Truth About It - Washington Wizards Blog

Wizards/Bullets Team History: A Statistical Search Part 2

Kyle Weidie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:06:42 +0000

Click here for part one of the TAI Basketball-Reference.com statistical research assignment, featuring a search for what opposing player has scored the most off the bench against the Wizards/Bullets since ’86-87 and the observations of Arish Narayen and Adam McGinnis. Part two, with my second search example and the findings of John Townsend and Rashad Mobley, is below.

[The Number Cruncher - Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

For my second quick example using BBR’s database, I selected the “Team Season Finder” and ran a simple search to see which Bullets/Wizards team averaged the most assists per game in the shot clock era (starting in 1954-55). (Click here for the full results.)

The ’89-90 Bullets averaged 27 assists per game. Darrell Walker led the team with 8.0 per game, John “Hot Plate” Williams was second with 4.7 per, and Bernard King was third with 4.6 assists per game. That year, the Bullets finished fourth in the NBA in total assists, and they were the only team in the top 11 in total assists that did not make the playoffs. The ’89-90 Bullets finished 31-51.

Of course, the ‘Assists Per Game’ stat doesn’t exactly tell the whole story. You must factor in Pace (an estimate of team possessions per 48 minutes) to account for how much a team was really passing. Using BBR’s available Pace stat for each season, and my own number crunching, I was able to find out that the 1983-84 Bullets, led by Frank Johnson with 6.9 assists per game, had the best Assist Per Game/Pace ratio (basically assists per possession), and that came to 0.274. That ’89-90 team didn’t lag too far behind, finishing second best with a ratio of 0.272.

Worth noting that the teams in the Ernie Grunfeld era, seven seasons from ’03-04 to current, all finished in the bottom 12 of team assists/possession for the 37 total seasons the franchise has played in the shot clock era, the worst being the ’05-06 Wizards that only netted 0.202 assists per possession. The 19-win 2008-09 team had the best ratio at 0.220. Seems like a Grunfeld-orchestrated team really needs some willing passers.

John Townsend

One of the most memorable — some would say enjoyable — moments in recent Wizards history took place on Sunday April 4, 2010. On that evening, the Wizards (23-53) bested the woebegone New Jersey Nets (11-66) 109 to 99. Those part of the half-capacity crowd were lucky enough to see Andray Blatche frantically chase a triple-double in the game’s dying moments … and fail.

It would have been Seven-Day ‘Dray’s first triple-double. Maybe this year, Andray.

Triple-doubles are kind of a big deal, just ask “Wrong Rim Ricky” (or DeShawn Stevenson, he was there).

Triple-doubles are evidence of outstanding individual achievement, collected with frightening regularity by some of the most storied names in the annals of pro basketball history: Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Drexler, Jason Kidd, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Fat Lever, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan.

This weekend I labored through the web-pages of history (BBR -- Statistics not available before the 1986-1987 season) to see which Washington Wizards/Bullets were members of the exclusive Triple-Double Club.

The Youngest Triple-Doubler: Gilbert Arenas, 21 years and 303 days old — 25 PTS, 12 TRB, 10 AST

The Oldest Triple-Doubler: Rod Strickland, 32 years and 291 days old — 15 PTS, 10 TRB, 11 AST

The Triple-Doubler: Darrell Walker (and lasers). Between April 1989 and January 1991, this 6’4” former-SEC point guard scored, grabbed, and passed his way to 14 triple-doubles. John Wall are you listenin’? (Happy Birthday, Kiddo.)

The List:

Darrell Walker -- 14
Chris Webber -- 6
Gilbert Arenas/Rod Strickland -- 4
Caron Butler -- 3
John Williams -2
Larry Hughes/Tom Gugliotta -1

Decent showing by the home team.

[But much to my chagrin, Wall won't be able to knock LeBron James off the top of the record book -- LeBron is the youngest player to ever record a triple-double with 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. He did it 20 days after turning 20, John Wall will just be in training camp when he's that age.]

Just for kicks: John Wall Triple-Double (HS)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FKSqSJ7-7k

Rashad Mobley

Since Gilbert Arenas, Kirk Hinrich and John Wall figure to do most of the heavy lifting at point guard for the Wizards, I figured I’d take a closer look at some past assist numbers per 48 minutes. I wanted to focus mainly on the Gilbert Arenas era which started in 2003-2004, but I wanted to exclude those seasons when he played an abbreviated schedule. Click here for my Basketball-Reference.com findings.

There are a couple of notable points in this search.

When you do a search of all NBA guards and their assists-per-48-minutes with at least 41 games played (from ’03-04 to ’09-10) you see a Wizard, Antonio Daniels, is 228th on the list at 7.9 … well below Steve Nash‘s leading 16.1 assists per 48 minutes.
Javaris Crittenton made an appearance on the team list at 6.2 assists/48, and he was only 21 years of age. John Wall will be the starting point guard at 20 years of age, so we’ll see if he exceeds those numbers. Considering he’s the No. 1 pick, he probably should.
Gilbert Arenas’ best assists-per-48-minutes came in ’06-07 (7.2) when DeShawn Stevenson (4.3) was his backcourt mate. Even though Arenas figures to be more of shoot first guard, you have to figure that a pass first guard like John Wall will encourage an atmosphere where the ball whips around, so perhaps Arenas’ numbers will go up
Kirk Hinrich‘s best assists-per-48-minutes numbers came in his 2003-04 rookie year (9.2). His backcourt mate that year was Jamal Crawford, who has never met a shot he didn’t like.

It will be interesting to see whether Wall, Arenas or Hinrich has the best assists/48 average on the team, and more importantly, it will be interesting to see whether a Wizard can crack the top 20 or 30 in this category given the quality of their guards.

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Wizards/Bullets Team History: A Statistical Search, Part 1

Kyle Weidie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:50:41 +0000

[A John Wall t-shirt seen at the 2010 Columbia Heights Day Festival.]

There’s a reason the Sports-Reference.com family of sites was named one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites for 2010. They have just about everything you’d want, sports fact and statistically speaking, and their search capabilities are always growing … well, if they only had NBA game logs that pre-dated the 1986-87 season.

Nevertheless, I recently gave an assignment to the staff of Truth About It.net, (Rashad Mobley, John Townsend, Arish Narayen and Adam McGinnis). I asked them to go to the Basketball-Reference.com database search page, come up with a creative query, and write something quick about it. I also came up with some quick example searches myself.

For instance, I went to the “Player Game Finder” and ran a simple search selecting ‘Wizards/Bullets’ as the opponent, ‘did not start’ as the role, and sorted by points. (Click here for the full results.)

Did you know … (from the ’86-87 season to current, the extent of BBR’s game log database), the 37 points Al Harrington scored for the New York Knicks against the Wizards on February 26 of this year was the most points scored on Washington by a player off the opposing team’s bench?

I remember that game, it had a little bit of everything … and by that, I mean the Wizards lost 118-116 in an overtime where the two teams only had a combined two points 4:45 into the extra period. Also, Harrington scored his 37 points in 34 minutes off the bench on an efficient 21 field-goal attempts (5-8 from deep, 8-12 from the free-throw line).

The returns of Arish and Adam are below, the rest will come in part two.

Arish Narayen

In 2004-2005, the Wizards lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers [Correction: Miami Heat] in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. That season represented the apex of the Arenas/Butler/Jamison teams’ success. Using ’04-05 as a beginning point, I set out to find the Wizards’ best, regular season defensive performance since.

In the Basketball-Reference.com database, I used a search criterion of:

Opp FG% <= 40%,
Opp 3pt% <= 30%,
Opp Pts <= 90, and
Opp FTA <= 10.

Though these are fairly subjective indicators of what constitutes the team’s “best defensive performance,” (I threw the FT ceiling in to account for teams getting to the charity stripe repeatedly despite not shooting well), I felt that this search would adequately narrow down the results. What I didn’t know: that this search would turn up one seemingly unremarkable regular season game that took place in D.C. on February 21, 2006.

That’s right. Since ’04-05, there has only been one regular season game where the Wizards have met all of these defensive benchmarks. It was a game where Ricky Davis shot the ball 20 times, and Trenton Hassell played 31 minutes. After looking at this box score, I actually understand why Kevin Garnett is angry all the time.

The only logical conclusion for the Wiz? Find Michael Ruffin at whatever grocery store he works at now and re-sign him.

Adam McGinnis

While there are many unknowns of how the 2010-2011 Wizards season will play out, there is no doubt the franchise has committed to a new youth movement with three rookies on the roster in first round picks John Wall, Trevor Booker, and Kevin Seraphin. Their development will be key in the Wizards laying a strong foundation for the future so it made sense to analyze past rookies under the tutelage of Coach Flip Saunders. In 14 NBA seasons, with three teams, Saunders has coached a total of 28 first year players. Here are the results (you can click on the BBR link of the image to zoom in):

Minnesota Timberwolves [BBR]

Detroit Pistons [BBR]

Washington Wizards [BBR]

Things that stood out:

Kevin Garnett’s stats obviously were limited due to being a green, skinny high school kid, but he still showed promise with 10 points, six rebounds and two assists per game.
Stephon Marbury’s 2.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio was pretty superb for a 19-year old point guard.
Wally World’s hype as the next great white hope had some legitimacy.
Dean Garrett’s professional career seems interesting, and if he were a Bullet, The WizzNutzz would be tweeting annual poetry about him with Kyle featuring birthday posts and basketball cards.

Kidding aside, it is quite apparent that losing three first round picks in the Joe Smith contract debacle severely diminished chances for Flip to teach young talent in Minnesota. Coach Saunders led veteran laden, championship contending Pistons squads that had few opportunities for rookie contributors. And the 2009-10 Wizards were constructed for a run at the playoffs, the only rookies to appear in any contests were late season D-League call ups.

With John Wall, Trevor Booker, Kevin Seraphin and perhaps Hamady N’Diaye, Saunders will now have plenty of chances in Washington to do what he says he loves to do at his coaching core. Teach.

Part two forthcoming …

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Closing the (Little Red) Book on China’s FIBA Worlds

John Townsend — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:03:58 +0000

[Linas Kleiza hops past Yi Jianlian on his way to a game-high 30 points. Photo/FIBA]

On Tuesday, in their FIBA 2010 knock-out stage opener, Yi Jianlian and China took on Linas Kleiza and a strong, undefeated Lithuania team. In many ways, this contest followed the same script seen in the China-Puerto Rico game. China jumped out to a quick 16-5 lead with contributions from Wang ZhiZhi, Sun Yue, Liu Wei, Wang Shipeng, and Yi. China held a 22-17 lead at the end of the first quarter. That lead wouldn’t last much longer, however. With 4:52 left in the second quarter, Robertas “The Shark” Javtokas gave the Lithuanians a one-point advantage — one they wouldn’t surrender. China’s 11-3 run in the 4th quarter pulled them within five, but it was too little, too late. Final score: 78-67 Lithuania, who advanced to the FIBA quarterfinals to face Argentina, who edged Brazil 93-89 in Tuesday’s nightcap.

