Washington Wizards, Minnesota Timberwolves… on a Sunday afternoon when you will likely be watching playoff football, the Wizards will be trying to secure their first win of the season. For today’s 3-on-3, we have Benjamin Polk from the ESPN TrueHoop Network T-Wolves blog, A Wolf Among Wolves, along with TAI’s Sam Permutt and yours truly, Kyle Weidie. Three questions, three answers starts now…

#1) That David Kahn fellow… Can the future of the franchise be trusted in his hands? And with Ricky Rubio playing well, how much credit does he get for taking advantage of Ernie Grunfeld by sending him the always underachieving Mike Miller and Randy Foye for the pick that brought Rubio to Minnesota?

PERMUTT: I don’t pretend to know whether Kahn can be trusted… and that’s what makes him such an entertaining GM.  He’s like the guy in your fantasy league who you secretly admire because he picks with no regard for predicted rank—except he has a real team!  As for Grunfeld flipping the fifth pick into Miller and Foye, I still say that was a solid move for both teams.  The fact that it turned into Rubio two years later is good for the T-Wolves (and Kahn), but Grunfeld shouldn’t be blamed.

POLK: You know, I really have no idea. Although Kahn has certainly made more than his share of personnel mistakes, I do feel like his rep as a bumbler has been exaggerated  by his abrasive personality and the weird things he says. That said, the Rubio/Miller-Foye trade is, in my opinion, the best thing he’s ever done. Now if he’d just found some way to avoid taking Jonny Flynn at six…

WEIDIE: It’s a game of odds, and odds are that at least one NBA GM will be a bumbling quotable in the spirit of any press is good press. Plus, Kahn used to be a sportswriter, so you know with fairly reasonable certainty that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about on frequent occasions. Wizards fans should really get over Grunfeld sending Kahn the 5th pick in 2009 draft (Rubio) for Randy Foye and Mike Miller. Abe Pollin’s dying wish was another championship, regardless of if it cost a high draft pick. Maybe there were better moves, but Miller and Foye were worth the risk.

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The Sacramento Kings closed out their season with a very emotional home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. At the time, there was a strong possibility that it was last game in Sacramento after 23 years as the team‘s owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, looked to move the franchise to Anaheim, California. The Kings broadcasters broke down on air, and fans organized a protest by refusing to leave the arena after the contest’s conclusion. Kings players returned to the court to address their adoring fans. There was great sense of empathy amongst sports fans online in seeing a team ripped away from a fan base.

Former NBA player and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, husband to controversial ex-DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee, made a last ditch attempt to save the team in California’s Capital City. His presentation to the NBA was more impressive than the Maloofs‘, the potential TV money from their deal with Anaheim being inflated. Money discrepancies are not surprising with the Maloofs since their bad financial dealings have led them to this current predicament and their financial stake in Palm Casinos Resort, which is now down to a paltry 2-percent.

Johnson was able to convince the NBA’s relocation committee to give him a chance to secure a funding plan for a new arena, and after the Maloofs pulled their bid to relocate, the Kings will remain in Sacramento for at least 2011-12.

When the move appeared imminent, I caught up with Washington Wizards head coach Flip Saunders and swingman Maurice Evans to ask about their personal experiences playing in Sacramento. In the video below, Saunders talks about the Sacramento Cow Bells, and Evans provides a funny antidote about a passionate Kings fan that still supports him every time he returns.

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…he was alone in an abandoned locker room, folded in an office chair with enough lumbar support to carry the weight of his woes.

John Wall has been chosen to be D.C.’s defender — a challenge made that much more difficult since it too often appears that he’s been fated to do so alone. Wall’s teammates have been blessed with the power of flight, but also cursed with invisibility. After being defeated by Warriors from the Golden State this past Wednesday, John Wall put out a quiet plea for help.

On Saturday night, the Wizards were down 68-72 after three tightly contested quarters; Minnesota and Washington were never separated by more than eight points. The coaching staff once again signaled for a gritty, high-energy combination to save the day … while tightening the reins on liabilities. A league of unsung heroes again rose to the occasion to establish order in the most powerful city in the world. Joining John Wall were Cartier Martin, The Enlightened One; Mo Evans, The Old Hand; Trevor Booker, The Beast; and Andray Blatche, The Scapegoat.

“I was extremely happy with the energy our guys played with overall,” said head coach Flip Saunders in his postgame press conference. Saunders also went on to praise the much-maligned Blatche for his sustained effort and fighting spirit and rightfully so. Blatche, of course, has been routinely criticized by fans, the conglomerated media, and even opposing players for ho-hum performances. But last night, he earned his keep and deserved the credit. Blatche and the Wizards scored 35 points to close the game, after scoring just 68 points through the first three quarters. The focus and determination over the last 12 minutes lifted the team to victory, en route to breaking a miserable 7-game losing streak.

