Will what the Wizard do in the next round change your outlook on the series ?

[caccia]

"The Wizards were fresher, but they quickly realized the Hawks’ offense is a superior operation to the Toronto Raptors’ iteration they encountered in the first round. While the ball stuck in Toronto’s isolation-heavy system, Atlanta churned through passes with pace and space. The ball movement was night-and-day and overwhelmed Washington en route to a 37-point first quarter, the most points the Wizards have surrendered in a period this season."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...y.html?hpid=z5

[S.R.]

"The Wizards were fresher, but they quickly realized the Hawks’ offense is a superior operation to the Toronto Raptors’ iteration they encountered in the first round. While the ball stuck in Toronto’s isolation-heavy system, Atlanta churned through passes with pace and space. The ball movement was night-and-day and overwhelmed Washington en route to a 37-point first quarter, the most points the Wizards have surrendered in a period this season."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...y.html?hpid=z5

Yeah, but I was also thinking the first quarter was very typical of a second round (or later) matchup where one team had a long layoff and the other team a short one. Atlanta starts the game strong because they're still in sync, whereas Washington takes some time to get their legs back under them and get into rhythm. A one week layoff is huge - that's like an All-Star break layoff, which only happens once during the 82 game schedule.

A few other thoughts:
- Atlanta does look like a regular season team. No go-to guy and no extra gear for the playoffs. Can they even adjust anything? They're maxing out their talent already, and I'm not sure their defense is good enough for a deep playoff run.
- Washington's poor regular season had a lot to do with health issues. If they had had good health, they could have easily been a 50 win team in the East and their playoff performance wouldn't be such a surprise.
- Washington only bottomed out and drafted Wall 5 years ago. Within 5 years they have a nice core of Wall, Beal, and Porter, and they've now been to the second round two consecutive years. The Raptors have never achieved this in their 20 year history. +1 for the blow things up side (and commence the "it doesn't always work, look at Philly" side).
- Washington's offence looks like what the Raptors should have been doing - it's pretty simple with lots of PnRs and drive-and-dish. It's not complicated, there's not a lot of off the ball movement, but it's effective and it works and guys pass when they're supposed to and find the higher percentage shot. There's no reason DeMar and Kyle couldn't have been initiating this kind of offense, hitting the rolling big regularly and dishing out of drives to corner threes regularly. It's like the Raptors set up similarly offensively, but the guard would jack a contested J instead of using screens properly and making the right pass at the right time.

[slaw]

So, if the Hawks lose, is Mike Budenholzer no longer a genius? I thought he was a genius? Does Randy Wittman become a genius if the Wiz beat the Hawks? There are so many geniuses it's hard to keep track of them all....

If only there were an alternative explanation to team success. Something involving other people who might be involved with a NBA team in some capacity. It's a mystery.

[MixxAOR]

The old John Wall scouting report is now useless

http://www.sbnation.com/2015/5/4/854...903.1411044074

[iblastoff]

Yeah, but I was also thinking the first quarter was very typical of a second round (or later) matchup where one team had a long layoff and the other team a short one. Atlanta starts the game strong because they're still in sync, whereas Washington takes some time to get their legs back under them and get into rhythm. A one week layoff is huge - that's like an All-Star break layoff, which only happens once during the 82 game schedule.

A few other thoughts:
- Atlanta does look like a regular season team. No go-to guy and no extra gear for the playoffs. Can they even adjust anything? They're maxing out their talent already, and I'm not sure their defense is good enough for a deep playoff run.
- Washington's poor regular season had a lot to do with health issues. If they had had good health, they could have easily been a 50 win team in the East and their playoff performance wouldn't be such a surprise.
- Washington only bottomed out and drafted Wall 5 years ago. Within 5 years they have a nice core of Wall, Beal, and Porter, and they've now been to the second round two consecutive years. The Raptors have never achieved this in their 20 year history. +1 for the blow things up side (and commence the "it doesn't always work, look at Philly" side).
- Washington's offence looks like what the Raptors should have been doing - it's pretty simple with lots of PnRs and drive-and-dish. It's not complicated, there's not a lot of off the ball movement, but it's effective and it works and guys pass when they're supposed to and find the higher percentage shot. There's no reason DeMar and Kyle couldn't have been initiating this kind of offense, hitting the rolling big regularly and dishing out of drives to corner threes regularly. It's like the Raptors set up similarly offensively, but the guard would jack a contested J instead of using screens properly and making the right pass at the right time.

haha what? since when was porter ever part of the washington 'core'? what a weird thing to say. the guy has basically been a scrub until just the past few weeks.

