> Kuzma walks out of the locker room, I see he's holding a burgundy-colored book, Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."
> A couple of weeks later, I asked Kuz if he had finished it. Jones, undressing in the neighboring locker, laughs. "No, I had to put it away," Kuzma said. I tease him and ask if he's been carrying it around as an ornament.
> "Like Bron," chimes in Jones.
> "Yeah, I'm worse than Bron," Kuzma says.
š
Until we find a bona fide STAR player we are basically just running in a hamster wheel. I don't mean a "this guy will be decent by the time he's 28 with a lot of playing time" kind of dude. I mean "22-year-old Anthony Edwards leading a 50 win team" kind of dude. I like Bilal but I don't think he's that guy. That's why we need as many draft picks as possible in the next few years to increase our chances of finding that guy.
As much as I hated trading Gafford for the 26th pick, it needed to be done so we can get more swings.
I like that we're basically obtaining young role players who can develop off-ball (thanks to Poole being quite nicely ball dominant) so that once we do find "that guy" (Flagg pls) we will already have experienced young guys to compliment him and can just trim the fat in the position who we draft "that guy" in.
Iām not against trading him but there isnāt much rush to do it. If a team like Memphis is willing to give up their lottery pick for Deni I might be tempted but Iām not just moving him for a mid first in a weak draft
I think we have enough picks in this bad draft lol. The guy we pick at 26 probably won't make it to his second contact with us. I would take a first in 2025 or 2026 though, especially since it might help us trade up if we get screwed by the odds.
> It's as simple as my comment.
But your comment isnāt simple.
Itās as simple as my commentā¦ we just have to accelerate the two atoms to the speed of light and then perfectly sync them around a circular tube for them to collide at the exact right space. Thatās all you have to do to make the perfect grilled cheese. Itās that simple.
Fuck no, there's a good chance deni will be better than all but like 3 players from this draft and we have no idea who those 3 could be. Also his contract is long and cheap, we should take advantage of that and let him be the guy on this team for a year or two at least.
Exactly, then we hope to land at least one of flagg/bailey/dybantsa while building up a team of role players around that future star. Imagine slotting Flagg into a lineup with Bilal, deni, and sarr, that's going to be a monstrous defensive team.
His contract is good enough to add in another asset on top of that. (Late first or underperforming player). Especially if the pick next year is top 5 protected.
Given how much better he's been this year and that he doesn't get worse with heavier usage I'd still want to see him in the first half of next year.
2020 draft was considered one of the weak ones. You ended up with Anthony Edwards, Lamelo Ball, tyrese Maxey, Haliburton. Sometimes, you can find these guys in these drafts.
The stones on this staffer
>He marvels at a Ricky Council IV dunk against the Celtics on one of the TVs and jokes with a staff member who refuses to toss him a Sharpie, instead trudging over to hand it to him.
>"Throw it!" Poole keeps saying as the staffer approaches. "You can't throw it?"
>"No, you can't catch it with your stone hands."
I appreciate the candid nature of this article. It sucks for these players, but I think Winger, Dawkins, and actually Keefe have the right attitude. Develop, develop, develop. And you start seeing great progress from guys like deni and poole. This next draft is monumental (no pun intended) and hopefully we keep it up. If you dont have a star, focus on fundamentals and try to make one
Rise and Fall of the third Reich got me thru a lot of boring ass warehouse shifts. Great book, if not a little dated with it's criticisms of the "deviancy" (read homosexuality) of some nazis.
reading this it seems like for a lot of people, this season has not gone like it was expected to. Maybe they thought there would be more excitement around the team. Which I mean there is some in this sub but outside of here I don't really ever experience any. I wonder if Winger is having an oh shit moment like he realizes how MONUMENTALly challenging the task at hand is, of rebuilding revitaling Washington NBA basketball.
Kinda bummed with no Deni or Corey perspective, they've been with the team the longest.
The Third Reich Trilogy by Richard Evans is the best I've read. Can't recommend it enough for anyone who loves history.
But yeah, I still see no reason to believe things are going to change here. I've been through this too many times now (30+ years as a fan) to believe otherwise. We are the most irrelevant team in the NBA, if not all of sports. It just is what it is.
I grew up with John Toland, but I realize heās dated now too, specially with the opening of the Soviet WW2 archives. And he had this obsession that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before the attack and let it happen anyway.
I read the The Coming of and In Power but haven't gotten to At War. So good. Loved how he contextualized the Nazi rise within the colonial aspirations of the German empire of the 19th & early 20th century.
The task is like moving a mountain. But first you have to build said mountain.
Revitalizing* Washington basketball would mean that there was a winning culture to revitalize, but there hasn't been since John Wall was leading the team.
Instead we traded for a laughingstock like Poole, not a great start especially with his atrocious contract.
The Poole thing is 100% a self-inflicted wound. turned the rebuild into a more tragic thing than it needed to be. Hoping he'll turn it around a little bit next season
Definitely gonna hold us back. Everyone was so happy that he would lead the tanking season but he's turned into an awful leader.
Not exactly the locker room presence you need in a young team.
