Summer League Recap: Wednesday

Since I shelled out the money for the Summer League, I may as well watch all the games and see how some of the more notable players are doing. Former players, players the Wiz could have picked, etc...

Andray Blatche: 27 pts, 15 rebounds
Nick Young: 17 pts
Ty Lawson: 7 pts, 4 assists
Jordan Hill: 14 pts
DeJuan Summers: 26 pts, 8 rebounds (Wizards passed on him)
Austin Daye: 27 pts, 13 rebounds
Brandon Jennings: 14 pts, 9 assists
Jodie Meeks: 16 pts
Tyreke Evans: 5 pts
Chase Buddinger: 17 pts

Wizards Summer League Game 2

Andray Blatche put up another Kwame Brown like stat line last night with 27 points and 15 rebounds, but the Wizards bench still lost to the "Denver Nuggets" 77-70.

My overall impression is that the Wizards really need to work on setting screens. Andray in particular. He runs up way beyond the arc to set the screen (too high). Then puts his arms straight up in the air and sticks his hip out to bump the guy (foul). Then he just stands there for a second and jogs back into the lane. (Roll!) I learned pick & roll when I was 4 years old, its not that hard.

Dominic McGuire played horribly. More turnovers than points, and he looked like he was tired. He didn't look like a Flip Saunders quality player. As the most experienced starter I was surprised, but it was only 1 game.

JV McGee didn't play too well either. On many of his plays, including another no-look pass to the other team, I could just feel Flip Saunders blood boiling. McGee has a few more games to improve, but as of now Flip probably has Andray Blatche as backup center and bugging Ernie G to sign someone fast.

Nick Young was Nick Young. Streaky with another 0'fer in the assists category. Nick doesn't need to be in this Summer League, just needs to work on his game with the veterans.

Andray Blatche put up some stats and probably was very boastful about it. I don't know if he realizes its his 5th NBA season and he is scoring on players that will be playing in Greece's C League. The stat sheet said he only had 2 turnovers, but that can't be right. His shot was blocked several times and he is just the same old Andray. He really shouldn't be here either.

After Andy B caught an elbow to the jaw, Antonio Harvey the announcer called him Glass Joe, the guy everyone beats. (from punchout) Then during the replay he announced the elbow as "excuse me miss"

Only LeBron can get knocked out by an elbow and sit on the floor whining. GET UP BLATCHE!

Summer League Recap: Tuesday

Since I shelled out the money for the Summer League, I may as well watch all the games and see how some of the more notable players are doing. Former players, players the Wiz could have picked, etc...

Thabeet: 6 pts, 1 block
Jordan Hill: 13 pts, 8 rebounds
Nick Young: 36 pts
Andray Blatche: 21 pts, 10 rebounds, 7 turnovers, 5 fouls
Steph Curry: 10 pts, 8 assists
Anthony Randolph: 42 pts
Adam Morrison: 17 pts
James Harden: 23 pts
Donnell Taylor: 6 pts, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block
Blake Griffin: 16 pts, 9 rebounds, 5 assists

Wizards Summer League Game 1

Holy F**k. $15 for a service that is poor production quality is one thing. Paying $15 for a service that freezes, goes down, and that takes 3 hours to watch a 2 hour game is BS.

Anyways, Nick Young led the Wizards to a meaningless victory against some scrubs wearing Cleveland Cavs uniforms. Young scored 36 and Summer League scored 21 with 7 turnovers and 5 fouls.

Overall the guys played similar to how they played last year. They seem lackadaisical and do nothing but take jumpers while displaying terrible ballhandling, not rebounding, and setting poor screens.

Javaris Crittenton didn't do much, and I don't see him getting any minutes next season in that crowded back court. I'm thinking some DNPs.

Nick Young hit shots, but still can't dribble and doesn't drive to the hoop. He is also very streaky. Hopefully as a role player instead of a goto scorer he will improve this year.

Andray Blatche shows flashes of great play. Then the Blatchmanian Devil dribbles on the fast break, goes for a spin move, falls on the ground, and throws it to the other team, all in one play. The Wiz are gonna need him this year.

JaVale McGee played 28 minutes and did nothing. He had no blocks, just flailed his arm at shots. He got pushed around a little and didn't seem to be playing that hard. He has time to work on his game, and is still young. A veteran backup center will help.

Antawn Jamison & Flip Saunders both made guest appearances "in the booth" where the announcers who knew nothing about the Wizards asked the same questions over and over again.

Jamison brought up Blatche's poor work ethic again and just told us things we have already heard.

Saunders on the other hand did not sound happy with the young players. At one point JaVale McGee threw a behind the back pass to the other team to which Saunders replied "he won't be doing that next season" and mentioned that he would be on the bench if he did. He also brought up Blatche's work ethic, saying that Andray was working out hard, which is good to hear.

