Player evaluations for ’08-09 are in full effect, up second is Juan Dixon. My thoughts are below, you can check on the full report on Bullets Forever.

[Previously: Oleksiy Pecherov]

Juan Dixon seemingly fell into the right opportunity last year … well, for him, not the Wizards. Gilbert Arenas goes down and signing Dixon, local kid made good via prevailing under abysmal childhood circumstances and a Maryland Terrapins national championship, seemed the perfect fit.

Dixon knew the system, having previously played for the Wiz under Eddie Jordan, and would presumably provide the same veteran guard skills and bench scoring punch that was vacated by Roger Mason, Jr. (or not really).

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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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Last year, the Hawks, in Atlanta, were the source for the first win of the season after an 0-5 Washington start. Tonight, both of these teams meet, desperate for a win and riddled with injuries. The Hawks have lost four games in a row since starting 6-0. The stat stuffing Josh Smith has been out with a sprained ankle and Al Horford went down last night with an ankle injury. He is questionable to play against the Wizards tonight.

Ivan Carter has a good run-down of the ATL on Wizards Insider.

Back to last year’s history, the Wizards finished 2-2 against the Hawks. Here’s how it went down:

Game 6: Wizards @ Atlanta – Nov. 11, 2007
This game was played at the same time as a Redskins-Eagles matchup….so I made my friends put two TVs in their living room. The Wiz played a good game all around, moving the ball well and netting 26 assists, with 8 coming from Butler. They also worked inside-out, establishing Haywood in the paint early. BTH finished with 13 points and 12 boards. The Wiz had the game relatively in command but Atlanta made a late run and cut the lead to five with 3:40 left. However, Antawn Jamison sealed a big win with some clutch baskets. He finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds.
Wizards 101 – Hawks 90

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The Wizards only played the Knicks three times during the 07-08 season, and lost twice to a New York team that only finished with 23 wins on the year. Here’s what happened (after the pic):

[source: flickr/cougar-studio]

• Game 37: Wizards @ New York Knicks – Jan. 15, 2008
  Antonio Daniels had a sore knee so Roger Mason Jr. got the starting nod, and he did not disappoint, knocking down 8 of 14 shots for 20 points. But as they have the propensity to do, the Wizards got off to a bad start, down 30-14 after one quarter…..perhaps it was the empty airplane hanger-like atmosphere in the Garden. Behind a strong 2nd quarter where “I Get Buckets Son” hit three 3s, the Wiz were down 51-41 at the half. After three, the Knick lead was cut to 5. But in the end, the Wizards were out rebounded, out assisted, out shot, and looked worn down after coming off amazing back-to-back wins against the Celtics. Jamal Crawford torched the Wiz for 29 points en route to a 105-93 New York win over Washington.

• Game 38: Washington Wizards vs. Knicks – Jan. 18, 2008
  So, three days later, the Wiz got their shot at redemption in the confines of the Verizon Center. The first quarter ended with both teams scoring in bunches, and shooting over 63%; the Knicks held the lead 32-28. In the 2nd quarter, Caron Butler showed some hustle swag to put the Wiz up 61-57 at the half. Washington built their lead to 12 at the end of 3 with solid defense by DeShawn Stevenson on Jamal Crawford, and some strong contributions from Big Oily, Oleksiy Pecherov, off the bench. The Knicks cut the Wizards lead to 4 early in the 4th, but Caron Butler (22 points), Antawn Jamison (32 points), and the bench (30 points) ensured the win for the Wizards, 111-98 over the Knicks.

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photo from washingtonwizards.com

Ok, so Jamison isn’t exactly chewing on a straw a la Tuff Juice in the photo above….it appears to be a mouth piece. But it’s safe to say, the team better be following the actions and listening to the words of the guy with a teeth-marked plastic straw in his mouth.

The Pradamaster already did a Wizards link dump over at Bullets Forever. Now, I’d like to get in on the action with some linkage diarrhea…..gotta give good content across the world wide web its proper due…..not that the below links are bad like the collywobbles, but they sure are juicy.

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Speaking of Tuff Juice, Tom Knott has a column about the guy, “Wizards getting more than they bargained,” at The Washington Times. Read more »

photobucket – TheCoolest404

I’m not sure if Ernie Grunfeld is good at chess, but when it comes to generally managing an NBA franchise, he has a knack for moving around pawns for the benefit of the program (not to trivialize the fill-in pieces which are crucial to a team’s end of the bench by calling them ‘pawns’).

