Truth About It.net will turn a whole five years old at the end of this October.

Hard to believe/interesting. Nonetheless, over the life of the site from the 2007-08 season to 2011-12, we’ve seen/lived/suffered through 131 wins, 263 losses, four coaches, two owners, one GM/team president, one Phil Chenier mustache removal, and 56 total players (amazingly, 48 players over the last three seasons).

You may have heard of ESPN’s #NBArank project, now in year two. Now hear of#WizardsRank, where we rank each of those 56 players during Truth About It.net’s five-year run.

TAI anonymously polled 27 members of the Wizards pixel establishment — from mainstream media to new media, TAI staffers included, to a few pixel consumers (readers of the site) — and got 17 responses.

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On Saturday, December 10, the Washington Wizards went through their second day of training camp, fielding an incomplete roster of 16 invitees. Ronny Turiaf was acquired, but had yet to arrive; Hamady N’diaye was signed the next day, Sunday; and the statuses of Nick Young and Maurice Evans continued to be in limbo. The media was given access to the very latter portion of the day’s work, past 8 pm on a Saturday evening in Chinatown as the Wizards prepared for their first NBA basketball game action since April 13, a preseason match this Friday, December 16 against the Philadelphia 76ers in Washington.

The session open to media on the Verizon Center practice court involved two small sets of scrimmaging. One pitted a White team of John Wall (#2), Jordan Crawford (#15), Rashard Lewis (#9), Andray Blatche (#7), and Kevin Seraphin (#13) versus a Blue team of Mike Wilks (#29), Mardy Collins (no number), Larry Owens (#32), Aaron Petway (#52), and JaVale McGee (#34). The second featured a white team of Wall, Roger Mason Jr. (#8), Owens, Blatche, and Petway versus a Blue team of Shelvin Mack (#22), Crawford, Lewis, Jan Vesely (#24), and Chris Singleton (#31).

Things you will see in the video below (in relative order of appearance):

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When news of the Gilbert Arenas-Rashard Lewis trade broke, it was received with a groan. The less-than-enthusiastic reception of the 31-year-old Lewis wasn’t so much a public damnation of his basketball abilities, nor an uninterested dismissal of his more intangible, clichéd qualities – veteran leadership, for instance. No, it was the result of a city, of a fanbase, coming to grips with the end of an era.

The Washington Wizards traded away their (cult) hero, and all they got in return was a “lousy” stretch four.

Just a week before Christmas, Lewis arrived in the nation’s capital with his long frame, his long contract, and his long face. Rough. Nick Young—by way of Gilbert Arenas’ interview with ESPN’s Michael Wallace—made Lewis’ first impressions public:

“He was telling me about Rashard Lewis. Nick was like, ‘I don’t know if he’s going to make it two weeks here. He feels like the world just ended.’ “

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[John Wall before the tip-off.]

People will say that the Atlanta Hawks lost to the Washington Wizards on Saturday night because they were without Josh Smith. Because they were unmotivated against a free-flying Wizards team with their playoff seeding already set. A date as the five seed going to Orlando to play the Magic awaits the Hawks in the first round, but did they have to get blown out by the Wiz Kids 115-83?

Regardless of Atlanta’s effortless situation, the Wizards countered with one of their best team defensive displays of the season, turning 23 Hawks turnovers into 27 points, partially thanks to 11 steals. And as the Washington Post’s Michael Lee has written, much credit is due to D-Leaguers Larry Owens and Othyus Jeffers — Owens putting in 10 points off the bench and Jeffers scoring 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. The energy of on-the-cusp players has made some of the more contractually secure Wizards not take their situation for granted.

Jeffers’ contagious explosion of hustle shouldn’t be taken for granted for the next training camp the Wizards hold either. He, along with Andray Blatche, were big reasons why the Wizards got off to a 29-18 jump on Atlanta after one quarter. Blatche worked Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia to the tune of nine points, five rebounds and 3-4 from the free throw line in the period. And Jeffers picked up two boards, one offensive, and 3-4 at the charity stripe in six and a half minutes off the bench. The disinterest of Atlanta was especially evident when they allowed Yi Jianlian to counter Jamal Crawford’s 11 points in the second quarter with 10 of his own. Washington led 61-46 at half.

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