Sometimes you hear about guys playing overseas, especially young guys, and most reports involve limited minutes and much time on the pine. Their Euro-stats are weird, you have to adjust for them. Other fast-traveled messages more recently have informed us of the struggles of economic basketball defectors Deron Williams and Ty Lawson with their respective teams in Turkey and Lithuania. Overseas ball seems more like yard work than a day at the park for some of these NBA guys.

Kevin Seraphin seems to have ignored perceived tradition in not approaching his Euro assignment with a meek demeanor, surely making Wizards brass and fans alike proud that more toughness is in the future. Seraphin’s temporary Spanish team, Caja Laboral, opened their season this weekend with a 73-60 win over Cajasol; and Seraphin is making his presence felt, bloodying fools up.

Seraphin started the game, played 30 minutes, and finished with 11 points (5-6 FGs, 1-3 FTs), oddly enough only one rebound (on the offensive end, told you the stats can be weird), to go with one assist, one steal, three fouls and three blocks. His 11 points tied with three others for second most on his team. But proof is in the pictures. In the embedded game highlight video below (linked here if that doesn’t work; H/T: Ball In Europe) you will notice:

• 0:18 - Not two minutes into the game Seraphin takes it strong to the hoop and ends up bloodying the nose of his opponent, Canadian Carl English;
• 0:27 - Big block by Seraphin, but Cajasol gets the offensive rebound put-back;
• 0:56 - Seraphin lets former Wizard and former Millionaire Match-Maker participant Paul Davis lose him with a spin move for a lob basket, which is essentially the equivalent of a teenager falling for an exaggerated head fake where nothing else moves from his 70-year old grandpa;
• 1:07 - Seraphin throwing a powerful dunk And-1 on Tomas Satoransky;
• 1:18 - A reject of  Guillem Rubio and at 1:25, a block of Txemi Urtasun;
• 1:34 - Seraphin catches a lob dunk over everyone.
• 1:41 - They do that thing where they clap their hands high in the air to the crowd after a win.

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Thursday was exit interview day for the Washington Wizards. Players cleaned out their lockers for the offseason, engaged in parting conversations with the coaching staff, and met with the media as they trickled out of the Verizon Center with their belongings. JaVale McGee and Yi Jianlian lugged big garbage sacks full of their stuff while Nick Young was carefully leaving with a fat head poster of himself.

Throughout the individual interviews, there was an overlapping sense of reflection and relief that a long season had concluded. Jordan Crawford was thankful for the opportunity he received with the Wizards. Trevor Booker gave himself a B-minus grade for his rookie campaign. John Wall emphasized learning how to lead grown men in the NBA. And Nick Young mused nostalgic about his four-year career with the organization.

The past month of solid play provided optimism for next season, but since the Wizards missed the playoffs, the unknown future of a labor dispute is no longer looming. It has now officially moved to the forefront, with the clock ticking down to the end of June when the CBA expires.

This was apparent in Mo Evans, Vice President of the NBA Players Association Executive Committee, articulating the Union’s positions of not budging on a hard cap, contract lengths or giving up the Larry Bird Rights that past generations of players had won. Also, Young proclaiming that he is basically unemployed was a chilling reminder that he might not have a job for awhile, with or without the Wizards.

There were several moments of brevity and humor. JaVale McGee seemed to have no clue that Wall was a team captain, complained about $4 gas, would not disclose at which beach he was going to be vacationing, for fear of potential stalkers, and joked that his dribbling tendencies were because he was not always 7-feet tall.

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[Kevin Seraphin looks to establish position against Brendan Haywood.]

Back in mid-November, I asked the ‘seen a lot’ veteran Kirk Hinrich who on his then-Wizards team set the toughest screens. He didn’t hesitate for a millisecond to nominate rookie Kevin Seraphin. With a smile on his face and pronouncing his name ‘Ke-Veene’, Hinrich quickly exhaled air from his lungs afterward, reflecting upon a hard hit or two he’d received from Seraphin in practice.

Upon officially setting foot on the court for the Wizards this season, setting hard screens seemed to be Seraphin’s one and only goal … and he did so a little too much. Over his first two NBA appearances, against the Toronto Raptors at home on November 16 and against the Celtics in Boston on November 17, Seraphin totaled 10:48 on the court, two points, five rebounds, three turnovers and four fouls. Two of those fouls, and thus two of his turnovers, came as a result of getting called for setting illegal moving screens, and as you’ll soon see, one specific case where he punished the opponent a little too hard.

But lately, Seraphin has shown some very evident signs of understanding and improvement. Against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, he had a career-high eight points and pulled down six rebounds (his fourth highest total on the season) in 14 minutes off the bench. While some, such as JaVale McGee, chose to challenge former Wizards center, and defensive specialist, Brendan Haywood with a mentally lazy and predictably easy-to-defend mid-range jumper, Seraphin went at Haywood with toughness and legitimate post moves using his thick-framed body. In 13 January games, Seraphin averaged 7.5 minutes, 1.8 points on 66.7-percent shooting and 1.3 rebounds. In nine February games he’s seen 10.6 minutes per contest with averages of 3.6 points on 80-percent shooting and 3.1 rebounds.

