Posts tagged ‘antonio daniels’

photo from nba.com/wizards

Silly, zany, wacky…..all terms used to describe Washington Wizards media day. Laptops are even blowing up because of it.

>> DeShawn Stevenson is swagger jacking Lil’ Wayne and claiming originality…..Lemme guess, Stevenson’s next wrist band will say, “Misunderstood ain’t gotta be explained,” or perhaps “Bling, Bling.” (Just go listen to ‘DontGetIt’ (some call it ‘Misunderstood’) on Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter III – or just check the lyrics here.)

>> The key part of the body is the wrist:
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When the Washington Wizards decided to pick up the third-year option on Coach Eddie Jordan’s current contract, extending him through the 2009-2010 season, I thought, “Well, that’s a little random.”

There have been questions about Jordan’s status from year to year…..whether it be general disapproval from fans, the fact that he wasn’t an ‘Ernie Grunfeld’ selection, or that Jordan’s hand-picked assistants were only renewed on a year-to-year basis.

I’ve been a staunch supporter of Jordan. Sure there are issues, as I outlined in his evaluation. But I factor in his DC resume, and an appreciation that for the last four years, I haven’t had to cross my fingers when ping-pong balls start mixing in late May.

But in terms of the timing, I was perplexed as Prada at Bullets Forever….why now? Perhaps my curiosity was more the result of surprise at the unexpectedness of the re-up. But after further pondering, it was a good move by GM Ernie Grunfeld and Owner Abe Pollin.

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I’ve been working on a piece about Eddie Jordan and his rotation size, specifically in comparison to the rest of the league and how it may or may not relate to team success in the NBA. The research is taking longer than I thought, so….spawned by a Slam Online blog entry today, I wanted to assess the Wizards role players for the upcoming season first.

In “Know Your Role,” John Krolik highlights five types of role players (plus Robert Horry) that every team wants. How do the Wizards stack up? Well, let’s see.

1. The Mistake-Free Backup Point
This one is easy….Antonio Daniels is even cited as an ideal example. AD is a leader who is willing to put his body on the line and the team first. In my player evaluation of Daniels, I cited negatives such as inability to shoot and defend. However, with Arenas back and Antonio going back to the bench, those inefficiencies will be somewhat masked in the bigger picture. The key theme is the steadying veteran presence Antonio provides as the point guard leader of a young second unit.

2. The Bona Fide Sniper
This is an big area of concern for me. Gilbert Arenas is the team sniper, but he’s no role player. Gone is last year’s sniper in Roger Mason, who will fill the role for the San Antonio Spurs. Sure, Nick Young will be expected to provide an offensive spark off the bench, but I’ve never been confident in his ability as a long distance threat. Are you telling me that the Wizards will look to Oleksiy Pecherov to be the unconscious jacker from deep? I sure hope not, and that’s assuming he’s not reporting for D-League duty during the upcoming season.

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Part 8 of Washington Wizards Player Evaluations, head over to Bullets Forever to check the thoughts of the Pradamaster and JakeTheSnake on Antonio Daniels.

Previous Entries:
Etan Thomas | Oleksiy Pecherov | Dominic McGuire | Nick Young |
Andray Blatche | Roger Mason | Darius Songaila|

Antonio Daniels is my Catch-22. I love his steadying veteran presence. He fills in wherever needed and does whatever is asked of him without thinking twice. Daniels has been a model of consistency during his 11 year NBA career. This past season was no exception as Antonio Daniels was asked to sub for an injured Gilbert Arenas. In doing so, AD started 63 out of 71 played games for the Wizards. In his previous 10 seasons, Antonio started a total of 149 out of 722 games.

In Daniels’ 07-08 starts, he contributed about nine points, five assists, and three rebounds in just over 30 minutes a game while only turning the ball over 86 times total (a 1.36 average). So, I’ll throw around terms such as admirable and will give AD a big ‘thank you’ because without him, I highly doubt that the Wizards would have achieved 43 wins.

However, there’s a Sir Mix-a-Lot sized ‘but’……..Antonio Daniels can neither shoot nor defend. As his career 30.9% from 3-point land would indicate, AD is not one for distance buckets. Now, he is no where near Rajon Rondo bad, but throughout the season, opponents proved more times than not that they were willing to risk leaving Daniels open to protect the paint. And AD did not disappoint by hitting only 17 of 74 attempts from beyond the arc. My expectations of Daniels in this area have always been tempered, but I still have wishes that he could keep defenses honest. But alas, it is what it is…..if Antonio hasn’t improved his shot to date, then it’s probably never going to happen. Old dogs don’t learn new tricks.

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I got home from the Washington Nationals opener just in time to catch the last 8 minutes (incl. OT) of the Wizards-Lakers game. I know, I know…..I gotta get a DVR – all the kids are doing it. Nonetheless, what I saw of the Nick Young show was highly entertaining. I was probably more into that game [meaning yelling loud enough to make my neighbors wonder] than I have been for any other this year. I could be labeled as a Laker-hater, but at least the Wizards covered the 9.

