Tom Knott: A finish Eddie didn't deserve

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By Tom Knott

The firing of Eddie Jordan as coach of the Wizards was undeserved. The back-to-the-'90s move was implemented after the shell of a team stumbled to a 1-10 start.

And this team is a shell. It is a patchwork of parts that no one - not even the late Red Auerbach - could make chicken salad out of chicken fertilizer with it.

The starting lineup in recent games has featured a non-shooting point guard who played in Turkey last season, a rookie center who was expected to receive limited minutes this season and a physically hampered DeShawn Stevenson who is shooting 34.3 percent after 11 games.

That left Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to shoulder the burden, and although they have played well enough, their diminished numbers reflect the opposition's tendency to focus the defense on them, especially in the fourth quarter.

It was the correct strategy of opposing coaches to let Nick Young or Juan Dixon or Stevenson or anyone but Butler and Jamison try to beat them.

That is why the Wizards have been unable to finish games on a successful note.

Twenty-five-win teams - and that appears to be the destiny of the Wizards - do not finish games well in the NBA. It is one of the bylaws of the NBA.

Bad teams throw a lazy crosscourt pass that is intercepted in the waning minutes of a one-possession game. That leads to an easy basket at the other end of the floor, and there goes the game.

That was the Young-inspired development that decided the Wizards-Rockets game Friday night. That was a play conceived from a second-year player who would not have been on the floor at the time if Gilbert Arenas was healthy and Roger Mason Jr. was still with the team.

Young has an all-or-nothing propensity about him at this point in his development. He either makes shots or doesn't. He does not see the floor. He does not shut down scorers. He does not get his share of long rebounds. He is Vinnie Johnson without the savvy and grit.