[Editor's Note: This is Andrew Abramson's Truth About It.net debut. Andrew has been around basketball his entire life — he's a Wizards fan, having grown up in Alexandria, Va. — and has experience working in the basketball industry. Andrew will provide insights on the business side of the NBA as well as salary cap analysis, which you'll get a taste of below. You can follow him on Twitter at @AndrewA91. —John T.] 

When the Portland Trail Blazers drafted seven-foot center Sam Bowie with the second overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, they were filling a position of need. Sure, there was a clearly more talented shooting guard still available who was ready and waiting to become a Blazer, but Portland already had All-Star, Jim Paxson, and a young Clyde Drexler returning at that position.

Ouch.

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The Washington Wizards worked out North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes on June 19 along with Syracuse’s Kris Joseph and Northwestern’s John Shurna. Just when the media was finally given access to the Verizon Center practice court to see Barnes at work — normally for the last 10-15 minutes of a workout — Wizards coach Randy Wittman abruptly ended the session. No Barnes basketball-related activity was witnessed by the press. Wittman had issues with the media, but we’ll get to those later. A person who saw the workout said all three players shot the ball extremely well from long range, and Barnes had a highlight-type reverse jam on a baseline drive. More of that to come in the Verizon Center?

Barnes is turning into a stronger possibility for the Wizards at the third spot if certain trade rumors hold any weight — he’s Washington’s “Plan B,” if you will; Shurna and Joseph are fringe second round picks. The 6-foot-8 small forward starred at North Carolina for two seasons, but was highly criticized for not living up to the hype bestowed upon him coming out of high school. He’s happy to move on to a new chapter in the pros.

“There is not really any pressure now,” Barnes said after his workout. “Obviously, when I went to UNC, there were a lot of expectations put upon our recruiting class.”

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There are no guarantees in Bradley Beal the player. There’s also no denying that Beal is a top three — if not top one — NBA Draft target of the Washington Wizards.

So, as reports surface that the Cleveland Cavaliers have theirs sights set on trading up to steal Beal, and that their presumed trading partner, the Charlotte Bobcats, have a new coach going on record saying that trading down from the No. 2 pick “makes a lot of sense,” Wizards fans, at least those in favor of Beal, are starting to hit the panic button.

Even today, a local sportscaster for Cleveland’s Fox station, John Telich, is tweeting: “Hearing Cavs /Bobcats talking. ‪#Cavs‬ want #2 pick..would give #4 #24 #34 ‪#NBADraft‬.”

So, despite reports from ESPN’s Chad Ford that the Cavaliers are hesitant to give up the 24th pick (and that the Wizards themselves may be willing to give up the 32nd pick to ensure their selection of Beal), the latest signs point to Beal being Cleveland’s for the taking. How bad do they want him playing next to Kyrie Irving?

Yesterday on TAI we wondered which player should be the Wizards’ Plan B if Beal is off the board when they pick. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s 36.7-percent of the vote barely eked out the 32.3-percent who preferred Harrison Barnes. (BTW, if Washington’s Chris Singleton were drafting for the Wizards, he’d take Barnes over Beal, with Kidd-Gilchrist off the board at No. 2. More on that in the “If I were the general manager…” feature by ESPN The Magazine that asked NBA players to mock draft for their respective teams. Beal went 19th to the Orlando Magic, selected by J.J. Redick, if you must know.)

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Chris Jackson, later Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, was the third overall pick in 1990. Where will the Washington Wizards go with the No. 3 overall pick in 2012?

Over the weekend reports surfaced from news outlets in both North Carolina (The Charlotte Observer) and Ohio (The News-Herald) that the Cleveland Cavaliers, who hold the fourth overall pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft, will trade up with the Charlotte Bobcats, who own the second overall pick. Charlotte would reportedly get the 24th pick from the Cleveland as part of the deal. Such a move by Michael Jordan’s Bobcats could screw the draft hopes of the Washington Wizards.

Coming off last week’s trade for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza, Washington’s camp may have revealed a preference for Bradley Beal out of the University of Florida, leading their old nemesis, the Cavs (who are targeting Beal themselves), to believe that they’ll have to sacrifice an asset to get their man. And there’s nothing the Wizards can really do about it other than settle for what’s left.

