First off I am a little pissed off Eddie Jordan gave Gilbert Arenas some fuel for his fire already:
Asked if he believes Arenas can be an effective leader, Jordan said,
“He’s capable of leading them in scoring. He’s capable of leading them as a competitive presence. That can be contagious. I’m not saying he can’t be, but I don’t know if he can be a leader.” ~ Eddie Jordan
Now if you think that was nothing, then you underestimated Gilbert Arenas and you probably just aren’t that competitive by nature.
Players eat that stuff up and use it for motivation (think Michael Jordan’s butally honest HOF speech). And Arenas can be a dominating player when he is healthy and motivated and really doesn’t need to be fueled. Especially when his defensive opposition (Lou) is as staunch as a wet paper bag.
I am hoping Iguodala is defending Arenas and chances are he will since Mike Miller is out 3-6 weeks with a torn calf muscle. The Wiz options at SG are Randy Foye, DeShawn Stevenson and Nick Young (who has been getting no burn). Either way Dala better be on Arenas.
On top of that, the Wizards know exactly what the Sixers want to do offensively
“Caron was telling me where to go. I just thought that was crazy. He was telling me where to go and I still ended up getting the ball. We know they know all the plays. We just want to go out there and try to execute and play defense because they can’t stop defense. They can’t know our defensive scheme.” ~ Thaddeus Young
I hear ya Thad. We all hear ya. But talk is for chumps and you will be charged with defending Caron Butler (if he plays, currently a gtd). Even if Butler doesn’t player Thad might have to deal with Andray Blatche who has been playing well and could kill Thad inside and on the boards. Thad, will you execute and play defense at a high level? You haven’t shown much of it to this point, why should we believe what you say? Show us!
I will be extremely curious to see how Brand handles Jamison on the perimeter and in pick and roll situation with an aggressive Arenas coming off the screen. That is a concern but a perfect opportunity for Brand to show he is really back.
Speaking of Brand, maybe it’s just me but this quote from Jordan just seems accurate or appropriate to me:
“He’s getting his numbers. Stats-wise, he’s improving. I still want to see him improve in the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet – his rotation, his transition defense, things that show up on the film, things that he and others have to improve upon.” ~ Eddie Jordan
Really? Look I don’t have the luxury of DVR or game tape. But it looks to me that Brand’s energy and effort are there on both ends of the floor. He is running in transition. Rebounding. Blocking hots and defending in the half court and has made a few plays defensively in transition after turnovers were made by the guards. He is probably the leader on defense right now as well with all his talking from the back line.
That quote just comes off real snide to me. Is he still trying to motivate Brand with negative comments? What do you think?
I’ll be here tonight chatting during the game.
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
Dannie, I think Jordan’s comments on Brand are just “tough love”.
Also, in other news, Wizards owner Abe Pollin died at age 85. He was born in Philadelphia surprisingly and had the guts to stand up to Michael Jordan once the Wizards struggled.
I hope the Sixers do get the win and Eddie Jordan’s motivation will most likely increase it up a notch tonight.
GO SIXERS!!
Dannie, what is your opinion about going against guys that know what you are running ? Does it really matter ?
I detest Eddie Jordan, and his support group. I wish there were a way he could be a DNCPD
He’s an arrogant jerk off who isn’t worth the paper his contract was written on. I hate him and ES for giving him this job. Most of us never wanted him and still won’t even if this team finds a way to score 120 ppg.
They’ll lose tonight I know it, and I’ll be pissed and feel like a loser for still being a fan.
No it doesn’t really matter and that’s usually always the case. When I was in college we knew what the other team was running, knew the play calls and had a practice, walk through and pregame to go over everything and commit it to memory.
This is a little different because the Wiz players lived it so they really know it.
But at the end of the day it still comes down to executing on:
If the Sixers are sharp it doesn’t matter. The question is will they be sharp? Will the Wiz players be reading the play better than the Sixers players?
In that case it will matter.
They played so well in the first 3 quarters in Cleveland that I think they could blow out the Wiz tonight. But EJ’s gotta keep the rotations short, I don’t mind not seeing Kapono tonight, and seeing either Bill Green or Ivey, but not both.
Thad has to deal with Jamison tonight. Butler out.
I wonder how they will match up with the guards, Young is 6-6.
Was it me or did it look like Eddie Jordan had braces on?
Zack – Correction, they got destroyed in the first quarter against Cleveland. Our starters came back against their subs at the start of the second quarter and was actually -1 when Cleveland’s starters came back in to finish the half. Third quarter was a good Sixers quarter and the fourth was a mess.
Lou on Arenas.
Iguodala bad college three is favorite shot.
Two disgusting jumpers from Iguodala to start.
Wiz are REALLY sagging off on the perimeter and going under all screens.
Thad is the most predictable offensive player with the ball.
They are really going to Nick Young on offense against out best defender.
Sam two nice jumpers.
Good start for Sam. Horrible start for Dala.
Strong play lou to sam. Can’t settle for outside jumpers.
dannie, ur right, trying to type fast
i wish iggy would defer to lou and thad on offense for the first half, don’t try to shoot your way out of slump
Small ball begins 3:49 mark in the first quarter.
