ShareBullets = links and random tid-bits.

This old NBA Skybox card features Zarko Paspalj, who delightfully reminds me of Hans Klopek from the movie The Burbs. Zarko only appeared in 28 career NBA games, all with the San Antonio Spurs, so his relevance to the Wizards/Bullets is zilch. However, Zarko’s Wikipedia entry is one of delight. Namely, it points to a 2006 article from the San Antonio Express-News, which can now be found here. In being part of the inital wave of Eastern European talent to NBA, Zarko, in one of his early interviews, expressed his love for Pizza Hut and Marlboros. Classic enough as that may be, the Express-News article also relayed that when Spurs officials went to clean out the townhouse rented for Zarko, they found two pieces of furniture: a bed and a pool table — the place comfortably tied together with the smell of smoke instead of rugs. This guy could’ve been a blog star, probably would’ve extended his NBA career. Then again, likely not.

But as this pertains to the Washington Wizards, here’s to hoping that this collection of supreme basketball-playing structures has enhanced their eating habits over this past summer, as they relate to basketball performance. Athletes need calories, but they don’t always need bad calories. I’ve overhead players several times in locker rooms talk about getting greasy, fried food after workouts. Andray Blatche himself has revelad that he hasn’t always eaten lunch on gamedays and how that might affect his energy. And of course, there was that semi-infamous story in the Washington Post about John Wall, which included revelations of his pantry of junk food. Ted Leonsis was quick to say thereafter that the Wizards hired a personal chef for Wall, but he can’t  be the papa-bear for his players all the time.

I’m sure all the culinary details will be attended to by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, but nonetheless, as we hope for a lot of things going into this season, aside from wins and development (such as free throws!), here’s to also hoping that there is no Pizza Hut and Marlboros with Zarko in the future of the Wiz Kids.

Scheduling Notes & Training Camp.

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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.

2/3/95
Washington suspended Kevin Duckworth for 3 games for not staying in good physical condition.

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It’s struck me as odd when recently, before being traded to Orlando, Gilbert Arenas deferred to Josh Howard as a more vocal leader on the Wizards than him. Yes, the same Josh Howard whose past record will almost cause more scoffs than Arenas’ … the same Josh Howard who has played all of five games in a Wizards uniform since arriving via trade back in February, compared to Arenas, who appeared in 357 total regular season games with the franchise since being signed to D.C. by Ernie Grunfeld in August of 2003.

After a home game against the New York Knicks on December 10, Arenas was asked about the then forthcoming return of Howard.

“It’s going to help more in the locker room and on the bench because, you know, he has a strong voice. You know, I usually don’t say anything, but he’s more of a vocal person. So when we have those lulls like we did in the third [against the Knicks], he’s going to speak up,” he said.

When I asked Howard about needing to fill the role of vocal leader after the Miami game on Saturday, he said, “It’s different for me. I mean, I haven’t did this in a long time as far as college, and I led by example in Dallas as far as my play on the court. As far as being vocal, I have to remind myself that I can speak.”

After getting past your digestion of Arenas’ claims that he usually doesn’t say anything, move on to the leadership conundrum. Back when Eddie Jordan was the Wizards’ coach, it seemed, and validly so, that he didn’t see Arenas as a team leader. Stories later mutated with one side saying he never wanted to be a leader and the other saying that a certain subject didn’t want to lead. Or vice versa. The story could never get itself straight.

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The Wizards are what we thought they were. They also showed a side that we didn’t imagine them to be. Or perhaps naively didn’t consider.

The goal over the summer was to get bigger, tougher … in comes Kevin Seraphin and Trevor Booker via the draft. Unfortunately, the rest of the front-line is much too frail. Of course, that was magnified by the juggernaut Magic, but frail in every sense nonetheless.

And it was evident that the team was short of shooters coming into the season, again, magnified without Gilbert Arenas for the opener. The following charts express long distance experience coming into 2010-11:

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I’ve written about Caron Butler and Josh Howard being different players off the court. But what about on the court? To get the best perspective, I turned to Rob Mahoney of the ESPN TrueHoop Network Dallas Mavericks blog, The Two Man Game. In addition to his Mavs blog, Rob does great work all over the internet, including his contributions to Hardwood Paroxysm and NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk.

