Damn does Dylan Harper look like the real deal. Defends, finishes at the rim, elite athleticism and most importantly a walking bucket. I know, they played Wagner in their opener but I was high on him prior. Just putting this out here now that there is plenty of hope if we don’t win the pong balls.

Memphis I think was the clearest example of how our poor shooting hurt us.

You can look at the stat line and say “Memphis punished us in the paint,” but that does not tell the story. Memphis stretched us with JJJ, Wells, and Kennard hitting from beyond the arc, and then had easier lanes to get to the rim the rest of the game. This game would have been a much different story if our team was shooting better from beyond the arc. We shot a measly 25% from 3 pt land, with only two shooter hitting 2 or more, and only one of those 2 above 40%.

We can talk about our perimeter defense as well, which was woefully bad this game, everyone was able to get past our perimeter D, which did not allow our bigs opportunities to get there for help D. The D, however, has been there in previous outings (Sarr struggles defensively against bigger Centers, but everyone knew that would be an issue, so no major takeaway there other than young needs to bulk up if they want to play him at 5)

I think the biggest opportunity for growth, and what I hope to see the most as far as improvement goes, is shooting. We are 28th in the league beyond the arc this season. Kispert has disappeared in that category, Kyshawn finally showed up the past couple games but has been inconsistent, bub has been inconsistent, and Sarr has been poor the whole season. The only person propping us there is Poole, and frankly, he needs to take a lot more if he’s shooting at that efficiency, and then start seizing on drive/drive-and-dish opportunities.

If we get to 40-45 attempts with between 35-40% efficiency post all-star break, that would make us a totally different team. These are the steps I want to see the team take, and all-star break is probably massively rushing this kind of improvement, but offensively that’s the biggest gap we need to plug over the next couple years.

Not the best performance for Washington, which gets blown out by a undermanned Memphis squad. Wrote about Alex Sarr's defense and passing, Kyshawn George working his way inside and Kyle Kuzma's political statement.

Grizzlies, without Ja Morant (among others), still throttle the Wizards

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I got comped tickets to a wizards game that's coming up pretty soon, it's going to be in the fanduel suite, I've tried looking it up but I can't see any information on it, I see a youtube video about a suite FD has at the suns arena that looks suite, but I am wondering if anyone here has been to the one at capitol one, or if anybody has any info about it

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Listening to the Caps this Morning pod (only like 12 min, good listen) and apparently Ted has overseen some milestone of Caps victories (1000?) and they asked Spencer Carbery the caps coach about it and he had glowing praise for Ted and the organization that sounded sincere and informed (he was a minor league coach in the org before he became the big club coach). Just throwing this out there because a lot of us like to compare Ted's hockey operation against our Wiz Kids. Curious if anyone in NBA circles would say anything remotely similar...

EDIT for additional context. This was by no means an endorsement of Ted in any way, but an interesting data point that I think confirms our collective feelings about how he treats his kids:

Ted has owned the Cappies since 1999 so 25 seasons. 1000 wins = 40/season (a couple of extra playoffs have helped but plenty of early flameouts too). He is the 2nd fastest owner to achieve 1000 wins. Ovie obviously is a huge part of that. Results prior to Ovi were fairly tankesque/middling a la wiz. But overall caps are like top 5 in wins under his tenure.

Ted has owned the Wizards since 2010 (this is his 15th season currently). Record with the wiz in that time is 473-645. At the current pace it would take him ~30+ total seasons to get to 1000. To match the Caps pace he would have to average about 48-50 games for the next 10 seasons (napkin math). Would be nice!

I’m going to the game in Memphis tonight and I was wondering where the best place to try and get a Jordan Poole autograph would be. How early should I get there? Should I hang out by the away team tunnel? I also had seen that a good place to get an autograph is at their hotel but I don’t know when they would be leaving and arriving at the hotel or where they’re staying. Any tips would be awesome! I’m a big Poole fan and an autograph would be amazing if possible.

Getting concerned what their returns will mean for the Wiz kids and others in rotation. Add in Bey in January and we have a problem. Seeing what we have now, I think Kispert should potentially be on the block along with Kuzma. JV is growing on me and I love Brogdan, and we need a second center more than another guard at this point (never saw that coming). Can MBIII or PBJ be that guy? I have my doubts but probably value in not gutting all the vet leadership. Want to make sure Couli, Bub, 3shawn, and Sarr keep getting their minutes along with Poole.

Looking forward to seeing if Bilal Coulibaly and Jordan Poole current defense will be enough to lock down Ja Morant Friday.

Let's see if Sarr can hold Edey in check. Pretty exciting 😀

Any idea when these absolutely beautiful jerseys are gonna be on sale? Like this looks better than anything I’ve seen from them in my lifetime and I’m trying to get one.

It’s time to have a serious talk. Kuz just posted a very “thumbs-up” moment, and if you squint hard enough, that thumb screams MAGA energy. I mean, are we gonna let this slide?? After those old tweets surfaced, it seems like he’s ready to go full red, white, and…red state.

There’s only one logical move here: trade Kuzma to Boston (or, honestly, anywhere that’ll appreciate that “American spirit” he’s got going on). Think about it—Boston would love his dedication to the thumbs-up life. Plus, imagine the Celtics trying to absorb that Kuz swagger. It’d be the culture shock of the century, a real sabotage from the inside move.

In classic Wizards lore fashion, though, this is right on brand. First, we pay him; now, we ship him to a place where he plays like an allstar. Let’s see if we got the stones to make this “patriotic” move. 👀

Edit: For real though, who’s ready for Boston Kuz having a legacy game 3 in the NBA Finals?

Edit Edit: Does a Boston championship make Kuz the greatest to ever play for the Lakers & Celtics?