Blatche Officially Changes Number From 32 to 7
SportzWiz checking in….For those that checked out the Wizards Summer League game you might have noticed a change in the jersey number on Andray Blatche as he was sporting #7 instead of his customary #32. I just had the chance to talk with Blatche about the change and here is what he had to say.
WWBlog.com: You were wearing #7 last night, have you officially changed your jersey number?
Andray Blatche:”Yes it is official. It is stone graved in. It is done.”
WWBlog.com: What was the reason for the number change?
Andray Blatche: “It is a new beginning. Like Obama said it is time for a change. For me it was time for a change. I had to change everything up. We have a new coach and a new staff. I had to change my number and get ready for a whole new me.”
WWBlog.com: Any reason you chose the #7?
Andray Blatche: “You know seven days of the week. Seven days of hard work each week. You have to stay focused seven days out of the week.”
Posted: July 15th, 2009 under Wizards.
Comments
Comment from Rick
Time July 15, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Lucky number Seven!
Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 15, 2009 at 3:41 PM
Ok ok — but I’m waiting for the year when Andray *doesn’t* have to start over! 
Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 15, 2009 at 3:44 PM
AD had 6 and DS had 9 — other than those, we have *all* the single digit numbers covered. I wonder whether MM or RF will take one of those numbers?
Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 15, 2009 at 3:53 PM
in the pictures at the press conference, miller had 6.
Comment from Rick
Time July 15, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Tom, it’s time for you to get on the Andray bandwagon. No more poopoo-ing the “Big Skills”.
Otherwise, I’m going to have to take aim at your boy DeJuan, whom I will admit played pretty well in his first summer league game… almost as good as Oleksiy Pecherov! Hah.
Comment from M2
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:01 PM
Foye 16
Miller 6
Love that we can realistically put 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 on the floor if we wanna play small ball… VERY Olympic! Bringing in 6 & 7 Hahaha…
Seriously though, I love the number our players have all chosen.
I’m a numbers guy. They are very important.
Comment from M2
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:02 PM
Foye 15 typo…
Comment from getabigboyoffense
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Rick – “Tom, it’s time for you to get on the Andray bandwagon. No more poopoo-ing the “Big Skills”.” Agreed Rick, the bandwagon will get more and more crowded as the season progresses.
With all of the scorers on the team, it’s going to be very difficult for inside players to get the ball much. What does everyone think would be the type of numbers that ‘Dray would have to post so that his detractors would shut up and let the guy play.
Comment from Rick
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:36 PM
I don’t really think it’s just about numbers. He needs to play an all-around game and complement the other stars (at least for another year or two). If he can score 12-15 points, get 7-8 rebounds and 3-4 assists, I will be extremely pleased. throw in a block or two and keep the turnovers to a minimum and I am confident that he can be a difference maker for this team.
Comment from wizfan and the kid
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Time to start the bandwagon and just like with Brendan (some of us on here remember people calling him “Brenda” and all kinds of garbage) get people to start applauding his effort. Being positive does a lot for these guys, so hopefully people will pass on to Andray that we are happy with this effort!
Go Andray!
Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:48 PM
Rick — Dejuan and Pech both had terrific first games in SL, DB just a bit more productive than Pech. Then Pech fell off a bit in his 2d appearance, and DB had a dnp in SA’s 2d game.
When Andray produces at a level congruent with those “Big Skills” I’ll be a big supporter. In the meantime, we’re going into year 5 of the AB experiment still wondering about results.
One big thing that would help AB’s game would be learning to shoot the 3. Make him a little more “Rasheed-like.”
Comment from getabigboyoffense
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Tom M – “Ok ok — but I’m waiting for the year when Andray *doesn’t* have to start over! ”
The following is directly from NBA.com:
“How do many NBA coaches quickly evaluate a player’s game performance? They check his efficiency.
NBA.com evaluates all players based on the efficiency formula: ((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) – ((Field Goals Att. – Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. – Free Throws Made) + Turnovers)).”
Question for my friend Tom M. Why are you so high on DMac and so critical of ‘Dray when DMac had an EFF of 10.30 and ‘Dray had an EFF of 11.8 for the 2008-2009 season? That’s in the neighborhood of 15% better EFF for ‘Dray.
Mind you, I really like Dominic, so I’m not being critical of him, I just don’t think it’s fair to hail one guy as a hero and the other as a bum when NBA.com demonstrates that that is not the case at all.