Some quick postgame thoughts …

In a postgame interview, Yi said:

“Yeah, I know we tried to fight today. That game was tough, between a very good team. We played very good in the beginning, but Lithuania played with emotion, played hard defense, very high quality offense. We made some mistakes. With a good team, when you make some mistakes, it’s hard to [beat] them. … They fronted me, they helped on me, so I tried to do other things like rebound to help my team.”

In this same interview, Yi also mentioned that Yao’s injury allowed some of the younger players (not talking about himself here, despite being 22, supposedly) a chance to showcase their skills and get valuable playing time. Reflecting, Yi revealed that through two World Championships and three NBA seasons he has worked very hard every day to improve his game. It is clear that Yi sees himself as a matured — though not yet complete — player and a leader of this Chinese team.

Yi on Coach Bob Donewald:

“He did a great job. He gave all the players confidence, always supported us. He’s a mentally tough coach and I think we had a good time playing with him.”

Donewald himself:

“I thought my guys played their hearts out, stuck to the game plan, but we just wore out. The physicality of a very good basketball team wore us out. This was great for our basketball team, I am very proud of my group. We have some Asian games that are very important to this group, and this gives us belief that maybe we can compete and maybe win can win this thing.”

Our main man Yi finished the game with 11 points (4-9), 12 rebounds, two blocks, and two steals. Through the Group Stage, Yi was averaging 20.2 PPG and 10.2 RPG. So what had happened?

As Yi mentioned above, Lithuania began to front and double team him after China’s hot start. Unfortunately for China, a better point guard would have been able to feed Yi in the post. He was often matched up against Linas Kleiza, who signed an estimated four-year, $19 million contract with the Toronto Raptors in July. Owning a four-inch height and slight weight advantage over Kleiza, Yi established fantastic post position for much of the game, but only got the ball enough times to take nine shots. Sure, several times he recognized the double team or a better scoring opportunity for his teammates and passed the ball, but for the most part the supply to China’s best player was sorely lacking.

YI WATCH >>

FIRST QUARTER:

Yi stayed very active off the ball, moving into open spaces and spreading the floor. Defenders gave him space on the outside for long two-pointers, but instead of settling for a lower percentage shot, he forced contact on drives and made the defense work. On both ends of the floor he flew to loose balls and rebounds. Yi finished the first quarter with four points, two rebounds, one block, and one steal.

SECOND QUARTER:

Yi continued to look comfortable in the pick-and-roll, finding space in the lane and forcing Lithuania to foul him near the hoop. The television commentator also noticed that Yi was a force on the boards, grabbing good, strong rebounds: “Good, strong rebound there by Yi,” exclaimed the enthusiastic announcer. Battling the shorter Kleiza, Yi was able to really establish great position right under the hoop, helping him quickly catch entry passes turn and dunk the ball for scores.

[HA! TAI doesn't believe that Sun Yue is even half-decent. The FIBA commentator mentioned that, "They call [him] the Chinese Magic Johnson and for good reason …” Different standards, I suppose.]

Yi Jianlian began to excel on the defensive end. After a miss by China, Yi ran the length of the court, read the play, and blocked a layup. Later, he just barely missed stripping Kleiza of the ball. He was able to steal the ball from Jonas Maciulus, but was called for a charge when he tried to turn the great defensive play into a quick two points. As the second quarter wound to an end, Yi began to struggle with two things: initiating immediate contact with his marks early, and stamina. The television commentator noticed that, “Wang Zhizhi looks absolutely exhausted.” Yi did, too, his mouth was hanging open. Donewald soon after ushered him to the bench. Yi finished the first half with six points, two blocks, and two steals. Lithuania out-rebounded China 25-13, and had a better field-goal percentage as well (52%-44%), which reflected a more organized offense and better shot selection.

THIRD QUARTER:

Halftime must have done wonders for Yi, who had a great start to the third quarter, pulling in his fifth rebound, closing down LTU scoring opportunities, and showing great explosion on his drives. Batman (Yi) and Robin (Wang ZhiZhi) teamed up again for a nice basket on a drive and dump, where Yi finished with an easy flush.

But the third quarter is also when the Lithuanian team began to double Yi, who was routinely forced to kick the ball back out to the three-point line. Bad news for China. Having to fight two opponents for rebounds and baskets quickly wore Yi down; he was subbed out with about four minutes left in the quarter. China got down seven … then nine … and then wasn’t producing anything worthwhile on the offensive end, so Donewald was forced to put Yi back into the game.

As JaVale McGee would say, Yi was “tired as a house.” He was beat to several rebounds he should have easily been able to grab, failed to slide over and protect the paint, and seemed to be playing in sand, or underwater, or in pudding, or with ankle weights on. Since Wang ZhiZhi plays like a stretch-four, the rebounding responsibility rests almost entirely on Yi, who couldn’t comply with the order. China suffered and was down 64-51 at the end of three, also down 36-21 in rebounds.

FOURTH QUARTER:

Kleiza was about four steps faster than Yi by the time the fourth quarter started. Kleiza had 13 of Lithuania’s 14 fourth quarter points. Defenders, including Yi, were often too slow to close out on mid-range jumpers and were unable to bump Kleiza off course as he scored layup after layup. In one instance, Yi was reduced to a two-inch vertical and missed three easy chances for a rebound. Fortunately, the Lithuanian player missed each one of his put-backs.

Late in the fourth, China made a big push and closed the deficit to five. The drive and dump between Yi and Wang Zhizhi worked again with about 6:30 left in the game. Yi also seemed to get some energy back, pulling in an impressive reach-back one-handed rebound before rewarding Wang ZhiZhi with an easy two. But the Lithuanian team was just too much for the Chinese Terracotta Army. In desperation, Yi & Co. gave it all they had, but were just overpowered by a lights-out Kleiza. Juan Carlos Navarro would have been impressed.

Lithuania outrebounded China by 20 (50 to 30) for the game, and 17 of those were offensive. That’s a recipe for disaster.

It wasn’t all bad for China. They were matched up against an international juggernaut and held their own. And Yi emerged as the young, stud superstar for his country.

Today on TrueHoop, Chris Sheridan provided these great notes:

Donewald was effusive in his praise of Yi afterward, calling Yi the single best player in the entire tournament up until the last game, and that an Achilles injury flared up in the second half and limited Yi’s effectiveness. Yi is expected to remain with the Chinese team through the Asian Games later this month before reporting to his new team, the Washington Wizards.

Donewald also told a wonderful anecdote about Yi becoming the new leader of the team in the absence of Yao Ming, saying Yi had asked the coach if he could take the entire team out to a steakhouse for dinner back in mid-August when they were training in New York.

“I told him ‘Why don’t you just take the players?’” Donewald said. “And he said ‘No. I want the coaches and the support staff to come, too. We are all family.’”

In the end, it looks like there is life after Yao … and an exciting prospect in DC.

[One of the few times Yi was given the rock ... and a chance to shine. Photo/FIBA]

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ShareBullets: Farewell to James Singleton, A Potential Hello To Sean Marks, and Gerald Wallace Again?

Kyle Weidie — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:44:30 +0000

A D.C. pic, links, and commentary …

[Mount Pleasant at night; Mt. Pleasant St. and Lamont St., NW, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

As reported by Michael Lee of the Washington Post, James Singleton has decided to sign with the Xinjiang Gyang Hui Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.

[James Singleton points to a place in the sky.]

Mike Prada at Bullets Forever bids farewell to ‘Big Game James’, observing:

“With few noticing, Singleton emerged as a key role player for the Wizards last year. He changed his game from being a jump-shooting small power forward to being a rebounder that did the dirty work. His positive outlook was infectious in keeping what should have been a dour clubhouse loose, and he became very close with Andray Blatche in particular. (I am forever convinced that Blatche’s success last season would not have happened without Singleton being around keeping him at ease). But that’s the thing: few noticed. It’s tough to get much attention as a glue guy for a 26-56 team, especially one with as anonymous a name as James Singleton.”

This reminds me of the time Singleton stood up for Andray Blatche. Several games after Andray’s ordeal with not wanting (essentially) to go back in the game, a reporter asked Blatche, paraphrasing, about how that incident affected him and pressed him to comment. Singleton didn’t like the line of questioning, which, in my opinion, seemed to be fair. But it didn’t matter to James. He clearly knew that Blatche didn’t want to bring up the past at that moment and stepped in for his teammate, showing that he had his back. That’s a small sample of the guy James Singleton seemed to be. For another sample, see the video toward the bottom of this post from taken after his first game with the Wizards. Farewell James Singleton.

Matt Lawye has an excellent profile of Yi Jianlian, now appearing in SLAM. I quote the passage relevant to the title of this post:

“It was November 2 and the Nets were visiting Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Expectedly, the Nets started 0-3 but perhaps could steal a W against another floundering Eastern Conference cellar-dweller. Sure. Not only did the Cats win, but Gerald “Crash” Wallace fittingly rolled on to Yi’s right knee, severely spraining it. The big fella was sidelined for the next 24 games, nearly all of November and December.”

Surely you’re cognizant of the fact the Gerald Wallace was the guy who crashed into Gilbert Arenas, leading to his initial knee injury. And don’t forget when I noticed something fishy about Wallace and the injury of Josh Howard. And now Wallace has a past with Yi? I am just saying. Maybe the Wizards should trade for Crash Wallace, Maybe Michael Jordan will be the first one to bite for Arenas.

The Post’s Lee also reports that Andray Blatche plans to be ready for training camp, Hamady N’Diaye is a “we’ll see” (but unlikely), and the veteran Sean Marks has received an invite to try out for the Wizards.

Marks recently turned 35 and has played in a career 201 NBA games, averaging about 10 minutes per, and has seen a total of 83 minutes playoff action — you know how Ernie Grunfeld loves those veterans. Reportedly, section 3B of the exemptions clause of the non-existent team rebuilding manifesto is entitled: ‘But Not Without Veterans.’

Cartier Martin also Tweets:

I’m prolly gone be in camp wit the Wiz g. Hopefully this year I can get a whole season in lol!

Lester Hudson Tweeted this after I Tweeted him a question about his ‘going-away’ parties:

@Truth_About_It First this One & only headed to new Orleans the dc time to get ready for season fam

James.

