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DC Council Game 2: Wizards 83 – Hawks 101: At Least Nick Young Looks Good

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:00:04 +0000

[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Game 2 contributors: Gregg Cobert, Sam Permutt and Kyle Weidie.]

Score

Washington Wizards 83 at Atlanta Hawks 101 [box score]

Quick STAT: Most of the stats were of the usual losing variety, so let’s check out the best, more astounding stat of the night: Nick Young’s assists. He had four of them… FOUR! Out of 296 previous career regular season games, Young only has 10 total games tallying four assists for more (his career high assists in a game is five). Not much of a humble-brag for Nick here, but making time No. 11 or four assists or more in just his second game this season has to count for something, right? -Kyle Weidie

Scene of the Game

The NON-highlights.

{Or Lowlights… whatever the case… Wizards vs. Hawks, in less than two minutes…}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqTwIiD8IE8

D.C. Flag 3-Star Ratings

w/ Gregg Cobert, Sam Permutt
and Kyle Weidie

<> Rating the Starting 5, Bench & Coach out of 3 stars.***

John Wall
	SAM PERMUTT: Wall looked like a second-year point guard bound for future stardom who isn’t there yet. He routinely exploded by his defender with ease, but had difficulty finishing when the help defense collapsed. He showed flashes of the leadership and competitiveness we have come to expect, such as when he sought to take advantage of guard Jannero Pargo with relentless ball pressure late in the first quarter. He was the best player on a bad team. 1.75 Stars (out of 3)

	COLBERT: Blur quick getting to the rack, but decision-making must improve 1.75 Stars

	WEIDIE: He seemed to counteract Jordan Crawford’s selfishness with some of his own early in the game. Finishing at the rim is becoming an issue (6-15 FGs), and my lord, the turnovers (6 TOs, 6 ASTs). 1.5 Stars

	TOTAL: 5 out of 9 stars

Jordan Crawford
	GREGG COBERT: Crawford’s return to Atlanta for the first time since the trade was needlessly inauspicious. In the first six minutes, Crawford cranked up an ill-advised, one-pass three-point attempt and committed two turnovers, one of them an offensive foul. It didn’t get much better from there. In 22 minutes he finished 0-6 from the field with one point, one assist and one rebound; evidently those add up to three turnovers. His effort seemed to be lacking, as with much of the team; Crawford’s biggest contribution was missed shots. 0 Stars (out of 3)

	PERMUTT: They always say fight until the very end. At least he was trying to score? 0.5 Star

	WEIDIE: Not a single fuk was given by Jordan as he simply hoisted shots at the end. 0 Stars*

	TOTAL: 0.5 star out of 9

Rashard Lewis
	GREGG COBERT: Lewis had eight points in the third period, knocking down shots from inside and outside to try and keep team close. He finished with 13 points and three boards, and he seemed much more focused against Atlanta as opposed to against the Nets. Lewis’ shots came within the flow of the team and he didn’t force anything. Defensively, he is still a liability, but did make a couple smart, veteran decisions. Once, when Lewis was beaten in the post by Josh Smith, he made sure to foul hard to avoid giving up a three-point play. 1.5 stars (out of 3)

	PERMUTT: 2 Stars

	WEIDIE: I think he scored in the paint at some point in the third. So, um, nice. Going 2-3 from deep was cool. 1.5 Stars

	TOTAL: 5 stars out of 9

Andray Blatche
	KYLE WEIDIE: I’ve seen a lot of the trials and tribulations of Andray Blatche over the years — and there’s a good chance that this is just the immediacy in me talking — but I’m a bit concerned for Blatche, and for the franchise. I’m not sure what has surprised me more, how hard it is to balance not over-reacting and assuming Blatche’s tenure with the Wizards is now running into grave territory, or how truly bad Andray was on the court Wednesday night in Atlanta. He was 2-13 with four rebounds, one assist, one turnover and one missed free-throw in 27 minutes. Josh Smith bullied him in the post, Al Horford rejected his soft attempts under the rim; Blatche’s wherewithal and confidence looked to be at an all-time low. Want optimism? There’s no where to go but up after that game. 0.25 Star (out of 3)

	COBERT: It’s tough to buy the sudden “I need the ball in the post more” sob story. 0.75 Star

	PERMUTT: Really? REALLY?!? 0 Stars

	TOTAL: 1 star out of 9

JaVale McGee
	SAM PERMUTT: Never one for subtlety, JaVale announced his presence on both his good plays (a baseline spin followed by a dunk, plus the foul) and his bad ones (a loopy outlet pass which was easily picked off, followed by a ridiculously athletic goal-tend on an ill-advised block attempt). His first effort is explosive, but his second effort is nonexistent. Too many times he succeeded in stepping up in help defense, only to give up on the play two seconds later. Good work on the offensive glass, keeping alive plays to limit the Hawks’ fast-break opportunities. 1.5 Stars (out of 3)

	COBERT: 2 Stars

	WEIDIE: Improvement from the last game, but his inconsistency never fails to astound. 1.75 Stars

	TOTAL: 5.25 stars out of 9

The Bench
	KYLE WEIDIE: The fact that Nick Young looks as good as he does despite the dastardly surroundings in kind of amazing. 21 points in 32 minutes on 12 shots — 6-12 from the field, 3-6 from deep, and 6-6 from the charity stripe. Otherwise, Singleton continues to impress, and since he’s more of a “bench player” than Young (or at least that should be the case), Singleton gets the sub of the game. If he’s not, perhaps, earning a starting nod over Rashard Lewis at some point soon, then the signal sent might be counter-intuitive to all the youthful rebuilding messages the franchise has been offering. 2 Stars (out of 3)
	Sub of the Game: Chris Singleton

	COBERT: Nick Young was incredibly efficient. 2.25 Stars
	Sub Man of the Game: Singleton. Dude plays hard and smart. It’s refreshing.

	PERMUTT: Kevin Seraphin was close to making a great post-move for a dunk, he just took an extra dribble and ended up… a little confused. 1.25 Stars
	Sub Man of the Game: Chris Singleton

	BENCH TOTAL: 5.5 stars out of 9

The Coach: Flip Saunders
	SAM PERMUTT: The early decision to go zone when the Wizards defense was already lacking energy and the Hawks were 3-3 from behind the arc was questionable, and resulted in an immediate fourth three pointer. The late-game substitution pattern made it seem like he was caught between sending a message to his starters (benching them) and trying to win the game with his best line-up. Either option would have been understandable, but the combination of the two accomplished little. He did tell the TV camera to get out of his timeout, which was fantastic. 0.5 Stars (out of 3)

	COBERT: Team didn’t seem prepared and the defense was atrocious to start the game and to start the 2nd half costing team. 1 Stars

	WEIDIE: Saunders said he was “tired of looking at that” after the first preseason game, part of me wonders if it was a call for help. 0.75 Star

	COACH TOTAL: 2.25 stars out of 9

Seen on the Screen

w/ Kyle Weidie

During his post-game chat, Comcast’s Steve Buckhantz went over some numbers, saying the closest the Wizards got, aside from the jump ball, was within two points at … [wait for it] … at 35-33. Exactly.

Sure, if you look it as the Wizards “clawing” their way back into the second quarter after starting the game down 0-11 with the most apathetic of zone defenses, then it doesn’t seem so bad. Nonetheless, searching for positives amidst the total product is like being satisfied with finding a beetle in the sand while starving in the dessert.

And not that there’s anything wrong with Buck pointing out how close the Wizards got at one point. It is what it is, as Mike Miller would say. But for all those who must search high and low to highlight the good things the Wizards did in getting their butts kicked from start to finish by a semi-middle-to-lower-end-of-the-pack playoff team in the weak Eastern Conference… Well, bless their hearts, because they know not what such falsetto epithets do to their basketball psyche.

Circle the Cavaliers, Raptors, Pistons, Bobcats and T-Wolves on the schedule, folks. If this keeps up, those might the only games where you see the Wizards compete.

Fan Tweets

@gheorghetheblog: Blatche now two of 11 from the floor. Please, for your sake, stay off the tweet machine tonight Andray.

@StillUnknown85: thats his workout spot RT @Abstract_cool: I bet you Andray go to the club tonight

Slept-On Moment

COBERT: During the draft in June, Chris Singleton was rightfully praised for his defense. His energy in proving that praise right in both games have been a breath of fresh air in a dingy dungeon for the Wizards. Even his range has been underrated; he confidently knocked down a three against Atlanta, making him 2-3 from deep on the year. He also had a nice steal and breakaway dunk (to the delight of his hometown ATL fans) when the game was all but over. If Singleton can knock down shots consistently, he could become the steal of the draft and the franchise’s cornerstone defender.
PERMUTT: During the third quarter, a Jordan Crawford box-out caused a loose-ball foul against Atlanta. Coach Flip, excited by this unexpectedly positive turn of events, sought to congratulate his young player for his hard-nosed execution by approaching him with a high-five. However, Jordan was on his way to the bench already, and the high-five was completely whiffed.
WEIDIE: Jan Vesely is already out due to a mysterious right hip injury, and he didn’t make the trip to Atlanta and Milwaukee due to the flu, but with his girlfriend making her way to the District around the holidays, he’s likely not losing much sleep in not being part of the on-court mess. Otherwise, I’m growing suspicious that John Wall doesn’t like playing alongside Jordan Crawford so much; it’s just in this case, fans would be appeased as well if Crawford was relegated to the bench with Nick Young taking his place.

End Scene

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:

Crawford missed all six of his shot attempts, including four questionable shots in the final minutes that angered Saunders. “I was disappointed with how he finished the game. Those shots, you finish the game in a respectful way to the game,” Saunders said.

[via Michael Lee, Washington Post]

{Chris Webber does not approve.}

[Screen Shot via NBA TV]

About Greg Cobert: I went to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia with a degree in Media Arts & Design. I am a basketball junkie and growing up my favorite player was Larry Johnson from the Charlotte Hornets, but my favorite player from the Wizards had to have been Dominic McGuire. Twitter: @g_reggulator

About Sam Permutt: Although my family was never much into sports, growing up in my hometown of Columbia, MD made me a casual Wizards fan. As I grew older and realized my own passion for basketball, my affections for the team increased, culminating in me falling head-over-heels in love with the Wiz-Kids during the Gilbert Arenas era. I have never looked back. I am a recent graduate of Haverford College and am currently playing professional basketball in Israel.

3-on-3: Back To Atlanta, What On Earth Will Jordan Crawford Do?

Kyle Weidie — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:28:45 +0000

Jordan Crawford heads back to Atlanta to play against the team that drafted him, while Chris Singleton returns home. He is from Canton, Georgia and played his senior season of high school at Dunwoody, right outside of Atlanta. As the Wizards prepare for game two on the season against the Hawks tonight, their first road game, we have three questions and three answers surrounding the two teams. TAI’s Rashad Mobley, Kyle Weidie, and Bret LaGree from the ESPN TrueHoop Hawks blog, Hoopinion… 3-on-3 is now…

1) Rashad Mobley: The Hawks lack a significant scoring threat off the bench, and Wizards are lacking a veteran presence in the back court to mentor/guide/spell John Wall. Jordan Crawford could be that bench threat for the Hawks, and Kirk Hinrich (when healthy) could play that role again for the Wizards. The draft pick part of the trade that brought Chris Singleton to D.C. notwithstanding, would Crawford and Hinrich be more effective on their old teams?

MOBLEY: Crawford is still trying to figure out how his skill-set fits in the NBA, so I don’t know if that clarity would have come in Atlanta. But I do know that on opening night, Wall struggled to lead the Wizards on offense, and Hinrich could have steadied the team a bit.

LaGREE, Hoopinion: I think Hinrich’s perimeter defense will give the Hawks more value this year than Crawford’s ability to create a huge number of low-efficiency shots. Any of Atlanta’s five starters should be able to lead/carry the second unit for short stretches, though it remains to be seen how creative Larry Drew will get with the rotation to hide the lack of bench scoring.

