Truth About It.net will turn a whole five years old at the end of this October.

Hard to believe/interesting. Nonetheless, over the life of the site from the 2007-08 season to 2011-12, we’ve seen/lived/suffered through 131 wins, 263 losses, four coaches, two owners, one GM/team president, one Phil Chenier mustache removal, and 56 total players (amazingly, 48 players over the last three seasons).

You may have heard of ESPN’s #NBArank project, now in year two. Now hear of #WizardsRank, where we rank each of those 56 players during Truth About It.net’s five-year run.

TAI anonymously polled 27 members of the Wizards pixel establishment — from mainstream media to new media, TAI staffers included, to a few pixel consumers (readers of the site) — and got 17 responses.

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[The DC Council — After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 30 contributors: Adam McGinnis (@AdamMcGinnis), John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).

Score

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Lob City comes to the District tonight… the highest highs and the lowest lows of the Wizards multiplied by the Los Angeles Clippers and divided by a 4-19 record against a 13-7 one. “I told them I’m pulling that cigarette out tonight,” said Wizards coach Randy Wittman before the game, referring to the very poor effort the Wizards gave in a loss to Toronto last night and how his team “fell off the wagon” back to poor habits. The coach is also going with Trevor Booker over Jan Vesely in the Wizards starting lineup. Talking to the Cook Book before the game, his focus will be keeping Blake Griffin away from the basket and on how the Wizards guard pick and rolls (Chris Paul runs a lot of them, Wittman admitted). What’s the key to stopping Paul on the P&Rs? “We got to make sure we stop the ball, make sure he can’t get in the lane. The more he’s in the lane, the more have to collapse, and the more the bigs are going to be open to throw the lob to,” said Booker. For tonight’s 3-on-3 drill we have Kevin Arnovitz (@kevinarnovitz) of ESPN TrueHoop/ClipperBlog, along with TAI’s Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It). Three questions, three answers starts now…

1) What’s the No. 1 thing Chris Paul has that John Wall doesn’t, but really needs to get?

ARNOVITZ: Vision. When Paul has the ball in the half court, he’s thinking about one thing — where he is relationally to the other shotmakers on the court and those on the defense who can alter those shots. Wall is speedy, but like most people in their early 20s – apologies to Louis CK – he has no idea how to do the job yet. That will change.

MOBLEY: Since this is the Super Bowl weekend, I’ll start with a football analogy. Rookie running backs tend ignore their offensive line and to try to use their God-given athleticism to make a big play.  Seasoned running backs patiently wait for the offensive line to open a hole (they may even rest their hands on the backs of the O-line while the play is unfolding) then they run right through. There’s an impatience to Wall’s game right now that manifests itself via the one-man fast breaks, the rushed jumpers, and the exasperation with his teammates. Chris Paul, with talented teammates in Los Angeles and less talented teammates in New Orleans, is a patient point guard. He lets the game come to him, he sets up teammates, and if he’s needed to do more, he does that too.

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Seeing that pro basketball fans are essentially suspended from the NBA due to squabbling amongst millionaires and billionaires, passing time might be aided by chronicling all NBA and team suspensions of the Washington Wizards since circa 1995. Why? Well, because we humans love stories about crime and punishment, and to most, the NBA lockout fits the bill for both.  So away we go (with old basketball cards to accompany on occasion)…

[Note: This listing is incomplete and unconfirmed for accuracy; information has been gleaned, copied and pasted from eskimo.com/~pbender and prosportstransactions.com with the understanding that all suspensions and fines might not have been publicized or reflected.]

1/5/95
Bernard King suspended by team for altercation with head coach at practice.

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Nothing has come easy for former, brief Washington Wizard Randy Foye since he joined the NBA in 2006. But the reversed-organed kid (Situs inversus for you doctors) from a rough neighborhood in cold New Jersey has always had cloudy obstacles to overcome.

A Kevin McHale draft day deal sent Foye as the No. 7 pick (via the Boston Celtics) from the Portland Trailblazers to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for the No. 6 pick, Brandon Roy. While Foye averaged a respectable 10.1 points per game and a December 2006 Western Conference Rookie of the Month award during his inaugural pro campaign in Minnesota, Roy enjoyed Rookie of the Year honors for the Trail Blazers.

