Posts for category ‘Polls’

Entitlement. It’s a word Flip Saunders has used before when referring to his “starters”, i.e., JaVale McGee and especially Andray Blatche (I’m assuming).

“Do some of our starters — and I don’t know that — do they feel right now that they’re entitled as far as to play 30 or 35 [minutes] no matter how they’re playing?,” said Saunders after his team embarrassingly lost to the Indiana Pacers at home in their first contest after the All-Star break. His inference was on minutes instead of starting versus coming off the bench, but does it make a difference?

Evidently not, as Saunders seemingly still hasn’t found the answer he’s been looking for from his team. And as McGee and Blatche are still trotted out on the floor night in and night out, pretty much no matter what they or the team do. Including the Indiana game, Washington has lost six in a row since the festivities in Los Angeles (seven overall); the only games in which the Wiz Kids were competitive? The matches against Dallas and Miami when Blatche didn’t play, supposedly due to a hip injury. (And no, trying to mount a furious comeback against a mediocre Golden State team at home doesn’t fully count as competitive.)

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The faces on the cardboard classics below say: “Hey man, we’re trying over here.”

I’m not sure I believe them all. Or maybe one is trying more than the others … at least as much as a frozen facial expression can indicate. But who’s trying the most? Or which player’s face from the past provides the most hope in the present for the future? Study carefully and vote in the poll below.

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{flickr/Tim Yates}

Back on November 24 of last year, my Truth About It colleague Kyle Weidie posed a question to site readers:  “Who Will Give The Washington Wizards Their First Road Win?” At the time, the Wizards were 0-6 away from home, but their slow start could easily be attributed to youth, a tough road schedule and the fact that Gilbert Arenas still wasn’t traded.

Two months and an Arenas trade later, the road loss count has ballooned from six to 20, and the cause cannot be easily explained away.  Depending on who you ask and when, blame can be placed on anyone from Ernie Grunfeld to Josh Howard’s knee.  Still, the fact remains that last night’s second half collapse in Milwaukee left the Wizards with an 0-20 road record to start the season — just nine away from the record held by the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks of 29 consecutive away-from-home losses to start a season.

The Wizards’ next 10 road games look like this: Read more »

We may never know who Kirk Hinrich really is … at least personality-wise. Maybe that can mostly be summed up with three concepts: Basketball, Iowa, Coach’s Son. His game is beyond vanilla, but it isn’t flashy either. He is Kirk Hinrich … under the radar, yet completely noticeable.

Kirk is even more noticeable now that he plays with glasses. They now encapsulate his ‘flair’ … as much as a pair of Oakley spectacles can I suppose. But who is he? (In those glasses.)

On a recent ESPN Daily Dime chat session, friend of the blog and a proprietor of HoopSpeak, Beckley Mason, likened Hinrich’s glasses look to that of a character in the movie, Team America: World Police.

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Last Friday against the Portland Trailblazers, the decision was made to bring Gilbert Arenas off the bench. After missing four out of six games and then coming off the bench versus Toronto, it was time for John Wall to start. But next to Kirk Hinrich and Alonzo Gee at the wings instead of Arenas? It seemed curious at a minimum. So, speculation, contributed to by myself and others, ran away with itself … because what else are we to do with curiosities? Feed the algorithm monster with pixels I suppose.

“Well, Hinrich IS Ernie Grunfeld’s darling (Arenas ain’t) … and maybe the team would rather get Wall and Hinrich used to playing next to each other for the next couple of seasons” — (even though Hinrich is likely to bolt D.C. as fast as Mike Miller did, probably back to Chicago when his contract runs out after the 2011-12 season … if he’s not traded before then).

“Maybe Flip Saunders wants Arenas’ scoring off the bench since Nick Young missed the Blazers game due to what was reported to be a thigh contusion.”

“Maybe the ‘Arenas and Wall can work together’ idea is being phased out.” — (amid rampant Arenas trade rumors that have been vehemently denied by Ted Leonsis)

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So Gilbert Arenas is evidently wearing a pair of custom Under Armour shoes now, as seen above (via Sole Collector – click for more pictures). Well, at least he wore a pair Saturday versus Cleveland (and only in the second half, I’ve been told). For his season debut in New York he wore a pair of Jordans.

