Check out 2 impressive statistics from last night's game- # of assists and # of rebounds. When the team is making the extra pass good things happen and when they pound the glass they deny those extra shots. Dallas took many fewer shots than Washington... a result of a strong rebounding game. Good defense, passing and rebounding...seems simple enough doesn't it?

I am just happy they beat the Mavs! I was in such a good mood last night, I was jumping around my living room! They gave me everything I have wanted, hustle, toughness, rebounding/boxing out, ball movement, cutting. They were ACTIVE, they were up on people, they were moving without the ball instead of standing around, they were taking GOOD SHOTS, they were communicating, pushing the ball, attacking the lane and rim! I just can't even believe it!!

IC, you are my dog. But in this case, when you say that 'you don't know what to expect from this team', I think that means you know exactly what to expect. The nature of this team, its very makeup, is what makes it inconsistent.

There is no bench presence to bail out one of our starters having an off night (at either end), we are a soft jump-shooting team capable of making shots and drubbing people or missing shots and losing to anyone, and we are wed to the fortunes of a steaky superstar (Gilbert) and an undersized jump shooting PF.

If Jamison is hitting jumpers we can win. You know Caron is going to grind and get his 16-19 a game. Other than that, what can you count on?

When I was a small child, I went to a Bullets game. They were, of course, terrible that year. I remember the Spurs had Terry Cummings. Cummings DOMINATED the game. I had never seen anything like it. I think he went for 25 and 14 or something outrageous. I told my dad that he must be the best player in the league. He stopped and turned to me and said: 'No he's not son. The best players in the world are the ones who do it EVERY night...'

I've been saying it all year since training camp, we are flawed. You can take continuity and chuck it in the recycling bin. This is who we are: an inconsistent group.

"As for tomorrow night's game? We'll see. I have no idea what to expect from this team."

Me either. Suffered through the second half of Saturday's game; yesterday I was dreading the Mavs coming to town but missed last night (in class).

I only have nine words for the team for tomorrow night at NY:

Renaldo Balckman.
David Lee.
Put the wood on 'em.

we need a big game from haywood vs knicks or we will lose. i have a feeling we are going to lose anyway. this team is very up and down like a roller coaster. last night was a fun loop dee loop and everyone yelling wee with happy faces. tomorrow night will be will be broken track and coaster fall from top of track to 20 people death toll disaster with screams and mayhem.

When Jordan made the Poet the starter I thought that meant he would get starter's minutes. I'm not complaining but why am I playing the bulk of the minutes in the 2nd halves of games, particularly down the stretch? Has anyone asked or has Jordan offered an explanation? You know we don't talk much.

Signed,
Brendan

Ha Ha! He does the same thing with DeShawn and Antonio, starts one and finishes with the other.

He used to do the same thing with JJ and Hayes, start the game with JJ and finish with Jarvis.

hate to burst yo bubble but your only keeping the closer role warm til eddie's boy ruffin gets back. you know eddie loves the small ball and you know he loves his favorite boy ruffin. ruffin is the best center in eddie's eyes, he just loves to put him out there and watch him get dunked on! and it's really great to watch ruffin shoot those smooth free throws at crucial moments down the stretch!

they don't call him eddie "smallballs" jordan for nothin! enjoy your consistant playing time while you can buddy, it won't last!

Gosh Brendan,

Everyone felt, because of your height and size, you should be in down the stretch. We could actually use both of you in all through the game. You the center and ET as power forward but then EJ and the "fans" don't talk much either or I am sure you guys would have had a much better start to your season. The situation is what it is..

BTW - Hubie Brown of TNT opined you were a fantastic "big" and will be fantastic "if" properly instrucred. Food for thought
"Brendan"

IC, if you watched more games in front of your tv you would see what we see...no passing, quick shots, and the hardest shots are taken by the Wizards throughout the game. The difference in winning for this team is sharing and running their plays through on offense. While their defense is not spectectacular, I think it has been good enough to win the vast majority of their games. However, quick and bad shots create the undefensible on the other end.

