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via Mike James’ Twitter …
{via Ned Dishman, WashingtonWizards.com}
Well … the preseason ended on a poor note Friday in Chicago. Meh. At least the Wizards’ preseason mantra of “It’s just the preseason” can no longer be used … cheers all around.
Flip Saunders on preparing for the last game of the preseason, the ‘Swine Flu’ back-court he will start against the Bulls on Friday, and getting Andray Blatche into his role of coming off the bench.
Brendan Haywood on getting Gilbert Arenas and Mike Miller back from the flu and the Wizards’ ‘Window of Opportunity’.
“So far so good. You know, still gambling a little bit after looking at some film. But, it’s still preseason … just trying to focus in on the rotation for the most part, getting to spots, talking and communicating as much as possible. And … so far so good.”
Overall, I was impressed by the Wizards’ performance in Philadelphia on Tuesday night (aside from the ending), especially in response to Flip Saunders openly calling the team out on a disappointing performance in Atlanta on Monday. But …
The Wizards need to improve on defense, right? From watching Tuesday’s game, I was able to make some observations on focus and technique in areas where some individuals can stand to improve. I’ve illustrated these observation in screen shots below.
Caron wants to be a better defender? Well, there are some simple things he could be doing that he’s not doing. Let’s illustrate …
Last night’s 90-89 win against the Sixers in Philly got a bit goofy toward the end. After the game, Flip Saunders said, “That’s what they call a learning experience,” which sort of means, ‘We better not pull any of that B.S. during a regular season game.’
What exactly did Flip see? Well, let’s start with JaVale McGee.
I almost knew it was going to happen when I saw McGee snag a loose ball with a tie game, around 16 seconds left, and an open court with only one man to beat.
He thought he could try to be a hero. A true WTF moment.
Lost amongst the mucky sounds and words regarding last night’s stinker versus the Hawks was this sweet ‘JaVale McGee block, Mike James recovery, pass to Nick Young who tips, gathers, and throws the ball off the glass for a McGee dunk’ combo [via Bethlehem Shoals at The Baseline].
Just watch …
Also, Comcast SportsNet has been doing a ‘My Life 365‘ series on Caron Butler.
Here’s a preview …
{flickr/Rick Austin}
Well, I started off trying to listen to the Wizards versus Hawks on DC’s 106.7 The Fan via the Internet. I heard some Randy Foye turnovers, heard him jack some threes and heard him get his shot blocked going to the rack (Foye led the NBA last season with a fifth of all of his inside shots being blocked).
I also heard the Hawks rain threes (4-4) and the Wizards turn the ball over some more (Andray Blatche had three). And this was all in the first quarter as Atlanta took a 35-18 lead.
Thankfully, technical difficulties spared me from listening to the rest as it only seemed to go downhill from there. The most telling stat(s) from the game? The Wizards’ plus/minus leaders were: Paul Davis +5, Vincent Grier +5, JaVale McGee +4, and Mike James +3.
But hey, at least the guy whose struggles I chronicled earlier on Monday had his strongest effort of the preseason. James finished with six points, four rebounds, eight assists and zero turnovers in 24 minutes.
The battle for Wizards starting shooting guard is crucial. The backup power forward spot almost just as much, especially with Antawn Jamison nursing injury and little to show in terms of front court depth. The backup point guard position, however, is a relatively unheralded story.
The talented and rock-steady Randy Foye is thought by many to be the favorite to spell Gilbert Arenas. Foye is also in the mix to play off the ball some. But, there’s already quite a crowd competing at shooting guard with Mike Miller, DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young and even Caron Butler factoring in.
And then there’s Mike James. With Javaris Crittenton currently out with a foot injury and an unknown timetable for return, some of the competition at point has been eliminated … or at least postponed. But with two DNPs in five preseason games, is James being given a fair shake?
“The only way you can really assess yourself is by playing … I got two DNPs in preseason,” James said after Friday’s practice. “Whether it’s fair or not, I’m not the coach, so I can’t say. All I can say is the opportunities I have, I gotta take advantage of them, weather they’re short or not.”
There was a larger than usual media contingent at the Wizards’ practice this afternoon. I can’t really say this with conviction since it was only my second time attending a practice, but let’s just say there was a presence on a national level. And we’re talking about practice.
