Nick Young and Gilbert Arenas were close … still are. When Arenas was traded, before he left town as quickly as a plane could carry him to Orlando, he knocked on Young’s door to tell him the news, and a goodbye. He didn’t even say goodbye to his family (and now we kind of know why), but still … point is, Nick and Gil were a close pair of teammates. Here’s a link to Young talking about Arenas before the Wizards played the Miami Heat on the day of the trade.

Midway through pre-game warm-ups before tip-off of Arenas’ return to Washington as a member of the Orlando Magic, a basketball “mysteriously” went astray from the other side of the floor, bouncing right near Arenas. None other than Young surfaced to claim the errant ball, smile on his face and eager to catch up with his friend. Below are a couple pictures of their encounter…

Gilbert Arenas’ tenure as a Washington Wizard, on the court and off, will be remembered in a variety of ways. Some long ago formed a set opinion of him, even before the gun incident. For others, that incident tainted his legacy in D.C. forever. Some choose to mostly remember the fun Gil, the one who hit game-winning shots, led his team to wins, and blogged in a fun manner about it all. Still others, such as myself, continue to digest the meaning of his time with the team, and all the extras.

It’s been done before to certain degrees and from certain angles, and yet there is still plenty of time to further contemplate Arenas and the Wizards. But tonight, as Gilbert makes his first return to Washington as a member of the Orlando Magic, it’s time to look back upon his last official act as a Wizard — his last game against the New Jersey Nets on December 16, 2010 — and how the curiosity of his actions, and subsequent loss, is somewhat fitting, also representing just a small decomposing piece amongst the last ruins of a construction project that ultimately failed to get past the second round of the playoffs. We can’t all be champions, and that’s okay … and which is why we seek memories of good and bad otherwise.

Michael Lee had a very good feature story on the Arenas trade in today’s Washington Post. The relevant excerpt:

The deal wouldn’t have occurred without the approval of Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, who had been adamant since the summer that Arenas wasn’t “going anywhere.” Leonsis shot down a rumor a few weeks before, expressing support for Arenas.

But according to multiple league sources, Leonsis’s position changed when he started to believe Arenas no longer wanted to be in Washington. A person with knowledge of the situation said Leonsis became upset after hearing that Arenas was telling those close to him that a home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers would be his final game in a Wizards uniform and that he was likely headed to Orlando. The comment was a surprise to Leonsis, according to the source, because he was unaware of any trade discussions involving Arenas.

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Everyone probably knows a big smart ass and how it’s sometimes hard to determine when they are joking and when they are not. Or someone without a filter that contradicts themselves repeatedly in the same conversation. These are the characteristics of Gilbert Arenas and why I long ago stopped trying to comprehend Gilbertology. I do not have enough degrees to dissect his words, rather, I elect to chalk them up as “Gil being Gil.”

Gilbertology was on full display during Arenas’s lengthy radio interview on Thursday with Mike Wise and Holden Kushner on DC’s 106.7 The Fan.

Arenas discussed his thoughts on John Wall, reflected on his experience in Washington, revealed what he really told Andray Blatche, took responsibility for his mistakes, hoped Wizards’ fans will eventually forgive him, and opened up about his time in the halfway house, where he learned to play chess.

The juicy parts, since we’ve yet to hear Arenas comment on this matter, were him refuting some of the personal dirty laundry that the mother of his children and ex-finance, Laura Govan, had been airing in public. He somewhat told his side of the story and kept returning, often unprovoked, to the sore subject of his failed relationship. You could definitely tell he is knee deep in the angry, bitter stage of grief.

I created a video incorporating pictures and audio from the former agent… enjoy.

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[Brentwood Park - NW Washington, D.C. - photo: K. Weidie]

My column last week in the DCist incited some reaction from ’round the web. It wasn’t my intention to incite, rather to simply convey thought-out passion through words, so I cannot find any fault in any passionate responses. Furthermore, I’d like to provide some bullet point thoughts below (and then some links).

