Posts tagged ‘2010 preseason’

[Editor's note: You've seen TAI diagram plays before, but now were going to do it more often as a game-to-game feature ... the best implemented play on a given night, at least in our opinion. -Kyle]

{photo: A. McGinnis, TAI}

After winning a jump ball halfway through the second quarter, the Wizards swung the ball around the top of the three-point line to set up a pick and roll on the other side of the floor.

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Tonight, the Washington Wizards embark on their 2010 preseason campaign against the Mavericks in Dallas … and it matters. Matters not in how they play, but how they appear.

Preseason 2009 was disregarded before it even happened. There were no forthcoming tea leaves being brought to read for the season before the season by the assembled stew of leftovers and afterthoughts: Arenas, Jamison, Butler, Miller, Foye, Oberto, James, Boykins, Blatche, Stevenson, and the guy who was on Millionaire Matchmaker.

Preseason 2010 is quite different; still assembled stew, but the ingredients are a lot fresher.

Preseason 2009 didn’t matter, and I’m not talking wins and losses. They never matter. I’m talking about appearances. Who cares if the ‘09-10 team didn’t appear well together in the beginning, it was going to take time. Preseason 2009 was all about post-season expectations, not appearances in games that don’t count. But eventually, from style to stats to substance, the players of last season became rancid under Flip Saunders’ system. Things got stale, as Ernie Grunfeld has mentioned over and over, and over, again.

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