I checked out the National Museum of the American Indian this weekend. I’ve eaten there before, actually two times, but have never gone through the actual museum part. Sad. But now I know it’s more than worth seeing, multiple times. Like many of the museums in D.C., you can’t always give the entire place your full attention in one day. I’d say an hour and a half is a good time. Then again, I’m fortunate enough to live in Washington, close to all the free Smithsonian museums, so I can go whenever I want.

One exhibit which caught my eye was “Strange Comfort,” by Brian Jungen, specifically the part pertaining to Michael Jordan. Everything pretty much speaks for itself in the pictures I took. So here goes …

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The last time the Wizards faced the Nets in New Jersey, Earl Boykins hit a game winner with 0.4 seconds left. The first time these two teams meet this season was the Wizards’ home opener in D.C., an old-fashioned blow out. Different times back then.

So, the Wiz are 2-0 against New Jersey this year, but haven’t faced them since the team was blown up … nor have these two teams faced since Michael Wilbon supposedly said that New Jersey would go undefeated against this current Wizards team (at the time, Josh Howard was still healthy — see the comments section of this post). Ok, so that has yet to be determined, but I will go on record saying that Wilbon is full of hot air regardless.

But in anticipation of today’s game in the Garden State (6 pm est start time), I exchanged a brief Q&A with Mark Ginocchio of the fellow TrueHoop Network blog, Nets Are Scorching.

Mark asked me two questions:

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In case you haven’t heard, Andray Blatche has been doing pretty damn well lately. This sparked a recent Twitter debate amongst a couple of the better NBA writers on the ‘net.

Mike Prada of Bullets Forever has suddenly elevated Blatche to one of the best power forwards in the league (in terms of who you’d want on your team over the next five seasons). The only players Prada would take over Blatche is Josh Smith, Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, Blake Griffin and Pau Gasol. This is, of course, factoring in value of play and value of contract.

Tom Ziller, of several places all over the Interweb, but most notably SacTown Royalty and NBA FanHouse, seems to disagree, wondering specifically about Al Jefferson, Carl Landry, J.J. Hickson, Michael Beasley and LaMarcus Aldridge, and saying that Prada is “in lonely company taking Blatche over any of them, let alone ALL of them.” The debate raged on.

The disclaimer is that my friend Mr. Prada has always been a bit over-amorous for Andray Blatche. I, on the other hand, have always been a bit too skeptical, perhaps unfairly so. Although, in my opinion, and since I’m writing this on my site, Blatche has always ‘made his own bed’, if you will, (and I’m not taking about when he got caught soliciting an undercover cop he thought was a prostitute), with his inconsistent play that has often derived from lack of conditioning, focus and a commitment to the game.

But the guy is still young and finding his way. This season,  often times I’ve come around on Blatche. Other times not so much. Flip Saunders has openly expressed frustration that Blatche tends to float away from the rim, and of course, when he tries to do playground dribbles behind his back. Hence, because of Andray’s penchant for inconsistency, it’s way too early to judge his future on these past couple of games. And Mr. Prada would agree with me. However, the start is extremely promising for Wizards fans. As Prada notes, Blatche’s pace-adjusted numbers per 36 minutes over the last ten (10) games are as follows: 23.3 points, 9 rebounds, 2.1 turnovers, 26.3 PER, 59.6 true-shooting percentage, 55.5 effective field-goal percentage.

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A bit of everything happened in Friday night’s 118-116 overtime loss to the New York Knicks. Guys played hard. The effort was there. The Wiz kids did some good things, and they made some mistakes. Some crucial calls did not go Washington’s way, one in specific for which some referees should be penalized. And as exciting as the game was, it was just bad basketball (about 4:45 into overtime, the score was 2-0 Knicks). But those are the breaks.