[S.R.]

haha what? since when was porter ever part of the washington 'core'? what a weird thing to say. the guy has basically been a scrub until just the past few weeks.

Since he was drafted #3 overall two years ago?

“Bradley and Otto are both big pieces of the core group of players that we will build around as we continue to improve our team,” Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld said. “We look forward to them playing significant roles in our success both now and in the future.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...tto-porter-jr/

Took me and Google all of 3 seconds to find a quote of the Wizards GM literally saying Otto Porter is a core player...

[tDotted]

haha what? since when was porter ever part of the washington 'core'? what a weird thing to say. the guy has basically been a scrub until just the past few weeks.

I think it's because he's 21 and went 3rd in the draft.

[KeonClark]

So, if the Hawks lose, is Mike Budenholzer no longer a genius? I thought he was a genius? Does Randy Wittman become a genius if the Wiz beat the Hawks? There are so many geniuses it's hard to keep track of them all....

If only there were an alternative explanation to team success. Something involving other people who might be involved with a NBA team in some capacity. It's a mystery.

Sports media loves to make things black and white. "if this guy wins, he's a genius, if this guy loses, he's an idiot"

Way too many variables when a team of 15 human beings is trying their hardest against another team of comparatively skilled human beings. Coaching is overrated.

[S.R.]

Sports media loves to make things black and white. "if this guy wins, he's a genius, if this guy loses, he's an idiot"

Way too many variables when a team of 15 human beings is trying their hardest against another team of comparatively skilled human beings. Coaching is overrated.

Agreed, but the apparent 180 in key aspects of the Wizards play is pretty crazy & very unusual. Unless it's just random, I can't remember a coach/team ever flipping a switch to this degree re: systems and approach just for the playoffs. From Grantland today:

"For the entire regular season, the Wittman-helmed Wizards offense was a fossilized hodgepodge of eyeball-melting, spacing-eschewing long 2s. The Wiz averaged 17.2 field goal attempts per game from the inefficient wasteland between 15 and 19 feet, second-most in the NBA, per NBA.com. The top five teams outside of Washington on that list — the Hornets, Lakers, Knicks, Pacers, and Timberwolves — are a who’s who of tanking and catastrophe. The Wiz took 16.8 3-point attempts per game in the regular season, fourth-fewest in the league.

It was easy, then, to lay the blame on the inimitable old Dr. Basketball Face himself, Randy Wittman, he of the .394 career regular-season winning percentage. Wittman and the Wiz were labeled analytics “skeptics” by something called ESPN The Magazine. Seemingly everyone with access to a computer who uses that computer to type words about basketball called for Wittman’s firing.

Then, something amazing happened. The playoffs happened. And in these playoffs, Wittman is stunting on haters left, right, center, and virtual. The Wiz are taking 24.4 3-pointers per game, almost eight more than their regular-season average. Paul Pierce, like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, returned to push Drake’s Raptors into extinction, appearing without warning at the 4. Otto Porter’s minutes went from sub-20 per game in the regular season to 32.4 per game in these acid-trip playoffs.

After waylaying the 60-win Atlanta Hawks in Game 1, the Wiz became the first NBA team to win four straight playoff road openers, and they’re 5-0 in the postseason with a playoff-best 16.1 NetRtg.

It’s like the world spent the regular season bugging Wittman to ditch his flip phone and now all of a sudden he’s writing iOS apps.

“Hey, listen, you guys are going to knock no matter what I do,” Wittman said. “I’m surprised I haven’t read that we’re shooting too many 3s.”"

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nb...fs-chris-paul/

[KeonClark]

Agreed, but the apparent 180 in key aspects of the Wizards play is pretty crazy & very unusual. Unless it's just random, I can't remember a coach/team ever flipping a switch to this degree re: systems and approach just for the playoffs. From Grantland today:

"For the entire regular season, the Wittman-helmed Wizards offense was a fossilized hodgepodge of eyeball-melting, spacing-eschewing long 2s. The Wiz averaged 17.2 field goal attempts per game from the inefficient wasteland between 15 and 19 feet, second-most in the NBA, per NBA.com. The top five teams outside of Washington on that list — the Hornets, Lakers, Knicks, Pacers, and Timberwolves — are a who’s who of tanking and catastrophe. The Wiz took 16.8 3-point attempts per game in the regular season, fourth-fewest in the league.

