Detroit Skyline – flickr/Joseph.S

If the Wizards would’ve shot better that 37% against New Jersey, they would have won, right? Yea…..who knows. When it comes to winning and basketball, no two areas are preached more about than defense and rebounding, no matter what pulpit the message is coming from. So against the Pistons, for game blog purposes, I’m going to ignore the offense and concentrate on defense and rebounding. Not all boards are attainable, and you can play great defense and not stop a bulk of an opponent’s shots from going in. That being said, I’m going to attempt to selectively focus on the particularly great or horrendous occurrences in those areas.

Q1

10:48: Ron Thompson mentioned that transition D would be key in the pregame show…here, Billups brings it down the middle in off a Wizards turnover (Etan had great position in the lane, just lost the ball). Amir Johnson comes to screen Antonio Daniels just inside the three point line. Jamison is laying back a little to protect the basket, but there’s just too much space, AJ needs to be closer to help on Chauncey. Billups takes one dribble off the screen and gets an easy jumper on the left elbow. Johnson’s screen was semi-illegal….but this is the NBA. 4-0 Detroit.

10:23: Next time down, Amir Johnson gets called for an illegal screen…..laid his butt into DeShawn.

Read more »

Team Name: The Washington Bullets/Wizards
Last Years Record: 43-39
Key Losses: Roger Mason, Jr. (free agency to Spurs)
Key Additions: Dee Brown, Juan Dixon (free-agents), and JaVale McGee (drafted out of Nevada)

1. What significant moves were made during the offseason?

The Wizards re-signed both Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison to big contracts……controversial among some, but I was more than happy to have them back at whatever the cost. I’d rather take my chances on hope with them than dealing with a greater uncertainty without them.

Gone is hometown hero, Roger Mason Junior, who played his way to a nice contract with the Spurs in filling in for an injured Gilbert Arenas last season. Many fans, myself included, wanted to keep him, but the Wizards just couldn’t afford 2-years and $7.3 million while staying out of luxury tax territory.

Added is Juan Dixon, who is supposed to fill in for an injured Arenas this year, quick PG Dee Brown all the way from Turkey, and young JaVale McGee, “The Choppa”, via the NBA draft. I’m hoping that Dixon and Brown, as a two-headed monster, will better replace what the Wizards lost in Mason. I’ll admit that I wasn’t exactly thrilled when Ernie Grunfeld took McGee on draft night (I wanted Mario Chalmers), but I’ve flipped a 180 due to McGee’s preseason play….another reason to trust Grunfeld, The Closer.

Read more »

photo from washingtonwizards.com

I suppose people, myself included, can’t exactly help themselves when a team jettisons two guys named ‘Johnson’ from its roster. The official Washington Wizards blog treated the happening as if naming a law firm (or health care products/pharmaceuticals company) with the title, “Wiz Waive Johnson and Johnson.” Wizards Insider, usually run by the Washington Post’s Ivan Carter and Michael Lee, went the safe route with, “Wizards Release Two.” Someone named Alexa Steele filled in for Carter and Lee on this specific post….I guess when you have what sounds like a porn name already, you might want to avoid sexual innuendos by spitting out Johnson, the word. But alas, Mike Jones of the Washington Times ‘went there’ with his title, “Wizards Cut Johnsons.” C’mon Mike….don’t you know that Johnsons would rather be released than cut?

Ok…enough of that, back to the point at hand. Two positions of need assumed by Wizards fans this past offseason, before Gilbert Arenas went down, were a small forward to backup Caron Butler, and a third string point guard. After Dee Brown was signed, along with the summer league developments of Dominic McGuire’s mid-range jumper, the school of thought was that the former player would fill the latter position of need and vice versa. Working off these assumptions, Ernie Grunfeld would hold the 15th roster spot in a glass encased box to be broken in case of emergency.