In any case, the run-down is a tad messy, so let’s go over in bullet points:

• JaVale McGee was removed from the starting lineup because he was late to the morning 10:30 am shoot-around. Head scratcher. Prominent media members in the locker room before the game wondered how, one game and two days removed from getting absolutely abused by Marc Gasol, McGee could conduct himself in a such a manner.
• Of course, McGee also often got abused off the dribble by Al Harrington (37 points off the bench). Yes, that is a bad match-up problem, but breaking down in a defensive stance and showing a bit more moxie wouldn’t hurt.
• But hey, the guy worked hard and finished with a more-than-respectable 18 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots, some of them huge.
• Flip Saunders indicated that the longer McGee plays, he hopes that his inconsistent efforts will be fewer and further in between. So, don’t worry McGee fans, he will get chances going forward. Just worry about if he will take advantage of them.
• James Singleton, who started for McGee, got hurt early in the second quarter and would not return. After the game he said he came down funny and that he had a mid-foot sprain. The Wizards really missed both his energy and playing ability. Yes, James Singleton. He had three blocks, two against David Lee, within a four-minute span in the first quarter.
• Mike Miller fouled out with 40 seconds left in regulation. He led the Wizards with a plus/minus of +15. His sixth foul was of an offensive nature as he drove to the basket, but jumped to pass with nowhere to go. He often jumps to pass to his team’s detriment. Miller is a main guy on this squad. But it seems like he has an issue with being a main guy. That is a problem.
• Al Thornton was second in plus/minus with +11. He fouled out with a minute left in regulation.
• The Wizards obviously also suffered when those guys had to sit with five fouls and not just when they were out of the game completely.
• The only other Wizards with positive plus/minuses were Andray Blatche +3, Quinton Ross +3 and Earl Boykins +2. We’ll get to Blatche in a second, but Ross also fouled out with 1:47 left in OT. Boykins only played 12 minutes. I’m not sure why he didn’t get more time in OT when both teams were extremely tired and the Wizards were struggling to score.
• Shaun Livingston, in his first action since December 19, 2009, which came with the Oklahoma City Thunder, played just two minutes and managed to commit a crucial gaffe. With the Wizards down 114-112 and 45 seconds left in OT, Livingston was taking the ball out of bounds and drew a 5-second violation.
• Nick Young hit a huge/crazy three-pointer with 6.5 seconds left in OT to tie the game. But otherwise, he looked listless and could not make a mark on the game in any regard. And he received plenty of chances with others in foul trouble.
• “We’ve brought guys in who have played with a great amount of energy,” said Saunders. “What happens is when you don’t play with energy, it becomes magnified. Because you’re out there with guys flying all over the place, and if you’re not flying all over the place, it looks like you’re lost.” This was Flip’s answer when I asked him about Nick Young. Less and less, Young is looking like a guy who won’t stick around in the NBA, much less the Wizards. Hustle/energy and basketball IQ are two areas in which he severely lacks development.
• Andray Blatche had a career night. He put up career highs in field-goal attempts (21), minutes (51), defensive rebounds (15), total rebounds (18), assists (6), and of course, turnovers (8). Hey, with a bunch of guys gone, somebody has to put up numbers.
• “He still has the tendency … when things don’t go right, he gets down on himself. If you’re going to be a main guy … you can’t do that,” said coach Saunders about Blatche.
• Randy Foye played well (22 points, 10 assists, 3 turnovers, 8-11 FGs), and hit a big shot with 25 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime, but his point guard skills have a long way to go. I’ll have more on that to come.
• After Foye’s shot, the Knicks got the ball back with 25.5 seconds left. Wilson Chandler went to the hoop and McGee made a game-saving block … 24 second shot-clock violation, right? Nope. For some reason, the Wizards were only left with two-tenths of a second to make a play. It should have been 1.5 seconds. Referee fail.
• The refs also made a horrendous loose-ball call against Mike Harris after JaVale McGee missed the second of two free-throws with the Wizards down 114-113 and 13 seconds left in overtime. The Wizards would have recovered the loose ball rebound, but again, a horrendous call. Guess the NBA’s headquarters in New York wanted to end the Knicks’ eight-game losing streak. Good job guys.
• David Lee hit the final nail in the coffin at the end of overtime. With only about 1.5 second left after he made the shot putting the Knicks up 118-166, and with the Wizards out of timeouts, not much could be mustered. McGee tried a length-of-the-court pass to Blatche, but he was unable to recover the ball to get off a shot.
• And that was the game. Despite a lot, the Wizards didn’t give up and they fought until the end, and that’s something you got to respect.