WEIDIE: One part of Crawford provided Nick Young leverage this past summer (or a backup plan, depending on how you look at it). Hinrich did have shoulder surgery in the offseason that was suddenly revealed at the beginning of December (he will likely miss the first month of the season), but there’s no doubt that, if healthy, he would help the Wizards more — why do you think Atlanta paid so much for him in the trade? But the move was obviously made for reasons beyond individual usage, and the Wizards had time to afford an up-close glimpse at Crawford’s potential.

2) Bret LaGree: Hawks fans generally agreed that Jordan Crawford was talented but whether or not he could use his talents within the structure of a good basketball team proved divisive. Can he be a starter on a playoff team or is he destined for a life putting up shots on bad teams?

MOBLEY: I’m not quite ready to give up on Crawford as a starter in Washington. As Wall improves as a point guard, Crawford will get easier shots and better looks. That being said, he would be great in Boston or L.A. as a lead scorer on the unit coming off the bench.

LaGREE, Hoopinion: Trying to do too much is a better weakness than not being able to do anything at all. I concede that it’s not obvious which position Crawford will ever be able to defend effectively, but if he can continue to be aggressive in expressing his offensive skills while learning to make good decisions with the ball in his hands he could develop into a quality starter, if not necessarily a good all-around player.

WEIDIE: The fact that, more than not, Crawford acts like he cares about defense shows he wants to be a starter… But on a really good playoff team, he’s likely the type of player who needs to get used to coming off the bench. Think future Jason Terry.

3) Kyle Weidie: It’s fiscally understandable that Atlanta had to let Jamal Crawford go. People might also agree that Tracy McGrady was a decent, low risk signing. But Willie Green, Jannero Pargo and Jerry Stackhouse….? Really? Why not kick Gilbert Arenas’ tires?

MOBLEY: Willie Green is the blue collar guy every team needs, so I get that. But Stackhouse is 56 years old and so are McGrady’s knees. By the time the playoffs begin, and Larry Drew shortens his rotation, all these guys (except for Green) will be on the bench doing their best Mateen Cleaves impression.

LaGREE, Hoopinion: Neither Larry Drew nor any of the veteran Hawks are noted for their strong personalities so Arenas would be a bad fit on- and off-the-court for the Hawks. Which isn’t to defend several of the signings the team made. It’s hard to look bad in a 36-point road victory, but Pargo, Green, and Stackhouse all accomplished that last night in New Jersey. At least, among those three, only Green’s contract is fully guaranteed. Heal fast, Kirk Hinrich.

WEIDIE: Kick Gilbert Arenas’ tires and some toxic rubber fumes might start coming through the locker room vents. No, but really… Arenas has been quiet as of late and is likely working out, staying ready. Although, I’m not sure what going through with marriage to Laura Govan is going to do for him (aside from making her one of the only legitimate “Basketball Wives”). Maybe Arenas really will go wherever Dwight Howard goes/gets trade (he can’t go back to the Magic until next season after being amnestied by them). Otherwise, Atlanta could certainly do worse than that motley fill-in crew… at least the blogs are talking about them.

What Happens When Jordan Crawford’s Green Light Ends?

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:58:00 +0000

When a key deadline trade goes down between a playoff team needing help and a non-playoff team needing to rebuild, most feel bad for the veteran going to the losing situation — Sasha Vujacic, Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, Mike Bibby, Maurice “Mo” Evans come to mind from this season. The secondary consideration, partially because he’s going to that losing team, is the young player who would gladly trade riding the bench during a playoff run for a chance to suit up for a team going nowhere. Jordan Crawford got that and more when he went from Atlanta to Washington. He got off to a hot start with a new team that he wouldn’t give up on, even when hindered by a back injury. He got that treasured green light, which is rare, even for a lottery team. But what happens when that green light ends?

Crawford arrived in Washington at February’s trade deadline along with the 18th pick of the 2011 draft and a good veteran influence in Evans. In exchange, the Wizards gave up Kirk Hinrich (owed $8 million next season) and Hilton Armstrong. They also got the unexpected bonus of a money-saving buyout of Mike Bibby, who also came with Crawford and Evans from Atlanta. Because of a knee injury to Nick Young, he suddenly found himself going from the 12th or 13th man on the bench to full-time starter by his seventh game with the Wizards. He ended up starting his final 17 games in Washington, out of 26 total games with the team. The carefree Wizards bunch went a respectable 7-10 in those last 17 games, during which Crawford averaged 20 points, 3.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists (to 3.1 turnovers), and 1.3 steals. Pretty impressive for the 27th pick of the 2010 draft.

But what’s a constant green light scenario without some wrecks and gridlock? Specifically speaking, Crawford’s intriguingly erratic and promise-filled offense comes with the caveat of him shooting .394 from the field on 19.5 attempts per game in 40.7 minutes per contest. Volume shooting like that can get you beat. He also shot .280 from three (1.2 makes per game), and .877 from the free-throw line (3.8 attempts per game).

But with his emergence through clutch shots and big performances, Wizards fans have wondered if the duo of Crawford and John Wall will make the past combo of Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes fondly irrelevant. Or if it will at least make Young expendable. Like Wizards guards of the past, hopefully Crawford’s beginnings under a system of offensive freedom doesn’t ultimately get in the way.

When they visited Washington on April 9, not one of Crawford’s former Atlanta Hawks teammates would express surprise that the rookie dropped 39 points on the Miami Heat, or that he tallied a triple double against the Cleveland Cavaliers, amongst Crawford’s other post-trade inflated numbers.

“I’m not surprised at all,” says Hawks center and former Wizard Etan Thomas, who keeps up with Crawford through text message. “I saw what he did at practice, how hard he worked. I told him just to be patient and his time was going to come … Everybody in this room knows how much talent he has, and he’s getting a chance to show it.”

All-Star Joe Johnson exclaimed that Crawford is like a little brother to him, and that it all started in training camp. “He stepped on the court going at everybody, it wasn’t just me. I respected him more for that.”

“He’s just very confident about his game, mentally very strong. And those are aspects that you can’t teach,” said Al Horford, also an All-Star for the Hawks this season. “I didn’t know that he was going to emerge this fast, but that’s what I liked about him when he played with our team, even though he really didn’t get a chance to show much.”

The rave reviews from old teammates continued…

“When you’re talented and can score the way that he can, you know obviously you can live with some of the mistakes that he might make, but I think he’ll learn that as he keeps playing every game. I know he can pass the ball. When we practice and play together you could tell that not only can he score, but he can pass it as well.” -Al Horford

“He’s not only a scorer, but he’s a play-maker as well. He’s one of those players who you can really put him anywhere out there — either at the one or the two. You put him at the one, want him to run the team, he can do that and make plays.” -Joe Johnson

“He’s just talented. He has a knack for scoring. You know what I mean? He has so much upside, so much potential. He works hard and he has a good attitude. You put it all together and that’s what you want.” -Etan Thomas

“He can make any shot, and he’s comfortable shooting any shot. You just hope that he misses. He’ll put it up from anywhere, he doesn’t have a conscious.” -Jeff Teague

Crawford’s first NBA coach, Larry Drew, didn’t paint as rosy of a picture, however. “You put a guy that can score the basketball, give him a green light, he can score. Jordan Crawford is not the first scorer I’ve seen go into a situation like this. It’s every scorer’s dream just to go out there and get the green light and just let it go.”

So the dream could actually be a mirage, as obviously alluded by Drew, a rookie head coach himself and a former Wizards assistant who guided the Hawks to a 44-38 record in the regular season.

“You hope that a guy like that can get into a situation where he learns what a good shot is and what a bad shot is. When he learns within the confines of what a team is trying to do, can he incorporate what he does well with what the team does well, particularly when the situation is totally different?,” Drew rhetorically questioned.

“If Washington comes back next season and they get a whole fresh start, will they play that same way where they just kind of let guys … you know, first man gets the ball, looks to break you down, create and make a shot? Or will they play within a system, and can he be successful in a system?,” the coach wondered. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens after they finish this season out and then they come back and get a while new fresh start, and Flip implements his system.”

All the talk of an offensive system, you’d think Drew’s Hawks would actually run one more often, but not to disgress.

For a relatively irrelevant perspective through historical comparison, using Crawford’s averages in his last 17 starts as baselines for a search using the Basketball-Reference.com statistical database yields some interesting returns. The entered requirements, looking for players who averaged:

19 field-goal attempts or more per game;
23 points or less per game;
4.5 assists or more per game;
3.5 rebounds or more per game;
Primary position: guard;
24 years-old or younger (Crawford turned 22 last October)

Boston Celtics great Jo Jo White in his second season at age 24 (1970-71) and Ron Harper as a 23-year old rookie with the Cleveland Cavaliers (1986-87) are two of the results, but they shot .464 and .455 from the field respectively in those seasons. The two other results: Bob Cousy and Baron Davis; like Crawford, they both shot below the 40-percent mark.

In his second NBA season at age 23 (1951-52), Cousy averaged 21.7 points, 6.7 assists and 6.4 rebounds on .369 from the field. Of course, that NBA had no three-point line and was mostly un-athletic white guys. Cousy is a legit Hall-of-Famer and all, but give me a break if you think he’s anything more than Luke Ridnour or less in today’s NBA. In his fifth NBA season at age 24 (2003-04), Davis averaged 20.9 points, 7.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds on .395 from the field. Davis also shot .673 from the free-throw line and is more of a physical guard chucker, as opposed to Crawford being more of a low branch on the Antawn Jamison/Manu Ginobili-type scoring tree.

What does it all mean? Not much. Crawford is himself, not like Cousy or Davis, clearly. And at 22, he’s an older rookie (but not as old as Trevor Booker). He has no fear in scoring, which can be good or bad in jibing with decision-making, but he also puts up other stats like assists and rebounds. Don’t be ready to anoint Crawford as the guy to pair with John Wall for the next several years. Don’t be ready to call it quits with Nick Young.

What makes Crawford potentially more valuable than Young is that he has a knack for scoring to go with a play-making ability. When Nick is displaying his scoring talents, movement amongst his teammates often becomes slow and plodding, which almost makes Nick a perfect fit for the Atlanta Hawks (again, a digression).

Crawford’s 20 points on 19.5 attempts per game are far from ideal … too many empty possessions. Young’s 17.4 points on 14.6 FGAs per game this year was a career-best in scoring efficiency for him. Nick has also just completed his fourth season and will turn 26 in June. He’s obviously had more time to mature his game, but doesn’t seem to be that much more advanced than Crawford when it comes to offensive intelligence.

Why Young is worth the Wizards trying to retain, at an affordable rate to-be-determined by the market and CBA, is because of the promising improvement he’s shown under Flip Saunders and his staff. And if Young can learn to be a more effective scorer, Crawford could flourish from Saunders’ ability to work with guards even more.

But to do so, Crawford must add intelligence to his defensive hustle. He must practice the patience preached to him by the likes of Hawks assistant coach Nick Van Exel, and now Wizards assistant Sam Cassell. He must control the light, not just let it get stuck on green, especially when Saunders tries to pull back the reigns on his team in the pursuit of wins. The best part: Crawford showed more than enough to get Wizards fans excited about watching his young career unfold when the green light sometimes has to turn yellow. The difficult part: they don’t know when that might be.

Let’s hear Crawford talk about a range of topics during his time with the Wizards (including the 2009 summertime dunk on LeBron James):

More pictures:

Wizards Fly Free Against Sleeping Hawks

Kyle Weidie — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:24:13 +0000

[John Wall before the tip-off.]

People will say that the Atlanta Hawks lost to the Washington Wizards on Saturday night because they were without Josh Smith. Because they were unmotivated against a free-flying Wizards team with their playoff seeding already set. A date as the five seed going to Orlando to play the Magic awaits the Hawks in the first round, but did they have to get blown out by the Wiz Kids 115-83?

Regardless of Atlanta’s effortless situation, the Wizards countered with one of their best team defensive displays of the season, turning 23 Hawks turnovers into 27 points, partially thanks to 11 steals. And as the Washington Post’s Michael Lee has written, much credit is due to D-Leaguers Larry Owens and Othyus Jeffers — Owens putting in 10 points off the bench and Jeffers scoring 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. The energy of on-the-cusp players has made some of the more contractually secure Wizards not take their situation for granted.

