Washington Wizards Season Thread - Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here

[Methodical Management]

Scott Brooks right now:

 

[reformeDWS]

What are initial impressions of Advija?

 

[frshstunna]

What are initial impressions of Advija?

Solid all around game but he’s been way too passive...Being a rookie playing with Westbrook and Beal might do that to you tho

 

[mrtarheel]

I know it's just 4 games in, but I wouldn't be mad if they completely started over.

This is getting stale. And I don't believe a 32 year old Westbrook and Beal is gonna get us to the finals, or Eastern conference finals

 

[joe cool23]

As is tradition:

I just think we stink

-Michael Jordan, 2001

 

[madj55]

Will the Wiz ever not be a poverty franchise?

 

[uncalled4boy]

Might Be In Contention For Worst Team In The League This Year.

 

[jking0821]

So you guys want to reconvene after we actually win a game?
Some team is going to take Bartens from us. He is an actual quality shooter that can really help a good team.

 

[frshstunna]

So you guys want to reconvene after we actually win a game?
Some team is going to take Bartens from us. He is an actual quality shooter that can really help a good team.

If the Wiz can get a top 3 pick, flip Westbrook for anything and get a solid return on Beal that’s all the W’s the team needs this season

 

[Methodical Management]

Will the Wiz ever not be a poverty franchise?

Not with Ted Leonsis as the majority owner.

Struggle ownership, struggle franchise.

So you guys want to reconvene after we actually win a game?
Some team is going to take Bartens from us. He is an actual quality shooter that can really help a good team.

The way he played tonight, they can have him.


These rotations make no sense. Does Brooks not know how to pronounce Isaac Bonga's name? He let him start the first and third quarters in the first four games, but couldn't call his name at all tonight - when he's supposed to be your defensive specialist and the team's giving up 35 points per quarter to a Bulls squad decimated by COVID protocol.

Minutes should be determined by situation and performance, not salary. Neto should get time over Smith. Wagner deserves time over Lopez. Bonga should be getting Troy Brown's minutes with Rui back.

Bertans had no business coming back into this game in the fourth quarter. We were -18 with him on the floor. He didn't have it tonight, and we needed STOPS. Why he hoisted up an off balance, contested three with 10 seconds still left on the clock is beyond all reason.

 

[uncalled4boy]

Tonight’s Game Was Pretty Brutal To Watch.

Schedule Is Tough Coming Up. This Could Get Really Ugly The Next Few Weeks.

 

[Sonny Corinthos]

Trade Beal to the Knicks

 

[joe cool23]

1-5

 

[jking0821]

first game i missed this year was the only W so far

 

[joe cool23]

Aw shucks!!!

2 game winning streak...

2-5

 

[uncalled4boy]

Aw shucks!!!

2 game winning streak...

2-5

*Tosses Confetti*

 

[joe cool23]

Yo,

This straight up might be the high point of the whole season

 

[joe cool23]

 

[frshstunna]

Best win of the season

 

[Methodical Management]

You have to give this team credit for their fight. They’ve hung in there so many times after falling down by 10+ to give themselves a chance down the stretch. The rotations are still exasperating, but it’s nice to see some signs of progress.

Can we get a new announcer so I can enjoy these W’s? I’m sick of hearing this little dork shout “konnichi wa” and “shalom” every time Rui and Deni dunk the ball. Why no “guten tag” for Wagner or Bonga? Half the team was born outside of the US, doofus. Get over it.

 

[uncalled4boy]

Five Wins In A Row...

 

[jking0821]

don't care that they had no AD....that was a good win

 

[Public Enemy]

Hawks fired Pierce. What are the chances the Wizards let Brooks go any time soon?

Certainly they're on a good stretch right now so I can't see it happening unless they have a string of losses equally as bad as these were good.

 

[Methodical Management]

Hawks fired Pierce. What are the chances the Wizards let Brooks go any time soon?