A lineup of (never) has-beens stepped out of the shadows and into the spotlight. They out-shot, out-rebounded, out-worked, and out-paced the Minnesota Timberwolves. How many times have you said that about any five-man combination this season? You can tally that total one on hand and have fingers left to spare.

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The name Moses Malone has been uttered more than usual as of late, and with good reason. After scoring 27 points on Friday night against the Charlotte Bobcats, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is just 39 points away from passing Malone to become the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history. Kevin Love, after his 20 point, 21 rebound performance against the Washington Wizards last night, now has 50 consecutive double-doubles — just one away from the record of 51, also set by Malone.

Malone, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, played 19 NBA seasons (after starting his career with two seasons in the ABA) and averaged 20.6 points and 12.2 rebounds.  His best season came in 1983 as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers when he averaged 24.5 points, 15.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots, and won both the regular season MVP and the NBA Finals MVP awards.  The Sixers won the title that year, which is also known as the infamous Fo Fo Fo playoffs (Malone predicted the Sixers would sweep the playoffs with four victories in each series. They lost one game in the Eastern Conference Finals against Milwaukee, and then swept the Magic, Kareem and the Los Angeles Lakers for the title).

From 1986 to 1988 Malone had two All-Star years for the Washington Bullets. He and Jeff Malone (no relation) led the Bullets to two consecutive playoff appearances (both first round losses).

Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Kurt Rambis, currently instructing Kevin Love, and previously serving as both an assistant and a head coach to Kobe Bryant with the Lakers, had numerous battles against Malone when he was a player (in their 14 head-to-head match-ups, Rambis won eight and averaged 7.2 points and 5.9 rebounds off the bench, while Malone won six and averaged 19.6 points and 10.5 rebounds as a starter).  Saturday night, I asked Rambis to reminisce on the greatness of Malone and what it was like to play against him:

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[Al Thornton might not be as worried about the Wizards trying to end their 0-19 road record, he just wants his team to win two games in a row this season -- something Flip Saunders' squad was able to accomplish seven times last season, but they never got three in a row. The Wizards haven't won three games in a row since April 4-9, 2008.]

As frustrating as it is to see the Wizards fight to take a 94-90 lead with 5:45 left only to see the Timberwolves snatch the game from their grasp 109-97, it’s not as concerning as how they started the night. It was an all-to-familiar situation for Flip Saunders, one that probably had him invoking the basketball gods, as he’s done before when his Wizards lose a close game late after starting poorly out of the gate. Flip has never wanted his players to scorn the deities of James Naismith’s game, but now with a baffling 0-19 on the road, he’s probably wondering what he did to deserve all of this.

The Wizards are clearly not yet in a position where they can take games. And give Minnesota a lot of credit. In the end, they found their rhythm, they moved the ball well, they played like they wanted to be winners. Washington did not. After the Wizards took that four point lead late in the game, followers of the team on Twitter began to believe … it was their night, finally. Not so fast.

After around a minute and a half where neither team scored, here’s what went down: Darko Milicic making a drive on Yi Jianlian from the three-point line, dribbling behind his back and then hitting a spinning, running hook shot in the lane; Kevin Love stopping on a dime and pulling up for a three as the trailer in transition; great ball movement freeing Darko for a hanging-on-the-rim dunk; same excellent ball movement (eight passes!) getting Wayne Ellington sprung for a three in the corner — these were all head-scratching events, somewhat. Sure, they were playing the Wizards, but all of this came from the Timberwolves?

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There were several interesting quotes from the Wizards about themselves in Michael Lee’s report from Minneapolis on Wizards Insider. I’m unsure if it’s more frustrating that they actually realize what they’re doing wrong. Let’s first read a quote from Flip Saunders:

“Guys have to be disciplined. They have to be willing to turn down a shot at time. Tonight, we had no shot discipline. Tonight, it was, ‘I haven’t taken a shot, so I’m going to shoot it.’ when you do that, you shoot 38 percent from the field.”

A reoccurring theme … the players not trusting, or deviating from, Saunders’ offense. Lets see what Antawn Jamison had to say:

“We played selfish basketball at times. On the road, you can’t do that. I don’t care who you’re playing against.”

I’d also like to add that you can’t do that at home either, but yes, another reoccurring theme. Saunders has put such selfishness more nicely before, calling it ‘hero basketball’.

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The Minnesota Timberwolves might have blamed their poor shooting Saturday night on a cold gym (they finished 37.4% from the field and spent much of the game in the 30s), much like Gilbert Arenas did after a loss to Detroit earlier in December.

Instead, the young T-Wolves fired up energy and hustle to overcome their 57 missed shots (out of 91) to beat the Wizards 101-89, mostly due to crushing the heartless Wiz 19-7 on the offensive boards. At 39.5%, the Wizards didn’t shoot much better from the floor. But opposed to the inexperience of Minnesota, the bad shooting of Flip Saunders’ team was the result of an escape from the offense.

So, it’s another significant step back after a tiny-step forward. A lot of talent, but little teamwork. And once again with more turnovers (16) than assists (12), a lot of offensive selfishness and little to show for it.