Jeffers’ contagious explosion of hustle shouldn’t be taken for granted for the next training camp the Wizards hold either. He, along with Andray Blatche, were big reasons why the Wizards got off to a 29-18 jump on Atlanta after one quarter. Blatche worked Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia to the tune of nine points, five rebounds and 3-4 from the free throw line in the period. And Jeffers picked up two boards, one offensive, and 3-4 at the charity stripe in six and a half minutes off the bench. The disinterest of Atlanta was especially evident when they allowed Yi Jianlian to counter Jamal Crawford’s 11 points in the second quarter with 10 of his own. Washington led 61-46 at half.

Jordan Crawford didn’t have a particularly good first half. Limited with three fouls, he scored just four points on 2-3 shooting in 15 minutes, but he did have three assists and zero turnovers. In the third, Crawford didn’t try to force his own offense the entire time, even though he did go 1-6 from the field in the period. Instead, he proved that he’s not a limited basketball player by dropping five assists to one turnover and three rebounds. He finished the game with six points on 3-9 shooting with an 8-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, flipping zip passes to teammates with the same confidence he has in his offense.

The Hawks rested their starters in the fourth quarter — Joe Johnson, Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia, with Kirk Hinrich and Marvin Williams seeing about three minutes each. Atlanta’s reserves of Jeff Teague, Josh Powell, Pape Sy, Hilton Armstrong and Damien Wilkins were badly out-matched by Jeffers, Owens, Kevin Seraphin and Yi, with Washington point guard duties split between Mustafa Shakur and John Wall in the final period.

The Wizards polished Atlanta off 27-11 in the fourth without a care for bruises and bumps from recklessly throwing themselves all over the court, but it seemed that their 32 point win was decided at the beginning of the game when Washington proved they were not going to lay down. John Wall finished with a quietly effective 19 points on 8-15 shooting, seven assists, two turnovers, two steals, five rebounds and a block. JaVale McGee had a ho-hum but active 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 27 minutes. Blatche finished with 23 and seven, and even Mo Evans pitched in 10 points. For the team, all 10 players available played, and scored, seven Wizards reaching double figures.

If credit for the win goes to anyone, it’s Flip Saunders. His team schemed well to limit Joe Johnson with active double-teaming, and they moved better as a unit to cut off dribble penetration. On offense, the Wizards were prodded to attack by Saunders, finishing with 26 fastbreak points. The coach likely knowing from his years of experience that Atlanta was a team ripe for just not caring. Both Ernie Grunfeld and Saunders have made a great move with Jeffers (and Owens), in not only evaluating prospects, but turning also opportunities for D-Leaguers into a motivational tool. The kids are swimming in the pool, lessons are waiting to be carried forth.

To the photos…

Close your eyes and dunk.

Mo Evans in on the action.

Dray? Travel?

Classic Kirk Hinrich face after Yi dunked on him.

The contortionist.

The Bruce Bowen defense from Mo Evans on Joe Johnson, except not a foot under the shooter to hurt him. Let’s call it a veteran move.

Larry Owens hounds Kirk Hinrich.

More on the floor hustle — yes, that’s Mustafa Shakur under there.

A happy bench shot, for a change.

All good in Wizards Nation, DC town for a night.

The Necessary Departure of Kirk Hinrich From Washington

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:35:52 +0000

A farewell story.

Couple things to consider regarding the Wizards trade of Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong going to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Mike Bibby, Jordan Crawford, Maurice Evans and a 2011 first round draft pick…

Vladimir Veremeenko, the Wizards’ 48th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, a Belarusian who was probably never going to play for the Wizards anyway, has been essentially flipped for Kevin Seraphin (17th pick in the 2010 draft), $3 million cash (from Chicago in Hinrich trade), Jordan Crawford (27th pick in the 2010 draft), Mike Bibby and a 2011 draft pick (currently projected to be the 22nd pick). The presence of Hilton Armstrong and Maurice Evans are negligible in this instance. Not bad though, right?
It’s fallible analysis when you total the contracts of Bibby ($6,417,616) and Crawford ($1,120,440) next season versus that of Hinrich ($8 million) and say that the Wizards are only saving around $461,944. Crawford is in the second season of a rookie contract. Money slotted to be spent on him next year should be considered an investment and not considered when tallying “savings” … Might the Wizards have instead been able to purchase a late first rounder in the ’11 for $3 million? Perhaps, if you want to make that assumption. But then you’ll have to sign that player to a contract. Getting Crawford now offsets having to spend that cash, along with him being someone the Wizards were purportedly interested in, and a player who is already acclimating himself to a professional environment. Plus, as is being reported, Bibby might seek a buyout, which could end up “saving” the Wizards even more money.
Breaking down Jordan Crawford’s very small sample size stats this season and contemplating how he’ll fit in on a team whose parts will continue to move is useless. Remove that from the analysis … for now. Crawford comes in with a clean slate, simple as that.
A future first round draft pick … enough said. Looking at historical data and saying, “Well, such-and-such team or GM doesn’t have a good history of drafting late first rounders…” is, again, useless. What does that have to do with future implementation other than as an enhancement to a static argument? Exactly. Also, why should we assume that the Wizards will keep Atlanta’s late first rounder? What if it’s flipped for a higher pick, or something (someone) else? It’s easy to judge moves alone, but just as outlined in point No. 1, this move could assist the end result of subsequent moves. Pay $3 million for a pick in the low-to-mid-20s? Okay… maybe. Pay $3 million to package a pick in the low-to-mid-20s for a pick in the low teens? It could happen.
Why trade now? Why didn’t the Wizards wait? Maybe Hinrich’s value would have improved? Maybe another team was going to offer more? Again, assumptions are great for argument, not always so much for real world analysis. As far as we know, there were two teams that showed any real interest in Hinrich: Atlanta and the Los Angeles Lakers (and in the Lakers’ case, the interest was probably minimal) … There’s not really a better time to take advantage of a fevered trade deadline environment, especially one occurring before the CBA is set to expire in the summer. Essentially Hinrich had one suitor (because LA made no moves), and Ernie Grunfeld still drove a hard bargain of a pick and a prospect when it was previously reported that Atlanta was unwilling to give up both. Pat yourself on the back, Grunfeld … just a little bit.
But wasn’t Hinrich good for Wall? Sure he was. He set good examples, answered any question Wall had of him. Great. Now Wall can ask questions of Bibby (if he stays around) … or he can continue to seek advice from Sam Cassell … or I’m sure he can just call Hinrich if he really, really wants to. Sure, there is a difference between Hinrich dropping verbal knowledge versus leading by example and being that calming veteran presence on the court during play. But does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? To Wall’s personal development, maybe … some … but otherwise, the veteran intelligence factor in this specific case should not hinder a rebuilding move. Especially when other bad players seem to be dragging down the team, I’m not sure that Hinrich’s presence made that much of a difference. It’s not like he was going to slap Andray Blatche into submission like a Kevin Garnett would.

In the end, it was wholly essential to take advantage of this opportunity. It was a good trade for the Wizards (but doesn’t necessarily change the underlying opinion of the job Ernie Grunfeld has done in totality).

Now, the un-quotable Kirk Hinrich is gone. Thanks for being around.

“Kirk, I can see a playoff team just beyond the horizon.”

“Now can you take me with you?”

Later D.C.

David Falk on Mike Bibby & The Wizards Trade of Kirk Hinrich

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:24:40 +0000

Agent David Falk, decorated history with the Washington Wizards, representative for Mike Bibby. Bibby is the guy who was just traded to D.C. along with Maurice Evans, Jordan Crawford and a 2011 first round pick in exchange for Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong, who are flying high to Atlanta as I type.

The “Cold War” between Falk and the Wizards was declared over by Falk to the Washington Post’s Michael Lee last June. Abe Pollin had to pass away before the declaration was made.

So, it makes one wonder, would Falk have said, “Ernie [Grunfeld] and I will sit down” back then, during the Cold War, as he did over the phone in an interview with Comcast’s Ron Thompson on Wednesday night?

These are the questions that shall go unanswered, but documented.

Let’s check Falk’s full quote to Thompson when asked how Bibby would react after getting traded to the Iron Curtain of Losing.

David Falk:

“I think number one you have to advise them to be professional. Trades are a part of being a professional athlete, they don’t always work out well. Now there’s about 27 games left in the season, he’ll be done in about six weeks, and then Ernie and I will sit down at the end of the season and evaluate what the future looks like, and it’s conceivable that he’ll get moved again. But I think for the next 27 games, he has to get over what personal disappointment he has in not being in a playoff environment and try to be a good mentor to young John Wall, be a good locker room guy. And Mike will do that. Mike’s a consummate professional. There’s no getting around the fact it’s not fun to go from a playoff team to a non-playoff team, but that’s one of the drawbacks of professional sports.”

Under The Hoop: Atlanta Hawks vs Washington Wizards

Adam McGinnis — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:54:35 +0000

The picture show run down from last Saturday’s Wizards game versus the Atlanta Hawks…

The Wizards organization hands out free 3D glasses to fans so they can enjoy the 3D pre-game introductory montage that’s shown on the jumbo-tron for select home games.

The team sometimes has a random fan shag balls during warm-ups,
and I can only imagine the excitement of this youth throwing the ball to John Wall as he dons his jersey.

When you’re a vet like Rashard Lewis, you seem to know to know everyone in the league.
Right before the tip off, Lewis chats with Maurice Evans and Damien Wilkins of Atlanta Hawks,
both former teammates of Lewis’ — Evans in ’07-08 in Orlando and Wilkins from ’04-05 to ’06-07 in Seattle.

Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell puts Kirk Hinrich through intense drills before the game.

Hawks All-Star Al Horford did not play because of an injured tail bone,
but he still was able to crack a smile during warm ups.

BUSTED! Atlanta rookie Jordan Crawford checks out the Wizards Girls.

Hawks super sub Jamaal Crawford loosens up for the contest.

Andray Blatche has a extensive pre-game ritual of pointing up in the air after the singing of the national anthem,
then kissing the rim, fist bumping all of the refs and finally giving the fans some love.

JaVale McGee is an athletic 7-footer, who still lacks ONE consistent post move, and shoots jumpers at will. Fans still wonder why Flip Saunders has a quick trigger in benching him for mistakes sometimes. This attempt did not go in, but even when his low percentage attempts end successfully, unfortunately, it just empowers him to continue take them more. If McGee had a go-to jump hook or a step through move from the block, I could live much better with these mid-range shots.

Nick Young has excelled this season at making corner threes. They usually either come on the fast break where he runs to the spot and Wall makes near blind passes to him, or after a high post in roll, where the ball reversal leaves Young open on the weak side. He made this shot, but as you can see from the photo, it was only worth two points.

This was one of my favorite pictures from the game as three prominent conversations are occurring at the same time. Wall is cracking smiles with Sam Cassell, ref Joey Crawford is shaking hands with Bullets legend Bob Dandridge, and coach Flip Saunders is handing a sheet to owner Ted Leonsis.

McGee and Blatche are ready to set a double screen,
I am sure there is an easy Shadow Room one liner in there somewhere.

Nothing in life makes people happier than free Chipolte burritos.

In this sequence, Yi Jianlian injures his ankle after coming down on Wall’s foot
(the second time Yi has injured himself from contact with Wall this season).

Kevin Seraphin and Hilton Armstrong prepare to help Yi off the court.
Whatever the contents of their conversation, I guarantee it was quite comical.

If there is an App on the team’s iPad consisting of the play where the PF enters the post with a pass from the wing, it needs deleted immediately. High to low post passes between McGee and Blatche would more ideal, and personally, better for my blood pressure.

Pam McGee, JaVale’s mother, shares pleasantries with Dandridge at halftime.

My assumption is that this chat is about Crawford talking smack to the rookie about Wall’s video game skills. In the locker room, I over heard Wall talking about how he beat a Wizards ball boy by 60 points in Madden at his crib. He admitted to kinda taking it easy by using the Cowboys with Jon Kitna though.