• “Bold moves” was in reference to the on-court product and those who have a direct influence (players, coaches, basketball operations personnel, team doctors).
• “Bold moves” was not in reference to the surrounding bells and whistles and other shots of energy regarding the franchise, which are more than welcome — Midnight Madness, an alumni association, more attentiveness to stadium needs — but overall, those are mere distractions from the win-loss column.
• Trading Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas is not classified under “bold moves” … they were necessary moves.
• Other moves have been noted and appreciated for their forward-thinking manner — getting Yi Jianlian for essentially nothing, the 17th pick and Hinrich from the Bulls for minimal returns. But also, what would the rebuilding product look without the luck of the draft and John Wall? I shudder to imagine.
• However, this team, even in rebuilding mode, had some glaring inefficiencies that were easily observed long ago. And now, they clearly have had a detrimental effect upon the on-court product — most notably, a lacking inside presence (demonstrated by both offensive and defensive numbers) and lack of adequate outside shooting (the Wizards are in the bottom third of the NBA in both 3p%, .338, and 3pM/G, 5.4). Solutions to these areas are not found overnight, but more creativity could have been used in seeking stop-gaps for this season.
• Many people, such as myself, are not GMs … but it’s evident that these player personnel issues could have been better addressed while continuing to assume minimal financial risk for the future (if not less – see: OKC trade for Daequan Cook/18th pick from Miami in return for the 32nd pick).
• A post by Washington Post editors on Wizards Insider came close to insinuating that my DCist piece was calling for Flip Saunders’ job … not necessarily the case.
• Flip Saunders is a good coach. He hasn’t been provided with the best roster — or even a balanced roster (as Saunders has made subtle complaints to this point, before and after the Gilbert Arenas trade) — so much of the blame for current and past woes lies on the basketball operations side. But the jobs of both Saunders and Ernie Grunfeld are connected, as in Grunfeld hired Saunders. On June 19, 2003, the Wizards hired Eddie Jordan before bringing Grunfeld on board on June 30 (Grunfeld was released from his contract with the Milwaukee Bucks on June 29; on June 27, he traded Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Joe Smith and Anthony Peeler) … So there are some sensitivities in which position begets the other. I’m not saying that a GM/team president ‘must’ make coaching calls, but it would help if he was in on the process, in the least.
• These are not easy decisions to make, they are “bold” decisions … but also ones which require due diligence and should not be a salve to a frustrated fan base.
• Then again, the fans have seen enough … Perhaps Grunfeld’s past record, before the Leonsis regime, is simply not as much of a factor when it should be.
• To put it another way, Flip Saunders is doing a decent job of developing some of his young players who are coach-able. Those who are not coach-able should be shown the door. But by whom? Should the responsibility of purging the team of unintelligent and unwilling players be tasked to the person who put them there in the first place? Maybe an individual is the best person to correct his own mistakes … I don’t know … but in this instance, that doesn’t seem to be the idea frame for a true rebuilding project.
• It’s not an outlandish opinion or reaction to say that certain aspects of the Wizards’ basketball operations team have gotten stale over the past seven years … but can you get rid of a GM/team president while keeping the coach? What will that do to the coach? Or the GM’s replacement?
• Again, these are not easy decisions to make, but at this point, speaking of Saunders specifically, there’s not a compelling reason to fire him in the middle of this season. As much conviction that Saunders might lack with a young team, it could be more detrimental to their development to have a shocking change of scenery as their effort in games, albeit losses, seems to be mounting … for most players at least.
• I have no problem with Groupon or with the fact that the team is using Groupon to get butts in seats — I actually think it’s a great idea — but sometimes “new age” sales tactics can be poked fun at. Oh well. Roll with the jabs.
• And yes, you do occasionally see ads for Groupon on this very site. Most of them are actually driven by Google AdSense (at least those you might see on the top-level banner or the long side banners). There are small Groupon “banners” to the right under the site’s top image and one at the very bottom of the right-hand side bar. These are simply generic Groupon place-holders which don’t necessarily display product-specific ads. Essentially, I would like to further “monetize” this site with Groupon offerings, but have personally fallen short on taking that next step. Content, not ads, is the goal. We are a small operation with day jobs. It happens.
• Ted Leonsis doing a great job and I applaud his efforts … but just as hard as rebuilding is on fans and those who cover the team, it will be just as hard on a very present owner who is trying in earnest to counteract negativity — “Pixels of Despair” — with uber-positivity.
• The bumps and bruises and tough times don’t just happen on the court … painful work now will hopefully pay off with an even better feeling about accomplishment in the future.
• But until then, we can beg to differ on certain aspects of the “process.”
• Read this, I wasn’t trying to confuse the author.

