[Jordan Crawford... Friday practice before game day, and the night after the Saturday contest.]

By some metrics, Jordan Crawford has been the very best Washington Wizard this season. His 12.4 points per game leads the team; only one other player averages double figures for Washington: Bradley Beal and his 10.9 points per game. Crawford also essentially leads the Wiz in PER (player efficiency rating) with a 16.8 in 187 minutes of action; worth noting, however, that Earl Barron has a 30.5 PER in 24 minutes and Cartier Martin has a 20.5 PER in 41 total minutes. But of those NBAers who have tallied at least 150 minutes on the court this season, Crawford’s 16.8 PER is tied for 83rd best in the league with Indiana’s David West. Your best Wizard, everyone.

Crawford had a 14.5 PER last season, so the improvement is numerically clear. But Crawford also passes the eye test, too, thus far. Especially as of late, he’s been a more patient, a more calculated player, while still showing hints of him being him — “Steez,” if you will. The .488 eFG% (effective field goal percentage) that Crawford is shooting this year is undoubtedly an improvement over last season’s .446. An assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.35 last season has also improved to 1.68 this season. Better shooting, better passing via Crawford.

Now, Crawford’s plus/minus numbers don’t signify that he’s the best Wizard. Crawford has a plus/minus of minus-4.9 per 48 minutes, the sixth “best,” if you will, on the Wizards — after Jan Vesely (plus-7.7 per 48), Cartier Martin (plus-5.9), Earl Barron (plus-4.0), Jannero Pargo (minus-2.8), and Martell Webster (minus-4.8). But who’s going to shoot? Those guys? Pffft! Otherwise, things are looking up for ol’ J.C. — the “Crawfish” — it’s just that his team is losing. Losing to the tune of 0-8.

“It’s tough, but I think everybody’s man enough to accept the challenge ahead, and I think we will,” said Crawford after the Wizards dropped their eighth game in as many on the season against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night. And on fans booing? Read more »

The Detroit Pistons, who were pacing the NBA in futility, crushed the 76ers in Philadelphia last night, 94-76. Detroit attacked the rim for 48 minutes and outscored Philly 42-28 in the a paint. Greg Monroe led the way with a 19-point, 18-rebound performance. That win snapped the Pistons’ eight-game skid to start the 2012-13 season, and meant that the Wizards, who fell to 0-7 in Dallas, are the last remaining winless team in the NBA. (Fun fact: The Wizards got off to the worst start in franchise history last season, going 0-8; traditions, it seems, are tough to break.)

But Randy “Rodney Dangerfield” Wittman thinks he knows why his squad is falling short of (playoff) expectations: No respect!

“For whatever reason, this team doesn’t get any respect,” Wittman told NBA.com’s Jeff Caplan. “We go to the rim and had 11 free throws. These young guys just have to make a name for themselves, and it’s just baffling some of the things that are said to me by the refs for why they don’t call it.”

Wittman didn’t stop there: “Maybe we have to send the game film everyday to the league.”

Read more »

photo: K. Weidie

One game has turned to two games has turned to three games, and the Washington Wizards have lost them all. But you can take the losses, right Wiz fans? We’re at 266 L’s and counting over the last five-plus seasons, so I’m betting you can.

There are, however, encouraging signs, in pockets. But I’m not here to sell you magic beans of what such encouragement can sprout, just that they won’t be hot pockets (Andray Blatche/WizzNutzz reference). This Wizards team is devoid of young knuckleheads, and that is refreshing.

“We are very tough to play against,” writes Ted Leonsis on his blog. True. Although, worth noting that two hard-fought games between Washington and Boston, with Boston narrowly winning both, is probably more of an indictment of the Celtics than an endorsement of Wizards promise.

But let’s not focus on encouragement and promise. Decent performances from a couple Wiz Kids need to be built upon before the potential is elevated too much. It’s nonetheless nice that Kevin Seraphin, Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely, the relatively young Martell Webster, and Jordan Crawford have displayed some good episodes in certain instances.

