Comment from wizards_fusion
Time August 27, 2009 at 2:19 PM

The proof of the pudding!

I’ve been trying to hold my excitement about the team but I can’t any longer.

In addition to Young’s Summer League performance, Blatche’s supposed maturity, and Gil’s unannounced debut at Barry Farms, the pictures of Caron at Tony Cheng’s do look like he’s lost excess chub. Caron’s head is not as fat and he looks like his rookie days down in Miami.

With Gil losing 15 and Caron losing 15, this team is getting into shape much earlier than anticipated! Flip has to be pleased. If losing 15 means winning more than 19, I’ll take it.

Antawn is really the last main guy we haven’t seen or heard much about. He did do a quick interview while in Vegas when he went out there to check on the “youngins”, but he wasn’t playing and he talked more about last season and Mike Miller. Since half of the bloggers here want Antawn to take a bench role and the other half wants him traded and another half wants him to play out of position, the math makes as much sense as these comments.

Comment from SportzWiz
Time August 27, 2009 at 2:26 PM

Caron looks trim! and i mean that in a very good way.

Antawn usually is pretty quiet in the offseason but that is someone that knows how to take care of his body.

I’ve also heard that Brendan is in phenomenal shape, and I have seen a handful of guys around here as well. There is a growing buzz everyday with all of them and the excitement is building for camp.

we’ll know more right around the end of september when it comes to all of these guys, but count me in as being extremely pumped up for camp!

Comment from SportzWiz
Time August 27, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Have to like being name team turnaround by ESPN.

Comment from GlingGling
Time August 27, 2009 at 4:28 PM

As Gilbert would say, “My swag is phenomenal.” The Wiz Hype is out of control. It looks like the entire west has us pegged for at least the second round. All the news is positive. From the ESPN article, perhaps some of the most promising news is how hard Flip is working to create team cohesiveness (including sending out Cassell to work out with players). That news alone should excite people, having a great coach that is well respected by all of the players is going to do more for this team than any one player.

Too bad the season is so far away!

Comment from GlingGling
Time August 27, 2009 at 4:29 PM

haha… west = web… I wish I could edit my post…

Comment from neal
Time August 27, 2009 at 5:13 PM

Michael Lee’s article on Wednesday was good, but a little tough on the guys, I thought. He says for the Wiz to really be successful one of their 6 young guys (Foye, Crittenton, Young, McGuire, Blatche, McGee) has to have a “breakout” year. Then he gave reasons why each could have one and reasons why each wouldn’t have one.

Here are my uninformed opinions:
Foye – May eventually be excellent but is still trying to justify his high draft status, so he shoots too much.
Crittenton – Still inexperienced. Unknown ability at this point.
Young – Shows signs of learning the other parts of being a good NBA player. I expect a career year.
McGuire – Will only get bit roles as a defensive specialist.
Blatche – Reportedly in excellent shape. Conditioning, like many big men, has affected his energy and consistency. I expect a career year.
McGee – Still inexperienced. Needs at least another year to learn good decision-making and perfect his shots.

Lee said Young is immature – jokes around too much. I really hope basketball hasn’t gotten like the individual sports where the successful pros have to be so single-minded and driven that they end up with no other facet to their personalities. I like that Young laughs and kids around. I don’t think it follows that he’s not serious about his basketball.

Comment from getabigboyoffense
Time August 27, 2009 at 9:04 PM

neal, I’m glad that you didn’t lose that post. Right on target. I couldn’t agree more!

Comment from wizards_fusion
Time August 27, 2009 at 10:35 PM

I’m not going to put words in Michael Lee’s mouth, but I took his analysis as constructive criticism. He’s hard on the guys for a reason and this is what I think.

As a beat writer for the Wizards, Michael Lee has rooting interest for the team to do well – and he knows NBA talent in Washington has been sparse and short-lived. The team hasn’t been this deep and loaded offensively since the 70s and guess what – this franchise went to the Finals 4x during that decade (only team to do so from 1970-79). Sidenote – it was rather ironic they lost two they should have won (1975, 1979) and won the one they should have lost (1978).

Anyways, after 30 years of futility (more or less), the time is now. It may not be this upcoming season, but the term “dangerous” has crept back into the lexicon when describing the Wizards. I love the idea that “no one wants to play the Wizards in the Spring” (see ESPN’s Turnaround article that SportzWiz linked). I know the team has been labeled similarly before Arenas’ knee injury [with minimal results due to LeBron's momentous rise], but if injuries are no longer the topic of conversation for #0, #2, #3, and #33, you’d bet your bottom dollar Washington is dangerous and teams that never gave the Wizards respect recently (i.e., Cleveland, Miami) better start or else LeBron and Wade will have a bitter summer going into free agency.

