Truth About It.net will turn a whole five years old at the end of this October.

Hard to believe/interesting. Nonetheless, over the life of the site from the 2007-08 season to 2011-12, we’ve seen/lived/suffered through 131 wins, 263 losses, four coaches, two owners, one GM/team president, one Phil Chenier mustache removal, and 56 total players (amazingly, 48 players over the last three seasons).

You may have heard of ESPN’s #NBArank project, now in year two. Now hear of #WizardsRank, where we rank each of those 56 players during Truth About It.net’s five-year run. TAI anonymously polled 27 members of the Wizards pixel establishment — from mainstream media to new media, TAI staffers included, to a few pixel consumers (readers of the site) — and got 17 responses.

Participants were given the full list of 56 in alphabetical order, and included for each player were total games, minutes, PER (player efficiency rating), and WS/48 (win-shares per 48 minutes) only from the last five seasons. Participants were asked to rate each player on the scale of 1-to-10 according to this criteria: on court performance; off court performance; intangibles; and own personal memory. Yes, this is totally subjective, but relatively collective.

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[NOTE: Truth About It.net 2011-12 Player Reviews start today, where we take a look at the past, present and future of those players who have touched the Wizards franchise in the 2011-12 lockout-shortened season. And why not begin with a former Wizard who happens to be playing tonight? That's right... JaVale McGee. TAI's Rashad Mobley and John Converse Townsend take a look at Epic Vale's season. -Kyle W.]

Player Review Index:  Morris Almond (we’d like to)  |  Andray Blatche  |  Trevor Booker  |  Brian Cook (maybe)  |  Jordan Crawford  |  Maurice Evans  |  Rashard Lewis  |  Shelvin Mack (coming soon)  |  Cartier Martin  |  Roger Mason Jr.  |  JaVale McGee  |  Hamady N’diaye (remember him?)  |  Nenê  |  Kevin Seraphin (coming soon)  |  Chris Singleton  |  James Singleton  |  Ronny Turiaf (meh)  |  Edwin Ubiles (we’ll see)  |  Jan Vesely  |  John Wall  |  Nick Young

JaVale McGee: DC Council Ratings

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[You know what they say about little chairs? Little capacity.]

We just couldn’t let JaVale McGee get away from D.C. without giving him his propers… whatever “propers” means. And actually, “Can’t Say I Do,” the movie (let’s call it a mini-docu-drama, I think), doesn’t give much proper respect to young JaVale. Rather, it aims to convey the story of why he is no longer a Washington Wizard… because he couldn’t say “I do” to willingly understanding the game of basketball like coaches, teammates and fans expected.

All that talent in the world with only JaVale to hold himself back. No need to provide advanced statistics, describe skills and faults, or wax poetic on memories of McGee, because it’s as simple as that. He’s gone and I could [not] care less. It took about three years, eight months and 19 days, but the 18th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft (McGee), along with the 17th pick in 2007 (Nick Young), and a guy whom the Wizards essentially got for free from the New York Knicks last summer (Ronny Turiaf), was finally traded so that Washington could get some competent help at the center position (Nene). Kind of sucks that it took so long, but I’m sure the Wizards will figure it out sooner or later.

[Background: On Leap Day 2012, the Wizards faced the Orlando Magic at home, and JaVale McGee came off the bench for the first time all season. The previous night, in Milwaukee, Randy Wittman benched McGee for the entire second half (with good reason), and after the Wizards lost that game, the coach said, "I’m done with young guys. If they don’t want to play the right way, young guys aren’t going to play. It does us no good." After the Orlando game, which Washington also lost, Wittman said he spoke with McGee (and Nick Young, to an extent), about why they were benched. After that, I asked McGee if he understood the message his coach was trying to send. He could not say that he did, but seemed confident that he would figure it out sooner or later. And now we have a movie to watch...]

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Things have happened recently.

With apologies to Mugsy Bogues and Manute Bol (who had a soft-spot for gambling, it was written), an account of historical note has recently been relayed to us by the mouth of Gilbert Arenas. Yes, Gilbert Arenas.

This bit of history comes via a USA Today piece regarding how things are ’different’ now for Arenas in Memphis. Basically, it’s Gilly being Gilly… running his mouth as only a self-preserving historical revisionist can. An excerpt from the article pertaining to the now infamous-game of airplane Bourré (Boo-Ray) which ignited a firestorm:

Then-Wizards center JaVale McGee had beaten Crittenton out of $1,100 in a card game. Wizards guard Earl Boykins loaned McGee $200. McGee didn’t immediately pay back Boykins as he won the money and an argument blossomed. Arenas says he wasn’t involved in the actual bet.