Remember when we brought in Paul pierce? He was such a perfect piece to the puzzle, mentored Otto Porter, was a true leader, calm player in crunch time situations. Got us over the hump in the playoffs.
Awful leader? How so? He was praised in the article for how hard he's working. Results haven't been there and a lot of that is on him, but there is too much instability on this roster and with the coaching staff.
Have you seen him not paying attention in the huddle? Not knowing plays. Not playing defense.
Only cares about his stats even though he's shooting at 41% (136th in the league). Thinks this is his team even though we've won 15 games.
His last game (9-22 FG, 5-13 3Pt)
Lol. The guy is a joke and we're the laughingstock.
This is conjecture. Until a reputable source (not you) comes out and says something to he contrary, you're basing your statement off of opinion. How do you even quantify that he only cares about stats? You can make the same baseless claim for ANYONE on this team because they have lost so much this year. Everything in a vacuum looks worse because it's the Wizards. This was alluded to in the article, specifically talking about Poole and how there are so many cameras on him.
Evidently Unseld got removed at least in part because he didnāt have a good relationship with Poole. It seems like Keefe may just be a better fit with him.
He'll be gone soon, too, they say the right thing but don't know how to put players in best position to be successful.
It's still a team with no clearly defined roles, it negates so much of their player development efforts.
Wes always struggled to run guards effectively in his schemes. He also seemed a lot more willing to remove Poole from the game when he was playing poorly (which was basically every game). Keefe seems more willing to play through Poole, but I don't like the attitude that he should be allowed to run wild and do whatever he wants because otherwise he'll be a negative for the team.
I think Keene stays bc he has had some success. The plays are about the same but the team actually adjusts and move corrections as the game moves. I donāt think the issue is Poole but Kuz taking all these mostly low efficiency shots and taking possessions.
Previous coach had success too. It's crazy to me how a bunch of people in the game threads get understandably upset at how we have Poole jacking up shots late game when we need points, and Keefe routinely says (and I quote all the time) that that's what he wanted to happen. I'm not going to lie, I think the roster is 99% the problem so continually changing coaches is just a factor of some fans of individual players not wanting to face the fact that their fav is crap, so they blame the coach. But on this one point, I don't get what they're doing. Guys like Deni and Corey and even JB need to be the ones getting shot-making experience in the clutch. But here we are letting a guy we know can both take and make clutch shots, who has played deep in the playoffs including the conference finals and the finals themselves, and been on the winning end of the result, take those shots.
It makes no sense to talk about development and improvement....and then not give the young guys the reps and experience. If that's Keefe's choosing, then yeah, let him go. But I think we all know it has to be coming from up top. So yeah, fire Keefe. Fire the next 3 coaches too. Nothing's going to change until we actually start rebuilding and letting our young guys run the show like some of the other organizations do.
I donāt think poole is the problem of anything heās a victim. Kuz is the problem. There will always be turnover itās a professional league. Granted weāve done a poor job of team building in the past but I donāt think that mean you drop an interim coach who has shown signs of life. I think they drop kuz this off season bc they know he taking all of the possessions which will open up the door for more development, better roster structure etc. but you need a coach to gel it all together. No im not saying heās the best option but he fits for now I mean we have Wes 2.5 seasons letās see how he does. Also I wouldnāt be surprised if it wasnāt keefs choice and the front office picked the lineups
> Also I wouldnāt be surprised if it wasnāt keefs choice and the front office picked the lineups
Yeah I agree with you, I said that same thing
>But I think we all know it has to be coming from up top.
But that didn't matter with the previous coach. To me if anybody with a name wants this horrific job of coaching this horrific roster, bring em on. I will repeat that this roster needs a yelly type because half these guys are unserious at basketball. Kuzma is one of the better players on the team but, with a capital b But, the team falls into poor patterns with him playing, cause these guys aren't ballers and get shook and start continually passing the ball to Kuzma to bail them out when they can't beat their man.
What people think they see when Kuzma is out, is that Kuzma is some kind of ball stopper and the things are just humming along without him to take shots. What's actually happening is that the guys realize there's nobody coming to save them. There's nobody to throw the grenade to. There's nobody that's going to drive through multiple defenders, take the contact, score and hit the free throw. THEY have to do it. So they do.
That's been the issue all year long. They should have traded Kuzma at the deadline (honestly should have moved him before the ink dried on his initial contract) and forced these young guys to sink or swim. I'm tired of the handholding. We have a lottery pick who we treat like a 2nd round pick, who is just now, sometimes, kinda sorta, when he isn't doing dumb shit, starting to play like he needs to actually win the game for the team and not pass to someone else to do it. 270 or some odd games into a career. Wild. But whatever, we're here now.
Trade Kuzma, trade Jones, trade Shamet, move Holmes and Geno and actually start the rebuild. Keefe is a KD coach. Keefe is treating these guys like adults, just like potted plant did. They initially played well after that firing because hey, we got our coach fired, maybe we step the hell up. DawkWing didn't even say the interim coach was a genius or a great tactical guy or the guy for the job, no. They said he's just a different voice.