Regarding Haywood, I do not get it...great beginning by Etan does not spell an opportunity to finish..perplexing coaching.

"If Jamison is hitting jumpers we can win."

Exactly.

The Wiz can't play like that, they have more talent then half the league.

As far as what everyone else is saying it's because Jordan's rotations suck and he's only playing deeper into the bench right now because people are hurt.

His philosphy is "big 3" and throw everyone else in somewhere reguardless of position.

That's not good, you can't have any consistency like that(per BK's story).

- Ray

""When the team is making the extra pass good things happen...""

Exactly Arnie. :)

And they stopped doing that in the 4th and that's one of the reasons Dallas got back in the game.

Frustrating.

- Ray

Yeah, you all bringin me back to earth! I think that game last night left me delerious! On road at NY we might be same standing around, no ball movement, one player dribbling and chucking long shot team again! Jamison with his standing at the 3pt line with hand in air the WHOLE GAME. No defense, and watching dunks and layups in their faces. If we're really lucky we might even get to see Eddie go back to his Jamison at center technique!

Watch we'll be up by 10 into the 4th, then we'll go smallball and lose by 5. After the game Eddie will say "I thought when we went small, we did some good things and that kept us in the game. The Basketball Gods weren't with us tonight, we must've left them in DC".

oh c'mon, haven't you all figured it out... it's the hideous blue jerseys they've been wearing!!!

they need to bring in some good karma and start wearing the new gold on the road.

WEAR THE GOLD. SAVE THE SEASON.

BK, your right on.

Continuity doesn't mean so much when your mediocre like the Wiz are.

What's the point of keeping the same the group of players and coaches together when the best they can do is play .500 ball?

It's not like we are a young team on the verge of exploding. Or its not like we have young guys brimming with upside (Blatche is not one of them).

Maintaining status quo in effect, is placating mediocrity.

This team needs to make a major trade or acqusition and change its composition. I think its pretty obvious that Gil needs to at least "share" ballhandling duties to allow him to focus on what he does best, score. Also we need a replacement for Jamison (and soon, he looks terribly worn down and avoids contact whenver possible now) and find someone who can guard effectively the perimeter.

Finally, your boy needs to go IC. Yeah, I'm talking about Eddie. "Damn good coach" or not, this inconsistency has been a staple of an Eddie Jordan coached team since he's been here. So has the porous defense and questionable substitution patterns. Give Eddie credit for helping get us to respectability...but its time the Wiz pave the way for someone to come in here, and hopefully compete for something for than a 6th seed (and future 1st round exit) in a pathetically weak conference.

I guess U R right, Dat2U. Before Eddie got here, the Wiz were nothing if not consistent. Didn't Douggie's teams go back-to-back 37-45? Now that's consistency. Amazing how the team could go from Gar Heard to Leonard Hamilton to Douggie Collins without missing a beat. To quote my new favorite ad, "Very, very, very consistent."

Hey Ivan, do you have any access to Ernie G.? I'd be curious to hear his thoughts on the season thus far. Can you get a one-on-one interview with him? The Wiz die-hards need some answers to some of our questions. What is this team going to do to turn this thing around?

I agree with everyone's comments regarding Eddie J's perplexing rotation with Brendan "brick hands" Haywood and Etan. Etan usually gets things started by crashing the boards and getting a few blocks, then "brick hands" comes in and takes a few soft shots, misses at least half his free throws, and finishes the game?? I just don't get it.

As far as the good, Caron is a BEAST and DeShawn has really impressed me thus far.

"Go-all-in to the lo-tt-ery!"

IC, you mentioned something in your article about Brendon and Etan. You said that it was frequent occurance that Arenas lets people drive around him in the losses. That is the absolute truth. As a matter of fact, this is a frequent occurance period. Is he aware, either by the coaching staff or the media, that he is playing terrible defense? In the fourth quarter during the comeback by dallas, he had one sequence where D. Nowitski had the ball of to the side of the 3 point line and Devin Harris moved with Arenas floating off into space. Notwiski passes to Harris at the top of the key and there is Arenas scrambling, along with Jamison who is supposed to be on Nowitski. Harris passes back to Nowitski and 3 points.