Read more »

Jordan Crawford and Cartier Martin work on their corner 3s during a post-practice shooting drill after the morning session of Washington Wizards training camp day one.

Last season the Washington Wizards attempted 329 corner 3-pointers, 16th most in the NBA. The Atlanta Hawks led the league with 464 3-point attempts from the corner and the Spurs were next with 453 attempts.

Washington made 132 of their corner 3-point attempts, good enough for 40.1 percent and seventh best in the NBA. Atlanta made 39.7 percent of their corner 3s and San Antonio made 41.9 percent; the Golden State Warriors led the league in shooting 45.6 percent on corner 3s.

One could easily deduce: Hey, the Wizards need to shoot more corner 3s. From a tweet of NBA.com’s John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) in September:

Here’s a fascinating one: The league leader in assists on corner 3s was, by far, John Wall (77). Rondo was next w/ 59.

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Jordan F-ing Crawford.

“That guy.”

What IS his deal?

Playing 27.1 minutes per game this season and averaging 17.9 field goals per 36 minutes while shooting an effective-FG percentage of 0.450 doesn’t exactly put Jordan in good company, historically.

According to the Basketball-Reference.com database, 12 such NBA players since the 1991-92 season have averaged 25 to 30 minutes per game, attempted at least 15 field goals per 36 minutes, and have had an eFG% less than 0.455. Those players, ranked by Win Shares Per 48 Minutes:

1. Isaiah Rider – 0.86 – 1988-99 Portland Trailblazers (13.7 PER)
2. Malik Sealy – 0.62 – 1994-95 LA Clippers (14.7)
3. Jamal Crawford – 0.59 – 2011-12 Portland Trailblazers (14.7)
4. Michael Redd – 0.59 – 2009-10 Milwaukee Bucks (12.1)
5. Josh Howard – 0.54 – 2009-10 Dallas/Washington (12.7)
6. Larry Hughes – 0.36 – 1999-00 (14.7)
7. Jordan Crawford – 0.25 – 2011-12 Philadelphia/Golden State (14.9)
8. Jerry Reynolds – 0.25 – 1991-92 Orlando Magic (13.9)
9. Bonzi Wells – 0.23 – 2003-04 Portland/Memphis (13.0)
10. Kemba Walker – 0.17  - 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats (15.3)
11. Dejuan Wagner – 0.11 – 2002-03 Cleveland Cavaliers (10.9)
12. Vernon Maxwell – negative-0.001 – 1996-97 San Antonio Spurs (11.8)

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NBA coaches are constantly tinkering with their five-man units. Whether someone starts or not really takes a back seat to the primary concern of which players work well together, and only then, how match-ups can be exploited. In the very least, lineup data can tell us which combinations of Wizards have best played together with success (must less whom they are doing it against… high- or low-quality opponents). The lineup statistics for these 2011-12 Wizards also tell of a failed plan from the start. But if the ultimate goal was to get a top four pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, then maybe Ernie Grunfeld & Co. haven’t failed after all.

Eighteen different five-man units have played 25 or more minutes together for Washington this season. Below is the distribution of those lineups ranked by minutes played, and including the plus/minus per 48 minutes for that lineup. Yes, one lineup this season played 41 minutes together and would have been down by 38.4 points had they hypothetically played an entire game together against hypothetical competition. It’s hypothetically pretty sad. I’ve bolded the five lineups with a positive plus/minus per 48 minutes, if that helps.

OK, so what if we were to rank those 18 lineups by best to worst plus/minus per 48 minutes, but hiding all names except for those of JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Nene. What if… Read more »

Nenê tries to defend John Wall,
which won’t be happening anymore, aside from practice hoops.

