Extra! Extra! The Washington Wizards are winless no more.

“I told them we just broke through the ice,” Randy Wittman told the press after the game. “I lived in Minnesota for 15, 17 years—that ice was four or five feet deep, but it’s broken through now. This is obviously a good win for us.”

It was a good win. But it’s their only win. The first. A step in the right direction. Had the Wizards lost to the Blazers, they would have been the 10th team in NBA history to have started a season 0-13. “We don’t want to go down in history as one of the worst teams ever,” said Chris Singleton in the winning locker room. The Wiz avoided that peculiar honor … for now.

What did the Portland Trail Blazers have to say about it? Glad you asked.

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Before tonight’s game, TAI spoke with Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts about how Nene, who is playing tonight, affects his game plan; about not wanting to be the first to lose to the winless Wizards; and about what positives he does see out of Washington.

Stotts: “They know their record. I think every NBA player has a lot of pride, and everybody in our locker room has a lot of pride. None of them want to be part of the team that gives the Wizards their first win, and, at the base of it, I think that’s what you try to instill or appeal to is their pride, and go out and play as hard as you can.”

TAI also briefly spoke with Wizards point guard Shaun Livingston, who is also a go tonight against Portland, about facing heralded Blazers rookie Damian Lillard.

Just in case you are one of the many ready to jump ship on the 0-11 Wizards, take a moment to watch and listen to Martell Webster. Unlike years past, this is a team that cares about winning. They aren’t giving up. They don’t think they are bad team. But they are at a total loss for where success is going to come from at this moment. This is a brutal, raw and honest moment. And thank goodness Martell Webster was there to give it the words it needed.

“Just gotta win… Just gotta win.” —Martell Webster

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The Wizards Said WHAT?!
Post-Pacers Game – Nov. 19, 2012

via TAI’s John Converse Townsend

The Worst NBA Offense in a Decade?

One way to measure an NBA offense on a relatively even playing field is by Offensive Rating, which is an estimate of how many points a team scores per 100 possessions. It’s said to be an “estimate” because there’s no concrete, agreed upon method of calculating a possession.* For more, feel free to visit the glossary on Basketball-Reference.com, which has NBA possession data going back to the 1973-74 season.

What say the numbers?

The Wizards average a league-worst 94.3 points per 100 possessions, according to Basketball-Reference.com. If you do a search of the BBR database, only eight NBA teams since the 1973-74 season have had an Offensive Rating (OffRtg) below 95. The 2002-03 Denver Nuggets were the last team to do so with an OffRtg of 92.2. Juwan Howard, of all people, led that Nuggets team in scoring with 18.4 points per game; James Posey was second with a 14.1 average, and the Wizards’ own Nene—who was a rookie that season—was the third Nugget, averaging double-figures in scoring at 10.5.

This season’s Wizards also have three players averaging double-figures in points: Jordan Crawford (12.2), Bradley Beal (11.7), and Kevin Seraphin (10.1).

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Look, guys, the steez never stops. It simply can’t stop. Not when you lose, not when you have a 10:45 flight to catch to Indiana. Steez all day.

Steez don’t like to lose, though. Steez don’t like pretending, either. When asked what happened toward the end of the Wizards-Bucks game on Friday night (a 101-91 loss for the Wiz Kids) when Bradley Beal committed a flagrant-2 foul on Monta Ellis (for which Beal got ejected), and the subsequent push of Beal by Brandon Jennings (who was also ejected), Crawford simply said:

“Just a lot of pretending going on. A lot of pretending, that’s it.”

And about the 0-4 Wizards getting a win, which they’ll have a chance to do on the Pacers’ home court tomorrow? Read more »

Kevin Seraphin has only played one game, but if Wizards fans are looking for something positive, it’s him. And pretty much only him. (Although we won’t discount the stylings of Martell Webster.)

Kevin has confidence right now, and that makes all the difference in the world. As Randy Wittman tells it:

“Kevin, his first year, played with zero confidence — couldn’t catch the ball, couldn’t dribble the ball, couldn’t shoot the ball — because he didn’t have any confidence. And now look at him. That’s strictly a lot just to do with confidence. He would do those things in practice, he did those same kind of things — jump hook, a little 10-12 foot jump shot, nice touch — but in the game he had no friggin’ confidence, and he looked like he was lost. That’s the perfect example. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or you’re a 12-year man, if you’re out there with no confidence, you’re not going to do very many good things.”

Seems like a lot of Wizards can take cues from Seraphin — Wittman would love that. But if finding confidence were easy, everyone would have it. Regardless, I’m not advocating for any other Wizard to go out and get a big angel with six wings tattooed on their backs.

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Jordan Crawford, pre-game steez. Photo: K. Weidie

Bradley Beal, Wizards home opener program – photo: K. Weidie

“I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you how other people’s mindsets are, but I know that you have to have confidence in yourself. You know, 80 percent of this game is confidence.”

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Let’s not fawn over the new Wizard who’s a good quote. (And we mostly mean ‘basketball’ good quote, not so much ‘poop-in-shoe’ story good quote.)

