Andray Blatche pounded his chest as he strutted off the practice court at training camp Wednesday evening, mean mugging and dripping with sweat.

“That’s one, that’s one, Dray,” shouted assistant coach Gene Banks from under one of the main baskets. “You’ve got one more!”

Banks was overseeing a heavyweight battle between Blatche and second-year bruiser Kevin Seraphin, and tried to persuade him to run it back for a best-of-three series. Blatche, unconvinced, waved a flippant hand in the direction of his coach before proclaiming, “I won. I just won. Gosh!”

It was surprising to see from a player who has reportedly stepped into a leadership role. To be fair to Blatche, however, he definitely got the better of Seraphin, and the scene described above was probably nothing more than an unflattering training camp snapshot. Surely, it can’t be indicative of his approach to the 2011-12 season; not when trainers, players and coaches are all singing the same tune — the big guy is poised to have a breakout season. And yet I wonder: are we still watching the Blatche of Christmas past?

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 Commentary, links, and other things that might be of interest…

[Miles Rawls, commissioner of D.C.'s Goodman League, hopes his boys backup the trash talk against opponents from L.A.'s Drew League this Saturday.]

Well, it’s just about here… the highly anticipated matchup between out-of-work NBAers (and others) from the East to the West. Capital Punishment, to be held at D.C.’s Trinity University, will pit the Goodman League versus the Drew League on Saturday evening. Yea, I know, you’ve heard about it. I’ll be there. Lots of people will be there. In fact, Trinity could be an aboslute circus, but what would this whole event be without one?

Beckley Mason did a great profile of Goodman League commissioner Miles Rawls (the above photo of Rawls that I took accompanies his piece from the ESPN.com NBA home page).
[TrueHoop]

I read Matt Moore a fair bit. He’s one of my favs on the Internet, although perhaps because I’ve met him, but I also have and have not met a lot of NBA-writing cats. Either way, this blurb from him regarding Kobe’s 4543 points and a game-winning shot at the Drew League struck me as particularly funny.
[Eye On Basketball]

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[Editor's Note: TAI's Adam McGinnis takes us back to his photos from 'Under the Hoop' when the Milwaukee Bucks were in D.C. on March 8.]

The Opening Tip.

Bucks Warm Up.

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After Tuesday’s practice adjourned, and before the Wiz Kids headed to Orlando, Hilton Armstrong, Kevin Seraphin and Andray Blatche got in some extra work, battling each other with pseudo post-moves under the supervision of assistant coach Gene Banks.

It’s hard to notice (via the video quality of a Flip Cam), but Blatche was hamming it up a bit from the get-go, looking at the camera, etc. So Armstrong and Serphin followed suit a couple times. It was all in good fun … and they are all kids (Armstrong will turn 26 at the end of November, Blatche turned 24 at the end of August and Seraphin will turn 21 in early December).

Still, one sometimes can’t help but feel that, speaking specifically about Blatche, he has a very long way to go until he’s looked upon as a team leader with any amount of seriousness. And I’m not really drawing from this instance of post-practice post-work, but rather from my complete observations regarding the serious nature in which he operates, or lack thereof.

Again, the guy is just 24, albeit, a 24 year-old who still protests about running as a result of end-of-practice particulars, etc. (again, not completely conveyed in the video). In the end, a rebuilding team has time … you just wonder how much patience. Fortunately, there is also plenty of time for that patience to be tested … mainly by Messrs. Arenas and Blatche. Gentlemen, do your best.

The atmosphere around the Verizon Center practice court was light and playful for once, and the Wizards players and coaching staff looked completely at ease.  John Wall and Gilbert Arenas shared jokes while shooting free throws. Kevin Seraphin worked on his post moves with Gene Banks, trading jokes at the same time. Even the normally stoic Yi Jianlian could be seen cracking a smile while shooting free throws with JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche.

There was no talk about Arenas, his beard, his smile or his behavior, no visible residual sadness regarding the departures of Sean Marks and Adam Morrison, and no lingering effects from the loss in Detroit two nights earlier.

Earlier in the day, John Wall, Andray Blatche, Josh Howard, Nick Young,  Hamady Ndiaye, Trevor Booker, members of the Wizards coaching staff as well as front office personnel, hosted a “Salute to the Stars” in honor of NBA Cares Week of Service.  The Wizards staff served 200 combat veterans as well as wounded men and woman from various branches of the military.  Josh Howard commented on how the event went:

“Soldiers give back to us all the time, so its nice to see the Wizards along with Morton’s [Steakhouse] come together and NBA Cares as well. It’s a great organization…”

In terms of how practice went, what the preparation will be for the next week until the opener against the Orlando Magic, and why Morrison and Marks fell short of making the team, Flip Saunders handled that.

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Marc Gasol Air Fist.

{keep going for more pictures}

I’ve recently taken to shooting some pictures of early pre-game warm-ups for both the Wizards and their opponent. As I arrived to the court last night, I saw the Wizards’ new guys going through various drills with assistant coach Wes Unseld, Jr. A couple shots of newcomer Mike Harris were a priority, so I did so. But then I glanced to the big man drills on the other end … them dudes were big. And Baby Head Zach Randolph wasn’t even present.

Marc Gasol, Hamaed Haddadi and Hasheem Thabeet out-weight the trio of JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and James Singleton by 67 points.

Note: I’m got player weight info from each team’s official NBA.com rosters, but I’m skeptical that McGee weighs 252, a listed four more pounds than Blatche and the “heaviest” guy on the Wizards.

I was afraid of Memphis’ big going in, even as they were coming off a tough loss to the Lakers the previous night. Part of me genuinely feared for JaVale McGee’s life.

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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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