Kentucky fans really enjoyed the Wall/Cousins-led 2010 Elite Eight Wildcats season.

Rookie Trevor Booker Ds up Hawks Marvin Williams, but #freetrevorbooker did not enjoy his new playing time freedom due to foul trouble.

Coach Saunders gives his appreciation to Nick Young after a hard foul, then Leonsis offered his hand out as well to congratulate Young for his play. Clippers Owner Donald Sterling heckles his own players, Mavericks Mark Cuban screams at refs … the Wizards’ team owner gives props to a Wizards player after a clean foul protecting the rim. Enough Said.

Wall impressively won this jump ball against Josh Smith.

Wall might not have picked up cancer from Gilbert Arenas, but he did carry on his tradition of throwing his jersey into the stands after games.

More in the slide show…

Poor Free Throw Shooting & Dismal Rebounding Doom Wizards

Adam McGinnis — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:18:10 +0000

No Al Horford, no problem for the Atlanta Hawks as they defeated the Washington Wizards 99-92 at the Verizon Center on Saturday night, their 12th in a row over D.C.’s pro basketball franchise. The All-Star big man Horford sat out the contest with a bruised tailbone after a scary spill versus L.A. Clippers on Friday, but the Hawks still pounded the Wizards on the glass with a 45-33 advantage in rebounding, 10-7 on the offensive boards. Aside for a few minutes in the third quarter, the Hawks led throughout. The Wizards managed to keep the game within striking distance but were never able to get over the hump.

Josh Smith was dominant, finishing with 29 points on 11-19 from the field along with 16 boards, Marvin Williams went for a solid 15 and 12, and Joe Johnson contributed a very quiet, yet smooth 21 points on 7-12 shooting. Nick Young led the Wizards with 21 points, but got to that tally by taking 17 shots, and John Wall tallied 18 points with six rebounds, six assists and two turnovers.

The consecutive daggers came with three minutes remaining. The Hawks were up five when Smith abused Andray Blatche on an spin post move with the And-1 harm. Blatche did score three straight buckets for the Wizards from the five minute to the three minute mark of the fourth to keep the Wizards down just 88-83, so perhaps his defense suffered after his burst of points. After an empty trip by the Wizards on the offensive end after Smith put Atlanta up 91-83, Damien Wilkins, (yes, Damien Wilkins!) scored on a strong baseline move to push the Hawks to a 10 point lead with 2:10 left. That was essentially the ball game.

Another deciding factor in Hawks’ victory, other than a 13-2 edge in second chance points, was their work at the charity stripe. Atlanta nailed 26 of their 35 free-throw attempts, 13-13 in fourth quarter alone. The Wizards ended up a putrid 8-18 from the line, going just 1-6 in the final period. Washington actually shot better from the field (51-percent) then they did from free throw line (44-percent). Ouch.

In his post game interview, Flip Saunders stressed how his team stood around too much on offense and played the game like they were on their Playstation. (PS3, XBox or Wii are probably more updated game systems, but hey, better than breaking out Nintendo or Sega.) Once a player got the ball, the other four often just assumed he would shoot it, so they halted their movement. Saunders emphasized that these individual acts are usually the difference in a two or three possession game. He referenced the Hawks moving the ball around four times to create a successful late-game jumper for Williams as an example of superb ball movement by a more veteran team.

With the loss, the Wizards wrapped up a laborious stretch of five straight back-to-back sets over the past two weeks in which they won just one game, the second night of the first back-to-back against the Boston Celtics at home on January 22.

Overall, the Wizards have lost eight games in a row. They could use a few days off before hosting the hard-nosed Milwaukee Bucks in Washington on Wednesday night, and then a couple more days off before the NBA’s best San Antonio Spurs come to visit next Saturday.

Fans of this 13 win team could use a break too.

Dunk of the Year: Al Thornton Jams On Zaza

Adam McGinnis — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:45:41 +0000

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.

Patiently Waiting For Accountability

Kyle Weidie — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:06:28 +0000

[Andray Blatche gets consoled by Wizards trainer Eric Waters after experiencing a malady early in third quarter against the Hawks. Trevor Booker would be subbed in for him around the 8-minute mark and Blatche would not see the court again on the night. Due to getting poked in the eyes? Perhaps. Due to other inefficiencies? Probable.]

“Maybe too much turkey,” Flip Saunders suggested to TNT’s Craig Sager during a sideline interview early in Atlanta’s 116-96 Thanksgiving night thrashing of the Washington Wizards on national television. The Washington Post’s Michael Lee pointed out (via Twitter) that the team ate their holiday meal together at an Atlanta hotel the day before the game on Wednesday.

But a one-day carryover of sleepiness resulting from Tryptophan or not, there aren’t too many excuses for a young team to come out lacking energy, toughness, aggression and any other immeasurable trait that’s also wholly noticeable. Inexperienced squads like the Wizards do tend to struggle with consistency, but such miniscule effort has happened way too many times in a season just 14 games old. Hopefully the Wizards enjoyed their holiday vacation and comradary together in the South, because they sure didn’t show up in Georgia to play basketball. They were never even in the game.

Notes and thoughts, randomly:

Flip Saunders, it seems, has been pigeon-holed into playing the gimmicky three-guard lineup, because it includes some of his better, more veteran talent. But it’s not going to work against most teams.
With big men behind those guards who have very low-level awareness — from harder concepts such as rotations, to easier tasks like simply having hands and limbs active in passing lanes — all an opponent needs to do is be patient enough to make the extra pass against the Wizards and they’re golden.
Mike Prada opines on Bullets Forever: “… if the concern with pairing Wall and Arenas is that neither guy plays well without the ball, how does adding Hinrich to that mix help? Saunders, so far, has gotten the Hinrich of 2007 rather than the Hinrich of 2009 this year. He’s gotten the Hinrich that dribbles around looking to make plays rather than the one that sits in a corner and finishes plays.”
In other words, in Saunders’ system Hinrich is closer to Earl Boykins.
Rebounding just might be the toughest assignment in basketball. Sure, constantly chasing a wing guard around screens can leave a player with bruises. Jostling elbows in the paint with some of the largest athletes in the world ain’t an easy job either. But rebounding either produces or preserves possessions, and doing it well requires relentlessness, something the Wizards simply do not have.
Well, let me check that for a second. JaVale McGee has really impressed lately with his hustle, his version of relentlessness. When he appears to be trying as hard as he has been (with stellar statistical results), it’s much easier to swallow his instances of cluelessness … while he’s young.
Of course, when McGee wastes offensive possessions trying to get to the basket from 20 feet away by dribbling the ball once and then using that lengthy step of his to wrangle around a defender, contorting his body in ways that should be on display in a museum while throwing up some floating junk that’d even make a playground pickup game pause, you still want to pull out your hair and sit his ass on the bench, even though he’s really the only Wizards big man who can make a difference on both ends of the floor.
And then there’s Andray Blatche. He’s certainly improved his basketball skills now that he’s in his sixth NBA season. And surely he’s acquired more basketball intelligence, making inherent to his thought process some of the game’s nuances. But c’mon folks, let’s be honest, this is the same exact Blatche he’s always exposed to us.
On the Hawks’ first offensive possession, Blatche set a tone by casually letting an offensive board slip through his hands. I hesitate to denote anything past the area around Blatche’s waste as “soft” right now — to flat-out accuse a player of being soft these days requires some more due diligence – but Andray certainly doesn’t embrace contact like a big man should. On offense he acts like a guard willing to do anything to keep a shot attempt from the lengthy arms of a much larger defender … then you realize that Blatche is a 7-footer and you wonder why he just can’t take the goddamn ball right to the rim in order to draw a foul. He’s a great free-throw shooter, you’d think he’d want to produce more undefended points.
On defense, Blatche rarely offers much resistance in the paint. Sure, he can use acquired technique to hold his position, or his long arms to thrawt shot attempts, but most of the time, if an opponent works hard enough to get position on him down low, it’s over.
The most damning vision from Blatche against the Hawks was his single rebound in 19 first half minutes. To his credit, he did snag three more rebounds over the first four minutes of the third quarter, but by then it seems that Flip Saunders had seen enough. With eight minutes remaining in the period, Blatche would be relegated to the bench for the rest of the night (believe that it was due to his eyes being poked if you must, he looked fine on the bench later in the game). When you’re getting your butt kicked as much as the Wizards were, you definitely don’t want to see a complacent, apathetic performance from one of your most talented players. And actually, I’m hesitant to call Blatche apathetic. It’s not that he doesn’t care, he just, perhaps, never knew how to work hard in the first place, and this team has never taught him. Or maybe they have and he’s just incapable, which would really bring into question why the Wizards signed him to an extension this past summer.
Ted Leonsis doesn’t get embarrassed easily, he says. But you wonder at what point he becomes concerned to the point of action. It’s still much too early in the season to be making rash decisions. It’s not like the Wizards’ situation is as dire as Detroit’s.
But clearly, someone needs to have a ‘come to Jesus’ with Blatche. Which, again, is kind of hard with that extending of his contract. Not sure how effective a parent would be if they gave their kid a cookie and a Snickers and then told them to sit in the corner to think about what they’ve done.
Saunders is a great coach, and the circumstances unable to be controlled by him during his tenure in Washington have been rather miserable, but the coach also hasn’t exactly expanded or enhanced his resume while with the Wizards. Not that he’s incapable of turning it around, but he’s not off to the best start.
Patience, patience, patience … rebuilding, rebuilding, rebuilding — valid aspects of what the Wizards are currently going through. But at some point, accountability must go hand-and-hand with those terms in order for a franchise that hasn’t been relevant in over 30 years to truly build.

At least there’s this (via the Post’s Lee):

“It’s still not a big reason why we played that bad. We have to change some things and just start playing hard. We get paid for this. This is our job, this is our dream. This is what we want to do. We got to start acting like it and taking it more serious.” -John Wall

Quick Bullets On Wizards As Hawks Take Them Down 99-95

Kyle Weidie — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 02:42:40 +0000

Much more solid effort from the Wizards, let’s run down some bullet points on the Wiz Kids.

