After Elton Brand and the Sixers dumped the Wizards for the third time in a month last night, reports are coming out of the Capitol that they have fired coach Flip Saunders. Interim Coach Randy Wittman (father of Ryan Wittman, who starred on the Cornell team that beat Temple in the NCAA Tourney a few years back) will take over and reports of Albus Dumbledore taking over are unfounded. There's no question that, at 2-15, Flip hasn't been doing a terrific job coaching these guys, but at the same time, they haven't given him the most cohesive unit to work with either.
The firing comes off the heels of a 20-point loss to the Philadelphia Sixers on Monday, the Wizards' third straight. Washington ranks 27th in the league averaging just 88.65 points per game. Their 99.29 points against per game ranks 26th.
Yes, it's quite ugly there. I'm more worried about what switching coaches will do to a young John Wall, who already is lacking for stability in his life. Much of the time the coach gets scapegoated on account of management assembling a bad team, but this time it seems like both. Yes, the Wizards are terrible, but there's talent there and theoretically, a "good coach" should be able to get more out of them.
Either way, the Sixers are in part responsible for this. At the very least, they could have let these games be somewhat close - beating them by over 21 points per game was pretty damn inconsiderate. I think has repayment, we should give them back Eddie Jordan. Does re-gifting apply in coaching changes?
0 recs | 17 comments
I was driving to lunch today Neato Burrito btw and the egotistical jackwagon that is Colin Cowherd was on the radio and he mentioned that Flip was fired and he said that any coach whose team is down to the Sixers by 30 points at any part of a game should be fired.
Now I am not one to make the Sixers out to be more than what they are but curb stomping bad teams is sort of their thing now.
EREX21 - January 24, 2012
You have to understand these are people talking about basketball who dont actually watch basketball. They dont pay attention to standings and they certainly dont follow the sixers. If they do all of those things and still make comments like that i wiuld be shocked.
jefu - January 24, 2012 via mobile
Oh I wasn’t shocked. He does watch basketball, or so he says. But like most people usually only watch their team and a handful of the elite teams and since the Sixers aren’t elite they are easily ignored. That and they haven’t beaten anyone good yet.
EREX21 - January 24, 2012
I actually prefer it if all the talking heads continue to discount the Sixers. Makes for no shortage of bulletin board material.
BrandonB - January 24, 2012
Agreed.
EREX21 - January 24, 2012
No team should ever be down 30 points at any point in any game to the Sixers.
So there.
dweebowitz - January 24, 2012
what about
all the other teams that have been down 30 to the Sixers this year? While I respect realists like Levin, you are just a curmudgeon
Dan Pearson - January 24, 2012
Get off my lawn!!
dweebowitz - January 24, 2012
(damn kids have no respect) mumble grumble…
dweebowitz - January 24, 2012
<3
Michael Levin - January 24, 2012
really though i read your posts and while you obviously understand the game you are clearly still jaded by the Jordan season. I don’t blame you, it was awful, but this was a team that was a 7-8 seed before getting an awful coach and dropping off the map. Collins immediately took it back where it was before, and its added a couple pieces.
There are many imperfections in Andre Iguodala, but to underrate him as a player as you is borderline criminal. Iggy’s critics are right, on a championship team, he isn’t the #1 player on the team, and he is on these Sixers. But its not like Iggy isn’t an ideal #2. If the Sixers had the Elton Brand who played for the clippers, a double double machine who could average 23 a night, free up Jodie Meeks for wide open threes, etc. we’ed be in business. As it is they have a few good pieces (I’m not sold on Holiday, and I’d be willing to trade him for the right price while inserting Turner at PG) and while they aren’t elite yet, they can make the leap if they play their cards right.
Dan Pearson - January 24, 2012
Really don't get all this Turner at PG stuff.
From what I’ve seen Turner has show two very very good skills – rebounding and getting to the basket (I’d take picking up And-1s as well, but he’s been so good at it lately that I’m waiting to see if its a bit of a fluke and he regresses). He’s also pretty good at finding an open man or a cutter on his drives. But if you notice, when he has the ball we run his offense, rather than the team’s offense. The distinction is that in the Team Offense the ball moves back and forth all over the court, whereas in the Evan Offense he drives the ball in and looks to score or kick to an open man. He also’s great at grabbing a board and streaking down court. But so far its been mostly a 1 man fast break that generally ends with a jump shot at the foul line. I have yet to notice him making particularly good or any passes in this situation – no Magic in him yet. In a PG I’d rather have a player that is good at and learning to facilitate our Team Offense. Evan hasn’t really shown a natural inclination towards this and right now I’d prefer him to continue putting together his own game, rather than worrying about managing the rest of the team.
J.P.Melle - January 25, 2012
Sixers DO suck and Cowherd IS right. Here’s how Cowherd breaks it down:
(Sixers) – (superstar) + (lack of “quality wins”) + (booing Santa Claus) + (cheesesteaks)
= sucky NBA basketball team
Philadelphia fans simply have an inferiority complex. It’s not personal, it’s just Cowherd’s unbiased opinion as an “expert” who has no skin in the game. The fact he doesn’t watch much basketball doesn’t have anything to do with it. When will you people learn!
/sarcasm
dp - January 24, 2012
I really like that you used “curb stomping”. An apt expression.
Michael Levin - January 24, 2012
Thank you.
EREX21 - January 24, 2012
It’s OK. We understand. It was a short trip, so you didn’t want to muss around with playing MP3s. And as bad as sportstalk can be, radio DJ’s aren’t much better. We all make mistakes. Pray that listening to Colin Cowherd for a few minutes is your worst. No need to go on about what he said…it’s probably best if we just ignore him. Don’t worry, there’s still lots to talk about. Over here is a discussion about Jrue Holiday. The bad man can’t hurt us here. It’s a safe place.
nyunole - January 24, 2012
Djax10 - January 24, 2012
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