State of Affairs

I have had a debates recently with fellow basketball fans about the state of America's capital representatives, the Washington Wizards. As I am sure you are all aware recently they deemed Flip Saunders surplus to requirements. I found this suprising, although not considering their record of 2-15, but I think this is a problem rooted in player mentality as well as GM movements in past years.

First of this is the 4th coach to have walked through these doors in 4 years. Players will now understand that most coaches are not here to stay, even Eddie Jordan, a former Coach of the Year was let go. Thus they can tune out coaches per disagreements or through bad patches knowing they are the first to go. This has a serious effect on team morale.
They have drafted reasonably well in picking up Mcgee, Wall, Singleton and Young in recent years. However they have also drafted Dominic Mcguire, Peter Ramos (Who?), Vladimir Veremeenko (again who?) and Oleksiy Pecherov. The last pick was before the likes of Rajon Rondo and Kyle Lowry got picked in the 2006 draft. So in the last 5 years they have wasted reasonable draft positions on players no longer in the league. Not just busts. They dont even play anymore.

The players however must be held accountable. I am one that does not confuse athleticism and raw "talent" with potential and ability to win games. The Wizards frontcourt could potentially be one of the most dominating in the league, with McGee and Blatche bringing genuine size and presence in a league lacking big men. However neither could catch the cold during a winter in Scotland (poor hands) and would fail in a maths class with tutor lessons from Einstein (low B'Ball IQ). Wall has shown serious game in his time in the league and at college level but being surronded by such fragile personailites and consistant losing will not do him any good.
I personally like Nick Youngs game, he can score in bunches, efficiently, very quickly. As Oklohoma City found out recently.
So with a core of Mcgee (23) Young (26) Wall (21) they have pieces to start with. They are not good enough to build round and I would say only Wall is off the trading block (unless someone offers something silly). But to blame to coach for this teams failures is a cop out. The palyers were poor and gave up, while the GM offered no support. I would like to see this team succed and become the new Thunder or T'Wolves which builds young and improves year on year. So far no signs of this happening but hopefully we shall start to see something good rumbling in the capital, that isnt Obama singing Al Green like it wasn't a second profession.

In short the team has some talent and raw athleticism but they need a coach who can teach them basketball essentials. Something Flip Saunders can be known for but they seem to have rejected it. Doug Collins in Philidelphia would have been perfect, because if that didnt work with his demanding, grind hard approach nothing will. This team can be a good team, but they are so far off I refuse to mix freakish athleticism with genuine NBA level talent.