[Editor's note: Below is third piece Arish Narayen has written for TAI. He first broke down the Wizards' small forward situation in early July, and then wrote about the Wizards' third summer league game against the Mavericks. -Kyle]

If you haven’t had a chance to read this study linked on TrueHoop Monday, check it out. In the piece, Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference.com analyzes how NBA players performed against above and below average defenses in 2009-10.

Paine begins by ranking each team’s defense by using a defensive version of the Simple Rating System, taking into account margin of victory, strength of schedule, and home-court effects. Taken from the article, here are the relevant bits about the Wizards:

First, the good news. Last season, the Washington Wizards’ defense ranked 20th in the NBA using Paine’s DSRS metric. Take that, New Orleans and Phoenix. Read more »

First the Reebok announcement, now his jersey number. John Wall has chosen to have a deuce on the back of his uniform next season, making us forget about all the other No. 2s who have ever worn a Bullets/Wizards jersey.

And all via Twitter. Look at John Wall leegggooo!!! He’s a Twitter news-making machine! He’s also interacting with fans by soliciting their opinion. Smooth marketing move.

John Wall’s Tweet is thy command (to Tweet back). So people did. And to get the immediate (at the time) pulse of yucks, comments and thoughts, let’s check some Tweets out.

First …..

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If I were doing things in a better manner (blog-wise), I’d make a separate post for each and every little bit of John Wall-related news emerging on the world-wide-web … there’d be a thousand of them. Instead, I’m throwing the best of the recent best in this post … with commentary. Enjoy.

Michael Lee of the Washington Post discusses the possibility of an Arenas-Wall backcourt. Lee touches on the idea that Arenas might actually relish not having to lead the offense under Flip Saunders. Remember, much of his struggles in ’09-10 weren’t necessarily due to having to overcome physical obstacles, but rather how to get the ball to others within the offense while balancing the idea that he needs to attack himself in order to create for others. Now, perhaps simplifying the necessity of Arenas’ talent could create a better team-wide dynamic. Lee writes:

My point is, Arenas could easily switch to shooting guard and be effective playing with Wall. He was a shooting guard in his two seasons at Arizona. And, when he shared the backcourt with Larry Hughes in his first two seasons in Washington, Hughes led the team in assists both seasons. Arenas actually enjoyed not being the lone playmaker on the team. At times, the responsibility frustrated him last season under Saunders’s system.

We all know that Flip Saunders is already ecstatic at the opportunity to coach Wall, but getting a 20-year old to effectively run a major NBA playbook while integrating the rest of the team isn’t going to be easy. Flip better get those video breakdowns and iPod Touches ready.

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The Pick and Roll is a staple of many NBA offenses. The Wizards, in particular, starved when it came to defending P&Rs in 2009-10.

Once again turning to Synergy Sports Technology, we learn that as a team, the Wizards defended the P&R ball handler 1,128 times in plays that ended with a FGA, TO or FTA. This accounted for 12.6% of the team’s defensive plays. Defending these plays, the Wizards gave up 0.89 points-per-possession (PPP), which is tied for the most allowed in the NBA.

Against the Wizards, the P&R ball handler shot 43.2% on field goals and scored 42.9% of the time, which is the second highest scoring rate allowed in the league.

Conversely, the Wizards had to defend the P&R roll man 406 times and fared slightly better in the PPP department.

As you can imagine, the roll-man in a P&R is usually getting better looks at the basket. The Wizards allowed the roll man to score 49% of the time while shooting 49.5%. However, the one (1) PPP given up to roll-men ranks 7th lowest in the NBA. Read more »

{via Ball Don’t Lie}

LeBron James likes wearing his own name-bearing shoes that fuel his ego. He wears MVP shoes. He wears New York Yankees shoes.

One upon a time Mike Miller wore LeBron James shoes to practice. This created a minor hubbub in Wizards Nation. In hindsight, the blog-worthy occurrence was probably a distraction. Not a distraction that amounted to much, but when added to everything else … exactly.

Sure, team captains Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler chimed in about not liking it. But DeShawn Stevenson … Mister 50/50, I Can’t Feel My Face … the Wizards’ protagonist in their rivalry with the Cavaliers (or antagonist depending on what side you’re on) … was the most vocal about Miller’s shoe selection, drawing scorn for his antics.