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It’s been about three weeks since the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets collaborated to exchange parts. The Wizards gave up Nick Young, JaVale McGee and Ronny Turiaf and got Nene, Brian Cook, and a 2015 second round draft pick belonging to the New Orleans Hornets (via the L.A. Clippers) in return. Los Angeles received Young in exchange for Cook and the second rounder, and Denver received McGee and Turiaf in exchange for Nene. The Nuggets soon thereafter waived Turiaf, who then signed with the Miami  Heat. To check in on the aftermath of this trade, I turned to some authorities for the involved franchises for commentary. Nick Flynt (@ClipperBlogNick) of ClipperBlog, Jeremy Wagner (@RoundballMiner) of Roundball Mining Company, Sean Fagan (@McCarrick) of Bullets Forever, and Kevin Arnovitz (@KevinArnovitz) of ESPN.com/TrueHoop drop some knowledge on the Clippers, Nuggets, Wizards and Heat respectively. Read on…

L.A. CLIPPERS

Intro: The Clippers had to know what they were getting with Nick Young, right? In 1,211 minutes with Washington this season, Young had a FG% of 0.406 and an eFG% of 0.468; he also picked up 1.4 assists per 36 minutes. In his hometown of Los Angeles, Young’s FG% has dropped to 0.373, his eFG% to 0.444, and his assists/36 to 1.0. With a nice recent run of eight wins to one loss (vs. the Lakers), the Clippers are 9-4 since Young made his debut (although, 0-3 when Young starts). So… how’s that trade working out? (Bonus if you miss Brian Cook.)

NICK FLYNT – ClipperBlog:

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[Nene Hilario's reaction to the trade? Here's hoping. Courtesy of SI Vault.]

JaVale and Nick Young go. Nene arrives.

Economist Tyler Cowen said in five words what I’m going to say in 250.

Pareto improvement for the Wizards, espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id…

— tylercowen (@tylercowen) March 15, 2012

Indeed. This trade was good for everyone–but especially for the Wiz.

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Remember Gilbert Arenas’ final act as a Washington Wizard? It wasn’t pretty. It was self-destructiveness with a premonition. JaVale McGee’s exit act is not as egregious, but it’s so JaVale, with a twist of Wizards past to boot.

There were about 70 seconds left in Tuesday’s game at Dallas, the Mavericks holding a 107-96 lead. McGee blocked a Jason Terry shot and sprinted his hardest in the other direction, leaving his teammates to recover the ball. Jordan Crawford did, and he pushed it, eventually finding himself and McGee with a 2-on-1 advantage… Could the result be anything other than a lob dunk?

Unfortunately the oft-absent concentration was broken, McGee missed the easy dunk. Would it have made a difference in the outcome? You can never be sure (in most situations), but McGee didn’t play like that. He played within himself, as if that next offensive possession or that next block opportunity was his and his alone, and not a collection of game possessions that belonged to the team.

After McGee craned his neck to see the ball bounce behind him, he came down from high after his missed dunk and worked to run back uphill on defense. Meanwhile, former teammate Brendan Haywood, a guy who gave the impression that he wasn’t really a fan of McGee during Haywood’s own last playing days as a Wizard, positioned himself just so… in a manner to provide McGee with one last parting shot, former Wizard to future former Wizard.

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I don’t have many McGee stories, but here’s one.

Last winter I was playing in a rec league at a high school about twenty minutes from D.C. On Sunday nights, after participating in any number of NFL-watching activities that would not be described as “performance enhancing,” we would take the court in chafing mesh jerseys, our shouts and clanked jumpers echoing all over the empty gym.

One evening, a few minutes before tip-off, JaVale McGee crept into the gym in a dark grey sweatsuit, the hood pulled up to shadow his face like the world’s most conspicuous ninja. There’s just no hiding when you’re 7-feet tall and move like a jungle cat, a lesson McGee must thoroughly understand at this point. We immediately spotted him, but attempted not to stare as he positioned himself on a ludicrously ill-proportioned loose chair in the corner of the gym, the seat so low as to bring his knees and shoulders almost level.

He was there to watch a friend, and a guy that might have been his trainer — both on our opposing team that night. His friend ostentatiously wore a Team USA practice jersey with McGee’s number. During the game, McGee mostly heckled his pals when they returned to the bench, and gave a brief shout when I caught the trainer with a crossover.

If you wondered what JaVale McGee was getting into on school nights during the season, there’s your answer.

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Nene dunks on JaVale…

… And then kicks it with him.

[photos: K. Weidie, Truth About It.net]

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[Andray Blatche takes a pre-game shot before facing the Celtics. - photo: K. Weidie]

Before today’s game, I asked Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers about what differences he’s seen in this Wizards team now from when they played the Celtics on New Year’s Day in Washington and the next day in Boston:

“The last three games they’ve play with a better spirit, quite honestly. You watch them and sometimes it just jumps off the screen. You can watch teams and their body language is better, they’re playing the right way, they’re running, they’re playing with a spirit, they’re playing with each other. It’s obvious over the last three games, watching them play. They’re moving the ball… They were the King of the Ball Stoppers.

“You know, this is the way Flip has always coached, and you can see it now. They’re actually listening and doing what probably — I know — he’s asked them to do since he’s been here. I don’t know what has prompted it, but they’re doing it.”

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