Washington Wizards Blog

Comment from Wizards4Life
Time July 22, 2008 at 6:04 PM

awsome videos… cant wait for the season but i think they were puttin to much into the fact that we payed him alot of money like he has to step up and be the best ever to play the game i think if he gets his D in this year we are gold

Comment from Da_Big_Taba
Time July 22, 2008 at 10:54 PM

gilbert arenas will work hard for our team n lead us at least past the 1st round. n i hope we vs the cavs next playoffs n blow them out 4-0

Comment from GrifonRacing
Time July 22, 2008 at 11:11 PM

I thought it was interesting that Ernie not Gil came up with the final “number”. Kind of sheds a different light on things. I wonder what Ernie has in mind? It could just be to keep things financially managable in the immediate future.

I liked what Gil had to say. If he really plays within the team we could be a top tier team this year, next year, ok I’m getting excited. I wish I hadn’t seen it until September Gil had better not lose any of his quirkiness though. That is what makes him Gil.

Comment from aznzero
Time July 23, 2008 at 8:18 AM

great vid! its sad to see abe in that condition. im happy to see gil stay and win one for abe!

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 23, 2008 at 10:47 AM

The Wiz wont have to deal with Josh Childress for awhile he just signed a 3 year 20 million dollar deal in greece.

Comment from dmac
Time July 23, 2008 at 12:14 PM

Great video. I really like to see the Wiz win a championship for Abe. Gil being a student of the game got a good long look of seeing his team over achieve last year without him by playing better defense and staying in their roles and playing team ball.
Now if he can be more of a distributor on offense and let his offensive game come to him and play some good matchup defense we will do well. When AD comes in he can switch to the off guard in certain situations and shoot the lights out. An improved Andray Blatche, healthy ET should alongwith AD should bolster the bench. I believe also that DMAC is going to be a great contributor off the bench in hustle and defense. NY just got to let the game flow to him and not be so trigger happy. We have to wait and see how DS is going to respond after the Olympics. Of course Javale will have his moments as he puts on some weight and learn the nuances of the NBA game.

Comment from millie mill
Time July 23, 2008 at 12:19 PM

I can’t beleive Childress signed with Greece.

I hope Gil will stop being so quirky. Maybe he can be team captain next season. It’s kinda sad you pay a guy $111m and he can only lead the team in scoring.

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 23, 2008 at 12:57 PM

looks to me that gilbert led the team in a lot more than just scoring

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 23, 2008 at 3:31 PM

Yup — turnovers too!

Gil’s a terrific player — somehow I am pretty sure he isn’t going to lose any quirkiness either!

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 23, 2008 at 3:45 PM

I guess we’ll not mention steals and assists .

Comment from wizbulletman0
Time July 23, 2008 at 3:47 PM

I am making a prediction we will face the cavs next year in the playoffs….AS THE 1ST SEED!!!!!! and SWEEP THEM!!!! BOOOO YEA

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 23, 2008 at 4:00 PM

Looking at that same stat page for ‘07, we had 3851 minutes played by rookies or guys under 22 (Andray). I wonder whether any other team came near that?

Yup — Philly had 4526 (T. Young, J. Smith, L. Williams), and Seattle over 5000 (durant and green started). That looks to be about it, however.

Comment from wiz-skins07
Time July 23, 2008 at 4:12 PM

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Comment from millie mill
Time July 23, 2008 at 4:18 PM

I hope you’re right wizbulletman0. That would be a dream come true for me.

SportzWiz, I know Gil leads the team in a lot of the stats. What I talking about is the things that don’t show up in the stat sheet, like stopping his opportunity form scoring and taking over the team. Not just saying it’s his team but by showing his team mates that it’s his team and he is the leader, like Butler and Jamison did last year when they had to break up the rookies and pair them with a vet. I think Gil probably would have played with them instead of trying to get them to be more serious.

To me to be a max paid player you don’t have to have game like KG, Kobe or James. You don’t just lead your team in stats, you lead your team on both ends of the courts and in the locker room.

By the way have we officially signed Dee Brown??

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 23, 2008 at 4:20 PM

yeap its a partially guaranteed contract, im not sure on the specifics.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 23, 2008 at 6:52 PM

In an article about Dee and Deron Williams of Utah (they played together at Illinois and are close friends) I read that $100K is guaranteed. I do want Dee to succeed and earn that contract. But, that’s not a lot to eat if we wind up w/ someone better for that slot.

Comment from neal
Time July 23, 2008 at 6:54 PM

I think you said it well dmac. Those things will determine whether will take the next step (or two). I would only add that Young playing better would sure help.

Tom, how do you come up with these stats (like minutes played by rookies)? Do you have everything in a computer?

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 23, 2008 at 6:59 PM

SportsWiz pointed us to the team pages on basketballreference.com — nothing to it. Then I just scanned down team stats and added rookie minutes roughly in my head.

Here is our 2007-8 page.

Comment from neal
Time July 23, 2008 at 7:40 PM

Got it. Thanks.