Of course, those were the days when the rivalry still had very faint signs of life. It’s over now. DeShawn Stevenson said so. Well, DeShawn in the past talking about a once unimaginable future.

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Pictures of people at the club flipping the camera off seems to be popular these days, especially among athletes. And this picture of Andray Blatche at his season ending party last Wednesday at District in Adam’s Morgan is wrought with symbolic opportunity.

For one, he appears to be brushing (or hiding) his teeth with that middle-finger of his — any 23-year old will tell you that having braces at that age, as Blatche does, isn’t exactly ideal.

Or maybe the finger is in front of Dray’s mouth as a silencer on what he has said or will say.

Or perhaps Dray is just expressing toward the Wizards’ 2009-10 season in its entirety what I’ve done mentally several times before … bidding it a fond farewell. Read more »

Now that the franchise worst 16-game losing streak has departed, it’s time to remember the players who have departed the Wizards this season — via trade or release, not suspension or injury, and only those who actually received minutes.

Below you will find portraits of the departed along with their story from the night pictured and a video clip of a selected quote. Enjoy … I think.

{DeShawn Stevenson}

Depart Date: February 13, 2010

On Halloween Night after the Wizards defeated the New Jersey Nets 123-104 in their home opener, pushing their record to 2-1, (the only time it would be better than .500 this season), Stevenson spoke about how, unlike last season, everybody now wants tickets to Wizards games and that he wasn’t going to dress up for All Hallows Eve.

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Quinton Ross has a player option for $1,146,337 million next season. I’m sure some Wizards fan out there don’t want him to take it. Get over it. He probably will.

But yea, Ross is bad … well, at least his stats are, which certainly serve as a partial reflection of his abilities as a player, but are incapable of telling the whole story … such as his reputation for being a good defensive player, which can certainly be debated.

Leading up to Saturday’s game against the Jazz, in Ross’ 19 games and 193 minutes with the Wizards he had a PER of -0.3.

On Saturday, taking and making one shot, along with committing a single foul in five minutes of action pushed his PER with the Wizards into positive territory at 0.1.

Bless his heart. But I’d definitely rather Ross than Stevenson. He’s easier to tolerate, if you will … and kinda less hideous to look at.

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Crittenton most definitely on the trade block

The Washington Post’s Michael Lee first tweeted almost a week ago, “Interesting angle w/Crittenton suspension. He could become a viable/valuable trade chip by Feb. 18 since a team won’t have to pay him.”

And we figured as much since the previous day, in his press conference addressing the Arenas/Crittenton suspensions for the rest of the year, Ernie Grunfeld indicated that there were no restrictions in discussing a trade of either with another team.

On late Tuesday, ESPN’s Chris Sheridan reported the same thing, with a couple more details.

#FreeMikeJames

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For the hell of it, here are some locker room portraits from before and after Monday’s game against Portland. And below the jump, some must-read links that you should check out.

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Well, the Wizards lost again on Sunday, nothing new. Thing is, they actually looked decent, as they did on Friday, but shot themselves in the foot, if you will, with 19 turnovers. By the way, go read this interesting piece on True Hoop regarding the NBA and gun-play analogies.

Stepping back, it’s still hard to fathom how surreal the deplorable state of the franchise is. Whether it’s Gun-Gate related or not, every day more of the shit show emerges from the sewers, literally. Tales of Gilbert Arenas taking a dump in the shoe of Andray Blatche … I mean Christ, how immature can you get?

Let’s see, what else? Caron Butler, while off games are okay, is still a quandary — hey, Caron wanted to be “the man” and then got all sad with his second fiddle when Arenas returned, but now that Arenas is gone again …

Of course, unfortunately it seems that Caron’s definition of being “the man” involves taking bad shots and halting ball movement. I don’t mean to unfairly pick on Butler, but again, for someone who all but rested his laurels on defensive improvement before the season, it was interesting, as pointed out to me by Mike Prada of Bullets Forever, that on Friday against the Magic, Butler was matched up against Matt Barnes while the just returning Mike Miller had to take on Orlando’s big gun, Vince Carter.