And let’s be cool before we dub Martell Webster as a “sleeper.” I don’t want guys on the basketball team that I watch sleeping. (But yea, I’ve previously said that Webster could be a steal of a sign by the one and only Ernest Grunfeld.)

Sure, it’s great that Webster followed up an 18-point performance (6-for-12 FGs in 25 minutes) against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday with a 12 point, 10 rebound showing in 27 minutes off the bench against the New York Knicks on Thursday. It’s the preseason, folks.

But whatever the case, just take some time and watch Webster talk in the video above.

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Two weeks ago, John Wall and the Wizards jointly announced that the third-year point guard would miss around eight weeks with a stress injury to his left patella. The resulting ”sky is falling” sentiment divided into two groups. There was the “Curse of Lez  Boulez” camp who fully expect the Wizards to start the season with a 9-20 record, followed by season-ending injuries, bad trades and a missed playoff berth, because that’s basically been the norm the past 30 or so years (the Eddie Jordan years and 1997′s ‘we-beat-the-Chicago-Bulls-in-the-first-round’ year being the only exception). The other group of disappointed people are still feeling the effects of the Gilbert Arenas injury (those effects range from contract extensions while hurt, to the criticisms of the Wizards’ training staff, to the eventual blowing up of that playoff roster) which was the catalyst for a slide from playoff relevance to lottery dependence.

Fortunately for Ted Leonsis and Randy Wittman, this current Wizards roster is neither burdened nor bogged down by the franchise’s previous chapters/history. With Wall’s injury, Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin are the longest tenured Wizards on the roster (Cartier Martin played for the Wizards during the 2009-10 season, but has not been on the team consistently). The Wizards have players like Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor, who just arrived to the team via trade over the summer, and Martell Webster, who witnessed career-threatening injuries to Greg Oden and Brandon Roy while in Portland. Then there are players like Bradley Beal, Jordan Crawford and Shelvin Mack, who will have the opportunity to shine in Wall’s absence and aim to enhance the Wizards’ offense upon Wall’s eventual return. And finally there’s Nene, who is currently battling plantar faciities, but, according to Nene himself and Ernie Grunfeld, will be ready on opening night against the Cavaliers. That’s important, as Nene led a  mini-Wizards resurgence toward the end of last season. This Wizards roster can actually claim the “New Beginnings” mantra without drawing the cynical ire of bloggers and writers alike.

Wall’s injury and extended absence come at a crucial time in the development of this young Wizards franchise. The Wizards finished the season on a six-game winning streak, which was part of the reason Coach Randy Wittman was brought back for a full season. Ted Leonsis is on record as saying the playoffs should be on the radar, and that the lottery is not acceptable. (Leonsis recently tempered those expectations by saying it would be “unacceptable” to finish the season with one of the four worst records in the NBA.) And with maturity-challenged players like Andray Blatche, Nick Young and JaVale McGee no longer around to serve as go-to scapegoats, this was supposed to be the year the Wizards took the proverbial next step—a step that was predicated upon a full, healthy season of John Wall.

If the young players like Beal and Crawford fail to step up; if veteran players like Nene, Ariza and Okafor fail to lead; and if second-year players like Chris Singleton and Jan Vesely fail to improve, the grandiose hopes and plans of this team will disappear, and the lottery could very well be the Wizards’ destiny yet again. Not to mention, there could be more ugly losses like the Wizards’ first preseason loss against the Charlotte Bobcats. (As Kyle Weidie points out, there were plenty of injured Wizards unable to play, but plenty of disturbing trends, too.) Read more »

Aside from John Wall’s face stamped on the franchise, the Wizards’ backcourt situation was already an uncertain proposition. Jordan Crawford is the wildcard entering NBA season three. Shelvin Mack is the unguaranteed second-rounder entering his second season after a unsteady summer league. Newcomers A.J. Price and Jannero Pargo have three seasons experience and 32 years in age, respectively. Martell Webster wasn’t good enough for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Bradley Beal is just a rookie who only turned 19 on draft night.

Now that Wall is gone till November, the end of it, the windows to the car are smudged with grease, and someone is going to have to see well enough to drive. Much could be dependant on Crawford. Even more, in time, on Beal. And perhaps more contingent upon the success of the spare parts — Pargo, Price, Mack, and Webster — is how the dynamic between Crawford and Beal develops. Especially now. With either guard, it could come down to who is helping make plays.

“Somewhat. I’m not going in with that expectation,” said Beal when asked if he was ready to take on the role of playmaker. “But If I’m put in that situation, then I know I’ll be comfortable in finally doing it. Honestly, I’d like to be a playmaker. I feel comfortable with the ball in my hands and creating for others as well as myself. I don’t have a problem with it.”

Randy Wittman will certainly aim to develop Beal at an honest pace — off the bench and without the pressure of running the offense —  but if the Wizards struggle to score, as past statistics would like to predict, then the best combination of talent could win out for minutes.

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