The Wizards-Jazz game? Read the live game blog if you dare. [Wizards Game #74 @ Utah Jazz] Surfing around the blogosphere, the obliteration seemed to be expected, especially with the absence of Caron Butler and Antonio Daniels due to injury (not to mention Gilbert and Etan). Yea, well maybe I expected it too. But it would’ve been nice to see the Wizards take some pride and get scrappy. Oh well. At least the Wiz are at…..home sweet home?

The Reach Quotes from Cali to Utah…….

Dig of the Week
“This is where Abe Pollin’s insistence on not paying the luxury tax combined with the injury issues have really hurt this team……..From my seat, this team has needed a quick, defensive-minded point guard type coming off that bench all season and simply hasn’t had one. [Ivan Carter]
– Of course, criticism of Abe Pollin has been around the block and then some….including making several stops on my street.

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No, this is not Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy. This is:

Just to set the record is straight, okay? The other guy? Oh c’mon, acting like you’ve never seen Ron Jeremy in a Mario outfit.

ON TAP:
A HUGE Wizards Insider post tonight.

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Watch out for this guy….
just ask Tang Hamilton (not pictured guarding Joe Johnson).
picture from flickr/vedia

>> After the 0-5 start, the Wizards got their first win of this 2007-2008 season against the Atlanta Hawks back on November 11th…..thanks to some guts and 15 rebounds from Antawn Jamison. Unfortunately, that game coincided with a 33-25 Redskins loss to the hated Philadelphia Eagles.

>> In game 25, a 97-92 Wizards loss to the Hawks, Washington survived a slow start to make the match really close down the stretch. Nick Young and DeShawn Stevenson both gave solid efforts, however the Wiz were unable to overcome a 32 point night from Joe Johnson and a +16 rebound margin for Atlanta.

>> Game 34: Wizards vs. Hawks in Atlanta. This one was even more exciting as the game went into overtime; Washington prevailed 102-98 thanks to Antonio Daniels with his game sealing bucket and 7 assists with 0 turnovers.

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Headed down to the Verizon Center in Chinatown last Saturday night to see my Washington Wizards look uninterested in a loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. It wasn’t the end of the world, but I was disappointed nonetheless.

Attending the game in person, I had my ears listening for react quotes (Wire reference alert):

“The only bad thing about St. Patrick’s Day is that one year I took river-dance lessons…..” The quote by a mid-twenties girl, who surprisingly spent more time paying attention to the game than talking, then blurred into something about being drunk and dancing in bars. My head was buried into my hands upon hearing ‘river’ and ‘dance’ in the same sentence. I should’ve tried to set her up with my friend Chris.

“Awww he shook him…ohhh he shook him.” Middle-aged white man in his middle-aged white man voice in reference to Raymond Felton toying with Antonio Daniels.

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Being in Argentina since early Sunday morning, Wednesday was my first chance to catch up with the internet world. I’m not going to even think about checking my blog roll on Google Reader. The unread count could be in the thousands by now. Nope, I’m sticking to the basics: ESPN.com, the Washington Post and Bullets Forever.

Upon seeing the score of the Wizards-Knicks game via ESPN Deportes on Tuesday night, my palm may have smacked against my forehead, but my head did not shake in disbelief….. especially after not seeing Caron Butler’s name among the leading scorers in the bottom line. He sat out again? He should have had plenty of rest by now. Crap. That hip must be worse than we thought. Setback…whatev.

Before getting into the game, thanks to my boy Chris for his coverage, albeit a bit tardy. I’ve been wanting to negotiate a boxing post with him for a while. And since the initial intention of this blog was coverage of DC in general, some exposure to the Caps is more than welcome. Sad to say, I have yet to attend a game this year. I’m long overdue. I can’t see my self watching too many hockey games on TV….although, at times when not much else is on, I’ll give the men in skates a little time on my 3rd, smaller TV. It’s always been my belief that hockey is the sport with the most discrepancy between watching it on TV and watching it live…..meaning, that live is exciting, fun, and intense while on TV is boarderline intolerable. Sorry Chris, but I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.

OK, enough of that…..on to the Wiz.

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Wizards Insider reported that Caron Butler will probably sit out the NBA All-Star game. And Comcast SportsNite did, indeed, just report that Caron won’t play in the NOLA. Good. For selfish reasons, I’d rather him not play because I’ll be on a plane during the NBA All-Star game and I want to be able to see Tuff Juice play when he really shows out on the big stage…..after all, he was 1-7 with 2 points last year. But really, the rest will be good for him. He will be revitalized and motivated for the post-break. Plus, snub amends can be made with a replacement. It should be Hedo Turkoglu.

Onto tonight’s game, I’m excited about it. This team, despite 6, 7 game losing streaks, did come out to play in the last two games against two very good Western Conference teams. Yea, it didn’t turn out how we would like. The Wiz made some bonehead mistakes, but I recognize the effort. I’d say about 20 other NBA teams, if faced with a similar situation, would have folded.

Should the Wizards get mad and pick a fight? [SVP Style]

ME: Of course I would like someone to bust Stephen Jackson straight in the jaw, especially for something like this. But I like this Wizards team not trying to act like the Warriors; their bitching and moaning during that game was a little too much.

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