Comments on: Preview and Chat: The Washington Wizards

By: Mike in the Mountain West

Mike in the Mountain West — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:46:17 +0000

I hear you on how frustrating it must be to try to keep the trade speculation down to a minimum and I think i speak for most of us when I say we really appreciate it. I like the Kamentzky brothers over at the LA times Lakers blog but I can’t stand the comments because they are so undisciplined and filled with trade talk.

Maybe when times arise, like the Pau trade, that get some of us in a frenzy to play GM you can dedicate thread to trade speculation. It could be like a trade ghetto. You wouldn’t need to do it often but it might help to corral all that talk where it won’t hurt the broader conversation when the trade talk really starts to flow. Just a thought.

And I agree the the suddenness of the Pau trade was exciting. I’m not sure how they were able to keep it a secret since they talked for a week about it.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:27:24 +0000

87. I get that, and I enjoy some speculation about future moves, whether they be moves due to the tax or trades or whatever. I also have seen this and other sites become overwhelmed by those types of debates, and so here I try to corral it, keeping it out of most posts and talking about trades/signings more in those times of year and when there are serious talks in the works. (Which was what was great and odd about the Gasol trade, it was totally out of the blue to the public.)

Sometimes I get frustrated with that effort to corral that talk, particularly because I feel I correct and delete comments from the same people over and over. And, so, I vented. Probably didn’t come off well, but I just needed to do that I guess. But the point that speculating on these things is part of being a fan certainly is true, and maybe I need to find a way to allow some (more) of that without letting it dominate the talk.

By: Cary D

Cary D — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:54:52 +0000

59 – Sasha as an emergency 3rd stringer? You’re kidding me, right?

Have you watched the quality of basketball lately by Sasha? He is shooting 42% from 3 point land this season (and much better lately), and don’t think the kid can’t play good on-the-ball defense either.

Sasha isn’t a superstar by any means, but the kid has big balls and deadly accuracy. We need both those traits to beat San Antonio/Dallas/Phoenix. Kobe LOVES this kid, by the way.

I am giddy about Sasha Vujacic, and i am not afraid to sing his praises. He is a key part of our bench. We must resign him.

By: Craig W.

Craig W. — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:32:41 +0000

exhelodrvr,
Good point. Shaq is an example of a supremely talented athlete who could stay on top for a long length of time without pushing himself hard, outside of his games. He had the body (like Kawame) that most athletes would kill for. However, he just wasn’t focused/disciplined enough to take care of it like, say Kareem. The result is that he started breaking down before his time and he wasn’t able to stay reasonably healthy for an entire season over the last several years. If it hadn’t been for the Laker’s trading him I doubt he would have lasted this long. That was a godsend for Shaq’s conditioning.

By: adb

adb — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:29:24 +0000

Wow…….if we had to redo that draft……Bynum or Chris Paul or Deron Williams…….hmmm………that is a great debate. Chris and Deron would be great next to Kobe! But a big man like Bynum are hard to come by………especially if he continues to develop. Dunno………that is a tough one! Anyway, glad to see the Giants win…….great Super Bowl!

By: exhelodrvr

exhelodrvr — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:04:43 +0000

Samy,
There are plenty of other players in the league besides Kwame who don’t put in the effort to improve their game. I don’t think basketball players are different in that regard than people in any other profession. A lot of people are comfortable with mediocrity; it’s not worth the effort to them to raise the level of their performance. Throw in the fact that Kwame is set for life financially if he handled his money reasonably well. I also think that (playing internet psychologist here) Kwame is insecure; my observation is that people like that feel safer not giving 100%. That gives them something to fall back on (an “out”) if they don’t succeed. I think the same theory applies to Shaq to some degree.

By: Muffin-Man

Muffin-Man — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:00:02 +0000

(92)

Kwame spent the summer recovering from off-season surgery to his ankle. His biggest problem this season was not that he didn’t have enough strength in his upper body, but his lack of aerobic fitness and jumping ability. This is not to say that Kwame would have outworked Bynum had he not had the surgery, and all evidence suggests that his work ethic is terrible, but let’s be fair.

By: Samy

Samy — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:41:29 +0000

Ok guys. I keep reading article after article about Pau’s greatness and the failure that is Kwame Brown – and I wonder… what was kwame Brown doing this summer as his up and coming rival took to the weight room?

Like, is Andrew Bynum the only one who could hit the gym and feel the pressure of being the best he could be… Doesn’t brown WANT to dominate.

Yeah, he’s gone now.. But, how do you understand a guy like that, I mean you know the crowd WANTS to find a reason to chant your name… Don’t you WANT them to?

By: chris h

chris h — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:02:52 +0000

the nice thing too about playing shorthanded, besides seeing Ronnie getting the starting role and extended minutes, is seeing Radman growing in his role, playing with even more confidence in his shot, passing, cutting, etc.
it does seem to me that even without Pau, the team looks and plays better without Kwame. I think this is a great example of addition by subtraction. when Kwame was out there, not only did he hurt the team with his turnovers, missed dunks, missed FT’s etc, but you could see the hesitation to pass it in to hm, and that would disrupt the flow of the offense, just enough, to cause the team to be ineffective, and you could make the same case for the D.
now, in the greatest of all scenarios, not only do we see the benefit of addition by subtraction, but we also get to see by tomorrow night, the added EXTRA fo addition by addition, a very rare case indeed.

By: Craig W.

Craig W. — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:52:37 +0000

muddywood,
I think you put your finger on the current player attitude. What I hope is that they do not relax for the remainder of this road trip. This is a really good team – without Pau Gasol – and without Kwame Brown, if we only continue to move and cut. I think (hope) Turiaf has proved his worth to Phil over the last two games. When he is practically the only option to start the game at center, he has proved to be a real addition and we fans wonder why he couldn’t have started against Detroit. Yeah, I hear the stock answers, but didn’t the Giants also win the Super Bowl. Turiaf can really play against taller centers. His style does bother them and take them out of their rhythm. Now that we have Lamar to back up Pau, why not start Rony?