Waiting to be let into the gym, I surveyed the media scene. A bunch evil, lazy looking mofos … with daggers in their eyes and hate in their blood. Of course, I’m being extremely facetious here. But in the eyes of Gilbert Arenas, that’s what they are. Ok, again, I must confess, I’m putting words in Arenas’ mouth … but he did call the media “lazy.”
Arenas spoke in such a sullen and somber tone, he seemed like a kid who’d just lost his puppy. I halfway expected him to break out in a smile, but he didn’t. I know I broke out a couple uncontrollable smirks myself. When Arenas was done, he just quietly put his head down and walked to the locker room.
Here’s an excerpt of his presser …
I later spoke with Mike James about the differences between Agent Media and Agent Teammate: Read more »
{flickr/Ben Chau}
H1N1, much less the ‘regular’ flu, ain’t no joke. How do we know? Because the media tells us so.
LeBron James, Darnell Jackson, and Coby Karl missed Wednesday’s game against the Wizards with the flu … they weren’t even allowed in the Quicken Loans Arena.
Turns out each of them tested positive for ‘Influenza A’ and are awaiting the results of an H1N1 test.
Also turns out that three Cavaliers who were on the court against the Wizards, Jawad Williams, J.J. Hickson and Andre Barrett, showed flu-like symptoms on Thursday. Hickson and Barrett did not travel with the team to Texas to face the Spurs, Williams did … as reported by Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Twitter, and later in a story by Mary Schmitt Boyer in the same publication.
As you can imagine, there’s a great deal of contact and sweat exchanged during the course of a game. So should the Wizards be concerned?
The Wizards beat the Cavaliers last night. The Cavs were without LeBron James, Mo Williams and Delonte West (among others). Brendan Haywood sat out for the Wizards and Antawn Jamison got hurt around five minutes into the match, more on that later.It was just a preseason game, but hey, the Wiz won 109-104. And when it’s against Cleveland, I’ll take it.
One trend for the Wizards during this preseason has been their play in the third quarter. On Wednesday night, they outscored the Cavs 33-23. Now granted, this was against a second half Cleveland starting lineup of Boobie Gibson, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, JJ Hickson, Shaq (Arenas, Miller, Butler, Blatche and Oberto for the Wiz) … so, make of it what you will.
What I want to analyze is the third quarter offensive efficiency of the Wizards in Flip Saunders’ system. Each possession is outlined below. There were 22 total — 16 resulted in scores. 3 resulted in a turnover. 3 resulted with a missed shot (each a ‘good’ miss). 8 of the 11 FGs were assisted upon — of the three which were not, 2 came in transition and 1 came from an isolation. Pretty damn good, huh?
Notice #1: Our friend Fabricio Oberto is delightfully involved. Perhaps Roger Mason Jr. was right when he called Oberto the sleeper sign of the summer. Fabricio is only credited with three assists for the game with two coming in the third … but Mike Miller was wrongly credited with one of those (#11). So Fab had three in the third and four total for the game. As he continues to get his legs, it’s clear to see that he sets damn good screen (almost never looks to slip quickly like Andray Blatche), and is a guy who just knows where to be (#8 and #14).
Arenas is probably saying something interesting to David Aldridge. {flickr/Keith Allison}
On late Tuesday the NBA fined Gilbert Arenas $25,000 for refusing to speak with media and the Wizards $25,000 for not making him talk. Later that evening, Gilbert’s first “interview” since media day (via Michael Lee of the Washington Post) was an unfortunate dissipation of his personality … about as lethargic as watching elderly people eat white toast while they watch paint dry.
Arenas’ games with the media are a bit annoying. He’s partially silencing himself because he just wants to concentrate on basketball after being injured for so long. Perfectly reasonable. The other part seems like an attempt to be ‘cute’ since he feels he’s been tragically wronged by the media in the past. Uh, not so reasonable.
I’m not saying Arenas isn’t somewhat justified in being miffed toward previous coverage of him. But at the same time, his own words caused much of the strife. It’s not like Arenas was constantly misquoted or taken out of context with malicious intent. He was able to speak directly to fans via ‘Agent Zero: The Blog File’, which was how people became so attracted to his sincerity in the first place. Without blogging, he’s probably just another Ben Gordon.