Below is the question I asked Rob about Howard and his answer, and then my response to his question about Butler.

Tell me about Josh Howard. I know about all of his off-court stuff. I know about some of his “can’t control what the ball do” statements regarding on-court stuff. I know about a debate between you and Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com over whether Cuban and the Mavs were coddling/babying Howard too much. Any other reasons why Howard fell so far from grace in Dallas? Did you get any indication that he was a disturbance in the locker room? Or can his down year mostly be attributed to injury issues? The Wizards likely see J-Ho as just an expiring contract, but he certainly will play. How healthy is he now? How motivated do you think he will be to contribute to his new, yet very, very bad, team?

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Howard’s decline has been truly bizarre. From 2005-2007, Josh was a rock; he ignited the Mavs’ offense in the first quarter, played solid perimeter defense, and showed tremendous versatility in terms of scoring the ball. It looked as though Dallas had come away with a complete steal with the 29th pick in the 2003 draft, and Josh was named an All-Star in ’07 to commemorate his rise. But Howard was injured virtually throughout the ’07-’08 season, and even when he returned to action for the Mavs, he was visibly limited.

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In anticipation of tonight’s Wizards game against the 76ers in Philadelphia, I exchanged some questions with Carey Smith of Philadunkia, the ESPN TrueHoop Network Sixers blog.

I answered a question from Carey about the Wizards’ struggles in general, and attempted to encapsulate the season’s problems in a nutshell. I also answered a question about Eddie Jordan and defense, which I spoke with the coach about when the Sixers played in D.C. on December 22nd.

Head over to Philadunkia to read my answers. Carey’s answers to my questions are below.

(TAI) — How is Elton Brand coming along? Has he overcome his slow start? Is he ultimately better coming off the bench?

(Philadunkia) — Brand has been a beast lately — three double-doubles in December and one near miss (25 & 9); 18 & 6 per over his last 4 games –, so I would say yes he has overcome what many perceive to be a slow start. If Eddie Jordan would just play him more and maybe call the occasional set play for #42, I’d bet that Brand would really fill up the stat sheet.

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Flip Saunders didn’t care about Tuesday night’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Well, not like he didn’t care, care. If you ask him, I’m sure he’ll tell you that he was damn glad to have a ‘W’ notched in the record book. The win wasn’t even one of those ‘whew, that was a close one, glad we came out on top’ victories of relief for the coach.

No, the Wizards’ 105-98 win over Eddie Jordan’s Sixers was more like a ‘Dammit, I’m still pissed that I had to sub all five of my starters out en masse with eight minutes left in the third quarter just to motivate this frickin’ 8-17 team’ type of night for Saunders.

After the game, I asked Saunders about that magic moment when he subbed Earl Boykins, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Andray Blatche and Fabricio Oberto all at once for Gilbert Arenas, Randy Foye, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood after watching his starters commit three turnovers and three fouls on their way to getting outscored 12-5 four minutes into the second half.

Before Saunders even answered my question, he retorted, “What did you see?”

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I got a text message from a good friend during Tuesday’s Wizards-Sixers game: “#4 is playing his a** off” — The message really came with the asterisks, he doesn’t like to cuss.

The text made me take pause. I clearly noticed Antawn Jamison’s hustle swag, but it took the words for me to fully digest the amount of playing emotion coming from the team leader. The game meant something to Jamison, and his passion dwarfed that of his teammates by far.

The dedication of The Gentleman Jamison helped overcome the fact that his team almost gave the game away, which fueled by the carelessness of Gilbert Arenas.

With 5:30 left in the game, after a Sam Dalembert bucket, Arenas tried to make a casual pass up the court to Earl Boykins … with Jrue Holiday RIGHT in the passing lane. Holiday got the easy steal, brought the ball up the court and hit a three in Arenas’ face. Five quick Philly points, 98-92 Wizards.

