{Mike Harris}

As you probably know, the Wizards today signed Mike Harris of the NBA D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers to a 10-day contract. Had a brief chat with him before tonight’s game …

“It’s basketball, so it’s always better up than it is down.” -Mike Harris

• Mike has never been to D.C. before, said he’s most definitely not used to the weather.
• Said he’s a “basketball guru” so he already knew a good deal about the current Wizards … played against Al Thornton and the Clippers when he was in Houston, also knows a little about Nick Young and Andray Blatche when he played against them in the 2008 Vegas Summer League as a Rocket.
• Harris said Flip Saunders told him to just come in and “do what you do” and to not try so much to fit in with the team, but to let the team fit to him … just play hard, have a good time, and try not to think to much.
• There is some familiarity, as Mike said the Wizards run similar plays to what they ran down in Rio Grande, just with different calls.
• Mike said he found out about the call-up about five minutes after getting out of tuesday’s practice with the Vipers when his coach informed him. It was about 12:30-1:00 pm when he found out that he had a 4:45 flight to Washington. Harris said he was lucky that he already had a rental car, so getting to the airport wasn’t a problem. His flight was a bit delayed in Houston, so he didn’t get into D.C. until 1:30-1:45 on Wednesday morning.

Here are some more bullets on Harris: Read more »

Amidst all that went on Wednesday night (the trading of Antawn Jamison to Cleveland and a basketball game, of all things), I thought it would be a good idea to stroll around the very sparse Verizon Center concourse (you can probably chop the “announced” attendance of 13,143 by 40%) during halftime and a bit during the third quarter to get a beat on the fan pulse/reaction to the trade.

Quick Links

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I started tinkering around with this trade idea last Wednesday, but never followed up with publishing a post. Today, with Yahoo!’s Marc Spears reporting that the Utah Jazz could face a roster shake-up and Mike Jones, of Mike Jones Sports, reporting that multiple Wizards have asked to be traded, i.e., more than just Mike James, it seems like an appropriate time to float this proposal out there. And no, this is not like Bill Simmons’ silly Utah-Washington-Cleveland idea where the Wizards would lose Haywood, Jamison, Butler and James and only get Shaq and Boozer in return … although my idea is almost as drastic.

So here goes …

Utah has the Carlos Boozer issue hanging over their head, the desire to remain cheap, and is a decent team unwilling to take a big step backwards.

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As Tuesday night got later and later, I found myself less and less wanting to write a blog about the Wizards-Cavs game. It’s not that I was particularly distraught about the loss … I just preferred to put it behind me, have a short memory as they say in sports.

Dwyane Wade and the Heat are in D.C. tonight for a game that I will be covering/reporting from … and I’d rather focus my energy on hoping the Wiz take care of business at home.

Plus, I predicted a Cavs win because of what I thought would be a Cleveland home court advantage (ahem … whistles). And well, that pretty much held true. In the first half, the Wizards’ four big men were whistled for a total of 12 fouls — Haywood (3), Blatche (3), McGee (4), and Oberto (2).

Most of the fouls were just, some not so much … and ultimately this threw the Wizards out of sync on both ends of the court.

On defense, bigs were worried about picking up fouls. And a Shaq versus JaVale McGee matchup, simply in appearance much less game flow, was like choosing between a simple salad and a bacon cheeseburger from Five Guys … when you’re six beers into a six hour empty stomach. Which one do you think will prevail?

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The Wizards beat the Cavaliers last night. The Cavs were without LeBron James, Mo Williams and Delonte West (among others). Brendan Haywood sat out for the Wizards and Antawn Jamison got hurt around five minutes into the match, more on that later.It was just a preseason game, but hey, the Wiz won 109-104. And when it’s against Cleveland, I’ll take it.

One trend for the Wizards during this preseason has been their play in the third quarter. On Wednesday night, they outscored the Cavs 33-23. Now granted, this was against a second half Cleveland starting lineup of Boobie Gibson, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, JJ Hickson, Shaq (Arenas, Miller, Butler, Blatche and Oberto for the Wiz) … so, make of it what you will.

What I want to analyze is the third quarter offensive efficiency of the Wizards in Flip Saunders’ system. Each possession is outlined below. There were 22 total — 16 resulted in scores. 3 resulted in a turnover. 3 resulted with a missed shot (each a ‘good’ miss). 8 of the 11 FGs were assisted upon — of the three which were not, 2 came in transition and 1 came from an isolation. Pretty damn good, huh?

Before the list of 3Q offensive possessions …

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Remember in Rocky IV when the main character, also named Rocky, was training for a big fight in Russia? He was outdoors, chopping wood, running in the snow, fighting wild Russian wolves with both hands tied behind his back, and fueled by a three-day vodka-only diet (I think all of this happened, my memory is fuzzy).

Meanwhile, Rocky’s counterpart, the evil Dolph Lundgren, was training in the lab with robots and steroids, and robots on steroids.

I’m not sure who eventually won the fight, I just remember the speech that Rocky made at the end being a life changing experience. Not so much because of his words, but more because of the kick ass song that followed, “Hearts on Fire” by John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band.

What does this have to do with JaVale McGee? Well, he’s been putting in au naturale work just like Rocky.

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flickr/Keith Allison

Haywood is a non-starter for 20 NBA teams.

by spurchief on Jul 26, 2009 4:00 PM EDT

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I was on a break outside the other day, catching some fresh Penn Quarter air, taking a stroll around Freedom Plaza, when this little kid came up to me, and said, “Hey Mister … don’t you know that the Wizards need another big man? Haywood, Jamison, Blatche, McGee, and McGuire aren’t going to cut it.”

“Easy lil’ fella,” I told him. “We’ll keep looking around to see if we can add someone else, but we feel comfortable about what we have currently and the depth of our ballclub.”

The kid then kicked me in the shin and ran away.

I suddenly woke up from my slumber and realized those weren’t my words, those were Ernie Grunfeld’s words. I had a mission …

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The friendly bloggers (and their fans) at the Cleveland sports-based Waiting For Next Year have taken upon the task of creating a Mark Price-themed t-shirt (h/t Sporting News).

Price, the current Atlanta Hawks shooting coach, may still be right for Cleveland Cavaliers fans, but that’s far from the case for Wizards/Bullets fans.

A reminder of how the Cavs fleeced former Bullets GM, John Nash (from this May ’08 post):