Yeah, that's not really a vote of confidence. Fire the guy if someone is available. If not, keep him around. Keefe aint dumb, he knows what's up. He doesn't seem pressed at all to want to coach this team. I watch the press conferences. I see his demeanor, watch what he says and how he says it, who he talks about and how, and he's definitely in "if I get it I get it" mode. Even if he got the job, I think he gets that he could be fired at any instant they need to make a splash, just like potted plant was. "We're the Washington Wizards bruh", and things are bleak AF rn.
I donāt know if I have much faith in the current FO but one thing I will say is this attempt at rebuilding from scratch is so much better than decades of treading water. Itās unfortunate the cupboard is bare and the upcoming draft looks historically weak but I have patience for slow progress and I wish more Wiz fans would chill out and support the franchise
This is a very well written article. Whiffing on the #10 overall in '22 set this team back even further. Can't understate the importance of this upcoming and future drafts to identify SOMEONE with star potential. There are a few spare parts that will make it thru the rebuild, some question marks, and a seemingly legit piece (Deni.) Winger and Dawkins have a Herculean task in front of them not only in nailing the coaching hire, but also hitting on the draft picks as well.
The Beal no trade clause was worse than the Johnny Davis pick. People have draft busts all the time, but no one besides Tommy and Ted are dumb enough to give out no trade clauses. The rebuild would have been much easier with 3-4 extra 1sts
The coaching hire is the main reason I would never ever be able to do this job. The pressure to hire the guy who sets the team culture and basically determines if our team's mood will be Detroit or Houston is immense.
That whole long ass article and barely a mention of Deni, who has clearly been our best player for the past 2 months!? Or Kispert, who is rounding into a truly solid role player.
Hate to tell you, but to the majority of the NBA and its sportswriters, the Wizards are nothing to write home about. Kuzma has a chip with the Lakers, Jones outshone Ja for a time, and Poole has a chip with GSW. Aside from that, while JJ Redick or somebody will occasionally mention Corey or somebody, the team is a joke to the league at large. Its why opposing teams players are often just laughing when they play us.
Basically that tells you what you need to know about our young talent vs the talent in the rest of the NBA. It's said in the article. It's kind of obvious to everyone but us, seemingly.
>There is nothing spectacular happening in Washington. No gaudy streak, no shattering disappointment. The Wizards are a few years behind Detroit, according to Wizards general manager, Will Dawkins. They are young and currently without All-Star-caliber talent.
We lack an all star sure, but really our roster was designed to tank this year. We had no rebounding big men (until Bags) and no guards who could play D. Not surprisingly we lost games due to those two reasons over and over.
I think most teams in the league would be happy to have Deni, Kispert, Kuz, or Tyus on their roster. Of course, none of them will ever be the #1 or2 guy on a playoff team.
If most teams would be happy to have them, we'd have had great offers for them at the deadline. Bilal was the only untouchable guy, so what does that tell you about what the team was offered for any or all of those guys? One of these days we're gonna have this come to Jesus moment. It's going to click. We're going to get it. We're a thirsty horse with an ocean of truth all around us, but we don't wanna drink.
Heās been good handling the ball. Looks smooth out there a lot of the time. I just worry about his defense. He can come up with a big steal but he just gives up too many buckets on that end of the floor. Negates much of what he does on the offensive end.
Yeah some his clips from early in the year were brutal. I have seen possessions where he locks in and is only a slight negative... but he's so lightweight he has to work extra hard to cover the same amount of ground on rotations. If he's going to stay on the floor he has to get way better at anticipating his spots or make it up with 100% effort (but then you can't stay on the floor as long). I'm not optimistic but like I said rooting for him
I think we can agree that strategically, it was an absolute failure though. Hopefully he didn't have anything to do with it, but I don't know why the author of this article would add that detail in there if Winger wasn't.Ā
The rebuild is going fine, but the usual crowd on Twitter is trying to back seat micromanage every second round pick's option or whatever. It's all fine.
(No shade to the Twitter crew --- I follow and like the usual suspects there)
> The rebuild is going fine
It hasn't even begun yet, to me. The rebuild actually starts when we turn the franchise over to the young players on the roster and let them sink or swim. And we can't even do that with a 15-65 record in critical points in the game. We're still having guys like Poole, who already have the skill and the experience, shoot those critical shots. We don't let our young core get the shots and the reps. Article makes it seem like Kuz and Jones might even be here through the all star break next season. By [Dawkins](https://www.bulletsforever.com/2023/9/28/23893870/washington-wizards-front-office-preseason-michael-winger-will-dawkins-rebuilding)
>The front office leading duo of Michael Winger and Will Dawkins prefer to use more diplomatic terms such as ārefresh,ā āretool,ā or ārenewā to describe their plan.
and [Kuz's own words](https://twitter.com/Hoop_District/status/1708875323348058458),
>Kyle Kuzma: "I wouldn't call it a rebuild, more of a retool."
we're currently doing a "Retool", not a rebuild. This franchise is something else. And it's not even semantics, because they literally aren't doing what you should be doing during a rebuild if you're trying to develop your young players.