Carney on Jamison is not a good match-up for us.
Gotta go home, but one last comment…
i hate how Jason doesn’t cock it back when he goes for a dunk, he goes straight up with arms extended like goofy superman; his release on that 3pt shot is getting faster and faster
again, i wonder if anyone on the team recognizes that Lou is playing really well (at least on offense), and i wonder if anyone thinks that maybe we should keep riding Lou until Washington does something about it; sometimes i think this team shares its field goal attemps a little too much
Why give Sam the ball in the post and not Brand? MY GOD, let Sam just be a catch and shoot 15 foot shooter on offense. I never understood why anyone wanted him to develop a post game. They were forcing something on him that he didn’t need and couldn’t handle.
Suede – If an offense like the P.O and Triangle are run properly, the opposing team can have played with the offense for 10 years straight and know every single wrinkle in it. Doesn’t matter because they are offenses designed with the purpose of improvising off of what the defense gives you, and it’s up to the players to read the defense properly, and have the right amount of chemistry to interact off each other and make smart cuts and screens based off whatever the current floor spacing is, and where defenders are.
EJ’s knock on Arenas – Giving Arenas fuel in his tank to go insane on your team is only a half rung shy of pissing off and doubting Iverson before a game. I can’t believe he went out of his way to say that…he needs to shut his mouth and go Popovich on that question (aka: ignore it and give a stoney stare). I’d be STUNNED if Arenas doesnt light up Sweet Lou in the 2nd half.
Iguodala just made the SINGLE WORST ENTRY PASS TO THE POST I have ever seen. Oh my freaking god.
Note to Sixers – Try playing some transition defense? At least make an attempt to pretend you know what transition defense is?
Thad Young – Completely wandered away from his man (Jamison) at the top of the key…to try and pester Arenas with the ball…and go for the steal…for FOUR whole seconds and three attempted swipes…while his man, Jamison, sat wide open at the top of the 3 point line…who then received the pass from Arenas and, becasue Thad was so late in recovering from where he shouldnt have been in the first place, waltzed into the lane for an easy shot. Where Sammy D didn’t rotate properly to help.
This was followed by Sam bricking a 5 foot shot from right in front of the basket with no defender near him.
Wow.
I find it amazing that Jordan has the balls to comment on Arenas abilities or lack there of to be a leader on the Wizards when he has no leader or even group of leaders that have established themselves on his own team. Oh and his team is filled with a bunch of heartless, me first, stat hungry, bums that don’t even resemble a basketball team. But by all means, bate the other teams best player. Good job Easy E. Idiot.
Jeez Brand hurt again.
At least Jrue is getting some run.
This is disgusting.
We are going to be talking about the draft soon.
Jrue is playing well right now leading the comeback.
Jrue Holiday – Beautiful feed to J Smith for a bucket.
EJ rotations – So the Wizards go big with the 7′0 Haywod, 6′11 Blatche, and 6′9 Jamison…and we leave Brand and Dalembert on the bench so Carney and Thad can guard their bigs?
Why bother? So they can totally miss the boat on next year’s lottery pick? Forget it. I’ll get interested again when Ed and Eddie are gone. I miss Pat Croce.
Leave Jrue in for the rest of the game!
I’ve only been watching the 2nd half…how did Brand get hurt, and is it bad?
Jrue is going off.
What, that doesn’t make sense to you Dave T? Because the ball coach seems to think its sound strategy.
Jrue with a classic “No no no…yes yes yes!!!” 3 pointer haha.
Break out game.
Don’t know about Brand wasn’t anything obvious. He left the game like a normal sub.
Sixers playing with fire with all these threes.
Just so we are clear, Jrue has 1 less point that Iggy in 23 less minutes and 7 points more than Brand in 21 less minutes.
Look at this late game line-up:
Wow.
This is by far the most excited game so far (really just quarter).
Needed that
FUCKING A…every time we work to get a basket we are just handing them a layup or dunk on the other end.
Big shot. Need to find a way to win this game.
Lou is unstoppable right now
Lou is attacking the basket and slithering through traffic very nicely this game…gorgeous finish that last play.
Sam’s best game of the season
Iguodala’s back. I swear if he shoots a fadeaway turnaround contested jumper like usual I am jumping out my apt window.
Iguodala should not touch the ball right now
shot to win, who takes it?
Damn, why did he settle for the jumper?
11 seconds plenty of time to make something happen going to the basket.
Antawn Jamison - I’m watching the local DC cable channel for this one…they just gave an after game interview to Jamison where he was speaking about Abe Pollin teary-eyed about how much the owner meant to him, always supported him from day 1, what a great man he was. Very moving.
Last shot – Lou waited WAY too long (until 6 seconds on the clock) to initiate any type of offense. Classic terrible NBA basketball of today’s game…one person stands at the top of the key and dribbles it around. Only one poorly set pick from Jason Smith…no one else moving around, no one else even involved in the play.
Lou spent the whole game phenominally attacking the basket, only to on the last play attempt a long distance jumper? Grrr.
