Various notes from the Wizards’ first summer league game, a 102-82 loss to the Atlanta Hawks… But first, a video featuring Sam Cassell, Bradley Beal, Jan Vesely, and Chris Singleton…

Rest in Vegas?

One thing to consider: the Wizards probably landed close to 2:30, 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time in Las Vegas on Friday morning; they had to turn around and play at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Read more »

One up, one down. The Wizards looked good at times, in spots, but not often in a 20-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks (102-82) in their Las Vegas Summer League debut. For your perusal: the box score via NBA.com.

M.V.P.

The Washington Wizards faithful got what they came to see. No; not the Wiz getting throttled by the Hawks in Washington’s first Summer League contest — but Bradley Beal. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft dropped 22 points on 6-for-14 shooting (1-for-3 from 3-point range) in his first televised game as a pro. (His first field goal attempt, a transition layup, was blocked.) When he wasn’t finding space off ball screens, Beal was slashing into the paint for points and earning trips to the free throw line, where he missed just one of his 10 attempts. It’s easy to talk about the rookie’s versatile skillset at the two guard (handles and scoring instincts), but he really impressed on the defensive end of the floor. Beal is long, he’s quick, he’s disciplined, and he’s tough. And the best part about it: Bradley Beal is a Wizard.

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The Washington Wizards concluded their pre-Summer League mini-camp this week after seven practices and a scrimmage at the Verizon Center practice court facility. As the Wizards prepare for their first summer action since 2010 due to the lockout, intriguing story lines are plentiful.

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At 4 p.m. EDT this afternoon, the latest version of the “Wiz Kids” will kick off the very first game of the 2012 Las Vegas NBA Summer League against the Atlanta Hawks. Fresh off a four-day mini-camp in Washington from Monday through Thursday, the Wizards carry a roster of 14 players to Vegas. At the beginning of camp, head coach Randy Wittman indicated that they would likely trim the roster down from that number before flying west. They didn’t; the competition between Wizards fighting for a spot in Vegas and prospects fighting for their professional lives must have been that tough.

Bradley Beal, Shelvin Mack, Tomas Satoransky, Chris Singleton, and Jan Vesely — all summer league first-timers — will be the Wizards to watch. With the signing of Cartier Martin, the yet-to-be determined Andray Blatche amnesty situation, and the likelihood that Satoransky will continue to hone his game in Spain for a season or two, the Wizards currently have 13 players under contract for next season. With the potential departure of Blatche and the potential signing of James Singleton, that 13 number can stay the same or go up; the signing of a backup point guard like John Lucas III could put the Wizards closer to roster capacity (and we’re not even thinking about Roger Mason Jr. or Mo Evans). Unfilled team spots may not even be available for the rest of the summer league hopefuls — team president Ernie Grunfeld has a history of keeping his roster flexible for trades, etc.; every time I’ve seen him this week he’s been tirelessly working the phone, and I think we know why.

Below you’ll find video of the main cast of Wizards characters talking during mini-camp about the five summer league games that could significantly impact basketball lives, following by the final roster and the full slate of games.

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Tomas Satoransky made it to the U.S. of A.

“I didn’t expect it,” said teammate and fellow Czech Jan Vesely on Monday from Wizards summer mini-camp, “but am very happy that he’s here and that we can play together.”

Satoransky has actually been stateside plenty — attending the pre-draft combine in Chicago; workouts with the Cavaliers, Bucks, Warriors, and Wizards before the draft; training in Los Angeles under the guidance of his agency — but now he’s here for competition.

Vesely is excited to play with his basketball buddy of the last six years, practically giddy at the thought of unleashing the duo’s built chemistry on the Las Vegas NBA Summer League. (Well, as giddy as Jan can get under his American media shell.)

“He likes to pass the ball, he likes to find open guys, especially on the alley-oops,” said Jan when asked to describe Satoransky’s game, that last part with a bit of a smile. “He can run and he can dunk.”

After his pre-draft workout in Washington, Satoransky went as far as to say he’d beat Vesely in a dunk contest. Jan disagrees.