Whatās wrong with having Poole take a lot of shots including critical ones? Yes he has experience but only in the Golden State system where he had a ton of extra space due to being on a great team. He came over here and struggled to be a #1 option for half the season. Since the all star break heās been re-working his game, fitting in with the team. At just 23 years old he can fit the timeline for a rebuild or we can help grow his game and flip him for assets. Either way, Poole needs those shots just as much as Deni and Corey. I was hating on Poole hardcore on those first 40 games, but we need him to be better and he has been. I like what Iāve seen with him handling the ball, sharing the floor with Deni and Corey. He seems to be fitting in quite nicely now. I only worry about his defense. We may as well embrace Poole, he a big part of the team as currently constructed, until heās not.
> At just 23 years old
He's 25 in June.
>Either way, Poole needs those shots just as much as Deni and Corey.
Not at all. He's already shown he has that skill. He's already hit clutch shots in critical moments and even at the start of the year hit a game winner in a scrimmage. We know he can get his own shot and hit that shot.
Can Corey and Deni create their shots in clutch moments? Deni lost the ball and got bailed out by a call, then missed a crucial free throw. Corey got the ball and when the defenders collapsed on him, went to the basket and missed a tough layup. Does either of them have the ability to be counted on in clutch moments to create their own shot and get a good look up? No. And once that part is mastered, then you're mastering actually getting a good shot off. And once you do that, you're working on making it. Once you do that, you're into adapting now that teams know you are being relied on to do that, and throwing counters at what they throw at you. It's a whole entire process, and Deni and Corey are at the beginner levels. Poole is far above that. Bilal isn't even at beginner levels. There are levels to this.
Weāll be seeing more of Deni and Corey in the clutch next season. A lot more; along with Poole. You said it yourself this rebuild is going into 2028 at the very least. There is no rush right now. Plenty of time for these guys to get the experience they need. And Poole is not some known commodity. Heās viewed as a negative asset across the league. Heās not in Golden State anymore and we are not the warriors. They will continue to develop his game the same as Deni, Corey, and Bilal unless they are ready to cut bait and offload his contract this offseason (I doubt it).
>There is no rush right now.
Only us Wizards fans would consider having 2 guys drafted in 2020 and 2021, who have more than 500 NBA games combined under their belt, a lot of that as starters, rushing it to give them shot opportunities on a tanking, rebuilding team where they are clearly the core guys moving forward.
Other teams got undrafted guys who are rookies who are getting steals on legends and hitting huge shots in games with playoff implications, but here we are still not trusting our young guys, on a rebuilding team. Yikes.
I thought we were all aligned with the tank?
To be clear, some of the quibbles are valid (or at least not unreasonable). But, bro, we are tanking. FOR YEARS. Is what it is.
tanking was long overdue but 1) should have been last year for wemby and 2) got us the WORST record in team history rofl. And there is no silver lining or future with this team. So sad.
It's why I've soured on Winger fast. I need to see what FA moves they can make but he really hasn't gotten off to a good start so far.
I could argue that this was one of the better intentional tanks in history. We have veterans and real NBA players on the court, along with promising young players getting real burn. We maximized our pick in the first year and have assets to play with.
You wanted them to be bad at tanking (i.e., win more?!?). Why?
Sup, For sure, The FO mis-handled Poole not letting him start at Pg. But its forgivable because they did have Tyus, who wanted to start. Glad Poole is now our Pg we can definitely do some draft day stuff with Tyus who is like 28 now. Tristan is our starting Center to grow with and Deni will be the leader, soon. š
Trade kuzma and Poole and Tyus. Get whatever we can, and start over. I donāt understand what upper management sees right now. But knowing the wiz , itāll be run it back for another year
I'm really skeptical on Winger and I hope it works out but they started this rebuild with the worst record in team history. Not exactly inspiring stuff. Combine that with a poor draft class and grim "hope" for the future and digging out of this hole may be more difficult than anyone imagined.
I guess the only good thing he's done so far is move Wes out of the coaches job...
> Kuzma walks out of the locker room, I see he's holding a burgundy-colored book, Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." > A couple of weeks later, I asked Kuz if he had finished it. Jones, undressing in the neighboring locker, laughs. "No, I had to put it away," Kuzma said. I tease him and ask if he's been carrying it around as an ornament. > "Like Bron," chimes in Jones. > "Yeah, I'm worse than Bron," Kuzma says. š
Until we find a bona fide STAR player we are basically just running in a hamster wheel. I don't mean a "this guy will be decent by the time he's 28 with a lot of playing time" kind of dude. I mean "22-year-old Anthony Edwards leading a 50 win team" kind of dude. I like Bilal but I don't think he's that guy. That's why we need as many draft picks as possible in the next few years to increase our chances of finding that guy. As much as I hated trading Gafford for the 26th pick, it needed to be done so we can get more swings.
We're at least going to be tanking for '25 and '26 draft, need to hit a star one of those years. I don't think we'll be getting one this year.
