Nice. 9 or 10? Who would that be? Starters + Etan, Hayes, Daniels, Songalia? Not terrible, but I think Andray has played well enough to deserve 15/20 mins a game. This team is already beat up enough from the minutes they logged early in the year so I don't know that a statement like this even matters much. Circumstances can change real quick.

Andray is one of the inactives?! Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Coach Jordan is deluded if he continues to think that someone like Hayes is worthy of minutes over Blatche.

Looks like the early stages of another loss. This team looks tired, slow, lacking confidence...everything not good. What happened to the fast break? The Wiz are passing slow, running slow, everything looks like it is in slow motion. Hate to be alarmist, but it looks like we might be in a serious slide.

Agree completely that having Blatche inactive is ridiculous. If he's not ready for the rotation, then that's EJ's fault for not giving him more minutes earlier in the year (which consequently is why all 3 of the Big 3 are worn down). He should be a contributor.

Further, he's our best defensive player hedging on screens, he's might be our best shot blocker and rebounder, and there's just no way on earth that we need both Mason and Hayes active (one or the other will do) and Ruffin is inexcusable.

I have not been overly critical of EJ but he's losing me quickly.

I love the energy that Blatche brings - especially with respect to rebounding, and I think he has a tremendous future ahead of him.

That said, he has a long ways to go when it comes to decision-making on offense. As good as he looks sometimes, he takes many ill-advised shots. For a guy his height, he should not be shooting long-range jumpers (at least until he gets better at them). Look at his stats - 19% from 3-point range, 41% from the field overall, 58% from the foul line (including a costly miss against the Knicks the other night).

Maybe Jarvis is no better. He's fumbled the ball at critical times more than once this year and he also has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to shot selection. But I don't think it's unreasonable for a coach to go with a more experienced player down the stretch. Especially when you consider the Wizards roster. At the 4 and 5 the Wizards have AJ and Haywood starting, and Songaila and Thomas as solid backups (and Booth lately as well). If you want a 9 player rotation, you don't need more than one solid backup at each position. On the other hand, aside from Daniels, who else has proven himself this year as a solid backup at the 1, 2 or 3 spot? I think Hayes is the best bet at this point. Roger Mason is really the only other possibility, except on the rare occasions when the other team's lineup allows Blatche, Jamison or Songaila to play as the 3. Something like Arenas, Stevenson, Blatche, Jamison and Haywood. I personally don't think Jamison, Blatche or Songaila could consistently defend the average NBA small forward on the perimeter though.

p.s. I do agree that Blatche being inactive is a little odd, despite my previous post saying that not giving him playing time is defensible.

Sitting on the baseline, right next to the Wiz bench. The Wiz are up 38-29 and I like the energy and overall concentration level of the bench right now. Even saw Brendan clap after Etan grabbed the offensive rebound and scored a few minutes back. This is place is maybe 70 percent full and the Pacers are begging to lose. We'll see.

AC,

I don't disagree that Blatche has made mistakes...but the time to let him make those mistake was earlier this year when the Big 3 were playing so many minutes.

Further, it's on the coach when a player's continues to take bad shots, and Arenas, Butler, DS, Brendan and Jarvis have all been guilty of poor shot selection more often than not. We run a passing offense yet play mostly 1-on-1.

And as for the concept of tightening up the rotation...why have we seen 11 guys already?

Ruffin? As much as I like what he does do, when he's in you play 4 on 5 on offense. I'd much rather have Blatche's youthful mistakes and upside than Ruffin's complete inability to play at the offensive end.

Ivan,

Please get up and smack EJ until he takes Ruffin out.

I don't get why Blatche is not in there! That is crazy! I think this kid might be looking for a team elsewhere next year. This kid got skeelz and is a better player than most of these starters as far as I can tell. Wizards coaching staff are knuckleheads!

Taking Andray out of the rotation looks like a reaction to his missed free throw against Miami, which was a heartbreaking loss. You can make an argument that Songaila should be ahead of Blatche because of his better court sense/experience and shooting, but I don't see how Songaila is better than Blatche overall defensively, shotblocking and rebounding. With Caron now out for a while, Andray should at least be active. Eddie must be making a judgement that Ruffin is in the rotation and Andray is out. That's clearly questionable.

Big win tonight emotionally for the team. As I expected the bad teams are seeing the end of the season coming and are mailing it in. At best they are trying to pad stats. Their minds are not on playing team basketball.

Interesting that without Caron tonight EJ apparently changed his mind and decided not to shorten the bench. Maybe there will be competition for those minutes. It is clear that his preference would seem to be to use Hayes and Ruffin more instead of Songalia and Blatche more. If that is how it plays out and it fails, Grunfeld will have no choice but to point the finger at Coach. What I really want to see happen is for him to let Songalia and Blatche play their way into the rotation. (I use the phrase rotation rather loosly unfortunatly)

Well, Heat are on our heals. They are all big now.

Absurd.

With Butler out, Blatche has to be in the rotation

I don't think you can argue with Daniels, Hayes, Songalia and Thomas being the first four off the bench, especially as the games get more meaningful towards the end of the season and during the playoffs. But after those nine, I would choose Blatche, Mason, Booth, Ruffin, and Taylor in that order based on their play this year. Putting Blatche on the inactive list makes no sense.

When I heard Blatche had been deactivated against Indy(apparently to make room for Ruffin) I was confused. After seeing him play in the win/start over the Hornets I have to wonder what Eddie's thinking. He keeps saying he wants to go with his vets down the stretch. Shouldn't he want to go with his best players? Ruffin may be a great locker room guy who brings hustle and intangibles, but he doesn't produce any actual tangible benefits. Blatche and Booth can bring energy and hustle, but as an added benefit, they'll also give you points, rebounds, and blocks. Now that Etan is (finally) healthy, Haywood is playing with some passion, Songaila is getting into a groove, and Blatche is growing up fast, Ruffin should be relegated to the 12th man, which is what he'd be on almost any other playoff bound team.