Game Tips Off at 7:00 P.M. EST.
TV: Hates Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Oppo Research:
There are two words that perfectly describe the Washington Wizards team identity post-Bullets: "unfulfilled potential". The Wizard's number one draft pick Kwame Brown never came close to his expected potential. The team recorded four winning seasons in a row from 2005-2008, but never made any noise in the playoffs. Right when it looked like Gilbert Arenas was going to be a breakout star, he failed to hit that potential due to injuries... and then getting shooty in the locker room.
Fast forward to today, and the song remains the same. The Wizards expect a lot out of Andray Blatche, but he's only strung together a few months that looked like the unsung hero they've pegged him as. The story is similar with Javale McGee, who is currently out of favor with Wizards coach Flip Saunders (the president and also a client of the "unfulfilled potential" club). Al Thornton? Yi Jianlian? Double samesies.
Then there's John Wall, this year's number one pick who is supposedly "brimming with potential" but didn't show any of it in college. John Wall as a number one pick just seems like the media's pre-college consensus eventually had the tail wagging the dog. But he was SO AWESOME in high school!
That aside, Wall's preseason has been decent, I guess. He's distributing, but he's shooting poorly-- he's hitting only 71% of his free throws and converting at less than 10% from three. While the preseason is a tiny sample and not indicative of seasonal expectations, it's another tick in the box of all this potential not yet having shown itself.
That's not to say the Pistons should expect to breeze through tonight's game. If the Wizards come out with 75% of their potential fulfilled tonight, there's no saying the Pistons will perform better.
Keys for Detroit:
I'm going to copy and paste (a la Sawyer) Packey's keys from last night's game, as they remain fully relevant:
Play Daye
Move the ball around
Pick up the pace
Rebound the basketball
For next game, I shall deliver these in haiku format. For tonight, I'm about as into this game thread as can be given that tonight's game is, yet again, not televised.
Question of the Game (in two parts):
1. So, y'all fellas gonna rebound, or what?
2. Okay Greg. You started rusty in the Summer League and left us with plenty of excitement. I'm assuming you've dusted off the preseason rust as well, and are ready to put up numbers. (Then again, you're welcome to wait until Friday, which should be a televised *gasp* game. Sorry Toledo Joe)
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