TOWNSEND: For all the hype about Andray Blatche, Roger Mason, Jr. is the player who impressed me most during camp. The NBA veteran was a vocal, calming presence on the floor. When you combine his leadership skills with a sweet jumper, Mason leaves little doubt he can push this roster in the right direction.

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[Jan Vesely works on his shooting form with Flip and Ryan Saunders. - photo: K. Weidie]

Many folks are naturally a bit more curious about Jan Vesely than others on this Wizards team, and that includes the likes of John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee. Reason being, not many have seen the sixth overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft in a setting outside of his role as the “Dunking Ninja” on YouTube. They want to know if he’s up to NBA snuff.

The fair warning is that expectations of Vesely should be immediately tempered. This is not to discourage potential, nor preemptively quell disappointment. It’s just that there are a myriad of factors as to why Vesely’s integration into a pro basketball team in the nation’s capital will take some time. And that’s okay. We might see a bodacious dunk or two early on, but it also might take 10-15 games (about a sixth of this shortened season) before we see Vesely truly comfortable on an NBA court. Until then, feel free to remain confident in the scouting of Vesely performed by team management which led to his draft selection. He’s got the tools, he just needs to learn how to hammer.

Video: Jan Vesely, An Integration Process

Flip Saunders and Roger Mason Jr. talk about Vesely, along with a couple shots of training camp action and comments from Jan himself.

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“I’m a better player than the last time I was here, that’s for sure,” proclaimed Roger Mason Jr. on Monday night, after the fourth day of Washington Wizards training camp. Furthermore, he said, “I’m a better player than I was in San Antonio.”

At least this is what the Wizards are hoping for, but to what degree remains to be seen. Regardless of his chances to show himself as a player, Mason knows the role he signed up for in his return stint with Washington.

“My role is just to share some of the knowledge that I’ve learned,” said Mason. ”Learning from guys like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, you know, pros… being with Amar’e Stoudemire. Those are things that I can bring to Andray Blatche, to let him know how Tim Duncan prepares for games. To let John Wall know how Tony Parker prepares for games. They won championships. So my role now is to come here and teach these guys what champions do.”

But a role as the veteran who comes off the bench in spot minutes, maybe sinks a three-pointer or two? The guy who gives an “atta-boy” as JaVale McGee comes out the game with a sour look? No. Roger Mason doesn’t want to just be that, and from what I’ve seen, he hasn’t been playing like that either.

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At the conclusion of an afternoon session on day five of training camp, Washington Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell cracked smiles while rebounding for John Wall, Jordan Crawford and Shelvin Mack as they performed a shooting drill. Cassell is about to begin his third season on the bench for the Wizards. Forever known for his personality, he doled out positive instruction to the young guards, sharing stories with Wall about a certain game in his playing career where he “killed it” and got the win. Cassell also proclaimed Crawford as the funniest dude he knew, the camaraderie among the trio being rather overt.

The three-time world champion with 15 NBA seasons under his belt is essential to the development of both guards. He’s constantly teaching the young Wizards moves and positioning. Even though Flip Saunders had this to say after practice,:

“Sam does a good job because he has good knowledge as far as played the position. One thing that’s a little bit different is that Sam played a lot different than these guys. And sometimes you have to talk to Sam because the things he wants them to do, as far as shoot mid-range shots and those type of things, that’s not what their game is. Sam’s speed has definitely never been close to those guys. So that’s one thing we gotta watch out a little bit. But he’s got a good knowledge of what to look for.”

Either way, certainly the athletic can learn something from the tactics of the non-athletic. Cassell has also enjoyed past friendly battles of one-on-one with the likes of John Wall, Nick Young and JaVale McGee. Something left in the tank is sometimes best spent on education.

Cassell’s strengths are his bubbly personality, ability to relate to young players and cerebral understanding of what it takes to succeed in the NBA. And that’s not just from 136 playoff games and numerous big shots, but he’s also played under accomplished coaches such as Rudy Tomjanovich, George Karl, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Doc Rivers and Flip Saunders. For those participating in a ‘NBA Coaches Sam Cassell Played For’ Jeopardy category at home: Jim Cleamons, John Calipari, Don Casey, Kevin McHale, and Mike Dunleavy.

