flickr/The CJM

On draft night, there were many frustrated rumblings on Bullets Forever over Ernie Grunfeld failing to land (or go after) Vince Carter. Not only that, but Carter was allowed to go to the reigning Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic.

With Hedo Turkoglu opting out, unlikely to return to Orlando, who knows if the Magic will be better off with Carter … many assume yes. I’ll be curious to see if Stan Van Gundy uses Carter similarly within the offense as he did Turkoglu, creating for others off the high pick and roll.

And if Rasheed Wallace goes to Orlando (which probably means that baby ‘Sheed is backing off demands of $8 million a year), they could be very scary. Tumultuous with Wallace the home-wrecker, buy scary nonetheless.

But in terms of the Wizards, should Grunfeld have gone after Carter?
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Amare Stoudemire, Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, Manu Ginobili, Michael Redd, Josh Smith, Josh Howard, Kirk Hinrich and Andrei Kirilenko are just of the few of the tiny players jumping over a fence in the mind of the restless Ernie Grunfeld as he tries to fall into a slumber every night leading up to the draft on June 25.

But he can’t sleep. He sits up in bed, drenched in sweat. It’s 3:30 in the morning and he’s trying to plod through the day’s ninth showing of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But the show doesn’t help take his thoughts away from the matter at hand. His mind is racing through Wizards trade scenarios instead. And if you don’t pay attention to those damned Law & Orders, especially the crime at the beginning, the show just becomes a scrambled mess.

The mess, parallel to the team Grunfeld commands, spills into the night and into the next day, all of which are becoming the same. The Wizards GM is on the verge of making the most important move during his tenure with the team.

[continue reading on NBC Washington.com]

Ball movement and DeShawn Stevenson….that’s what everyone has been buzzing about today. Well, where the hell have those two been? It’s baffling to try to explain, so I’ll give all the credit to Dee Brown.

Brown pushed the rock in transition, whipped the ball to spots in a timely manner in the half court, and even hit a couple treys. I should also mention that Brown had zero turnovers to his seven assists. He was even unafraid to stick his nose in the paint for an offensive rebound here and there.

Should Dee Brown start until Gilbert Arenas is healthy….allowing for Antonio Daniels to keep coming off the bench? I’m on board with that…..so far.

Dee Brown FYI

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This Wizards team has me changing directions more times than Jack Nicholson in that maze scene at the end of The Shining. Turn one corner and things look familiarly optimistic…..turn another and I wonder if I’ve just gone in a full circle….returning to the mid-90s. I look down and I’m wearing a red Bullets Starter jacket and some Tims. I grab my DiscMan, pop in Return To The 36 Chambers, and it’s time to go to school.

Uhhh…..no. It’s Thursday morning and I have the privilege of working at a desk in a building all day. Hey, at least my pockets are straight…..well, more like wrinkled with the standard wadded dollar bills/receipts/credit card combo, complimentary to waking up hung-over……except I didn’t go out drinking last night.

Back to the Wizards…..shots don’t fall every once in a while, oh well. Andray Blatche looked kinda good while looking mostly bad, to be expected. Some of the Wiz Kids, Nick Young and JaVale McGee, showed increasing promise. But the opener against the Nets just didn’t feel right. This team has overcome bad shooting nights before, but for some reason, lacked the energy/desire/wherewithal needed to take grasp of the game.

In either case…..it’s a long season. For the full story, check the Wizards-Nets Game 1 Blog on Bullets Forever.

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In anticipation of tonight’s Washington Wizards opener against the New Jersey Nets, Mike at JoeNetsfan.com was kind enough to answer a couple questions about their team. Enjoy.

1) Vince Carter is much maligned around the league….how confident are you in his ability to lead the team? Is he more interested in being an All-Star, or getting wins?

Here’s the deal on Vince – he means well. He’s not necessarily interested in being an All Star per se, and I think he recognizes the fact that he can’t do what he once did. Having said that, Vince is a great team player, but he really doesn’t want to be “the man” and because of that, the Nets will suffer from having all the pressure on Vince. As far as leading the team, well, he always deferred to perhaps the greatest leader in the NBA today – Jason Kidd. So we really don’t know what sort of leader he’ll be. He appears to be happy to work with the youngsters, he appears to relish the role of team leader, but I don’t think it will translate into anything more than his being a great cheerleader for the rookies. When the pressure’s on, Vince’s track record is only so-so. Let me clear up one thing for the record, though – he does play hurt, and he does try much harder than his rep would lead you to believe. I’ve watched him enough to feel confident saying that.

2) Will Devin Harris make the Mavs really kick themselves? Where does (or will) he rank among the Eastern Conference point guards?

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Breaking your hand is not very conducive to blogging, hence, some project(s) I’ve been working on have come to a crawl. They’ll get done eventually, but until then, here’s some good readin’ for ya.

First Links: Washington Wizards material

Same ol’ Wizards…just bringing players back, not making a drastic, knee-jerk moves…..status quo, right? That’s a fallacy says the Pradamaster of Bullets Forever.

What? Dan Steinberg caught a glimpse of DeShawn Stevenson’s new tattoo of a bridge across his stomach and failed to capture it on camera for the DC Sports Bog?

[UPDATE: Steinberg has a whole blog entry on DeShawn - but still no pics - most off-the-wall quote: "Myself. I'm the new Dennis Rodman. Without getting in trouble." -DeShawn Stevenson.]

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