>>James Singleton after his Wizards debut against the Minnesota Timberwolves:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB1Ax0fl2To

[pictures via this TAI post about the Wizards wearing hats]

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Bob Donewald Jr. On Yi Jianlian and China at The 2010 FIBA Worlds

Kyle Weidie — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:19:11 +0000

Bob Donewald Jr. is a rolling stone, in basketball coaching terms. After getting a start as a student assistant at Western Michigan, Donewald has been an assistant at Morehead State, a head coach and general manager in the British Basketball League, working with three separate teams, a scout and assistant GM for the New Jersey Nets, an NBA assistant coach under Paul Silas with the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers, a head coach of a couple professional teams in Brazil, an assistant coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, a coach in the ABA, a coach in the Ukraine, coach of the Shanghai Sharks and now, he’s the head coach of China’s national basketball team. What, you thought the ‘journeyman’ tag just applied to players?

After winning once and losing four times in group play, China is very lucky to be in the round of sixteen at the FIBA 2010 World Tournament. If you want to get technical, had it not been for a David Huertas last second three-pointer when his team, Puerto Rico, lost to the Ivory Coast, it would have been the African nation of 20 million instead of the Chinese country of 1.3 billion advancing to the knock-out stage. But China makes no apologies as they move on to face heavily-favored Lithuania on Tuesday. Donewald is now in the most recognizable position he’s ever been throughout his travels as a coach and the basketball-crazed millions in China have taken notice.

The coach inherited a young, inexperienced team, also coming off a sour loss to Iran in the China-hosted Asia Games in August 2009 — Hamad Haddadi and the Iranians gave the Chinese a beat down in the championship game, winning 70-52; Yi could only muster 11 points on 5-17 shooting. And to put himself even more behind the eight-ball, Donewald accepted the job in April 2010 fully knowing that Yao Ming would not be available for the FIBA Worlds, if not completely retired from international play.

But Donewald has taken the reigns and whipped new culture and fresh blood into the Chinese program, and it has shown with their competitiveness. In arguably the toughest group, Group C, China has lost by less than double digits in all games except against Turkey, when Yi and two other starters didn’t play. By the way, under Donewald, Yi and China got revenge on Iran with an 86-64 late-July win over them in the Stankovic Cup, a tune-up for the FIBA Worlds.

As his team prepares to face Lithuania in Istanbul, in the biggest game of Yi Jianlian’s international career, and perhaps for the coach himself, Donewald took the time to answer some of my questions over email. Here’s the transcript:

Truth About It.net: Yi has experienced tumultuous times during his tenure in the NBA, both as a player and in terms of acclimation to a vastly different culture. Also considering his huge stature as the face of Chinese basketball, what has been your assessment of Yi’s situation?

Bob Donewald Jr.: “I know a lot of NBA players, having coached in the NBA myself, who are not in the right situations but can flat out play. I believe now that Yi is heading to Washington he will thrive. He has a passing point guard and an organization that is really excited about having him. This summer he has worked as hard as any player I have seen to get his body and skill work as good as he can, and it is really showing as he is dominating the World Championships and playing with a lot of confidence.”

TAI: What were your impressions of/level of interaction with Yi prior to you being named China’s coach? And how have you approached Yi psychologically from a coaching perspective?

BD: “I always knew Yi was a special talent. He is a hard worker, and as coachable as any player you could ask for. With that combination you just need to put the player in the right positions to be successful. I believe coaches are fortunate to coach great players, and I see myself very lucky to work with a guy that is not only a great player, but a great teammate. Now, Yi has led China to the Final 16 of the World Championships, in what everyone considered a rebuilding year for China. He is the leading rebounder and third leading scorer in the entire tourney. His hard work is paying off.”

TAI: When you took the position as China’s head coach, what was the first thing you told yourself as an answer to … ‘Okay, this is what I must change to make this program succeed.’?

BD: “The confidence of the team without Yao was always lower then it should have been. Also, having lost to Iran in the Asian Championships by 22 points I knew that confidence would be low. We needed to get to work, change the mentality of the team into a defensive team, and slowly get the confidence out of the work that the guys were putting in. Now, I think we see some changes, and that credit needs to be given to Yi — has been a great leader and is giving all of his teammates great confidence.”

TAI: The energy and enthusiasm from China during the FIBA Worlds have been a noticeable change from the past. What has been your approach in how hard China practices, if it’s different from the past, and how it has affected the team’s energy?

BD: “We still practice two times a day during our preparation. However, skill work and shooting for an hour to an hour and a half has changed from the full contact longer practices of the past. Then in the afternoon session, I have tried to up our intensity and lower the practice time — to me this gets up playing harder and more ready for game speed situations. So far my guys have responded great — the effort everyday we go to work has been outstanding, and the results are showing on the court.”

TAI: This Chinese team is very young, what have you noticed about Yi’s role, in his attitude and in his game, in mentoring/leading some of the younger players and the team as a whole?

BD: “We have seven players on this roster that have never played in the World Championships, I was told we are also the youngest team in the tournament. Also, this is the first big stage where Yi is the “face” of the team. So, it has been a process where Yi has gradually taken on a more vocal role, and each day you can see him embracing the fact that this is his team, and we can win games with his leadership. As Yi has grown into these shoes you see Team China playing better and better. His teammates love him, respect him, and want to win with him … this is very important.”

TAI: Can you comment on the seemingly increased passion and aggressiveness Yi has displayed?

BD: “To me, I don’t know any other Yi than an aggressive, dominate Yi. Since we met for the first time, and discussed how confident and dominate he must be with this group, he has shown me nothing but that attitude.”

TAI: Talk about some of the greatest challenges you’ve faced coaching Chinese players (working through a translator, etc.), during your time with the Shanghai Sharks and the national team. Has Yi’s level of English helped to communicate your message, etc.?

BD: “You would be surprised how many of the players on my team actually understand English, and I have the best translator in China … but yes, Yi’s ability to speak English is a HUGE plus in helping continue to teach and push what the coaches are teaching.”

TAI: What assets will Yi bring to the Washington Wizards/how will he be able to fit in? And do you think this is the year where he finally elevates his game on the NBA level?

BD: “I think he will be in a situation where he is comfortable, confident, and aggressive. His skill set is that of a high level NBA player — if put in the right spots I see a great year coming from Yi.”

Many thanks to Coach Donewald for taking time out of his busy schedule.

Yi Jianlian Injury Update:

Donewald also emailed that his team went through a light practice on Monday and Yi should be set to go against Lithuania, and indicated that it was “nothing that serious, just soreness that needs some rest.”

Other sources have indicated that the issue has had little to do with Yi’s Achilles tendon, but rather is a “skin irritation or lesion” that has been causing soreness. An MRI on his Achilles, which was taken as a precaution because of the area where Yi was experiencing soreness, came back negative, as previously reported on Truth About It.net.

The game will be played at 11 am on Tuesday, September 7, and can be seen on NBA TV or ESPN3.com.

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ShareBullets: Sunday Is In The Building

Kyle Weidie — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:43:05 +0000

A D.C. pic and some links for Sunday reading. Hope you’re having a good one …

[The National Building Museum, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

LINKS.

A Western Conference executive thinks the Wizards could be in the playoff picture in the East, Ben Standig breaks it down.
[CSN Washington]

SLAM has an interview with Caron Butler. He says the time he spent working at Burger King as a kid was a “life-changing experience” (he now owns several BK franchises), and that he will also shadow Mark Cuban (going to board meetings and the what-not) later this summer.
[SLAM Online]

Mike James picks John Wall to win Rookie of the Year.
[@MikeJames7]

JaVale McGee hosted an exclusive party at a fancy club in Hollywood on Saturday.
[Out of Bounds]

Kirk Hinrich is most likely to fill the glue-guy role perfectly, and John Wall is most likely to jump out the gym.
[Hoops World]

Advocates for the homeless in Miami are refusing free Cavaliers LeBron gear from Cleveland.
[Pro Basketball Talk]

On a related note, I’ve seen homeless around D.C. wearing ‘John Wall Game Changer’ t-shirts on at least three occasions. Brilliant marketing move, or just a supply in excess?

A Timberwolves fan is not happy with Trey Kerby of Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie.
[Canis Hoopus]

Ted Leonsis seems ready to battle with a member of the NHL media.
[Ted's Take]

Al Thornton recently Tweeted a video of him working out, taking long jumpers.
[@AlThornton14]

Can’t say the way his feet land looks all that great.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIA80OTXZME

Finally …

Check out the below photo of Earl “The Pearl” Monroe against the Baltimore Bullets from the SI Vault.

From what I can gather, judging by No. 11 Elvin Hayes catching up, the score having the Bullets up 84-68 with 7:51 left in the fourth, and the April 9 Roller Games advertised on the scoreboard, the photo was taken on Friday, April 6, 1973 — Game four of a first round playoff series between the Bullets and the Knicks, a Baltimore win after going down 3-0 to begin the series.

New York won the series four games to one, beat the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals to take the 1972-73 NBA championship. This was Monroe’s first full season with the Knicks after being traded from Baltimore to New York during the previous season, and it was Elvin Hayes’ first season as a Bullet after being traded from Houston to Baltimore in June of 1972. Monroe is set to go up against No. 21 Archie Clark with No. 12 John Tresvant in the background. Pretty cool-looking retro pic.

{via SI Vault}

[h/t: Oakley & Allen]

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Yi Jianlian’s MRI Comes Back Negative, Likely To Play Against Lithuania

Kyle Weidie — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:44:02 +0000

[Yi Jianlian makes a nasty/tough game face during a game against the Ivory Coast.]

According to sources, the MRI results on the injured Achilles heel of Yi Jianlian have come back negative and he should be ready to play in China’s opening knock-out round game against Lithuania on Tuesday.

Yi aggravated his inflamed Achilles against Russia last Wednesday and was held out from China’s Group C finale against Turkey on Thursday. Wang ZhiZhi and Lui Wei were also held out of Thursday’s game by China’s American coach, Bob Donewald. Before the game, because of Puerto Rico’s loss to the Ivory Coast, China knew they would advance to the next stage regardless of the outcome against the Turks.

If you watched China in previous international competitions in comparison to this year’s FIBA Worlds, or if you’ve simply listened to the television commentators for this year’s games, it’s easy to conclude that this Chinese team has played with more energy and more overt emotion than ever in the past. Much of that can be attributed to the style of Donewald, from coaching flair to simply practicing his Chinese players less.

One could also likely gather Yi’s preference of Donewald over China’s previous international coach, Jonas Kazlauskas, who was an assistant to Del Harris on the Chinese national team in 2004 and head coach from 2005-2008. During China’s FIBA tournament opening loss against Greece on August 28, Yi made a point to glare in the direction of Kazlauskas after several made baskets. On one occasion, the coach waived Yi’s looks off with a gesture of his hand.

Donewald, however, has caught some heat in China for resting three of his top players in that game against Turkey. According to a Reuters report appearing in The Globe and Mail, Chinese message boards and comment forums lit up with criticism of the coach, feeling that resting starters was a bad decision, leading to what they consider to be a humiliating 87-40 loss to Turkey.