LINKS!

Gilbert Arenas evidently has a forth-coming tell-all interview with Comcast’s Chris Miller. Part one is to debut at 6 pm tonight. Here’s the teaser…

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The faces on the cardboard classics below say: “Hey man, we’re trying over here.”

I’m not sure I believe them all. Or maybe one is trying more than the others … at least as much as a frozen facial expression can indicate. But who’s trying the most? Or which player’s face from the past provides the most hope in the present for the future? Study carefully and vote in the poll below.

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I’m teetering on becoming a “one-trick pony” when it comes to Andray Blatche. Or perhaps I’m like a ground hog that just sits fat and only looks for its shadow once a year. All I know is that the boiling point with Andray’s on-court problem pertaining to the Wizards’ overall ineptitude is not just about him, and it goes far beyond my critique on this little chunk of the world wide web.

So please, allow me to apologize for whatever it is that I am apologizing for. It won’t last forever, I promise. Now, I’d like to wish you a Happy Groundhog Dray. Yes, Groundhog Dray … which I’ve found to be an appropriate nickname for Blatche on multiple levels. Harrison Goodman (@GoodmanHarrison) adds via Twitter: “Plus he usually comes out in the spring when the season is over with anyway.”

You see, today is actually Groundhog Day … and evidently Punxsutawney Phil has indicated that we will get an early spring. Would this mean that a Blatche trade is in the works before this month’s trade deadline? Well, if you gauge your weather plans by a groundhog, perhaps so.  But also know that there are a ton of groundhogs out there, such as Mountain Maryland Murray (who indicates there will be more winter, BTW),  running around doling out haphazard predictions.

Fact is, you’ll be hard-pressed to scare up a championship caliber player, coach or GM who would welcome Blatche as part of their NBA title efforts. Some sleep at night knowing that other GMs like David Kahn are still out there, but even he has his doubts.

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I spent some time last night charting the Wizards responsible for each point scored by the New Orleans Hornets as Washington fell 97-89, putting their road record on the season at 0-25. Some of the blame assignment certainly comes via judgment calls, but from watching some plays countless times, I think the chart below gives an accurate survey of the landscape.

As you can see, exactly which Wizard was responsible for how many points a specific Hornet scored is listed. The PA column indicates how many total points were allowed by each Wizard on the night; PPM indicates the points allowed per minute of court action — sure, points per possession might paint a more accurate picture, but all Wizards fans have is time … so seeing what a player does with his time on the court defensively still tells a story.

[Link to Wizards defensive charting vs. the Hornets, 2.1.2011]

Things to note: not all defense allowing points is “bad” defense.

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Andray Blatche does some good things, he does some terrible things … on the basketball court and off. He also has mounting armies of detractors and slightly less factions of defenders, who usually elect to stand on the tippy-toe of one leg in their staunch defense.

I suppose that as long as Andray Blatche is around doing Andray Blatche things, people will around to criticize and point those things out, myself included. Although, admittedly, I should be more fair in pointing out the positive things he does, i.e., I probably should not have taken a shot at him in a post about Darrell Walker’s rebounding ability. Oh well. We want Blatche to succeed, we really do, but he seems to try hard at not making that want possible through not always trying hard … you know what I mean?

