[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 12, Washington Wizards vs San Antonio Spurs; contributors: Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center along with John Converse Townsend and Adam McGinnis from behind the T.V.]

It’s Martell. Somehow Martell Webster, more than not, has become the spokesperson for the Wizards. Part of it is that he’s good in front of the mic, so he naturally attracts the media. Another part of it could be that team veterans—Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor—simply don’t always have it in them to speak up, a silence that’s indicative of their poor play this season. Ariza is often long gone by the time the media scrum arrives to the Wizards locker room after Randy Wittman’s end-of-the-night press conference. Okafor, mostly a result of his post-game routine of stretching, etc., often takes so long after games that the press has mostly moved on to deadlines and work before Okafor even starts showering. Thus, we are left with Webster, a guy making a mere $1.75 million this season who wasn’t on the Wizards’ radar until mid-August, instead of the duo—Ariza and Okafor—making around $7.3 and $13.5 million this season respectively. It is what it is. So here is the guy with the guts to say that he and his teammates are embarrassed. Read more »

The Wizards kick off a six-game road-trip with a date near the Alamo this evening, where they haven’t sealed the deal since December 11, 1999. Back then, John Wall and Jan Vesely were 9-years old, and Chris Singleton, Kevin Seraphin and Shelvin Mack had barely reached double-digits in age (in Seraphin’s case, he was 10 by about five days). Even old Wizards such as Andray Blatche were just 13; Rashard Lewis was barely 20 with 40 games of his current 934 NBA career games under his belt. In other words, it’s been a while. To be close to specific, it’s been about 6,445,440 minutes, along with one massive fear of Y2K being put to rest, since the Wizards last won in San Antonio, Texas. Will the kids, 14.5-point underdogs, stop the streak tonight?  For today’s 3-on-3, TAI’s Dan Diamond (@ddiamond), Rashad Mobley (@rashad20) and Kyle Weidie (@truth_about_it) analyze in an attempt to predict. Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) Which two players will most determine the outcome of tonight’s game?

DAN DIAMOND: It’s my rookie debut for 3-on-3 so I’ll stick with the kids. Jan Vesely will do his flying ninja routine and fire up the Wiz with an acrobatic dunk. Kawhi Leonard will force Nick Young into a string of more terrible shots than usual. Mark my words. Unfortunately, those plays will happen in the first half — the game will be over by the third quarter.

RASHAD MOBLEY: For the Spurs it is Danny Green. His offensive contributions are a bonus, but he makes his mark on the defensive end of the floor. He could present problems to frustrate John Wall, Nick Young and Jordan Crawford, which would basically thwart the Wizards offense. For Washington, the Young/Crawford combination will either make life easy for the Wall by spreading the floor and hitting shots, or make life easier for Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs by creating fastbreak opportunities off of their long misses.

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Chris Quinn is a spritely-looking fellow, an every-man’s guy. He’s the type of NBA player you look at and say, ‘man, if that guy can make it, anyone can.’ Dude must work really, really hard. So this here post of pictures from the Wizards’ 118-94 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night is dedicated to the guy who couldn’t be picked out in a lineup of ball boys. Although Quinn didn’t exactly tear it up in his 20 minutes off the bench (6 points, 2-9 FGs, 2-4 3PT, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists and 2 turnovers), his presence goes to show you that just about anyone can take part in embarrassing the Wizards. Here’s to the regular guy doing basketball things.

Quinn didn’t make this particular shot, but I still love it.

Quinn didn’t make this shot either, but again, the moxie.

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• The Wizards played well enough without Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee (due to their one-game suspension for getting in a fight with each other at a D.C.-area club) to fall just outside the 13.5-point spread by which the Spurs were favored, losing 94-80 in San Antonio on Sunday evening.
• Washington is now 0-14 on the road for the season and the team hasn’t won in San Antonio since December 11, 1999 — Rod Strickland, Mitch Richmond, Michael Smith, Juwan Howard and Ike Austin started against Avery Johnson, Mario Elie, Chucky Brown, Tim Duncan and David Robinson that night and beat them 99-89.
• They never had a chance to win, but when upsets happen, you say, ‘Well, that’s why you play the game.’ But I guess that only really happens when teams play like they have a chance to win.
• You’ll hear some analysis on the game say that the Spurs were a deeper, stronger team with more weapons. Sure, I’ll concede to that, but not as much as it’s hyped up to be. The answer is actually more simple than that simple analysis. The Spurs move the ball much better than the Wizards, to the tune of 27 assists to 18 for Washington. All the players Gregg Popovich plays buy into his system, they share the ball, and Spurs management has done a great job of providing Popovich with more players who relent to the team concept. The Wizards, on the other hand, seem to go after sheer talent in hopes that they can teach them to play like a team … and that can be a painstaking process, clearly.
• Not sure if it was Manu Ginobili stock-piling points on him early, or if it was just him missing shots, but Nick Young had a retro game, for him. The early futility clearly had an early affect on Young’s psyche. He once called his buddy Andray “Sonic” and referred to himself as “Tails” … guess Tails couldn’t make it without his hedgehog friend in San Antonio. Young went 5-19 from the field with 10 points and couldn’t do much right. His night was epitomized by the .GIF above where, after Manu had already made three three-pointers, Nick just failed to pay attention to him in any regard … more concerned with the potential screen than about the space he’d given Ginobili all night.
• Josh Howard shot 4-12 from the field and really looked to force some things on several offensive possessions. He also had a team-worst plus/minus of minus-12. Of course, here’s where the inaccuracy of plus/minus in it’s ability to give a true picture comes into play. Howard gave good energy and always found a way to get himself involved in plays. In the long run, Howard certainly deserves to eat into Al Thornton‘s minutes … he had six rebounds in 24 minutes to Thornton’s three rebounds in 28. Of course, with the current makeup of the team, Howard looks to get more time at the two.
• Rashard Lewis had 21 points and went 4-8 from beyond the arc, but he needed 19 total shots to get there. Maybe that’s about the efficiency we can expect from him … and making those three pointers does actually make him more efficient (52.6 eFG% vs. the Spurs), especially when that’s an area where the team needs help. Lewis also got 12 rebounds and certainly seems more interested in boxing out than Blatche.
• A lot of people will surely try to analyze John Wall’s return to the court, because it’s popular and brings eyeballs, I suppose, but really, this window — how Wall “looked” against the Spurs — is not really worth dissecting. His stat line off the bench: 19 minutes, four points, 2-9 FGs, no trips to the free-throw line, four assists, four turnovers, four fouls, a block and six rebounds. To me, Wall looked a bit gimpy in his knee at times, maybe it was stiff or whatever, but he did look almost as quick, noted by that sweet spin move he put on Manu before the half. About the only thing I take from Wall’s performance was that he finds ways to impact the game in other areas.
• Kirk Hinrich had 15 points on 7-10 shooting with seven assists and four turnovers. He tried, earnestly. And for some weird reason, Hinrich’s admirable presence makes the Mike Miller and Randy Foye for the fifth pick trade seem even worse. Don’t ask why.

