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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[The DC Council -- After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 60 contributors: Rashad Mobley (@rashad20), John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), and Kyle Weidie (@truth_about_it).]

Score

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{Wall vs. Paul - photo: K. Weidie}

I’ve been a Philadelphia Eagles for over 25 years. I’ve endured ups, downs, mediocrity and everything else associated with loving a team too much. But because I’ve lived in Washington for most of those years, and NFL League Pass is still a relatively new invention, I’ve seen more way more Redskins games than I have Eagles games — which means I saw plenty of Joe Gibbs in his heyday.

One of the staples of the Gibbs era was his ability to make halftime adjustments based on what the other team was or was not doing. Part of this ability was based on his stellar assistant coaching staff, and part of it was that Gibbs often paid attention to even the smallest of details.

New Orleans Hornets coach Monty Williams is from the Washington D.C. area (Oxon Hill, Maryland to be exact), so maybe he was somehow inspired by Gibbs last night, because his team’s second half play was key to the Hornets’ 92-81 victory.

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Happy Holidays and Happy December 24th. Whatever you’re doing today, hopefully your’e not working. And if you are, here’s to you. I’ll be kind of working … over at ESPN.com’s TrueHoop blog, I’ll be hosting the show today, kicking off the next six weekdays of various hosts from the TrueHoop Network. So throughout Friday I’ll be doing some things over there, and I’ll be doing some things over here at TAI. Thanks for stopping by.

As for the holidays … after all the feel-good stuff, one of the most important aspects of the holiday season is presents … gifts. Sure, just material goods, but also something our economy pretty much depends on. But we all know that presents are best when you enjoy giving them more than getting them.

Last year, I polled several Wizards about the favorite gift that they gave to someone else for Christmas. This year, I asked many of the players about some of the best, and worst, presents that they’ve ever received. It’s all in the video below …

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As Kyle Weidie wrote yesterday, Lester Hudson has returned to D.C. from the South for his second tour of duty with the Washington Wizards.  The injury of John Wall and the trade of Gilbert Arenas meant there was a void at the point guard position, and Hudson was a safe, logical choice.  He was with the team from the Las Vegas Summer League in July all the way up until November 22nd, when he was cut in favor of Alonzo Gee.

Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau was also a member of the Washington Wizards as an assistant coach  in 2007, albeit briefly, if you can even call it that. It was announced by the team, but never official.  Thibodeau agreed to be an assistant coach in charge of defense under then-head coach Eddie Jordan, then a few days later he stepped down and ended up with the Boston Celtics, where he was a part of  their 2007-08  championship team.  Allegedly, Thibodeau was under the impression that he would be lead assistant coach under Eddie Jordan, and when it became apparent that he would not be, he bailed.

Through the first six months of the 2009-2010 season, Hudson and Thibodeau saw each other just about every day, as the Celtics drafted Hudson in the second round of the 2009 draft. With them, he appeared in just 16 games, averaging 1.4 points in 4.4 minutes per contest.  Still, as an assistant coach, Thibodeau got a chance to watch Hudson practice and battle Rajon Rondo on a daily basis, and apparently Hudson made quite the impression.

Here were Thibodeau’s thoughts on Hudson before last night’s game:

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[Lester Hudson's first game back with the Wizards - photo: Adam McGinnis, Truth About It.net]

On December 16, Memphis native Lester Hudson Tweeted:

IM OFF TWITTER UNTIL TUESDAY GOT A BIG ANNOUCEMENT TTY THEN 66 FOLLOWERS FROM 4K RT!!!! I LOVE THIS GAME I EVEN BOUGHT A WEDDN RING RT

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A D.C. pic, links and commentary …

[Dupont Circle Metro, NW D.C. - K. Weidie]

The Wizards are going to start the season with a roster of 15 that includes Cartier Martin, Lester Hudson and Hamady N’diaye. On a developing team, this was the exact, right thing to do. Anything less would have been uncivilized. And if it happens where the Wizards need an extra roster spot to complete an unbalanced trade, I’m sure something can be figured out when and if the team reaches that juncture.
[Wizards Insider]

So Gilbert Arenas shaved his beard. For the record, I think Beards > Long pointy sideburns.
[Gilbertology]

Michael Lee has another good player profile, this time on Kevin Seraphin, which includes a funny quote from someone familiar with the French speaker, Rodrigue Beaubois of the Dallas Mavericks. Beaubois says, “He’s a beast. Physically, he’s amazing. He’s very strong. He’s a big baby, that’s for sure. I really think he’s going to be good for [the Wizards].” A big baby.
[Washington Post]

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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…”

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A D.C. pic, links, and commentary …

[Mount Pleasant at night; Mt. Pleasant St. and Lamont St., NW, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

As reported by Michael Lee of the Washington Post, James Singleton has decided to sign with the Xinjiang Gyang Hui Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.

[James Singleton points to a place in the sky.]

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[Thinking on 14th Street south of Thomas Circle, Washington, D.C.]

Who do you leave off the roster? A poll.

After the signing of Josh Howard, the Wizards’ “officially signed” roster has been pushed to 12: John Wall, Gilbert Arenas, Kirk Hinrich, Nick Young, Howard, Al Thornton, Andray Blatche, Yi Jianlian, Trevor Booker, Kevin Seraphin, Hilton Armstrong and JaVale McGee. So, there are three spots left with at least four potential names to fill them (that is if Ernie Grunfeld decides to have a full roster of 15 right now).

First, there is Cartier Martin, to whom the Wizards have extended a qualifying offer of $1,029,389, according to Sham Sports, making Martin a restricted free-agent.

Then there’s James Singleton, whose rights the Wizards had to renounce to sign Howard, but the Washington Post’s Michael Lee reports that the team is still interested in Singleton or Fabricio Oberto.

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