David Aldridge Describes How It’s All Gone Wrong for the Wizards

David Aldridge Describes How It’s All Gone Wrong for the Wizards

Today’s top story from the perspective of someone who’s there you are looking live this just in not my beat David Aldridge has seen it all in his Hall of Fame career uh although David even you haven’t seen that many 16 game losing streaks this is this ties the record not

Not good David that’s my analysis how are you I’m good Craig I’m good and no it’s not good um and uh you know not a good week for the Wizards Monumental the whole thing it’s just uh uh more losing and the the the bad part

Is that there seems to be and you know this happens in when you’re having a really bad season you have times when you’re really where you’re making progress and they’re making progress in some areas but the regression in the other areas is just so great that they

Can’t get past it they can’t get around it um and so yeah it’s bad man if they don’t win they play Charlotte tomorrow they don’t win that game boy I tell you I’m not sure when the next win’s gonna come yeah I mean it looked like it was coming

For a while last night uh and then and then it didn’t but we’re gon to get into all of it um I will tell the audience um David is doing some reporting today obviously there’s a lot going on so if David has to hop off we will uh

Gracefully allow him to go but if all of a sudden David disappears it’s because he’s doing his day job and he’s doing us a great favor by joining us here for not my beat so David we did jokingly do a segment earlier in the week basically

Being like is this the greatest 15 game losing streak ever because all of a sudden there are like some positive things Jordan P playing a lot better Denny’s having a nice stretch here there are some positives but when you talk about those regressions what are what are those things that are preventing

That those those progressions from actually leading to winning basketball games well you know Craig it just again it’s all it starts with with defense they’re just horrendous defensively there just there’s no there’s nothing that you can point to that says they’re even moderately better defensively I mean

Just the fact that they’re a little bit more efficient offensively means that teams aren’t able to kind of run up and down the floor Wily nearly they do have to take the ball out of the basket a little bit more now so so you know teams

Are scoring a little bit less but that doesn’t mean that when the when the opponent has the ball that they are unencumbered in any way from get to the basket you know they just can do whatever they want they get whatever shot they want um there’s no resistance

At The Rim certainly since gaffer was traded um it just you know it starts with that you know I think kabali is you know understandably after his rookie season maybe wearing down a little bit um and having a lot of you know top Notch defensive assignments every night

Is maybe starting to wear down a little bit and he kind of expected that to happen doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a great future ahead of them um but yeah I mean it’s just you know taking P out of the starting lineup hasn’t done anything to improve their defense their defense

Is still horrendous they’re just a little bit better offensively now uh with the ball in his hands a little bit more but that’s the to me the the number one thing and you know as they kind of assess where they’re going they have to have kind of some real serious

Conversations about what it is that they want to do defensively because I think you know they’re trying different stuff but the results are the results I mean they got cooked last night they they didn’t get cooked last night by the right Wagner you know what I mean like

They got they got cooked by Mo Vagner last night you know what I mean like how does that happen you know if you’re gonna get cooked by a Vagner you want it should be fron Vagner right I mean but they got cooked by Mo Vagner in the

Fourth quarter you know like come on that that can’t happens no and you know it’s it’s not even like uh besides that how’s the play Mrs Lincoln because when it comes to defense like there’s no there’s no anything like they can’t they have no good on ball Defenders and they

Have no one behind them to help out and at that point like I don’t I don’t know what you do besides wait for the season to end and get new dudes in there and hope that kabali one of your very few who was capable at one time this season

Of playing defense uh you know obviously can hold up for an entire season to me though like I want to cir around to Denny who’s offensively and rebounding wise having a really great let’s you know month-ish here um but I do like what do you make of him as a Defender

Because if he’s going to be you know the third best player let’s say on a really good team one day it’s going to be because he’s a very solid offensive player and a really good Defender are you starting to have concerns about his ability to do that long term I mean I

Don’t think he’s like a awful Defender I don’t think he’s an especially good one like you know I mean the fact that they crow about it this kind of telling like I I’m not saying he’s a like a siiv defensively he’s not he tries he tries

To put his body in front of people he used you know tries to use his his his strength to kind of slow people down but but yeah I mean he’s not I don’t look at him as a switchable kind of long links Defender if you look