That SportsWiz must be a pretty sharp guy. He tends to slack off though. Has to learn to give it up for the team.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 23, 2008 at 9:57 PM

Maybe if we gave him a 3 year guaranteed, tax-free 29 million euro contract. I’ll go type one up…

Comment from GrifonRacing
Time July 24, 2008 at 1:11 AM

He is getting Married. You had better type in a few “extra” euro’s LOL

Comment from GrifonRacing
Time July 24, 2008 at 1:21 AM

Who are we going to bring into camp? We need someone to PUSH Nick. We need some good 2/3 kinda guys to push him AND maybe make the team.

Comment from BruceO
Time July 24, 2008 at 8:48 AM

no ones offered jr smith anything yet. I don’t think we have any space to offer anything else. A guy on realgm said he ran into ernie in the summer league. Pretty much unless we get a deshawn type deal nothing is going down. We are basically going to try and remain flexible in case anything happens like last season. Also staying flexible for any possible mid season moves. So I think we are done for now. Only thing I might look out for is I wanted Dj strawberry instead of Dee williams. I think maybe 100k of dee’s salary is guaranteed. I don’t think he has a good enough handle, he’s fast on the break, but he also can’t shoot particularly well. He also hasn’t shown to be an elite defender. The second last game they played, I think against houston the other guard stole the ball so much from him and the difference in their D showed. I’d rather have the bigger defender who’s proven to be a good defender and somehow gets points in. For those games where we need to protect leads or stop dribble penetration.

I’m willing to go into the season with our current lineup minus Dee plus Dj strawberry. I’ll be more comfortable with those three point guards and what they can contain and compete against in that position. Beyond that Nick young needs to get leg strength. Also forget his offense if he doesn’t learn defense I wouldn’t give him time on the floor. He’s learning bad habbits and by the time we’ll be running him alot it will be ingrained that he can coast without it and it’ll be too late. He has to atleast have the right stance.

Dmac needs to continue working on his jumper. I’m glad it was falling for him in summer league. What concerned me during regular season was his quickness defensively. He seemed slow to me. Atleast he’s lost some weight so maybe his step is quicker. He did a good job on donte green who funny enough is a T-mac type player. I’m suprised he wasn’t really taken high. A 6 foot ten true wing. He and randolph are interesting in that aspect.

Pech is always injured I’m concerned. When he gets injured early he falls behind. I suppose he still has to develop and it takes time but as you watch it happen in real time without sureness of the result its painstaking. I suppose the same will be said about mcgee but mcgee just needs to get stronger and thats it. Post moves follow and he’ll be good. I just want him to be able to compete with the centers that will be ruling his time. Bynum and Oden. He has the tools that if he gets a good teacher he will be our best center in years.

Blatche looked solid. I was laughing at Blatches killer mentality talking s**t to Houstons point. NOt sure if its Aaron miles, then tried to put the game away with a three pointer. It was foolish but he tried to put a dagger in Houston. His conditioning and strength is helping him more now and hopefully it improves during the offseason. I was impressed by his post moves though. Also his off the dribble moves as long as no guard is close by. I just want to watch his decisions and his timing, when he decides to go fast and when he’s patient. I want to see how much he can control his environment.

Sportswiz get someone to interview nick about his off season training. Talk to ernie to see whats being done, what they’re going to do about his defense. Make it a topic. I heard he is training with don maclean and might be weight training hence the off target shots. But talking to him and Ernie might make him emphasize strengthening his running strength with a parachute behind him (cause he gets knocked off his path easy), it might emphasize his getting proper technique in offense and defense. Better stance etc. He’s showing no sign of work on his defense. Defense wins championships. He won’t be integral part of that unless he changes that. There’s no If’s or buts about it. We won’t just go and get lucky. He has to be training smart.

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 24, 2008 at 9:19 AM

Sorry Neal, I’m trying not to slack off . Unfortunately starting tomorrow I’ll be away on vacation/condo closing. So i will check in sparingly but probably wont be on too much unless big news pops up. I will be back in the office on August 4th.

So today is the day to fire away with questions! Give me what you got!

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 24, 2008 at 9:20 AM

BruceO unfortunately Nick’s been working out on the west coast so it’s pretty tough to go out there, summer is a tough time to get all that type of information, but during training camp we should be able to get some good stuff.

Comment from jack_of_all_trades
Time July 24, 2008 at 9:45 AM

Hey SportzWiz I’ll take care of things while you are away!

Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 24, 2008 at 9:53 AM

Hey guys that’s my “neighbor” jack, she’ll run things along with FantasticWiz while i’m away.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 24, 2008 at 3:23 PM

Well, at least it’ll be a change!

Jack — come up with some good items for us, ok?

Comment from AUNDRA
Time July 27, 2008 at 8:50 PM

I just finished watching the video of Agent Zero and he really looks up to the task of becoming a more complete facilitator like Kobe. Kobe knows he has a good team around him and so does Gil which means everyone should prosper offensively and defensively.
If Gil saw any of the summer league he should be smiling enormously because Dr.Andray Blatche was in another world. Nick Young had his moments but a little coaching from the 3 Time All-Star should get him right back on track!Dominic Mcguire was just terrific with his blocked shots,rebounding and clean up baskets. Agent Zero doesn’t have to do it all anymore because he has back and and team united! All I see
Gil doing the next 90 days is doing the P90 course and working on pick up games until training camp!