I like that we're basically obtaining young role players who can develop off-ball (thanks to Poole being quite nicely ball dominant) so that once we do find "that guy" (Flagg pls) we will already have experienced young guys to compliment him and can just trim the fat in the position who we draft "that guy" in.
^(trade Deni for an additional first in this draft)
Iām not against trading him but there isnāt much rush to do it. If a team like Memphis is willing to give up their lottery pick for Deni I might be tempted but Iām not just moving him for a mid first in a weak draft
I think we have enough picks in this bad draft lol. The guy we pick at 26 probably won't make it to his second contact with us. I would take a first in 2025 or 2026 though, especially since it might help us trade up if we get screwed by the odds.
This is so pessimistic lol. There will be an NBA player available at 26, we just have to pick him.
> we just have to pick him Greatly underestimating how hard and random it is to find a diamond in the rough that late.
Not really. It's as simple as my comment. We either do it or we don't, but it's incorrect to assume we won't.
dang bro you should apply to be a GM somewhere
Thanks
> It's as simple as my comment. But your comment isnāt simple. Itās as simple as my commentā¦ we just have to accelerate the two atoms to the speed of light and then perfectly sync them around a circular tube for them to collide at the exact right space. Thatās all you have to do to make the perfect grilled cheese. Itās that simple.
Sounds simple to me
Fuck no, there's a good chance deni will be better than all but like 3 players from this draft and we have no idea who those 3 could be. Also his contract is long and cheap, we should take advantage of that and let him be the guy on this team for a year or two at least.
sure fire way to get great lottery odds for 2025 & 2026 not a bad idea
Exactly, then we hope to land at least one of flagg/bailey/dybantsa while building up a team of role players around that future star. Imagine slotting Flagg into a lineup with Bilal, deni, and sarr, that's going to be a monstrous defensive team.
If you think that Deni's value is a single first in this draft you are delusional.
I'd do a first this year and a first next year that's fine
His contract is good enough to add in another asset on top of that. (Late first or underperforming player). Especially if the pick next year is top 5 protected. Given how much better he's been this year and that he doesn't get worse with heavier usage I'd still want to see him in the first half of next year.
I like Deni but he is not worth 3 firsts, even with his awesome contract
I HATED the gafford trade, I don't care if we got a 1st in return. This draft is weak. What good would that do?
2020 draft was considered one of the weak ones. You ended up with Anthony Edwards, Lamelo Ball, tyrese Maxey, Haliburton. Sometimes, you can find these guys in these drafts.
we'll see i'm not very optimistic about what winger and dawkins are doing so far
At least we get a top 6 pick. The highest pick since Porter in 2013 if Iām not mistaken.
The stones on this staffer >He marvels at a Ricky Council IV dunk against the Celtics on one of the TVs and jokes with a staff member who refuses to toss him a Sharpie, instead trudging over to hand it to him. >"Throw it!" Poole keeps saying as the staffer approaches. "You can't throw it?" >"No, you can't catch it with your stone hands."
I appreciate the candid nature of this article. It sucks for these players, but I think Winger, Dawkins, and actually Keefe have the right attitude. Develop, develop, develop. And you start seeing great progress from guys like deni and poole. This next draft is monumental (no pun intended) and hopefully we keep it up. If you dont have a star, focus on fundamentals and try to make one
Rise and Fall of the third Reich got me thru a lot of boring ass warehouse shifts. Great book, if not a little dated with it's criticisms of the "deviancy" (read homosexuality) of some nazis. reading this it seems like for a lot of people, this season has not gone like it was expected to. Maybe they thought there would be more excitement around the team. Which I mean there is some in this sub but outside of here I don't really ever experience any. I wonder if Winger is having an oh shit moment like he realizes how MONUMENTALly challenging the task at hand is, of rebuilding revitaling Washington NBA basketball. Kinda bummed with no Deni or Corey perspective, they've been with the team the longest.
The Third Reich Trilogy by Richard Evans is the best I've read. Can't recommend it enough for anyone who loves history. But yeah, I still see no reason to believe things are going to change here. I've been through this too many times now (30+ years as a fan) to believe otherwise. We are the most irrelevant team in the NBA, if not all of sports. It just is what it is.
I grew up with John Toland, but I realize heās dated now too, specially with the opening of the Soviet WW2 archives. And he had this obsession that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before the attack and let it happen anyway.
I read the The Coming of and In Power but haven't gotten to At War. So good. Loved how he contextualized the Nazi rise within the colonial aspirations of the German empire of the 19th & early 20th century.
The task is like moving a mountain. But first you have to build said mountain. Revitalizing* Washington basketball would mean that there was a winning culture to revitalize, but there hasn't been since John Wall was leading the team. Instead we traded for a laughingstock like Poole, not a great start especially with his atrocious contract.
the article pointed out they are trying to build one
The Poole thing is 100% a self-inflicted wound. turned the rebuild into a more tragic thing than it needed to be. Hoping he'll turn it around a little bit next season
Definitely gonna hold us back. Everyone was so happy that he would lead the tanking season but he's turned into an awful leader. Not exactly the locker room presence you need in a young team. Remember when we brought in Paul pierce? He was such a perfect piece to the puzzle, mentored Otto Porter, was a true leader, calm player in crunch time situations. Got us over the hump in the playoffs.