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Some people, ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz for instance, have argued that the NBA should kill the draft. The system is broken, teams are tanking, lottery teams stay lottery teams… The fix: End the NBA draft and have all rookies enter the league as free agents. Why? Well, the NBA is a “business,” free market this-and-that, yada-yada-yada…

However, in constant attempts to analyze the NBA as a business — “It’s a business,” often being a canned talking point of players and team personnel alike when unable to explain the real reasons behind a maneuver — people forget that one of the first principles of business is that the customer comes first (or that the customer is always right). Whatever the case, will somebody please think of the children?

Yes, free agency rumors and the current mass, social media dissemination of them can be fun for fans, but only media members (and maybe a few teams attempting to cloud their intentions), really benefit from the noise.

The NBA draft is for the customer. Well, it’s for the players, too. And, it also benefits the league’s marketing of itself and its individuals. So, there’s no need to muddy ceremonial pomp and circumstance with dollars and cents. Because if there are league-wide issues with the way the business of basketball functions, there are other ways to resolve them aside from eliminating one of the NBA’s most-covered events.

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[Editor's Note: This is J.D. Jackson's first post for Truth About It.net. J.D. is 29 and lives in Baltimore. He's previously written for Most Valuable Network and All-Baseball.com and has hosted podcasts on 360thepitch. Though he's been a casual NBA fan for most of his life, he's become a more serious fan of the game and the Wizards. You can follow him @jdjackson on Twitter. Also note: this post was written before today's trade between the Wizards and the Hornets with Washington sending Rashard Lewis and their 2012 46th pick to New Orleans in exchange for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza. —Kyle W.] 

When draft day rolls around in about a week, the Wizards aren’t expected to make any crazy moves at the No. 3 pick. It will likely be a choice between Bradley Beal and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (possibly depending on what those crazy, crazy Bobcats decide to do).

It’s almost a denouement to the day. Having a new, highly-touted player will be exciting, for certain. But like last year when everything on the planet pointed to the Wizards taking Jan Vesely, there’s just not going to be much surprise with the Wizards on the clock. Not that it’s a bad thing, necessarily, but at least there was some intrigue with their second selection at No. 18. It ended up being Chris Singleton, but there were about 50 different directions that the team could’ve gone, and it was a riveting few minutes on the clock.

So, if you’re a Wizards fan and you’re looking for that little bit of drama, where will you get it? The Wizards own two second round picks (32 and 46 from Dallas) in what is expected to be a pretty deep draft. Last year’s draft class was, by most accounts, a significantly leaner class. And yet, between the countless trades that happened at the back end of draft day, what was lost is just how much of an impact the players taken in the second round had for their respective teams last season. Of the 30 players taken in the 2011 NBA Draft’s second round, only eight did not log any minutes last season. That number was 12 in 2010. In fact, in the lockout-shortened season, 2011 second rounders played a total of 10,048 minutes. In 2010, second rounders in their rookie seasons played a total of 4,681 minutes — 2,541 of those minutes were logged by Landry Fields. You’d expect the lack of training camps after the lockout to hurt rookies the most, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Most of the second rounders who didn’t log minutes from the 2011 class were stashed overseas as well, leaving only Jon Diebler (Trailblazers, No. 51; signed to play in Greece last August) and Chukwudiebere Maduabum (Lakers, No. 56; drafted from the D-League and traded to Denver) as the players who inexcusably failed to show up. Kyle Singler (Pistons, No. 33), the third non-Euro to not log any minutes last season, actually wound up overseas himself. He split time between CB Lucentum Alicante and Real Madrid and may be headed to Detroit soon.

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The Czech Republic’s Tomas “Saty” Satoransky declared for the 2012 NBA Draft before the 5 p.m. deadline on Monday, per Tweet of ESPN’s Chad Ford. When he worked out for the Washington Wizards last Friday, he said he was leaning toward staying. Now, whether he would be willing to get picked but remain in Europe for a season or two, i.e., Euro Stash, Satoransky said he was undecided.

One issue: Ford calls Satoransky a wing; he calls himself a point guard. Can he hang in a point guard’s League? Can he defend other NBA points? His answer seems simple: scouting.

“Always they’re going to be faster then you because they’re smaller, they are more athletic, but you gotta use also the basketball I.Q. against this,” he told me. Implementation remains to be seen.

Satoransky also realizes his jump shot is seen as a weakness by scouts — “Most important: compete, play hard, hustle; so they can see that you are really fighting about this,” was his answer to pre-draft workouts, not the need for a jump shooting spectacle – but he says that improving strength his a higher priority.

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