A Michael Ruffin here (yea, he was the definition of a role player, but always did what was expected of him….well, except for this of course – Best game ever as a Wizard? Game 1 of the 04-05 season when Ruffin pulled down 11 boards, scored 6 points, and blocked 7 shots in a win at Memphis….to say the Wizards were short-handed that night would be an understatement: Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, and Steve Blake were on the injured list; Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, Brendan Haywood an Anthony Peeler were all suspended from a pre-season fight with the Chicago Bulls)….Note: The Memphis game was also Antawn Jamison’s first game as a Wizard – 45 minutes, 34 points, 8 rebounds.

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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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Roger Mason Junior, part 6 of Washington Wizards Player Evaluations:
Etan Thomas | Oleksiy Pecherov | Dominic McGuire | Nick Young | Andray Blatche

Head over the Bullets Forever to see what the Pradamaster and JakeTheSnake have to say.

Roger Mason Junior…..DC’s own….the Potomac Rainmaker. Mason Junior was the recipient of this year’s Pleasant Surprise Award. Ok, I made that up…..but the fact is that Roger Mason had a career year, averaging 9.1 ppg and almost 40% (39.8) from 3-point land. Oh yea, his PER and Usage-Rate bested that of both DeShawn Stevenson and Antonio Daniels. Mase-ON was truly an invaluable offensive spark off the bench as the Wizards dealt with an array of injuries in 07-08. Not only that, but in the nine games he was asked to start (five of which came in late December), Mason averaged 17.4 ppg, 3.4 ast, 52.6% fg, and 43.1% 3p.

But alas, it’s the opinion of most that this four-year, three-team NBA journeyman (with stops in Greece and Israel in between NBA stints) will continue his travels elsewhere. Does it have to be this way for a hometown guy who seemingly wants to play in DC and for the Wizards…..especially considering that he turned down a 3-year $3 million contract from the world champion (soon to be former) San Antonio Spurs to sign with the Wizards for one year and $895,341 this past season? Or, did Roger have that much confidence in his game that he figured he would get more run with the Wiz, and thus be able to parlay that into a larger contract?

Whatever the case, people noticed and Roger will get paid. However, Mason’s NBA future (and he does have an NBA future) is in limbo until a couple of questions are answered:
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This is not so much a game 3 preview as it is a festival of related links and the best words from them. I’ve read them all and can vouch for each and every one. Enjoy.

flickr/wizardsdotcom

Good Words to Start
>> “We have to channel all of our aggressiveness, all of our excitement and all of our bravado into being organized within the team framework.” [Eddie Jordan via WashingtonWizardsBlog]

>> “Discipline first is self control. Discipline second is The Enforcer. If you can’t control yourself, The Enforcer must control it, and that’s me.” [Eddie Jordan via DC Sports Bog] – Oh yea, same link….Caron Butler shaved a message in the back of his head.Advocating to use Roger Mason Junior as the “enforcer” because of his “super human strength.” [Basketbawful]

>> Great piece on the upbringing of Roger Mason aka The Silent Assassin [Jon Siegel, Washington Times]

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Ron Thompson on Comcast with his “Ronny’s” tonight…..some type of award with a creative nickname.

The Warrior Award: DeShawn Stevenson – agreed. My 2nd place would be Antawn Jamison
Most Improved: Roger Mason – agreed again. Just as Ron said, it was a difficult choice between Mase-ON and Brendan Haywood.
Mr. Dependable: Obviously Jamison.
Mr. Complete: Caron Butler
(I’m beginning to think that they selected players first, and then named awards according to their games.)
The Overachiever: Eddie Jordan – I’m caught on this award. I hate to call Eddie an “overachiever” for doing his job and being the good coach that I know he is, and whom I’ve supported, from Day 1.

Anyway, the game…

This is the Pacers ‘De La Soul’ game….you know, the Stakes Is High. If they lose, they can pretty much count on watching the playoffs from home. And that’s fine with me, I’d rather see the Atlanta Hawks step up to bat. The task won’t be easy, Danny Granger has been killing lately (much less being an upcoming Wizards Killer, a la Mo Williams) and both Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler will be resting injuries tonight.

Quarter One

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