Ultimately, it is what it is — Mike Miller style. What will be with the Washington Wizards will be. Until there are signs that that franchise is truly turning around, those who question “the plan” are obtuse outsiders without context. At least it seems this way, sometimes, as mistakes accrue and ownership looks to provide massaged reasoning via blog pixels.

It won’t be easy is a mantra, stay the well-intended course is the verse, and injuries are the narrative. It’s still hard to tell if something is direly amiss with the Ernie Grunfeld administration and how things are being evaluated in his second life. The track record barely needs mentioning to know how putrid it is. Now, the fires have been further inflamed by a reported trade that never happened.

The Washington Post‘s Michael Lee dropped a bombshell on Ted Leonsis’ pro basketball franchise on Tuesday evening, just as the Wizards were set to tip off against the Hornets in New Orleans. The quick gist is this tweet via @PostSports:

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Well, it’s no Eddie Jordan pro-style Princeton offense. Instead, it’s Gilbert Arenas aimlessly wandering around the 3-point arc on the basketball hardwood in China. Which, for some strange reason, I take pleasure in watching … while those peddling Amway products are essentially paying Arenas not to play for the Orlando Magic. It’s all very sad in a bloggable way. Hey, did you know that Arenas was the first blogging athlete? Well, he was.

The above video, in fact, comes from China. It’s Arenas’ November 24 debut with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), against Stephon Marbury, famed consumer of Vaseline, and the Beijing Ducks. Well, the first few minutes of Arenas’ debut—he pulled up with an injury not six minutes in. But there Gilbert is, wandering around the floor in blue, wearing uniform No. 0 (just like Andray Blatche of the Brooklyn Nets).

Long story short, the Sharks get down 10-2 while Arenas barely touches the ball. Then Arenas sinks a step-back, fadeaway 3-pointer at about the 6:35 mark of the above YouTube (the only shot he would end up attempting). Then Arenas gets injured via his groin, or hip flexor, or “intramuscular strain of the right thigh”—all of them probably apply, all of them are probably lost in translation—and leaves for the night, and the foreseeable future (around the 8:22 mark of the YouTube). And then the Sharks lost to the Ducks, 94-78.

The blog, Beijing Cream, relays this: Read more »

Andray Blatche is doing good things in Brooklyn. So good that trolling the Wizards is easy. So good that he knows exactly when he will be ready to talk about a new contract.

We’re all too familiar with the fact that the Washington Wizards used the amnesty provision on Blatche this past summer. That no other NBA team made a full, or even partial, waiver claim on his contract. That Blatche signed with the Brooklyn Nets for a one-year, non-guaranteed deal worth about $850,000. That the Wizards are essentially on the hook for the remainder of Blatche’s amnestied contract, about $23 million over three years. Essentially.

So about the new contract that Blatche might want due to his good play with the Nets? Well, it’s too early to talk about all of it, he says. But, there will be a good time to discuss. We’ll let the New York Daily News take it away:

In an interview with the Daily News, the Nets center said he’d like to re-sign as a free agent next summer but understandably couldn’t commit to anything so early in the season.

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More RGIII? Definitely more RGIII.

Third of all, if you didn’t know, Robert Griffin, III was at the Wizards-Heat game on Tuesday night.

Second of all, he and LeBron hugged. The above video comes courtesy of TAI’s John Converse Townsend, and it is LeBron talking about RGIII, not hugging him.

And first of all…

“Of course I seen him.” {giggles… chuckles… ‘this guy’} —LeBron

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Hey, did you know that RGIII (Robert Griffin the Third) was at the Wizards-Heat game on Tuesday night? 

Yep, he totally was. I know because I watched it on the T.V., and there he was, definitely in attendance. He just about sat in Randy Wittman’s lap thanks to courtside seats. Seats that Ted Leonsis sits in sometimes. But this time, RGIII was there. You’ve certainly heard about it via the Internets, via the Twitter, perhaps even via the Google.

Maybe RGIII saw a Wittman face (i.e., #WittmanFace). Maybe RGIII saw John Wall’s red pants. He definitely saw the Wizards beat the Heat, 105-101. That RGIII, what a guy.

RGIII also witnessed the below GIFery: a sweet block by Kevin Seraphin on LeBron James after some fancy dribbling. Did you know that RGIII was at the Wizards-Heat game?

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Robert Griffin III is awesome. No getting around that. All of the draft picks that the Redskins traded for him were worth it, and more. Redskins fans are very lucky to even have the a talent like RGIII on their team for years to come. An NBA superstar can make a franchise, but a potentially all-time great NFL quarterback is like nothing else (without getting too far ahead of ourselves).

