Got me wanting EJ as our coach now.

He’s sporting the muffstache in that photo.

I totally agree that we have an offense-minded GM and an offensively talented group of players (no offensive jokes here.) But do we have owners that will be satisfied with more offense? Their complaints have not been about our offense. And frankly, most of our games haven’t been lost because of low scoring. IMHO, we need a coach that can continue to let us score, while also finding a way to stop somebody, anybody.

I don’t think we are a team that is ever going to play a SA type game. (At least I hope not!) But we have not had a decent defensive rotation all year (not counting brief blips.) And I’m not sure I am convinced that our players cannot play D. We know Salmons can play D, Shock has the rebounding and athleticism, Hawes can clearly block and board, Speed has the, well speeed. Garcia is a tiger. Beno . . . well anyway, we should be able to guard everyone but speedy point guards.

To me, drafting an offensive minded coach is like putting gasoline on a fire. The scoring is there, and I don’t want it to go away. But somebody has to implement a defense that doesn’t give up 40+ points in a quarter. Is that EJ?

I like EJ, and always have. I have no problem with EJ, and the sooner the better, well, the sooner the better.

Every point one can make about the Maloof’s believing that defense wins championships (they sure quote ESPN good don’t they?) seems to make sense, although I’ve always been of the opinion that the best team usually wins the games, and there is more than one way to do that. (People seem to think an offense can’t operate at a high capacity during the playoffs. Sorry, but that’s wrong. It just hasn’t happened so often that it’s a trend. It’s easier to clear out one side and give it to Michael Jordan. Look how well that’s worked for a non-Kobe/LeBron team since.)

on a less serious side – it has been oft said that EJ bears a resemblence to Terence Howard. I want him here to implement some Hustle and Flow.

and Kevin Martin should be a bit worried as “it’s hard out here for a gimp”

Your offense will improve dramatically with him. And, up to a certain point, your youngish guys will blossom. I have no doubt that Udrih, K-Mart, Thompson, Shawes etc. will be great fits for the system and will see their production rise. Particularly Beno and Garcia. The system is tailored perfectly for teams like Sacramento that have no pure points, but have several wings with decent passing skills.

But like others have said, Eddie Jordan teams do not play good defense. I realize Washington wasn’t exactly stocked with top-rate defensive talent, but the scheming didn’t help matters. Eddie tends to want to play smaller centers with offensive skill when bigger guys are better fits defensively (see his jerking around of Brendan Haywood). His teams double down in the post incessantly and leave the three-point line open like crazy. Last year, the Wizards set an NBA record for the most number of threes surrendered in a single season.

And one thing that Eddie certainly exhibits is stubborness. Many of Washington’s newest draft picks did not receive proper playing time under him. I’m talking about guys like Blatche, Nick Young, etc. Not to mention Brendan Haywood. Sacramento’s got too much youth to worry about that now, but it might rear its head again.

With the right mix, Eddie can be unbelievably successful. From watching him coach for several years now, though, it needs to be the perfect mix. Before injury, Washington was an extremely well-constructed club. They eschewed the pure point concept and instead stockpiled talented combo guards (Arenas, Hughes, even Daniels to a certain extend). Offensively, Jamison, as a big that is one of the best cutters in basketball, has an all-court game that slower power forwards can’t deal with, and he gave the added benefit of being an excellent rebounder. The trade for Caron Butler provided another guy who would benefit from a quick-moving system while not necessarily being a strong isolation player. Darius Songaila is the perfect Princeton reserve big (wish he could rebound a bit), while Blatche and JaVale McGee were drafted to be face-up centers. Eddie basically got the exact team he needed, and they still only won 40-45 games. A lot of that is injury and some of that is the lack of defensive talent, but a lot of that is simply that it’s tough to find good Princeton players that also play defense well. It can be done to varying degrees of success, but it’s difficult.

So expect short-term gain, but long-term, it’s going to be tough to find another Vlade or C-Webb. And that’s why, as good a coach as he is, Eddie will always struggle to have a strong win-loss record.

My two cents though. And none of this means he is a bad hire. He’s probably the perfect hire. I’m just saying that Eddie has his shortcomings that’ll be difficult to overcome if this team wants to eventually be a title contender.

or stick with Natt until a proven winner becomes available. If we’re lucky, maybe Natt will show something.

I know there’s got to be some boneheaded team that’s going to fire a good coach because he takes them to the playoffs but gets bounced too early. Patience.