http://nba.nbcsports.com/2015/12/22/report-wizards-signing-jarell-eddie-...
Nice to see another former Hokie make an NBA roster.
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http://nba.nbcsports.com/2015/12/22/report-wizards-signing-jarell-eddie-...
Nice to see another former Hokie make an NBA roster.
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Wasn't he on Atlanta's roster last year? Anybody heard how Erick Green is doing?
He was. I bumped into him at the mall there. Friendly dude.
Green got cut from the Nuggets a couple of weeks into this season. Last I checked he's playing in the D-League
Ah yes, good ol' "Gilbert Guns-in-the-Arenas".
Jarell was in my Psychology of Learning class. Good dude, and took the class seriously.
I bumped into him at Turner's place many times freshman year. He was a super friendly guy.
I knew Jarell had several tools to succeed. Size, good athleticism, decent handle, good shot. Hope he makes it.
They primarily brought Eddie in to shoot the three so lets hope his long range shot is in fuego right now. Secondly its because of the tenacious defense he plays. They are hoping he can fill a void in this new "Pace and Space" approach to the game that they are trying this season. No knock on Eddie but it will be an uphill climb for him with the Wizards once Bradley Beal and Otto Porter are back healthy although getting signed was the benefit of Nene being quasi healthy once again so they waived Ryan Hollins at center. Hopefully he gets in there and shoots lights out so they cant afford to let him go.
I think he'll actually have a decent opportunity to play in the Wizards system long-term if he can find his shot and defend.
Washington seems to be all in on small ball and while part of their struggles this year have stemmed from bad injury luck, another glaring issue in their pace and space lineups has been personnel. Remember, this is a team that was starting Kris Humphries and wanting him to jack 3s... yikes.
If Eddie plays to his potential, I think he could bring a lot to an NBA team (especially in the style many teams want to employ). At 6-7, his length on the perimeter will be attractive to teams.
I am not a fan of the pace and space offense they are trying to run for exactly the reason you cited. They don't have the personnel for it. Even with Eddie they need to go back to the system from last season. They need to get back to a focused core defense where they keep opponents under 100 points a game and utilize Gortat and Wall to run the pick and roll offense that did so well for them last season. Having Beal and Porter out with injury and Nene creaking along in his last season in the league absolutely doesn't help. I had expected them to get more out of Dudley, Temple and Oubre at this point but those three have been sporadic at best to deliver. Last season the Wizards only allowed opponents over 100 points in only 32 games, and their record in those games was a dreadful 7-25. The rest of last season was 39-11 when keeping opponents under 100 points. So far this season the Wizards are 5-13 when their opponents reach the century mark. They are 7-1 when keeping opponents under that mark.
Realistically, I think the Wizards are kind of stuck in the middle right now - they don't quite have the pieces yet to play small ball at a consistently high level, but they also can't really wind back the clock to last year. That would require a healthy Nene, who played 67 games last year (his highest total since the 2010-11 season). They don't really have a replacement for him this year, since Gooden, Humphries & Hollins aren't the same type of player.
Right now, I think their roster is much better constructed to play a four-out system with Gortat as the anchor (and he's proven relatively durable the last few years). The thing with small ball is that adjusting the system will come with growing pains. People forget this now, but Golden State was turning the ball over a ton at the beginning of last season as they implemented Kerr's new philosophies. The Wizards have experienced a similar issue, at least prior to the rash of injuries.
With regards to Dudley, I have no clue what Wittman is doing (a recurring thought, so at least it's nothing new). Until injuries forced Wittman to play him more, Dudley hadn't played 30 minutes in a game within the first month of the season.
I also think Temple is the type of guy who's going to lose an NBA job pretty soon if he can't shoot the 3 at the same clip as last year (37.5%). He'd only surpassed that once during a very small sample size in San Antonio and he's barely over 30% this year. Oubre is still a rookie, but he looks like a promising player who's just getting way more minutes than the team intended.
When (and if) they're fully healthy, I think the ideal starting lineup is Wall-Beal-Porter-Dudley-Gortat with Neal, Eddie, Oubre, and Humphries/Nene as the ones to spell them in the rotation.