At by contrast what Orlando has and the guys that they can kind of just switch on everybody you know possession after possession it’s just they’re just different and better and it doesn’t mean that then he’s a bad player he doesn’t have a place in the league he he’s a

Good player I think but um you know is he and I don’t think he’s again I don’t think he’s a terrible Defender I’m not saying that I think he’s been solid Mo much of the year but I don’t think there’s like another level that he can get to defensively which is what you

Need you need guys that can compete for all defensive League you know recogn to be a good team and you need a lot of them right you need two or three of them um and I think the Wizards have one in kabali I think he’s the one guy that

Right now you could say down the road you could see him being a potential all defensively you know all NBA defense type of player um I don’t think Den he’s that level of Defender but I don’t think he’s a bad Defender he shouldn’t you shouldn’t not play him because of his

Defense his defense is fine he rebounds to your point like defensively he rebounds very well um and he’s a very good ball handler he’s become a very good uh passer in this league uh I think his his best role would be as a secondary ball handler um you know with

Playing alongside a really good point guard who can handle the ball and I don’t and again this is not a criticism you know of tus Jones tus Jones has played really well for them this year but it it isn’t leading to winning and it just isn’t like I’m not it’s not anti

I’m not an anti- thus Jones guy but the things that he does really well aren’t helping them win games and so you ask yourself all right then what are we doing you know what I mean so it doesn’t mean he’s a bad player it’s just that it

Doesn’t fit here I I don’t see the long-term fit here other than he’s a really good guy he does get them organized offensively but it’s just not do there’s just not enough there that you go okay I’m going to put some more money into him going forward to me that

Doesn’t mean I’m right yeah well I mean certainly the results would uh be pointing in your direction and just to close the loop on Denny like Denny I think is their second best defender probably certainly of their main rotation players behind Bilal and that’s why they’re the worst defensive team in

The league because as you said there’s a different level there that needs to be had if you’re going to be competitive um I do want to go to tus next though Ava Wallace of the post our our good friend asked last night Brian Keefe of course the interim Wizards coach like you’re

Not starting tus and Jordan together what why are you still finishing with them uh considering Jordan is running point in those situations and obviously has been playing much better as of late what did you make of Keith’s answer that he did they he’s the guy that gets us

Organized is that a good enough answer at this point in this season in this losing streak I I understand the answer because he does he does tyus Jones does a lot of really good things that that that should help you win basketball games I’m not saying it is not his fault

That they’re not winning basketball games don’t get me wrong my my point which I wrote about last week when I wrote about Jordan P was Jordan P’s making $32 million a year you are you you have taken him out of the starting lineup so that you can get him the ball

More right yeah you can’t trade him nobody’s going to trade for him this Summer nobody so he’s going to be here next year so if all of those things are true why on Earth is he not starting at point I don’t understand we all agree

He’s best with the ball in his hands the numbers seem to indicate when he’s had this this opportunity he’s been pretty good offensively I mean he’s he is not good defensively he’s not ever going to be good defensively I don’t think unless he really has kind of a reset mentally

About what’s important to him um but offensively he’s been pretty good right of late and there’s nothing wrong with that I can live with a guy giving up a lot of points if he scores a lot of points you know I can live with a push

Right I need to get a win at other positions but I can live with a push at one maybe two positions um so okay then he should be starting like I don’t understand like clearly he’s better offensively he’s more Dynamic offensively in terms of what he can do

Scoring the ball he turns it over more but he scores more so I mean so I don’t understand this like to me I don’t understand going forward like if you’re trying to build something I think you have to kind of live with the pluses and the minuses of Jordan P because he’s not

Going anywhere you can’t get rid of him even if you wanted to and I’m not saying they want to but I’m saying if he’s going to be here then give him the ball right and the thing is like David I don’t even mind him coming off the bench

So that you stagger he and CZ a little bit minutes wise CZ gets the ball first and then but like at the end of the game if you’re Pi kind of picking what you want to do to maximize the chances of winning you have made the decision in

Part because tus and Jordan together is so untenable defensively that on the worst defensive team in the league it’s the worst thing that you have and that’s how we’re closing games now and it’s like yeah no wonder they’ve lost 16 straight and I guess my question would