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Washington Wizards Training Camp 2011: Day 4

By 7 pm on Tuesday evening, toward the end of the fifth day of training camp, the Washington Wizards will have 72 hours before their first preseason game. How NBA teams are coping with such short turn-around times is anyone’s guess, but the young Wizards have seemingly adjusted their seriousness with the abbreviated schedule. Aside from the hanging free agency status of Nick Young, this preparation experience coincides with the fewest distractions (including the distraction of expectation) that the Wizards franchise has had going into a season in a long time.

But ask most involved if they’re ready for Friday’s contest against a Philadelphia 76ers team in D.C. and a disregard for the affirmative will come back like a knee-jerk reaction. ”Uhh… No way,” Roger Mason said with a smile, “but we’re going to do the best we can. The coaches have prepared us great. The emphasis has been on defense, defense, defense.”

“I’ll tell ya in a couple days,” was Flip Saunders’ response, playing down the importance of Friday’s game in terms of basketball judgement and playing up the gauge of game conditioning it will be. Although, Chris Singleton seemed very ready to go against an opponent instead of a teammate. Plenty of anxiousness to go around either way, but it’s evident that this inexperienced squad is aware of the work ahead. Let’s take a look at some of the action in motion pictures…

What you will see:

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 [Not many breaks for the weary -- photo: K. Weidie]

The third day of Washington Wizards training camp entailed a spirited scrimmage toward the latter stages of Sunday evening. JaVale McGee showcased nifty jump hooks, John Wall finished at the rim with ease, and Roger Mason Jr. flashed his superb shooting ability by drilling numerous long-range shots. The weekend two-a-day practices were taking a visible toll on the team, however, as Andray Blatche sat out of portions with cramps, Kevin Serpahin played with a wrap on his shoulder, and players labored through their final conditioning drills. McGee sarcastically mentioned afterward that compact schedule was different than camps of the past, and “Pierre” relayed a similar sentiment on Twitter.

The mood conveyed to the assembled media was one of leadership and workmanship. Blatche again discussed his pre-lockout meeting with Flip Saunders about being a leader. And while Dray again hilariously could not recall the name of the book Flip gave him to read, he did recite the literary themes quite well. McGee said that he sees himself coming into his own as a leader. Saunders praised the leadership skills of veterans Rashard Lewis, Mason Jr. and the new addition, Ronny Turiaf. There is no training camp motto this year like 2010′s “Back to Basics” or 2009′s “Our Time.” The construction hard hat given out after each practice to the hardest worker symbolizes the no frills approach.

McGee described the new business-like atmosphere:

“I feel we came into this camp…..and forget all the hype, make up a motto and all that stuff, just get to work and do what you do.”

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Talk is cheap, and perhaps so is reading. And in retrospect, all the electronic pixels and printed typeface in the world can be just as meaningless as spoken words, as they pertain to future promises and the game of basketball.

Thus, people will readily point out that this is at least the fourth consecutive year of corner-turning expectations for Andray Blatche. Some have given up on him. Some continue to have hope. What’s evident is that he might finally break through toward a specific destination of achievement, or he won’t.

In his post lockout press conference, Washington Wizards coach Flip Saunders mentioned that he and team VP of basketball administration Tommy Sheppard gave Blatche a book on leadership this summer, before the lockout. When asked about that book at training camp this past weekend, Blatche could neither remember the book’s title, nor much of the leadership advice it offered.

“I only read like half of it, because after a while, it was like, ‘OK, alright, I got the message,’” Blatche said with a sheepish grin on his face. He went on to talk about the standards of leading by example and making those around him better. This piggy-backed words from Blatche reflecting that he now has become tired of not being a leader, tired of being on a team more known for goofiness, and tired of playing losing basketball.

