Top Stories of the Week: Wizards finish the preseason strong

The NBA preseason is over, and the Wizards’ real games finally begin this Thursday! So let’s get to it! Here are the top stories of the week!

Wizards finish preseason 4-1

The Wizards finished the preseason with a 4-1 record after wins over the Knicks, Pistons, and finally the Guangzhou Long-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Season last Friday.

And yesterday, Washington made their roster cuts, cutting Chris Chiozza, Lavoy Allen, Chasson Randle, and Tiwian Kendley. You can expectat least some of the players to stay stateside with the Capital City Go-Go and Candace Buckner of The Washington Post reported that they were offered additional money to stay stateside rather than go overseas. Given that G-League salaries are really low, those incentives help.

Of the young players’ preseason performances, two-way player Devin Robinson

Is there a center controversy? Not so fast!

With Dwight Howard out due to a butt injury (yes, he is literally butt hurt!) Ian Mahinmi started all of the Wizards’ preseason games. Early on, he wasn’t just making three point shots. He was also keeping the fouls under control. So I just had to ask if he is the Wizards’ starting center going forward.

Kevin Broom made a counterargument that we can’t jump to conclusions. And in Mahinmiesque fashion, his fouling crept up to absurdly bad territory in the second Knicks and Pistons games where he managed to foul more than he scored or rebounded.

In the end, it’s good to see that Mahinmi is extending his range and is able to control the fouls a little better than last season, but no player is going to play extended minutes fouling once every 3-4 minutes on the court... If there’s one thing Monsieur Mahinmi can’t afford to be Le Roi of, it’s those fautes....

And more stories

• Barring something crazy, Kelly Oubre isn’t signing an extension before October 15. It will be interesting to see what restricted free agency looks like for him....
• Apparently, Jeff Green is “almost” LeBron James.
• Speaking about LeBron James and his HBO show “The Shop,” Elena Delle Donne was a guest in the second episode!
• Next time you go to a cycling class, you may see John Wall there with you. Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington has more.
• Ben Standig of The Sports Capitol wrote that Scott Brooks doesn’t care who starts games. It’s who finishes games. The link requires a subscription. Sounds like Glenn Consor!

Alright, that’s it from me. Enjoy the rest of your weekends!