One minute later, Gilbert tried to drive the lane in heavy traffic. Holiday stripped him of the ball; a clean play contrary to Steve Buckhantz’s proclamation that Arenas got “clobbered.” Guess who was allowed to get a rebound tip bucket on the Sixers’ fast break … Jrue Holiday. 98-94 Wizards.

Around another minute later, the Wizards became witnesses as Philly was able to get two offensive rebounds that resulted in a Lou Williams three pointer, the ease of which was contributed to by a lack of defensive urgency from Arenas.

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{video: Arenas & Jamison on the Wizards’ struggles and facing Eddie Jordan and the Sixers}

• As you are aware, team owner Abe Pollin passed away today, which certainly sets a different tone on reporting about the game. Sad that the man had to die amidst his team’s 3-9 record and perceived bickering among the players. A ton of people spoke about Mr. Pollin before the game (including Wes Unseld, Phil Chenier, Eddie Jordan, Ernie Grunfeld, and obviously the players). I’ll have more on Mr. Pollin’s passing later.
• DeShawn Stevenson described the feeling around the locker room as a state of shock, but the mood is still to go out, play to win, and play with respect.
• Andray Blatche dedicated this game and the rest of the season to Mr. Pollin. “Whatever is holding us back, we gotta get over it for him,” he said.
• The previous storyline of tonight’s game was the return of old coach Eddie Jordan, exactly a year to the day that Jordan was fired after handing out Thanksgiving turkeys to the needy at a team sponsored event.
• A year ago I wrote this post: “The End of The Eddie Jordan Era: Say Goodbye to the Fall Guy” and this a week later.
• Tonight, at a team sponsored event after the game, the currently injured Mike Miller is scheduled to hand out turkeys in conjunction with the Wizards Care community organization.
• Spoke with DeShawn about Jordan before the game. He said their relationship was cool because Eddie gave him an opportunity to start. Stevenson said he had no problem even though some of his teammates do.
• Andray Blatche, on the other hand, said, “Eddie Jordan is not in his mindset right now,” but did express that he’d probably work a bit harder with his old coach in the house.
• Michael Lee of the WaPost has more on Jordan’s return via Wizards Insider and via Wizards Outlet, Mike Jones of the WaTimes reports on Jordan’s surprise at the Wizards’ struggles.
• You can read a pre-game Q&A I did with Philadunkia, an ESPN TrueHoop Network Sixers blog.
• The first time Jordan, as coach of the Wizards, met his previous team, the New Jersey Nets, he lost 98-85 (Nov. 1, 2003). For more on his full career, read this: “The Epic Tale of Eddie Jordan: Connections, Relationships, and the Basketball Community.”
• With all that’s going on, the Wizards really need this win.

Episode #4 of the Dagger Report (a Washington Wizards podcast) is here.

This week, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever and I talk about the ways and means of Gilbert Arenas amidst early season struggles. To join us for his conversation, which was recorded on Sunday evening, is Jake Whitacre, contributing editor at Bullets Forever and managing proprietor of Gilbertology.net.

The second segment, recorded on Saturday afternoon, features Jordan Sams of SB Nation’s 76ers blog, Liberty Ballers. Here, we discuss Eddie Jordan’s first year in Philly and the troubles of the Sixers (which aren’t as bad as those of the Wizards).

Enjoy.

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On Saturday from 1:30-3 pm at the Potomac Yard Best Buy in Alexandria, NBA great and Georgetown alum Eric “Sleepy” Floyd will be making an appearance. The event is in conjunction with the NBA’s relationship with HP and the launch of Windows 7. Other former NBA stars will be making appearances at Best Buys across the country … Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Los Angeles, Clyde Drexler in Houston, Earl Monroe in New York, Dominique Wilkins in Duluth, GA, B.J. Armstrong in Chicago, and a ‘TBD’ in Philadelphia. You can click here for the full schedule. There’s also a sweepstakes where you can win tickets to an NBA Playoffs or Finals game, or a new HP computer.

