like me in that he wants a small rotation and I think he will love NY. I think NY will thrive in this system like Rip did but obviously to a lesser extent. I love the rotation. Call me crazy but I also think that EG & Flip are going to use Dom as the 3rd string PF and will give him the oppurtunity to play 12mpg there if AJ or Blatche go down instead of getting a vet

I think you're being overly generous to DS. His career high in FG% is .461. His career avg is 41%.
He did peak at .404 from 3 one year but his career avg there is .345.
His FT shooting is especially woeful for a SHOOTING guard, career .700.
I also think his defense was overrated. He might have seemed better than he
was because the rest of the team was awful in that area.

You may be right about Miller starting although I continue to believe he
would be a great player off the bench having won a 6moy award.

Your numbers are right for the whole season because they went South late but when Gil was there he was shooting 50 & 40. Infact, he was really shooting much better than that because he started the season so bad for like the first 10 games. Basically dude had like a legit 60 game stretch that year where he probably shot over 55% from the field and over 45% from deep. He seemed like he never missed. Ill see if I can find his log

[dlts20]

I always use to take up for Deshawn and when Gil was healthy, I thought he was one of the best role players in the league that year. He shot 50 from the field, 40 from deep, and over 80 from the FT line. He was also a very good defender and passer. He's been all downhill since then but that could change with him being healthy and us having Gil back. Still, he was very limited at times on Offense and looked so amatureish.

I love all of our young players and I dont think Flip will care much about the vet stuff since all our young guys have solid experience. Therefore I think Deshawn will be benched along with James & Critt. Sadly, I also think Dom will be benched. His play wont warrant it but we just have too many guys for him to get minutes and I think Flip will pick NY over him.

To me Miller has to start because its more about who fits better with the other 4 then it is about whose better. You cant start Foye because you want him to backup Gil. That leaves NY & Miller. Miller fits better than any other guy because he's a perfect spot up shooter and he will have a ton of open shots with the big 4 out there. Unlike Deshawn, he can also put the ball on the floor and make a play if something breaks down and he's a good rebounder. Most of all, he can play well without the ball and is not a hog. He wont cry if he doesnt get attempts and he can knock down a high percentage on a limited amount of shots. You cant start NY because there are not enough balls to go around. This is all assuming that Gil will be full go. To me you cant play Deshawn off the bench for the most part. He can be a solid backup PG because he has that type of game but if you ask him to come off the bench at the 2 or 3 then he wont make anything. Foye will be the backup 1 so Deshawn is out.

So I think we will start the main 4 with Miller and then come off the bench with Foye, NY, Blatche, and maybe McGee. Flip is like me in that he wants a small rotation and I think he will love NY. I think NY will thrive in this system like Rip did but obviously to a lesser extent. I love the rotation. Call me crazy but I also think that EG & Flip are going to use Dom as the 3rd string PF and will give him the oppurtunity to play 12mpg there if AJ or Blatche go down instead of getting a vet

I think you're being overly generous to DS. His career high in FG% is .461. His career avg is 41%.
He did peak at .404 from 3 one year but his career avg there is .345.
His FT shooting is especially woeful for a SHOOTING guard, career .700.
I also think his defense was overrated. He might have seemed better than he
was because the rest of the team was awful in that area.

You may be right about Miller starting although I continue to believe he
would be a great player off the bench having won a 6moy award.

I just looked it up and for the first 56 games that year which was also the first 4 months of the season exactly, he was 1 missed FG away from being 50% from the field on the dot. He was also 45.4 from down town and 71 from the line. Thats awesome for basically 60 games and he was playing lights out D. I dont agree that his D has been overrated but last year he was not only the worst defender on the Wiz but I think he may have been the worst in the league. I do agree about his normal shooting numbers and I thought I talked about it in my original post. Part of me thinks he can be that guy again if he and us are healthy but part of me thinks that it was just a fluke since he's never shot well at any other time in his career.

I will say this. I do think that EJ was a big NY fan and wouldve benched Deshawn for NY very early if he knew he might be fired. I think EJ wanted to bench him but he didnt want to mess up Deshawn's starting streak. You could just tell it. It was an iffy situtaion. I personaly have loved all our young guys and I think Deshawn had his chance so we should move on. I think EG made the right move with the trade even though some were mad. I think he had to make it early because Rubio & Tharbeet couldve easily had been off the board by 5 and then Minny probably wouldnt have wanted to trade or they wouldve tried to trade with a different team. However, if EG knew it would play out like it did then he definatly wouldve waited so he couldve put Deshawn in it instead of Darius. Im not a guy who wishes injuries on anyone and I hate it when cats do that but I wouldnt exactly be upset if it took a little longer for Deshawn to heal from that injury if you know what I mean. Either way I think it will work its way out because I dont see Flip showing any favortism and I cant see Deshawn straight up outplaying Foye, NY, or Miller

[dlts20]

all yall realize that Mike Miller is a 6' 8'' small forward right? ppl who think m&m will start at SG r fail lol

everyone knows that deshawn is gonna start at the two. besides being the only capable defender in the backcourt (he's from Norcal not LA) his three point shooting game is allegedly back, and this is a team built around our "success" from three years ago, so I dont expect EG to make any changes since Abe will be none the wiser, ever a century a older... if deshawn's offense isn't working, i think you will see a lot of Nick, which spells defensive liability. i could see caron playin some two since he did last year, but again, defensive liabilty. at the one Foye will backup Gil, javaris = dnp/cd, and mike james can go fcuk himself. hopefully foye can play good defense...he is from jersey.