More games coming up, starting tomorrow at 10:30pm against the Nuggets...

Summer League Recap: Monday

Since I shelled out the money for the Summer League, I may as well watch all the games and see how some of the more notable players are doing. Former players, players the Wiz could have picked, etc...

Pecherov: 15 pts, 10 rebounds, 3-4 from 3 point land
Jonny Flynn: 12 pts, 14 assists
Blake Griffin: 27 pts, 12 rebounds (those are Kwame Brown numbers)
Adam Morrison: 20 pts
DeJuan Summers: 9 pts, 10 fouls (summer league rules)
Steph Curry: 23 pts, 7 rebounds, 5 steals, 4 assists, 4 turnovers
Brandon Jennings: 13 pts, 14 assists
Jodie Meeks: 20 pts
Tyreke Evans: 33 pts, 7 assists, 9 rebounds, 7 turnovers

Andray "Summer League" Blatche Is Back Baby!

For Andray, Las Vegas was the f***ing wild west...

Wizards Insider Michael Lee Reports:

"The Washington Wizards just left for Las Vegas, carrying 12 players on their official summer league roster and expecting to get a cameo appearance from Andray Blatche for one or two games this week."

Like Jordan coming out of retirement or Hulk Hogan returning to the WWE, the Blatchmanian Devil is back in the Vegas Summer League again. If you thought being a 5 year veteran who has started 64 games in his career was going to keep Dre Day out of Vegas, you better think again. Andray Blatche IS Vegas.

Maybe Andray just really likes burgers, and wants some In & Out or Fatburger. Heck, I've seen him at Five Guys after the game by Verizon before. You can't blame the guy. I could sure use a 5x5 right about now.

I say we just pretend that Andray went to college. This is his rookie season in the NBA. He needs this Summer League to make the transition from college to the pros. Yeah thats the ticket, we picked Andray Blatche in the 2nd round instead of DeJuan Blair. Who's with me!

Well tune in tomorrow if you got 15 on it, and maybe you can catch a glimpse of a Vegas legend.

Flip Saunders Playbook Uncovered...

Flip Saunders may not have been coaching last season, but he has been following the Wizards for a while. According to Michael Lee of the Washington Post, Flip Saunders has his own special playbook for the mini-camp that the players are going to have to learn.

"Now, it's not as thick as the textbook-thick playbook that he has been known to haul around, but still. This is summer league" Michael Lee, Wizards Insider

I happened to be walking around Verizon Center early this morning and found four random sheets of paper laying on the ground. I picked them up and it appears that they are the first few pages of Flip Saunder's playbook with the new system the Wiz will be running this year...

Look for Nick, JaVale, Dominic, & Javaris to practice these sets during the Summer League starting tomorrow!

Summer League Update: The Weekend

Since I shelled out the money for the Summer League, I may as well watch all the games and see how some of the more notable players are doing. Former players, players the Wiz could have picked, etc...

Friday, July 10th

Steph Curry: 16 pts, 3 assists, 7 fouls
Chase Buddinger: 11 pts, 5 rebounds
DeJuan Summers: 24 pts, 7 rebounds
Tyreke Evans: 15 pts
Adam Morrison: 24 pts, 5 rebounds
Brandon Jennings: 10 pts
Jodie Meeks : 14pts

Saturday, July 11th

DeMar Derozen: 20 pts
DeJuan Summers: 19 pts, 6 rebounds
Adam Morrison: 22 pts
Steph Curry: 29 pts, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Tyreke Evans: 25 pts, 10 rebounds
Chase Buddinger: 25 pts

Sunday, July 12th

DeJuan Blair: 13 pts, 10 rebounds
Donnell Taylor: 4 pts, 1 steal
Jonny Flynn: 11pts, 7 assists
Pecherov: 8 pts, 5 rebounds, 2-3 from 3 point land
Chase Buddinger: 11 pts
James Harden: 4 pts (ouch)
Thabeet: 9 pts, 1 block, 2 rebounds (ouch)
Brandon Jennings: 23 pts, 8 assists, 5 steals, 2 rebounds
Jodie Meeks: 16 pts

Wizards Summer League Team Has Experience

Here are some stats of the Summer League guys

JaVale McGee: 14 Starts, 15 Minutes Per Game

Dominic McGuire: 57 Starts, 26 Minutes Per Game

Nick Young: 5 Starts, 22 Minutes Per Game

Javaris Crittenton: 10 Starts, 20 Minutes Per Game

Thats seems like a lot of minutes for summer league players.

Summer League Announcers Think I'm A Hater

I recently complained about how it costs $15 for the terrible NBA Summer League broadband service. I got it anyway, and began to watch some games from yesterday.

