If you prowled around this site during the lockout summer (or rather, fall), you may have seen a post about former Baltimore Bullet Stan Love, father of Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves. When he was in town on Sunday, Kevin took some time before the game to chat with me about his dad. Here goes…

What has your father told you about the NBA?

“My dad has dropped a lot of knowledge on me throughout the years. He placed a ball in my hands from an early age, so basketball has always been in my blood — obviously with having the last name ‘Love’ and obviously being named after Wes Unseld, different spelling [Kevin’s middle name is Wesley, Unseld spelled his first name, Westley], but going back to his heyday. It’s pretty special to be trying to follow in his footsteps and kind of do what my dad did, but also a little bit of what [Unseld] did as well.”

What have you taken from what you’ve seen of Wes Unseld’s game via old film, YouTube, etc.? Read more »

One moment you’ll hear that NBA team pre-draft workouts don’t mean much, they can be just one of many contact points a franchise has with a player, much less game film scouting. The next moment it’s considered a “telling sign” when a player doesn’t workout for a certain team. Sign of what? Who knows. Are players disinterested? Trying to rig their draft stock? Are teams disinterested? Throwing others off the scent of their desire? Oh the game that’s played — what do all the conflicting reports mean Enes Kanter?

Both sides can use the perception of workouts to their advantage. And the media to a certain extent as well, I suppose. If you feed the monster pixels, we all whore for hits. Kemba Walker cancels his workout against Jimmer Ferdette for the Sacramento Kings … speculate amongst yourselves, Internets. Other players, less secure in their draft status, are just jumping into another window of opportunity, perhaps building a resume toward overseas interest. These workouts, just as anything, are all part of the process. Whatever that means.

Last Thursday, June 2, the Wizards worked out six players: Talor Battle (Penn State), Mike Davis (Illinois), Papa Dia (SMU), Austin Freeman (Georgetown), Justin Hurtt (Tulsa), and Ravern Johnson (Mississippi State).

Toward the latter third of the hour and a half session, the media is let in to watch, joining the already studying eyes of team executives overlooking the Verizon Center practice court while Flip Saunders and the coaching staff put the players through drills.

The players are already tired, Saunders is known to put them through the ringer during these workouts (even though they don’t mean much). Two are bent over, hands resting on their knees (you think coaches don’t notice?), and a third is clearly trying to leverage the conservation of energy with hands on hips.

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Hi there Internet. Why yes, this here site has doled a lot of criticism toward JaVale McGee in the past X amount of time. While some of it has certainly been flagrant, it is not baseless.

However, one might counter that we have not given young McGee enough praise. This may be true and to that we will say this, he is a keeper… despite all the basketball disruption that his alter ego, I’m assuming his name is “Pierre,” has caused to the playpen of team functionality and trust. He’s not a bad kid. He is young, after all, but many times disappointingly young in comparison to some contemporaries. Still, no one said an investment in youth is easy, but it’s usually always worth it, especially given McGee’s athletic parameters.

Speaking of… let’s get back to that reported/tweeted rumor the other day from Jonathan Givony of Draft Express:

Sources say Washington & Phoenix have been the most active teams trying to trade up for Derrick Williams. T’Wolves want a “veteran big man.”

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It’s a bit of a reunion Saturday here at the Verizon Center with Mo Evans, Jordan Crawford, Kirk Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong facing their respective former teams. But there is another type of reunion going on too, one from the 1993 NBA Draft — between Sam Cassell, who went 24th in the first round that year and is now an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, and Nick Van Exel, a second rounder in ’93 (37th overall), who is now a player development instructor with the Atlanta Hawks.

Between the two, there is 212 games of playoff experience (136 for Cassell and 76 for Van Exel), and over 28,000 regular season points scored (15,635 for Cassell and 12,658 for Van Exel). However, according to the Basketball-Reference.com database, in 31 regular season head-to-head match-ups, Van Exel holds a 17-14 advantage. That’s a lot of classic games between two excellent guards. Let’s go to the YouTube archive…

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It’s an hour and a half before tip off, and six young Wizards have a good lather going. While Flip Saunders gives his perfunctory interview to a cadre of media of diverse status– Michael Lee mingles with the nameless of bloggerdom—Othyus Jeffers, Cartier Martin, Mustafa Shakur, Andray Blatche, Kevin Seraphin and Hamady Ndiaye are engaged in a spirited bout of half court three-on-three. Working mostly on one half of the court, an assistant coach feeds the ball to a player and the offense executes a pick and roll play.

This is not a walkthrough. Bodies are banging, the screens are physical, and on one roll to the basket, Ndiaye collides with Seraphin and is sent tumbling into the basket support.

