In the midst of training camp, just three days since it commenced, four days until the first preseason game, and exactly two weeks until the beginning of the regular season, the Washington Wizards are running toward the beginning.
Rashad Mobley, John C. Townsend and I represented Truth About It.net in an ESPN 5-on-5 regarding the Wizards today. Along with Brett Koremenos of HoopSpeak.com and Mike Wallace of ESPN.com, we attempted to answer five questions:
- For which Wizards player is the 2011-12 season most important?
- Who is the most intriguing player on the Wizards’ roster?
- What’s the most surprising take in John Hollinger’s Wizards profiles?
- Based on Hollinger’s profiles, what do the Wizards need most?
- Will a shortened season help or hurt the Wizards?
Click here to read the ESPN.com 5-on-5 about the Wizards, and then vote in the poll below for which player has the most important upcoming season.
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Media Day had your easy preconceived story lines with the NBA’s top draft pick, John Wall, the return of Gilbert Arenas from suspension, the new veteran acquisitions and the youth movement of draft picks. Then a bearded, visibly disinterested Arenas entered the Wizards practice court and proceeded to act like getting his picture taken was like being subjected to a Twilight movie marathon. After his photo session concluded, Arenas politely declined to answer standard profile questions from a team official and huddled with Wizards public relations staff before mumbling stoic answers in a pretty pointless three minute media interview session.
Suddenly, a new media day theme had emerged: “Why is Gil so serious?”
The Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg coined Arenas’s media day persona as “Emo Gilbert,” and I piggybacked that with “Sullen Emo Gil” on my video recap.
Here is the definition of “Emo Girl” via Urban Dictionary:
“an emo girl is a 15-17 yr old or older who loves being dark and girly at the same time but is mostly drawn towards the tomboy side, she loves any music that expresses her and she is arrogant on the outside but on the inside she is weak and crambling and tries to hide her insecurity about herself and her looks by black eye makeup and her attitude”
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{flickr/Wootang01}
Ted Leonsis is pleased as punch with the Yi Jianlian acquisition (or a juice box — the above picture evidently advertises juice, and not milk). Can’t blame him too much … although, there is certainly reason to be skeptical of Yi. I do think he will be a pleasant surprise. It just all depends on your baseline standards for being surprised.
In linking Michael Lee’s Sunday story about Yi in the Washington Post on his blog, Ted’s Take, Leonsis writes:
He is 7 feet tall. He is fast. He is talented. He is still developing.
He will toughen up through international play. He can shoot the ball.
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Don’t blame Randy Foye.
He already made it, so he doesn’t have to worry about you, or me, thinking he’s not good enough to cut it. Randy Foye is an NBA player and the league is his oyster … sort of.
Right now, he doesn’t have discretion to go where he pleases … a situation which would probably suit him best. His fate is in the hands of the Wizards. They can elect not to extend Foye, who is at the end of his rookie contract, a qualifying offer ($4.8 million for ’10-11), thus making him an unrestricted free-agent.
Or, they can extend the offer, whereas Foye becomes a restricted free-agent of the Wizards. If he doesn’t receive a longer-term offer from another team, which the Wizards could match, or an offer from the Wizards themselves, he’d end up in D.C. for one season at that $4.8 price and would be an unrestricted free-agent in the Summer of 2011.
I’ve mostly assumed that Ernie Grunfeld will not extend a qualifying offer to Foye. Randy thinks he’s a point guard. Flip Saunders would probably tell you otherwise. Him taking up salary and a roster spot might not be necessary. Simple as that.
On the other hand, you must wonder if Grunfeld will be determined to retain some value from the fifth pick he sent to Minnesota last Summer, along with Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas and Oleksiy Pecherov, in exchange for Foye and Mike Miller — and let’s face it folks, Miller is as good as gone from Washington.
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We’ve seen Shaun Livingston throw down some surprising dunks since he joined the Wizards. I’m not even sure the double-clutch two-hander he threw down against Pau Gasol and the Lakers (posted below) is his best one. No matter how much I now know he is okay, I still cringe every time I see him slip at the end … because of the whole injury thing. I thought Livingston’s dunk against the Jazz was better (also below).
But did you see that shot Livingston hit over Dwight Howard? To put it simply, it was sweet … some Dwyane Wade/Michael Jordan (but taller and skinnier) type stuff. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to become too familiar with Shaun’s game before his devastating knee injury, but I’m glad I’ve got a chance to see his skills as a Wizard since.
Let’s pause for a second to check out that shot over Dwight Howard: [another angle and more after the jump]
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Washington fans are used to seeing JaVale McGee do a Presidential salute after dunks, a celebratory tradition that originated when President Barack Obama came to see his hometown Chicago Bulls play, and lose, to the Wizards at the Verizon Center on February 27, 2009.
On Sunday against the Celtics, McGee unveiled a new dunk celebration …
The Fish Out of Water.
Now if he could just stop behaving like a fresh fish.
On to your links…
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