[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 36, Washington Wizards at Sacramento Kings; contributors: John Converse Townsend, Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from the East Coast.]

Bradley Beal’s career-high 26. Read more »

{flickr/Tim Yates}

Back on November 24 of last year, my Truth About It colleague Kyle Weidie posed a question to site readers:  “Who Will Give The Washington Wizards Their First Road Win?” At the time, the Wizards were 0-6 away from home, but their slow start could easily be attributed to youth, a tough road schedule and the fact that Gilbert Arenas still wasn’t traded.

Two months and an Arenas trade later, the road loss count has ballooned from six to 20, and the cause cannot be easily explained away.  Depending on who you ask and when, blame can be placed on anyone from Ernie Grunfeld to Josh Howard’s knee.  Still, the fact remains that last night’s second half collapse in Milwaukee left the Wizards with an 0-20 road record to start the season — just nine away from the record held by the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks of 29 consecutive away-from-home losses to start a season.

The Wizards’ next 10 road games look like this: Read more »

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.) 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.

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Ya’ll remember Brian Cardinal?

He was on the Wizards for all of 15 minutes (literally, he saw 15 total minutes of court time in a Wiz uniform)….scoring four points and pulling down five boards over five games. And that was the only action on the court he saw for the entire 2002-03 season.

The Wiz got him in September ’02 when Michael Jordan traded Rip Hamilton, Bobby Simmons, and Hubert Davis to the Pistons for Jerry Stackhouse, Ratko Varda, and Cardinal…..that really worked out. Nice move for the future MJ.

In the present day, people are all like, “Oh, Brian Cardinal looks like a dad,” or “Brian Cardinal looks like an abusive husband.”

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