Ok, what else? Well, Mike Miller is turning into Mr. Glass, aggravating his calf muscle against New Orleans on Sunday. He’s supposed to get an MRI on it Monday … and the saga of woes with the Wizards’ training staff and team doctors continues. It also says a lot that the Wizards are seemingly so dependent on Miller for ball movement (see Brendan Haywood’s quote below).

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[Note: Obviously I would have liked to post this piece pertaining to Friday night's win against the Magic, the first home game after Gilbert Arenas' suspension, before Sunday's game against the Hornets ... but life happens and time is my enemy.]

Gilbert Arenas’ corner locker sat relatively empty. A couple pairs of shoes, straightened, likely by someone other than Arenas, a rubber training/physical therapy band, and an autographed basketball card of Sam Cassell taped to the back wall were all that remained. Lonely stood the area of the locker room where the media used to congregate, waiting and salivating for Gilbert to preach in his unfiltered, matter-of-fact, unguarded superstar kind of way. Not that night. Maybe not ever again.

Before the Wizards faced the Magic on Friday evening, those around the Verizon Center spoke of Gilbert in the past tense. Understandable since the banner outside of the arena featuring Arenas was removed, his jerseys taken off shelves of souvenir stands, and his image scrubbed from promotional videos and the WashingtonWizards.com website. A dramatic reaction from the franchise or a necessary message to Arenas and fans? It’s not like Gilbert’s image was completely purged. There’s still a framed photo of Arenas in the media lounge. Several pictures of him are still prevalent on a wall collage right outside of the locker room. But I can’t help but think the actions taken were more grandstanding in mind than reason, especially when a local news station was so conveniently there to film the banner removal.

Meanwhile, in the locker room before tip-off, the scene was business as usual. Antawn Jamison was getting himself hype by dancing and signing to his ipod like he usually does. When I asked Mike Miller about his new haircut, DeShawn Stevenson jokingly chimed in, “That’s Mike,” going on about how he’s known Miller since they were teenagers, when Miller had short hair and diamonds in each ear. Stevenson also spoke of a recruiting trip he took to the University of Florida when Miller was there. He said he knew right away he didn’t want to go there because Billy Donovan, whom he described as “strict as a [blank],” made him run suicide drills as a high school senior. One might chuckle, thinking Stevenson could have used some structure in his life back then, but that’s the past and I’m not here to judge … at least this time. Other Wizards were going through their usual routine, getting ready to do their job and play the game they love. The scene was less somber than what I expected, if at all.

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Brendan Haywood

On needing a win …

“We’ve dug a hole enough, one that seems like it’s too big, but it’s not because we’re going to keep fighting, we going to keep chipping away, and hopefully we’re going to make this playoff push.”

Mike Miller

On passing instead of shooting …

“Believe me, I hear the fans telling me to shoot more, whatever, but you know what? Passing the ball and getting the ball poppin’ is something that when you see gets going, it’s like a domino effect. Once it gets poppin’, if you saw tonight, we got it going early, and now everyone wants to do it. And it’s fun basketball. That’s how you’re supposed to play and it’s fun to win.”

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In my initial Wizards-Pacers game post, I was completely remiss in not mentioning the foul with 0.5 seconds which gave Mike Dunleavy the game winning free-throws.

In his post-game interview, Brendan Haywood cited the defense allowing Earl Watson and Tyler Hansbrough to do whatever they wanted in preceding key possessions as one of the main causes of defeat (along with a horrendous second quarter), but I got the feeling that most everyone on the team felt they got cheated out of a win because an unjust foul was called.

Is that so?

“The call … I looked at it ten times, that call at the end. They called the foul on Brendan Haywood. If the foul was called on Brendan Haywood, the game was over … so that was a bad call.” -Flip Saunders

“Uh … yea … the score says they won, but you know …” -Antawn Jamison

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{flickr/Coast Guard BM}

The Wizards are in Miami tonight for a rematch with Dwyane Wade and the rest of whomever he plays with.

The sense of urgency is elevated. Yea, yea … it’s early. But considering where things stand, tonight’s game and how the Wizards respond to their self-induced and injury-induced adversity is much more important at a record of 2-5 than if the Wizards were, say, 4-3 and still learning how to play with each other.

Tonight’s Goals:

#1: Activate the offense.

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