I thought NY's D in the 2nd half had greatly improved but when people get the mind set on something, it never changes. Meaning his D has been bad so long that even if he plays well now, people dont see it. They just have in there mind that he's a bad defender but it isnt all that true anymore.

The Miller thing is 50/50. Miller has not been a SF. He's always been seen as a SG for the most part in this league. Sure he was 6'8 but so is Tmac. Im not comparing the 2 but Im just saying that you could be a legit SG at 6'8 and he was. He had the deep range, solid quickness, and very good handles. With that being said, he's older now and maybe at the stage where he should switch to the 3 like alot of people think VC should do also. People make too much of a big deal out of the D part. Its not going to be perfect no matter who we put there. Deshawn use to be great but was horrible on D last year and his O is so subpar. Foye has talent but is a little undersized. Miller & Dom are good but are a little oversized with Dom also being very subpar on O. NY has good size but is still a little raw on D and I wouldnt really trust him full time as a starter on that end. Therefore no matter who we put there it wont be perfect but Miller makes the most sense on O and I think if our O is on point like it should be then we can hide him on D some. Its like when the Suns were beast and would give up 25 in a quarter but it wouldnt matter because they would score 35. I do think we will be alot better on D than the Suns were though. Also, dont forget that Flip is bringing the Zone so maybe Miller's size will be a blessing with 2 big guys on the wings in Caron & MIke.

[sCoTTYwIN]

all yall realize that Mike Miller is a 6' 8'' small forward right? ppl who think m&m will start at SG r fail lol

everyone knows that deshawn is gonna start at the two. besides being the only capable defender in the backcourt (he's from Norcal not LA) his three point shooting game is allegedly back, and this is a team built around our "success" from three years ago, so I dont expect EG to make any changes since Abe will be none the wiser, ever a century a older... if deshawn's offense isn't working, i think you will see a lot of Nick, which spells defensive liability. i could see caron playin some two since he did last year, but again, defensive liabilty. at the one Foye will backup Gil, javaris = dnp/cd, and mike james can go fcuk himself. hopefully foye can play good defense...he is from jersey.

I thought NY's D in the 2nd half had greatly improved but when people get the mind set on something, it never changes. Meaning his D has been bad so long that even if he plays well now, people dont see it. They just have in there mind that he's a bad defender but it isnt all that true anymore.

The Miller thing is 50/50. Miller has not been a SF. He's always been seen as a SG for the most part in this league. Sure he was 6'8 but so is Tmac. Im not comparing the 2 but Im just saying that you could be a legit SG at 6'8 and he was. He had the deep range, solid quickness, and very good handles. With that being said, he's older now and maybe at the stage where he should switch to the 3 like alot of people think VC should do also. People make too much of a big deal out of the D part. Its not going to be perfect no matter who we put there. Deshawn use to be great but was horrible on D last year and his O is so subpar. Foye has talent but is a little undersized. Miller & Dom are good but are a little oversized with Dom also being very subpar on O. NY has good size but is still a little raw on D and I wouldnt really trust him full time as a starter on that end. Therefore no matter who we put there it wont be perfect but Miller makes the most sense on O and I think if our O is on point like it should be then we can hide him on D some. Its like when the Suns were beast and would give up 25 in a quarter but it wouldnt matter because they would score 35. I do think we will be alot better on D than the Suns were though. Also, dont forget that Flip is bringing the Zone so maybe Miller's size will be a blessing with 2 big guys on the wings in Caron & MIke.

are u serious?? we tried the outscoring everyone method three years ago, and then we peaked at the allstar break. look at the championship squads from this decade. the Heat, Boston, the Spurs, the Pistons and the Lakers ALL had excellent defense.

this all offense method is going to get us to the first round, maybe the 2nd, but that will be it.

deshawn was injured last season, so I don't think you can fault him for anything. the two years before that he shot 40% from behind the arc.

[He Hate Me]

Mike Miller can open up the game. Start him... and bring Foye and Young off the bench and develop their chemistry together.

[dlts20]

all yall realize that Mike Miller is a 6' 8'' small forward right? ppl who think m&m will start at SG r fail lol

everyone knows that deshawn is gonna start at the two. besides being the only capable defender in the backcourt (he's from Norcal not LA) his three point shooting game is allegedly back, and this is a team built around our "success" from three years ago, so I dont expect EG to make any changes since Abe will be none the wiser, ever a century a older... if deshawn's offense isn't working, i think you will see a lot of Nick, which spells defensive liability. i could see caron playin some two since he did last year, but again, defensive liabilty. at the one Foye will backup Gil, javaris = dnp/cd, and mike james can go fcuk himself. hopefully foye can play good defense...he is from jersey.