“Playing around haven’t gotten us no where,” Blatche said. “All the games is out. I’m 25-years old now, this is my seventh year in the league. This is my time for me to step up and try to have guys follow me on the path I want to go. And the path I want to go is winning… just the total opposite of last season.”

For what it’s worth, Saunders couldn’t remember the title of the book either.

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In the midst of training camp, just three days since it commenced, four days until the first preseason game, and exactly two weeks until the beginning of the regular season, the Washington Wizards are running toward the beginning.

Rashad Mobley, John C. Townsend and I represented Truth About It.net in an ESPN 5-on-5 regarding the Wizards today. Along with Brett Koremenos of HoopSpeak.com and Mike Wallace of ESPN.com, we attempted to answer five questions:

1. For which Wizards player is the 2011-12 season most important?
2. Who is the most intriguing player on the Wizards’ roster?
3. What’s the most surprising take in John Hollinger’s Wizards profiles?
4. Based on Hollinger’s profiles, what do the Wizards need most?
5. Will a shortened season help or hurt the Wizards?

Click here to read the ESPN.com 5-on-5 about the Wizards, and then vote in the poll below for which player has the most important upcoming season.

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On Saturday, December 10, the Washington Wizards went through their second day of training camp, fielding an incomplete roster of 16 invitees. Ronny Turiaf was acquired, but had yet to arrive; Hamady N’diaye was signed the next day, Sunday; and the statuses of Nick Young and Maurice Evans continued to be in limbo. The media was given access to the very latter portion of the day’s work, past 8 pm on a Saturday evening in Chinatown as the Wizards prepared for their first NBA basketball game action since April 13, a preseason match this Friday, December 16 against the Philadelphia 76ers in Washington.

The session open to media on the Verizon Center practice court involved two small sets of scrimmaging. One pitted a White team of John Wall (#2), Jordan Crawford (#15), Rashard Lewis (#9), Andray Blatche (#7), and Kevin Seraphin (#13) versus a Blue team of Mike Wilks (#29), Mardy Collins (no number), Larry Owens (#32), Aaron Petway (#52), and JaVale McGee (#34). The second featured a white team of Wall, Roger Mason Jr. (#8), Owens, Blatche, and Petway versus a Blue team of Shelvin Mack (#22), Crawford, Lewis, Jan Vesely (#24), and Chris Singleton (#31).

Things you will see in the video below (in relative order of appearance):

• John Wall working on his jumper.
• JaVale McGee still developing awareness in the post (especially when Jordan Crawford aggressively double teams).
• McGee working on a spinning baseline lefty hook from the left block — it comes up short, but now is the time to work on such moves. Not many will be able to contest if he can progress in jump hook shot comfort with both hands.
• Crawford hitting a running hook in the lane over McGee.
• Shelvin Mack working on his decision-making. One mistake: passing to Crawford in the left corner with the lane open for him to penetrate to the hoop. Crawford made the tough corner step-back over Roger Mason Jr. anyway.
• Jumpers from Larry Owens, Rashard Lewis (“Sweet Lew!”), and Mason Jr.
• Kevin Seraphin trying to learn court vision from the post (he makes a turnover on a cross-court pass), and trying to learn how to balance spacing and a power dribble on a pick-and-roll.
• Andray Blatche trying not to lose the ball in the post, and then showing off his usual passing skills to Aaron Petway for a dunk.
• Mack using a hesitation dribble against Wall, using a slow-down dribble to get the defender on his back, and ultimately finding a cutting Chris Singleton, who draws a foul attacking the basket.
• Wall finding Blatche for a cut and dunk against Singleton.
• Mardy Collins splitting Seraphin’s weak help on a ball screen and finding Petway for a dunk.
• With the blue team down 12-11 in the final scrimmage, Shelvin Mack missing a jumper at the buzzer.