His positives get over-shadowed by his negatives, by far. But that’s the bed he makes … he’s not the next Gilbert Arenas, but he is. Only Blatche can shut his critics up, not the critics themselves nor his defenders. These are the facts, just like it’s a fact that many other NBA players do not respect Blatche. Taken from something TAI’s Rashad Mobley wrote after the Wizards lost to the Chicago Bulls in Washington on Dec. 22:

“But the strongest indictment of the Blatche’s play on this night did not come from any writer, blogger or coach, but from the other locker room. As Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau finished his postgame comments and the media filtered into the visiting quarters, there was a conversation between two Bulls players about the play of Blatche.  One player observed that he played with “no feeling” during the game, and the other player said, matter-of-fact, that Blatche has always played that way throughout his career.

One player involved in that conversation left the locker room before I could follow up with him, the other declined to elaborate any further on the record.  Still, their feelings about Blatche’s lack of effort in defeat were crystal clear.”

Blatche has made Wizards fans gasp at his play plenty of times … but isn’t it about time someone from the opposing bench gasps, and not laughs, at Andray? I think so. Let’s go to the video tape … keep your eye on the Mavericks bench and your ears in tune to what the last suited gentlemen to the left is doing, the one right next to balding Brian Cardinal.

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When the name Denny Green is mentioned, the first image that comes to mind is the one you see above, and with good reason.  He’s flustered, he’s angry, he’s mumbling, and after 40 seconds or so, he stomps away from the podium.  But five years before that outburst, Green had every reason to be just as angry when he was fired by the Minnesota Vikings, despite leading them to the brink of the Super Bowl just three years earlier.  However, at his I-just-got-fired press conference, Green displayed nothing but class (with a splash of third person):

“If you’re looking for Denny Green, look on the high road, because that is where I’ll be.”

The same concept applies when examining the Washington Wizards 24th straight road loss to the Dallas Mavericks last night. It is easy, and dare I say lazy, to focus on the list of errors that led to their 102-92 defeat.  Everyone saw their 61.3-percent free throw percentage (Dallas shot 67.6-percent), the poor shooting nights for Andray Blatche and Nick Young (a combined 10-37), and the lack of a consistent go-to guy in the fourth quarter.  Those shortcomings, and others very similar to them, have been present throughout this road losing streak.

That being said,  there were plenty of positives to take away from last night’s loss, and if they are bottled up and carried into tonight’s game in New Orleans against the Hornets, perhaps the Wizards can get a win before they get loss number 25.  So join me on the high road as we examine a few positives a bit closer.

John Wall.

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[Yi Jianlian thwarts a Ty Lawson foray into the lane.]

“From the standpoint of what we’re trying to do — it’s tough to say when you’ve lost 24 in a row — but we’re doing things because we know where we were when the season started. We’re doing things based on where we’re going to be next year and in two years.” -Flip Saunders after losing to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, putting his Wizards at 0-24 on the road.

“We’re going to get one, hopefully sooner than later,” the coach eventually concluded in his post-game session with the media, as seen on Washington’s Comcast SportsNet. The Wizards are building hope on a 0-24 road record, but it is worth taking a closer look at some nuggets of development from the Wiz Kids.

Trevor Booker struggled in the stat sheet with early foul trouble in the Wizards’ 102-92 loss to the Mavericks. But he was assigned to guard Dirk Nowitzki, so 11 minutes, zero points, three rebounds, four fouls is understandable since he held his defensive ground on several possessions (but the two free-throws he missed didn’t help). Hopefully “Cook Book” added some new recipes to his defensive capability after matching up against the German All-Star, who scored 24 points on just 11 shots, because the Wizards are expecting Booker to be able to guard anything from a 3-man to versatile bigs like Nowitzki, and more. Overall, Booker’s 33 points on 14-19 shooting with 24 rebounds, three turnovers and 10 fouls over the first two games of the current four-game road trip (against Oklahoma and Memphis) is an encouraging sign toward his development and could be a threat to Andray Blatche’s minutes.

And as Blatche begins to play hurt, but sometimes make nice plays, but often regress, and usually take bad shots, but still give decent effort, sometimes, another Wizards big man has started showing up with opportunity and confidence fueled by minutes. Read more »