Certainly they're on a good stretch right now so I can't see it happening unless they have a string of losses equally as bad as these were good.

If we go by Leonsis' track record, the odds are that he'll let Brooks finish out his contract.

They will absolutely NOT pay two high profile coaching salaries simultaneously. If we do get a coaching change, it would only be to elevate Tony Brown to the top spot to finish out the year as interim head coach - progress by any measure, but not the wholesale change that many fans are hoping for.


I'm not at all surprised that the Hawks and Timberwolves apparently had higher expectations for the year than the Washington Wizards. Ted pays lip service to "high standards," but he kept Ernie around literally for decades.

Actions speak louder than words and, in the case of the Washington Wizards, that sound ringing in your ears is loose change rattling around in Ted's piggy bank. This has been one of the stingiest franchises in the league for a long time, and we're unlikely to ever be title contenders so long as that remains true.


I touched on this in a recent season preview:

As a whole, the NBA's thirty teams raked in $5.9 billion in revenue last season. This summer, the Houston Rockets sold for a record $2.2 billion. Yet somehow, despite revenue sharing, nine teams still claimed to take losses last year. The Wizards, of course, were one of them.

The competition between the lines is surrounded by a competition outside of them. For the sake of fairness, the NBA helps losing teams compete in future seasons through its draft system and salary cap. Through revenue sharing and monopolistic regional exclusivity, the league also helps bad organizations compete in spite of themselves.

If a player can't hack it on the court, they're left to ply their trade overseas. If an organization can't compete, they're propped up by the league itself. As hometown fans, we're stuck with them, as we are regional cable companies.

Can it really be considered a competitive failure for bad organizations to consistently fail - or is the league's true failing that all thirty franchises are insulated from their own failures?

Would making the business of basketball "idiot proof" truly result in better competitive balance?

What is a greater anathema to competition: for the best teams to receive the best talent via free agency, often at reduced cost, and thus perpetuate dynastic success, or for the worst organizations to be indemnified from their ineptitude, like AIG, Equifax, or Bank of America? Competition is a sham in a society where the likes of Eric Trump inherit, rather than earn, wealth and power.

The NBA has attempted to create a bubble of fairness in an unfair world, a gyroscopically stabilized level playing field. While the league can limit the salaries of its brightest stars, it cannot govern their earnings outside of basketball. Similarly, while the league can ensure that no other viable professional franchise can compete with the Wizards regional monopoly, fans in 193 countries have no geographic rooting interest. Why should fans in Cleveland cheer for the Washington Generals when they face the Harlem Globetrotters? Why should fans in Shanghai cheer for the Washington Wizards when they play the Golden State Warriors?

The concentration of capital has become a perverse form of fiscal entropy. The league has found no meaningful way to counteract the cumulative competitive advantages conferred by wealth, and attempts to ensure the success of organizations despite the incompetence of their respective owners run contrary to the principles of competition.

The Wizards are, in essence, being priced out of a city helped gentrify. When Leonsis first invested in the team, he did so as a tech darling of the time. Now one of the league's poorest billionaires, Ted's "Monumental Sports" empire and its streaming media efforts seem as quaint by contemporary standards as his predecessor, Abe Pollin's, "family business" model for the team was in the 80's and 90's.

But there is still hope for the least of us. A decade ago, the Warriors were roughly the Left Coast counterpart of the Wizards. Small market teams are increasingly able to amass a global following through sustained excellence. Lesser owners have been undoubtedly tempted by Donald Sterling's golden parachute, and Ted Leonsis, now crying poverty, could easily alleviate his alleged financial woes by flipping a franchise valued at $550 upon its purchase in 2010 for upwards of $1 billion today. To that end, Laurene Jobs purchased 20% of the team this summer. At this rate, all of the league's teams will soon be owned by one of four mega-corporations in a decade or so anyway. Is that a future worth rooting for?

In today's NBA, the rich get richer - and if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

 

[Public Enemy]