If you think about it, all the main characters have a chip on their shoulder. Flip wants to shed the label of not being good enough to go over the hump. Arenas wants to shed the label of being overpaid with a gimp knee (i.e., death of Old-Gilbert). Butler wants to shed of label of being unwanted. Grunfeld wants to shed the label of having little success when doing things his way with the draft. Haywood wants to shed the label of being an ineffective NBA center for most of his career. Stevenson wants to shed the label of being done in the NBA. Blatche wants to shed … and on and on and on.

So, with all that, accountability finally matters for the Wizards. Accountability also matters for Michael Lee because the media is powerful in Washington (read Redskins coverage in WaPo if you don’t believe me). Michael brings us insider news (like what SportzWiz and Dave Johnson do), but his words can influence the team because he is so close with the team for a person not working for the Wizards organization. Michael is doing the right thing – he is telling us what the guys need to do so the team can enjoy the same successes that Unseld, Hayes, Johnson, Grevey, and Chenier had. It may be harsh, but it is deserved.

Comment from neal
Time August 27, 2009 at 11:23 PM

Hard to disagree with the three PG’s proposed by SportzWiz. Was Gus Johnson a PG or SG? It’s been so long since I saw these guys that I can’t compare. I guess I’d pick Earl the Pearl to start. Didn’t he play with Unseld and Dandridge? Who was the PF on that team that scored (and shot) so much? Us seniors don’t remember too well.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time August 28, 2009 at 8:01 AM

Amazing what a large number of crystal balls have been issued to all of us on this blog. We know what everyone is “gonna” do — including guys who’ve never done what we are so sure they’re going to do next, like Nick and Andray.

There is no off-season ring. And I might note that Brendan Haywood — who knows the Wizards players better than we do — says “50 wins, that’s aiming awful high.”

All the above notwithstanding, *my* crystal ball says that if Dominic McGuire plays “spot minutes as a defensive specialist” (neal), we are .500 ball club. I think he’ll play 2000 minutes.

And my rear view mirror, more accurate than my crystal ball no doubt, says that Nick had *one outstanding game* in SL; that’s all. Lets not get overly excited.

One thing I do feel certain about: if Mike Miller starts at the 2, we have a better starting 5 than we’ve ever had in this era. That’s a good thing.

Comment from Rick
Time August 28, 2009 at 10:47 AM

The wages of wins guy wrote a post about whether the wiz can improve by 30+ wins next season.

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/are-the-wizards-one-of-the-ten-best-teams-in-the-nba/

On one hand he says it is unlikely because the only other teams to do it have added a hall-of-fame player that year (San Antonio – Duncan, Boston – Garnett, etc), but on the other hand he says the wiz need a perfectly healthy Arenas in order to do it. Isn’t a perfectly healthy Arenas a hall-of-fame player?

Comment from SportzWiz
Time August 28, 2009 at 11:22 AM

trying to predict win totals off of formulas before seeing players jell and what roles they will play is extremely hard to do.

All I can say is this is the deepest Wizards team i have ever personally seen, I won’t make a prediction on wins, but this team can be down right scary when it gets going.

Comment from GlingGling
Time August 28, 2009 at 2:22 PM

Tom, I too believe Dom is more critical to our success than it seems most give him credit for. I think 2000 minutes is about on the money, which, while just matching last years totals, would be a move up because of our new depth.

Comment from GrifonRacing
Time August 28, 2009 at 10:45 PM

Rick.. go down farther in the article and read the “comments”. In there someone asks him if adding Miller and getting Gilbert back healthy isn’t like adding a Garnett or Duncan. He “basically” says that is what he meant, but, just didn’t convey the thought well enough.

You have to love when Tom’s “God” gives us reasonable shot at a 50 win season

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time August 29, 2009 at 4:44 PM

Dave’s analysis is very interesting, yes. And barring injury, and assuming we play our most productive players, we should be on track for 45+ wins — w/ a shot at 50.

If you read the full piece, you will see that the same numbers that give us that chance in Dave’s view also say that — based on performance to date, not fantasies of what they’re “gonna do” — the more minutes we play Andray and Nick the further we are from reaching that goal.