That said, the Wizards could really, really use an NBA superstar. Kevin Durant is pridefully from the DMV area and just thinking about him in ‘new’ Wizards red (or even sporting the uniform of a more properly-named pro basketball team from the nation’s capital) brings a warm and fuzzy feeling. And even though the quarterback usually gets the girl, if done smartly (note: the Redskins under Dan Snyder have generally been very, very stupid), an NFL team can be built to win and compete for the Super Bowl, with a less-than thrilling QB.

But a guy like Durant, the NBA’s youngest-ever scoring champ and quite possibly one of the top three scorers in the game of basketball over the last two decades (or ever), could be even more of a game-changer for a team like the Wizards than RGIII has been for the Redskins.

So, I posed the question to D.C. sports fans on Twitter (last night before the Redskins beat the Giants and again earlier this morning)… Read more »

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did some poetic waxing, to the extent that he can, about Tim Duncan prior to Monday night’s game against the Wizards. Maybe Duncan has some “strange elixir” behind his stellar play, says Popovich. This is Duncan’s 16th NBA season, he’s 36-years old, and he’s putting up a career-high PER (27.3). Pretty amazing.

Maybe Duncan’s enduring tenure could be attributed to new-age techniques.

“I guess it’s not surprising when you look at training techniques these days and how seriously these guys take it. All of us eat better than we did growing up,” said Popovich. “Our parents used to know what we all know now, so these guys are taking advantage of it. What they put in their bodies is really important to them. Contracts are big. They know somebody’s waiting in line, so they better take care of themselves. The training techniques are really advanced, and they go year-round, so it’s not surprising that [NBA players in their mid-to-late 30s] can extend their careers the way that they have.”

This is now the time where we briefly interject with the recent relevancy of Andray Blatche and the tragedy of him never acting like taking care of his body was important, of him never playing like someone was waiting in line.

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BRADLEY BEAL IS NOT HAVING A GOOD ROOKIE YEAR, so far.

ESPN.com’s David Thorpe recently listed Beal amongst his rookie disappointments (ESPN Insider), but concluded:

If John Wall, who is out with a knee injury, were playing next to Beal in the backcourt, things would surely get easier for Beal. It’s a great thing to look forward to. Just as the game slows down for Beal, Wall should return, and that combination suggests Beal will have a big second half of the season.

Also, Beal is just 19 years old. Much room for improvement. But how much? Let’s peel back some numbers.

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The Bucks led the Wizards, 99-90, with 29.5 seconds left. From their vantage point, the game was over, especially since the Wizards had not gotten within five points the entire fourth quarter. But what this current Wizards team lacks in talent, they make up for in effort and hustle, so they were certainly going to continue playing hard until the final buzzer.

As the Wizards looked to complete an amazing comeback, A.J. Price threw a bounce pass behind Bradley Beal and Monta Ellis stepped in, stole the ball like Havlicek, and proceeded to race down the court for breakaway points, a k a “The Dagger.” Beal was intent on not letting that transaction happen so easily. He pursued Ellis down the court and fouled him hard while he was in the air. Ellis went crashing to the floor, touching off a mini fracas. As both Beal and Trevor Booker went to help Ellis up, Brandon Jennings rudely interrupted by pushing Beal to the floor, which caused various players, referees, and Coach Randy Wittman, to huddle around Beal and Jennings (but not really Ellis, who did not seemed to be phased by any of this and eventually just walked away). Beal was assessed with a flagrant type “2″ foul and was ejected; Jennings was given a technical and was also ejected. The Bucks won, 101-91, shortly thereafter

Coach Wittman mentioned after the game that he liked Beal’s aggressive effort, but he didn’t want him “going over the line.” Beal said he went for the ball, and Jordan Crawford had this to say of the scuffle: ”There was a lot of pretending going on, a lot of pretending, that’s it.” Per the Washington Post’s Michael Lee, Beal will not be suspended for the foul, and Jennings will not be suspended, either.

Here’s what Scott Skiles, Mike Dunleavy, Brandon Jennings, and Monta Ellis had to say about the brouhaha:

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John Wall is a high concern for the Wizards. John Wall’s backup — whether Wall is healthy or injured — is a high concern for the Wizards. So much of a concern that they made a calculated decision to sign A.J. Price as backup in late July, which is way early in the time allowed to make roster decisions before the season. John Lucas III got more money from the Toronto Raptors, Keyon Dooling ultimately retired, and it didn’t look like the Houston Rockets would be parting ways with Shaun Livingston, at the time. What other backup point guard options were there?

And then Wall goes and gets injured. Timing is everything.

To compensate, the Wizards signed the 32-year old Jannero Pargo, and ultimately cut their 34th overall 2011 draft pick, Shelvin Mack, after training camp and preseason. About Pargo, the ever-lurking John Hollinger writes in his 2012-13 season preview on ESPN Insider:

Pargo played well for Atlanta last season but obviously his combination of age (32) and track record make him a somewhat risky investment. That said, this was by far the best point guard candidate left on the market and Washington did well to get him so inexpensively. I’d argue he was a better solution than Price, in fact.

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