I’ve been invited to attend and will have a chance to speak with Sleepy. I’m sure I’ll be asking about his days in the NBA … playing in Golden State where he once scored 29 points in a quarter, playing in Houston alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, his days as a Georgetown Hoya where he still stands atop the school’s career points list (and where he was on the receiving end of a 1982 Michael Jordan NCAA title game winner), and what he’s been doing with his life since/how he’s involved with the game of basketball.

Anyone is welcome to come out from 1:30 to 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 24th. Sleepy is slated to take pictures, sign autographs, etc.. The Potomac Yard Best Buy is located at 3401 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Alexandria, VA.

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Last night’s 90-89 win against the Sixers in Philly got a bit goofy toward the end. After the game, Flip Saunders said, “That’s what they call a learning experience,” which sort of means, ‘We better not pull any of that B.S. during a regular season game.’

What exactly did Flip see? Well, let’s start with JaVale McGee.

One thing JaVale McGee CAN’T do is finger-roll

I almost knew it was going to happen when I saw McGee snag a loose ball with a tie game, around 16 seconds left, and an open court with only one man to beat.

He thought he could try to be a hero. A true WTF moment.

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Well, I started off trying to listen to the Wizards versus Hawks on DC’s 106.7 The Fan via the Internet. I heard some Randy Foye turnovers, heard him jack some threes and heard him get his shot blocked going to the rack (Foye led the NBA last season with a fifth of all of his inside shots being blocked).

I also heard the Hawks rain threes (4-4) and the Wizards turn the ball over some more (Andray Blatche had three). And this was all in the first quarter as Atlanta took a 35-18 lead.

Thankfully, technical difficulties spared me from listening to the rest as it only seemed to go downhill from there. The most telling stat(s) from the game? The Wizards’ plus/minus leaders were: Paul Davis +5, Vincent Grier +5, JaVale McGee +4, and Mike James +3.

But hey, at least the guy whose struggles I chronicled earlier on Monday had his strongest effort of the preseason. James finished with six points, four rebounds, eight assists and zero turnovers in 24 minutes.

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Economy hurting newspapers in a dying industry? Well, when Mike Jones is afforded the opportunity** the spend a couple weeks in Chicago, and thus the ability to break through Gilbert Arenas’ media silence ice, we all see why true professionals need to be around for a long time. (And honestly, they’re not going anywhere, the platform/game is just changing).

Ok, enough of the digressive spiel. Jones has put together an epic* post on Gilbert Arenas’ nameless comeback tour.

* Well, epic to Wizards fans and those dedicated to the NBA, perhaps in hope that Agent Zero will make things a little less ‘boring’, and in a sense that Arenas has been on a media hiatus for a long time, with many probably not expecting him to talk again until September 28th’s media day.

** And who are we kidding? The Washington Times plays the dark horse to The Post in D.C. — the Rev. Sun Myung Moon must be a huge Gilbert Arenas fan. This, in my opinion, is a pretty big pull for Mr. Jones … even though he is an established piece of the main stream media.

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If the Washington Wizards prefer to lie amongst the weeds and surprise everyone, a panel of 53 ESPN experts is trying to make that happen (despite the Wizards being voted by the same ESPN panel to have the biggest turnaround this upcoming season).

Tied with both Philadelphia and Toronto to achieve 39 wins, and finish seventh through ninth in the East (the averages actually break out to PHI – 39.4, WAS – 39.1, TOR – 39.0), the ESPN panel believes that the Wizards will be fighting just to make the playoffs.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix and The Wages of Wins Journal both seem to think the Wiz will be significantly better than sub-40 wins, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe some of the ESPN experts think the Wizards’ defense won’t be up to par, or that their frontcourt is too thin and they desperately need an upgrade. Of course, when Mike Prada of Bullets Forever wrote the two previously linked pieces, he had improving the team to compete for a championship in mind, not so they can solidify a playoff position. Still, both defense and frontcourt are valid areas of concern.

No one will argue that the Wizards are definitively behind Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando when trying to predict the East. And with the improvements Atlanta has made this summer, it’s even hard to put the Wiz past the Hawks. But thinking that the Heat, Bulls, and 76ers will all be better than Washington is absolutely absurd. Let’s take a glance at what those team have done this summer: Read more »