I guess Gil just feels misunderstood. But the problem is that he doesn’t understand how he could contribute to the cause of him being misunderstood. If that makes any sense. Perhaps his ghost-writer/blogger should have used more emoticons and ‘LOLs’ so that we would ‘get it’.
A scene from glorious Grand Rapids, MI - {flickr/OZinOH}
Listening to basketball on the radio is hard … damn hard. Hard like drinking warm milk and eating boiled eggs in the hot July sun while getting bit by mosquitoes and suffering from a tequila and red wine hangover.
Ok, well maybe it’s not that bad. Wizards radio guys Glenn Consor and Dave Johnson do a helluva job keeping team faithful updated with developments.
Still, when I hear Consor officially declaring Gilbert Arenas to be “back”, indicating that he hasn’t felt this way about the guard’s preseason cameo appearances up until now, I feel pretty deprived from not being able to see the moving pictures.
But the Wizards’ second unit held on late to win 101-98, and Arenas scored 24 points in just under 28 minutes (along with 5 assists to 6 turnovers). This team is getting their ‘LA Looks’ on and starting to gel. And hey, looks like they figured out a way to play some okay defense without Brendan Haywood (Fab Oberto led the Wiz with a plus-13).
Some recent links (with commentary) and forgotten notes from last Friday’s preseason game against the Mavericks at the Verizon Center in D.C. …
Caron Butler and a very tall clown {via WashingtonWizards.com}
Evidently on Sunday morning, Caron Butler was slated to co-chair the ‘Sister to Sister’s Bike For The Heart’ event with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty at the Verizon Center in Washington. But the Wizards also had a preseason game in Toronto, Canada at 3 pm that afternoon. Event host Irene Pollin, Wizards co-owner, told Butler that he could attended that morning and just catch up with the team at their next stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The team’s other ‘co-owner’, Irene’s husband Abe, said “nope,” indicating he wanted Butler in Toronto, supporting his teammates. So Abe called up his private jet and whisked Butler, along with team president Ernie Grunfeld, to T-Dot after the event and in time for Butler to get in a workout before the Raptors game.
Caught the second half of the Wizards game via the Internet after shrugging my shoulders at yet another Redskins loss. Looking for Jim Zorn’s missing timeouts? The DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg has some theories.
But what did I learn about the Wizards? Well, I can’t wait until Gilbert Arenas gets 100% comfortable with his offensive balance and ability to distribute … and is able to display it for a full game. He looked great in the third quarter. Made my day.
The turnovers, however, are a slight concern. So far this preseason, Arenas is averaging 6.3 turnovers per 36 minutes, which shatters his 3.2 TO/36 in 05-06 when he led the NBA in total turnovers with 297.
Yes, yes … again, “it’s the preseason” … and with increased passing (Arenas is averaging 13.6 assists per 36 this preseason BTW), and trying to gain familiarity with a new offense, an increased amount of turnovers is to be expected. But one thing I did notice against Memphis and Dallas was the nature of Gil’s turnovers … some seemed to be a bit careless/unintelligent (wasn’t able to gather much from Arenas’ four turnovers against Toronto).
{Gilbert Arenas in the now dead gold jersey - flickr/Keith Allison}
It was a tale of two quarters for Gilbert Arenas. In the first, he frustrated fans and probably his coaches and teammates alike because he didn’t even take a shot when opportunities were ample. Did he lose his offensive mojo and become the Agent Austin Powers instead of the one they call Zero? Arenas did have four assists to a sole turnover in the 9:12 he played first quarter, but that’s not exactly going to make the Wizards’ offense better.
Before the game, Flip Saunders said “I think with Gil, my thing is going in, playing in 10 minutes and that’s pretty much it. If he feels pretty good about where he’s at, then come back a little bit. If he doesn’t come back it doesn’t mean, ‘Oh somethings wrong with Gil.’”
With the ‘same’ passive Gil to start against Dallas, did Saunders really have a choice but to play him more?
“He needs to get that aggressiveness so other guys can get used to playing in that type of environment,” said Saunders after the game. When asked if he encouraged him at halftime, he said, “We all encouraged him. I told him, if he’s open and doesn’t shoot it, the next guy you pass it to is probably going to be covered.”
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