It’s a game to three, by ones, winners keep the ball. While none of the players besides Blatche and Seraphin have received a major investment from the Wizards, Jeffers and Shakur are battling like they have. When Seraphin is late coming to set a side pick and roll for Jeffers, he barks at the French rookie to hop to it—there’s a meaningless three-on-three scrimmage on the line!

Up close, Jeffers and Mustafa’s duel catches the eye. Shakur, of smooth handle and prototypical point guard size, plays the pick and roll with style. A highly touted player since his high school days in Philadelphia, Shakur plays with uncommon polish for a player just called up from the D-League. Jeffers on the other hand, who is listed at 6-5, one inch taller than Shaker, is actually a couple inches shorter and a ways rougher. His handle isn’t exactly awkward, but it’s about as clean as Cherokee Parks after six days lost in the woods. It’s strange to find these two in the same play for next year’s pay situation– one bred for a stardom that never quite panned out, the other a darling of exceeded expectations.

Yet here they are, getting in some extra work in preparation for their extended tryout with the Wizards. Regardless of where they were supposed to be, they’re both on this court because they stuck with a dream of being in the NBA.

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The names Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups have been in the minds of  Denver Nuggets fans, beat writers and casual observers all season long and with good reason.  Carmelo has been Denver’s franchise player for eight years now, and he has made it known that he wants to take his talents elsewhere — allegedly to the New York Knicks, but Chicago, New Jersey and Denver are “allegedly” under consideration as well.  If he does leave, whether via trade or free-agency, the Nuggets figure to be in rebuilding mode, which will also affect Billups.  Chauncey is 34-years old, he’s won a championship, and although he’s not the same “Mr. Big Shot” as he was during his title run with the Detroit Pistons, he is still an effective player (15.9 points and 5.3 assists per game).  He’s earned the right to be on a contending team, not one in transition — and without Carmelo, or someone of value in return, that’s exactly what the Nuggets would become.

So when Denver visited the Verizon Center to take on the Washington Wizards Tuesday night, I was curious to see how Carmelo and Billups would perform under the weight of all the alleged trades and transition.  Carmelo had 23 points and seven rebounds, Billups had 15 points and six assists, and both players were integral to the Nuggets’ 120-109 victory.  However, I came away from the game with the names of their two teammates in my mind instead:  Ty Lawson and Al Harrington.

Lawson had 17 points and two assists, and did most of his damage in the second quarter when the Nuggets stretched their lead to 12 points (although it got as high as 17 at one point in the period).  The point guard had seven points in the second, and he kept both John Wall and Mustafa Shakur completely off-balance with his ability to change speeds, get to the basket, and knock down the open shot.

Harrington was a non-factor for three quarters, but he came alive in the fourth quarter when he hit five of the six three-pointers he attempted.  He finished with 21 points, and he did so despite being heckled the entire game by courtside Wizards fans who insisted on calling him Othella, instead of Al (Kyle Weidie detailed this exchange in a great post).

After the game I spoke with Lawson about the way he uses his speed with Harrington about the hecklers, among other things. Read more »

I caught up with Rashard to ask him about tonight’s matchup with the Raptors. The take away: Both teams have the same game plan. The Raptors play fast and loose with plenty of pick and rolls. According to Lewis, the Wizards will look to do much the same.

Lewis identified forward Andre Bargnani and point guard Jose Calderon as the primary threats on the Raptors, as I’d imagine Toronto is concerned about the Lewis-Wall tandem.

Bargnani is a big key for this team, he’s playing great this year. He’s big, so he creates matchup problems, he can shoot threes– he can post up, he can drive to the basket, sets a lot of pick and rolls with the pick and pop or he can roll to the basket… so it’s a number of different things to look out for. And Calderon is also a good point guard so there’s a number of different things we need to be ready to defend with those two.

As for pace, Rashard supposes the Wizards need to push the ball as much as possible, but it has to come from defense. That is, play fast, but not loose.

It’s a big key tonight. We need to come out and hit them first, set the tone . You know they like to play fast but we like to play fast, as well because John is our point guard, and he’s better when we play fast… I think if we can defend first and hold them to one shot and then kick the ball to John and get out and just run we’ll be better off on offense.

In the half court, Lewis noted that the Wizards have the ability to really hurt the Raptors’ bigs with pick and roll action (sound familiar?): Read more »

I swear I saw four different Washington Wizards teams flash before eyes during their 112-91 loss to the New York Knicks tonight.

In the first quarter, I thought it was Spring 0f 2010, because Andray Blatche looked focused and assertive.  He scored 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, and he seemed to have both his inside and outside game working to perfection.  John Wall was able to pick up an easy six assists, simply because Blatche was feeling it.  Unfortunately, Blatche’s good fortune did not continue, as he only scored six points on 2-of-9 shooting the rest of the game.  He also appeared to be a bit hobbled in the fourth quarter.