It just goes to show you that fans can be irrational in any country, any language. Donewald was right to rest his main players in an insignificant game. The match against Turkey was, after all, China’s third in a set and fifth game in six days. China may not have much of a chance against Lithuania (according to PinnacleSports, Lithuania is favored by 14 points), but it’s better to go in with healthy weapons. Plus, China has a young team. The extra opportunity some players got against Turkey could be invaluable for their development.

China will play Lithuania, who went 5-0 in group play, beating France, Lebanon, Spain, Canada and New Zealand, at 11 am (EST) on Tuesday. The game will be televised on NBA TV or should be available online on ESPN 3. Linas Kleiza leads Lithuania averaging 17.4 points per game, which is tied for sixth most in the tournament. The winner of China-Lithuania will face the winner of Argentina-Brazil, which will be played at 2 pm (EST) on Tuesday.

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ShareBullets: Maybe Michael Jordan Was A Good Thing

Kyle Weidie — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:57:38 +0000

A D.C. pic, some Michael Jordan commentary, and links …

[Cavalier Liquor - 14th St. & Parkwood Pl. NW - Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

Not All For Nothing, Perhaps.

Michael Jordan, as owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, is trying to do things the right way, this time … so it seems. There’s a must-read on TrueHoop right now called, “Michael Jordan’s Bobcat Comeback.” This induced several thoughts:

I’m not privy to all the insider knowledge of the disconnect between Jordan’s “people” and Abe Pollin’s “people” during Jordan’s tenure as a player and executive in D.C. — However, just as inept as Jordan seemed to be, or rather, bad at building a team/community environment, one could easily lay blame on both sides of the track. Pollin, a great man for his community and his employees, was also known to be a bit fickle and set in his ways.
For instance, it seemed to be well-known that “agents” weren’t high on Pollin’s list of likable figures, especially David Falk (Jordan’s agent). One could insinuate that Pollin generalized the nature of agents as “inherently evil,” which might be taking a little too far. Pollin was a man who instead opted for handshakes and looks-in-the-eye in a changing environment that called more for established protocol, and hence, agents as intermediaries. He couldn’t separate the issue of “old school trust,” dealing directly with players, in which Pollin, being the older, smarter, richer man, would have had the advantage, versus the fine print of crossing Ts and doting Is on a legal document as a CYA contingency needed on the part of the players (and teams).
Of course, I’ve also shared some of Pollin’s sentiment regarding agents.
So, Pollin might not have always had optimal relationships with agents (although I’m sure there were some he got along with) … but still, it’s easy to deduce how being slow to adopt the necessities of a changing league, or an unwillingness to let bygones be bygones and build more holistic unity, served to the detriment of the Wizards franchise for a long time.
Which circles me back to my point about Jordan … what if he’s learned his lesson? Or at least has become more willing to see things from a different perspective? Or, has just become a nicer guy to deal with? People can change. It’s a scientific fact. And not saying that Pollin didn’t change, or learn lessons, during my tenure closely following the franchise for the past 20 years, I’m just saying that the “set in his ways” idea is not baseless.
I recently appeared on a sports talk radio show in St. Louis, At The Buzzer with Brian Doolittle (Episode 17). Brian asked me to comment about the recent signing of Kwame Brown by Jordan’s team … and I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer. How should Wizards fans feel about the reunion between Jordan and Kwame? Should they not care? Should they hope they both fail together? Should they hope for redemption? It’s easy to not be a fan of Kwame, and I’ll leave it at that for now, otherwise opting for apathy.
But it got me thinking … Ted Leonsis, as a minority owner under Pollin, was very instrumental in bringing Jordan to the Wizards in the first place (Jordan and Pollin previously had some “run-ins,” if you will). Leonsis wanted to make a splash with marketing pizazz, glitter and the what-not (see also: giving Jaromir a then-record $77 million contract in 2001) … both situations failed pretty epically.
However, as the case with most smart men, the lesson out of the whole situation was not lost on Leonsis, as he has admitted himself. You don’t build teams with big splashes (well, sometimes you do, but it’s rare and risky). Leonsis is undoubtedly better set up to succeed because of what he was able to observe — as a result of his own actions and as a result of how the franchise was previously run.
The Michael Jordan Experiment, as bitter of a memory as it is/was for Wizards fans, ended up making Leonsis a better owner … and in all likelihood, a better, more consistent franchise (of the community) for the future. Ah, the cycle of life.
So, you see, perhaps Jordan can change too (and maybe even Gilbert Arenas as well! — Matt Moore, if you’re listening). Maybe Jordan, like Leonsis, can learn lessons from past mistakes that he’s created — Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison. Okay, not much of a lesson there aside from the necessity of doing the bare minimum of due diligence >>>> TINY-HANDED PLAYERS ARE NOT MADE IN ONE WORKOUT … THOSE WITH WISPY MUSTACHES DON’T HAVE NBA CAREERS PREDICATED ON COLLEGE BASKETBALL TEARS.
I am now unsure as to why I just typed in all caps (probably for some sort of effect), and why all of this is organized in bullet-point form.
Otherwise, that’s all I got … hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes you have to go through bad visions to get to better ones … not all for nothing, perhaps.

>LINK$

A bit more on Hamady N’diaye as he waits for a tender from the Wizards.
[Washington Examiner]

John Feinstein has some good words about the Mike Wise Twitter incident, especially about how what Mitch Albom did was much, much worse.
[Feinstein On The Brink]

Casey Mack is advocating that the Wizards trade Andray Blatche while his stock is high (if he continues his strong, post-trade numbers from last season). It’s not that far-fetched of an idea, especially considering the fact that ‘Dray will make roughly $6.8 million over the next two seasons, and it took him less than a month after last February’s trade deadline for him to proclaim that he’s underpaid.
[Dime Magazine]

Etan Thomas signs with Atlanta. A Hawks blogger is like, “Whoa … huh?”
[Hoopinion]

Real quick: What former-Wizards are new to other teams in the Southeast Division? Mike Miller (Miami Heat), Shaun Livingston (Charlotte Bobcats), Dominic McGuire (Bobcats), Kwame Brown (Bobcats), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Heat), Juwan Howard (Heat), and now the Poet in the ATL.

Speaking of old Wizards, it looks like Dee Brown will be in camp with the Dallas Mavericks.
[The Two Man Game]

Could Kevin Durant be the next Tim Tebow (in terms of media idolization spawning fan annoyance)? Or is he just an anti-LeBron James for the time being?
[Daily Thunder]

More Yi Jianlian in clips.
[Bullets Forever]

When television used to be the enemy of the NFL.
[Washington City Paper]

Does pre-game stretching matter? I’m most curious about if the Wizards specifically perform stretching after games (if it’s a team thing, or if it’s up to the players themselves). In tune with Henry Abbott’s observations of other teams, I don’t recall seeing any Wizards stretching after games last year, and wonder if they even have time to do so.
[TrueHoop]

The ‘blogger access’ debate has been festering in the NHL, here’s a good read.
[The Hockey Writers]

More Mike Florio bashing. I’m on board.
[The Jets Blog]

John Wall a week before the NBA draft, via Court Cred.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN-0z56d0Nk

Sure, sure … you’ve probably seen some of these John Wall highlights from Elite 24 runs before. Sure, sure … you’ll watch them again.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4im10uc0j8o

Finally …

A Peter John Ramos sighting (the tall one) before Puerto Rico faced China. Not sure what’s going on around him, as in … Why is José Juan Barea (the short one to Ramos’ left, your right) so angry with the camera? It’s weird, I took a screen shot of a computer screen of this scene, yet I feel like some individuals in the picture are annoyed with me personally. Oh well.

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Yi Jianlian Sits China’s Group C FIBA Finale With Achilles Injury

Kyle Weidie — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:47:50 +0000

Had enough of Yi Jianlian yet? I’ve got some good news and bad news. Bad news first. According to a report by the China Daily, and a story on the FIBA website, Yi sat out of Thursday’s game against Turkey with an injury to his Achilles tendon.

China’s coach, Bob Donewald, said that the Achilles was “inflamed a little bit,” and that Yi would be getting an MRI on it. Donewald also called Yi a “warrior,” because he played hurt after sustaining the injury Wednesday against Russia. Surely cringe-worthy news for Wizards brass. Those darn international competitions.

Now for the good news, or actually, bad news depending on how you look at it. Even though China went 1-4 in Group C at the FIBA Worlds, they advanced to the knock-out stage (four out of six teams from each of the four groups do). The Ivory Coast, whom China beat, and Puerto Rico, who beat China, were the two teams from the group sent home. All three finished with a 1-4 record, but China held the three-team tie-breaker.

On Thursday morning (on the East Coast), the Ivory Coast beat Puerto Rico for their first ever win in a FIBA tournament. China was aware of this result heading into their 2 pm Thursday afternoon game against Turkey. Knowing they would advance regardless likely contributed to Yi resting; China lost to Turkey 87-40.

China will play Lithuania on September 7th. If they win that game (unlikely, Lithuania went 5-0 in Group D), they will face the winner of Argentina and Brazil. I’d love to see Yi against either of those front lines.

In other news …

Be sure and read what John Townsend wrote about Yi in China’s game versus Puerto Rico. More to come …

Here are a couple Russian basketball coaches. They remind me of…

A) KGB agents trying to go undercover on a spy mission in Hawaii in the late-80s.

B) Actually, those shirts aren’t too covert, (but almost ironically so — hey, side fact: did you know that NBA ref Bob Delaney, the one who went undercover against the mob, his ‘mob name’ was “Bobby Covert”), so maybe these two are actually camp counselors for some Russian camp that entails all one would imagine it to be (in a Russian sense).

C) Two Wild And Crazy Guys!

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Yi Jianlian’s Great Leap Forward (for 3½ Quarters): China vs. Puerto Rico

John Townsend — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:54:34 +0000

“Bob Donewald, the coach of China, is buoyant … Energy, Enthusiasm, and Effervescence could well be his middle names. He brings this chump Chinese team to the brink of advancing to that last 16, but only if he can overcome Dallas Mavericks’ Juan Barrea and his Puerto Rican compatriots.” — Nick Bent/Mick Dent/FIBA Commentator?

Coach Donewald wasn’t able to beat Puerto Rico this past Tuesday. Juan Barrea is by no means a stateside superstar, but his play-making skills and command of the offense in FIBA play proved to be too much for the “chump Chinese.”

No, guard play killed the Chinese on this night. As Kyle Weidie plainly pointed out on Twitter:

China’s guards are absolutely horrid. If they had someone halfway decent…. (and no, Sun Yue is not halfway decent).

