[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 22, Washington Wizards vs Atlanta Hawks in D.C.; contributors: Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center.]

Wittmanisms. Read more »

Tonight is the third time, with his third team, that DeShawn Stevenson has been back to play in D.C. since he was traded away in February 2010.

As a member of the Dallas Mavericks, before they won the title, Stevenson returned to Washington, played two minutes and missed one shot in a February 2011 contest, a 105-99 Dallas win. As a member of the New Jersey Nets last season, Stevenson made a brief 12 second appearance at the Verizon Center in a 90-84 Nets win on opening night of a lockout-shortened season. Now, as a member of the Atlanta Hawks, having been traded last summer in the Joe Johnson deal, Stevenson returns to Washington, yet again.

Take the opportunity to speak with DeShawn before Tuesday night’s Wizards-Hawks matchup? Certainly.

TAI: Anything to being back here in D.C., or has all that passed by now? Read more »

[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 16, Washington Wizards at Atlanta Hawks; contributors: Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

Uncertain eyes. John Wall, a bowtie, Sam Cassell, and Nene’s eye. Read more »

Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s 16th game of the season against the Hawks in Atlanta are TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) and guest Kris Willis (@Kris_Willis), who writes about the Hawks for the SB Nation blog Peachtree Hoops.

Wizards Starters (2-13):

A.J. Price, Bradley Beal, Martell Webster, Chris Singleton, Emeka Okafor
(Will Randy Wittman still start Chris Singleton? Who will fill-in for Trevor Ariza? What about Okafor? We will see…)

Hawks Starters (10-5):

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Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s 10th game of the season against the Hawks in Atlanta are TAI’s Sean Fagan (@McCarrick) and guest Daniel Christian (@DChris_Hawks), who writes about the Hawks for the ESPN TrueHoop blog HawksHoop.com.

Wizards Starters (0-9):

Who knows? Randy Wittman indicated that he will change his starters, but will he have the balls to bench Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor? Can’t hurt at this point.

WHUT!?! UPDATED Starters:

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Truth About It.net turns a whole five years old at the end of October, which is right about now.

Hard to believe/interesting. Nonetheless, over the life of the site from the 2007-08 season to 2011-12, we’ve seen/lived/suffered through 131 wins, 263 losses, four coaches, two owners, one GM/team president, one Phil Chenier mustache removal, and 56 total players (amazingly, 48 players over the last three seasons).

You may have heard of ESPN’s #NBArank project, now in year two. Now hear of #WizardsRank, where we rank each of those 56 players during Truth About It.net’s five-year run. TAI anonymously polled 27 members of the Wizards pixel establishment — from mainstream media to new media, TAI staffers included, to a few pixel consumers (readers of the site) — and got 17 responses.

Participants were given the full list of 56 in alphabetical order, and included for each player were total games, minutes, PER (player efficiency rating), and WS/48 (win-shares per 48 minutes) only from the last five seasons. Participants were asked to rate each player on the scale of 1-to-10 according to this criteria: on court performance; off court performance; intangibles; and own personal memory. Yes, this is totally subjective, but relatively collective.

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ShareBullets: Links, Web, Randomness…

Who says child prodigies have no time to grow up, to be young?

… John Wall seems to be doing just fine.

Just like during last year’s NBA lockout summer, Wall this summer has made his way around the land like a Tribe Called Quest song. Instead of a mic, it’s a basketball… but he’s still having all the fun that a world tour can provide.

From NOC, there’s John Wall’s breakout story, set at a 2007 camp sponsored by Reebok where college coaches try to find breakout stories; Wall’s breakout happened in Philadelphia. One thing that’s clear about Wall, which is reflected in his passion for basketball, is how the tough times he faced as a kid are clearly reflected in his professional maturity.

Maybe you’ve already seen the 15-minute NOC feature that shows some old footage of Wall with coverage of today’s prospects at this year’s Reebok camp. Featured is Baltimore’s Aquille Carr, who is facing some tough times himself this summer (the prodigy nicknamed the “Crimestopper” was recently arrested for allegedly assaulting the mother of his child).

The key (to the summer) is exposure, as North Carolina coach Larry Brown says in the video; Oh, it’s also about the hair.

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The Washington Wizards continue the road trip in Dallas tonight for a matchup against the Mavericks. These two teams are most recently connected by the seven-player deal they completed on February 13, 2010. Washington sent supposed cornerstone pieces Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson (and cash, don’t forget the cash) to the Mavericks in exchange for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton and Quinton Ross. The crew from Washington helped Dallas win an NBA championship; the crew from Dallas helped Washington accomplish nothing but a chance to clean up after mistakes. Haywood is the only player from the trade remaining on either team. What maneuvering. Moving on, for tonight’s 3-on-3 we have Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh) from the ESPN TrueHoop Network Mavs blog The Two Man Game (amongst other blogs), Beckley Mason (@BeckleyMason) of HoopSpeak.com/ESPN, and TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It). Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) Although questionable in general, Brendan Haywood is evidently not physically questionable against the Wizards tonight and is set to return to the court for the first time in five games,  essentially (he sprained his ankle in the opening minute of Dallas’ loss to Oklahoma City on March 5th and missed the next four games). This will be the third meeting between the two former practice sparing partners, former Wizards teammates Haywood and JaVale McGee, and the numbers for each player over the previous two look pretty paltry. Who prevails in the matchup tonight and what does it mean for their respective teams?

IAN LEVY: I think Haywood gets the better of McGee, and it means a ton for the Mavericks. The Mavericks have capable depth in the front-court but when Haywood is out, everyone has to move up a chair into a role that asks a little more of them then they are capable. Getting Brandan Wright back will help settle the rotation as well.

BECKLEY MASON: McGee prevails with his activity and earnest effort. If McGee can control the glass, it might make up for what I predict will be a decided shooting advantage in the Mavs favor. The Wizards need to get more possessions, and while Dallas won’t test McGee at the rim too often on drives, he’ll need to be active and communicative on the perimeter. What I’m saying is: McGee will likely outplay Haywood, but he has to do more than that to swing the game.

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Lockout thoughts, randomly, and links, etc…

Fix This Mess.
[Southeast-Southwest Freeway - 12th & K St. SE - Washington, D.C. - photo: K. Weidie]

Whomever put the debate over Basketball Related Income (“BRI”) at the forefront of the NBA Lockout argument between players and owners knew what they were doing, assuming they were working in favor of the owners. At least this is in terms of public perception, but does either side care about the public anyway? No, not really, it seems.

Fifty-fifty is what we’ve been taught is fair; “even-steven” is intrinsically connected to our humanity. Disregard concerns otherwise when it comes to the lockout, the focus has been how to split the BRI between owners and players. Under the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”), the players received 57-percent of all NBA BRI, and for the purposes of new CBA negotiations, players have indicated that they are willing to reduce their BRI to 53-percent and have stuck staunchly to that (although recent reports indicate the players might lower their demands to 52-percent).

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Seeing that pro basketball fans are essentially suspended from the NBA due to squabbling amongst millionaires and billionaires, passing time might be aided by chronicling all NBA and team suspensions of the Washington Wizards since circa 1995. Why? Well, because we humans love stories about crime and punishment, and to most, the NBA lockout fits the bill for both.  So away we go (with old basketball cards to accompany on occasion)…

[Note: This listing is incomplete and unconfirmed for accuracy; information has been gleaned, copied and pasted from eskimo.com/~pbender and prosportstransactions.com with the understanding that all suspensions and fines might not have been publicized or reflected.]

1/5/95
Bernard King suspended by team for altercation with head coach at practice.

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