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 Get Double Dissed By NBA Summer League

Take a look at the following screen capture from the NBA Summer League Broadband web site.  The site allows you to watch all the games in the summer league for 5 bucks.  However, the site also hates the Washington Wizards.  Take a look:

First, when you go to sort the games based on Team Name, they have an alphabetical drop-down list that allows you to select your team.  Unfortunately for Wizards fans, this list ends at Utah Jazz. After that the scrolling stops, and the Wizards are nowhere to be found. (Left Side)


The second part of this issue involves the D-League Select Team.  The NBA has decided to give them a logo so that you can see cool little icons on the scoreboard.  Take a look at the yellow highlighted section.  The D-League logo is the Washington Wizards logo.  Insulting (but kind of true)

So either Andray Blatche is programming the software at NBA headquarters, or the league just really hates the Washington Wizards.

I'm not even going to get into what a terrible system this is.  There is no pausing and no fast forwarding.  That means if your internet goes out, you have to watch 3 quarters over again.

Wiz Win, But Griz Dominate

Wizards 83, Grizzlies 77

Josh Selby and Jeremy Pargo.  Those are the two names viewers of the Memphis Grizzlies vs Washington Wizards summer league game will remember.  Not Beal.  Not Mack.  Not Vesely.   The duo for the Grizzlies were clearly the two best players on the floor (for this game at least) combining for 2/3rds of Memphis’ points,  51 of the team’s 77.  Selby had 35 points and hit 7 out of 8 three pointers.

Selby was drafted by the Grizzlies in the 2^nd round of the 2011 draft and played for the Memphis D-League affiliate last season.  This year, Selby looks like he may be ready to join the big boys and fill in some of the vacated OJ Mayo role.  The former Kansas Jayhawk was the 49^th overall pick and shows that you can find SOMETHING in the 2^nd round.  (Satoransky was drafted #32 overall in 2012 by the Wizards, and may never play for the team).

With those two players playing great basketball, Bradley Beal disappeared.  For the Wizards, Shavlik Randolph led the team in scoring and Beal scored 14 points.  Shelvin Mack had 5 more turnovers and Jan Vesely had 6 more fouls.  Vesely’s improved jumper fell back into 2011-12 form.

Wiz finish up the Summer League on Wednesday afternoon...

D-Leaguers Beat D-League Calliber Squad

D-League 85, Wizards 78

Two minutes into the game and Sam Cassell had seen enough.  The Washington Wizards summer league coach called a timeout, his team down 9-0.  The unit on the floor included the #3 pick in the 2012 NBA draft  along with 3 second year NBA players.  The opponents consisted of players who couldn’t even make a roster in the NBA.

Finally after almost 3 minutes of not scoring, Chris Singleton and his terrible pink shoes posterized one of the D-League players and the Wizards were on the board.

It was a very sloppy game for both teams.  The Wizards made some big runs and lead at halftime, but by the time the final buzzer sounded the Wizards had lost to a bunch of non-NBA players.

The things that happen in a summer league game are not supposed to be taken too seriously.  It is almost like a pick-up game with a set offense.  Players have no chemistry, many of the players are below NBA caliber, and the intensity on the floor matches the silence of the arena.  But it is still frustrating to watch these experienced guys lose to some scrubs.

Brad Beal led the Wiz with 20 points but he struggled from behind the 3 point line, going 1 for 7.  Shelvin Mack had 5 turnovers.  Vesely had 8 fouls, which makes 21 in 3 games.  

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...

Tomas The Czech Engine

Tomas Satoransky...giving him a nickname in Summer League because I will never see him again in my life after this week.  Here is him dunking the ball, highlight of his career I'm sure.

Tomas the Czech Engine

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