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[Florida Ave. Grill - Florida Ave. & 11th St. NW - Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

<FREE LINKS (AND COMMENTARY)>

(*) Josh Howard is the subject of a recent post by Zac Crain on Free Darko. Interesting stuff. If I can get the gist: Michael Finley kinda caught basketball cancer from Michael Jordan, and in turn gave that cancer to Josh Howard whereas Howard went from doing the little things to settling for fade-away jumpers. Reminds me of Caron Butler, a little. My take: if defense is preached first, and Howard listens, he can return to a solid all-around player. Oh, and if his knee gets better.

(*) Trevor Booker, after the Las Vegas summer league, participated in the development camp of Denver Nuggets assistant coach Tim Grgurich, as reported by the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. Grgurich was an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks during Ernie Grunfeld’s tenure as their GM.

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A lot of people were disappointed when the Wizards traded for Kirk Hinrich.  Mike Prada of SB Nation alone gave the move a “Nay”, a “Feh”, and a “D-”.

There is no question that “Kurt” is overpaid, but salary cap space only gets you so far.  Even if the Wizards had upwards of $25 million to spend, it wouldn’t get them any closer to signing a “max” contract player.  Let’s be serious.  None of the league’s top players ever really considered coming to D.C., even with John Wall.  The Wizards will be a work in progress for a couple of years, and when we are honestly competitive, Hinrich will no longer be under contract.

So is he worth it for this Wizards team?  I turned to Synergy Sports Technology to find out.

OFFENSE

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If I were doing things in a better manner (blog-wise), I’d make a separate post for each and every little bit of John Wall-related news emerging on the world-wide-web … there’d be a thousand of them. Instead, I’m throwing the best of the recent best in this post … with commentary. Enjoy.

Michael Lee of the Washington Post discusses the possibility of an Arenas-Wall backcourt. Lee touches on the idea that Arenas might actually relish not having to lead the offense under Flip Saunders. Remember, much of his struggles in ’09-10 weren’t necessarily due to having to overcome physical obstacles, but rather how to get the ball to others within the offense while balancing the idea that he needs to attack himself in order to create for others. Now, perhaps simplifying the necessity of Arenas’ talent could create a better team-wide dynamic. Lee writes:

My point is, Arenas could easily switch to shooting guard and be effective playing with Wall. He was a shooting guard in his two seasons at Arizona. And, when he shared the backcourt with Larry Hughes in his first two seasons in Washington, Hughes led the team in assists both seasons. Arenas actually enjoyed not being the lone playmaker on the team. At times, the responsibility frustrated him last season under Saunders’s system.

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The Pick and Roll is a staple of many NBA offenses. The Wizards, in particular, starved when it came to defending P&Rs in 2009-10.

Once again turning to Synergy Sports Technology, we learn that as a team, the Wizards defended the P&R ball handler 1,128 times in plays that ended with a FGA, TO or FTA. This accounted for 12.6% of the team’s defensive plays. Defending these plays, the Wizards gave up 0.89 points-per-possession (PPP), which is tied for the most allowed in the NBA.

Against the Wizards, the P&R ball handler shot 43.2% on field goals and scored 42.9% of the time, which is the second highest scoring rate allowed in the league.

Conversely, the Wizards had to defend the P&R roll man 406 times and fared slightly better in the PPP department.

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Don’t blame Randy Foye.

He already made it, so he doesn’t have to worry about you, or me, thinking he’s not good enough to cut it. Randy Foye is an NBA player and the league is his oyster … sort of.

Right now, he doesn’t have discretion to go where he pleases … a situation which would probably suit him best. His fate is in the hands of the Wizards. They can elect not to extend Foye, who is at the end of his rookie contract, a qualifying offer ($4.8 million for ’10-11), thus making him an unrestricted free-agent.

Or, they can extend the offer, whereas Foye becomes a restricted free-agent of the Wizards. If he doesn’t receive a longer-term offer from another team, which the Wizards could match, or an offer from the Wizards themselves, he’d end up in D.C. for one season at that $4.8 price and would be an unrestricted free-agent in the Summer of 2011.

I’ve mostly assumed that Ernie Grunfeld will not extend a qualifying offer to Foye. Randy thinks he’s a point guard. Flip Saunders would probably tell you otherwise. Him taking up salary and a roster spot might not be necessary. Simple as that.

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