Today the Wizards signed Shaun Livingston to a 10-day contract. Yes, that Shaun Livingston. The once Magic Johnson-esque prodigy who devastatingly injured his knee in just his third season in the NBA. On February 26, 2007 at the 8:10 mark of the first quarter, Livingston went up for a fast-break layup and came down awkwardly on his left leg, tearing his ACL, PCL, MCL and lateral meniscus. He also dislocated his patella and tibia/femoral. Ridiculously painful sounding doesn’t even come close to describing. Seeing it happen is even worse. I’m not going to even link the video.

But get this weird, connected sh*t. Not a week after Livingston’s injury, on April 4, 2007, Gilbert Arenas originally injured his knee against Gerald Wallace and the Charlotte Bobcats. Guess who Livingston’s then team, the Los Angeles Clippers, were playing on his fateful night. You guess it, the Charlotte Bobcats.

Video evidence confirms that at the time of Shaun’s injury, Wallace was on the court, but on the other end — remember, it was a fast-break opportunity for the Clippers. But do not forget that Wallace was on the court making contract with Josh Howard when he originally injured his ankle in 2008.

It would be really weird if Howard suffered his recent knee injury against the Bobcats and not the Chicago Bulls. However, guess who checked in for Livingston after he got hurt? Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell. Exactly. Weird sh*t.

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Editor’s Note: Just who is Emir Preldzic? Or, more accurately with fancy accent marks, Emir Preldžič? (And I think pronounced as if the ‘D’ were silent and as if there were an ‘H’ at the end.) Exactly.

Preldzic is the guy to whom the Wizards obtained the rights from Cleveland in the Zydrunas Ilgauskas-Antawn Jamison trade. The official team press release didn’t divulge much information about him, so Truth About It correspondent, Adam Douglas, hit the internet highways to find out about one of the Wizards’ latest acquisitions.

Now, along with Vladimir Veremeenko, whom Ernie Grunfeld drafted with the 48th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, the Wizards’ Euro-Stash Cache has been doubled to two. Keep reading for what Mac G was able to put together on Preldzic.

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Emir Preldzic is a 6’9″, 220 pound, 22-year old, point forward who can play multiple positions. He is a dual citizen of Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Phoenix Suns selected Preldzic with 57th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft and his rights were immediately sold to the Cleveland Cavaliers for cash.

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Marc Gasol Air Fist.

{keep going for more pictures}

I’ve recently taken to shooting some pictures of early pre-game warm-ups for both the Wizards and their opponent. As I arrived to the court last night, I saw the Wizards’ new guys going through various drills with assistant coach Wes Unseld, Jr. A couple shots of newcomer Mike Harris were a priority, so I did so. But then I glanced to the big man drills on the other end … them dudes were big. And Baby Head Zach Randolph wasn’t even present.

Marc Gasol, Hamaed Haddadi and Hasheem Thabeet out-weight the trio of JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and James Singleton by 67 points.

Note: I’m got player weight info from each team’s official NBA.com rosters, but I’m skeptical that McGee weighs 252, a listed four more pounds than Blatche and the “heaviest” guy on the Wizards.

I was afraid of Memphis’ big going in, even as they were coming off a tough loss to the Lakers the previous night. Part of me genuinely feared for JaVale McGee’s life.

