Posts tagged ‘mike wilks’

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):

• John Wall working on his jumper.
• JaVale McGee still developing awareness in the post (especially when Jordan Crawford aggressively double teams).
• McGee working on a spinning baseline lefty hook from the left block — it comes up short, but now is the time to work on such moves. Not many will be able to contest if he can progress in jump hook shot comfort with both hands.
• Crawford hitting a running hook in the lane over McGee.
• Shelvin Mack working on his decision-making. One mistake: passing to Crawford in the left corner with the lane open for him to penetrate to the hoop. Crawford made the tough corner step-back over Roger Mason Jr. anyway.
• Jumpers from Larry Owens, Rashard Lewis (“Sweet Lew!”), and Mason Jr.
• Kevin Seraphin trying to learn court vision from the post (he makes a turnover on a cross-court pass), and trying to learn how to balance spacing and a power dribble on a pick-and-roll.
• Andray Blatche trying not to lose the ball in the post, and then showing off his usual passing skills to Aaron Petway for a dunk.
• Mack using a hesitation dribble against Wall, using a slow-down dribble to get the defender on his back, and ultimately finding a cutting Chris Singleton, who draws a foul attacking the basket.
• Wall finding Blatche for a cut and dunk against Singleton.
• Mardy Collins splitting Seraphin’s weak help on a ball screen and finding Petway for a dunk.
• With the blue team down 12-11 in the final scrimmage, Shelvin Mack missing a jumper at the buzzer.

Read more »

{Mike Harris}

As you probably know, the Wizards today signed Mike Harris of the NBA D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers to a 10-day contract. Had a brief chat with him before tonight’s game …

“It’s basketball, so it’s always better up than it is down.” -Mike Harris

• Mike has never been to D.C. before, said he’s most definitely not used to the weather.
• Said he’s a “basketball guru” so he already knew a good deal about the current Wizards … played against Al Thornton and the Clippers when he was in Houston, also knows a little about Nick Young and Andray Blatche when he played against them in the 2008 Vegas Summer League as a Rocket.
• Harris said Flip Saunders told him to just come in and “do what you do” and to not try so much to fit in with the team, but to let the team fit to him … just play hard, have a good time, and try not to think to much.
• There is some familiarity, as Mike said the Wizards run similar plays to what they ran down in Rio Grande, just with different calls.
• Mike said he found out about the call-up about five minutes after getting out of tuesday’s practice with the Vipers when his coach informed him. It was about 12:30-1:00 pm when he found out that he had a 4:45 flight to Washington. Harris said he was lucky that he already had a rental car, so getting to the airport wasn’t a problem. His flight was a bit delayed in Houston, so he didn’t get into D.C. until 1:30-1:45 on Wednesday morning.

Here are some more bullets on Harris:

• He turned 26 last June 15th and shares a birthday with Mary Carey (the porn star who ran for governor in California and who once was “courted” by Dwight Howard), Neil Patrick Harris, Andy Pettitte, Ice Cube, Courtney Cox, Wade Boggs, Dr. Jerry Buss, D.J. Strawberry, and Zan Tabak … yes, “the” Zan Tabak, who won a ring in Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon. Take that Barkley!
• Harris went to Hillsboro High School in Hillsboro, Texas and averaged 27 points and 19 rebounds his senior year. He was recruited by Baylor, Oklahoma State, Stephen F. Austin and Tulsa, but ended up choosing Rice.
• After four seasons at Rice, Harris left as both the Owls’ all-time leading scorer and rebounder. He was named the WAC freshman of the year in 2002 and made the all-WAC first team in ’04 and ’05.
• The last, and only other, Rice alum to suit up for the franchise was Mike Wilks, who briefly played for the Wizards in December 2007.
• Harris previously suited up in the NBA for the Houston Rockets, but has also played in the Ukraine, China (where he won the all-star game dunk contest and was named to the All-Chinese CBA 1st team), and Kuwait, among other domestic stops.
• Harris will wear #33.

Read more »

The 2009 NBA Draft is on June 25th, an important day in so many ways. For one, it’s my birthday….the onset of my last year in my 20s…..but it’s also the day that the Wizards will be selecting Blake Griffin with the #1 overall draft pick (hopefully).

And while Griffin might not be a franchise changer like Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Shaq O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, he certainly isn’t a Kwame Brown or Michael Olowokandi.

Griffin won’t magically propel the Wizards to the cream of the crop, but he can certainly be a key cog on a potential contender while keeping the ‘Zards poised for the future.

June 25th is a pretty big date…potentially (Dikembe Mutombo will also turn 43 in beyond-human years on 6/25)….but May 19th is much more important. That’s when the order of the NBA is decided via a lottery.

Let’s learn more about the numbers and Wizards/Bullets relatedness surrounding May 19th…and yes, I pretty much about to get carried away.

May 19th…. 5/19/09
The Wizards had 63 losses.
6+3 = 9
The 09 NBA Draft

Read more »