Also be like how much do they care that they’ve lost 16 straight well I think they care in sense that they didn’t expect it to be this bad I mean I thought they they thought they would be Garden variety bad you know like 25 to 3

Wi bad this year you know and have a CH you know not not saying that they wouldn’t try to move up if they had the eighth pick again right like they always have it seems um the eighth or the ninth pick forever is the Wizards emmo right

Um maybe they would try to move up but I think they thought all right we’re going to be bad this year we’re gonna be worse next year I really do believe that that they thought okay we’re gonna get through this year we’re going to start trading we’re going to really start the

Rebuild and start moving some of these vets for younger guys and play the young guys in 24 25 and really take it on the snout because there’s a couple of well there’s at least one great piece in Cooper flag that’s that might be available in 25 and potentially two

Because the other kid just signed with Duke as well who really coming on the young sen the young young man who uh is coming out of the a NBA Africa Academy and is really coming on so I think they thought they would be bad so yeah losing 16 straight is not

Good I don’t care what the what the plan is right like it can be a long-term plan or whatever but you can’t 16 straight is bad like that’s not you can’t just laugh that one off I mean guys have pride they don’t want to get boat raced every night

Um and it’s even more frustrating because lately I mean they’ve been in these games right because they have been more efficient offensively um so they’ve had chances they’re up to 20 last night against Orlando you knew Orlando was going to come back but I you know it was

A winnable game and they didn’t win it Utah winnable game they didn’t win it Lakers winnable game they didn’t win it so there’s been like five or six of these during the streak that they could have won but they didn’t win they didn’t finish um so it’s it’s rough right now I

It’s not it’s not fun um for them and I I understand that because you know it’s the NBA yes but you know you still have guys and and they’re not a good team but but there’s still a lot of Pride guys want to win they don’t want

To be embarrassed nationally and be kind of a joke nationally which is where they are right now yeah absolutely uh David Aldridge of course the Hall of Famer senior columnist the athletic with us here on the Hoffman show uh one more on the basketball team and then we can talk

About the organization that runs them in this mess with Virginia um have you lost because ultimately this is what we’re talking about here the biggest of pictures is have you lost any faith or do you think that a losing streak like this does any lasting damage to the

Overall project here have you lost any faith in Winger and Dawkins slash do you think that these losses stacking up has done any kind of permanent damage to any of the people that could be here for the long term no no I haven’t I mean you

Know they have to prove it they haven’t proven it yet right I mean they haven’t done anything to prove that this is right I’m not saying that you blindly follow Winger and Dawkins and don’t question what they’re doing but nothing that’s happened this year including the

Losing streak makes me go that oh boy they should have kept Beal you know no this is what you this is what everybody in this town said they wanted right everybody said we’re tired of mediocrity retire to the hamster wheel take it down to the stud start over Okay you got got

It this is it this is starting over and it’s bad and it’s ugly and it’s painful and there’s no guarantee it’s going to work but you have the best opportunity you have the best chance of it working doing it this way in my opinion than trying to build a championship team

Around good but not great players I don’t know anybody who’s ever done that I have no there’s no frame of reference for me and I’ve only covered the league since 1987 there’s no frame of reference to me in that era of a team building a championship level team around pretty good

Players you know it just doesn’t it’s not there show me show me the the the closest would be like the 04 Pistons which have how many Hall of Famers potentially on that team oh yeah they yeah they’re they got a couple guys going to Hall of Fame right you know you

Know starting with the coach first and foremost you know so um and that was even you know look I mean they were that was a terrific team yeah that was a team that was all in on defense like all the way in on defense they were like seven

Deep of like really excellent players and as opposed to the typical yes we have one Pantheon player and also two other excellent ones and then four other pretty darn good on I mean you had now you could make the case that none of them individually is a Hall of Fame

Player but they’re but that group had a lot of guys that were really close to being Hall of Famer you know what I mean like like okay you might say B is Hall of Famer but he’s close you know you might say rip H is not Hall of Famer

He’s close you know so um so you had a you had a higher level of pretty good players and you had a lot of them to your point like you didn’t have like two right you got Olympic gold medalists you got all stars you know when Rasheed

Wallace wanted to be he was like the fifth best player in the league a really good player only wanted Wallace is a Hall of Famer by the way so right yeah absolutely uh David Aldridge with us here on the Hoffman show so uh as the Wizards are busy uh blowing a