It was easy, then, to lay the blame on the inimitable old Dr. Basketball Face himself, Randy Wittman, he of the .394 career regular-season winning percentage. Wittman and the Wiz were labeled analytics “skeptics” by something called ESPN The Magazine. Seemingly everyone with access to a computer who uses that computer to type words about basketball called for Wittman’s firing.

Then, something amazing happened. The playoffs happened. And in these playoffs, Wittman is stunting on haters left, right, center, and virtual. The Wiz are taking 24.4 3-pointers per game, almost eight more than their regular-season average. Paul Pierce, like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, returned to push Drake’s Raptors into extinction, appearing without warning at the 4. Otto Porter’s minutes went from sub-20 per game in the regular season to 32.4 per game in these acid-trip playoffs.

After waylaying the 60-win Atlanta Hawks in Game 1, the Wiz became the first NBA team to win four straight playoff road openers, and they’re 5-0 in the postseason with a playoff-best 16.1 NetRtg.

It’s like the world spent the regular season bugging Wittman to ditch his flip phone and now all of a sudden he’s writing iOS apps.

“Hey, listen, you guys are going to knock no matter what I do,” Wittman said. “I’m surprised I haven’t read that we’re shooting too many 3s.”"

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nb...fs-chris-paul/

It's like the polar opposite of Dwane Casey. "This didn't work for 3 months, so I'm going to pound the rock even harder"

[iblastoff]

Since he was drafted #3 overall two years ago?

“Bradley and Otto are both big pieces of the core group of players that we will build around as we continue to improve our team,” Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld said. “We look forward to them playing significant roles in our success both now and in the future.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...tto-porter-jr/

Took me and Google all of 3 seconds to find a quote of the Wizards GM literally saying Otto Porter is a core player...

of course a GM of the same team is gonna say something like that about a lottery pick, or why else would they have picked him at 3rd. thats like defending the raptors iso play because coach casey sanctioned it.

EVERYONE, including wizards fans, labeled porter a bust and even when he wasn't injured, he barely even makes it into the rotation.

[tDotted]

EVERYONE, including wizards fans, labeled porter a bust and even when he wasn't injured, he barely even makes it into the rotation.

No one with a brain labels a 21 year old lottery pick a bust after a 100 games in 2 years.

Edit: #1 overall picks have completely different standards than other picks in terms of production.

[JimiCliff]

No one with a brain labels a 21 year old lottery pick a bust after a 100 games in 2 years.

Edit: #1 overall picks have completely different standards than other picks in terms of production.

Although in Washington fans' defence, they'd just lived the Jan Vesely Experience.

[Bendit]

Although in Washington fans' defence, they'd just lived the Jan Vesely Experience.

Porter was also injured (hip) starting his rookie season including training camp...many games.

[golden]

People are forgetting the most important reason for the Wizards success under Wittman, which is team defense. The last 3 years, the Wiz have ranked 5th, 8th and 5th in defensive rating. That is awesome and consistently excellent over a long period. So, the Wiz have a solid defensive foundation for a playoff winning team which is tribute to Wittman's coaching and kudos to him for getting offense-first guys, physically limited guys like Wall, Beal (undersized) and Pierce to buy into a defense-first system. And Gortat and Nene aren't the most athletic or quick guys either. Basically, Wittman is the defensive coach we all thought we were getting with Casey. If Casey was coaching Pierce, Wall & Beal, it's quite easy to envision them taking any shot they wanted, while taking plays off on defense, with zero accountability on that end.

It is Wittman's offensive system that people complain about (ranked 30th, 17th, 22nd). But much like Bradley Beal, the Wiz offense is streaky and right now they're on a hot streak, while also showing some new things (more 3's) that they didn't do in the regular season.

Basically, if you can't defend, you have zero chance of doing anything in the playoffs. And to get NBA millionaires to defend you need the cajones to hold them accountable. For the Raps, that is what needs to be fixed asap, which is why I vote for Jeff Van Gundy as the next Raps coach, even though he has flaws and might not be the long term guy. JVG will lay a solid foundation of defense and accountability as sustainable culture that a winning organization needs as opposed to this shoot-first-play-defense later / appease-Lowry culture that has grown under Casey. The culture difference, not the talent is the real difference between the Wiz and Raps.