John Wall ran the show and set an early tone, getting five assists in the first quarter. He only got four assists for the rest of the game, coming short of a double-double with his 28 points. He really looked a lot more comfortable offensively, especially with his jump shot as the game progressed. It did not look deliberately nervous like against Orlando; he even hit a couple threes late in the game.More importantly, after starting 2-8 from the field, Wall hit us with a shot of cappuccino (what Ted Leonsis likened him too during an in-game recorded interview), and sparked his offense with 2:19 left in the third quarter. Including a free-throw Wall hit at the 3:01 mark in the third period , he scored the last 12 points of the quarter for the Wizards while Atlanta just scored six. The game was tied at 70 heading into the fourth.
Because of Wall, the Wizards stayed competitive. They were out-talented by the Hawks in the end behind efforts from Joe Johnson (25 points, but on 10-23 shooting) and Al Horford (an incredibly efficient 21 points on 6-10 shooting and 9-10 from the free-throw line). But Wall did live up to the “Game Changer” moniker the Wizards dubbed him with after the draft. With his 28 points, Wall got nine assists, only three turnovers, and five rebounds. Maybe we should open the Rookie of the Year award back up.
JaVale McGee stayed active, and that really needs to be what defines his game. He had a career-high seven blocks to go with seven points, eight rebounds, but five fouls and five turnovers. And I was just as curious as others as to why he wasn’t in at the end of the game to guard Al Horford instead of Yi Jianlian. However, it’s not like Yi did anything completely terrible (Horford hit a jumper in his face and went back door on him for a lob dunk in the last 2:19; Yi also sent him to the foul line with six seconds left) … Basically, McGee could have given up just as many points, but his length and athleticism can lead to more possessions.
The amount of possessions, mostly defense, that McGee still gets lost on is terribly frustrating. Plus, he really struggles in his ability to set screens. He picked up several fouls (and turnovers) by getting called for moving picks.
With Gilbert Arenas out and Kirk Hinrich forced to run the point, the Wizards’ offense really struggles. Some of this could be Hinrich, in that he’s not really an offensive threat (if he only was a more consistent shooter), and some of it could be what his teammates are doing. Point is, the team could really use the offensive threat of that Gilbert guy. Not to say that Hinrich won’t be running the point when Arenas is back playing and Wall is resting during a game, but you must wonder if the guy with the ball in his hands should be more of an offensive threat, and if Hinrich is best playing off of that.
Al Thornton looked great … and a guy motivated to keep his starting job. I’ve questioned Thornton a lot leading up to the season, but if he continues to make hustle plays and find offense closer to the basket, he’s going to get significant run. And mostly because those are things guys like Nick Young seem incapable of. Thornton had 24 points on 10-15 field goals to go with seven rebounds, four offensive.
Thornton took just four shots from beyond 16 feet and only made one of them. He made the two shots he took from 16 feet out. He took the remainder of his nine shots in the paint, making seven of them. Last year, 4.2 of Thornton’s nine field-goal attempts came from 16 feet and beyond.
Andray Blatche put up some numbers, but often didn’t look great in the process. He had 18 points on 9-19 shooting and didn’t earn a single trip to the free-throw line. He managed just seven rebounds in 34 minutes of play and had four turnovers. When he did manage to get into the paint on offense, he mostly shot fade-away jumpers. Blatche tried to post up a couple of times, but his actions are too slow and he’s not strong with the ball. Facing up right now doesn’t always benefit Blatche because he’s so out of shape.
Overall, his ultra-softness inside makes me really question whether the team should have signed him to an extension. John Wall may be the team’s savior … guess that would make Blatche like Angel Soft toilet paper. But for several more games, an unforeseen amount of time I supposes, we get to keep saying that Blatche is out of shape and that he’s “still young.” Great.
In terms of Blatche’s buddy, Nick Young, more than not, he doesn’t seem to have much contribution to the game. If he’s not scoring (because we know he’s not passing … he seems completely incapable of seeing the flow of the game develop, such as with about seven minutes left in the second quarter when Yi Jianlian was in perfect position to receive a pass on the re-post, but Young put his head down, dribbled a couple times and jacked up a shot). Young went 0-2 from the field with a block and a turnover in 11 total minutes.
Yi Jianlian had an okay game in that he hit some jumpers, but he only got one rebound in 24 minutes … pretty bad for the player I bragged could be the team’s best rebounder. You can tell he’s out there trying, and doesn’t look as lost as he’s been accused of in the past, but he’s also not the presence that one would hope a player of his size brings.

Notes From The Other Side: A Conversation With Etan Thomas

Rashad Mobley — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:39:58 +0000

{photo: A. McGinnis, TAI}

Etan Thomas spent eight years with the Washington Wizards, and who he was, would really depend on who you asked. Some viewed him as a player who wasn’t without limitations, but still played hard as an undersized center every night. Former Washington Wizards center, Brendan Haywood, who had more than one physical altercation with Thomas, felt that he was distant, and not always the best teammate. To those people who lived in the Maryland, Virginia, D.C. area, Thomas was a poet, an activist, an author, and an agent of change during the 2008 Presidential election. To others, Thomas was simply hero for surviving and then coming back from open heart surgery, after it was determined he had a leaky, aortic valve. For President Obama, Thomas was a man worthy of a pickup game of hoops in the White House.

So to truly conduct an effective interview with Thomas, all of these facets of his personality have to be kept in mind. He’s a basketball player, who the Atlanta Hawks signed in the offseason, because of the physical presence he brings on both ends of the floor. But he’s also a man with many other interests, and I tried to tap into all of that when I talked him before and after last night’s Wizards/Hawks game.

Rashad Mobley: When Chamique Holdsclaw came back to DC.. this summer, she talked about how the things she missed about D.C .weren’t necessarily the players (from the Mystics), but she missed the off the court stuff like going to Bohemian Caverns and hanging out. Do you find that you miss that as well?

Etan Thomas: Well I still live here in the offseason, so I still go to all those places. They don’t have Mangos anymore, but they have Busboys and Poets and all around U Street, that’s still my area. I love the city, I’m not gonna move anywhere or go anywhere, all my kids were born here, so I’m here.

RM: And how did the screening of Waiting for Superman go last night? [Thomas and Laron Profit held a special screening of the movie, Waiting for Superman in Largo, MD at the Magic Johnson Movie Theaters last night. The movie takes a critical look at the failures and successes of the American school system.]

ET: It went great, it went really great. We had great feedback, me and Laron Profit are going to this in D.C. and in Atlanta, but it went great in PG County.

At this point, Thomas had to cut me short to resume his preparation for the preseason game against the Wizards, but he told me to come back and talk to him after the game. And after watching David Falk and Ted Leonsis share a brief moment in the hallway outside the Hawks locker room, I went in and resumed my conversation with Thomas.

RM: Before the game, I was talking to you about how things went last night

ET: Oh it went great. We had over 200 people RSVP, teachers from all different districts, it was great, and we’re going to keep it going. It’s a project that I think all teachers need to see, just to become aware of what’s going on–not that I don’t think that they are–but the movie just describes in just a great, especially for the students, because they need to know what they’re up against. Whenever I go to kids, I just tell them exactly what they’re up against. They are playing around and thinking everything is everything, but I tell them, you all are going to schools that aren’t as good as these other schools, so you have to work twice as hard.

On one side, we’re telling the problem trying to fix it, but when we talk the kids, you’re saying this is what you’re up against, you have no time for any foolishness. So we’re going to keep growing it, and I’m going to try to see if I can get somebody from Michelle Rhee’s camp or even her herself to do a panel discussions after we do it in Atlanta and D.C., and take it to different places.

RM: Were you aware that she [Rhee] resigned today (as D.C. Public School Chancellor)?

ET: Yeah, but she’s going to keep doing it. But you knew if you followed politics, and when you saw her during the campaign, and who she campaigning with and how she was campaigning against Vincent Gray you kind of saw that writing on the wall. At least I did, I mean I’m not a politician, but..

RM: I was going to ask you how closely you followed the [Washington D.C. Mayoral] Election?

ET: I mean definitely, I followed it pretty closely, I mean she [Michelle Rhee] was pretty strong against Vincent Gray, so I kind of saw that coming. But I think the work that she’s doing–people may disagree with some of it–but I think that its the best way to fix the schools, but at least she’s trying to do something, so I have to respect that and I’ll work with her any way that I can. And her fiancé is Kevin Johnson, even though he’s on the other side [of the country], it’s something that crosses lines, it’s an American problem. Our school system should be better than it..flat out, and that’s something as Americans, we should feel disgraced by, to see how far back our school system is. It just shouldn’t be like that and I’m ready to do a lot with it. But you know young people are my passion, and they always have been, but the response has been really great, and I’m going to keep doing it.

RM: Basketball-wise, how are you fitting in with Atlanta

ET: It’s preseason, it’s the third game, so I’m just going to keep working hard regardless of whatever happens. It’s a great group, a talented group, and they won 53 games last year, so they are a good team. So I’ll just keep working..that’s my job to keep working, its a blessing.

RM: And you’ve worked with Larry Drew before (Drew was an assistant coach with the Wizards from 2000 to 2003), how is it working with him again?

ET: Oh it’s great. I told him I wouldn’t want to have any part of you if I didn’t respect you when you were in D.C. You know I had my problems with Doug Collins, but when Larry Drew was here, he was straightforward and honest, and you can respect that. He tells you how it is, he tells you what he wants you to do, and you can respect it. He pushes everybody hard, but it’s good, positive reinforcement.

RM: Have you noticed a change around this Wizards team, just in terms of the new environment that Ted Leonsis is trying to create?

ET: I haven’t been around enough to be able to tell, but I had a lot of respect for Mr. Pollin and I have a lot of respect for Ted Leonsis. He’s definitely shaking things up from what I can see, but that’s what you do when you take over, you shake things up, and put your stamp on it.

RM: What was your relationship with Gilbert like when you were here in D.C.?

ET: I had a good relationship with him. Me and Gilbert would talk about politics, he would ask me questions, we had a great relationship. I always tell people that, and they say, “wait, Gilbert talks about politics?” and I say yeah, he asked me questions all the time. I remember the night of the [Presidential] election, he called me like three different times and was like, “explain to me this Electoral vote, I don’t understand this” and I’d break it down to him and he’d say, “that’s stupid” and I’d say I hear you, but that’s what it is. So we had great conversations.

RM: So why do you think he shows the media one thing, and his teammates another?

ET: That I can’t tell you. I can’t just tell you what my personal experience is with him. I have a lot of respect for him. I have respect for that fact that he’s battled back from his knee injury, how hard he works, I respect that, I want him to do well, and I wish him well. I think he’s going to do well. I know he has a chip on his shoulder, and that’s fine, that’s no problem, I just want him to do well.

RM: Have you thought about life after basketball an what you want to do?

ET: Of course. I want to be involved in a lot of different things. I’ll always write, so I’ll keep writing, keep being involved with young people, I’ve always had an interest in politics, I did a little radio, so there’s a lot of different things I can get into.

{photo: A. McGinnis, TAI}

What NBA Score Keeping Consoles Look Like (and other pics)

Kyle Weidie — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:40:59 +0000

Since the season is over and the Wizards aren’t in the playoffs, time for posts of a random nature that really aren’t that random.

Ever wondered what NBA scorekeepers use to keep score? I haven’t. I just trust that they’ll do their job.

Of course, if you Google “NBA scorekeeper,” you’ll come across Deadspin’s “Confessions Of An NBA Scorekeeper,” about a scorekeeper who once juiced the stats worse than a Baltimore cop … which only goes to show you that not only are the stats kept for basketball incomplete (as in, many things go un-tracked and hence the inexact science of advanced basketball statistics cannot possibly accurately depict everything), but they are also subjective.

Hey, that’s life. Maybe one day the inexact science will be less inexact and those who base entire theories on it will be a little more right. In any case, here are some pictures of the Washington Wizards score-keeping consoles … granted, not the ones used to track detailed stats, but the ones that control the in-game arena clocks, scoreboard, etc. … which kinda makes these pics a little anti-climactic from the previous paragraph. Drat.

Scoreboard Stats

Master Game Clock Control

24-second Shot Clock

Tyrone Hill, Atlanta Hawks assistant coach.

Did you know Hill once had a feud with Charles Oakley? Andrew Sharp has more about famous NBA feuds at SB Nation.

Sam Cassell makes a stink faces while Shaun Livingston enjoys something.

But Sam-I-Am, always the Jokester/Chatty Cathy, never fails to leave ‘em smiling.

Of course, that usually leaves Nick Young kinda sleepy.

Zaza say “Capiche?”

[Photo Credits: Adam Douglas - Truth About It.net]

Wizards and Hawks, A Pictorial of Just Another Game

Kyle Weidie — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:59:12 +0000

Ok, so the Wizards blew a game against the Knicks tonight. Maybe Earl Boykins and Fabricio Oberto have played their last road game in the NBA … come bid them farewell at home on Wednesday. But really, what’s fun about writing about a game in which I couldn’t quite force myself to root for the Knicks (or against the Wizards), but don’t mind that they won, keeping Washington’s futile draft lottery hopes drinking from a glass slightly more than half full?

So, in lieu of writing about Andray Blatche putting up good numbers while kinda, sorta trying, I present a photo-blog from last Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. For that game, I changed places with Adam Douglas, the TAI site photographer since the last time the Wizards faced the Hawks in D.C., and sat baseline to capture the game from up close. Here that goes…

JaVale McGee no hands ball kiss.

Mike Miller grabbed and coughed, but forgot to turn his head.

Nick Young putting in work.

Young skies for a J.

Fab Oberto draws a charge from teammate Nick Young (with the help of a shove from Al Horford)

JaVale McGee is making bird noises.

Hey man, you can call me Al.

I left this “interesting” shot attempt by JaVale McGee out of the previous post.