In the Warriors game the announcer Antonio Harvey talks about how his friend was complaining about the $15 fee to watch the games, to which he replied something along the lines of basketball fans should pay $25 or more if they are true fans. Then he mentioned that around 50 guys from the league would be in the NBA to prove that it is not low talent basketball.

"I think he's a hater" said Rick "dude" Kamla about Harvey's friend. Kamla then said "To me they are GIVING it away for $15". He went on to say that even if you make minimum wage you can afford this.

I want these announcers to watch the broadcast on the computer. See the freezing replays, the cut off replays, the terrible quality, etc. $15 is a ripoff!

Subscribed To NBA Broadband Summer League

I've been sitting here all day, bored as hell. NBA TV and the replay of the draft just went haywire is now a blank screen. I realized on Tuesday, I'm gonna have to subscribe to the NBA Broadband to watch the game, so why not just do it now and kill some time on a Saturday afternoon watching Smush Parker try to become relevant again.

So what do you get by subscribing, besides a $14.99 charge on your credit card? You get a non widescreen, grainy video of each game, and the ability to watch the games you missed "on demand" You get terrible announcing and camera work. You get footage of an empty court during breaks. Rip + Off = Ripoff.

The broadcaster is the same guy as last year. The guy who says "dude" a lot and other slang. I dunno how I feel about him, but he is pretty unconventional and kinda stupid.

The other announcer, Antonio Harvey (former NBAer) thinks that the NBA should ban high school players from entering the draft. Um didn't that happen? He sounds older, and does not play off of the younger "dude" guy very well.

Update, the other announcer thinks you should be able come out of high school but can't be drafted in the lottery. If you leave college after one year, you can't be picked in the top 5. WTF are you talking about. Dumbest idea ever?

Why Do I Have To Pay To Watch Scrubs Play Scrimmage Games?

NBA Summer League has started and I can't watch it. Well I can watch it, but it will cost me $14.99.

Summer League is not even on NBA TV. I'm currently watching the NBA Draft 2009. WTF put on the games.

The NBA is charging this "small" price to watch the games online on the NBA broadband service. The idea (i think) is to get people to see the internet feeds so they subscribe for the actual season.

But why not make it FREE so that more people try out the serivce. The more people that try it leads to more people who will buy it...but whatever, I'm no marketing major (oh wait, I was)

Last season I enjoyed watching these terrible games (at work) online to check out some of the rookies FOR FREE. I could watch the Wizards as a hardcore fan and get to see a little bit of what to expect from the young players (or 4 year player Andray Blatche). It was these free games that got me excited about a 7 foot player who drains 3 pointers. (ahh pech)

Brown, Jackson, Nivins, Beaubois, Foster. That is a starting lineup for one of these teams. Guess the team? Yeah I have no idea. Oh lets actually read the team name...Dallas. Watching that lineup is a $14.99 value?

Well I guess I'll go back to watching the 1 minute 39 second recaps, and see only the good plays and not how awful the Wizards players are...

First wiz game Tuesday fyi...

Wizards Summer League Roster

The Wizards announced their summer league roster and

Current Players

While the Wiz came out of the draft with ZERO rookies, they will have 4 current young guys on the summer roster. Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, & Javaris Crittenton are entering their 3rd seasons, and JaVale McGee is going into his second year. Andray "summer league" Blatche, who has been playing in the summer for 100 years in a row, is finally not going to make the trip to Vegas.

Guys To Think About

Alade Aminu, Georgia Tech, PF (6'10" 230lbs) ROOKIE:

"I think I can be a Chris Anderson type of guy, someone who comes in and blocks a lot of shots and brings energy, gets some baskets here and there." --Draft Express Interview

Josh Heytvelt, Gonzaga, PF (6'10" 236lbs) ROOKIE:

"Obviously I think my offense is my strength. I’m a pick and pop big guy, I run the floor really well and I’m multi-dimensional on offense. For my weaknesses, I think I need to play with more energy and just play strong defense all the time." --Draft Express Interview

James Lang, High School, C (6'10" 208lbs)

Lang played 11 games (55 minutes) for the Wizards back in 06'-07', then he was cut.

"I kind of miss that. I thought about that. I miss playing with them, being around them, hanging out with them, joking with them. All of them, especially Gilbert. I kind of miss that." --Sports Bog Interview about being cut from the Wiz

You can check out the others over at the Wizards Blog...

Wizards NBA Summer League Schedule

27 Points, 9 Rebounds, 3 Blocks

Looks nice, pretty good stats! So who's stats are they? They are stats from a players 3rd ever NBA Summer League game. The player? I'll give you a hint. His name rhymes with...crap it doesn't rhyme with anything. It was Kwame Brown.

