Posts tagged ‘NBA Summer League’

With Thursday off, the Wizards will be back in summer league action tonight against Oleksiy Pecherov and the Minnesota Timberwolves at 8 pm. I won’t be able to catch the game live since I’ll be checking the John Legend concert at Merriweather … so I’ll depend on the usual Twitter suspects to keep me updated on the goings-ons. But until then …

Not this guy again .... (flickr/wizardsdotcom)

More positive signs regarding Andray Blatche? The DC Sports Bog reports:

Many of you have expressed doubts about Blatche’s recent promise to take advantage of his latest opportunity, and it’s understandable, given the relationship between what he’s said and what’s done in the past. I can say that, without a doubt, he’s made some weird quantum leap in talking with the media. I’ve never seen him anywhere close to as good with the media as he’s been this week. Here’s what he said about his teammates, and bear in mind, I asked the question, he wasn’t just offering this up.

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No, this isn't Ernie Grunfeld, it's Keith Sweat (clearly) - flickr/gwen

This Wizards lost their second summer league game against the Nuggets, and as a unit, they did not look good. But Ernie Grunfeld’s not sweating. He’s probably sitting poolside at the Hard Rock, requesting that the waitress blast some Skynard “Simple Man” over the sound system while he snacks on a cucumber and plays it cool in the 108 degree Vegas heat.

But should the Wizards’ Pres. of B-Ball Ops. (GM) be breaking a sweat over what he’s seen so far in Sin City?

On one hand, as we keep telling ourselves, it’s just a summer league game. The roster players out there will be playing vastly different roles come the regular season. They will be asked to do specialized acts and play within themselves, leaving the bulk of the scoring/defensive/creating duties to the ‘big boy’ players.

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flickr/Christopher Chan

Checked out the Wizards’ foray into the summer league last night. They won, almost blew an 18 point lead to Cleveland. Andray Blatche came out shaky. His version, via the DC Sports Bog recap, “I came out real hyper, real real hyper.”

Yep, in the beginning he looked like the same ol’ Blatche … ill-advised long jumpers early in the shot clock, turnovers while trying to carelessly push the ball on the break instead of passing to a guard, etc..

Eventually, after a talking-to by Dominic McGuire and assistant coach Don Zierden, he settled down, started hitting the boards hard, and played like a summer league veteran.

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flickr/Roadsidepictures

Well, by the time I posted ‘Knowing The Wizards ‘09 Summer League Team: Part 1‘ on Sunday, covering James Lang, Alex Ruoff, Jimmy Baron and John Edwards, Lang was cut (this made the DC Sports Bog especially sad). On Monday, both Ruoff and Baron were cut.

Sorry guys, guess it wasn’t in the cards or blogs.

Last night after the practice, the team began their journey to Vegas, and will play Cleveland’s summer league squad today at 6:30 pm EST. For a reminder on summer league rules, check out the Washington Wizards Blog.

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With the Wizards set to being summer league play in Las Vegas on Tuesday, the team has been holding a mini-camp in D.C. for the players on the team. The camp began on Saturday and will finish on Monday. Both the Washington Post and Washington Times have first day wrap-ups posted on their respective Wizards blogs, but with limited media access (essentially being able to watch the players shoot), there wasn’t much to report.

Both Bullets Forever and Ridiculous Upside previously posted some quick facts about the players on the summer league roster, but I wanted to dive a bit deeper, not only to find out what type of player each is, but also what composes their background.

Part one will focus on James Lang, John Edwards, Alex Ruoff, and Jimmy Baron. Lang, who previously spent time with the Wizards, gets a more formal write up. The rest of them get a short-cut … bullet points.

James Lang (A ‘Should’ve Gone To College’ Case)

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flickr/Roadsidepictures

On June 16, the DC Sports Bog posted odds to win the 2010 NBA championship from Bodog. The Wizards were in a three way tie with the Knicks and Nets with the 18th best odds to get a ring at 75-1.

On June 24th, the Wizards made the trade for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Increased team depth, Grunfeld is “comfortable” with what he has … better odds to win it all, right? Not exactly.

(For the record, overall I’m very optimistic about the potential of this Wizards team … there are just some holes that need filling, and I’m not talking about some gross porno you probably just watched online.)

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The Washington Wizards came up short in summer league game number two, just as they did in game one. This time, the youngsters of the Philadelphia 76ers prevailed. You can find the blog for game one against Portland on Bullets Forever….along with an in-depth analysis of JaVale McGee’s defense from that game. As for game two, the show is below.

Quarter One

Andray Blatche isn’t ready for the tip to start. Great.

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