Comment from millie mill
Time July 15, 2009 at 4:53 PM
I think both Andray and Nick will be good for the team coming off the bench. McGee still is a question mark.
Last year Andray got 24 min per game. If he gets the same amount of time this season I think he can avg. 13pts, 7rebs, 3ast and 1.5blks. If that dosen’t open people eyes I don’t know what will.
Comment from getabigboyoffense
Time July 15, 2009 at 5:01 PM
With all of the three point shooters on the Wizards this year, I believe that coach Saunders would be most unhappy about even one missed three-pointer from a 6′11″ guy. Stay away from that shot ‘Dray.
Comment from getabigboyoffense
Time July 15, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Thanks SportzWiz. FYI I had simply clicked on Previous Post and then Next Post.
Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 15, 2009 at 5:05 PM
Gotcha. We actually just moved to this hosting site and obviously are not happy about the issues still popping up. We’ll keep working on it.
Comment from jdmek9tec
Time July 15, 2009 at 5:08 PM
awesome. Thanks sportwiz
Comment from SportzWiz
Time July 15, 2009 at 5:09 PM
fyi, just added a pretty cool story.
Gilbert donated 25,000 to Wizards Care for President Obama’s autographed chair that he occupied during the game in february vs. the bulls.
It was planned to go on an auction site and when gil found out about it he called and put in the offer to get it.
Comment from neal
Time July 15, 2009 at 6:28 PM
I agree, gabbo. Even if Dray can hit some 3’s, I don’t believe he can hit any more than the guards. I’d rather have him cutting across the middle and down the lane and dashing in for rebounds. He’s quicker than most PF’s. He should use that to his advantage.
I think Dray has already proved he’s a legitimate NBA player. That’s more than you can expect from a 2nd round choice. I think some of us had unrealistic hopes at times. Any more improvement from him is icing on the cake.
Comment from aznzero
Time July 15, 2009 at 6:31 PM
i have a feeling dray will have a break out year as well as nick and javale
Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 15, 2009 at 7:09 PM
Getabig — EFF is a notoriously inaccurate measure. Most teams have a dedicated “stats” guy who uses some home brew analysis system or picks up on one he finds on the Web: whether that is WP (the one I like best), or Win Shares, or John Hollinger’s PER.
You seem like a thinking man — you might order The Wages of Wins, by Dave Berri (and some other sports economists), which is where the Wins Produced methodology is discussed. It’s sort of the Freakonomics of sports (mostly NBA, w/ some NFL as well).
Wins Produced is not for such as you and me to calculate directly, because it requires some stat software that can do regressions. But there is an approximation, called Win Score, which can be calculated directly. You can even convert it into Wins Produced pretty accurately using some approximations Dave provides. One of the things you have to do is adjust for position. Obviously, you can’t put 5 centers or 5 guards on the floor, and excellence in a guard will imply different things than excellence in a center.
To calculate Win Score:
Add Points + Rebounds + Steals + ½*Assists + ½*Blocked Shots. Then subtract Field Goal Attempts, Turnovers, ½*Free Throw Attempts, and ½*Personal Fouls.
Obviously, you then have to divide by the minutes played, since people you want to compare play different minutes.
Dom’s win score is higher than Andray’s — and Dom plays a different position from Andray, so the position adjustment is different as well.
Comment from Tom Mandel
Time July 15, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Why is the Wins Produce metric the best, in my opinion. One very simple reason:
If you add up all the “Wins Produced” by all the players on a team, you will correlate to the *actual team wins* by about 95%. No other metric can do this.
Comment from ChenierFan
Time July 15, 2009 at 8:16 PM
It sounds like Andray is ready to bring it this year. I often wrote that the only thing he needs is confidence and that’s what Flip will give him. I look into my crystal ball and see 13.5/8.2/1.5/1.5/49%/75% in 29 mins/game this year for AB
Number 7 will take some getting used to.
Nick may be the starting 2-guard this year. If he is truly learning how to use picks and get his shots in the flow of the game and not just 1 on 1, then he’ll shoot over 50% this year.
Comment from getabigboyoffense
Time July 15, 2009 at 8:56 PM
Tom M. – “EFF is a notoriously inaccurate measure.”
Tom, I can’t argue that statement because I don’t know enough about it, but don’t you think that NBA.com would have the sense to scrap it’s system in favor of a more accurate system if it’s system is so bad?
Write a comment
You need to login to post comments!
Comment from millie mill
Time July 15, 2009 at 2:32 PM
I love his new attitude!!!