I thought NY's D in the 2nd half had greatly improved but when people get the mind set on something, it never changes. Meaning his D has been bad so long that even if he plays well now, people dont see it. They just have in there mind that he's a bad defender but it isnt all that true anymore.

The Miller thing is 50/50. Miller has not been a SF. He's always been seen as a SG for the most part in this league. Sure he was 6'8 but so is Tmac. Im not comparing the 2 but Im just saying that you could be a legit SG at 6'8 and he was. He had the deep range, solid quickness, and very good handles. With that being said, he's older now and maybe at the stage where he should switch to the 3 like alot of people think VC should do also. People make too much of a big deal out of the D part. Its not going to be perfect no matter who we put there. Deshawn use to be great but was horrible on D last year and his O is so subpar. Foye has talent but is a little undersized. Miller & Dom are good but are a little oversized with Dom also being very subpar on O. NY has good size but is still a little raw on D and I wouldnt really trust him full time as a starter on that end. Therefore no matter who we put there it wont be perfect but Miller makes the most sense on O and I think if our O is on point like it should be then we can hide him on D some. Its like when the Suns were beast and would give up 25 in a quarter but it wouldnt matter because they would score 35. I do think we will be alot better on D than the Suns were though. Also, dont forget that Flip is bringing the Zone so maybe Miller's size will be a blessing with 2 big guys on the wings in Caron & MIke.

are u serious?? we tried the outscoring everyone method three years ago, and then we peaked at the allstar break. look at the championship squads from this decade. the Heat, Boston, the Spurs, the Pistons and the Lakers ALL had excellent defense.

this all offense method is going to get us to the first round, maybe the 2nd, but that will be it.

deshawn was injured last season, so I don't think you can fault him for anything. the two years before that he shot 40% from behind the arc.

Thats why I specificaly added that we will be way better on D than the Suns were though. My point is that I think we will have a top 3 offense this year if not #1 and I dont think it will be in a gimmick way like the Suns or GS. I think our O will be legit & effecient. On D we will only have to be middle of the pack. I think people seriously underrate Butler on here now. He's a very solid defender but was just playing out of position on both ends last year. I think Wood is ready to go to that next level and be dominant on D. I mean if you look at the Magic roster you would think that there D sucks. Lewis, Turk, and Nelson are all suspect on D at best but the team concept got them to play solid with the big man in the middle. I think we can do the same thing. On top of that when you have an O like ours and you jump out on teams then they start playing more desperate on O and taking bad shots which automaticaly makes your D look better. I think Miller will have some bad matchups on D and I would like to have a guy like Deshawn who could guard the point against a guy like Chris Paul while Gil guards the 2. We did that alot and it gave us great flexability. We wont have that with Miller but Id much rather have his O and all around game over Deshawn's good D. Gil just has to be more solid in that aspect this year because I think he will llead the league in assist

[Brenice]

DeShawn is a decent role-playing shooting guard. He is not a go to offensive player by any stretch but he is a decent shooter when left unguarded.

His role is to play defense and he is pretty good at it when you consider these things:

#1 He plays on the Wizards, a team that historically has gotten the shaft from refs.
#2 He plays a position where most of the best offensive players play(Kobe, Wade), and also is primarily tasked to check LeBron

It is fancy among Wizard fans to call Caron "tough-juice" but I think DeShawn is the toughest player on the Wizards. If healthy, though there are more talented 2-guards on the wizard, he should start because of his ability to play his role on THIS team.

[verbal8]

DeShawn is a decent role-playing shooting guard. He is not a go to offensive player by any stretch but he is a decent shooter when left unguarded.

Even throwing out the disaster of last season, Deshawn only had one good season of shooting. That was 2006-7. In 2007-8 he shot ok from 3(38% at high volume) but his 2 pt shooting was the same %.

I think he could be good as the first guy off the bench if they are having trouble defensively on the perimeter. He also might be good to pair with Foye against smaller bench backcourts.

[Kanyewest]

DeShawn is a decent role-playing shooting guard. He is not a go to offensive player by any stretch but he is a decent shooter when left unguarded.

Even throwing out the disaster of last season, Deshawn only had one good season of shooting. That was 2006-7. In 2007-8 he shot ok from 3(38% at high volume) but his 2 pt shooting was the same %.

I think he could be good as the first guy off the bench if they are having trouble defensively on the perimeter. He also might be good to pair with Foye against smaller bench backcourts.

It's more accurate to use TS% which takes account 3 point shooting and free throw percentages along with 3 point percentage. Stevenson's TS % in 07-08 was 52.9% compared to 54.3% in the 06-07 season. His drop off in play can be attributed to playing without Gilbert Arenas.