Fan Man tries to make the Chipotle Burrito give-away even more appetizing by licking his lips while handing them out.

Directing Traffic.

Dudes be holding (Josh Smith).

Not sure what Andray was trying here, but it looks cool …

Mike Miller, just hangin’

Randy Wittman’s job is assistant coaching enforcer, meaning he yells at the refs a lot and stuff. Don Zierden (another assistant coach) is all like, “Yea, what he said!” Sam Cassell is quiet for a change.

Josh Smith will throw anything up.

Does anyone see the ball coming?

What happened over there?

Al Horford baby hooks over Fab Oberto.

Caught!

Jamal Crawford doing Jamal Crawford things … whatever that means.

Kick Ball.

Seems like JaVale McGee is walking around on defense.

JaVale pleads his case.

Slap hands.

The Plight of Dray.

Greivis Vasquez gets grabby.

No one in history can tell you what’s going on in this picture.

Just call me, 7-Day-Dray.

The Malcontent Josh Smith…

… Likes to get grabby.

Shaun Livingston fouls Jamal Crawford.

Hands in the air.

80s hairdos just made it to Georgian (the country) NBA players.

Waiting.

Little known fact*: 78% of NBA coaches chew on markers, it gets them ready for play-calling

[* not actually a little known fact]

Flip looks to the basketball gods.

Behind the block.

Weary 7-Day.

The Thinker.

Stand Off.

The Watcher.

G-Man Toss.

There goes the headband.

One Love.

A Slide Show

JaVale McGee & A Muppet Imitate Flip Saunders

Kyle Weidie — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:19:25 +0000

Evidently while in New York to face the Knicks in the Wizards’ final road game of the year, JaVale McGee stopped by FAO Schwarz to go shopping for some toys. We know this because he Tweeted it and shared the above pic of himself and a stuffed acquisition resembling his likeness … in Muppet form.

I could totally see JaVale trying to recreate that piano scene from Big while he was there … if he even remembers that movie. It came out the year he was born, 1988.

But the imaginary fun doesn’t end there. Cue the genius of the WizzNutzz in Tweet form …

At times, many times, JaVale McGee shoots the ball every time he touches it is a fact not lost upon most Wizards fans. I covered it extensively in an April 4th post, The Catch-22 of JaVale McGee. The best part is in a video interview, McGee is specifically asked about balancing patience on the offensive end. He answers the question by saying, “In my mind, I’m just, if I get the ball one on one, I feel like drive, drive, drive and get as close to the hole as possible and it’s either going to be a foul or a dunk.” So, he didn’t really answer the question at all.

More recently, after the win against the Warriors, the topic of McGee’s shot happy nature came up in Flip Saunders’ press conference. After praising McGee for his recent hustle, also outlining that taking him out of the starting lineup has helped him avoid opponents going after him immediately, causing the second year player to pick up quick fouls, and that it has also helped him better channel his effort while dealing with asthma, Saunders said:

“He’s got to learn how to, eventually, that when he takes a 15-foot shot and misses he’s coming out. And when he dribbles the ball from one end to another, he’s coming out of the game. He’s going to figure that out eventually. I don’t know how soon, but eventually he’ll get it figured out … at least I know that’s going to happen, so I hope he does (smiling).”

McGee, through his actions, doesn’t always seem like he’s willing to change, i.e., he’s making his learning curve tougher than it should be by repeating the same actions. As you can imagine, he pulled some crazy shots from a place where the sun don’t shine against the Atlanta Hawks this past Saturday (pictures below).

After the game, I asked Saunders about this … again, but especially in terms of how it contributes to his frustration level as a coach. Flip said:

“There’s always frustration because you hope that eventually it kicks in and they understand things. JaVale, one, he’s gotten to the point where he’s playing with a sustained amount of energy in the period of time that he’s on the floor. Now he’s got to learn to become more disciplined. I told him at halftime, in our last 10-12 games he’s had two assists. In the last 30 games he’s had like five. As a big man, you’ve got to pass the ball some. You can’t try to score every time you touch it.

What happens is your perimeter guys stop cutting, they stop moving and eventually they’ll stop passing you the ball because they won’t get it back. So I’m trying to explain to him too … players, the only way they’re really going to learn is you keep on talking to them. If there’s a few times they keep on doing it, it’s playing time. Take them out and explain to them what they did wrong, why they did it, why they’re out, and let them look at it for a couple minutes and then get them back in the game.

In his situation, sometimes he does that because I think he gets tired. Sometimes he just doesn’t understand. So we’re just trying to work with him.

Note: In the 23 games McGee has played in since the beginning of March, he’s tallied five total assists. In 58 games and 912 minutes on the season, JaVale has 13 assists. That’s 0.2 per game and 0.5 per 36 minutes.

Lately, McGee has shown a ton of promise that Wizards fans should be proud of. But until he checks his ego and stops taking so many selfish shots, learning that passing and ball movement better benefits the team, fans will just have to accept the good and bad of the kid and hope that he’ll eventually change.

On Saturday I switched places with the usual TAI photographer, Adam Douglas, and sat baseline for a really cool up-close view of the action. I’ll be getting some pics from the Wizards-Hawks match-up posted in time, but until then, here’s some I caught of JaVale McGee.

McGee’s crazy attempt to split Josh Smith and Al Horford:

Doesn’t seem like the shot you usually want your center taking, an under-handed scoop on the run:

Post feed from Mike Miller:

Making the move against Zaza Pachulia:

Um … not a lot balance here:

Nope, not a good attempt. Not sure yelling in Zaza’s face helps either:

The young fella leaves himself dejected:

JaVale jumps to avoid Mo Evans’ dunk:

McGee misses Mo Evans again:

JaVale doing something funny:

McGee in the process of performing one of this other favorite activities, leaving his feet on a pump fake:

This can’t end well …

If you can’t block ‘em, sit on ‘em …

Aww Mayne!

McGee doesn’t always seem to have the highest interest level when he’s out of the game and on the bench:

A work in progress …

NBA Referee Scott Foster, Still In The Game

Kyle Weidie — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:51:49 +0000

Editor’s Note: Adam Douglas is the new photography assistant for Truth About It.net. Occasionally he also contributes with some excellent writing. Previously he wrote about Emir Preldzic, a Euro-stash player the Wizards acquired in the Ilgauskas-Jamison trade. Below, Adam writes about his first game on the job, the March 11th Wizards-Hawks blizzard make-up game, and his observations of a certain NBA referee.

Reflecting on my pictorial under the hoop debut at the Phone Booth and the Wizards loss to the Atlanta Hawks with Mr. Truth About It, I made a comment on how one official made some really bad calls that both teams were complaining about.

The most egregious were two inadvertent whistles in the fourth quarter that left players and coaches scratching their heads.

One was a momentum crusher.

A quick analysis fingered the ref in question was Scott Foster. Hmmm, the name seems familiar so it is time to fire up the Internet machine.

NBA referee Tim Donaghy made repeated phone calls to a second referee at the same time he provided inside information to professional gamblers during the course of the 2006-2007 season, according to court documents and phone records obtained by FOXNews.com.

The records show Donaghy placed 134 calls to referee Scott Foster — more than the 126 calls Donaghy made to his bookie — between October 2006 and April 2007, the period during which he has confessed to either betting on games or passing on game information to gamblers. The majority of the phone calls lasted no more than two minutes and occurred prior to and after games Donaghy officiated and on which he admits wagering.

With the exception of 150 calls Donaghy placed to Thomas Martino, to whom he says he provided “picks” to win games and who was the middleman between the disgraced referee and a bookie named James Battista, the ex-ref phoned no one more than he called Foster. During this period, the most calls Donaghy made to any other referee were 13.

[via FoxNews.com - July 14, 2008]

Oh my, that Scott Foster! If only I could have kept my seats and exchanged my camera for beers, this guy would have felt my obnoxious fandom wrath.

(Side note, the biggest internal struggle with my close up view was not being able to overtly cheer for the Wizards, make fun of opposing players and ride the refs on bad calls.)

Some reports say Foster and Donaghy exchanged 304 phone calls between December 2006 and April 2007. Assuming that the window includes the full five months, that’s just over two calls per day.

Because that is what best brahs do, call each other every day just to chat about work, especially when they are traveling. Riiiiight.

The NBA conveniently cleared Foster in its report, there ended up being no Congressional investigations, Donaghy served his time in prison, and NBA Commish David Stern labeled Donaghy a “rogue official,” which Donaghy disputes in his book.

Foster opened up to the press in November 2008 about his relationship with Donaghy and those high volume of calls.

“I’m on the road 150 days a year,” said Foster, crouching forward in his chair. “It’s not atypical for officials to play phone tag from time to time. Just today I’ve talked to two refs twice and two refs once. We go back and forth. I get to the airport and I’m in the security line, I’d give him a call. I’d be watching Sports Center, I’d give him a call. It’s constant water-cooler chatter. That’s how we work out here. You have one or two buddies who you bounce things off of and share experiences with.”

[via SI.com - November 4, 2008]

Foster further went on a PR storm by allowing USA Today complete access to his professional life.

There’s also circumstantial evidence that the wise guys were making a killing in Vegas off some of Foster’s games.

During the 2006-07 period under investigation, seven games refereed by Scott Foster had lopsided enough betting on one team to move the point spread by at least 2 points; those seven teams were undefeated against Vegas – meaning that the big-money gamblers won a 7 of 7 times on Foster’s games; the odds of that happening randomly are less than 1%.

Statistics alone cannot convict, but it’s certainly noteworthy that seven times in Foster’s games one team was bet extremely heavily, and all seven times that team won,” said RJ Bell of Pregame.com.

[via NBA FanHouse - July 16, 2008]

The impression from reports on Donaghy’s book is that he covered for Foster, so maybe Foster is the victim in this situation.

Enough background info and back to the crap calls at hand. There were several calls that both teams were griping about but it is hard to determine their validity because NBA games are usually one big bitch fest amongst everyone involved.

Unfortunately, I do not have access to the video from that Wizards-Hawks game and the NBA.com game log does not make reference to inadvertent whistles.

The first one blown by Foster was at some point in the 4th Quarter and had no real bearing to the on court play. I was initially impressed that Foster manned up with a “my bad.” I have witnessed refs at all levels of basketball just call a foul or something in many similar situations so they will not have to admit a public mistake.

However, the next whistle came a crucial part of the game and had a negative impact on the Wizards. Javale McGee’s dunk had cut the Hawks lead to four with 50 seconds left and the Wiz corralled a Joe Johnson long rebound miss on the Hawks’ next possession. McGee was poised to make an outlet pass that was definitely going to lead to an advantageous fast break for the Wizards when Foster blew his whistle from the other side of the court. Flip Saunders and his players looked on in disbelief as Foster explained his screw up again. Maybe Foster thought Saunders intended to call a timeout, but it didn’t appear that way. The Wizards could have cut the lead to two or maybe one on that fast break.

After the inadvertent whistle, the Wizards did call a timeout. The Hawks went on to rebound Blatche’s missed shot. Washington had a foul to give and Atlanta called a timeout to move the ball to half court.

Jamal Crawford caught the inbounds pass and dribbled it off his foot out of bounds. Pouring salt into the Wizards wounds, the refs called a foul on Quinton Ross instead of giving the ball to the Wizards. To be fair to Foster, his colleague made this call, but he gets partial guilt by association.

Crawford made one free throw and Wizards followed up with another miss to basically put the game mathematically out of reach. Washington did, however, end up covering the seven-point spread thanks to a last second bucket by Mike Miller … go figure.

The Hawks are a playoff team and obviously the 2009-10 Wizards are not. Foster and his crew’s F’d up calls did not directly cost the Wizards the game but they sure as hell didn’t help.

Foster’s poor performance was not lost on Wizards fans at Bullets Forever.

