Washington Wizards links: David Aldridge's must-read on John Wall, and more

by Mike Prada on Oct 4, 2010 5:58 PM EDT in Links

Today's links:

David Aldridge on John Wall assuming a leadership role. Read every word. DA's the best. [NBA.com]
A really well-done player preview of John Wall, including a David Berri smackdown, (though I prefer doclinkin's here). [Truth About It]
Practice updates, including stuff on Andray Blatche accidentally elbowing John Wall in the head. (Wall's ok, though) [Lee, Stouffer].
Reminder: as noted below, Gilbert Arenas practiced today, but Flip Saunders wouldn't say he'd start him in tomorrow's game against the Mavericks. This whole ankle injury seems a bit odd - Saunders misidentified it several times over the past few days - but it's early, so I'm not going to freak out over it just yet.
Yi Jianlian is getting comfortable, thanks in large part to his new Chinese cheering section. [Lee]
This is a harsh reminder that the Wizards never have rookies as good as John Wall. [Chase Hughes, CSN]
With all the bluster about this year, Ron Thompson asks a simple question: can the Wizards simply be better? [CSN]
This=orgasmic, in a purely basketball sense. [SB Nation D.C., via Wizards Extreme]
FanFest recaps [Andrew Rosen, Stouffer, WaPo, TAI]
A transcript of Bobby Dandridge talking at FanFest. Love how Ted Leonsis and company are bringing all these past greats back. [Wizards Insider]
Kelly Dwyer is the best, but I think he's overreacting to what seems to me to be a pretty mundane description of Gilbert Arenas' wandering during the FanFest scrimmage. So he put a towel over his face, so what? Whenever you have trouble describing what, exactly, Arenas is doing, it's probably not worth your energy to complain about it. [Ball Don't Lie]
JaVale McGee is angry NBA 2k11 gave him a "25" rating. I'm guessing it's because JaVale never shoots layups. [Samuel Chamberlain, TBD]
Eddie Jordan is hanging out at Bobcats camp, which puts him in contact with Kwame Brown and Dominic McGuire. [Philly.com]
This is old, but Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller preview the Wizards like only they can. They're always a must-read. [Fanhouse]
Wizards Executive VP of Business Operations Greg Bibb runs through his thank yous for Wizards training camp. [The B-List]

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Comments

Former Players?

I know I’m hoping for a Terry Davis sighting, but I’ll settle for a Darvin Ham and Mitchell Butler sequel.

Crappy rookies: Was Rip Hamilton that bad as a rookie? He seemed like a pretty solid pick but maybe I’m basing that on what he did for the Pistons more than the Wizards.

I’m afraid I’m getting more optomistic about the Yi signing being a steal. This will probably crash and burn but ~~I think the Wiz are due for a flyer to work out.~~ (Dang, we had Livingstong work out – this is doomed to fail.)

And of course DA is always awesome. It’s like a Bill Simmons column minus the smarm and name dropping.

by ChrisWhitneyFanClub on Oct 4, 2010 6:43 PM EDT reply actions

I'm pretty optimistic about Yi too.

I don’t know why so many people have written him off so early in his career. I know he has a lot to work on, but he could really end up contributing big time as a part of this young core with Wall, Blatche, McGee, Booker, and Young. Seraphin is probably at least two or three years away from really contributing anything of value, but he does have that “Nene potential” that everyone keeps saying.

That 360 layup by Wall was pretty sick btw. It would be the smart move to sit Gil tomorrow night but my greedy self wants to see him stick it to the butler formerly known as “tough”

One of the big keys for us this year, other than consistent rebounding from JaVale, is consistent play from Thornton. He has a lot of the tools to be a starting 3, but he just needs to commit to defense, and knock down those open mid-range jumpers that he’s going to get with Wall and Gil driving to the basket.

I could talk about the Wiz all day right now, getting pumped for the Mavs tomorrow.

by PhenomenalSwag on Oct 4, 2010 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions