This is one of the few photos taken of this epic dunk by Washington Wizards forward Al Thornton on Atlanta Hawks center Zaza Pachulia.

Enjoy, and more to come.

Now, in live action.

[via Washington Wizards FaceBook]

Because I didn’t have a better title. Because I love late-starting West Coast games. Because I usually stay up late anyway. Because I’m excited to watch this match-up. Because Al Thornton sports jammies in SoCal. That’s Juice for ya.

LINKS.

For tonight’s Wizards-Lakers game, I did a Q&A with Andy Kamanetzky of the Land O’ Lakers blog on ESPN LA … you should go check it out.

Related to the matchup, Andy writes: Read more »

What’s that buzzing in your ear? Or rather, what ‘s that wondrous melodic tone?

That’s people singing the praises of John Wall, who achieved his first career triple-double, in front of Magic Johnson no less, and led his team to a 98-91 victory over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night.

Wall totaled 19 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds, six steals and only one turnover, and perhaps Wizards fans should thank John Stockton for that, who was not in attendance at the Verizon Center for the game. Flip Saunders said he recently gave Wall a 45-minute tape of Stockton and that he’d been watching it over the past couple days.

“All he came back talking about was how John [Stockton] was so deliberate, and how he played more under control, and I think John [Wall] tried to make a more conscious effort to do that tonight,” said Saunders.

Wall certainly played his most controlled game as a pro, and that was reflected in the play of his entire team. Well, except for Gilbert Arenas (5 points, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 1-7 FGs) and Kirk Hinrich (10 points, 3-9 FGs, 6 turnovers, 2 assists). Without much help from them, Wall showed he could maneuver the offense and carry his team without two-thirds of what’s been touted as one of the best backcourts in the NBA by team management.

Read more »

“He’s just Superman, jumps over cars I guess.”

-Flip Saunders on Al Thornton

I was minding my own business last Thursday evening when I noticed a tweet from Wizards forward Al Thornton:

“This may sound crazy but I just literally got hit by a car walking.. Wtf.”

My initial thought was that Thornton was just letting off steam before or after practice, or maybe he was joking around with someone else on Twitter.  But not even 10 minutes later, he followed up with a few more details: Read more »

The Los Angeles Clippers threw Al Thornton away.

Maybe there were good reasons, maybe there weren’t, but after roughly two and a third years removed from making the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team with Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Luis Scola, and Al Horford, Thornton was essentially given away by Los Angeles last February to save money. In the three-team Antawn Jamison trade involving the Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers, the Clippers sent away Sebastian Telfair (to Cleveland) and Thornton and got back Drew Gooden (from Washington), whom they didn’t retain as a free-agent this summer.

Al Thornton, a former lottery pick, was thrown away … and he noticed.

This off-season, with a possible starting position in view on a rebuilding team, especially with Josh Howard likely to miss some time at the beginning of the year as he recovers from a torn ACL, Thornton recommitted himself to his own game and his team.

Read more »

[Wizards 2010-11 Player Preview Index: Gilbert Arenas, Hilton Armstrong, Andray Blatche,
Trevor Booker, Kirk Hinrich, Josh Howard, Yi Jianlian, JaVale McGee, Kevin Seraphin,
Al Thornton, John Wall, Nick Young.]

The Summer.

-by Kyle Weidie

I think Al Thornton really appreciates his situation. Appreciates, as in understands it and will take the necessary steps to respond accordingly. Sure, Thornton likely would rather be playing with a secure extension and not heading into the qualifying offer portion of his contract in the Summer of 2011. But were it not for this situation, Al might not have the opportunity to become the player he could be, which is a great unknown … speaking of, what is it that Al Thornton does anyway?

Read more »

Al Thornton is back in D.C. folks, playing with the kids in mini-camp to “show some support,” he says. He’ll also be out in Las Vegas during summer league to practice and hang with John Wall and the gang, and to build some team chemistry (excellent!) … but he won’t be playing. Nick Young, on the other hand, might play, even though he wasn’t on the released summer league roster. We will see.

When I asked Al about what part of his game he’s trying to improve upon this off-season, he said he’s really working on getting in shape and eating right. Thornton admitted that he was a little overweight last season. I guess if he’s going to be running the floor with Wall, he better get that conditioning right. Those transition points can really boost stats, especially in what essentially amounts to a contract year for Thornton.

Thornton also had some compliments for young Wall, whom he worked out with for a bit in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Al calls the rookie “special” and in particular acknowledges his decision making on pick and rolls. Let’s check out what Al had to say in the video below.

[Editor's note: Below is the debut guest post of Arish Narayen. Arish is 23-years old and is currently in his second year at the University of Maryland School of Law. Arish has always been a basketball fan, especially of the Terps, but became enamored with the Wizards around the time Gilbert Arenas was hitting game winning shots and stealing game five from the Bulls in Chicago in the 2005 NBA Playoffs. The Wizards have gone nowhere but downhill from since, but somehow Arish has stuck around ... and now he wants to write about the Wiz for Truth About It.net. Go figure.

Check out Arish's debut below as he analyzes the Wizards' attempts to fill their potentially open small forward/wing position. Mike Prada has a quick breakdown of several wing candidates on Bullets Forever, but check out what Arish wrote too -- he worked on this post over the course of several days and goes in-depth statistically on a handful of players the Wizards are rumored to be interested in ... although Arish does use the much too vaunted 'Win Shares' stat that I recently went on a Twitter-rant against. I won't hold that against him. After all, the stat isn't good for nothing, it's just not all what it's cracked up to be. -Kyle]

The Wizards’ Small Forward Situation

by Arish Narayen

Read more »

[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.

Read more »