OK
I try not to focus on officiating but this is at least the 3rd game I’ve watched (I don’t get to see them all) where Scott Foster has absolutely sh*t the bed. He was on the floor and completely blew the Knicks game on Feb 26. -Jheiser3

Scott Foster, I cringe when I hear this dude on the court officiating. -Unxpekted

Scott Foster, I will have to remember that name
There were horrible calls all night, and 90 percent of them were against us. It is funny when there is a game like the overtime against NY, where there must have been at least ten or more travel calls, and then last night they missed a bunch of travel calls. I really hate NBA refs, the game is never called consistently and I end up scratching my head at every whistle. -seewhite

hard to forget
After he was the on the other end of Tim Donaghy’s calls on most nights. -Jheiser3

{Good ol’ Boys}

When Mike Miller Made Vegas Happy or Sad

Kyle Weidie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:41:38 +0000

[Mike Miller's final shot versus the Atlanta Hawks, March 11, 2010]

Your average gambling addict is probably keeping track of every game on every night, including a Wizards game. But last Thursday against the Hawks, even the most casual sports gambler was probably paying attention to the Wiz.

Even though there was a full slate of college basketball conference tournament action that night, there were only three NBA games on the schedule … the Bulls at Magic and the Warriors at the Blazers in addition to the Hawks at Wizards, which was a snow make-up game.

Heading into the night, Atlanta was favored by seven points. And with time running out in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Hawks were going to cover. Up 104-97, Marvin Williams was fouled by Mike Miller with nine seconds left. At this point, the clock could have run out, causing a push. And at this point, someone was probably thanking Miller for the foul, possibly allowing Atlanta to cover the spread.

Free-throw #1 … a miss. Free-throw #2 … a make. Hawks up eight, 105-97.

You have to figure that most people bet on the Hawks to cover. So all those controlled by Gamblor, the god of gambling, needed was for the Wizards to miss, or just not shoot at all. See how exciting gambling makes the most mundane of games?

And a miss is what he or she got when Randy Foye fired a three-pointer with three seconds left in the game … Success!!

Not so fast. Miller, who was probably just being praised for his free-throw allowing foul, got the rebound off Foye’s miss and put the ball in the basket right before the buzzer sounded, making the final margin six points, 105-99 Hawks.

Those who bet Washington to cover celebrated their success thanks to a meaningless bucket by White Mike Miller. The others left cursing the fact that they were seconds away from the money. This, kids, is why you shouldn’t gamble.

{Catch and release … your gambling losses.}

[Photo credits: Adam Douglas - Truth About It.net]

Best Wizards Links – Blatche on Turnovers: “It’s not like I’m just giving the ball away.”

Kyle Weidie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:37:48 +0000

Turnovers have been an issue for Andray Blatche lately, and you can sense it’s starting to frustrate him.

In the 12 games Blatche has started since Antawn Jamison was traded, he’s averaged 24 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.8 turnovers per game, but has also had two games with five turnovers, one game with eight, and on Thursday night against the Hawks he had seven.

Dray’s Usage-percentage during this time has been 29.7%. USG% is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he is on the floor.

As you heard in the video above, Blatche keeps telling himself that his current role of increased playing time and being the focus of the opponent’s defense is new to him. He says turnovers will be an issue until he learns, whenever that may be.

And Dray will learn, the line of questioning wasn’t necessarily to pick on him, but rather an attempt to gather what his mental process is when trying to correct. Less light was shed than frustrations were expressed.

Nonetheless, his recent numbers are pretty astounding. So for the heck of it, I plugged some of them into the season finder tool on Basketball-Reference.com — searching for players who have averaged equal to or over 38 minutes, 24 points, 10 rebounds and 3.8 turnovers over a season.

If you eliminate those who assist better than Blatche, who is averaging 2.8 assists during the 12 game stretch — so, say those averaging more than 3.3 assists — you’re left with George McGinnis at ages 22 and 23, Charles Barkley at age 24, Marvin Barnes at age 22, Hakeem Olajuwon at age 27, Karl Malone at age 24, and Moses Malone at ages 23 and 25.

Andray is 23 … those comparisons are pretty encouraging. So with Blatche patience should be practiced. But just know that the bar is being set pretty high.

Gilbert’s Number Change.

Gilbert Arenas is a polarizing character and I would expect nothing less than diverse reactions from his decision to change his jersey number from zero to six. SB Nation’s Mike Prada is sad. The DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg is more jarred at it than seeing Arenas in court pleading guilty to a felony charge.

Me? I just kind of shrug my shoulders. I mean, it’s typical erratic Gil, right? Changing his mind is just as much a part of his quirky character as his brief flirtation with being the Mr. Surly.

Sure, Arenas built some sort of persona of slight and motivation with the reminder of zero, but it’s also no surprise to see him have less of an emotional connection to the gimmick than fans and followers. Gil changes his mind with the breeze. And if number six doesn’t work out, understand that next March, he could easily be filing paperwork to go back to number zero or even double-zero.

James Singleton Goes Hard.

Both of these plays unfolded in less than ten seconds, and no one patted Singelton on the butt, high fived him, or showed his highlights on Sportscenter later that evening. But on every team there is dirty work to be done on both ends of the floor, and on the Washington Wizards squad, that is what James Singleton has to do on a nightly basis.

“This team is lacking a certain physical-ness, ” Singleton told me after the Houston Rockets game on Tuesday. “That’s not a slight to [Andray]Blatche or JaVale[McGee], but I have a little more bulk than they do. And I’m not getting plays run for me, so I have to make my mark being physical, and I actually like that.”

[Rashad Mobley - HoopsAddict]

Caron Butler has a new blog post on HoopsHype.

I know I’ve been kind of hard on Caron, but I, and the city of Washington, do miss his presence on the court (the good basketball memories that is), and in the community. In his post he continues to keep it classy by thanking D.C. , but it also contains a pretty interesting quote:

They often ask me to compare how’s playing with Jason Kidd now as opposed to doing it with Gilbert. Well, they are both great players. Gilbert has always been a scoring guard and can do so many things with the ball in his hands. His thing is scoring. Meanwhile, Jason has a special gift… And that is making people better.

{Quick Wiz Hits}

Ball Don’t Lie’s Trey Kerby wants to find a new nickname for Arenas.
A Canadian writer wants the Raptors to offer Jose Calderon (3-years, $29.4 million left) and the expiring contracts (after 2010-11) of Reggie Evans and Marcus Banks (around $9.9 million total) for Gilbert Arenas (4-years, $80.2 million left).
Michael Pina of Hardwood Paroxysm writes that Andray Blatche is in the backboard’s shadow.
JaVale McGee had eight dunks last night, which is more than some players have had all season.

{Wizards-Hawks Game Quotes}

:Home Team

[Michael Lee - Wizards Insider]

As for the game, the Wizards were finally get some offensive generated, scoring 99 points despite committing 21 turnovers, which led to 32 points for the Hawks. That truly was the difference in the game, with the Wizards beating the Hawks in rebounds 42-29 and with points in the paint (48-36).

“When the other team scores 32 points off turnovers, you don’t really give yourself much of a chance to come back,” Coach Flip Saunders said. “Basically, turnovers are what killed us.”

[Craig Stouffer - Washington Examiner]

But after a contest in which Andray Blatche hit the 30-point mark for the third time since the All-Star break (the fourth this season) and got his ninth double-double, and in which JaVale McGee had a career-high 20 points, had 9 rebounds, and matched Dwight Howard with 8 dunks, a one-game season-high in the NBA this year, it’s time to talk about more than simply their increased production.

Are Blatche and McGee actually getting better?

[Mike Prada - Bullets Forever]

Blatche was in a fairly defensive mood. He had a good game, but when asked about it, it said it didn’t matter because the team lost. Blatche also had seven turnovers, which was a sign of a team-wide problem tonight that was big enough for Flip Saunders to zip into the press room quickly and give mostly curt answers about how his team was sloppy with the ball. One reporter in particular tried to prod some answers out of Blatche for his turnover problem, asking if there’s anything he’s doing in particular to try to work on it. Blatche kept repeating that he just needed more court time and experience dealing with being a featured guy, his voice sounding more annoyed than usual.

[Joe Glorioso - Wizards Extreme]

I hate to sound like a broken record but for the second straight game Mike Miller decided to start the game with a shooters mentality. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before, 1st quarter Miller is 3 for 4, the following 2 quarters 0 shots. Then the 4th quarter comes along and he tries to get it going again but shots 1 for 4 and finishes the game 4 for 8 with 11 points.

Look, I’m not trying to start a bash-fest on Miller but you don’t have to be a basketball aficionado to understand that if you don’t shoot the ball for 2 quarters your chances of being pin point accurate in the 4th are not going to be to high.

:The Other Side

[The Human Highlight Blog - Peachtree Hoops]

There is a growing concern among some Bird Watchers that the Hawks may not have the mental focus and drive to be anything more than part-time participants in the NBA Playoffs. Recent games have been consistently marked by uneven play offensively and minimal defensively.

For those who count those traits as a serious issues, then the Hawks 105-99 win at Washington did nothing to assuage their concerns.

[Bret LaGree - Hoopinion]

The Hawks can’t get away with Josh Smith wasting four of his ten field goal attempts on jump shots or Al Horford grabbing just a single defensive rebound or allowing an opponent to grab half of their own missed shots or making just 60% of the free throw attempts very often. That they got away with all of those tonight is a testament to Jamal Crawford’s ability to create his own shot and the current state of the Washington Wizards.

[Michael Cunningham - Hawks Blog, AJC]

It’s getting a little late for that “all teams are tough, sometimes you have nights like this” stuff. The Hawks got outworked for most of the game by a team headed for the lottery. They let a bad offensive team have an easy time scoring for long stretches and let a so-so rebounding team dominate them on the boards.

[KWillis - Soaring Down South]

It is no secret that the Hawks aren’t playing their best basketball at this point in the season. Last night’s win over the Wizards is big in the fact that it stopped a losing streak before it could build anymore momentum. The Hawks are now 64 games into the season and it is hard to keep that focus and energy throughout. However, they have to begin to build some momentum for the playoffs. There is no way that the Hawks can expect to reach the Eastern Conference Finals the way they are playing right now. At the moment a victory in a first round series couldn’t be guaranteed.

{Other Links}

NCAA Tournament expansion is a good thing, and the DC Sports Bog has all the reasons why.
Unlike Baby, Jerry Orbach helped put the Clippers in the corner … of the country, as in L.A.
The Metrocurean tells us that Top Chef is coming to Washington, DC. Nice.
Tony Kornheiser’s hate knows no bounds, this time it’s cyclists.

Wizards Drama Out Of Nothing

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:55:54 +0000

“Drama, thy name is the Washington Wizards,” began a post by Joanne C. Gerstner on Off the Dribble, the New York Times’ NBA blog. The post is also titled, “Wizards Drama Continues.”

Drama again? This team certainly doesn’t need any more drama after all the unfathomable events of this season. What exactly is this drama that the NY Times speaks of?

A bizarre season already marred by the Gilbert Arenas gun incident took another ugly turn when coach Flip Saunders and starting center Andray Blatche engaged in a war of words.

A war of words? Boy, sounds dangerous. But in reality, the incident was nothing more than an intense discussion between coach and player. Something that happens at any level of basketball.

The incident in dispute revolves around the exchange of words, among other extra-curricular activities, between Kevin Garnett and Blatche during last Sunday’s Wizards-Celtics game in Boston. Saunders, knowing Garnett, felt that Blatche should not have bought into Garnett’s bait. The coach’s point was that K.G.’s juices get flowing when his antics are acknowledged, as opposed to when he is ignored. Blatche’s defense to Flip was that he wanted to stand up for himself.

Both Michael Lee of the Washington Post and Mike Prada of Bullets Forever were present when Flip discussed the incident prior to Tuesday’s game against the Rockets.

Lee reported:

“We talked, screamed, talked, did a little bit of everything,” Saunders said. “His argument was, ‘I’m not going to let anyone talked like that.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to understand one of the keys at this level is understanding your opponent. Understanding what they try to do and as much as anything, this game becomes mental.’

Prada relayed:

Saunders closed with this: “I told him that if you’re going to be the main guy, you have to be the guy who everyone else is looking to,” adding that Boston’s main leader, Paul Pierce, always keeps his cool on the court. He said Blatche eventually understood what he was saying after the long talk.