Quote from Phil Chenier:

(after Sessions and Love out-fought Butler and Blatche for an offensive rebound) Read more »

Foye started feeling uneasy when David Kahn refused to meet with him after taking over general manager, but he still was startled to get the call from agent and Ernie Grunfeld that he was headed to Washington in a multiplayer deal.

via Michael Lee, Wizards Insider – ‘Foye discusses return to Minnesota‘

I don’t know David Kahn personally, but I do know this doesn’t sound good. Even worse when you consider that Randy Foye first learned of his trade to Washington via HoopsHype.

I understand professional basketball of the NBA is a business, but that shouldn’t cast aside the common courtesy of rational, reasonable, and humane behavior toward a fellow employee when changing cities and potentially moving family is concerned.

In fact, this sounds downright cowardly of Mr. Kahn.

So… that’s how he treats his players. Read more »

In the past weeks, NBA TV has been showing top games from 2008-09. I happened to catch several, one being Tony Parker’s career-high 55 point game, which came on an early November night in Minneapolis. That’s right, Mike Miller and Randy Foye had the privilege of being on the court to witness. Naturally, I perked up to pay attention, and take some notes on what I observed of the two new Wizards.

Word of Minnesota’s offense slowing down at the unspoken decree of Al Jefferson (approved by Randy Wittman) were confirmed. But at least Big Al was willing to take charges, such early in the third quarter when Miller chose a horrible angle to close out on Michael Finley at the three point line. Miller had no balance, and his hands were neither active, nor high. The 35-year old Finley easily blew by, but lost focus during his open path and plowed into Jefferson for the offensive foul.

The very next time down the court, Miller found himself helping off Finley, who was again spotted up at the top of the key. Tony Parker was curling off a Tim Duncan ball screen on the wing, so yes, Miller had to help stop the penetration. But once the ball was kicked back to Finley, Miller hesitated on the close-out, letting Finley’s previous drive to the hoop get into his head. Finley only needed that split-second of space to start drooling. The wide-open three was easy money for a shooter like him. Miller was never in a good position to even give a half-hearted contest.

Clearly, Mike Miller is not too swift on his feet … but this is something we all figured. His defense might be an issue, but not because of a lack of effort.

Back to the relationship between Miller, Jefferson, and Wittman’s offense. One of the more telling plays came shortly after Miller’s bad close-outs in the third. I’ve illustrated in the screen shots below.

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flickr/Roadsidepictures

I watched the Wizards take on the Timberwolves and Clippers in the Las Vegas Summer League long ago, but am just getting my notes/observations on those two games posted.

So in the spirit of better late than never, here goes ….

(Note: I still need to get my post up on the Knicks game and hand out the summer league grades … but only to the players who ‘count’ — Blatche, Young, McGee, Crittenton and McGuire.)

Wizards vs. Timberwolves : Summer League Game 3

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Between hitting up the John Legend concert Friday night, going out for some fresh oysters at Hank’s Oyster Bar on Saturday, followed by a night on the town (really, the oysters at Hank’s, especially the ones from Fanny Bay, BC, Canada, were awesome), and then getting trounced in softball on Sunday afternoon (honestly, I think the final score was 24-2), I didn’t have much time to dedicate to the Wizards this past weekend.

I was able to make it through the T-Wolves game Sunday night, and take notes on it, but fell into a slumber before I was able to watch the Wizards against the Clippers or Knicks, both of which, I understand, were much better efforts from the D.C. boys. Oh, and Andray Blatche didn’t play in either game. Nick Young sat out of Sunday’s game against New York as well.

I aim to watch both of the remaining games tonight and subsequently post notes/observations, and then hand out some summer league grades. But until then, here’s the big media dump on what others have said:

Wizards vs. T’Wolves

Flip Saunders apparently sent word down to the bench at halftime that he wasn’t unhappy with the shot selection or their offense, but that the effort simply hadn’t been good enough, and the second half certainly looked better, anyhow.
…..
After posting double-doubles in his first two games in Vegas, Andray Blatche was completely out of kilter. I didn’t have a chance to catch up with him, but he was matched up with Pecherov a lot in the early going, and it sure seemed to me like he was trying (and failing) to take advantage of his former teammate.

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With Washington sending Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov and the 5th overall pick to Minnesota in exchange for Mike Miller and Randy Foye being reported by Chad Ford of ESPN, and both Wizards beat reporters, Mike Jones of the Washington Times and Michael Lee of the Washington Post, it’s time to get some initial thoughts blogged out.

If I know Ernie Grunfeld, he’s not done. Hell, he better not be done.

The drama is kind of exciting, knowing the President of Basketball Ops I’ve come to trust probably has more tricks up his sleeve. Judging by the roster after the trade, we might be calling Gruns “Mr. Wizard” if he pulls off something else nice to make the team complete (more on ‘complete’ in a second).

On another note, Thursday just lost a ton of luster … hey, at least the 25th is my birthday. Read more »