SB Nation User Blog: hotplate

Start Nick Young?

hotplate — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:04:07 -0000

OK, Its early to start stirring the pot, but how long should we wait? Slow starts have been a problem thus far during the season and preseason. Without Gilbert and Haywood, there's been a lack of firepower starting off games thus far. The one player who has exceeded expectations has been Nick Young. He's shown the ability to create and hit his own shot and seems to be playing in control for the most part. Is it time to move him to the starting lineup? Its tough playing most of the game 10 down and having Nick in the lineup could open things up for Caron and Antawn from the opening tip.

The reason that I'm bringing this up so early in the year is that Comcast Sportsnet showed an interesting graphic last night. Currently, Tayshaun Prince has a streak of over 300 consecutive games started. This leads all active players. Number 2 is Deshawn Stevenson who has STARTED 243 (or so) consecutive games. So making this change will involve much more drama for Eddie Jordan than the usual lineup switch. Does Eddie have a plan for moving Nick Young into the starting lineup? Would Deshawn accept the demotion in a non-disruptive manner? Is it the right move? Too soon to tell?

My own feeling is that if the streak weren't involved, I would give it a try. But since the streak is involved, I don't know how I would handle it. There's potential for drama and pouting which could hurt the team. So I'm glad I'm not a coach. But Eddie needs to do something to get us more than 18 first quarter points.

Wizards Season Ticket Deal

hotplate — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:39:37 -0000

I apologize that this will read like a Wizards press release. Its not. It just a deal that I don't think many people are aware of.

Just want to make sure that all in the DC area are aware that the Wizards have a season ticket deal for $16 a ticket for an upper deck seat this year. I've been buying them for 5 years now and its the best deal around. I'm not a Wizards sales person, but I'd love to see more true Wizards fans at the game. The total price comes out to about $650 and at that price they are easy to sell (if you can only go to a few of the games). Face value on them is $48 (I think). The best part is that once you're a season ticket holder, they treat you like a vip even though you bought the cheap seats. You have your own account rep and get invitations to pre-game happy hours, an open practice, and things like that.

Here's the link:

Season Tickets

Deshawn, I apologize

hotplate — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:10:59 -0000

Its not quite year end report card time for our roster but I want to clear my conscience as soon as possible. I was against resigning Deshawn Stephenson. While I wasn't a Juan Carlos Navarro backer, I felt that we could replace Deshawn with a better shooting journeyman for cheaper. I was disappointed in the cost and length of Deshawn's new contract.

I WAS WRONG.

Deshawn is a good player who fits in well with this team. His 3 point shooting has been a revelation to me. And his play has been the key factor in turning a possible loss into a win in at least 5 or 6 games this year, with his 3 point shooting and/or defense.
Most importantly, the guy is a Professional. Like AD, Antawn, and Caron, he appears to take the game and his craft seriously. I love the toughness that he and AD bring to the court. Spraining his ankle yet not missing a game is macho. I love that he's challenging Lebron and Ray Allen. Its the kind of toughness that we've lacked in previous years. And his beard is twice as good as Drew Gooden's.
Deshawn, you're earning your money. Your contract is completely appropriate. Your contributions to this year's team have been huge.
I apologize and promise to sing your praises loudly in all future Wizards discussions.

Impressions from section 417 vs. Zalgiris

hotplate — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:14:00 -0000

[editor's note, by Pradamaster] Seeing as how I wasn't there, this will act as the postgame thread. Thanks to hotplate for sending in his thoughts. -PM

General impressions of the game from my vantage point in the upper deck:

Evidently there are Black people in Lithuania, although they all seem to have shortened their names. The starting guards were named Dujuan Collins and Marcus Brown. And a key substitute was named Tanaka Beard. Collins in particular, had a good game.

Andre Blatche is the MAN. I am amazed at how mature his overall game seems to be. He seems like he can be one of the rare players whose very appearance on the floor leads the entire team to play better. He shot well, made several nice passes, made a couple of nice defensive plays, and started a couple of nice fast breaks after taking down the defensive rebound. But more than that, he seems to have great court awareness and to be a genuine presence on the floor. I heard radio man Glenn Consor compare him to Danny Manning, but I'd like to go back further for a comparison. He reminded me a bit of my namesake, John Williams (later nicknamed "Hot Plate"). Taller and thankfully much skinnier. Williams did everything well except perhaps shoot. He could influence the game without scoring. When Williams was on the court, the team's offensive spacing and ball movement was much better than when he was off. I think that Blatche could have similar impact and it may be as soon as this year.

Dominic McGuire had at least 4 assists. These were all excellent passes that led directly to an easy layup or dunk. He really sees the court well. In 2 years, he and Blatche could be an amazing tandem with their all around skillz.

