[Trevor Booker snatches a pre-game warm-up rebound away from teammate Corsley Edwards.]

What exactly does Trevor Booker do? That’s the question.

Booker’s summer league stats don’t jump off the page. In 28.2 minutes over five games he averaged 8.2 points on 51.6-percent shooting, 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals, one block, 0.6 assists and 2.6 turnovers. His best game came in the finale against the New York Knicks when John Wall, JaVale McGee and Raymar Morgan didn’t play — he tallied 15 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals in 31 minutes.

After game three against the Dallas Mavericks, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever wrote, “I’m getting a bit concerned that the Wizards don’t exactly know what to do with Trevor Booker, aka ‘Grown-Ass Man,’ on offense.”

And while it’s not yet time to elevate the levels of concern, it should be curious that Booker was not often able to assert himself when the Wizards had the ball. He had a couple nice dunks. Let’s watch real quick ….

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I finally made it back to D.C. from Las Vegas after a bit of travel adventure. Below is John Wall’s Summer League ‘exit interview’ video, if you will, and below that is a recap of his time in Vegas that I wrote for ESPN’s Daily Dime on Sunday. More follow-ups on the Summer League to come.

The hype surrounding John Wall has been akin to a well-crafted campaign by Don Draper of “Mad Men,” as good as advertised. His product, basketball-speaking, was flying off the shelves during a four-game stint at the 2010 NBA Las Vegas Summer League, but he performed better than expected in areas that don’t require physical talents, such as leadership and communication.

Wall sat out of the Wizards’ fifth and final game on Saturday, a 109-107 overtime loss to the New York Knicks, Washington’s only defeat of the summer. Afterward, Wall cited tendinitis in both knees as the need to rest, something the 19-year-old said he’s always dealt with.

But Wall’s fans need not worry. He will be healthy, and he will be more than relevant on the NBA scene. Cast aside notions of “it’s just summer league”; this kid has proved he has the mental capacity to succeed.

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[John Wall talks about overcoming offensive struggles (he recognizes that he's trying to fade too much and isn't holding the follow-through on his jumper) and his 18 point third quarter on Friday night en route to an 90-89 Wizards win over New Orleans (his team as a whole wasn't making shots, so he pushed the issue by focusing on getting to the basket). More on the game below the video.]

One of the most oft-said/written phrases I’ve heard while in Vegas isn’t, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” No, “It’s just summer league,” has been drilled into our heads.

And we get it. At least those familiar with the NBA get it. We know about Marcus Banks’ 42 points in 2007, and Nokoloz Tskitishvili’s 25.7 ppg that led the league in 2004, and how summer league success has translated for Washington’s own Nick Young, or not.

Sure, summer games can come with heavy doses of AAU ball, but with players actually wanting to play defense more and for longer stretches of time — a lot of these below the cusp guys realize they need to butter their potential NBA bread on the defensive end of the floor.

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[The yell after the dunk.]

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it by now, JaVale McGee’s monster dunk over New Orleans’ Kyle Hines in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game. It was pretty damn insane … and definitely would have been nice to see. I was right there, mere feet away taking pictures from the baseline. And right there in my way was the referee. Thankfully in this day and age there is a YouTube, so let’s take another watch.

[video courtesy of @jose3030]

After the game McGee spoke about his dunk, saying, “I surprised myself to tell you the truth. I thought I was going to dunk it, but I ain’t think … I felt like the rim was at my waist.”

In the video below, McGee also credits the Hornets’ Sean Sonderlieter, depicted as “that white guy with the hair down to here,” as being the spark that ignited the Wizards’ third quarter where they outscored New Orleans 30-16. Evidently Sonderlieter said something to John Wall after he expressed his excitement over a Trevor Booker blocked shot. “Everybody just jumped on that guy’s back. We just all came as one and everybody just started going crazy. We all just started feeding off each other,” said McGee.

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[Cartier Martin, with hand raised to the right, sets up behind the three-point line.]

“Not as terrible as one would expect,” reads one of only two IMDb user reviews for The Cartier Affair, the 1984 made-for-TV movie Wizards G/F Cartier Martin was named after.

The weighted average of this romantic crime comedy starring the Hoff, Joan Collins, and Telly Savalas sits at a 4.9 (out of 10).  19.4% of voters rated it a 10, 20.9% rated it a 5, and the remaining votes were scattered across the scale.  The Cartier Affair was best enjoyed, on average, by males aged 18-29 and females aged 45 and older – rating the flick a 7.4 and an 8.5 respectively.  Digressing no further (because this demographic inspection is only mildly interesting to me and not applicable to my hoops analysis), the critique “not as terrible as one would expect” applies to Cartier Martin, too.