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{Mike Harris}

As you probably know, the Wizards today signed Mike Harris of the NBA D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers to a 10-day contract. Had a brief chat with him before tonight’s game …

“It’s basketball, so it’s always better up than it is down.” -Mike Harris

• Mike has never been to D.C. before, said he’s most definitely not used to the weather.
• Said he’s a “basketball guru” so he already knew a good deal about the current Wizards … played against Al Thornton and the Clippers when he was in Houston, also knows a little about Nick Young and Andray Blatche when he played against them in the 2008 Vegas Summer League as a Rocket.
• Harris said Flip Saunders told him to just come in and “do what you do” and to not try so much to fit in with the team, but to let the team fit to him … just play hard, have a good time, and try not to think to much.
• There is some familiarity, as Mike said the Wizards run similar plays to what they ran down in Rio Grande, just with different calls.
• Mike said he found out about the call-up about five minutes after getting out of tuesday’s practice with the Vipers when his coach informed him. It was about 12:30-1:00 pm when he found out that he had a 4:45 flight to Washington. Harris said he was lucky that he already had a rental car, so getting to the airport wasn’t a problem. His flight was a bit delayed in Houston, so he didn’t get into D.C. until 1:30-1:45 on Wednesday morning.

Here are some more bullets on Harris:

• He turned 26 last June 15th and shares a birthday with Mary Carey (the porn star who ran for governor in California and who once was “courted” by Dwight Howard), Neil Patrick Harris, Andy Pettitte, Ice Cube, Courtney Cox, Wade Boggs, Dr. Jerry Buss, D.J. Strawberry, and Zan Tabak … yes, “the” Zan Tabak, who won a ring in Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon. Take that Barkley!
• Harris went to Hillsboro High School in Hillsboro, Texas and averaged 27 points and 19 rebounds his senior year. He was recruited by Baylor, Oklahoma State, Stephen F. Austin and Tulsa, but ended up choosing Rice.
• After four seasons at Rice, Harris left as both the Owls’ all-time leading scorer and rebounder. He was named the WAC freshman of the year in 2002 and made the all-WAC first team in ’04 and ’05.
• The last, and only other, Rice alum to suit up for the franchise was Mike Wilks, who briefly played for the Wizards in December 2007.
• Harris previously suited up in the NBA for the Houston Rockets, but has also played in the Ukraine, China (where he won the all-star game dunk contest and was named to the All-Chinese CBA 1st team), and Kuwait, among other domestic stops.
• Harris will wear #33.

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I’ve been fighting some inner demons when it comes to Caron Butler. I used to like me some Gilbert Arenas, but Tuff Juice was my favorite Wizard. This year that changed.

Don’t worry, this isn’t a “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out”, “Pile on Caron” type of piece. I still like the guy. Simply put, he’s an admirable human being, much less factoring what he has accomplished in making it from Racine, Wisconsin to the best basketball league in the world in the first place.

As unfathomably tragic as this entire Wizards 2009-10 season has been, the microcosm of Butler’s woes has left more of a bad taste in my mouth than anything else, harming his legacy in my opinion. But perhaps I’m being a tad dramatic and this is something I should just get over.

Still, I can’t help but thinking mostly about Butler when I hear Flip Saunders talk of trust, and a previous lack thereof, or Ernie Grunfeld talk of selfish basketball. And I know nothing can, nor should, be totally blamed on Caron — I mean, Antawn Jamison’s assists per 36 minutes was lower than Nick Young’s for crying out loud — but the night where Butler splashed his Rogue Tuff Juice all over the court came with high consequences of negative opinion.

Maybe the downfall of Butler in my eyes came as a result of gaining media access this season, which has spawned two in-depth looks at the player on the court and in the locker room.

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Despite his team just coming off a nice victory over the Bulls, Flip Saunders was curt when responding to the first query of Monday night’s post-game press conference.

“Josh Howard update?,” began a voice from the media corps.

“Knee,” Saunders deadpanned. “Know more tomorrow,” he followed. “I’m sure he’ll be out for a little bit,” the coach trailed off as he surveyed the room for the next question.

It’s hard to tell what Saunders really knew about what had been called a sprained left knee at that exact moment, judgment is usually withheld until an MRI is procured. But his demeanor regarding the subject spoke of a grim outlook, as if the worst was expected, as if the post-game diagnosis divulged a strong possibility that it was more than a sprain.

The injury turned out to be much worse than a sprain. As you probably know by now, Howard will be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. Wizards Insider reports that Saunders found out the final and official verdict about a half-hour into this morning’s practice.

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The piece below originally appeared in the February 23, 2010 edition of ESPN’s Daily Dime.