Ok, so Washington, D.C. isn’t “hell”. I love this city. It is nice … but it’s also been really, really cold lately. Sports hell? Well, now you’re talking. The only saving grace these days comes in the form of some Russian dude leading a ‘Rock the Red’ revolution.

The Washington Bullets used to wear red. But now some are saying that that damn Gilbert Arenas fellow has ruined any chances of the franchise ever returning to the team name (and colors) of yore that so many true, dedicated fans are fond of. Bullets Forever y’all.

Back to this hell concept. Fabricio Oberto isn’t in the depths of Hades, but he can’t be in a good place. You gotta feel for Fab. He’s such a nice guy. Plus, he must deal with the current situation while his family is back home in Argentina. Then again, getting paid just under two million dollars for six months of basketball can’t be all that bad.

The 2009-10 Washington Wizards just might be the worst team Oberto has ever been on. I can’t confirm this 100%, but I did peruse his resume and the history of the teams he’s played for on usbasket.com, and it looks to be a valid claim.

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What in the name of Eva Perón are these two doing here?

Well, with a glimmer of the Sun of May in their eyes, and perhaps fueled by a well-aged Malbec, these two Argentinians seem to be re-enacting the final match of the U.S. Open with household fireplace tools, celebrating a big win by fellow countryman Juan Martín del Potro over Rodger Federer.

Carry on boys,  see you on the hardwood.

(Speaking of … the Wizards and Spurs will first face off on November 21st in San Antonio, and the return favor will be on January 2nd in D.C.)

Manu over current Wizards coach Sam Cassell - flickr/eugene

Since writing the Manu Ginobili to the Wizards post, I’ve somewhat soured on acquiring him. Not that I’m now completely against it, given ideal circumstances. Manu is nice, but he doesn’t fit the two greatest team needs: a rugged big man who can defend and rebound (either in the form of starting PF or a significant bench role player), and a dead-eye three point shooter, who can also defend. Mike Prada of Bullets Forever has a good post on who that needed wing player might be: ‘Who is Gilbert Arenas’ ideal backcourt mate?‘

The veteran squad and expiring contracts the Wiz would get in the Ginobili trade scenario makes an interesting team while maintaining flexibility for the future. But as Prada pointed out on Bullets Forever, the Wizards would be giving up almost all of their attractive assets (Blatche, Young, the 5th, and the expiring contracts of Mike James and Etan Thomas) for a bunch of over the hill guys with unreliable health.

If I’m Ernie Grunfeld, I want to max out the value of those assets, or retain some for a 2010 trade deadline rainy day. In the end, I, along with most Spurs fans, can’t really imagine the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili not being together next year anyway.

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Amare Stoudemire, Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, Manu Ginobili, Michael Redd, Josh Smith, Josh Howard, Kirk Hinrich and Andrei Kirilenko are just of the few of the tiny players jumping over a fence in the mind of the restless Ernie Grunfeld as he tries to fall into a slumber every night leading up to the draft on June 25.

But he can’t sleep. He sits up in bed, drenched in sweat. It’s 3:30 in the morning and he’s trying to plod through the day’s ninth showing of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But the show doesn’t help take his thoughts away from the matter at hand. His mind is racing through Wizards trade scenarios instead. And if you don’t pay attention to those damned Law & Orders, especially the crime at the beginning, the show just becomes a scrambled mess.

The mess, parallel to the team Grunfeld commands, spills into the night and into the next day, all of which are becoming the same. The Wizards GM is on the verge of making the most important move during his tenure with the team.

[continue reading on NBC Washington.com]

flickr/kris247

When the San Antonio Spurs asked Ernie Grunfeld what it would take to get the 5th pick in June 25th’s draft, Grunfeld simply responded, “Manu Ginobili,” or so goes the purported story relayed by the Washington Post’s Michael Lee.

Despite Ginobili’s old age and injury issues, sounds like a pretty absurd counter request (assuming only expiring contracts/low value players would accompany the pick) for one of the top gamers in the NBA. Spurs brass certainly would not expect to give up one of their top three stars for a pick in what most are saying is a down draft.

Grunfeld is not ridiculous, nor is he stupid. He’s just playing hardball knowing the pick will only increase in value heading up to the draft. Case in point would be the hype surrounding Stephen Curry and interest from the Knicks to possibly trade up to get him (amongst Wizards’ threats to draft Curry themselves). Whether Grunfeld’s old team would deal with him might be another story.

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