[photo: K. Weidie, Truth About It.net]

So that’s that. Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld finally found dance partners in the Clippers and Nuggets in a three-team deal just moments before today’s trading deadline. JaVale McGee has disappeared into thin air, now a member of the Nuggets along with Ronny Turiaf (we hardly knew ye). Nick Young’s career in D.C. has gone up in smoke as he packs his bags for home, sunny California, now a member of contending Clip Show. And Nenê Hilario, one of the league’s most underrated players, will make his way to the nation’s capital as the Wizards’ starting center, along with L.A.’s Brian Cook and a second-round pick …

Which makes me wonder: what will become of Kevin Seraphin?

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[Editor's note: This is the TAI debut of Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) -- long-time reader, retired anonymous blogger, and the best pound-for-pound rebounder in DC -- (Dan's claims, not mine). Dan is here to discuss Cavs rookie Kyrie Irving, who's just 19-years old and having fun. For instance, as his coach, Byron Scott, spoke with the media at the Verizon Center tonight, telling them how Irving would be in the starting lineup (after missing last night's game with the flu), Irving jumped on a nearby service cart and honked the horn. Verizon Center security got tough with him, let Irving know that he shouldn't do that. The kid played tough, too, at first, but the exchange ultimately ended with smiles. Later, in the locker room, as Luke Harangody related the story to another Cavs teammate, Irving explained that that's just who he is right now, a 19-year old, and to check back when he's 22. I'll let Dan Diamond take it away. -Kyle W.]

[org. picture via espn.com]

Getting old isn’t fun, but there’s a silver lining for golfers: They can dream of one day “shooting their age“—a rare feat when a golfer’s age is the same or older than his day’s score.

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Twenty-two games, one-third of the season, is over for the Washington Wizards. To say the least, it’s been tough on this rebuilding team. And to stress that “team” part, let’s see which combination of players has been working the best together, and which combinations haven’t.

According to BasketballValue.com, 177 different five-man units have seen action for the Washington Wizards this season. 177 sounds like a lot, but only 54 of those units have seen more than five minutes of court time together, so this post/results will focus on those, i.e., no need to include units such as John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Roger Mason, Rashard Lewis and Jan Vesely, who have seen a total of 0.03 minutes on the court together.

Five units have seen 31.75-percent of the total action. Those five units are:

1. Wall – Young – Lewis – Blatche – McGee (10.44% of court time, 110.25 minutes)
2. Wall – Young – Singleton – Booker – McGee (7.1%, 74.97)
3. Wall – Young – Singleton – Blatche – McGee (5.81%, 61.37)
4. Wall – Young – Lewis – Vesely – McGee (4.46%, 47.1)
5. Wall – Crawford – Lewis – Blatche – McGee (3.93%, 41.55)

Of those 54 “five minutes or more” lineups, these are the top five in Offensive Rating (an estimation of points scored per 100 possesions): Read more »

Quietly, rookie Shelvin Mack is one of the few positives in another lost Wizards season in terms of wins and losses. Just about every day, Mack writes into his Twitter account, @ShelvinMack, ”Think Positive…….” So to not let something good go unnoticed, let’s talk about Mr. Mack for a second.

Thus far this NBA season, 34 rookies have played at least 100 total minutes. Mack’s PER (Player Efficiency Rating) stands at 15.1, which is slightly above the league average of 15. For a rook, however, this is better than average. His PER ranks eighth best amongst the list of 34 rookies (via Basketball-Reference.com). Here’s the top 10:

1. Kyrie Irving – 21.5
2. MarShon Brooks – 19.5
3. Nikola Vucevic – 18.1
4. Jon Leuer – 17.6
5. Ricky Rubio – 17.6
6. Enes Kanter – 16.9
7. Kemba Walker – 15.4
8. Shelvin Mack – 15.1
9. Tobias Harris – 14.9
10. Kawhi Leonard – 14.9

To note, Chris Singleton has a PER of 10.0 (ranked 26th) and Jan Vesely has a PER of 6.4 (ranked 32) — no reason to be down on Washington’s first rounders in comparison to their second rounder, however.

Read more »