President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of change. His campaign slogan was "Change We Can Believe In". Washington's professional football and basketball teams have endured some changes in the past year - changes we didn't believe would happen and most recently changes we didn't see coming.
The change we didn't think would happen.
Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs decided to retire again in January. After an exhaustive search owner Daniel Snyder decided to hand the coaching reigns over to a man with no NFL head coaching experience, Jim Zorn. Not much was expected of the Redskins this season, yet they are tied for second place in their division with a 7-4 record. Those seven victories include road wins over Dallas and Philadelphia. With all the change around Redskins Park one thing has remained the same. The Redskins formula for winning is still the same as it was during the Gibbs regime. Run the ball on offense, stop the run on defense and win the turnover battle.
The change we didn't see coming.
Washington Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was the longest tenured coach in the NBA's eastern conference. After a dismal 1-10 star to the NBA season, the Washington Wizards fired Eddie Jordan today. Some would say that Jordan's dismissal is justified based on the Wizards record and uninspired play. They would say that the Wizards should not have lost to a Knicks team with only eight players dressed last Saturday night. And I would agree with all of that.
I do not believe however that firing Jordan will fix what ails the Wizards. If you take two starters [Arenas & Haywood] and a key reserve [Antonio Daniels] off any NBA team that team is bound to struggle. If those two starters are the team's best offensive and defensive players...well, then you have the Wizards. You need to look higher up the food chain to determine what ails the Wizards. Ernie Grunfeld is the person responsible for assembling the talent or lack thereof on this team. Ernie Grunfeld gave a $111 million contract to a player [Gilbert Arenas] that has played about twenty-two games in the past 18 months. Ernie Grunfeld re-signed Antawn Jamison for $50 million over four years. Ernie Grunfeld signed Andrae Blatche to a contract extension. But Ernie Grunfeld still has his job.
If I asked you to bake an apple pie but gave you all of the ingredients except apples could you bake the pie? Eddie Jordan was like a chef without all of those ingredients. What he had without Arenas and Haywood is the crust. It's a shame that the players didn't put forth more effort for him. Jordan had more succes with this franchise than any other coach in the past 20 years.
Ed Tapscott is a short term fix for a long term problem. He has no NBA head coaching experience. The Wizards presently have no salary cap room and won't for many years unless some trades can be made.
As the leadership in Washington, DC changes from Democrat to Republican and experienced to inexperienced Washington sports fans can only hope that the changes they didn't expect continue and the changes they didn't see coming lead to a new start.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Washington Sports - Changes We Didn't Count On
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Redskins Stuck in Neutral
A season that started off so poorly, then began to look promising has suddenly begun to look like so many recent seasons for the Washington Redskins. The burgundy and gold's offense has been stuck in neutral the past five weeks averaging a paltry fourteen points per game. The defense has been outstanding during the same period, yielding only sixteen points per game.
What's wrong with the offense? Where shall I start? The play calling is unimaginative. You can't keep calling screen passes if you don't stretch the field first by throwing deep passes. You can't keep running draw plays on second and long. You can't even call a deep pass route if your offensive line can't pass block although not every sack is the O-line's fault though. Jason Campbell tends to hold the ball too long and the 2nd and 3rd string running backs don't pass block well.
The offensive woes cannot be traced to a single issue. It's a combination of predictable play calling and poor execution. After ten games, the league has plenty of film on Jim Zorn's offense. In the NFL teams will keep doing the same thing until you prove you can stop it. The Redskins can expect opposing defenses to apply heavy pressure on Jason Campbell and play tight press coverage on the receivers until he proves he can complete some long passes.
The Washington Redskins fans can expect a once promising season to end again without a playoff berth if the offense doesn't begin to pull its weight. The time is now with six games remaining, four of which are against teams with little hope of making the playoffs. Hopefully coach Jim Zorn will take his foot off the brake, put the Redskins' offense in gear and drive them into the playoffs.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wizards Need Some Magic
Word out of D.C. is that Wizards head coach Eddie Jordan is planning to shake things up. I say shake 'em like a martini Eddie. Once again, this talented team is off to a slow start. The Wizards started the 2007-2008 season 0-5 and currently own an 0-3 record, good enough for last place in the Southeast Division. The Wizards were expected to miss Gilbert Arenas aka Agent Zero games played, but who thought they would miss Brendan Haywood? Say what you want about Haywood but all he did last season was have a career year, playing solid basketball at both ends of the court consistently. Jordan has decided to start Etan Thomas at center this season and while I love Thomas' passion for the game and aggressive style of play, he is just not a starting NBA center.
The second problem with this team is the starting guard play. The Wizards currently start two guards that are not a threat to score. This enables opposing teams to load up on Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison without fear of Antonio Daniels and DeShawn Stevenson making shots. Speaking of the Wizards two active all stars. They must stop settling for jump shots. I know that this team does not have a low post presence so Butler and Jamison must exploit match ups whenever possible to fill that void.
In the last two games the Wizard's most productive line-up has included Nick Young and Juan Dixon at guard, Butler and Jamison at forward and either Darius Songaila or JaVale McGee at center. I'm not suggesting that these five players should constitute the starting unit but clearly they need to play more. Some would argue that the Dixon/Young backcourt is a liability defensively. I would say that this tandem has produced more steals and fast break points the past two games than the starters have in three. The bottom line is that this team is never going to be a great defensive team. The Wizards need to out score teams to win. Stevenson and Daniels aren't exactly locking down the opposing starters at guard so if they are not hitting shots they have to sit.
The Wizards best option at center right now is the rookie JaVale McGee. He's an athletic 7-footer with average big man skills, but again he is 7 feet tall. He will block a couple of shots a game and alter a few others. McGee's youthful energy can really help the team with rebounding at this point. The most disappointing facets of the Bucks game were the poor free throw shooting and turnovers. Seventeen missed free throws and twenty turnovers. That's a recipe for defeat most nights. With the next two games against the new look New York Knicks and superman's Orlando Magic the prospects of another 0-5 or worse start are pretty good. Now is a good time to shake things up.
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