Chris Singleton Had No Idea Who Was In The NBA Draft

Chris Singleton was in Poland helping out at Marcin Gortat's basketball camp and was being interviewed by Polska Kadra TV. Aside from looking behind himself randomly throughout the interview, the highlight was when Singleton was caught off guard by an NBA draft question. Check it out.

Pacers Fans Bored To Sleep By Wizards Basketball

Indiana lead from the first basket Thursday night and really had no trouble rolling over the Wizards 89-81 for their ninth straight win.  Randy Wittman looks like his soul is now gone, commenting about not having enough timeouts to fix all the problems.

"I'm gonna call [David] Stern tomorrow and see if maybe I can buy some, I'd pay a lot for a couple more extra timeouts" - Wittman

Paul George lead the Pacers with 29 points he also snagged 14 rebounds. George added his name to a long list of players that have feasted on Washington's lackluster defense.

The Wizards fought back from another defecit, this one 17 points.  They even trailed by just two in the fourth, proof that effort is not the problem with this team. Having a lack of talent on the other hand, is a clear disadvantage.

Here are three Bros in the crowd that aren't into the Wiz talent.  As you can tell they are more than thrilled to be watching their Pacers play the bottom-feeding #Wizards.

Jordan Crawford once again lead Washington in scoring with 20. Crawford has come off the bench in the last two games but it's clear for this Wizards team to win, they need as much Jordan Crawford as possible, he's the only consistent scorer on the team. (He also shot this airball)

The Eastern Conference rookie of the month, Bradley Beal had 14. And yes he did win that award, we are currently checking the archives to see if there is in fact, another rookie in the Eastern Conference.

Chris Singleton saw action tonight after not playing a minute in the previous three games. He had just four points. Combining that with Jan Vesely's zero points that means the 2011 first round picks for the Wizards had a whopping four points in just 19 minutes of play.

Other than Crawford, Nene is the only other player Wizards fans can rely on night in and night out. Nene had 15 points and six rebounds for a Wizards team that desperately needs more help in the post.

Andray Blatche returns to Verizon on Friday...

Light Sticks Don't Help Wizards, Pistons Win

The Washington Wizards lost to the Detroit Pistons for the second straight night, falling 96-87 on Saturday night at Verizon Center in front of the most sparce crowd of the entire season.  The few thousand fans who showed up were relatively quiet the entire game, except when they had the chance to win a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich of course.

The Wizards started off slow, scoring just 13 first quarter points after a late 5 point spurt to end the period.  The Pistons had the lead the entire game but with some help from a college style half court trap, the Wizards cut the lead to 6 points in the 4th quarter.  But every opportunity the Wizards had to steal the momentum they missed a shot or played poor defense to crush their chances.

Before the game Martell Webster came out and wished everyone a happy holidays and thanked fans for the support.  However during the game the Wizards missed several layups and even a dunk and at times drawing small rounds of boos from the Verizon crowd.

Chris Singleton Slams It Home To Tie Game

Here is the GIF of Chris Singleton throwing down the slam to tie the game against the Celtics:

Tim Grgurich's Top Secret Las Vegas NBA Skills Camp Should Be Good For Young Wizards

According to Michael Lee of the Washington Post, Washington Wizards youngsters Jan Vesely, Bradley Beal, and Chris Singleton are currently joining 60-70 other young NBA players out in Las Vegas for Tim Grgurich's top secret summer skills camp.  (I think Shelvin Mack is also there)

Camp started on Monday and will end on Thursday, but there isn't much information about the camp.  Maybe because as David Aldridge says:

"Rule No. 1 of Gurg Camp: You do not talk about Gurg Camp."

This 2010 article from the NBA is a great look inside this little known camp run by long time NBA assistant coach Tim Grgurich. An excerpt:

It might be the only gym in America that has an impenetrable door with a little slot at eye level, through which eager customers must offer up the right password before that door will swing open. OK, not exactly. But it is a relative secret in a league with few. For most fans and even many alleged veteran observers, Grgurich's camp -- being held this week on the courts of a Vegas high school -- is so below the radar that it requires sonar. Part Xs & Os, part "Skull & Bones."

This more recent write up by David Aldridge is also a great look inside the taped over windows:

Said [Lionel] Hollins: "Gurg has that respect because he's worked with players around the league, with no agenda. It's not about what team you play on. It's not about whether you're a star or not. It's about whether you want to get better. And if you want to get better, we'll be here for you."

The camp is mostly for young NBA players but even veterans like Paul Pierce have attended late in their careers.

If the camp is as beneficial as NBA coaches and executives think it is then it will be a great place for Beal, Vesely, and Singleton to work on their fundamentals and get ready for the season.