Stat lines like that are why the NBA summer league can be pretty useless. But it is still fun to come away thinking guys like Kwame or Andray Blatche will be the next big thing.

While the draft is still on our minds now, soon after the Vegas Summer League will be starting, on July 10th. The schedule is out and while we don't know who will be on the teams, we know who they will be facing.

• Tuesday, July 14th: vs Cleveland (3:30pm)
• Wednesday, July 15th: vs Denver (7:30pm)
• Friday, July 17th: vs Minnesota (5:00pm)
• Saturday, July 18th: vs LA Clippers (5:30pm)
• Sunday, July 19th: vs New York (1:00pm)

5 Games in the summer, with players people never heard of, thats what I'm talkin about! All the games will probably be broadcast online.

Sadly, the Wiz will not be facing the D-League select team...

Wizards Summer League Player Wrap Up

I just watched all of the Wizard's summer league games. This is my assessment of the roster. But in reality, who cares...I ordered them by where they should be at the start of the season.

8. Kyle "Not Cool Enough For A Positive Nickname" Visser (Wake Forest, 6'11", Center)

This guy was possibly the worst player on the entire team. He defiantly would have tied with "Bart Simpson" and "School Sucks". They gave him so much playing time to prove himself but he was just awful. Missed dunk followed by missed lay-up followed by missed pass. He hustled, but all that will get you is a Mugsy Bogues poster & wristband (Or at least that's what I got when I took home the honors at Laranega GMU Basketball camp 1997)

PREDICTION: Gym Teacher

7. The Rest of The Team (Various, 70'9", Various)
They had some guys that made a few good plays. The big white redneck looking fat guy looked OK, but not NBA. Pinnock wasn't too good. They had Humphrey from Florida, but he played 14 minutes total. I was excited after seeing his name on the roster thinking he could be a (insert white small shooter here) type player.

PREDICTION: I hope you took your degree seriously?

6. Brian "Chevy" Chase (V-Tech, 5'7", Guard)

Look Kids, Big Ben...I usually like the smaller players. They play with excitement & a lot of heart. However, Chase is not that great. He shot 22% and that is his strong point. He showed 0 defensive ability and was overmatched by everyone he guarded. RUSTY!!!!

PREDICTION: Back to the D-League (how was he an all-star?)

5. Aaron "Don't Call Me Darius" Miles (Kansas, 6'1", Guard)

I see potential, but not "The Perfect Score" potential. He is a good ball handler & floor leader. Looks like a backup NBA caliber guard.

PREDICTION: Just like Caron was the new Larry, Miles could be the new Donell Taylor. But I like Donell Taylor. So…D-League!

4. Mike Hall "Without the Oates" (GW, 6'8", Forward)
He is the definition of Blah. He does a lot of things pretty well, but not exceptionally. He was better than the other rookies at times, but just boring. I thought he was possibly the best player out there for the Wizards, but for some reason I have no faith in his improving or game changing potential.
PREDICTION: No Room For Him, 10 Day Contracts when the season falls apart again, May see him at Froggy Bottom Bar.

3. Oleksiy Pecherov "Not a Catcherov?" (Eurasia, 7'0", Forward/Center)

Looked like a Songalia but with more range and less post moves. He had pretty good numbers and looked like an NBA player. He rebounds & hits 3's. Too many fouls, not enough blocks. He had pretty good numbers but they won't translate to real games. At least he doesn't prance down court with his arms up high like a big goofy oaf.
PREDICTION: The Ukrane Is Weak! Not a lot Of PT

2. Nick "I like em" Young (USC, 6'6", Guard)
Hmmmm. Exciting at times, looks like a rookie. Coming off the bench he will be a guy that you anticipate dunking over a crowd, and hopefully can knock down some shots. He plays worse defense than Gilbert and looks more like a college player than an NBA player. Luckily the Wiz already have a big 3, so he should fit in well if he knows his role (pass to Gilbert). Future Potential. Gives me a reason to wear the "I Heart NY" shirt I got 10 years ago.
PREDICTION: Excitement & Disappointment, Inconsistency. I'd rather have Reggie Bush, or even a 30 back of Busch.

1. Dominic "Bird On A" McGuire (Fresno State, 6'8", Forward)
I wouldn't go as far to say a steal yet. Kwame Brown had better stats in his summer league year. But its defiantly a great pick. He has an all around game, including some nice shot blocking. He has good size and should make a quick jump to the NBA style. His "Go-To Move" (damn you NBA Live) is a spin, which while works well in Madden & NBA Live, will not work so well in the NBA. If he does it 3 times in a row, it could even result in a fumble.
PREDICTION: DM is to Goldie Hawn as the rest of the Wizards are to Mel Gibson? He should contribute the most out of anyone. Maybe a 6th man (marlon waynes) by the end of the year. At least some PT.