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Wizards Fan Confidence Poll
Last tallied on 09/01.
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Golden State of Mind previews 2010/11 Wizards
Poor Man's Commish of the Warrior's blog, Golden State of Mind" provides his take on the upcoming Wizards season. The linkage between these two teams is interesting, particularly when you consider the players who have spent time in both places - Weber, Arenas, Jamison, Hughes & Boykins.
Survey suggests Gilbert Arenas among most disliked sports figures
by CJ Hempfield on Sep 2, 2010 11:36 AM EDT
in Briefing
12 comments
In his NBA.COM article Fran Blinebury said that "a market research poll found Arenas to be one of the most disliked people in sports." After a little Googling, I was able to track down the source of that information to Forbes Magazine and market research firm, E-Poll Market Research.
On June 18th Forbes Magazine published "The Most Disliked People in Sports." You can also see it in pictures here. According to its website, E-Poll specializes is research for agencies, brands and entertainment companies. It also appears that Forbes and E-Poll partnered on this survey. Forbes created their list of "people in sport" by using E-Poll's celebrity database. This is important because not every individual associated with a sports franchise would be considered a celebrity. For example, the Wizards only appeared to have two people listed in their database - Gilbert Arenas & Antawn Jamison. The point is that this survey began with a relatively small universe, only those that have a certain amount of "celebrity status."
NBA.COM discusses the most regrettable contracts in NBA free agent history
Can you guess who made the list? There are a few that will take you down memory lane. Remember how bad the Brian Grant contract was in Miami? Or how Minnesota's voided contract with Joe Smith cost the team $3.5 million and fines and 5 first round draft picks?
Which of these contracts do you believe is the worst?
Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner interviews Hamady N'Diaye's agent Keith Glass
Keith Glass suggests that the lack of playing time that Hamady received in the Summer League has had a negative effect on the contracts being offered from Europe. He does still believe the Wizards will still offer Hamady a non-guaranteed contract.
Truth About It on Yi Jianlian's drop step
Kyle is a little excited about Yi, because Yi's been able to execute drop step moves in the post and because he boxes out. His argument is that Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee don't do that. He even floats the "Sixth Man of the Year" line.
I'm happy that Yi is making power moves, but we have to consider the competition. This almost makes it sound like Dray and JaVale are incapable of doing a drop step, which isn't exactly true - the real issue is that defenders in the NBA are stronger than in FIBA, and those two haven't yet put on enough strength to consistently execute the move. In other words, Yi needs to prove he can make power moves against NBA players before I get as excited as Kyle.
Here's hoping that happens.
Wizards News Watch
by CJ Hempfield on Sep 1, 2010 12:27 AM EDT
in Briefing
1 comment
Here is some Wizards news from around the web:
Highlights of the Real Run championship at HAX featuring JaVale McGee and Nick Young (via Ballislife).
Nick Young's game changed last year
by Mike Prada on Aug 31, 2010 2:18 PM EDT
in Player Analysis
34 comments
If you turn the clock back to the summer of 2009 for a second, you might remember that Flip Saunders was doing everything he can to tell Nick Young to play more like Rip Hamilton. Saunders was begging of Young to become more "efficient," or, in his words, become the kind of player who "scores 22, 23 points and you wouldn't notice." So drastic was Saunders' reconstruction of Young's game that Young uttered these lines a year ago.
(Via Michael Lee).
"I didn't feel like Nick. I felt like somebody else. I don't know, I felt like I was just a shooter, just strictly shooting."
"Eventually [the freelancing] is gonna come back, but I'm doing so good with this, I'm gonna stay with this for right now. "This is what they want me to do, I shouldn't change it. I've been working all summer on this."
Ultimately, Young's 2009/10 season can only be classified as a disappointment. After averaging 17.5/2.9/1.2 per 36 minutes, with a 13.1 PER and a 53-percent true shooting percentage in 2008/09, Young's production dipped to 16.2/2.6/1.2 with a 10.7 PER and a 51.9 true shooting percentage last season. That probably wasn't the breakout Saunders and company had in mind.
But if you subscribe to the belief that Young was only going to be a useful NBA player if he cut out all the freelancing, fixed his shot selection and dedicated himself more to defense, then there might actually be reason to be encouraged by Young's 2009/10 season. Not blown away, mind you, because his production did take a pretty substantial nosedive, but encouraged.
Why? Because Young's style of play did indeed change a lot last year.
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