The game should have been simple: give the ball to Yi. The commentator described him as, “One of the men in the tournament” and his skills were on display early and often, despite an inconsistent supply of basketball. China raced to a hot start, making seven of their first eight shots. Yi’s first points came on a great post up and baseline move, finishing with a quick hook shot. Yi then hit a sweet three on a rare pick and pop situation. His partner in crime, Wang Zhizhi, racked up ten points before driving and dumping to a cutting Yi on the baseline for the easy flush.

China 17 – Puerto Rico 7

Time Out P.R.

[The 7'0" Yi works for post position against the 6'6" Angel Vassallo (Va. Tech alum), and reverse pivots as the ball swings from the right wing to the top of the key and then into the post. It's hard to imagine NBA teams giving the same amount of time on such a size mismatch.]

And unfortunately for the team representing the Middle Kingdom, that time out signaled the beginning of the end.

Puerto Rico began to push the ball, setting a fast tempo. Barrea freed up teammates down low with jump passes and a A.D. Vasallo was virtually unstoppable, being hailed as Puerto Rico’s “cornerstone” en route to 22 points.

But what about Yi?

This summer, Yi worked diligently to improve his left-handed shots. Practice doesn’t always translate to games, so it was great to see that he was not only committed to using his left, but did so effectively.

He was willing to bump in the post, capitalizing on mismatches, and on many occasions giving defenders the runaround, bodying out the opposition to get right under the basket for easy points. Another nice thing to see was that in P&R situations, he didn’t jump out for long 2- or 3-point shots. Yi was determined to get into good position to beat his man down low.

[Side note: during one time out, the cheerleaders danced to Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Bizarre.]

What most impressed me about Yi Jianlian versus Puerto Rico was his activity on the defensive end. His impact isn’t clearly seen in the box score, but he deflected a couple of passes, blocked a shot (ruled a goaltend), and played great team defense. He didn’t just zone in on his mark, but kept his head on a swivel and several times was seen pointing out defensive assignments. He was quick to support teammates and kept himself mentally involved off-the-ball.

One lingering issue is Yi’s positioning on rebounds. In the contest against the Ivory Coast:

“… Yi [was] being pushed under the basket, or away from the ball altogether. The announcer for the game even noticed that Yi was constantly out of position and off-balance when the ball came off the rim.”

{Yi Jianlian getting boxed out by Brice Assie of the Ivory Coast.}

Part of the reason for this is that he is so eager to make an impact and grab a board that he’ll swim past grounded players to find open space on the court. The problem is that the open space he too often heads toward is under the basket or deep along the baseline. Yi is not the only one at fault, but the Chinese team got out-rebounded 26 to 44. Yi had seven of those (one offensive). Decent effort … if not lacking.

As the game went on, Yi was visibly tired. He hustled less and spent more and more time away from the basket. He resorted to New Jersey Dirk-mode, settling for a lot of pull-up jumpers and fadeaways, missing multiple shots at a time. Yi shot 9-19 from the field. When he can be bothered to operate in the post instead of relying on his erratic outside shot, he has a much greater impact.

Defensively, players started to use Yi’s leverage against him, pulling out the chair to lock up fantastic inside position.

Has Yi really improved? Or are his numbers a reflection of weaker international competition? It’s a bit of both. However, what will translate from the FIBA to the NBA is Yi’s approach to the game. He is confident — both physically and mentally — and he is eager to learn. That’s a big step to revitalizing his professional career. With further strength training and conditioning, and the addition of another low-post move, and a bit of time, he could be a super sixth-man. Our expectations for Yi have been tempered, but you can’t ever disagree with improvement.

[High Fives!]

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Wiz Kids: Will John Wall Be The Best Franchise Rookie Ever?

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:05:03 +0000

Stop. I know what you’re thinking. Wasn’t Wes Unseld Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season? Why yes, he was … in 1968-69.

Of course, some stat heads might tell you that Unseld didn’t deserve the MVP that season. Among players who appeared in 70 or more NBA games in ’68-69, Unseld’s PER of 18.1 ranks 19th. And of those with a PER greater than 18, Unseld’s Win-Shares Per 48 Minutes (WS/48) was 10.8 and ranked seventh. The Baltimore Bullets did lead the NBA with 57 regular season wins, but were bounced by the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

Still, Big Wes got the accolades, and followed with a Hall of Fame career. Only he and Wilt Chamberlain have won both the ROY and MVP awards in the same season … and I’m betting it never happens again. But does that make Unseld the best rookie in franchise history? Not necessarily. Keep reading.

Over on SB Nation DC today, Jake Whitacre has a post that sparked my interest in this subject. Jake has a run-down of the best athletes over the age of 35 in D.C. sports history.

So, I turned toward the opposite end of the spectrum and wondered about some of the best, youngest players in Wizards franchise history. With the 19-year old John Wall set to turn 20 next Monday (September 6 — sheesh, the kid was only born in 1990?), I turned to the Basketball-Reference.com database and ran a search of all players 20 years or younger (age as of Feb. 1 in a given season, the criteria set up by BBR) who have played for the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards franchise.

The result only returned four players … bet you can guess two of them. Both Kwame Brown and Andray Blatche were 19 and 20 during each of their first two seasons with the Wizards.

John “Hot Plate” Williams turned 20 years old in the October before his rookie season with the Bullets in ’86-87. And he had better sub-age 20 stats (15.5 PER) than both Brown (11.2 PER) and Blatche (10.1 PER), and certainly better than the fourth 20-and-under player who has played for the franchise, Peter John Ramos (8.2 PER).

Williams made the 1987 NBA All-Rookie first team along with Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper, Chuck Person and Roy Tarpley. He had a better sophomore season and an even better third year in the league. But unfortunately for him, that was the best he’d ever see. Williams’ career fizzled out with injury issues, mostly a result of “Hot Plate” struggling with his weight.

If you bump the BBR criteria to 21 years of age (and younger), the list of names expands considerably to include: Chris Webber, Bobby Simmons, JaVale McGee, Rasheed Wallace, Juwan Howard, Jared Jeffries, Wes Matthews, Phil Chenier, Richard Hamilton, Kenny Green, Javaris Crittenton, Phil Walker, Jeff Slade, and of course, God Shammgod.

Furthering the discussion, and the title of this post, I ran a BBR search for all rookies, of any age, who have played for the Wizards franchise. The return is a list of 150 players. But some, such as Archbishop Carroll and University of Maryland product Cedric Lewis, only saw four minutes of action over three games during his ’95-96 rookie season with the Bullets (Lewis concluded four seasons with the Terps in 1991) — and that’s the only NBA action he ever saw.

So, to narrow it down a bit, I searched for all franchise rookies who appeared in 70 or more games during their first season. This whittled down the list to 38 players, leaving out the likes of Juwan Howard, Rasheed Wallace, Don MacLean, Brendan Haywood, Jerry Sloan, Kwame Brown, Kevin Grevey, Gheorghe Muresan, Rick Mahorn and Juan Dixon, among others; BUT, including the likes of Jarvis Hayes, Steve Blake, Richard Hamilton, Phil Chenier, Jeff Malone, Tom Gugliotta, Rod Thorn, Gus Johnson, Muggsy Bogues, Kevin Porter, Harvey Grant, Ledell Eackles, Jeff Ruland, Mitch Kupchak, Walt Bellamy, Earl Monroe, JaVale McGee, and of course, Wes Unseld.

Who had the best rookie season in franchise history (statistically speaking)? Let’s take a look at the top five in PER (who appeared in 70 or more games):

Walt Bellamy (Chicago Packers, ’61-62) – 26.3 PER
Earl Monroe (Baltimore Bullets, ’67-86) – 19.3
Mitch Kupchak (Washington Bullets, ’76-77) – 19.3
Jeff Ruland (Washington Bullets, ’81-82) – 18.8
Wes Unseld (Baltimore Bullets, ’68-69) – 18.1

JaVale McGee would actually be sixth on this list with a rookie season PER of 17.0.

But, to have an additional perspective, and perhaps gauge which franchise rookie most contributed to winning, let’s check out the top five in WS/48 (basically the same five players, just a slightly different order):

Walt Bellamy – 0.233 WS/48
Mitch Kupchak – 0.188
Wes Unseld – 0.175
Jeff Ruland – 0.170
Earl Monroe – 0.148

It becomes pretty clear that Walt Bellamy, in the franchise’s first season of existence, had the best rookie season in franchise history. He averaged an ungodly 31.6 points and 19 rebounds per game. Yeeeeaaa, John Wall ain’t touching those numbers.

I will add the caveat that today’s athlete is much, much better, and practices the game of basketball at a significantly greater scale. Also, Bellamy was 22 when he was a rookie … as was Kupchak and Unseld. Ruland and Monroe were 23 during their rookie years.

Heck, just achieving a 20-plus PER as a rookie is pretty hard. In fact, only 30 NBA rookies (again, among those who appeared in 70 or more games) have achieved a 20-plus PER, according to BBR’s database. Five of those rookies are still active: Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, Elton Brand and Yao Ming. Six did it at age 20: Shaq, Paul, Chris Webber, John Drew, Brand and Magic Johnson. And for the record, Bellamy’s 26.3 rookie year PER is tied with David Robinson for second best all-time to Chamberlain’s 28.0.

In conclusion, John Wall’s rookie season, statistically, will not go down as the best in Wizards franchise history. But it’s entirely possible that he could unseat Ruland or Kupchak amongst the franchise’s five best rookies seasons. And likely, it will only take Wall about a week to become the greatest number one overall draft pick in team history.

Sorry Kwame.

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ShareBullets: China’s Hype Man, Covering Yi, and Mike Wise

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:10:17 +0000

This is Yi Jianlian’s buddy, his teammate, to the left and Yi is naturally to the right. The buddy’s name is Zhaoxu Zhang, but you can call him Max.

Max is 7’3″ and will be a junior for the Cal Golden Bears this season (tallest guy in school history). And while Max hasn’t seen a minute of court action in China’s four games at the FIBA Worlds in Turkey so far, that hasn’t precluded him from being team hype man. Let’s check Max in action … Super-Manning that ‘H’

Great.

Moving on ….

Earlier this week, via Ted Leonsis’ blog, Ted’s Take, the Washington Post, with their paid employees and the what-not (thanks to the Washington Post Company’s Kaplan scam), beat local bloggers to the punch in crafting web-based text on the recent international basketball exploits of one Yi Jianlian.

But in this race to be first, believe it or not, you, the reader, becomes the big winner. Not only do you get the Post’s write-up on Yi thrown in a Wizards Insider update amongst other topics, but you also get further analysis on the only Washington Wizard currently playing basketball on a significant competitive level.

Also worth noting, sometimes blogs are slow and are only able to work within the constraints of their own pace. Therefore, I must apologize for the slight delay in this particular blog’s ability to post time-sensitive material pertaining to Yi. And Leonsis wasn’t the only one to notice, we’ve received emails from Yi fans wondering about the timely coverage as well. So, in case you missed it, Rashad Mobley had an excellent write-up on Yi’s first two games, and I followed with the support of moving GIFs.

