What in the world is going on between Coach and Brendan Haywood? All of a sudden, at the critical time of the season heading into the playoffs, down our 2 star players, Haywood has become an outcast. What gives?Brendon has played at a very high level all season and was instrumental in the months when the Wizards were winning lots of games, when Etan was out.Nothing against Etan, but the Wizards winning record with Etan starting is dismal. Check it out. The record with Haywood starting is very high comparatively.Why is Coach Jordan so down on Haywood?
<span style="font-family:Arial">I'm not sure what's going on in Washington, but Haywood needs to step it up. I'm not a Wizards fan and I don't know the entire story, so maybe Haywood isn't to blame. I'm just going by what I see as an NBA fan in general. The last 10-11 games or so, he hasn't put up any solid numbers. I was watching the Sixers game a few weeks ago and it didn't look like Haywood was putting in any effort at all. He wasn't energized or looking to do anything offensively/defensively.I like Haywood, I want to see him do well. </span>
Lately his numbers are down because he is not playing any minutes. Yes he had a couple of bad games, don't know why. But now he has been relagated to the level of the 13th player on the roster, if you know what I mean. And the Wizards have lost almost every game that he has not started.Rather than just benching him, somebody needs to figure out how to make him the productive play he has been all year.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BALLAHOLLIC? @ Apr 11 2007, 02:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><span style="font-family:Arial">I'm not sure what's going on in Washington, but Haywood needs to step it up. I'm not a Wizards fan and I don't know the entire story, so maybe Haywood isn't to blame. I'm just going by what I see as an NBA fan in general. The last 10-11 games or so, he hasn't put up any solid numbers. I was watching the Sixers game a few weeks ago and it didn't look like Haywood was putting in any effort at all. He wasn't energized or looking to do anything offensively/defensively. I like Haywood, I want to see him do well. </span></div> Haywood's playing time has gone down more and more progressively through the season since Etan's return. Eventually it slowed him down to the point that he couldn't convert that much on offense and Brendan pretty much started sitting on the bench all game. Anyways eventually during the Raptors game a week and a half ago this occured: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsi...the_season.html Brendan was a great compliment to post defense which is one of the departments that the Wizards lack in. Honestly, even though Etan has stepped up since his starts he is no where near to player Brendan is, Haywood has so much more talent and athletecism while Etan is really destined to be a bench player. I blame this on Eddie, Brendan should still be starting. Thomas is awful.
Last night's game against the Heat was interesting. Haywood played more than Etan - and he scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds. Compared to 6 points and 5 rebounds for Etan.Hoever neither was in the game during the crucial last 5 minutes.I guess Eddie Jordan kept the 5 players in the game at that time rather than make a change since they were neck and neck. However the result was predictable, a narrow loss due to a couple of mistakes at the end.I think Brendon's production in this game proves something - sitting him down for an extended period - 4 or 5 games with almost no playing time - was ridiculous. At such a crucial time of the season you should not be playing head games with your key players.Playing Brendan with Blatche and Jamison creates a very difficult matchup problem for other teams. While they were together in this game against the Heat the Wizards outscored and outplayed the Heat. To me that combination should be used at the end of games.Hell, try it - everything else has failed.
Brendan came up huge last night. Had a double double, played with passion, him and Blatche worked really well together, and just impressed me over all. Nice job Brendan, this is how you'll get your starting job back.
this is a little off topic but Brendan Haywood must be at least 7'2". He towers over other seven footers.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Apr 12 2007, 07:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>this is a little off topic but Brendan Haywood must be at least 7'2". He towers over other seven footers.</div>He's 7 foot.