This is the reason that the Wiz are so bad on D. He is a tremendous offensive talent. But he is pretty much a one dimensional player. Defense is all effort and pride and I think that Gil has pride when it comes to demorilzing his opponent on the offensive side. He obviously has no pride when it comes to shutting his man down.

Sorry to be long winded, but he could have all the credit he's looking for by showing pride on defense. He doesn't have to be the best defender, as long as he tried to demorilize his man on D!

Brendan, I have been one of your biggest supporters. Especially when my commuter friends were putting you down. They all think you are soft. I argued against that. I know you have the size and I always argued that you would get a little more nasty as time passed. Dont get me wrong, you are doing quite well and played great against Dallas. I am very impressed and knew you could,but, a real player with class, would never write in a blog for the world to see, talking about his coach and team mates. I find this disappointing and I am really saddened by this. There is no I in team and it is not all about you. IF, you were really interested in the Wizards winning, it wouldn't matter whether you started or came off the bench, as long as the team won and you made your contributions. Bottom line is whether you start or come off the bench, your paycheck is not affected! So, it should not matter. It is not all about you. And, if you want to get along better with the coaching staff, grow up and change your attitude!

IC, nice article on Etan and Brendan. Loved the one part that starts "In recent games, Jordan has gone away from using smaller lineups". That was great, nice subtle jab at his smallball tendancies! I really hope the coaches saw what I saw when Ruffin came in that 1st game against Dallas, when the Mavs pulled away. Hopefully it's a thing of the past... please keep giving praise for moving away from that, and the positive results of keeping our bigs on the floor.

Also noticed the little comment by Brendan, "As long as I'm here".

And for another big, if you ever talk to James Lang, tell him wizard fans like his game and we're all rootin for him. We want to see what he's got!

Darnell, true dat on your word about Lang. It may have been too late to be meaningful Saturday night, but I liked his run in the Chicago game.

He and Butler (maybe AD as well) did a few nice give-and gos along the baseline when he was in, and Lang dropped a couple dimes for them on interior passes.

Somebody mentioned the Wiz need to go to the "alternate unis" or will continue to blame the "basketball gods" for their road futility. How long before somebody starts blaming the new synthetic ball -- which might be on its way out -- for their road woes? Sheesh.

Here's the answer to why the Wizrds are underachievers & sooo inconsistant. Brendan is too busy airing out his feelings publicly on Jordan rotation, instead working on his game. Yes he's played well in the last couple of games but if he has to be made angry to play well, and the money he's payed is not motivation enough...he's got some issues. If he's got issues with his coach step to him like a man.....not respond in the Post. This child like attitude is why consistancy does not exist on this team. They dont act like winners, they act cry babies in need of a diaper change.

JUSTIN WILLIAMS-

The 6-10 230 lbs power forward on our dleague team dakota wizards. was undrafted led nation in blocks last year in college. wizards had him in for pre-draft workouts. glen consor said he reminds him of samuel dalembert.

last nights game he played 35 min, shot 6-8 from field, and 6-8 from line for 18 pts. he had 5 offensive boards and 15 total rebounds. he had 1 asst, 1 steal, and 2 turnovers, and 5 blocks.

Yea, I noticed that comment by him as well. Brendan has been playing well as of late and I am glad to see it. However, I am growing tired of the attitude and the hints that he is here because he has to be. If does not like it here so much why doesn't he ask to be traded? I am getting a little sick myself of these athletes raking in millions of dollars, doing little and then getting attitude when people call them out about it. By now everyone who has ears knows Brendan does not want to play off the bench. He just needs to can the comments made publicly and do what is paid to do. PLAY! and play well!

