Posts tagged ‘NBA General’

Well, well, well…..what do we have here? Are they about to go to church?

Oh….these two must be a couple candy salesmen….and I don’t know if they’re selling it or getting high off their own supply, but the garb of Gilbert Arenas and Antonio Daniels is sweet like bear meat.

Daniels with his pink on the inside, iridescent blue on the outside combo; and Arenas with the Burberry-Ascot get-up.

Well, at least somebody went to Miami prepared, because the Wizards sure weren’t ready to play against the Heat as they lost ugly by 20 points. Too bad their game wasn’t as pretty as those suits. Enjoy South Beach fellas. Read more »

Orlando Pulse, blurred vision for the Washington Wizards
[flickr/Kyle May]

Had on the Washington Wizards-Orlando Magic game as I was getting ready to go out on Saturday night. Thanks to my laggard adoption of DVR technology, I figured I could just watch it again later and hack out a game blog.

But as the walloping swelled, it became more and more evident that I’d never be watching the game again. And a game blog? You’ve got to be kidding, right?

I’m certainly distraught about the beginnings of this 09-09 season, but surprisingly, any anger I should have is subdued as if my drinks were being drugged.

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Abandoned Tiger Stadium – flickr/Detroit Derek

I meant to get this post up before last night’s loss against the Pistons…..oh well….here’s to remembering last year’s Wizards history against the Pistons.

Wizards vs. Pistons in DC – January 2, 2008
Richard Hamilton had a rare flirtation with a triple-double (20 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds). The Pistons won 106-93…the big statistical difference was that Detroit went 11-22 from long distance.

In other news: The Wizards tried to establish themselves inside early. Andray Blatche committed a flagrant foul on Jarvis Hayes in the 2nd. Overall, Blatche was listless.

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NBAE/Getty Images from nba.com/wizards

NBA.com has a series of GM surveys posted, and Eddie Jordan received 8% of the votes on the question: ‘what head-coach makes the best in-game adjustments?’. That puts him behind Popovich, Larry Brown, and Carlisle, and tied with three others for 4th.

A couple other Wizards were recognized:

Caron Butler
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photo from washingtonwizards.com

I suppose people, myself included, can’t exactly help themselves when a team jettisons two guys named ‘Johnson’ from its roster. The official Washington Wizards blog treated the happening as if naming a law firm (or health care products/pharmaceuticals company) with the title, “Wiz Waive Johnson and Johnson.” Wizards Insider, usually run by the Washington Post’s Ivan Carter and Michael Lee, went the safe route with, “Wizards Release Two.” Someone named Alexa Steele filled in for Carter and Lee on this specific post….I guess when you have what sounds like a porn name already, you might want to avoid sexual innuendos by spitting out Johnson, the word. But alas, Mike Jones of the Washington Times ‘went there’ with his title, “Wizards Cut Johnsons.” C’mon Mike….don’t you know that Johnsons would rather be released than cut?

Ok…enough of that, back to the point at hand. Two positions of need assumed by Wizards fans this past offseason, before Gilbert Arenas went down, were a small forward to backup Caron Butler, and a third string point guard. After Dee Brown was signed, along with the summer league developments of Dominic McGuire’s mid-range jumper, the school of thought was that the former player would fill the latter position of need and vice versa. Working off these assumptions, Ernie Grunfeld would hold the 15th roster spot in a glass encased box to be broken in case of emergency.

Then Gilbert Arenas happened…..then Brendan Haywood happened….Haywood’s wrist surgery not having a greater influence over roster moves, as the Wizards seemingly had a logjam at the post position (Etan, Oily, ‘Dray, JaVale and Jamison — hey, that sounds like a MotheringHut t-shirt…..just remember where you heard it first).

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I’ve been working on a piece about Eddie Jordan and his rotation size, specifically in comparison to the rest of the league and how it may or may not relate to team success in the NBA. The research is taking longer than I thought, so….spawned by a Slam Online blog entry today, I wanted to assess the Wizards role players for the upcoming season first.

In “Know Your Role,” John Krolik highlights five types of role players (plus Robert Horry) that every team wants. How do the Wizards stack up? Well, let’s see.

1. The Mistake-Free Backup Point
This one is easy….Antonio Daniels is even cited as an ideal example. AD is a leader who is willing to put his body on the line and the team first. In my player evaluation of Daniels, I cited negatives such as inability to shoot and defend. However, with Arenas back and Antonio going back to the bench, those inefficiencies will be somewhat masked in the bigger picture. The key theme is the steadying veteran presence Antonio provides as the point guard leader of a young second unit.