At first glance, his career stats (in 51 total NBA games with the Bobcats, Warriors, and Wizards) don’t pop off the page.

MINS: 12.9
FG%: .366
3P%: .329
FT%: .800
STL: 0.4
BLK: 0.1
TO: 0.5
PF: 1.6
REB: 2.0
AST: 0.6
PTS: 4.5

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[Rodrigue Beaubois stands annoyed after another foul was called on him.]

Before the game I ran my mouth off to just about anyone who would listen at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion that I was intrigued by the Roddy-Wall match-up, clearly, a Samhan-McGee ‘opposites attract’ battle, and finally, perhaps Hamady N’diaye versus Moussa Seck in a Senegalese throw down.

Well, Beaubois couldn’t do anything but foul Wall and was switched off him, the newly acquired Ian Mahinmi started for Dallas and mostly guarded JaVale, and Seck didn’t even see the court. Damn the summer league (just kidding, I love you).

Two things are below: 1) quick post-game chats with John Wall, Rodrigue Beaubois and Dominique Jones in video form; and 2) the second piece by Arish Narayen, a contributor to Truth About It. Arish previously broke down the Wizards’ small forward situation. Here he takes a look at summer league game three against the Mavericks.

Post Game 3:

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JaVale McGee has played with a bunch of NBA point guards, if you use that term liberally. Gilbert Arenas, Randy Foye, Earl Boykins, Dee Brown, Mike James, Javaris Crittenton — not exactly the most pass-first bunch. Aside from a brief time spent receiving the ball from Shaun Livingston, McGee has mostly had to look out for himself on offense.

OK, that’s taking some liberties given that many of McGee’s non-dunk field goal attempts mimic a game of hot potato. This is largely of his own, impatient design. Still, he’s never played alongside the capabilities of someone like John Wall, a player who relishes in the assist.

“I know at least two out of three times I roll, I’m going to be getting the ball or he’s going to throw it up at the rim or he’s going to draw everybody to him when he lays it up, and I’m going to score and get the rebound,” McGee said after the Wizards’ 88-82 win over the Mavericks on Thursday evening.

But it’s not just about scoring opportunities for McGee; it’s about Wall’s ability to get those to rally around his energy and passion, also known as leadership. “When we go out there, we’re just together,” McGee said. “Everybody is just amped up because of his leadership and the way he’s amped up.”

“They loved to get assists; they both like to make everyone else on the team happy,” newest Wizard Hilton Armstrong said when asked what he knew about Wall’s game, considering his time with Chris Paul in New Orleans.

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Here are my favorites of the photos I took during Monday’s summer league game against the Clippers, check photos from game one against the Warriors here. Wizards vs. Mavericks tonight at 8 pm est.

It starts with a John Wall pre-game dunk.

And then a jumper against former Kentucky teammate Eric Bledsoe.

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When Omar Samhan came to work out for the Wizards, I was impressed by his personality and character. How could I not be? He took the time to shake the hand of every media member after he was interviewed. In fact, because of his laurels coming into that May 13th appearance, a Sweet Sixteen 2010 NCAA Tournament run with 10-seed Saint Mary’s, I had a post focusing on Samhan before and after his Washington audition.

Samhan left attending members of the D.C. media hoping the Wizards would draft him, or at least that they’d put him on their summer league roster. But alas, it wasn’t mean to be. The Wiz won the lottery, John Wall, and the need for freak athletes to match Wall’s transition speed became the preference. Samhan is a skilled big with great footwork and hustle, but he’s far from NBA quick, conditioning being the area most teams are telling him to work on.

Although ultimately undrafted, Samhan did make it to Vegas on the Dallas Mavericks roster. Unfortunately for him, the Mavs have since acquired a number of big men (Ian Mahinmi, Tyson Chandler and Alexis Ajinca), which likely leaves Omar out of Mark Cuban’s shuffle. But he doesn’t let that change his spirit or hard work on the court. By the way, Dallas plays Washington tonight at 8 pm EST, giving Wiz fans a chance to see how Samhan fares against their team’s young bigs.

While here, TrueHoop Network Mavs blogger, Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game, worked through the Dallas PR folks to arrange an exclusive interview with Samhan, which included taking a ride on the New York-New York Casino roller coaster. Rob needed a photographer/videographer (of the Flip Cam variety) for his piece and I was more than happy to go along. I mean, how many times would I get the chance to ride a roller coaster with NBA hopeful Omar Samhan? And I’m not even a roller coaster guy (I don’t think Samhan is either).