Hopefully Jrue earned more minutes; the Jrue/L.Will. backcourt looked pretty good. Jason sure gives this team a lift and him and Sammy , defensive, are real active together.
Dannie, I caught the last 5 minutes, I saw that lineup and had the same exact reaction as you – WOW. I can’t wait to watch the archive of this game, was Jrue really that good? He didn’t do squat in those last 5 mins.
I was so extremely happy that Sam was in there at the end, did anyone else with League pass see how pissed off he was when we lost? He stormed off the bench and back to the locker room.
You know I’m the biggest Jason Smith fan, but that was dumb 3 that he took in the final ~3 mins, there was no shot there.
Dannie, please please please let the wrap-up be mostly about Jrue, it’s the same old same old with EJ’s screwy lineups.
To anyone else, what were your impressions of Mr. Holiday? I’m dying to know.
I gotta swallow some pride here – Lou may have turned a corner, I’m getting kind of excited for the possibilities. Like I said up top, I hope there’s some recognition of that corner-turning if he is, indeed, turning that proverbial corner and the players and organization adjust accordingly.
Jason Kapo-NO more, please. What can we get for this guy? How about for Adam Morrison straight up? Who cares if Mr. Moustache plays? Getting Jeff Foster also works but that leaves Indiana with just Roy Hibbert at center, and that would just be a horrible trade for them. In both cases, the Sixers take back less money, ka-ching!
Last note, for Mr. Iguodala – Andre, this team can win without you taking a lot of shots, please take it upon yourself to focus on other things you can do besides scoring to help this team succeed, be the man behind the curtain making everything go.
Nice late game surge by the Sixers, they showed true heart and grit for once this season. Even though they were losses this game and the Cleveland game, the Sixers have looked at least somewhat competant on Offense. Defense still a work in progress to say the least.
Lou’s offense is clickin and Thad seems to have removed his head from his ass. Sammy played with some real intensity that actually looked controlled at times(likely an anomaly). J. Smith seemed to want a pick & pop on the last play with little emphasis on the pick, but he also looked nice. Jrue’s performance hopefully sends Bill Green furthur into the depths of the bench. A better +/- than minutes played, nice game rook.
My Question…Iggy WTF? I know the J is shaky, but come on. And the thing is he was hitting his free throws 8/8. Iggy’s game sometimes baffles the mind
Zack, p.g. talk aside, L.Will. is night and day from last year, he just seems under control and steady; his effort defensively has gotten better but fundamentally he is offbalance a lot and still can!t avoid the screens but he is starting to hit his 3!s and becoming a very tough cover. I was disappointed in Iggy, and so was our coach I believe, in not just letting the guys hitting shots continue to be the focus, like he had to get his instaed of setting them up.
I was pretty discouraged watching this game. The 4th quarter was very exciting to watch, but lets keep in mind the “grit” and “gutty run” we made was from a completely unorthidox lineup without what are supposed to be our best two players (Brand + Iguodala) in the game. For our long term future, we need our prime times guys to learn how to click together. I’m not satisfied when Rodney Carney and Thad being our SF/PF combination are showing flashes. I want to see chemistry between Brand, Iguodala and Thad. Period.
I’m not satisfied that Lou has a nice game. He’s still a scorer and is more suited for a 6th man role that brings some kick off the bench. We’ve always known he can score, and I simply expect a player like him that has quickness and athleticism to slowly mature and show more consistency. I’m glad he is doing this…we are paying him $5 million dollars, he should be doing this. Great. So now that we still know he’s not a long term solution at PG, but can attack the basket well and show quickness…that brings us to our future PG of…
…Jrue Holiday. While it’s great Jrue scored 11 points in about 3 seconds time, there are a lot of players that can step in with no pressure and score in bundles when given the green light. Washington’s Nick Young and Marcus Thornton on NO being recent examples. Nate Robinson did this numerous times his rookie year, as did Aaron Brooks. It’s common for a rookie to exceed expectations and have wildly outrageous offensive nights. But in our case with Jrue, it means squadoosh. What we need to worry about with Jrue is not his scoring, but his ability to play POINT GUARD. We need to know if he is a long term answer of someone that can distribute the basketball, run plays, have a good IQ, and pass his ass off to orchestrate this team. This game showed he could bring some instant offense, and has some moxxy. That’s all well and good. Now let’s see him get some deserved minutes so he can prove he was worthy of our gamble with the 17th pick on a guy that can RUN our team.
ps.: If I sound cynical about Jrue I don’t mean to be. He played AWESOME, was THE reason we were back in that game, and he did show some great passing flair with a few great reads. I’m just saying…let’s not get all amped up about Jrue and that he’s arrived, yada yada…let’s see what he does as he gets more minutes and has to be relied on to lead and pass, and not just score or bail us out of a crappy situation when given the green light.
DaveT., until Thad can become consistant night in and night out, the decision on who becomes the 6th man isn!t decided. Both he and Lou are terrible defensively but unlike Thad, Lou has brought it down the other end all year. And with a big p.g. here an Iggy, Lou and Jrue trio will get a lot of burn in the near future. In fact Lou may be the better rebounder of the two.