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[UPDATE ON TRADE, via Washington Wizards press release: "...they have acquired forward/center Ronny Turiaf, a 2013 second round pick and cash considerations from the New York Knicks along with a 2012 second round pick from the Dallas Mavericks.  The three-team deal also sends Tyson Chandler, the rights to Ahmad Nivins and the rights to Giorgos Printezis from Dallas to New York while the Mavericks will receive Andy Rautins from the Knicks and a 2012 protected second round pick from the Wizards." NOTE: cash considerations is likely $3 million, max allowed by rule.]

Accountability. That’s exactly what Ronny Turiaf brings to the Washington Wizards as they finalize a trade for the 6-10, 245 lbs. big man with the New York Knicks. Accountability and, per the video above, crazy reactions. Oh, and also, Ernie Grunfeld once again uses cap space to make out like a bandit, so it seems.

Turiaf is a 28-year old veteran (29 in January) of six NBA seasons and 358 games. In terms of size (between 6-9 and 6-11), experience (over 300 NBA games, 30 or younger), and the statistical metric, PER (between 14.2 and  14.4), Turiaf’s career could compare to the likes of Danny Schayes, Mel Turpin, LaSalle Thompson, Jahidi White or Jeff Foster. [stats via Basketball-Reference.com]

Okay, so those comparisons aren’t exactly ones to get enthused over. But what do you expect? All of the aforementioned were serviceable bench big men at one time or another in their careers, but with Turiaf, there are caveats. First, a disclaimer: Marc Berman of the New York Post is reporting that the Knicks would not receive anything in return. In fact, they might be paying the Wizards to take Turiaf off their hands. Why? New York is about to sign Tyson Chandler, and they would like to clear Turiaf’s $4.36 million salary off of their books. That salary only lasts through this 2011-12 season. The Washington Post’s Michael Lee reports on Twitter that the Wizards are possibly giving up a second round draft pick, but that could easily be similar to the non-conditional pick Grunfeld gave the Sacramento Kings for taking Dominic McGuire’s salary off Washington’s hands in February 2010 (and the Wizards under the salary cap at the time).

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Training camp is set to begin today for the Washington Wizards. Actually, it’s starting right about as I hit ‘publish’ on this post. Roger Mason Jr. is your newest Wizard, Mo Evans might be set to return, and Nick Young… well, we’re not quite sure yet. Could be a couple days.

Aaron Pettway and Mardy Collins have been invited to camp, per Craig Stouffer, on top of previously reported invitee, and former Wizard, Mike Wilks.

The TAI team will do our best to cover training camp happenings, but we are also old cats with regular jobs, and other stuff. For instance, Adam McGinnis and I coach a Boys & Girls club basketball team (10-11 year old boys), and we have a game this evening that might preclude attendance at tonight’s initial training camp media section. Another TAI regular, Rashad Mobley, is very close to celebrating the birth of a new child. So, Wizards basketball will come. In the meantime, a couple of training camp musings…

Leadership of John Wall?

One training camp question that Mike Prada posed on SB Nation is ‘How is John Wall relating to his teammates?’ The idea is to hope Wall becomes even more vocal as the team leader. Personally, I feel he will be just fine in this regard. It brings me back to Wall’s very first NBA summer league game in July 2010. Right off the bat, he certainly wasn’t bashful about imploring JaVale McGee to rebound the ball with two hands. Since, there have been countless observed instances of Wall being vocal, barking court orders to his teammates.

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[Editor's Note: Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow on Twitter) lives in Slovakia, was born in Czechoslovakia, and is TAI's correspondent for all things Jan Vesley, monitoring the Czech media for coverage of their new star and the Washington Wizards rookie-to-be. Today, Lukas translates a recent Q&A with Vesely from iDNES.cz. -Kyle W.]

[You like my plaid shirt? Then you'll LOVE my 'serious' plaid shirt face.]

What delayed your Prague-Copenhagen-Washington, D.C. flight?

They wanted to know an address where I‘m going to stay, so I had to call my agent and ask him what’s the address of the hotel where I’m gonna live. Actually, I’m homeless now. I have to find an apartment [in D.C.]. My girlfriend is going to come on Christmas. Those two weeks I can hold out without her.