Go to The Two Man Game to check out the fruits of our labor — well, it was all Rob, he wrote an outstanding profile on Samhan. So what are you waiting for?

Here are some pictures I took during the Wizards’ summer league debut against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday … my favs (that I’ve yet to already post).

To start, John Wall.

This is how you avoid having the ball hit you in the face after a pre-game dunk.

Corsley Edwards gets up.

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I’ve taken a bunch of pictures while at summer league. The more the merrier is what I say. And I’ll have more to come soon, but the one below is my favorite so far. It was taken just after the Wizards played their second game against the Clippers. The photo is a little blurry because it was taken with more motion (from me and the subjects) than I’d planned for, but I think it turned out just fine. Notice the serious looks on the faces of Flip Saunders on the left and Sam Cassell to the barely right, as if “it’s just summer league.” And then notice how John Wall is just enjoying life.

[Editor's note: I would like to welcome Rashad Mobley to the staff of TAI. Rashad has covered the Wizards with media credentials over the past two seasons for HoopsAddict.com. He's also written several guest posts on this site. Now, I'm excited to announce that Rashad will be bringing his writing skills to TAI full-time. And for his debut as 'officially' official, he dives further into Nick Young's one game in Vegas. Enjoy. -Kyle]

[Nick Young gains separation from Trey Johnson
heading toward a screen from Corsley Edwards.]

Last Thursday when the Washington Wizards PR staff allowed bloggers and writers to watch mini-camp practice, I had some things I expected to see.  I expected to see up and down play from John Wall;  I expected to see JaVale McGee and Hamady N’Diaye doing friendly battle in the post;  and I definitely expected to see Sam Cassell barking instructions out  because, well..that’s what’s Cassell does.

But I can honestly say that I did not expect to see Nick Young on that practice court.  Yet there he was, taking passes from Wall in stride and launching jumpers, playing pressure defense, and matching the intensity of players not guaranteed a roster spot like he seemingly is.

Young did not talk to the media after that particular practice, so it was up to Flip Saunders to shed light as to why Young was there, and whether he’d play in the summer league.

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Ira Winderman of the Miami Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Juwan Howard is close to signing with the Miami Heat (H/T to Slam). Finally, after all these years, Juwan will be playing for Pat Riley and the Heat. When the agreement goes through, as pointed out by Winderman, it will mark almost 14 years to the day when Howard signed a $100-plus million contract with Miami, which was later voided by the NBA, granting Howard a return to the Washington Bullets.

I wrote extensively about Howard’s tumultuous tenure in Washington (and 1996 flirtation with Miami) back in April. Him going to the Heat now seems kind of weird, an anti-poetic justice (for Washington fans, not so much for Miami fans). And even though Howard’s agent, David Falk, said the “Cold War” between him and the Wizards was over back in mid-June, he’s surely taking some devious satisfaction over the late Abe Pollin’s former franchise that he’s finally ushered Howard to South Beach to win a championship.

And I suppose this also means that the proctologist has finally removed the NBA’s 17-foot pole from Pat Riley’s rear.

A home for Shaun Livingston?

K.C. Johnson of Chicago Breaking Sports is reporting that the Chicago Bulls have had internal discussions about adding Shaun Livingston to their roster to backup Derrick Rose (H/T to Bulls Confidential and @ShamSports).

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You know Clipper Darrell, right? He’s the famed fan of the Los Angeles Clippers who, according to his website, has attended 385 straight Clipper home games. He was even once recruited by Mark Cuban to come to Dallas and become Maverick Darrell. Unfortunately for Cuban, Clipper Darrell is faithful to his team, which means, of course, he and his multi-colored suit made the short trek to Las Vegas to support the Clip Show in the 2010 NBA Summer League.

[Hilton Armstrong with his last NBA team, the Houston Rockets.]

Hilton Armstrong you say? Hilton Armstrong I say.

The Wizards have signed him to a 1-year deal for the veteran’s minimum of $992,680. I suspected something might be up as I stood watching the conclusion of the Mavericks-Bucks game, awaiting the Wizards-Clippers game. Armstrong was exchanging pleasantries with Wizards personnel, including Flip Saunders and VP of basketball administration Tommy Sheppard, that were much beyond a “Hi, how ya doin’?” Not long after, news of the signing made its way around the gym.

How should you feel about Armstrong? Well, let’s read a bit of what others have written about him.

ESPN.com’s John Hollinger, prior to the 2009-10 season: Read more »