2. The Bona Fide Sniper
This is an big area of concern for me. Gilbert Arenas is the team sniper, but he’s no role player. Gone is last year’s sniper in Roger Mason, who will fill the role for the San Antonio Spurs. Sure, Nick Young will be expected to provide an offensive spark off the bench, but I’ve never been confident in his ability as a long distance threat. Are you telling me that the Wizards will look to Oleksiy Pecherov to be the unconscious jacker from deep? I sure hope not, and that’s assuming he’s not reporting for D-League duty during the upcoming season.

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flickr/kk+

Now that the greatest Olympics of my lifetime (of 28 years) has concluded, it’s time for me to wonder, why do team sports get slighted in terms of medal events?

The dedication it takes for one to succeed at an individual event is truly amazing. All of the worldwide buzz and attention shed upon Michael Phelps and his accomplishment of eight gold medals is more than justified. At no point have I felt over-saturated with the media coverage surrounding Phelps.

However, something must be said about the unity and cohesion it takes to succeed as a team. It’s a display of the true human spirit of being able to work together to accomplish one goal. In my opinion, this is more difficult to achieve than striving for Olympic success alone….if only slightly, because my intent is not to subtract from individual competition.

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When Gilbert Arenas’ blog dropped the last week, I was all set to write a post on the past tumultuous relationship between him and Kwame Brown. However, I became distracted by Gilbert’s absurd lack of social responsibility. [Side Bar: I do realize that Gilbert's blog (or at least the one that some dude transcribes for him) spawning other bloggers to write blog posts (in some cases multiple) about his blog post could be considered absurd as well....and I'm comfortable with that possibility.]

What Arenas said about Brown and his migration to Motown seemed to be words of encouragement for the 26-year old, seven-year NBA vet.

I like that deal for Detroit and for Kwame. He’s in a quieter city now, he’s 26-years old, he’s on a veteran team, he’s growing up. In the past in D.C. and L.A. it was a case of him being a big kid in a big city, now he can settle his career down. You know that Sheed and McDyess and those other bigs will help him develop and this should be the best time of his career because in Detroit, the bigs get touches in the offense.

Don’t think that the Kwame Brown that was in Memphis is the real Kwame Brown. When you get traded, so much emotion goes into it and leaving a No. 1 team to come into a team with a bad record halfway through the season is a tough adjustment.

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Perhaps Josh Howard is not being pointed in the right direction, while Dirk Nowitzki
is off to make more videos of him preventing drug use with a magic wink.

I was kinda willing to give Josh Howard a pass for his weed smoking radio proclamation. Sure, for his own sake, he should have kept his mouth shut. And of course, throwing NBA colleagues under the bus was stupid. But at least he told the truth…….or lied less.

Back home in North Carolina and running a basketball camp, one would hope that Josh Howard avoid being the anti-role model for the kids. Nope, he decided to street race his black Lexus against a silver Volkswagen, and get caught by the police. ESPN is reporting that Howard was going 94 in a 55. Speeding and reckless driving was the case that they gave him.

The first thing that came to mind was the eight counts of vehicular manslaughter recently charged to two Maryland men. Back in February, eight bystanders were killed as a result of an illegal street race on Indian Head Highway just outside of Washington, DC.

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Wow, Joe Dumars is a desperado……can the signing of Kwame Brown be seen as anything other than an act of desperation?

cake via flickr/panduh, mugshot via wizznutzz, although this pic found by Jake on BF is much better

The Pistons have been tied to several potential blockbuster moves this summer, whether it be for Carmelo Anthony, Josh Smith, Tracy McGrady or Ron Artest. [side note: The 17th pick of the '04 NBA draft which was shipped from Detroit, via Milwaukee and Denver, to Atlanta in the Rasheed Wallace trade was used by the Hawks to select Josh Smith.] But nothing has come to fruition since Joe Dumars built “big splash” expectations by deeming everyone available (with perhaps Jason Maxiell and Rodney Stuckey as the lone exceptions).

So now, after being on the latter end of “win or go home” in the Eastern Conference Finals for the past three years, this is Joe D’s answer. A guy in Kwame Brown who once, at the age of 24, destroyed a stranger’s cake, getting it all over the man, before ducking into a limo like a hoe, has been anointed to push the Detroit Pistons over the top.

Good luck with that one Motor City. Will Kwame finally find his way under consummate vet, Antonio McDyess? Or will his attitude travel the path of Rasheed Wallace? How will any of these guys affect Walter Sharpe? In any case, $8 million over two-years is not exactly a low-risk move.

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