People, myself included, might make something out of Washington’s draft preference — a pick that, if chosen wrongly, could significantly setback rebuilding — resting in the hands of former Wizard Jordan, but it would be a smart move by the Bobcats. Charlotte GM Rich Cho, as well as the team’s vice chairman, Curtis Polk — who used to be an agent for David Falk, a former rival of the Washington franchise and Abe Pollin — are smart people. They know that Charlotte needs just about everything, and if this means trading down to settle for two out of three prospects being available between North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Kansas’ Thomas Robinson (along with getting the 24th pick, which comes with more value to a team like Charlotte), then the move is a no-brainer. If Wizards fans want to be irked at someone screwing them, it should be directed toward Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert and not necessarily Jordan. Both are easy targets in any case.

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[Editor's Note: This is J.D. Jackson's first post for Truth About It.net. J.D. is 29 and lives in Baltimore. He's previously written for Most Valuable Network and All-Baseball.com and has hosted podcasts on 360thepitch. Though he's been a casual NBA fan for most of his life, he's become a more serious fan of the game and the Wizards. You can follow him @jdjackson on Twitter. Also note: this post was written before today's trade between the Wizards and the Hornets with Washington sending Rashard Lewis and their 2012 46th pick to New Orleans in exchange for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza. —Kyle W.] 

When draft day rolls around in about a week, the Wizards aren’t expected to make any crazy moves at the No. 3 pick. It will likely be a choice between Bradley Beal and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (possibly depending on what those crazy, crazy Bobcats decide to do).

It’s almost a denouement to the day. Having a new, highly-touted player will be exciting, for certain. But like last year when everything on the planet pointed to the Wizards taking Jan Vesely, there’s just not going to be much surprise with the Wizards on the clock. Not that it’s a bad thing, necessarily, but at least there was some intrigue with their second selection at No. 18. It ended up being Chris Singleton, but there were about 50 different directions that the team could’ve gone, and it was a riveting few minutes on the clock.

So, if you’re a Wizards fan and you’re looking for that little bit of drama, where will you get it? The Wizards own two second round picks (32 and 46 from Dallas) in what is expected to be a pretty deep draft. Last year’s draft class was, by most accounts, a significantly leaner class. And yet, between the countless trades that happened at the back end of draft day, what was lost is just how much of an impact the players taken in the second round had for their respective teams last season. Of the 30 players taken in the 2011 NBA Draft’s second round, only eight did not log any minutes last season. That number was 12 in 2010. In fact, in the lockout-shortened season, 2011 second rounders played a total of 10,048 minutes. In 2010, second rounders in their rookie seasons played a total of 4,681 minutes — 2,541 of those minutes were logged by Landry Fields. You’d expect the lack of training camps after the lockout to hurt rookies the most, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Most of the second rounders who didn’t log minutes from the 2011 class were stashed overseas as well, leaving only Jon Diebler (Trailblazers, No. 51; signed to play in Greece last August) and Chukwudiebere Maduabum (Lakers, No. 56; drafted from the D-League and traded to Denver) as the players who inexcusably failed to show up. Kyle Singler (Pistons, No. 33), the third non-Euro to not log any minutes last season, actually wound up overseas himself. He split time between CB Lucentum Alicante and Real Madrid and may be headed to Detroit soon.

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The Czech Republic’s Tomas “Saty” Satoransky declared for the 2012 NBA Draft before the 5 p.m. deadline on Monday, per Tweet of ESPN’s Chad Ford. When he worked out for the Washington Wizards last Friday, he said he was leaning toward staying. Now, whether he would be willing to get picked but remain in Europe for a season or two, i.e., Euro Stash, Satoransky said he was undecided.

One issue: Ford calls Satoransky a wing; he calls himself a point guard. Can he hang in a point guard’s League? Can he defend other NBA points? His answer seems simple: scouting.

“Always they’re going to be faster then you because they’re smaller, they are more athletic, but you gotta use also the basketball I.Q. against this,” he told me. Implementation remains to be seen.

Satoransky also realizes his jump shot is seen as a weakness by scouts — “Most important: compete, play hard, hustle; so they can see that you are really fighting about this,” was his answer to pre-draft workouts, not the need for a jump shooting spectacle – but he says that improving strength his a higher priority.

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Former Georgetown Hoya Hollis Thompson was all of two-years old when Sam Cassell made his NBA debut with the Houston Rockets in November of 1993.

So, with Cassell serving as an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, who have been putting 2012 NBA Draft hopefuls through workouts, including Thompson last Thursday, we are given a chance to crunch the age numbers as the two faced-off in a drill on the Verizon Center practice court.

Cassell will turn 43-years old this November, and Thompson turned 21 this past April; the difference between them — 21 years, 4 months and 16 days — is currently greater than Thompson’s age.

The drill was defensive in nature. Participating players were required to rotate properly on help defense as the ball was passed around. The final component involved the main defender rotating from helping in the paint to closing out on a wing player in the corner (Cassell) using proper technique.

