Posts tagged ‘shaun livingston’

[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. 11, Washington Wizards vs Charlotte Bobcats; contributors: Dan Diamond and Sean Fagan from the Verizon Center and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

John Wall couldn’t watch. Chris Singleton still made the second of book-end free throws with three chances at the line, sending the game into double-overtime. Read more »

Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s 11th game of the season against the Bobcats in D.C. are TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) and guest Ben Swanson (@CardboardGerald), who writes about the Bobcats for the SB Nation blog Rufus On Fire (@Rufus_On_Fire).

Wizards Starters (0-10):

Shaun Livingston, Jordan Crawford, Bradley Beal, Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphin
(…assuming Randy Wittman keeps the same starters from last game — we’re still not so sure about Vesely starting, but he matches up against Byron Mullens better than he does against Josh Smith.)

Bobcats Starters (6-5):

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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. 10, Washington Wizards at Atlanta Hawks; contributors: Adam McGinnis, Rashad Mobley and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

Flabbergasted. Read more »

Ugly is an understatement. It borders on the surreal, whatever is going on with these 0-9 Washington Wizards. In the last five-plus seasons alone, we’re up to 131 wins, 272 losses, 73 players, four head coaches, two owners, and one team president of basketball operations, Ernie Grunfeld. All the problems seem different, but they add up to one big mess.

This play from Monday’s Pacers game, as described by the Washington Post’s Michael Lee, is quite unique in itself, and captures the essence of this year’s issues:

The struggles of the starters were summed up in one play in the third quarter, when Crawford drove into the lane and flipped an air ball. Okafor jumped to get the putback, but shot an air ball over the rim. Price missed a three-pointer and then Okafor had his shot blocked by Hibbert. Fans started booing.

Let’s watch:

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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. 9, Washington Wizards vs. Indiana; contributors: Rashad Mobley and John Converse Townsend from the Verizon Center with Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

Wanna Get Away? #WizardsSlogans 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. 8, Washington Wizards vs. Utah Jazz; contributors: Sean Fagan and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center with John Converse Townsend from behind the T.V.]

No Wall, No Nene… Not an excuse. Read more »

Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s eighth game of the season against the Jazz in Washington are TAI’s Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) and guest Spencer Ryan Hall (@saltcityhoops), who writes about the Jazz for the TrueHoop blog Salt City Hoops.

Wizards Starters (0-7):

A.J. Price, Jordan Crawford, Trevor Ariza, Jan Vesely & Emeka Okafor

Jazz Starters (4-6):

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Shaun Livingston won’t be wearing a cape when he takes the floor for the Wizards. They’ve lost seven games to start the season without him, Washington could very well lose the next seven games with him. Although, as a survivor of an infamous knee injury—one that not only could have been career-ending, but also leg-ending—he probably feels like he has protective cape on his back for the rest of his basketball playing days.

Livingston has been on three different NBA teams since his previous stint Wizards in the aftermath of the 2009-10 “Guns in the Locker Room” season—he signed late that February and appeared in 26 games. He called his time in D.C. a “turning point” for his career at his first practice on Friday afternoon, relishing in how it all came together: the chance and minutes that then-coach Flip Saunders gave him, his knee responding well, and finding confidence. But as fate would have it, the Wizards landed 2010 No. 1 draft pick John Wall, they dealt for Kirk Hinrich on the night of that draft, and they still had Gilbert Arenas on roster. Livingston was no longer needed. “That’s just the name of the game, those things happen,” he said.

Livingston signed with the Bobcats that offseason and continued his strong play in 2010-11. His career-high 14.4 PER in 26 games with the Wizards only dipped to 14.3 in 73 games with Charlotte. But then he was traded again in the offseason, this time to Milwaukee, where he appeared in 58 games during the lockout-shortened season with a PER of 11. Then, another offseason trade to Houston—Livingston was sent as part of a deal that allowed the Rockets to clear Samuel Dalembert’s contract off their books. But Livingston never suited up in Texas and was waived on October 29. It took a couple weeks for the Wizards to finally come calling.

“I haven’t played yet this year. Just anxious to get out there, very anxious. Just gotta get my legs back, get my wind up, and I’ll be alright,” said Livingston when presented to the media after Friday’s practice. It’s a totally new locker room, Livingston has noticed. As well advertised, John Wall, Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin are the longest-tenured Wizards. Livingston and Cartier Martin did, however, appear in eight games together at the end of that 2009-10 season.

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John Wall is a high concern for the Wizards. John Wall’s backup — whether Wall is healthy or injured — is a high concern for the Wizards. So much of a concern that they made a calculated decision to sign A.J. Price as backup in late July, which is way early in the time allowed to make roster decisions before the season. John Lucas III got more money from the Toronto Raptors, Keyon Dooling ultimately retired, and it didn’t look like the Houston Rockets would be parting ways with Shaun Livingston, at the time. What other backup point guard options were there?

And then Wall goes and gets injured. Timing is everything.

To compensate, the Wizards signed the 32-year old Jannero Pargo, and ultimately cut their 34th overall 2011 draft pick, Shelvin Mack, after training camp and preseason. About Pargo, the ever-lurking John Hollinger writes in his 2012-13 season preview on ESPN Insider:

Pargo played well for Atlanta last season but obviously his combination of age (32) and track record make him a somewhat risky investment. That said, this was by far the best point guard candidate left on the market and Washington did well to get him so inexpensively. I’d argue he was a better solution than Price, in fact.

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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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