The model, Under Armour’s Micro G Supreme, will supposedly be sported by Arenas-only for the next couple of months — and as you can see, the released pictures show the shoes in Wizards colors and with Arenas’ No. 9 on the heel. Also note that Arenas is evidently not getting paid a dime by Under Armour just yet (via CNBC’s Darren Rovell on Twitter).

For Arenas, it doesn’t hurt for him to lend his name/number to a company willing to support him; and for Under Armour, it’s certainly a low-risk investment that could increase their basketball market penetration.

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On Monday afternoon Flip Saunders left practice early, storming out and cutting it short because he said his team did not have a sense of urgency and that his players were not working hard. Saunders also said, “That’s the one thing as coaches, you can’t coach effort.” He told his team to come back for a second practice that afternoon at 4 pm.

Barring your opinion of whether coaches can really coach effort or not, or if they should at least be taking measures to encourage maximized effort, or if you believe it should not be an NBA coach’s responsibility to hold the hands of basketball millionaires, there are a lot of issues with this Wizards team and they have been pointed out.

But Saunders walking out on practice … how big of a deal is this? Sure, as TAI’s Adam McGinnis was opining to me over Google-chat, this would be getting killed in Chicago or New York. Then again, via web media with boundless reach, it’s out there for a larger audience to scrutinize nonetheless.

Is it a good sign? No, it’s not a good sign that the lines between coaching instruction and player implementation are not in tune. But we’re talking about practice.

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The Washington Redskins aren’t the only team in D.C. that may be on the brink of a lineup change (Hi Donovan and Rex!).  Any day now (possibly tomorrow, but that seems unlikely at this point), Gilbert Arenas will recover from a strained tendon in his ankle and will make his 2010-2011 regular season debut.  That may be good news for Wizards fans, and great news for John Wall’s game, but it puts Coach Flip Saunders in quite the quandary.

Does he revert back to the three-guard lineup that creates match-up problems for the defense, but likely causing problems in the much maligned rebounding department?  Does he keep Arenas on the bench until he has his legs and his game back?  Does Flip bench Kirk Hinrich and Al Thornton and start the Arenas/Young combination since they seem to look out for one another?  Should Yi be given the chance to start since McGee seems to be struggling (when not blocking shots and dunking on Josh Smith)?

The possibilities are endless, and with the Wizards sitting at 0-2, it’s not like Flip will be disrupting some sacred chemistry by shaking things up a bit.  Wall should start, and Blatche, despite his passiveness in the first two games, represents the best low-post threat the Wizards have.  Everyone else is subject to be replacement.

So what do you think? Should the starting lineup change when Arenas is healthy?

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[A D.C. basketball court - Florida Ave. and R St. NW - K. Weidie]

The Wizards are a 40-win team.*

Or a 25-win team. One or the other.

The Wizards’ 2010-2011 NBA preseason is now over. (They had a 3-4 preseason record.) The team left the 8,000-seat multi-purpose Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio in defeat, but with plenty of promise. And with promises I hope the [insert final roster number] Basketball Wizards can keep.

(Paraphrased) Promises like:

• I will do work in the low block. — ‘Dray Blatche
• I will gobble up defensive rebounds. — J-Mac
• I will protect the basketball. — Jimmy Teach ‘Em How To Dougie
• I will be the self-effacing sidekick to The Blur. — Robin Gilbert Arenas
• Et cetera

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ESPN.com currently has this “Franchise Five” feature going on for all NBA teams. Basically, they have an interactive page where visitors can vote for the “best” player in franchise history at each position (PG, SG, SF, PF, C).

Here are the candidates:

Point Guard:
Gilbert Arenas, Rod Strickland, Archie Clark, Kevin Porter and Michael Adams

Shooting Guard:
Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Jeff Malone, Phil Chenier, Kevin Loughery and Don Ohl

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