During the second and third quarters, the Wizards looked like the 2008-2009 team that finished with the futile record of 19-63.  John Wall and Kirk Hinrich seemed to alternate turning the ball over and there were numerous defensive lapses that led to open shots and even more wide open dunks.  Blatche reverted back to his immature days by picking up a silly technical foul, when he got tangled up with Ronny Turiaf, simply because he was upset he did not get a foul call.  The Wizards watched their one point lead, turn into a 13-point deficit at one point in the quarter.

I’m not sure what Flip Saunders said at halftime, but the Wizards came out with a little more fire in the third quarter, and they resembled the inconsistent team they’ve been during the first four games of this season.  Wall went up and down the court in a blur and made easy baskets, but he continued to turn the ball over.  Al Thornton and JaVale McGee would make brilliant plays on one end of the floor, only to give it right back on the other end.  Andray Blatche appeared to be out of shape, out of sync, and even further from his first quarter dominance.  The Wizards were able to outscore the Knicks, but they still weren’t able to put a significant dent in that lead.

Gilbert Arenas, who was making his regular season debut, heated up in the fourth quarter, and took everyone back to the 2006-2007 season when this was his town, not John Wall’s.  He stopped, he popped, he hit threes, he drove (tentatively) to the basket, and he single-handedly kept the Wizards in the game.  At one point, he even appeared to wave Wall away when the young rookie attempted to get the ball to bring up the court.   The lead shrank to six points, and it looked like Arenas was going to lead his team to a magical victory.

But unfortunately, Arenas cooled down, the 2010-2011 version of the Wizards reappeared once again, and the Wizards lost.   The game ended with players like Lester Hudson, Trevor Booker and the hero from Thursday night, Cartier Martin, on the floor.  After the game, Coach Saunders had the same I-didn’t-sign-up-for-this look on his face, that he had during the opening night loss to Orlando.

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[A crab cake and egg breakfast with a Bloody Mary and the Free Darko book at the Phillip's in the Baltimore-Washington airport -- no better way to spend time before a delayed flight.]

If you think you know professional basketball history and want to know more … if you faintly know pro ball’s past and want to be re-captured with tales instead of accounts … if you have any level of personal involvement with the NBA, the new Free Darko book, The Undisputed Guide To Pro Basketball History, is a must-read for you.

The souls of the Free Darko collective take many of stories we all know, and many we don’t, and weave them into intricate, seamless patterns that pull together pro basketball history like the Dude’s highly sought-out rug from the movie, The Big Lebowski, pulled together a room.

Want to know the last type of Cigar that Red Aurbach smoked during his career? Dutch Masters. Or how about what shoe Michael Jordan preferred before he was persuaded to sign with Nike? You’ll have read all the book’s side bar texts that quench your thirst for facts.

The Free Darko book reaches far below the surface and brings meaning to the court action like I’ve never seen before. Clean, tight depth that ranges from comparing the NBA’s statistical explosion in the early 1960s to the English agricultural revolution of the 1700s/1800s to a break down of the frequency of head hair styles/types (including facial) of the 1970s.

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So the Wizards preseason game against the Cleveland Cavaliers is not on television tonight. This is something I believe I was aware of (as I received the press release indicating that Comcast SportsNet would broadcast 80 regular season games and three preseason games — the October 28 season opener in Orlando and the November 25 game in Atlanta will be exclusively broadcast on TNT), but still, realizing it this morning made me say … “damn.”

And evidently a lot of others are wishing they could watch John Wall and the Wizards tonight too. Ratings for the first preseason game went through the roof, via the DC Sports Bog, leaving many, some on Twitter today, hungry for more.

But sometimes the advertising dollars just aren’t there for preseason games — not one Washington Capitals preseason game was televised this year. Everyone expected Wall to have an impact, but if they knew he could bring a 55-percent ratings increase over last year’s regular season average for a measly preseason game, I’m sure more television arrangements would have been made … albeit, other games might not fetch the same as a debut.

In any case, both home preseason games (October 12 versus the Hawks — the return of Etan Thomas! — and October 14 versus the Bucks — the return of Earl Boykins!!) will be televised. Otherwise, for the rest of the preseason slate, you’ll have to rely on the soothing voices of Dave Johnson and Glenn Consor on 106.7 The Fan, which you should also be able to hear online (note: the Oct. 17 preseason game versus the Knicks, that will be broadcast live on 1580 AM).

So, in lieu of video, let’s take a look at the diagram of my favorite Gilbert Arenas shooting guard play (so far) that went down Tuesday in Dallas.

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“He’s just Superman, jumps over cars I guess.”

-Flip Saunders on Al Thornton

I was minding my own business last Thursday evening when I noticed a tweet from Wizards forward Al Thornton:

“This may sound crazy but I just literally got hit by a car walking.. Wtf.”