After the Dallas game, while explaining what the newly acquired rookie Jordan Crawford needs to do to improve, Wizards coach Flip Saunders suddenly diverged into the topic of Seraphin: Read more »

[Ed. Note: Ryan Gracia is currently a junior at George Mason University studying journalism and sports communication and has followed the Washington Wizards for years. On Wednesday against Milwaukee, he tracked the progress of Wizards rookie Kevin Seraphin and reports below. -Kyle W.]

Seraphin Makes Good With Little Time

by Ryan Gracia

With JaVale McGee picking up two fouls less than six minutes into the game against the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night, Flip Saunders turned to his second first-round pick in the 2010 draft to answer the call. It’s been quite a journey for 17th pick Kevin Seraphin in his first season in the NBA, but he’s made the most of his opportunities on the court – for the most part – despite erratic playing time.

As of late, one-time backup center Hilton Armstrong has been given a seat deeper down in the depth chart in favor of the younger Wizard, as shown by the difference in minutes played between the first eight games and the last eight games for each player: Read more »

Young Kevin Seraphin and young Hamady N’Diaye. Bound by their knowledge of the French language and born abroad, these fresh faces couldn’t be having more fun chasing basketball dreams in the capital of the United States.

Happy-go-lucky guys they are, but hard workers and promising talent as well, especially the bruising Seraphin who you’ve seen more of on the court lately (just observe him set screens), and who you likely could see a fair bit of tonight against the Miami Heat as JaVale McGee’s availability is limited — according to Michael Lee, he’s available, but won’t start.

Rewind back to last Saturday night at the Verizon Center for a second. Into the locker room, before the game while the media is allowed to mingle in the team’s home sanctuary, Seraphin and N’Diaye came bounding through the threshold, literally arm and arm as they’ve been figuratively (Seraphin’s English is a work in progress; N’diaye, fluent in multiple languages, helps Seraphin via French).

Doing a jig-type dance, they were, bringing smiles to faces. My Flip-Cam ignited to capture them doing so when someone from the media contingent dedicated to covering Yi Jianlian requested that Seraphin and N’Diaye do what they called their new pre-game dance again. So now you can enjoy …

Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld addressed the media on Thursday afternoon and the major theme of his remarks was the team is in the “beginning of a new era.” While the most newsworthy item took place when the cameras were off, Grunfeld did give highly informational updates on various players.

Here Ernie talks about how John Wall will handle the extra attention placed upon the number one draft pick and discusses the games of the new youngsters:

Grunfeld details why the Wizards brought in two former lottery picks, Yi Jianlian and Adam Morrison:

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Checking in from the Atlanta airport (the people watching is great, as usual) on my way to Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League. I’ll be out there covering John Wall and the rest of the Wiz Kids until the 18th. I know, a long time to be in Vegas. But I’m good at staying out of trouble.

On Friday Wizards assistants Mike Wells and Ryan Saunders took rookie Kevin Seraphin through an individual workout as he continues to rehab a previous knee injury that will keep him out of summer league action. The 20-year old from Cayenne, French Guiana officially became part of the Wizards on Thursday when the Kirk Hinrich and 17th pick (Seraphin) acquisition in exchange for Wizards 2006 second round draft pick Vladimir Veremeenko was completed. Glad the Wiz didn’t give up a future second rounder.

Ernie Grunfeld spoke briefly about Seraphin on Thursday (covered in this post) and indicated that Seraphin’s buyout from his club in the French League, Cholet Basket, still needs to be worked out, but that he plans to have him on the roster next season. Check out some clips from Seraphin’s individual workout below … there are a couple dunks at the end. That shooting form needs a lot of work, but he sure is a wide-bodied player.

Kevin Seraphin and John Wall played on opposite sides of the ball when the USA Junior National Select Team faced the World Select Team at the 2009 Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Oregon. And the U.S. lost in a stunner, 97-89, letting a nine point lead slip away in the fourth quarter to boot.

Wall impressed with 13 points, five steals and 11 assists to only three turnovers. But Seraphin, with eight points, nine rebounds and four blocks in 22 minutes, left the Summit with several hailing him as the breakout player.

He’s got a gregarious personality making a lot of friends on the World team despite the fact that his English is very limited. He also has a great on court demeanor as he was an absolute beast in the paint all week in practice and in the game.
-Aran Smith, NBADraft.net

You could see his arm raise several times out of the paint to get the ball far above the rim. He also had several blocked shots coming on help situations or as a second row goalkeeper.
-Christophe Ney, EuropeanProspects.com

Both players sported No. 11, which was also their jersey numbers at respective previous stops in Kentucky and France, but will certainly not be their jersey number in Washington.

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