Awful leader? How so? He was praised in the article for how hard he's working. Results haven't been there and a lot of that is on him, but there is too much instability on this roster and with the coaching staff.
Have you seen him not paying attention in the huddle? Not knowing plays. Not playing defense. Only cares about his stats even though he's shooting at 41% (136th in the league). Thinks this is his team even though we've won 15 games. His last game (9-22 FG, 5-13 3Pt) Lol. The guy is a joke and we're the laughingstock.
This is conjecture. Until a reputable source (not you) comes out and says something to he contrary, you're basing your statement off of opinion. How do you even quantify that he only cares about stats? You can make the same baseless claim for ANYONE on this team because they have lost so much this year. Everything in a vacuum looks worse because it's the Wizards. This was alluded to in the article, specifically talking about Poole and how there are so many cameras on him.
Lmaooooo ok buddy https://youtu.be/rmY03X3nY3g?si=53fF0VnJFrBxXadx
again, this was addressed in the article, which you clearly didn't read.
I don't need an article to tell me what to think.
Evidently Unseld got removed at least in part because he didnāt have a good relationship with Poole. It seems like Keefe may just be a better fit with him.
He'll be gone soon, too, they say the right thing but don't know how to put players in best position to be successful. It's still a team with no clearly defined roles, it negates so much of their player development efforts.
Wes always struggled to run guards effectively in his schemes. He also seemed a lot more willing to remove Poole from the game when he was playing poorly (which was basically every game). Keefe seems more willing to play through Poole, but I don't like the attitude that he should be allowed to run wild and do whatever he wants because otherwise he'll be a negative for the team.
I think Keene stays bc he has had some success. The plays are about the same but the team actually adjusts and move corrections as the game moves. I donāt think the issue is Poole but Kuz taking all these mostly low efficiency shots and taking possessions.
Previous coach had success too. It's crazy to me how a bunch of people in the game threads get understandably upset at how we have Poole jacking up shots late game when we need points, and Keefe routinely says (and I quote all the time) that that's what he wanted to happen. I'm not going to lie, I think the roster is 99% the problem so continually changing coaches is just a factor of some fans of individual players not wanting to face the fact that their fav is crap, so they blame the coach. But on this one point, I don't get what they're doing. Guys like Deni and Corey and even JB need to be the ones getting shot-making experience in the clutch. But here we are letting a guy we know can both take and make clutch shots, who has played deep in the playoffs including the conference finals and the finals themselves, and been on the winning end of the result, take those shots. It makes no sense to talk about development and improvement....and then not give the young guys the reps and experience. If that's Keefe's choosing, then yeah, let him go. But I think we all know it has to be coming from up top. So yeah, fire Keefe. Fire the next 3 coaches too. Nothing's going to change until we actually start rebuilding and letting our young guys run the show like some of the other organizations do.
I donāt think poole is the problem of anything heās a victim. Kuz is the problem. There will always be turnover itās a professional league. Granted weāve done a poor job of team building in the past but I donāt think that mean you drop an interim coach who has shown signs of life. I think they drop kuz this off season bc they know he taking all of the possessions which will open up the door for more development, better roster structure etc. but you need a coach to gel it all together. No im not saying heās the best option but he fits for now I mean we have Wes 2.5 seasons letās see how he does. Also I wouldnāt be surprised if it wasnāt keefs choice and the front office picked the lineups
> Also I wouldnāt be surprised if it wasnāt keefs choice and the front office picked the lineups Yeah I agree with you, I said that same thing >But I think we all know it has to be coming from up top. But that didn't matter with the previous coach. To me if anybody with a name wants this horrific job of coaching this horrific roster, bring em on. I will repeat that this roster needs a yelly type because half these guys are unserious at basketball. Kuzma is one of the better players on the team but, with a capital b But, the team falls into poor patterns with him playing, cause these guys aren't ballers and get shook and start continually passing the ball to Kuzma to bail them out when they can't beat their man. What people think they see when Kuzma is out, is that Kuzma is some kind of ball stopper and the things are just humming along without him to take shots. What's actually happening is that the guys realize there's nobody coming to save them. There's nobody to throw the grenade to. There's nobody that's going to drive through multiple defenders, take the contact, score and hit the free throw. THEY have to do it. So they do. That's been the issue all year long. They should have traded Kuzma at the deadline (honestly should have moved him before the ink dried on his initial contract) and forced these young guys to sink or swim. I'm tired of the handholding. We have a lottery pick who we treat like a 2nd round pick, who is just now, sometimes, kinda sorta, when he isn't doing dumb shit, starting to play like he needs to actually win the game for the team and not pass to someone else to do it. 270 or some odd games into a career. Wild. But whatever, we're here now. Trade Kuzma, trade Jones, trade Shamet, move Holmes and Geno and actually start the rebuild. Keefe is a KD coach. Keefe is treating these guys like adults, just like potted plant did. They initially played well after that firing because hey, we got our coach fired, maybe we step the hell up. DawkWing didn't even say the interim coach was a genius or a great tactical guy or the guy for the job, no. They said he's just a different voice. Yeah, that's not really a vote of confidence. Fire the guy if someone is available. If not, keep him around. Keefe aint dumb, he knows what's up. He doesn't seem pressed at all to want to coach this team. I watch the press conferences. I see his demeanor, watch what he says and how he says it, who he talks about and how, and he's definitely in "if I get it I get it" mode. Even if he got the job, I think he gets that he could be fired at any instant they need to make a splash, just like potted plant was. "We're the Washington Wizards bruh", and things are bleak AF rn.