Believe it or not, Flip Saunders is a relieved man. Out the door are the failed expectations of the previously constructed team. Now he can get back to what he likes to do, teaching.

Watch the Wizards coach on the sidelines now. He’s taking time to talk to his young players immediately after subbing them out the game. He’s pointing and instructing, imploring his students to do the same with each other. It’s not like Flip wasn’t giving it his coaching all before, it’s just that now he doesn’t have to stand by while the fruits of his labor go untrusted by inflexible veterans whose play insisted they knew better.

“Well, I could always apply for a job as an air traffic controller,” said Saunders when asked how his in-game teaching has increased after the Wizards’ flurry of recent trades. Since, his team has gone 3-1, defeating the Chicago Bulls 101-95 on Monday night. “As a coach, that’s what you kind of enjoy. You live for those types of things, especially when you have a group that we have. They want to learn. So when you tell them something, they’re trusting. When you get your players to trust what you’re doing, what happens is they do it a lot more aggressively and you usually have a little better outcome.”

You wouldn’t immediately know it, but that’s a pretty damning statement about the past regime of players. When Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, and even Gilbert Arenas for a brief time were the offensive cogs, lack of trust, in terms of the system and each other, was the prevalent theme as to why a team with high pre-season expectations just wasn’t clicking. “Selfish basketball,” is the idea team president Ernie Grunfeld has opted for in several recent public statements.

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Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls are in town tonight to face the Wizards. Scroll down for a couple pre-game photos and keep going for some must-read links.

Al Thornton and Quinton Ross getting to know each other.

Jannero Pargo

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I never hid the fact that I was a big fan of Darius Songaila when he was with the Wizards. I wouldn’t call it a man-crush, as Mike Miller once professed (via Twitter) for LeBron James, but let’s just say that I really hated to see Songaila go as part of the Mike Miller-Randy Foye/Etan Thomas-Oleksiy Pecherov-5th Pick (Ricky Rubio) trade with Minnesota this past summer.

Darius is an under-appreciated basketball player, and unfortunately, was under-appreciated by many Wizards fans. Not sure how people could not like a big man who set hard screens, displayed fundamentals that should make JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche jealous, hit outside jumpers, and who did pretty much anything asked without question.

Are injuries abundant and you need Darius to guard, say, Dwight Howard? No problem coach. Caron Butler also loved him some Darius Songaila … whatever that means at this point.

Thank god Songaila didn’t get stuck in Minnesota. A couple of months after acquiring him, the Timberwolves sent Songaila and Bobby Brown to New Orleans for Darius’ former teammate, Antonio Daniels, and a 2014 second round pick. New Orleans, an already financially strapped team, obviously thought highly enough of Songaila to acquire his extra year of contract ($4.8 million in 2010-11) for the expiring contract of Daniels. New Orleans also had a need for front-court depth.

Songaila recently sprained his ankle and is slated for be out for around two weeks. But before that, he was averaging 7.2 points, 49.7 FG% and 3.0 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game on the season. Songaila was even becoming a more valuable player off the bench for the Hornets, his minutes per game climbing from 16.1 in November to 18.0 in December to 20.1 in January to 25.0 in seven February games.

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[Editor's Note: Rashad Mobley has reported on the Wizards with media credentials since the 2008-09 season for Hoops Addict. He occasionally contributes to Truth About It.net, providing excellent analysis and a different perspective from his up-close coverage of the team.]

Less than 24 hours after he arrived in Washington D.C., newly-acquired Washington Wizards forward Al Thornton held court in front of the locker previously occupied by DeShawn Stevenson.  He had just led his team in scoring with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and the Wizards defeated the playoff-bound Denver Nuggets.  Under normal circumstances, the members of the media would be focusing on how he was able to score so easily, or how hectic things had been for him recently.

But that wasn’t completely the case.

In addition to the aforementioned 21 points, Thornton had four blocked shots, played tight defense on Carmelo Anthony, and it was seemingly contagious, as the Wizards held the Nuggets to just 15 fourth quarter points.

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