BK,

"There is no bench presence to bail out one of our starters having an off night (at either end)"

This is so true this season. When I read this I could only think about Juan Dixon. Juan was such a great bench player because there was always a possibility he could get hot and drop 20-25 off the bench. We just do not have that kind of threat this season.

agree d-b letting juan go was a major mistake. he signed for real low money, we should of kept him! what a spark off the bench that guy was. he really attacked the other team offensively and defensively too! also remember we let brevin knight go for nothing too!

We all need to settle down on BBQ Lang. He is a slob who airballs hook shots and looks like he has never actually played on the defensive side of half court in his life. There is a reason he was available. Huge 6' 11" dudes are only available if they suffer from Ungood Disorder.

We also need to calm down about the Eddie Jordan firing business. Always remember that the recycled shabingus that is the NBA coaching carousel is filled with terrible candidates. Some horrendous re-tread (like Eric Musselman etc.) is not a better alternative. We have a guy that is good for our superstar in a mentoring capacity.

In most other NBA cities around the country, people are freaking out about their player rotations as well. I'd provide links but I'm astoundingly lazy.

The point is, there are really only a couple incredible coaches out there that can come in and make any team drastically better (Phil Jackson, Mike D'Antoni), then there are a few coaches that can win with great talent (Riley, Popovich, Avery Johnson) then there is everyone else (some are better (Flip Saunders, Sloan, Carlisle) than others (Doc Rivers) but most are crap (Mike Woodson, bernie Bockerstaff, Terry Stots, Isiah Thomas, Sam Mitchell, Dwayne Casey, Bob Hill, Byron Scott, Brian Hill, Doc Rivers, Mo Cheeks, Nate McMillan...all atrocious)

There isn't much out there people. So lets all take some 'calm it down' and realize that if you have a decent coach, the most important thing in the NBA world is for a coach to have some security so the players cannot tune him out and say: 'he'll be gone after this year so what do I care'. That is why E to the G locked up Jordan for the extension. Better or worse, they have to play hard for him and we can really see what we have.

That knowledge was free.

BK you got some misinformation about about my boy Lang, why don't you open your eyes instead of your mouth for a change? You better start servin up that potato salad cause you gonna be eatin bbq for lunch!! You see those passes vs Bulls? He got the nice stroke from the line, and he got nice touch down low he just gotta settle down which will come with pt. He needs some education, but the skills are there.

Agree I like Eddie, there isn't anything better out there anyway. If he gets off his Ruffin at center kick I got no gripes.

I hope those of you who responded to "Brendan" know that Brendan Haywood didn't actually make that post. I was asking a question and jokingly did it as Brendan. Who actually signs off "Signed, ..." Wow. What a crowd.

Go Tar Heels!

Don't drink the kool-aid!
Haywood is a pretty egotistical guy. No doubt. Actually all of them are.

If you would think and have observed Haywood - even on the bench - Ya gotta ask yourself.."If he doesn't pay his coach much attention then WHY IN THE WORLD DO YOU THINK HE'D CARE WHAT YOU SAY ON A FACELESS BLOG?

As in any organization, there is conflict but its the head of the organization that has to have the brains and balls to resolve not cover-up the conflict.
If the coach isn't disciplined himself & doesn't understand defense then he can't teach teach it.

Observe the methods of Jerry Jones & Bill Parcells, Avery Johnson, Jerry Sloan & Scott Skiles.
Ya mess up & keep messin up, can't contribute to a win? Hindering the win?
SIT DOWN.

It works cuz the "egos" hate sittin on the bench. Two big words..discipline & defense.

BK -- Thanks for the knowledge. I'm going to spend all week trying to figure out how to use the term "shabingus" in a meeting at work.

To the poster that "signed" Brendans name to his post, what a loser you are! Why would you do something like that and hang my brother out there like that. That was pretty crappy and childish. And if I were Brandon, I would be pissed because you made it look as if he wrote the post and not you. This blog is supposed to be for intelligent fans who have something to say. Not idiots playing games with peoples minds. What a loser you are!

