A D.C. pic and links …

I came across this big banner hanging on a building at the northeast corner of 13th and L Streets NW, about nine blocks or so from the Verizon Center. It features “Monumental Action” and the Verizon Center website URL followed by Alex Ovechkin, Andray Blatche, Crystal Langhorne, Beyoncé Knowles (I believe), and who appears to be Chris Wright of the Georgetown Hoyas. The logo of the Ted Leonsis-led group, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, is featured in the lower right-hand corner. I’m not sure what other monumental banners are around the city (or DMV area), or how long this has been up (the Monumental logo was released on July 16), but I am curious to see if Blatche will allow himself to be the Wizards representative of Monumental Sports in the future.

Preparation “H”

Michael Lee reports that it’s unlikely the Wizards will sign 2010 second round draft pick (56th overall) Hamady N’diaye, rather likely opting to let him develop in Europe.
[Wizards Insider]

I had a feeling something like this was coming, as N’diaye remained unsigned, and it was previously reported that an Italian team had interest in him. The Wizards will still hold N’diaye’s rights for the future, but now, since it looks like Kevin Seraphin will need a fair bit of time to develop (and he isn’t going to the D-League — link below), it makes sense for Hamady to get more experience overseas.

Plus, if you count the qualifying offer the Wizards currently have extended to Cartier Martin (via Sham Sports), there are 13 players on the roster. Ernie Grunfeld, known for liking flexibility, probably considers the last two spots too valuable to be used up on developing N’diaye in the D-League (remember, if you sign a player and send him to the D-League, he still counts against the max NBA roster size of 15).

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A D.C. pic and some links …

[Behind the Back - Columbia Heights Youth Center - 1400 block of Girard Street NW - K. Weidie]

Want more John Wall? Of course you do. In the second video TAI posted yesterday, Wall could be seen getting crossed up, and it would later surface that the ball-handler was Austin Rivers, son of Doc Rivers who is also ranked No. 2 overall in the ESPNU class of 2011 rankings.

On Rivers’ Scouts Inc. profile on ESPN Insider, the ‘Weaknesses’ section starts:

One definite area of needed improvement that sticks out about Rivers is that not only does he love going to his right the majority of times he has the ball, but if forced to his left he does not attack with the same aggressiveness. When played to his left he is reduced to relying on a one-or-two dribble step-back jumper for the majority of his offense.

Watch the video again (embedded below, this time at the 0:31 mark). Rivers crosses Wall from right to left, drives left to the hoop, and ultimately hits a right-handed scoop shot. Guess Rivers is trying to combat his ‘can’t go left’ scouting report weakness.

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