Then Gilbert Arenas happened…..then Brendan Haywood happened….Haywood’s wrist surgery not having a greater influence over roster moves, as the Wizards seemingly had a logjam at the post position (Etan, Oily, ‘Dray, JaVale and Jamison — hey, that sounds like a MotheringHut t-shirt…..just remember where you heard it first).

Read more »

photo from washingtonwizards.com

Ok, so Jamison isn’t exactly chewing on a straw a la Tuff Juice in the photo above….it appears to be a mouth piece. But it’s safe to say, the team better be following the actions and listening to the words of the guy with a teeth-marked plastic straw in his mouth.

The Pradamaster already did a Wizards link dump over at Bullets Forever. Now, I’d like to get in on the action with some linkage diarrhea…..gotta give good content across the world wide web its proper due…..not that the below links are bad like the collywobbles, but they sure are juicy.

————————–

Speaking of Tuff Juice, Tom Knott has a column about the guy, “Wizards getting more than they bargained,” at The Washington Times. Read more »

Who will be the main factor at point guard for the Washington Wizards?
While there are a number of candidates from various positions who can need to step up in the absence of Gilbert Arenas (Andray Blatche and Nick Young come to mind), the Wizards will need someone to be a factor at point guard and initiate Eddie Jordan’s offense.

photo from washingtonwizards.com

The Candidates: Antonio Daniels, Dee Brown, Juan Dixon, DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young

Antonio Daniels: Hey, did you guys know that Antonio Daniels is getting older? Ok…so the fact that he turns 33 in March should go without saying. Last season, AD averaged the most minutes in his career, 30.4, because he had to step in as the starter for an absent Gilbert Arenas. This simply cannot continue. Not that Antonio isn’t up to the task. I’ll say it time and time again, the guy is a gamer. However, the fact that he puts his body on this line so much compounds the issue and highlights that he should receive less time on the court, if anything, to keep him healthy for the season. Antonio can’t help the way he plays. We know he’s not a shooter, he knows he’s not a shooter….but he’s got to make the defense aware of him offensively in some manner, and he does that with kamikaze drives to the hoop.

Read more »

photobucket – TheCoolest404

I’m not sure if Ernie Grunfeld is good at chess, but when it comes to generally managing an NBA franchise, he has a knack for moving around pawns for the benefit of the program (not to trivialize the fill-in pieces which are crucial to a team’s end of the bench by calling them ‘pawns’).

A Michael Ruffin here (yea, he was the definition of a role player, but always did what was expected of him….well, except for this of course – Best game ever as a Wizard? Game 1 of the 04-05 season when Ruffin pulled down 11 boards, scored 6 points, and blocked 7 shots in a win at Memphis….to say the Wizards were short-handed that night would be an understatement: Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, and Steve Blake were on the injured list; Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, Brendan Haywood an Anthony Peeler were all suspended from a pre-season fight with the Chicago Bulls)….Note: The Memphis game was also Antawn Jamison’s first game as a Wizard – 45 minutes, 34 points, 8 rebounds.

Read more »

When the Washington Wizards decided to pick up the third-year option on Coach Eddie Jordan’s current contract, extending him through the 2009-2010 season, I thought, “Well, that’s a little random.”

There have been questions about Jordan’s status from year to year…..whether it be general disapproval from fans, the fact that he wasn’t an ‘Ernie Grunfeld’ selection, or that Jordan’s hand-picked assistants were only renewed on a year-to-year basis.

I’ve been a staunch supporter of Jordan. Sure there are issues, as I outlined in his evaluation. But I factor in his DC resume, and an appreciation that for the last four years, I haven’t had to cross my fingers when ping-pong balls start mixing in late May.

But in terms of the timing, I was perplexed as Prada at Bullets Forever….why now? Perhaps my curiosity was more the result of surprise at the unexpectedness of the re-up. But after further pondering, it was a good move by GM Ernie Grunfeld and Owner Abe Pollin.

Read more »