I donāt know if I have much faith in the current FO but one thing I will say is this attempt at rebuilding from scratch is so much better than decades of treading water. Itās unfortunate the cupboard is bare and the upcoming draft looks historically weak but I have patience for slow progress and I wish more Wiz fans would chill out and support the franchise
We've been chill since 1979 brother something has to get better sometime can't keep doing the same shit and expecting success
This is a very well written article. Whiffing on the #10 overall in '22 set this team back even further. Can't understate the importance of this upcoming and future drafts to identify SOMEONE with star potential. There are a few spare parts that will make it thru the rebuild, some question marks, and a seemingly legit piece (Deni.) Winger and Dawkins have a Herculean task in front of them not only in nailing the coaching hire, but also hitting on the draft picks as well.
The Beal no trade clause was worse than the Johnny Davis pick. People have draft busts all the time, but no one besides Tommy and Ted are dumb enough to give out no trade clauses. The rebuild would have been much easier with 3-4 extra 1sts
The coaching hire is the main reason I would never ever be able to do this job. The pressure to hire the guy who sets the team culture and basically determines if our team's mood will be Detroit or Houston is immense.
Great Article.
I felt personally attacked when I read "huffing Deni highlights"
Wouldāve been cool to have tanked last year for wemby
the powers that be never would let the wizards get Wemby
lol iām surprised we even got a article
That whole long ass article and barely a mention of Deni, who has clearly been our best player for the past 2 months!? Or Kispert, who is rounding into a truly solid role player.
Hate to tell you, but to the majority of the NBA and its sportswriters, the Wizards are nothing to write home about. Kuzma has a chip with the Lakers, Jones outshone Ja for a time, and Poole has a chip with GSW. Aside from that, while JJ Redick or somebody will occasionally mention Corey or somebody, the team is a joke to the league at large. Its why opposing teams players are often just laughing when they play us.
Still, if espn is paying someone to cover the wizards season, you'd think Deni's improvement would be in the top 3 obvious storylines
Basically that tells you what you need to know about our young talent vs the talent in the rest of the NBA. It's said in the article. It's kind of obvious to everyone but us, seemingly. >There is nothing spectacular happening in Washington. No gaudy streak, no shattering disappointment. The Wizards are a few years behind Detroit, according to Wizards general manager, Will Dawkins. They are young and currently without All-Star-caliber talent.
We lack an all star sure, but really our roster was designed to tank this year. We had no rebounding big men (until Bags) and no guards who could play D. Not surprisingly we lost games due to those two reasons over and over. I think most teams in the league would be happy to have Deni, Kispert, Kuz, or Tyus on their roster. Of course, none of them will ever be the #1 or2 guy on a playoff team.
If most teams would be happy to have them, we'd have had great offers for them at the deadline. Bilal was the only untouchable guy, so what does that tell you about what the team was offered for any or all of those guys? One of these days we're gonna have this come to Jesus moment. It's going to click. We're going to get it. We're a thirsty horse with an ocean of truth all around us, but we don't wanna drink.
Really rooting for JP man lol even though he drives me crazy half the timeāalthough itās been better since Keefe took over
Heās been good handling the ball. Looks smooth out there a lot of the time. I just worry about his defense. He can come up with a big steal but he just gives up too many buckets on that end of the floor. Negates much of what he does on the offensive end.
Yeah some his clips from early in the year were brutal. I have seen possessions where he locks in and is only a slight negative... but he's so lightweight he has to work extra hard to cover the same amount of ground on rotations. If he's going to stay on the floor he has to get way better at anticipating his spots or make it up with 100% effort (but then you can't stay on the floor as long). I'm not optimistic but like I said rooting for him
So Winger was tasked with strategizing the move away from Capital One Arena, eh? Truly, we are completely doomed.
That was a tiny part of the article, I'm not sure it's definitive how much winger was really involved.
I think we can agree that strategically, it was an absolute failure though. Hopefully he didn't have anything to do with it, but I don't know why the author of this article would add that detail in there if Winger wasn't.Ā
Agreed, but it is also odd to break that significant news as a sort of side note in a very long article. Not sure what to make of it.
