The 2012-13 NBA regular season ended a month and six days ago. Over the 170 days prior, starting on October 30, 2012, it was 82 games up, 82 games down for the Washington Wizards; 29 wins and 53 losses. The beauty is that we don’t have to live through it again—teams that win 35 percent of their games rarely want to—but we also don’t have to forget. Because you’d never learn, or improve, if you forgot everything and ripped the rearview mirror off the Ferrari.

Nineteen different individuals suited up for the Wizards this past season. Martell Webster led the way in action with 2,200 minutes, and Jason Collins contributed the fewest with 54 minutes. For all 82 games, the staff of Truth About It.net, amongst other game observations, rated each of the five Wizards starters plus two players off the bench on a three-star scale (inspired by the District of Columbia flag) in a series of posts called the D.C. Council. (Well, we evaluated players for all games, except one: Game 60, when Deron Williams completely demoralized the Wizards from ever competing by going 7-for-7 from the 3-point line in the first quarter.)

Sometimes three players off the bench were evaluated instead of two; a few times it was less than two. In general, the average rating of players coming off the bench was skewed a little higher for the simple fact that those playing better were more likely to get evaluated. Starters, on the other hand, got evaluated no matter what.

[***Also: remember that silly little time in December 2012 when the most positive talk that could be mustered was how the 1-13 Wizards led the NBA in bench scoring? Swell.]

The D.C. Council ratings are a statistical anti-stat. They are the combined impression of several interested members of the crowd, but in numerical form. Sometimes the ratings were contingent on winning and losing, and they were always subjective. They are simply one window of evaluation, combined with written analysis, both standard and advanced statistics, and shot charts. Below is a hyperlinked index of reviews for all 19 Wizards (plus a bonus review of Tomas Satoransky, Wizards Euro-stash), their average D.C. Council three-star rating, and the number of games over which they were evaluated.

The 2012-13 Washington Wizards season: it was all a dream, and not that great of a dream.

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[Wizards 2012-13 Player Reviews from the TAI crew are going down; let's reflect---index:
Jannero Pargo, Jason Collins, Shaun Livingston, Shelvin Mack, Cartier Martin, Earl Barron,
Jan Vesely, Chris Singleton, Trevor Booker, Garrett Temple, Emeka Okafor, Trevor Ariza,
Martell Webster, A.J. Price, Jordan Crawford, Kevin Seraphin, Bradley Beal, Nene, John Wall.]

Shaun Livingston

6-7 : Height
182 lbs. : Weight
27 : Age
8 : Years NBA Experience
7 : NBA Teams

Waived by the Rockets on Oct. 29, 2012;
signed by the Wizards on Nov. 15, 2012;
waived by the Wizards on Dec. 22, 2012;
signed by the Cavaliers on Dec. 25, 2012.

Time as a Wizard

17 : Games
4 : Starts
320 : Minutes

1.0 out of 3 stars

Average Truth About It.net DC Council Game Rating
{Livingston evaluated over 7 games.} 

7.4 PER

NBA historical PER contribution equivalent:
Roger Mason with the 2002-03 Chicago Bulls (7.4),
or perhaps Rusty LaRue with the 1999-00 Chicago Bulls (7.4)

.028 Win Shares/48 Minutes

NBA historical WS/48 contribution equivalent:
maybe Monta Ellis with the 2005-06 Golden State Warriors (.028),
maybe World B. Free with the 1987-88 Houston Rockets (.028),
maybe Doug Overton with the 1992-93 Washington Wizards (.028),
probably Gabe Pruitt with the 2007-08 Boston Celtics (.028)

With Shaun Livingston on the Court…

The Wizards offense scored 7.4 points less per 100 possessions (OffRtg)
The Wizards defense allowed 2.2 points more per 100 possessions (DefRtg)
Plus/Minus per 48 minutes: minus-15.3

Numbers : Per 36 Minutes

7.1 : Points
4.2 : Rebounds
0.2 : Blocks
1.2 : Steals
4.3 : Assists
1.9 : Turnovers
2.5 : Fouls

0.68 PPP

Livingston had 93 offensive possessions with the Wizards that ended with a FGA, TO or FTs, and he scored 0.68 Points Per Possession (PPP) on those, ranked 441st in the NBA (via Synergy Sports Technology). Defensively, he allowed 0.86 PPP over 126 possessions, ranked 168th in the league.

Shooting

36.4% Field Goals (24-66)
0% 3-Pointers (0-3)
100% Free Throws (15-15)

[stats via NBA.com/stats and Basketball-Reference.com]

#14

Shaun Livingston in 2012-13 with the Wizards:
In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb

by Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It)

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[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. 62, Washington Wizards at Cleveland Cavaliers; contributors: Adam McGinnis, Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie via eyes on television screens.]

Calling All Young Players! [Randy Wittman is in search of draft picks who can play.]

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[Editor's note: This is Mohamed Abdihakim's debut for TAI. Mohamed blogs at TheHoopDoctors.com and is an editor at Hoops-Nation.com. He is currently working toward a multimedia journalism degree from Florida Atlantic University. —Kyle W.]

82games.com has made available a certain simplified metric.

Belying otherwise extensive research, “Simple Rating” (SR) provides a relatively digestible look into a player’s value on the court versus their positional counterpart. The values used in this rating are Production—”a variant of John Hollinger’s PER”—and a plus/minus unit.

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D.C. residents cheered when three new escalators opened at the south entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro Station in October 2012. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) closed the southern entrance for repairs for nearly nine months, but the wait was worth it, in theory. WMATA had decided to strip the entrance and rebuild from scratch this past summer, finally doing away with some of the least reliable escalators in the system.

New “transit-grade” escalators promised a better commute—to “unsuck” D.C. Metro—in one of the city’s busiest, and deepest, subway stations. In reality, Metro and its faithfully frustrated riders were forced to deal with 20 outages in the first 40 days after the grand reopening.

Construction is a constant in the nation’s capital, but, for one reason or another, it never seems to go according to plan. Just ask any Wizards fan who is still waiting for their team to climb out of the gutter.

Supporters of D.C.’s pro basketball team have suffered through nearly 200 losses and some of the worst basketball the Association has ever seen for almost five seasons now. We all know about owner Ted Leonsis’ blueprint for rebuilding his Washington Wizards: stay financially flexible, sign free agents and develop supposedly talented prospect. And, perhaps, trade some of said prospects for major players when the opportunities arise.

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[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. 24, Washington Wizards at Detroit Pistons; contributors: Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

Don, Randy. Randy, Don.

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[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. 23, Washington Wizards at Orlando Magic; contributors: Adam McGinnis, John Converse Townsend and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

A Pre-Broken Fandom. Read more »

[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. 21, your Washington Wizards vs. the Heat in Miami; contributors: John Converse Townsend and Kyle Weidie from the other side of the boob tube.]

A coach trying to avoid an amber alert with his players… Read more »

[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. 19, Washington Wizards at Houston Rockets; contributors: Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

The rumored-to-be Wizard who never was, James Harden.

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Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s 18th game of the season against the Hornets in New Orleans are TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) and guest James Grayson (@jsgrayson), who writes about the Hornets for the ESPN TrueHoop blog Hornets 24/7.

Wizards Starters (2-15):

Jordan Crawford?/Shaun Livingston?, Bradley Beal, Martell Webster, Chris Singleton, Emeka Okafor

Hornets Starters (5-14):

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