Beal Drives, Wizards Win

Wizards 78, Bucks 75

Brad Beal’s aggressive play helped lead a Wizards comeback and the Wiz defeated the Bucks on Wednesday afternoon in Vegas to cap off a 3-2 summer league.  

Beal used the second half to start attacking the basket instead of just shooting jumpers.  He scored several layups off the dribble and drove into the lane at will.  The former Gator led the Wizards with 18 points.  Beal is supposed to be a "shooter" but if he can attack the basket and create space, he should be able to make an impact in his rookie season.

Shelvin Mack & Chris Singleton did what they do.  They were streaky, made several good plays and several bad plays.  Both are good College/D-League players but in the NBA they don’t really fit in.  Vesely twisted his ankle in the first 2 minutes of the game and did not return.

The summer league is now over for the Wizards, and the next thing to look forward to is training camp...

Wizards Win 2nd Game In Vegas

The Houston Rockets and their 19 player roster couldn't bring enough firepower to beat the Czech National Team Washington Wizards on Saturday Night in Vegas.  The Wizards led most of the game by 20 points but collapsed at the end, escaping with a 76-70 win.

Brad Beal was impressive again, not only on the floor (14pts, 4 assists, 5 boards), but also in the post-game interview where he says all the right things.  He only took 10 shots, making 4, but the Florida Gator looks like he is NBA ready.

Tomas Satoransky had a terrible first game on Friday afternoon, but he bounced back on Saturday.  The NBA TV announcers (who know nothing about the players) described the Czech rookie with words like "sleeper" and "first round [talent]".  Tomas the Czech Engine had a nice dunk and finished with 11 points.

Tangent:  The game is almost un-watchable thanks to the C-Team of announcers that NBA TV throws out there.  Botched Cliches ("That won't be the first time he gets stitches"), getting player names wrong ("Sheldon Mack") and not even knowing who players are ("Is that the same guy from Butler?"), and botched Godfather quotes.  There was even a point where Chris Webber tried to reference Ron Burgundy and he accidentally said "Ron Jeremy".  What ensued was about 5 straight minutes of adolescent laughter on the air.  Ok back to the game...

Jan Vesely only picked up 3 fouls on the night, hit another couple of jumpers (4/6 8pts), and missed another dunk (his 4th of the summer - 2x he was fouled).  He is much wider than he used to be which means even more illegal screens to look forward to.

Shelvin Mack & Chris Singleton were Shelvin Mack & Chris Singleton.  Those two guys are very streaky and usually fall on the negative side of the streak.

Garret Siler, a 300 pound center picked up some PT at the end of the game.  The man is enormous but he threw down two dunks and showed some great hands.  While he has no chance to make an NBA roster, he was fun to watch.  He even caused Rick Fox to have a conniption on the air.

Wizards play themselves (the D-League team) on Sunday night, another 10pm game...

Beal Debuts, Wizards Lose

Hawks 102, Wizards 82

The Washington Wizards started their summer league off with a dud, suffering a 102-82 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday afternoon in Las Vegas.  The more experienced Wizards were never even close to the Hawks, and gave up over 100 points in a game that was 8 minutes shorter than a typical NBA game.

The Wizards new draft picks Bradley Beal and Tomas Satoransky joined forces with Shelvin Mack, Chris Singleton, and Jan Vesely to take on an Atlanta squad that featured no players from their 2011-12 roster.

Bradley Beal led the Wizards with 22 points and Chris Singleton put in another 20 despite turning the ball over 5 times (and here is Chris getting dunked on).  Overall the Wizards had 19 turnovers and only 13 assists in a Jordan Crawford style one on one offensive showing.

The highlight for the Wizards was the play of Beal who shot 6-14 from the field and hit 9-10 free throws (1-3 from 3).  Beal looked the most NBA ready on the court, outplaying even the experience Wizards players.

Jan Vesely displayed his new and improved jump shot in the contest going 5-9 on the day with 11 points, 3 missed dunks (2 he was fouled on), and 10 fouls.  No, that is not a misprint.  Jan Vesely fouled out of a 40 minute game where they allowed players to have 10 fouls.  The Wizards fouled the Hawks 33 times, and almost 1/3 were Jan.

Tomas Satoransky made his American debut (after almost not even showing up) and looked shaky to say the least.  In one quick span, Satoransky turned the ball over followed by a play where he picked up his dribble early and turned the ball over again.  The Czech draftee finished the game with 4 points in 15 minutes running the point.  No left hand.

The Hawks were led by Vanderbilt rookie John Jenkins who went 4-5 from 3 point range and scored 19 points.

Next up for the Wiz summer team are the Rockets tommorow night at 10pm...

Chris Singleton Gets Dunked On