Henceforth, as the Post’s Michael Lee has gone on vacation, and the Post’s “fan bloggers” have yet to get started, you can look to the regularly scheduled programming of Truth About It.net (which actually has no regularly set schedule) for further coverage of Yi Jianlian.

Of course, as I write this, it doesn’t look like China will be advancing to the knock-out round of the FIBA tournament. On Tuesday China fell to Puerto Rico 84-76, and on Wednesday they fell to Russia 89-80 (games which have yet to be viewed by the staff of this site — the whole ‘regular job’ thing).

China now has a record of one win to three losses. To advance (four teams from each six-team group advance), China will have to beat undefeated Turkey on Thursday (at 2 pm EST on NBA TV), and they’ll need Puerto Rico to lose to the win-less Ivory Coast as well (9 am EST on Thurs.). Not likely.

MIKE WISE

More has been made of this Mike Wise Twitter ordeal than probably should have … and that’s why I did my part by writing something about it. >> SB Nation DC

And while you’re at it, you might as well check out a couple more worthy reads from: TBD.com, DC Sports Bog, WaPost Ombudsman, and Sports Business Daily.

Of course, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio won’t drop it — here and here — And Florio really comes across as a d-bag, which is in-tune with his standing amongst the world wide web anyway (I don’t read PFT, but I know about it.). I guess Florio is basically the Glenn Beck of NFL blogging, in it for the sensation.

Yes, I criticized Mike Wise on SB Nation DC, as he deserved it, but I’m also a fan of Wise’s writing. I’ve met him several times in person, and he was once nice enough to respond for a piece I was working on. And although I don’t know, know Wise, I’ll agree with Dan Steinberg that the gimmick was a very ‘Mike Wise’ thing to do. He learned his lesson. Get over it Florio and stop launching prick-driven stones of hypocrisy from your glass house of hacked web writing.

LINKS

Hamady N’diaye’s agent seems to think “H” was hurt by JaVale McGee’s presence in Vegas.
[Washington Examiner]

Here’s some more highlights from JaVale McGee and Nick Young, among others, including Shaun Livingston and Brandon Jennings, from the HAX summer league in Southern California. [h/t Dime Magazine]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXzxHNMUdLE

A quick interview with John Wall … he says one of his goals is to play for his country at the international level one day.
[You Been Blinded]

Did Nick Young’s game change last year? Mike Prada seems to believe so. But in addition to what Flip Saunders asked him to do (in remodeling his game), Young’s numbers (at least in terms of his assisted field-goals) could have more to do with going from Eddie Jordan’s system to Saunders’, and less to do with conscious implementation on the part of Young. Guess we’ll have to see what he brings this year.
[Bullets Forever]

D-League Digest, the TrueHoop Network’s D-League blog, has a series grading NBA teams on their usage of the D-League. The Southeast Division was recently covered and I contributed to the report on the Wizards. It’s not glowing.
[D-League Digest]

Shaun Powell pegs Andray Blatche as a ‘Rising Star’ for the 2010-11 season. Powell says ‘Dray has “velvet skills” and that he’s “not shy about rebounding in traffic.” Um … okay.
[NBA.com]

The Cavaliers are evidently considering a complete blow-up (I know, what’s left?), but Antawn Jamison is not on the trade block just yet (yea, riiiiiiight).
[NBA Facts & Rumors]

Kelly Dwyer has an interesting read on the Indiana Pacers, Larry Bird, Brandon Rush and weed.
[Ball Don't Lie]

Remember in “Takeover,” Jay-Z’s song dissing Nas, when Jay-Z rapped, “I showed you your first tec on tour with Large Professor?” Well, the back story behind that evidently happened in Washington, D.C.
[MissInfo.tv]

Uh oh … “Woj” is getting sued.
[FanHouse]

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Yi Jianlian: Art of The International Drop-Step

Kyle Weidie — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:36:40 +0000

The most consistent post move Yi Jianlian displayed during his first two FIBA tournament games against Greece and the Ivory Coast is the drop-step/spin (I’ve yet to watch China’s third game against Puerto Rico). He’s very fluid and adept at using both hands against this international competition. Let’s take a look at some examples of his work in looping GIF form (apologies to those with slow computers/connections).

Here’s a left-handed drop-step hook Yi hit in the first quarter against Greece. He powers by 7-footer Ian Vouyoukas with the set up power dribble and then puts the maneuver in motion. Vouyoukas never really had a chance against Yi’s speed.

Here’s the angle from above, look how much ground Yi covers.

Here’s another lefty drop-step against the Ivory Coast and 6’10″ Mamadou (Herve) Lamizana, who was third team all-Big East with Rutgers in 2004.

Sure, Yi takes way too many dribbles — he takes Lamizana into the paint so purposely, it’s painfully obvious what move he’s about to make — but look how fluid that left-hand hook is.

He’s a right-hand drop-step hook that Yi initiates a little faster. Also appreciate how he gathers himself, absorbs contact, and finishes while drawing the foul.

And while we’re at it, here’s a drop-step where Yi scoops the ball off the glass with his left hand. When I spoke with David Thorpe in Las Vegas, he told me around a third, half on some days, of the shots Yi practiced at his Pro Training Center in Florida were left-handed shots. Good to see him implementing what he’s been taught.

Why focus so much on Yi’s drop-step move? Well, it’s a low-post move that you’ll never see from JaVale McGee, and one that you’ll rarely, if ever, see from Andray Blatche. And considering the rest of the current roster, it’s not far-fetched to say Yi is the best, if not only, low-post scorer the Wizards have. Okay, Blatche can make a low-post move when he wants to.

And again, as you are surely thinking, this is against international competition that cannot compete with the combination of size and athleticism Yi will see on most nights in the NBA. But it’s nice knowing he has the tools, and is ambidextrous with that baby hook shot. Although, he needs to make it not so evident he’s turning his shoulder baseline each time.

There are some things Yi hasn’t done well in FIBA competition so far, and those will be covered. But I’m under the impression that the negative acts he has shown, mainly forcing/settling for isolation shots, sometimes out of necessity because his team needs a basket, are acts that he won’t have a chance to do with the Wizards.

Running the floor and offensive rebounding are strengths Yi has put on display while in Turkey. He’s shown toughness, mostly attitude-wise, that many haven’t seen out of him before. Now he needs to make that more consistent, and make sure he always brings physicality with his toughness.

I’ve seen Yi search for a man to box out while the ball is in the air — again, rare actions from Messrs. Blatche and McGee. I’ve also seen Yi get pushed under the basket because he’s not getting low and using his butt for leverage, especially late in the game when his legs are tired.

Of course, Yi’s minutes with the Wizards will be a fraction of what they are now. If he can focus on high levels of effort while he is in the game, and as Flip Saunders would surely say, get used to his role of coming off the bench, it wouldn’t be out of line to say Yi Jianlian has 6th Man of the Year potential.

What? I said “potential.”

To be continued …

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ShareBullets: Nick Young’s Game Winner & JaVale McGee’s Workout With Tyreke Evans

Kyle Weidie — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:18:50 +0000

A D.C. pic and some links …

I probably should have included the above pic of the Monumental Sports banner on the Verizon Center in my post about a similar banner on another building. I guess I was distracted by the dueling plastic drum drummers. You can spot the other one, right?

Otherwise, not much happened Wizards-wise today. Kirk Hinrich did return to Sioux City for a golf benefit, said it was “a little weird” when he had his presser and put on a Wizards jersey. Glad he hit that free-throw.

Young Clutch

With a hotly contested 142-all summer league contest on the line, Nick Young’s killer instinct took over as he hit the buzzer-beating game-winner … over former teammate Shaun Livingston no less. He then smiled a lot in the post-game interview. The video, via Ball Is Life, is embedded below.

Training Day

It recently surfaced on Twitter that JaVale McGee was working out with Tyreke Evans and trainer Rob McClanaghan in Cali. Here’s some video of that, via Dime Magazine.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK4eDcEmIGM

A couple more links…

Mike Wise made an uh-oh today.
[Press Coverage]

Dan Steinberg has a tad more on the Verizon Center banner stuff.
[DC Sports Bog]

Truth About It will have more break downs of Yi Jianlian’s play in the FIBA Worlds, but until then, here’s a break down of a couple of his post ups against Greece.
[NBA Playbook]

Kevin Durant talks about music-related stuff, calls Wale his “big brother.”
[The Smoking Section]

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Breaking Down The “New” Yi

Rashad Mobley — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:33:53 +0000

After Yi Jianlian’s dreadful performance in Madison Square Garden two weeks ago, there were legitimate reasons to be concerned about his ability to lead Team China. He missed open shots, he was unable to get comfortable in the post, and his lack of aggressiveness on both ends of the floor seemed to affect the way his teammates played. Luckily for Yi and China, the games were only exhibitions or “international friendlies”.

Saturday morning was China’s opening game in the FIBA tournament against Greece, and Yi demonstrated that he possessed a higher level of play for the games that counted. His first step was explosive and confident, he seemingly grabbed every rebound there was to be had (14 total, 10 defensive), and he played with an attitude that had been missing in his previous performances. In fact, after more than a few baskets, he defiantly glared at Greece’s coach (and former China coach) Jonas Kazlauskas.

Unfortunately, Yi’s 26 points and 14 rebounds were not enough to overcome China’s sloth-footed zone defense, and his team fell to a more experienced Greece, 89-81.

Sunday, Yi and his Chinese teammates took on a feisty Ivory Coast team in the second round, and while he didn’t look as aggressive and explosive as he had the day before, he still put up effective numbers (26 points, nine rebounds, two steals and one block). That performance was enough to lead China to an 83-73 victory, and it also gave me the opportunity to delve a bit deeper into this new version of Yi’s game.

Offense

During China’s exhibition games, Yi did not have any sort of rhythm in the paint. He often received the ball out of position, and he took a number of off-balance, fade away shots. Considering his teammate, Wang Zhi-Zhi, already has the market cornered on that type of move, it’s counterproductive for Yi to do the same. But against the Ivory Coast, he established a clear rhythm in the post. He’d take two or three powerful dribbles, and then pivot towards the basket for mini-hook shots. The Ivory Coast big men did not really have a player who could put up sufficient opposition to Yi, so that also played a role in his supreme confidence.
The few times Yi shot and missed in the post, he would immediately crash the boards and attempt to follow up his attempt. There were at least three occasions where he’d miss, then sprint toward the ball to follow up his shot with a dunk. Since Yao is not with the team, and Wang is primarily a finesse player, Yi’s aggressiveness on the offensive boards will be important as the competition progresses.
Since Team China relies on Yi for his strong post play, he doesn’t have as many opportunities to show off his perimeter game as he probably will have with the Wizards (or at least to the extent that he’ll need to be a threat from deep for Washington). However, with 1:44 left in the third quarter, Yi did show a glimpse of what he could do. He got in a triple-threat stance at the three-point line at the top of the key, took one power dribble past the Ivory Coast defender, took another one big step toward the basket, and slammed the ball home for a two-handed dunk — a salute was all that was missing..
For reasons I still don’t understand, the Ivory Coast refused to double team Yi in the post for most of the game. Yi is not known as a particularly good passer, and double-teaming him would have exploited that weakness, also forcing less experienced teammates to hit big shots. Toward the end of the third quarter, the Ivory Coast finally got smart and double-teamed Yi, and he responded with the correct basketball play. Yi found teammate Liu Wei cutting to the basket, and hit him with the perfect pass for the easy score. It is worth noting that in his three years in the NBA, and even dating back to his five years in the Chinese Basketball Association, Yi has never averaged more than 1.4 assists per game.