My initial thought was that Thornton was just letting off steam before or after practice, or maybe he was joking around with someone else on Twitter.  But not even 10 minutes later, he followed up with a few more details: Read more »

Time to dig into the archives and post some unseen summer league photos.

John Wall, determined to get to the hoop.

What I like about Wall’s game is that you can pick up more elements of discipline than you can from most other young point guards. Again, I’ll reiterate that turnovers, more than his jump shot, is the foremost issue Wall will have to address. But most of his turnovers are not the result of him trying to be ‘cute’ (just sometimes, if not rarely), but rather from him getting used to how to handle his own speed, the increased pace of the game and competition, and where his teammates best want to receive the ball. But in the beginning and in the end, attack he must … with both discipline and instinct.

I feel like Trevor Booker is one of those giant flying sharks and is targeting an attack on his prey … the rim.

A John Wall pre-game throw down. Sue Yue looks impressed/guarding himself from harmful physical repercussions.

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At his introductory press conference almost a month after he was traded to the Washington Wizards, Kirk Hinrich reiterated that he was “shocked” and “blindsided” by the pre-draft maneuver which sent him packing from his one and only NBA team, the Chicago Bulls.

Now, he’s turning those lemons into lemonade in the form of a proclaimed fresh start.

“It’s like coming into the league again. I’m very motivated and excited to play great basketball,” said Hinrich when speaking with the media after his official press appearance.

When asked if he had a chip on his shoulder after being dealt in a salary-clearing move which he also said he, “didn’t see coming,” Hinrich paused and carefully chose his words before saying, “Maybe a little bit, but more in a sense of just excited to have a fresh start.”

There goes that ‘fresh start’ thing again. And it’s likely easy for Kirk to say. He’s that type of selfless guy, as well as one who realizes that he really doesn’t have a choice but to keep a stiff upper lip, move on and hope to have some basketball fun.

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Antawn Jamison doesn’t get Twitter. Neither does my 70-year old dad (okay, he’s 69, will be 70 next June).

He, my dad, was recently in town and Twitter came up in the dinner conversation. I tried to justify its relevancy by citing how it provides those in the media, bloggers, such as myself, the ability to extend personal branding (as HRO would call it), and even more so, how it’s great for late-breaking news, especially in the sports world. I trailed off and cut the list of merits short after seeing the look on my dad’s face, not mentioning how I’ve actually made friends with people via Twitter.

My pops, mind you, is not completely tech oblivious. He does have a ‘net book’. And I suppose Antawn is in the same boat.

Tom Sorenson of the Charlotte Observer has the first Antawn Jamison, ‘Here I Am’ article of the summer. Sorenson recently caught up with the Gentleman Jamison at his basketball camp in North Carolina. You should read the whole piece, but here are a couple select quotes:

But the Cavaliers crashed and burned in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Boston and crashed and burned again two weeks ago when LeBron giddily announced he was leaving Cleveland for the Miami Heat.

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D.C.-area rapper Wale has been covered quite a bit on this site. But he wouldn’t be if I didn’t think so highly of his music. I mean, Soulja Boy was flown in for a Wizards-Cavaliers playoff game in 2008 and I barely mentioned it … because it’s friggin’ Soulja Boy. He is absolutely terrible.

First Wale just wasn’t that into the Wizards, rather he rooted fo the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then his fandom for the Denver Nuggets, as well, came to surface. “I gotta be honest, I’m not the biggest Wizards fan,” Wale once said, putting his hometown team further away than the back seat, shutting them in the trunk instead. Of course, Andray Blatche cautioned us not to believe that Wale really wasn’t a Wizards fan. And maybe Blatche was right, Wale did show up for a decent share of games last season, in the on-the-house seats the team makes available for VIPs.

In late May when the Wizards’ draft lottery chances became a hot topic, Wale revealed that he was rooting for his hometown team to win. Clearly after they did, Wale’s attention deficit toward the Wiz came to a record-screeching halt. The bandwagon became heavier, and that’s okay.

The reality is also that the Wizards haven’t had anyone with huge star power for some time. Wale was unheard of on the music scene the last time Gilbert Arenas was relevant. Now the rapper is readily expressing his excitement that John Wall will be part of a new generation of stars in D.C., the “freshman class” (and Donovan McNabb). And the difference is that Wall’s hype is propelled by basketball talent, not by a $111 million contract. Fans loved Arenas when he was on top, but Wall is seen as one who will change the direction to the franchise, rather than someone putting up numbers in a high-octane offense.

ESPN the Magazine recently released its 8th annual edition of ‘Ultimate Standings’ for pro sports franchises, ranking them “according to how much they give back to fans for all of the time, money and emotion they invest in them.” The results employ financial analysis, team research and fan surveys. Out of 122 total MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA franchises, the Wizards ranked 120. That’s bad. Worst than I ever imagined, although it seems foolhardy for me to think such a low ranking wasn’t possible.

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