From there, Cassell had free reign to relish the opportunity of scoring on a kid at least 50-percent less in age. And this wasn’t the first time Cassell has dueled with kids — previous battles have come against the likes of John Wall, Nick Young, JaVale McGee, and Andray Blatche — and it likely won’t be the last.

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[Austin Rivers "7" Drill" video via Adam McGinnis]

“I think I’m the best player in the draft, as far as being prepared for the league. That’s just me being a competitor,” uttered Kansas forward Thomas Robinson to the media after his workout for the Wizards last Wednesday. He later said his statements were not a personal affront to Anthony Davis or any other player, but that he felt like his experience and numbers at Kansas were worthy of that number one spot.

Duke guard Austin Rivers did not make such a grandiose statement after his workout for the Wizards on Friday, because his charisma said enough. He asked the media how they were doing before his interview, he looked every question asker in the eye, he cracked jokes about his younger brother (Spencer) and older brother (Jeremiah, former Georgetown Hoya), he smiled every now and then, and he spoke about the importance of thinking — even if it’s not true — that he’s the best, too.

Rivers, Terence Ross (University of Washington) and Tomas Satoransky (Czech Republic) worked out together for about an hour in front of Wizards coaches and personnel. Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was scheduled to be included in this same workout, but the Wizards announced at the last minute he would workout alone at an earlier time. The media was allowed to see two drills with the three players: A full court running drill, which required them to hit a shot from the elbow, before running back down court, and the “7 Drill,” which former Wizards coach Flip Saunders once eloquently described as a mental test of heart.

Rivers was less than impressive in his shooting drills. During the full court drill, his shot looked similarly tough to watch as John Wall’s, at times. Instead of stopping, jumping, and then shooting in one fluid motion, Rivers had a bit of a hitch in his release. And when his shot did not go in on one side of the floor, he attempted to jump a little and change the release point on the next, but it ended up looking mechanical and uncomfortable — just like a Ledell Eackles jump shot. Rivers appeared to be trying to guide the ball in the basket, and on a couple of occasions, he took four and five steps before releasing the ball–much more than the three steps the NBA allows a select few to take.

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If things go how they should go, the Washington Wizards worked out their future 2012 third overall draft pick on Thursday: Bradley Beal out of the University of Florida. Sure, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Thomas Robinson would be fine additions — either/or likely being the target of the Charlotte Bobcats with the No. 2 selection. But Beal fits the greatest need the Wizards have: long distance shooting combined with attack-the-basket scoring.

And if the Wizards value the presence of John Wall, they’ll select Beal over any player not named Anthony Davis. The Wizards have some guys with the skills of Robinson — rebounding, post scoring, hustle, and mean screen setting (see Nene, Kevin Seraphin, Trevor Booker, or Jan Vesely). And while Kidd-Gilchrist is obviously a top five talent, he can’t shoot. Not acceptable at pick No. 3 (unless Beal goes second, then it’s MKG over Robinson).

For the love of God Shammgod!! The Wizards need shooters more than this town needs an enema. (Although, the recent spike in corruption amongst D.C. City Council members does exasperate the latter option.)

Other than Mike Miller’s .480 from the 3-point arc in 2009-10, the last Wizards players to shoot above .410 in a season (while attempting at least 100 threes) were Hubert Davis, Tyronn Lue and Chris Whitney, all in 2001-02.

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[original photo via AP]

When I entered the Washington Wizards practice court and saw former Kansas Jayhawks forward Thomas Robinson, the first noticeable sight was his physique. So many players come into the NBA as unfinished physical products, and the hope is that they will eventually get stronger and put on what Mark Jackson calls “grown-man weight.”  Robinson has that already. And as Bullets Forever’s Mike Prada noticed, he’s built like a middle linebacker.

The next trait of Robinson’s that could not be missed was his confidence. Robinson, and the two players he was working out with, Al’Lonzo Coleman (Presbyterian College) and Kevin Thompson (Morgan State) were tasked with a drill that involved shooting jumpers after sprinting full court. Coleman and Thompson struggled to make it up and down the floor, and their jumpers were inconsistent at best. Robinson also struggled with his shot, but he ran up and down the court with relative ease.

As each of Robinson’s shots left his hand, he yelled phrases like “ballgame,” “that’s money,” and “buckets.”  Some went in, some did not, but his confidence, and his vocal urging that these shots go in the basket, did not waver. Who was right there encouraging him when his shots would not fall?  Sam Cassell, who never lacked meddle in the confidence department either.

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