Defense

The stat sheet will show that Yi pulled down nine rebounds, but it does not show he should have had double that amount. The Ivory Coast front court made a point to be physical with Yi in the first half, and the result was Yi being pushed under the basket, or away from the ball altogether. The announcer for the game even noticed that Yi was constantly out of position and off-balance when the ball came off the rim. As aggressive as Yi seems to be in the post with the ball, he doesn’t seem to retain that same attitude away from of it.
China spent most of the game in their god-awful zone, and Yi was basically playing the free safety position, which meant he really wasn’t tested too much defensively (although the Ivory Coast’s lack of skilled big men helped him as well). The few times an Ivory Coast player did make it in the lane, Yi did a good job of contesting the shot without fouling. Still, it will be interesting to see how Yi does against a team with a more formidable front court.

Intangibles

During the 2008 Olympics, this Chinese team went through Yao with varying degrees of success. They knew they could dump the ball inside to him, and Yao would score, get fouled or make the correct pass. While Yi has more than done his job in the scoring department, I’ve never seen a stretch where he takes over a game and does the cliched, but necessary task of putting the team on his back. In the third quarter against the Ivory Coast, he did just that. Finally.

During a four minute stretch in the third, Yi scored seven straight points, earned four foul shots, had a brilliant assist and a monster dunk. He didn’t look at all like a player who was still adjusting to being “The Man”, but he looked like a veteran who knew his team depended on him. China stretched their lead from 11 to 16 points during that time, and Yi was the main reason. With John Wall, Gilbert Arenas and Andray Blatche on the Washington Wizards roster, it is unlikely that Yi will get that kind of leeway once the NBA season starts — but if he retains the confidence he seems to be building, it will only help his game.

Overall, it’s awfully hard to make sweeping generalizations about Yi after just two games. But if you’re looking for some indication of how Yi will perform this fall, there are some encouraging trends. Next up for Yi: a Tuesday morning matchup with Puerto Rico, the team that held him to a 3-of-15 shooting performance just two weeks ago.

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ShareBullets: A Monumental Advertisement from Leonsis’ New Group

Kyle Weidie — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:09:19 +0000

A D.C. pic and links …

I came across this big banner hanging on a building at the northeast corner of 13th and L Streets NW, about nine blocks or so from the Verizon Center. It features “Monumental Action” and the Verizon Center website URL followed by Alex Ovechkin, Andray Blatche, Crystal Langhorne, Beyoncé Knowles (I believe), and who appears to be Chris Wright of the Georgetown Hoyas. The logo of the Ted Leonsis-led group, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, is featured in the lower right-hand corner. I’m not sure what other monumental banners are around the city (or DMV area), or how long this has been up (the Monumental logo was released on July 16), but I am curious to see if Blatche will allow himself to be the Wizards representative of Monumental Sports in the future.

Preparation “H”

Michael Lee reports that it’s unlikely the Wizards will sign 2010 second round draft pick (56th overall) Hamady N’diaye, rather likely opting to let him develop in Europe.
[Wizards Insider]

I had a feeling something like this was coming, as N’diaye remained unsigned, and it was previously reported that an Italian team had interest in him. The Wizards will still hold N’diaye’s rights for the future, but now, since it looks like Kevin Seraphin will need a fair bit of time to develop (and he isn’t going to the D-League — link below), it makes sense for Hamady to get more experience overseas.

Plus, if you count the qualifying offer the Wizards currently have extended to Cartier Martin (via Sham Sports), there are 13 players on the roster. Ernie Grunfeld, known for liking flexibility, probably considers the last two spots too valuable to be used up on developing N’diaye in the D-League (remember, if you sign a player and send him to the D-League, he still counts against the max NBA roster size of 15).

However, with a young JaVale McGee, the developing Seraphin, rookie Trevor Booker, a 24-year old Andray Blatche, an unproven Yi Jianlian, and a never-was Hilton Armstrong as the only big men on the roster, it’s not beyond consideration that the Wizards are still on the hunt for more depth down low. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a veteran for a season’s rental (it seems to be Grunfeld’s M.O.), which, considering the whole situation, wouldn’t exactly be a ringing endorsement for the D-League from the Wizards’ brass. But it’s only the end of August, there’s a lot more time for the franchise to show increased interest in, and usage of, the NBA’s developmental league.

LINKS>

A good run-down on Kevin Seraphin via a French journalist who has covered him.
[Bullets Forever]

Ted Leonsis gives props to Yi Jianlian for his strong opening performance at the FIBA Worlds, and then wonders why the blogosphere hasn’t commented on it yet. Sometimes blogs work at their own pace, I know this specific blog will have more coverage of Yi soon.
[Ted's Take]

Michael Lee reports that the Wizards made a courtesy call about Carmelo Anthony, as did 29 other teams.
[Wizards Insider]

But now that Carmelo is doing Carmelo things, like publicly putting out a bounty on Kat Stacks (really, Melo, really?), I’d say there’s a better chance of Gilbert Arenas being elected a 2011 NBA All-Star starter than there is of Melo coming in D.C.
[Pro Basketball Talk]

Nevertheless, here’s some Anthony-to-the-Wizards trade scenarios for the heck of it.
[Wiz of Awes]

Looks like Etan Thomas is close to signing with the Atlanta Hawks, a divisional foe.
[Hoops Hype; h/t AJC.com]

Austin Rivers talks about crossing up John Wall … he comes off humble, says the right things.
[SCACCHoops.com]

You might want to check out this Tumblr.
[F*#% Yeah Kirk Hinrich!]

Wale featured in the Jordan Brand Holiday 2010 Lookbook.
[Nice Kicks]

Travis Outlaw learns about getting older.
[Portland Roundball Society]

A REBUILDING BUILDING

In Mt. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.

[K. Weidie]

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ShareBullets: Cross Me and I’ll Juke You Back

Kyle Weidie — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:43:04 +0000

A D.C. pic and some links …

[Behind the Back - Columbia Heights Youth Center - 1400 block of Girard Street NW - K. Weidie]

Want more John Wall? Of course you do. In the second video TAI posted yesterday, Wall could be seen getting crossed up, and it would later surface that the ball-handler was Austin Rivers, son of Doc Rivers who is also ranked No. 2 overall in the ESPNU class of 2011 rankings.

On Rivers’ Scouts Inc. profile on ESPN Insider, the ‘Weaknesses’ section starts:

One definite area of needed improvement that sticks out about Rivers is that not only does he love going to his right the majority of times he has the ball, but if forced to his left he does not attack with the same aggressiveness. When played to his left he is reduced to relying on a one-or-two dribble step-back jumper for the majority of his offense.

Watch the video again (embedded below, this time at the 0:31 mark). Rivers crosses Wall from right to left, drives left to the hoop, and ultimately hits a right-handed scoop shot. Guess Rivers is trying to combat his ‘can’t go left’ scouting report weakness.

But don’t worry, Wall gets Rivers back at the 0:40 mark in the video below with a sick hesitation move which I can’t count how many times I’ve watched.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXRS5QJRA9Q

And for the heck of it, highlights of only John Wall at Elite 24.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4im10uc0j8o

>ON TAP TONIGHT:

NBATV -- 7:30 pm (EST) - The Washington Mystics, down 1-0 in the best of three opening round playoff series, take on the Atlanta Dream in game two.

ESPNU -- 8:00 pm (EST) - John Wall judges the Under Armour Elite 24 Dunk Contest.

>LINKS:

What’s your favorite Wizards off-season moment? The Wizards official website has 15 representative photos for you to choose from … I’ll have to go with the first one.
[WashingtonWizards.com]

JaVale McGee and Nick Young won some kind of summer championship.
[Bullets Forever]

Interesting, brief read on Gilbert Arenas and the number zero.
[The Seattle Sports Guy]

Ted Leonsis supports blogs.
[Ted's Take]

Kelly Dwyer ranks JaVale McGee as the 21st best center in the NBA (actually No. 22 with a mix-up in the top 10).
[Ball Don't Lie]

Juan Dixon working out for the Cleveland Cavaliers? Weird.
[Hoops World, h/t Pro Basketball Talk]

The Washington Post wants to know if you are excited about the upcoming season for the Wizards.
[Wizards Insider]

Bethlehem Shoals on the WNBA’s Lauren Jackson.
[Free Darko]

Meet Michael J. Fox’s basketball-playing double from the movie “Teen Wolf.”
[Movie Fone]

Cool Photography — 88 examples of forced perspective.
[Instant Shift]

The Elite 24 alumni poster with John “Make ‘Em Fall” Wall.

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You Might Have Heard Some Positive Gilbert Arenas News, Now Calm Down

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:34:39 +0000

Remember last year? I do. I blogged about it and all. In fact, I’ve been blogging about this Wizards team solid since October 2007. And what have I learned most? Curb your enthusiasm. Now, I’m not here to sell you a glass half-empty today that I purchased half-full yesterday. I do, as just about anyone involved with the Wizards, from within the organization to outside, from media to fans, have hope for a better future (thanks to, namely, John Wall and Ted Leonsis).

It’s just that being entrenched in D.C. sports and getting hype for what may lie ahead no longer go hand-and-hand, at least for me. I’m not sure if this feeling has existed within me the whole time, it’s just now I’m older, wiser. Or if the whole Gilbert Arenas gun ordeal last year (as the topping on other D.C. sports futility), which at one point had me contemplating ending this whole blog … briefly, has created a faintly apathetic feeling toward hope (or a hatred of false hope).

My point: Donovan McNabb comes to town and I shrugged my shoulders (and thanks to Mr. Irrelevant, I’ve also been cautioning people that we’ll likely see Rex Grossman start for a couple games). The Wizards land the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft (okay, that was bat-sh*t surprising), and take Mr. John Wall … more shoulder shrugging (sort of).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than thankful that I’ll get to cover Wall, but right now, he’s just a fresh-faced kid who happens to wear the jersey of the NBA team I’m close to.

