The Media is slamming the Washington Wizards organization. JaVale is balling in Denver right now. He sent a series that should have been over back to the Mile High city. I am a diehard Wizards fan. I was totally against trading JaVale McGee. It made me sick knowing how talented JaVale is and the possibility of a great Point Guard- Center combination for years to come, which is rare in the NBA.

Would JaVale turn out different than another player full of potential big man in DC?

I think we can find the answer from how the Washington Wizards handled a young, tall, athletic Andray Blatche

Is Andray Blatche a cornerstone of the Washington Wizards? Ted Leonsis said so. What has Andray proved to be a cornerstone player? Not a thing. Potential-Potential-Potential. Andray was given an extension based on this potential.

In all the years Andray Blatche was here (and he still is) was he ever pushed to be the best player that he can be? After one game where Andray kepted chucking 20 footers and trying to dribble through his legs in the first half, Flip Saunders said that he told Andray that he did not want him to do that anymore. Result: Andray starts the second half and does the exact same thing in the second half.

A couple years ago Andray REFUSES to go in the game after being beckoned from Flip. Result: Andray starts the very next game (if this had happened with my freshman basketball team this player would not only be off the bench but he would be sitting with his momma in the stands with street clothes on). Where's the Discipline? It does not exist when it came to Andray Blatche. It is sad. How could Andray reach his potential and be the player that he could be if he was never pushed and never disciplined. And then he still gets paid.

Who had a front row seat to this coddling of an underperforming big man? 20 year old JaVale McGee
Why would you expect anything different?

Unsure if this material has been posted, however. This is a nice piece from Steve Kerr on the importance of development in the rigors of the NBA. Hopefully the Wizards organization will adopt this mindset of selecting a player based upon his development overall, and not always on potential. Sometimes this issue can really backfire on a organization and the GM during the long haul.

The Case for the 20-Year-Old Age Limit in the NBA

As Bullets fans we are all too familiar with nba mock drafts. In fact some would argue that this biggest day of our year is the nba draft lottery. We all have our opinions on who would we should draft but I was wondering who people would choose based on the each player's nba player comparison. Try and stay focused on the skill set of the player comparison and not necessarily the career they had. Circumstances like teammates, coaches, etc effect careers and will skew a poll like this

http://www.beltwaysportsblog.com/2012/04/21/wizards-cap-situation-for-2012-and-beyond/

I read this article on this local website and thought it was interesting. It basically talks about how the Wizards cap situation will play out this summer and the different options that they have in regards to Blatche and Lewis. Seems like a pretty good read. The main questions to be answered this summer are:

1. Do you cut Lewis? In my opinion no doubt yes.

2. Do you amnesty Blatche? A little bit tougher question but still yes for me.

3, How do you spend the extra cap space and do you save it for next year or go after FA's this year? I think that is the big question that will be determined by the draft, who actually becomes a free agent, and who is willing to sign here this off-season.

I just saw that the Charlotte Bobcats are selling 500 of their nosebleed season tickets at a yet to be determined price, depending on the draft lottery. If the Cats pick 1st, those seats are $1 a seat for 43 games (41 regular season; 2 preseason), if they pick 2nd, it's $2 a seat. In essence, seats won't cost more than $4 a seat.

I thought it was too good to be true, even for a bad team, but it's true. See here.

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The end of the season brought hope to the Wizards Faithful. John Wall played better, Kevin Seraphin showed promise, and we all saw the impact Nene had on the team. But one player that interest me was Jan Vesely. Toward the end of the season he started putting up respectable numbers. This coupled with his good PnR defense and other non-box score attributes excited many Wizards fans. Perhaps Vesely simply needed to settle down into a new country and he wasn't the bust we saw the first couple of months? But did he actually improve or was it simply the case of receiving more minutes?

Take the jump to find out!

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A free agent please.

DC’s not knucklehead city anymore…we have a better team and we’re about to add 2 or 3 draft picks and one of them is going to be a starter. I know I should wait and look at this after the lottery but I can’t help it…no matter what pick we get we’re gonna get a starter and a nice rookie or two.

If we get Davis that’s great but unless we get Davis, I think we should move past T Rob and take MKG, Barnes or Beal then use our top 2nd round pick to take the best SG or SF available… No offense to C Singleton and Crawford, (I expect both to improve), but this years second round has some really nice players and a number of them can help us.

Guards like Kevin Murphy (Tennessee Tech), Will Barton, Kim English, Alex Young (IUPUI), and some mocks show John Jenkins and Doron Lamb as early 2nd rounders.
A couple of these guys can play some SF.

If we take Beal, my favorite 2nd rounder is SF Darius Miller. He’s played with Wall and he can shoot. He’s not great at any one thing but he makes few mistakes, seems to calm everyone down, and I think he’d share the SF spot real well with Singleton.

2nd round bigs (in my favorite order) that could add depth are Drew Gordon, Jae Crowder, Kevin Jones, JaMychal Green, O’Quinn (Norfolk State), and Henry Simms.

Ok… so give me MKG or Barnes and a sweet shooting guard, OR, sweet shooting guard Beal and D Miller and we have improvement at two spots. Keep C Martin and J Singleton and with our great 8 (Wall, Crawford, Booker, Nene, C Singleton, Seraphin, Vesely and Mack) we now have 12 roster spots filled. Add a veteran PG and we have 2 spots open. To complete our roster please pick one from list A and one from list B.

list A:

1. M Evans
2. R Mason
3. 2nd 2nd rounder

list B:

1. R Lewis
2. Blatche
3. Free Agent
   

I'm having trouble deciding on list A, but list B....

NYK's problem can be our gain.. Stat wanted to come here a couple years back, and with Blatche being DC's "boos" posterboy lets do a trade.. granted Amare is not a great rebounder or defender, but he can score. He also could be great in a pick n roll set with Wall. I think we have nothing to lose and if anything more to gain frankly. I think a motivated Amare and NeNe frontcourt could take over the East. What do yall think?

I was very impressed with what I saw from him post all star break. The McGee trade may become one of Ernie's best moves because of how the young bigs like Kevin and Jan got better with Nene's presence. In the 21 games he started he averaged 14.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks with an assists while shooting 53% in 31 minutes. I liked the physical post moves he showed during this stretch and he looked like he had the potential to be a top 15 center. His defensive instincts are very good and he plays smart and efficient. Probably the best game I saw from him was when he dominated against Noah in Chicago, he controlled the game on offense and defense and did it against a great defensive anchor in Noah. His offensive game reminds me of Al Jefferson.

This trade is simply talent for better talent. Roddy Beaubois has proven that he is able to play both the 1 and 2 position being a combo guard. He is also a player with control unlike Crawford who doesn't have great shot selection. Because of Beaubois' versatility we can put him behind Wall at the 1 or play them both together. Honestly, I want the Wizards to draft Jeremy Lamb so Beaubois would be our sixth man. Lamb would definitely complement Wall and would seriously fit into a team that needs people moving without the ball. Beaubois is overall a better player than Crawford and the fact that he is not playing in the playoffs does give hope that the Mavs would trade him to Washington.

Lineup:

Wall, Beaubois

Lamb, George Hill (we need to sign him), Mason

Jeff Green, Singleton

Booker, Carl Landry/Jordan Hill (I hope we sign either one of them or both)

Nene, Seraphin