Again, war of words worthy of “dramatic” blog post titles or a discussion between player and coach that might happen on any team in the NBA from the Lakers to the Nets.

“Ain’t no drama at all between me and [Flip]. I don’t have a problem with him at all and he doesn’t have a problem with me. That’s just a whole bunch of he said, she said.” said Andray when I spoke with him about the incident before tonight’s game.

It seems that the Wizards are in a vulnerable position to be picked on and Gestner did just that. Sure, some might accuse me of defending the team I root for and blog about. In turn, I guess I can also accuse the author of making something out of nothing.

…………………….

Speaking of Mr. Blatche. He’ll have an interesting match-up against Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks tonight. When asked about it, Saunders said that Atlanta’s whole front line, which includs Al Horford, Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia and Joe Smith, poses problems. Flip said that Blatche hasn’t played well in the season’s previous two games against the Hawks (both in Atlanta) because of their athleticism. The coach is really looking for Andray to bounce back from Tuesday’s game against the Rockets. He also said that you might see Al Thornton guard Smith at times.

Other Wizards-Hawks Pre-Game Bullets:

Blatche actually had a decent game against the Hawks in the second meeting of the season. In 34 minutes off the bench, he scored 13 points on 5-7 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. Okay, maybe that line is not that great considering how much he played. In the January 13th meeting against the Hawks, Dray played around 17 minutes, scoring six points on 1-7 shooting while picking up five fouls. Ouch.
Clearly with three games in three nights, the Wizards will have to play just about everyone over the next couple of days … perhaps even Alonzo Gee.
Flip said that the assistant coaches will be in charge of making sure guys get proper rest … as in, he gets wrapped up in the game and the others coaches keep track of playing name. But this is usually the norm with teams.
However, Flip said, “If we can get by without playing Earl [Boykins] tonight, we might not play Earl,” referring to the match-up problem Jamal Crawford poses.
Shaun Livingston will be the back-up and Saunders said he might play anywhere from 18-26, 27 minutes, indicating that there shouldn’t be a limit on him from a health stand-point.

Hawks Claw Wizards 94-82: What You Surely Missed in Pictures and Words

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:00:21 +0000

Of mice, of men … the Hawks were the predator and the Wizards were the prey. Early, both teams were cold. I’ll concur with a comment of Wiz broadcast TV HOFer (or at least he should be if he’s not … if that type of thing exists), Steve Buckhantz, who said that unlike versus the Pistons, the Wizards started against Atlanta with energy. They just couldn’t buy a basket, and neither could the Hawks in the beginning.

The Wizards should have felt at home though, the Phillips Arena looked dwarfed by the Verizon Center in capacity. After getting down by as many as 22 points, 40-18 with 3:43 left in the second quarter, the Wizards made the game competitive, getting as close as two points, 66-64, with 11:41 left in the game. But they never could get over a seven point hump late in the fourth quarter.

The Wizards were bested by only 43.5% shooting from the Hawks and a couple ineffectual turnovers. They lost to the better team, and not necessarily because of lack of effort, but because they are not very good.

It’s worth observing that their reason to play inspired basketball has drastically dwindled. If two things plague this team most, one is lack of discipline, which is on the account of the players inconsistently following Flip Saunders’ game plan and often free-styling at crucial points of the game. The second is that the Wizards are not hungry, as in, ‘Did you see D-League call-up Mario West hustle his ass off?’ West had four offensive rebounds in 12 minutes.

As a team, the Wizards don’t know how to play like the Mario Wests of the world, many evidently comfortable with the status quo. Someone tomorrow will take solace in the fact the Wizards fought back from a deficit the size of Jim McIlvaine‘s jersey number. That same someone has started out the decade rooting for moral victories.

You surely missed the game, here’s what happened …

{first quarter}

5:03 – I’m just saying, I don’t think it’s the best idea for Randy Foye to leave Joe Johnson and go all the way across the court to double Josh Smith with Brendan Haywood when Smith isn’t that close to the basket. Maybe someone else didn’t rotate, I don’t know. I do know that Johnson gets the cross-court pass and hits a wide open three. 9-4 Atlanta.

4:19 – Caron Butler has as many carrying violations as the Wizards have field goals, two each.

3:01 – Whew, Randy Foye nails an extended mid-range jumper off a Haywood screen. The Hawks didn’t pick him up at the extended left elbow. I thought the Wizards were going to be stuck on four forever. 11-6 Atlanta.

And you thought the fans at the Verizon Center were bad/sparse. Guess this means the Wizards can’t use mediocre home crowds as an excuse.

0:06 – Here, Randy Foye can’t go behind the pick … assuming that Brendan Haywood communicated to him that it was coming, which I’m sure he did. Haywood is a talker, former blogger, multiple time WNBA television analyst, and a man with media aspirations after his playing career is done … I’m pretty sure he communicated. Foye goes behind the pick anyway and Jamal Crawford nails the open jumper. 17-13 Hawks.

Season low 13 points for a quarter.

{second quarter}

10:25 – Blatche’s first shot since January 8th: A pull up jumper on Joe Smith, off the dribble and off-balanced moving to the left … airball. 19-14 Atlanta.

Who Gets the Rebound?

9:28 – I certainly empathize with Andray Blatche for having two players in his area to block out … but why did he leave Mario West, who is closer to the basket, to go block out Joe Smith? Then again, does it really matter?

West gets the offensive board, but the Hawks can’t convert the second chance.

>>Points in Paint – 12-2 Hawks.

6:54 - Blatche fakes a pass on the smaller man, West, and drives to the basket strong, And1 — FT miss. 27-16 Atlanta.

4:58 – Boykins shot gets blocked – When the offense is bad, guys are trying to take the first open look they can get, thinking they will take advantage, but it’s really detrimental to the offensive flow overall.

4:48 – Wizards have 16 points. The Hawks have 37 points.

3:46 - Nick Young tries to lazily reverse the ball in a swing from the top of the arc, gets deflected, turnover.

Washington ending the half on a 9-0 run sounds pretty good, but not if that run only cuts your opponent’s lead to 12.

45 – 33 Hawks.

Bench scoring at half: Hawks 21 – Wizards 2

{third quarter}

Nick Young is not living up to recent praise of his defensive improvement. DeShawn Stevenson starts the 2nd half.

11:07 – Stevenson’s 1st three in almost a month, December 14th against the Clippers was the last time to be exact. 45-36 Hawks.

10:00 - Foye drains a three pointer, his consistent shot could pique a GM’s interest … if only he could improve his ability to create better offensive flow. His numbers are nice, and I remember in training camp when everyone bragged about his steady presence, but he’s no Chauncey Billups, not even the very poor man’s version who hopes to soon earn more cash version of Flip’s former point guard in Detroit. 47-39 Hawks.

9:18: Back-to-back jumpers for Foye, this time a two. He knows how to pull up off a pick when given room .. the Hawks are giving him room. Randy is 6-9 from field. 47-41 Hawks.

8:45 – Of course, Randy’s heat check three leads to fastbreak points for Atlanta. 49-41 Hawks.

7:44 - More fast break Hawks points … after a Wizards turnover (of all things). 53-41 Hawks.

2:52 - 18 points, 15 rebounds >> The Gentleman Antawn Jamison: as warrior as warriors come. 61-56 Hawks.

1:49 - Hawks move the ball well and Marvin Williams ends up with a dunk. When the Wizards try and double, it is simply not crisp enough against a team that makes the extra pass. 65-56 Hawks.

Well, the Wizards are staying competitive … can’t complain too much about that.

66 – 62 Hawks

{fourth quarter}

7:03 - Blatche has been working closer the basket on offense …. positions himself for an offense board and earns a trip to the line, drawing a 5th foul on Horford. 76-70 Hawks. Blatche also earned 2 FTs on a drive at the 7:52 mark

2:21 - Foye with another J. The Wizards are hanging around. … unfortunately, they are one of those teams you can let hang around wtihout much consequence. 89-82 Atlanta.

1:31 - Foye stumbles a little on a fastbreak chance off a Hawks turnover, recovers, tries to make a tough lob to Andray … who can’t handle and misses the dunk. Fitting. 91-82 Atlanta.

Truth About It » atlanta hawks

DC Council Game 2: Wizards 83 – Hawks 101: At Least Nick Young Looks Good

Score

Washington Wizards 83 at Atlanta Hawks 101 [box score]

Scene of the Game

The NON-highlights.

D.C. Flag 3-Star Ratings

<***> Rating the Starting 5, Bench & Coach out of 3 stars.

John Wall

TOTAL: 5 out of 9 stars

Jordan Crawford

TOTAL: 0.5 star out of 9

Rashard Lewis

TOTAL: 5 stars out of 9

Andray Blatche

TOTAL: 1 star out of 9

JaVale McGee

TOTAL: 5.25 stars out of 9

The Bench

BENCH TOTAL: 5.5 stars out of 9

The Coach: Flip Saunders

COACH TOTAL: 2.25 stars out of 9

Seen on the Screen

Fan Tweets

@gheorghetheblog: Blatche now two of 11 from the floor. Please, for your sake, stay off the tweet machine tonight Andray.

@StillUnknown85: thats his workout spot RT @Abstract_cool: I bet you Andray go to the club tonight

Slept-On Moment

End Scene

{Chris Webber does not approve.}

Other reads from Truth About It:

3-on-3: Back To Atlanta, What On Earth Will Jordan Crawford Do?

2) Bret LaGree: Hawks fans generally agreed that Jordan Crawford was talented but whether or not he could use his talents within the structure of a good basketball team proved divisive. Can he be a starter on a playoff team or is he destined for a life putting up shots on bad teams?

3) Kyle Weidie: It’s fiscally understandable that Atlanta had to let Jamal Crawford go. People might also agree that Tracy McGrady was a decent, low risk signing. But Willie Green, Jannero Pargo and Jerry Stackhouse….? Really? Why not kick Gilbert Arenas’ tires?

Other reads from Truth About It:

What Happens When Jordan Crawford’s Green Light Ends?

Let’s hear Crawford talk about a range of topics during his time with the Wizards (including the 2009 summertime dunk on LeBron James):

More pictures:

Other reads from Truth About It:

Wizards Fly Free Against Sleeping Hawks

To the photos…

Close your eyes and dunk.

Mo Evans in on the action.

Dray? Travel?

Classic Kirk Hinrich face after Yi dunked on him.

The contortionist.

Larry Owens hounds Kirk Hinrich.

More on the floor hustle — yes, that’s Mustafa Shakur under there.

A happy bench shot, for a change.

All good in Wizards Nation, DC town for a night.

Other reads from Truth About It:

The Necessary Departure of Kirk Hinrich From Washington

“Kirk, I can see a playoff team just beyond the horizon.”

“Now can you take me with you?”

Later D.C.

Other reads from Truth About It:

David Falk on Mike Bibby & The Wizards Trade of Kirk Hinrich

David Falk:

Other reads from Truth About It:

Under The Hoop: Atlanta Hawks vs Washington Wizards

Other reads from Truth About It:

Poor Free Throw Shooting & Dismal Rebounding Doom Wizards

Other reads from Truth About It:

Dunk of the Year: Al Thornton Jams On Zaza

Now, in live action.

Other reads from Truth About It:

Patiently Waiting For Accountability

Notes and thoughts, randomly:

Other reads from Truth About It:

Quick Bullets On Wizards As Hawks Take Them Down 99-95

Other reads from Truth About It:

Notes From The Other Side: A Conversation With Etan Thomas

Other reads from Truth About It:

What NBA Score Keeping Consoles Look Like (and other pics)

Scoreboard Stats

Master Game Clock Control

24-second Shot Clock

Tyrone Hill, Atlanta Hawks assistant coach.

Sam Cassell makes a stink faces while Shaun Livingston enjoys something.

But Sam-I-Am, always the Jokester/Chatty Cathy, never fails to leave ‘em smiling.

Of course, that usually leaves Nick Young kinda sleepy.

<> Rating the Starting 5, Bench & Coach out of 3 stars.***