20-point lead last night there’s no delicate way to put that that’s what happened in the game or watching it slip away uh their hopes of a stadium Virginia in Virginia also seem to be slipping away what do you make of this news that the the Glen Dome and and the

Ted Dome out there in patomic yards now seems to be on some level of life support well it certainly doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon in terms of this year right so I mean at some point I don’t know Virginia politics I don’t know State you know how

Things happen in the in the state in terms of what the governor can and can’t do apparently he can basically make this a single issue that he can ask for an up or down vote which seems more precarious than doing it the way he wanted to do it

Um but let’s just say for the sake of argument that it doesn’t happen this year obviously they can can try again next year they can spend a year lobbying people but you know I think yunan I know that he’s term limited he’s got two years left after this year I’m not sure

He’s gonna have a whole lot of juice left because they’re going to be thinking about the next Governor whoever that is um and what they want or don’t want so you know I’m not saying it’s dead um there there’s a lot of people involved that want this to happen

There’s a lot of money involved and that tends to make things happen in in this Society um but it’s certainly it’s certainly not happening soon so this this it all it gives Virginia a chance to kind of reset and maybe work on some of the people that

Don’t want it didn’t want it and wouldn’t vote for it uh but it also gives the district I think another chance you know potentially at least to kind of get back in the game so the question is how do they do that um you know to me it seems silly if you’re

Going to if he said I want 600 million and you’re offering him 500 million why don’t you just offer him 600 million like you know what I mean like it’s not my I mean it is my money because I’m a taxpaying I’m live in the district so it is my money so but

If you’re going to do that you might as well make the deal you might as well say hey here okay we’re gonna give you the 600 million say no and then if he says no you know he didn’t want to make a deal right yeah so

That’s what he wanted he said give me 00 million and I’ll say here you go you got it yeah no that’s yeah that’s definitely an interesting way to go about it I mean if you’re offering them 500 like if you’re offering them 100 I could understand but they offered him 500

There’s a bill that the entire city council has passed to say we will give you $500 million to say if you’re gonna give him five you might as well give them six like I don’t you know to me I don’t understand what the what the

Difference is at that point I mean if it guarantees him staying you know why wouldn’t you I don’t I don’t understand if you’ve gone that far you might as well go all the way to make sure you know I don’t think you should this isn’t a negotiation in that sense you know

What I mean like at this level and especially since he’s already decid he’s already left like he’s already said I’m leaving if you have an opportunity however remote to get him back why wouldn’t you do everything you could to get him back you know and if he says no

To the 600 million you have a clear conscience well we offered everything we could we offered him what he said he wanted and he decided not to take it I can’t make the guy stick yeah no I I hear you on that um I definitely think that that would be like

I I don’t know what Ted does at that point I think at this point he could probably just be like well we already made the decision it’s not about the money blah blah blah blah it’s like well then why were you asking for public money from The District in the first

Place if there was no chance you were willing no less than six months ago you were willing to stay for 600 million right so okay well the the deal in Virginia is not available to you right now now you can wait I guess but you’re running the risk of someone coming into

Office that may not want to spend that you know may not want to make that deal with you for whatever reason it’s politics people make deals and don’t make deals for whatever reasons that they have um you run the risk of having a A legislature that may be less

Inclined to to do the deal going forward so another thing is said I’m not saying that I’m saying if I want to make a deal there’s an option that’s on the table I think that will or that will soon be on the table again that I think you have to

At least look at yeah no I think we’ll see we’ll see yeah no we will we will see that is definitely the the mode that we are in right now David Aldridge writing about it all the basketball and more at the athletic of course their senior columnist writing about DC Sports

And the NBA David always appreciate your time sir thank you and we will talk to you soon absolutely Craig my pleasure thank you that is David Aldridge the Hall of Famer with us here on the Hoffman show what’s up kiddos it’s your boy Clinton yat from ESPN it’s the Hoffman

Show on the team 980 tell your mama I said what’s up

The Wizards have lost 16 straight games, tying the worst mark in franchise history. Hall of Fame journalist David Aldridge joins the show to talk about where it all went wrong, and if it could get even worse before it gets better for Michael Winger, Will Dawkins and the Wizards.

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