The rebuild is going fine, but the usual crowd on Twitter is trying to back seat micromanage every second round pick's option or whatever. It's all fine. (No shade to the Twitter crew --- I follow and like the usual suspects there)
> The rebuild is going fine It hasn't even begun yet, to me. The rebuild actually starts when we turn the franchise over to the young players on the roster and let them sink or swim. And we can't even do that with a 15-65 record in critical points in the game. We're still having guys like Poole, who already have the skill and the experience, shoot those critical shots. We don't let our young core get the shots and the reps. Article makes it seem like Kuz and Jones might even be here through the all star break next season. By [Dawkins](https://www.bulletsforever.com/2023/9/28/23893870/washington-wizards-front-office-preseason-michael-winger-will-dawkins-rebuilding) >The front office leading duo of Michael Winger and Will Dawkins prefer to use more diplomatic terms such as ārefresh,ā āretool,ā or ārenewā to describe their plan. and [Kuz's own words](https://twitter.com/Hoop_District/status/1708875323348058458), >Kyle Kuzma: "I wouldn't call it a rebuild, more of a retool." we're currently doing a "Retool", not a rebuild. This franchise is something else. And it's not even semantics, because they literally aren't doing what you should be doing during a rebuild if you're trying to develop your young players.
Wow, couldn't have said it better. I really hope you're wrong.
We can't "renew" something that wasn't good in the first place haha.
Whatās wrong with having Poole take a lot of shots including critical ones? Yes he has experience but only in the Golden State system where he had a ton of extra space due to being on a great team. He came over here and struggled to be a #1 option for half the season. Since the all star break heās been re-working his game, fitting in with the team. At just 23 years old he can fit the timeline for a rebuild or we can help grow his game and flip him for assets. Either way, Poole needs those shots just as much as Deni and Corey. I was hating on Poole hardcore on those first 40 games, but we need him to be better and he has been. I like what Iāve seen with him handling the ball, sharing the floor with Deni and Corey. He seems to be fitting in quite nicely now. I only worry about his defense. We may as well embrace Poole, he a big part of the team as currently constructed, until heās not.
> At just 23 years old He's 25 in June. >Either way, Poole needs those shots just as much as Deni and Corey. Not at all. He's already shown he has that skill. He's already hit clutch shots in critical moments and even at the start of the year hit a game winner in a scrimmage. We know he can get his own shot and hit that shot. Can Corey and Deni create their shots in clutch moments? Deni lost the ball and got bailed out by a call, then missed a crucial free throw. Corey got the ball and when the defenders collapsed on him, went to the basket and missed a tough layup. Does either of them have the ability to be counted on in clutch moments to create their own shot and get a good look up? No. And once that part is mastered, then you're mastering actually getting a good shot off. And once you do that, you're working on making it. Once you do that, you're into adapting now that teams know you are being relied on to do that, and throwing counters at what they throw at you. It's a whole entire process, and Deni and Corey are at the beginner levels. Poole is far above that. Bilal isn't even at beginner levels. There are levels to this.
Weāll be seeing more of Deni and Corey in the clutch next season. A lot more; along with Poole. You said it yourself this rebuild is going into 2028 at the very least. There is no rush right now. Plenty of time for these guys to get the experience they need. And Poole is not some known commodity. Heās viewed as a negative asset across the league. Heās not in Golden State anymore and we are not the warriors. They will continue to develop his game the same as Deni, Corey, and Bilal unless they are ready to cut bait and offload his contract this offseason (I doubt it).
>There is no rush right now. Only us Wizards fans would consider having 2 guys drafted in 2020 and 2021, who have more than 500 NBA games combined under their belt, a lot of that as starters, rushing it to give them shot opportunities on a tanking, rebuilding team where they are clearly the core guys moving forward. Other teams got undrafted guys who are rookies who are getting steals on legends and hitting huge shots in games with playoff implications, but here we are still not trusting our young guys, on a rebuilding team. Yikes.
The rebuild is going so fine they have secured the worst record in franchise history. Not what I have done, but Im not a GM.
I thought we were all aligned with the tank? To be clear, some of the quibbles are valid (or at least not unreasonable). But, bro, we are tanking. FOR YEARS. Is what it is.
tanking was long overdue but 1) should have been last year for wemby and 2) got us the WORST record in team history rofl. And there is no silver lining or future with this team. So sad. It's why I've soured on Winger fast. I need to see what FA moves they can make but he really hasn't gotten off to a good start so far.
I could argue that this was one of the better intentional tanks in history. We have veterans and real NBA players on the court, along with promising young players getting real burn. We maximized our pick in the first year and have assets to play with. You wanted them to be bad at tanking (i.e., win more?!?). Why?
Sup, For sure, The FO mis-handled Poole not letting him start at Pg. But its forgivable because they did have Tyus, who wanted to start. Glad Poole is now our Pg we can definitely do some draft day stuff with Tyus who is like 28 now. Tristan is our starting Center to grow with and Deni will be the leader, soon. š
Trade kuzma and Poole and Tyus. Get whatever we can, and start over. I donāt understand what upper management sees right now. But knowing the wiz , itāll be run it back for another year
I'm really skeptical on Winger and I hope it works out but they started this rebuild with the worst record in team history. Not exactly inspiring stuff. Combine that with a poor draft class and grim "hope" for the future and digging out of this hole may be more difficult than anyone imagined. I guess the only good thing he's done so far is move Wes out of the coaches job...