Not to be a Debbie Downer … I’m often a ‘It could always be worse’ type of guy. I’d rather have McNabb than Jason Campbell, and I’d trade Ricky Rubio and a futile rental of Mike Miller and Randy Foye for John Wall in a second. It’s just that … I am D.C. sports. Expecting a bad-case scenario (not necessarily the worst) has become the rule, not the exception.

So now Mr. Ted Leonsis relays in his blog that he just happened to catch Gilbert Arenas playing in a pickup game at the Verizon Center on Tuesday evening. Leonsis wrote in his blog, Ted’s Take:

Gilbert Arenas played last night. It was a very good evening of basketball. Gil – our All-Star - matched up against another NBA All-Star. It was quite a show and quite a display of talent. I won’t comment yet on Gilbert or who was in the gym last night but suffice to say Gilbert looked trim, fit and explosive. His shot was sweet and he did one left handed dunk that was something to see. It had everyone talking. I was impressed and am happy.

If you just felt a butterfly in your stomach, the good, exciting kind, you must be a Wizards fan. You also must calm down.

Let’s get a couple things out the way real quick. It seems that Chris Paul was the unknown All-Star, thanks to a Tweet from CP3 (via Dan Steinberg). Seems that local baller Sam Young was in attendance too, along with James Posey, Morris Peterson and Hilton Armstrong. There were possibly more quenches for a basketball hungry appetite on the Verizon Center court Tuesday evening than the entire 2010 FIBA World Tournament will provide … possibly … at least for Wizards fans.

Now, my friends, it’s time to finish my little dance on that fire in your belly. Read this quote:

“There’s no question, a player of [Arenas'] talent, when he’s playing, he puts us from a team that’s competing for the playoffs to a team that’s an elite team in the playoffs. When you walk in the gym right now, you wouldn’t think that he’s hurt. If he’s at that ability when our season starts, we’re going to be an elite team in this league.”

Flip Saunders said that just over a year ago after visiting Chicago where Arenas was training with Tim Grover. Ignoring ‘Gil’s Gun Gate’ and I’ll tell you that the Wizards went 11-21 in 32 games before Arenas was suspended. Yes, a lot of other things happened, but I think you get my point. And that’s not all. Andre Igoudala, who trained with Arenas, among others, at the famed, Grover-run gym in Chi-Town, Tweeted on August 12, 2009:

@AI9: Runs at attack were pretty good today, gilbert arenas is back like he left his black card!

Yea, left the Black Card at the gun store.

What, did I not warn you there would be zingers?

The WaPost‘s Michael Lee also brings up the fact that Arenas looked good at Barry Farms last year.

Now Leonsis did warn us that he would not yet comment on Arenas (or who was in the gym with him), but said in the same sentence that Arenas, “looked trim, fit and explosive.” Oh, and that his shot was “sweet.”

Of course, these observations Leonsis did not want to comment on spread across the Internet like wild-fire … SB Nation DC, SLAM, Hoops World, Washington Examiner, Pro Basketball Talk, The Washington Post, Bullets Forever, True Hoop, etc.

What does it all mean? That Arenas still holds a great deal of relevancy (and this comes as no surprise).

But it’s almost magnified even more, as Arenas has achieved what I like to call “unicorn” status with nary a public appearance in ages. Which makes me wonder (and I’m certainly not the first), wouldn’t it be better for Arenas to come out an apologize to Wizards fans (and the public) now rather than later?

Arenas addressing the past in this instance is a must. Gun-Gate won’t completely go away until the worthy/legit questions are answered. And it seems better to do this now than, say, on Media Day when one would hope the focus is more on basketball. Then again, I’m not a public relations guru.

Until Arenas makes himself available, the people will just have to feed off these second-hand morsels, these unicorn sightings … for better or worse.

Leosis has already shown he has the Midas Touch*, now add spotter of mythical creatures to his talents.

And I suppose I’m here to say, ‘Stop eating those morsels of unicorn, you’re going to ruin your dinner!’ Hearing that Arenas is doing well is certainly preferred over nothing, and definitely preferred over hearing Twitter rumors that he hurt his knee again at Grover’s in Chicago. But otherwise, no need to put any stock in it unless you see with your own eyes.

Besides, a great man once said, “Don’t think it can’t get any worse because it can.” That great man is none other than Flip Saunders.

Now flip that advice and don’t think it will get any better until it does.

*(Okay, the positive changes around the Wizards franchise have come as a result of Leonsis being an owner in-tune with the community and a hard worker, but you can’t tell me some sort of luck/magic/Midas Touch was involved in the Wiz getting the No. 1 pick. And actually, ‘Midas Touch’ might not be the best comparison … golden beer-holding shelves over golden urinals at a golden Verizon Center would be awesome — hot dogs and beer made of gold, not so much.)

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ShareBullets: Brandon Jennings’ Alley-Oop To John Wall

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:30:27 +0000

A D.C. pic and links …

[Card game, no guns - Meridian Hill Park, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

John Wall is currently out in California participating as an assistant coach, along with Brandon Jennings, at the 2010 Boost Mobile Elite 24 event in Venice Beach. The players have also been getting some good run, via John Wall’s Twitter account. Check out this oop from Jennings to Wall that was recently uploaded to YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHmTbH1s_8

[UPDATE] Here’s more video of Wall and others from the Elite 24 runs. Looks like Johnny gets crossed up at the 0:59 mark. [via Ball is Life; h/t SLAM]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsz_JVLqFh0

Kelly Dwyer ranks Andray Blatche at the 21st best power forward in the NBA, calling it a “a glass-half-full ranking.” Considering some of those ranked ahead of Blatche at 11-20, I’d say Dwyer is more pessimistic about Blatche than I am, but not without good reason.
[Ball Don't Lie]

“Yes Yi Can” … a Yi Jianlian photo shoot — this time in Slam, not Vogue, but still in a basketball jersey.
[SLAM]

The Wizards come in third in ‘Best Management Change’ on ESPN.com’s 2010-11 forecast. Washington’s nine votes, representing 9.7% of the voting panel, puts them behind the Golden State Warriors (36 votes) and the New Jersey Nets (35 votes).
[ESPN.com]

There’s some more red in the Verizon Center now.
[Washington Examiner, Ted's Take]

JaVale McGee just might be kinda/sorta important.
[SB Nation DC]

Dan Grunfeld, son of Ernie, is heading to Israel to play basketball for Bnei Hasharon. According to EuroBasket.com, the team currently features former NBAer Lee Nailon and Ronald Steele (University of Alabama). Former Wizards second round draft pick (38th overall in 2002), Rod Grizzard is a past Bnei Hasharon player.
[Washington Jewish Week]

NBA Player Movement Flow Charts.
[Wyn Douglas, ShareBro]

Columbia Heights Day is this Saturday in D.C. … I think I’ll check it out.
[The 42]

Congrats to the Sports-Reference family of sites for being named one of TIME’s 50 best for 2010.
[Basketball-Reference Blog]

Rob Dibble vs. Kenny Powers, in quotes … great stuff from Jake Whitacre.
[SB Nation DC]

Lindsay Czarniak’s No Longer Wearing Dan Snyder’s Shirts?
[Washington City Paper]

You must check out the dunk contest below (you probably have already), but especially the 1:35 mark.
[Talk Hoops]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iD0KCVqbY0

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The NBA Equivalent of Losing Alana Beard

Kyle Weidie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:12:30 +0000

[a basketball hoop somewhere in Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

Excuse the comparison to the men’s game and think of the following more as context to what the Washington Mystics have accomplished this season. Through their run, a prevailing storyline has been about someone who hasn’t played at all, all-star Alana Beard. No one expected Washington to do anything after Beard had season-ending surgery on an injured left ankle tendon in April. Instead, the Mystics finished as the first overall seed in the East.

Unfortunately for the growing Mystics fan base, their team lost its opening playoff game against the Atlanta Dream in D.C. on Wednesday night. They’ve long moved past the ‘what if we had Alana’ stage, but for context, perspective, and for the hell of it, let’s find the NBA equivalent of Beard’s statistical production for a better idea of her impact, or lack thereof.

I chose three advanced stat categories to put in the Basketball-Reference.com historical NBA database (and please excuse the refresher course via the Basketball-Reference glossary):

PER (Player Efficiency Rating): “The PER sums up all a player’s positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player’s performance.” *Note: developed by ESPN’s John Hollinger.
Usg% (Usage Percentage): “Usage percentage is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor.”
WS/48 (Win Shares Per 48 Minutes): “An estimate of the number of wins contributed by the player per 48 minutes (league average is approximately 0.100).”

In 2009, Beard had a PER of 16.7, Usg% of 25.9, and a WS/48 of 0.121 in an all-star year.

I plugged in a range of the first two categories and sorted by the last. Click here for the results from Basketball-Reference. But feel free to keep reading about the conclusion.

In 1994-95 the Sacramento Kings had an all-star, MVP of the all-star game no less, who had a 17.2 PER, 27.0 Usg% and 0.120 WS/48. That season, the Kings finished with a .476 winning-percentage, ninth in the Western Conference and out of the playoffs. Coincidentally, in 2009 the Mystics finished with a .471 winning-percentage, along with the Connecticut Sun and the Chicago Sky, but it was Washington that won the three-way tie, retaining the fourth and final seed in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference playoffs.

Oh, and in case you haven’t guessed already, that Sacramento Kings player was none other than Mitch Richmond. Yes, that Mitch Richmond. Wizards fans 9-years old, if they exist, don’t remember the Richmond tenure debacle in Washington … thankfully. Next season, his 1995-96 Kings wound up making the playoffs, as the 8-seed, and lost three games to one to the ultimate Western Conference champion Seattle Supersonics in the first round. That was Richmond’s only playoff appearance with the Kings and one of only four seasons in which Richmond played in the playoffs over his career.

But could you imagine that ’95-96 Sacramento team even making the playoffs without Richmond? The supporting cast featured Sarunas Marciulionis, Walt Williams, Brian Grant, Billy Owens, Olden Polynice, Corliss Williamson, Tyus Edney, Lionel Simmons, and Bobby Hurley. Yep, pretty much nope.

Not to knock any of those players, many were very solid and diverse contributors — just like the make-up of this year’s Mystics — but not a playoff squad had they been without Richmond. And that’s a testament to some sort of positive karma on the D.C. sports scene (and to Crystal Langhorne) … except for the playoffs. If Washington doesn’t win game two on Friday in Atlanta, their season is over.

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For further statistical investigation, I took stats from Beard‘s best season in the WNBA, 2006, her third season, and ran them through the database.

Beard in 2006: 25.2 PER, 28.2 Usg% and 0.253 WS/48.

The first result: Karl Malone on the 1998-99 Utah Jazz.

Either way, here’s to a full recovery for Alana Beard.

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