Posts tagged ‘john hollinger’

ShareBullets… links, commentary, irreverence… and the team used to be call the Bullets.

>> Chris Webber played a single season in a Wizards jersey (1997-98, the rest were a Bullets jersey), and I documented this fact by recently purchasing a replica from Joint Custody, a vintage store in D.C.’s Adams Morgan. Somebody on the Twittermachine tweeted at me that Webber was “one of the worst Bullets ever.” Not quite.

Turning to Basketball-Reference.com, narrowing down a list those who have played at least 2,500 minutes in a Bullets/Wizards uniform and then ranking them by the worst Win Shares Per 48 Minutes, these would be your 10 worst of all-time:

1. Fred Carter >> 0.11 WS/48
2. Slick Leonard >> 0.11
3. Jordan Crawford >> 0.15
4. A.J. English >> 0.17
5. Mitchell Butler >> 0.20
6. Dominic McGuire >> 0.25
7. Doug Overton >> 0.26
8. Tom Hammonds >> 0.32
9. Juan Dixon >> 0.34
10. Jarvis Hayes >> 0.37

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ShareBullets: links, commentary, etc.

[Kevin Seraphin battles with Marc Gasol.]

>> So Nene and Kevin Seraphin are done in the Olympics and are going home without hardware, as Brazil and France got taken down by Argentina and Spain respectively in their opening medal round games on Wednesday. From the Wizards perspective, both players had positive Olympic experiences, plus the team doesn’t have to worry about either getting injured now. Seraphin’s minutes were limited against Spain (6:31), perhaps to France’s detriment, but some in the Wizards organization were overall impressed with his back-to-the-basket scoring throughout the tournament. Nene didn’t play heavy minutes over the course of the Olympics (27 against Argentina after not suiting up in the previous game) and was sometimes bothered by soreness in his left foot. Were the Wizards worried? Not according to a report fromt the Washington Post’s Michael Lee:

“…the Wizards have been monitoring the injury and remain optimistic that it will not be a problem when training camp begins on Oct. 2.”

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ESPN’s John Hollinger and Chad Ford recently completed the latest edition of their ‘Future Power Rankings.’ (Found here, requires ESPN Insider). Like previous versions, they begin their rankings with the following introduction:

The Future Power Rankings are ESPN Insider’s projection of the on-court success expected for each team during the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Each of the NBA’s 30 teams received an overall Future Power Rating of 0 to 1,000, based on how well we expect each team to perform in the three seasons following this season.

In determining the Future Power Rating, Hollinger and Ford rated each team in five categories. The sum of those ratings = a team’s Future Power Rating. From the article, here is an explanation of each category: Read more »

I spent the days beginning with ‘S’ milling around Wizards training camp this past weekend. Media is only given access at the very end of practice. I basically got to see the team shoot free-throws on Saturday, and the end of situational scrimmaging on Sunday. Once practice is over, we’re allowed down on the floor for interviews. On each day, Flip Saunders was the first to come over and was very personable and gracious in answering whatever question was thrown his way. After that, we just try to catch the players as they emerge from the training room … most glad to stop and talk for several minutes, and a few opting to talk on the move as the media guys tried to keep up. No one dare approach Gilbert Arenas on either of those days lest he run away screaming, “No media, NO!,” possibly hurting himself in the process.

Unfortunately, because of some personal travel between the days, I wasn’t able to post as much as I would have liked. Below are some of my notes/observations/comments/quotes from those two days.

Previous Training Camp Posts:

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(flickr/coolgates)

There was a mini-spike in Randy Foye news last week. On Monday, after watching a video about Foye on NBA.com, I wondered if he could be ‘the’ difference maker.

On Wednesday, the WaPost’s Michael Lee put together a nice piece on Foye off his notes from a previous meeting. Here, we learned of a potential style conflict between Foye and former T-Wolves head coach, current Wizards assistant, Randy Wittman. Lee also related something Kevin McHale once told Foye before a matchup against Dwyane Wade, “Anything he can do, you can do.” Foye battled and finished with 29 points to Wade’s 31. The game came down to a last second foul call that Foye did not get … Wade probably would have.

Predating Wade-Foye comparisons, looking back into John Hollinger’s vault, we find Foye associated with Vinny Del Negro. Before he was drafted in ’06, ESPN compared Foye to Ben Gordon, while NBADraft.net to Chauncey Billups. But it was DraftExpress FTL … in their ‘best’ case, Randy Foye is Mike James; worst case, Juan Dixon. Yuck.

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I was on a break outside the other day, catching some fresh Penn Quarter air, taking a stroll around Freedom Plaza, when this little kid came up to me, and said, “Hey Mister … don’t you know that the Wizards need another big man? Haywood, Jamison, Blatche, McGee, and McGuire aren’t going to cut it.”

“Easy lil’ fella,” I told him. “We’ll keep looking around to see if we can add someone else, but we feel comfortable about what we have currently and the depth of our ballclub.”

The kid then kicked me in the shin and ran away.

I suddenly woke up from my slumber and realized those weren’t my words, those were Ernie Grunfeld’s words. I had a mission …

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