The Wait is ALMOST OVER.

GO WIZARDS!

But, there’s no stipulation that the D-League affiliate (the Dakota Wizards in our case. With ‘Too Much Rod Benson’ of blogdom semi-fame (& the ‘Boom, tho’ video)) — no stipulation that the affiliate is required to actually play the NBAer.

This team was disappointed in the lack of progress of PJRamos, and Andray Blatche was sent down fro 6 games and hated it. So the (DC) Wizards soured on the idea after the first year. A key reason for the distrust, way I see it, is that the D-League team doesn’t run a Princeton based offense. These sets are notoriously tricky to learn and get comfort in , since it’s based on reads and options more than set plays. The more time you get (even in practice scrimmaging against the first team) the better.

Personally I think the system would work best if each team had it’s own minor league squad, ideally local to the area, where walk ons could try out etc. (since the DMV area has solid high-quality ballers) and the team could recruit and assign a coach who ran a similar system. Let Wes Jr do his thing. Hire Pete Carrill as an occasional consultant. Send Tony Massenburg to beat on the young bigs and teach them to play with hustle. And even let injured NBA players slum in the juniors to knock the dust off during rehab, if they so choose. You know: a true minor league system.

Who wouldn’t pay 5-20 bucks to watch Gil show up to test out his knee, practice his true point guard floor leader game. Who wouldn’t rock the gear of the DC Dogs, the Washington Justice, the DMV Sorcerors — or to keep it retro: the Bullets, or whatever they call it.

And if the team could have some sort of minor signing rights on their junior players, that might make it more interesting to management. Something else to sweeten a trade.

But some of this requires the consent of the Player’s Association, and would need to be written into the next CBA. Just saying, it would be better for everybody. And you could tell the true diehard natives by who was rockign the merchandise.

Seriously, I want a Washington Justice hat and jacket.