On the other hand, he DID have the courtesy to actually sign SOMETHING. Unlike Blankman.

ivan, regards your last blog about kg. do you think wizards could get him with package of jamison, haywood, blatche and pecherov? deal works salary wise!

twolves get guys to help now (aj,wood) and future (dray and pech).

wizards provide kg w/ playoff team, major market, players coach and fun uptempo style.

wizards get a superstar player, and championship caliber team in weak east.

centers: etan, booth, lang
pfs: kg, dsong, ruffin
sf: caron, hayes
sg: deshawn, mason, taylor
pg: arenas, daniels

if needed we can include our 1st round draft pick, and rights to jcn as well.

that should get it done.

Opponents 3point field goal percentage = 40 percent. That't the equivalent of 60 percent shooting.

I'm all for "protecting the rim", but perhaps Eddie Jordan should be more concerned with the team's perimeter defense. The Guards need to get out on the 3point shooters and stop giving up wide open looks. If the guards had hand in the face to drop the opponent's shooting percentage on those 3pointers, the Wiz would have won some of those games that they lost.

I think the Wiz can live with Nowitzki, Iverson, Lebron and other "star" players making tough 2 point shots.. but if they want to win on the road, they gotta stop the other guys from killing us from the 3point line.

imagine arenas with kg!

a frontcourt of kg and caron!

bring dsong, jarvis and daniels off the bench!

this is a realistic and logical trade.
we should pursue this!

John: 'shabingus' is a gift for everyone. Use it well my son.

Darnell: your boy was not inactive for the first 10 games because he was good. He'll be inactive again when Ruffin is healthy enough to return. You should not metaphorically blow your load over some garbage minutes down 30 to the Bulls. On second thought, you must be right. Every scouting department of all 30 NBA teams was wrong and you have found the next superstar by watching him play 19 minutes against the Bulls...or was it the 57 seconds vs. the Hawks?

Step away from the bbq...put down the delicious side items...and slowly back away.

"...playing with peoples (sic) minds"? Where are you posting from? Your middle school's library? You're acting like a girl who found out the home coming king was kidding when he asked her out on a date. You're even ashamed to post a name because you realize you were silly to believe Brendan actually posted. I guess I gave you too much credit and I apologize for that. Next time I will add a winking smiley face.

BK, while I'll agree that the coaching candidates out there aren't the greatest, I'd throw Eddie right there in the mix with the Doc Rivers & Mo Cheeks of the world...he's no better than those guys.

And I really don't see the importance of providing security for a coach who probably doesn't deserve it.

As we have recently seen, the Wizards play isn't necessarily based on who far EJ can take them...but how far Gilbert will take them, at least with the way the roster is currently constructed. When Gil has issues, the Wiz have them too. So if Eddie is so good at "mentoring" star talent, he's losing a ton of value real quickly with Gil struggling badly this year on the road.

That's why I strongly disagree with the notion that EJ is somehow good for Gil (and have for a while). I think EJ pretty much lets Gil get away with anything. Whether it be allowing 3 horrible shots in a row, continued lax defense or just taking a passive approach in general in challeging Gil to raise his level play.

I've read in more than one article, where it mentions that Gil in his younger days (before he got to DC) excelled most when he was consistently pushed and prodded by his coaches. Gil's a bit stubborn...I think he needs direction, I'm not sure he's been getting that from Eddie...which is why in four years in DC, Gilbert's defense has not improved one iota.

Just curious, I notice a lot of poster seem to pick apart this team. There are other teams out there with the same tendencies, so I am wondering what would it take to make these "fans" find something positive to say and support the Wiz without constantly putting them down. It almost makes me think that they are not for the Wiz at all! I agree we have some work to do but I still maintain that we are just as good as a lot of the teams out there. It is not the Wiz's skills, it is their attitude. And I for one stand up for Jamison and am glad he is on our side.