What are your feelings prior to the departure for the first season in the NBA? Read more »

[Roger Mason Jr. - via Flickr/Keith Allison]

It’s now being widely reported that Roger Mason Jr. — native son of D.C., attendee of Sidwell Friends/Good Counsel, UVA Cavalier — will soon sign with the Washington Wizards, making it his second stint with the team. Teams can officially sign players at 2 pm on Friday, just before training camp is scheduled to commence. The Post’s Michael Lee reports that Mason will be in Washington, ready to join the team.

How do I feel about this? Iffy, yet content. For one, the signing fits the Ernie Grunfeld mold. The Wizards team president values the presence of veterans, and even though the Wizards hopefully aren’t promising Mason too much court action, nor are overpaying him (the veteran’s minimum, they say, which is just fine), Washington likely offers Mason the most comfort and opportunity over other potential suitors. The Boston Celtics were also said to be interested in Mason; in that situation, Roger might’ve easily found himself relegated to those spillover seats behind the bench, following the inactive dress code, and wondering how and why.

Washington it will be, in an existence of factual acceptance. Speaking of facts, below are some stats regarding the player. While I’m less than enthused about a Roger Mason Jr. signing, in the end I can’t help but welcome back the hometown guy in hopes that he will revitalize the sun-setting of his career, as he turned 31 in September, and I am about 10 weeks older. Read more »

McGee vs. Duncan in the Phone Booth? Not going to happen. [photo: K. Weidie]

Crafty spin moves by Dirk in D.C.? Don’t count on it. [photo: K. Weidie]

The Monday after Thanksgiving, just two days after David Stern and Billy Hunter posed together in the middle of the night indicating that a handshake deal was bringing back in the NBA, I found myself face-to-face with a co-worker. Prior to that deal, this co-worker would pick my brain daily, seeing if I knew when the NBA would resume. I’d refer him to ESPN True Hoop for daily coverage, and I’d do my best to tell him to stay optimistic, but I ultimately I was just as clueless.

Speaking with this co-worker on that Monday morning, the conversation went from the lockout to who the Washington Wizards would play. Being a fan of the Dallas Mavericks, he was excited at the prospect of seeing the NBA champions in Washington on January 10th (per the old schedule). I tried to tell him that the old schedule — even the games from January on — meant nothing with the slate shrinking to 66 games, but he was convinced he would still be able to see his Mavs.

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The abbreviated 66-game schedule of the Washington Wizards was released on Tuesday evening (also listed at the bottom of this post). They start with the New Jersey Nets at home on December 26 and end at home against the Miami Heat on April 26. The four months in-between packs in a lot of action, and even more questions. Beckley Mason, John Townsend and Kyle Weidie answer three of them.

Q1: What stretch of games will pose the toughest challenge for the Wizards?

MASON: The March 13-21 road swing looks brutal. San Antonio, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, New Jersey… Mercy! Each team, besides perhaps New Jersey and New Orleans if they deal Chris Paul, should have a winning record. Given how weak the Wizards were on the road last year, it’s tough to imagine the Wizards emerging from that gauntlet with even their luggage intact.

TOWNSEND: The February road trip will be a challenge, an obvious choice given the Wizards won just three games away from home last season; though it might be worth noting that the 2010-11 Wizards won their first road game in February, a 115-110 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. The Wizards are scheduled to play five road games in eight days: beginning in Detroit on February 12, followed by a back-to-back in Portland and Los Angeles (Clippers), and capped off with games in Utah and Phoenix.

WEIDIE: Three straight games, lots of miles. Flight to Portland after a Sunday evening game in Detroit against the Pistons: 2,400 miles. Flight to Los Angeles from Portland after a game against the Blazers on Tuesday (Valentine’s Day on the road = lonely): 1,000 miles. After a matchup against Blake Griffin and the Clippers in LA on Wednesday, the Wizards still have two games left on a West Coast swing (Utah and Phoenix).

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