Pecherov is too enamored with his jump shot. He shoots every single time that he has an open look from the 3 point line. He missed them all tonight. He needs to realize that one reason he has that open shot is that the opponent doesn't particularly mind him taking it.
Butler played a solid game including a dunk in which he sent a Lithuanian defender into the goal post.
Haywood also was solid and showed a lot of hustle.

I hate myself for it, but I find myself doing a "Donnell Taylor watch" as soon as he comes on the floor. I check the score in order to track his plus/minus which I know is going to be a minus. I start counting the number of missed shots and turnovers. I see how quickly he can pick up fouls. He had a rough start during the first half although he settled down when AD came into the game. His second half showing was uneventful, but I think the potential is there for him to become wildly unpopular with the fans.

The Wizards promotion staff led by the annoying man at the mike Chris Stiles and mascot G-Wiz/GMan seemed genuinely annoyed by the presence of a large contingent of very enthusiastic Lithuanian fans. The fans were seated in 2 lower level sections behind their team's bench and were all clad in green. They cheered and chanted throughout and didn't appear concerned that their team was losing. From my distant vantage point they seemed very good natured and looked like they would be fun to hang out with. But during 1 time out, G-Wiz went over and got one of the green Lithuanian t-shirts. He then tossed it on the ground, stomped on it, picked it up and pretended to use it as toilet paper, and then tossed it back down on the ground and stomped on it about a dozen more times. He continued this for about 30 seconds after the game resumed. I thought that he might be doing this in fun, but once he was finished, he simply walked off the other side of the court rather than return to the Lithuanian section and hanging out. It seemed mean spirited, humorless, and almost offensive. Had he engaged in a t-shirt exchange and sat amongst the fans clowning around, he would could have gained new fans for the 'zards. Similarly, Stiles and the promotions crew carefully avoided those 2 sections during the t-shirt tosses and the give aways. During one t-shirt toss, Stiles said into the mike "Don't make me go there" referring the the Lithuanian sections. Honestly why not act like HOSTS and practice sportsmanship? These fans were cheering for their national team. They don't play in our league and don't directly compete with the Wizards. Its not like they were rooting for the Cavaliers. They knew their team was going to lose but stayed cheerful throughout. Instead of ignoring them, the promotions group should have lavished special attention on them. Give them extra t-shirts. It seems like it would be good business and kind of cool to have people in Vilnius wearing Wizards t-shirts. Why not have G-Wiz sit among the fans and party with them for a time out? Why not have a brief interview with one of the fans? Just petty and short sited. I was very surprised as the Wizards public relations seemed to have really improved over the years.

Its not the defense

hotplate — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:10:58 -0000

Guess I'm getting tired of all of the moaning and groaning about improving our defense. Yes, we play lousy defense. But when I watched the games that we lost, I was always much more frustrated with the offense.

There were major stretches where we couldn't score. While it is often said that the Wizards have major firepower and "can score", if you look closely, you'll see the firepower consists of the Big 3 and the only time any of the others could score was on the fast break. As I watched the losses, I noticed that there were very few 125-121 losses. Instead most were of the 95-89 variety. In other words, it wasn't the defense letting us down, it was the offense.
So I decided to take a look at the numbers and see if this was in fact true. Since the team ended at 41-41, the comparisons between wins and losses was easy. Here it is:
In 41 wins, the Wizards averaged 112.7 points. The opponents averaged 103.4
In 41 losses, the Wizards averaged 96.0 points. The opponents averaged 106.3.

So the difference in points allowed between wins and losses was only 2.9 points per game.
The difference in points scored between wins and losses was a whopping 16.7 points per game.
The defense, such as it was, was consistent. It was the offense that proved to be the determining factor.

Our most successful month was December. Our record was 12-4. Did we play better defense? I'm not sure. I do know that in those 16 games, we gave up 1772 points for an average of 110.75 per game.
Contrast that with April in which we went 3-8. In that month our opponents averaged only 101.2 points per game.

In December, I stayed up until 2 AM on work nights to watch the west coast swing. In April I had no interest in watching the team and couldn't give my tickets away.

We lost the games in which we couldn't score points. If defense truly was the problem, would we have floundered when Jamison went down? Truth is, the drop off in offense was far greater than the improvement on defense . We need more guys who can shoot and more guys who can score. We should not attempt to become the Pistons. Our guys can't play that way and its awful to watch. I'd love to have Lee Humphrey come in and take Roger Mason's spot. His defense probably will be awful. But for 12 minutes a game, he can stand out at the 3 point line and catch passes from Gilbert after a drive or on a break and draiin the 3. I love the idea of Nick Young starting alongside of the big 3, hitting mid range jumpers and finishing on the break. I hope O Pec's jumper is as sweet as they say and that Blatche can clean up all of the garbage underneath while converting a bunch of highlight reel dunks trailing on the fast break. I'd love to have JCN coming off of the bench providing some scoring punch. This is how we'll win games. Not by becoming the Pistons Lite. And it will be a lot more fun.