Forget Offense and Defense: The Bench is the Problem!

It seems wierd to say this, but let me be the first to do it.

Darius Songaila's injury and the effect it has had on the Wizards bench is the primary reason why the Wizards are 4-9.

Okay, maybe Songaila himself isn't the only culprit. Gilbert Arenas has been hot and cold all year. Antawn Jamison's shot has deserted him. The two have been inconsistent all year, and the overall defensive effort still needs some work.

Still, the injury to Songaila, while not playing a major role on its own, has exposed the Wizards absolute lack of a bench. It is my firm belief that this problem has caused all the other problems and needs to be fixed.

Commenter Mel Turpin had this to say.

One of the biggest problems with this team is a total lack of any fire power off the bench. Good teams in the NBA get thirty or forty points per game from their bench. The Wizards are lucky to get ten points.

I'd agree with the sentiment of the statement, but I'd slightly amend the meat of it. A bench doesn't necessarily need to provide scoring, and between Antonio Daniels and Jarvis Hayes, they usually get 10 points most games. What is necessary from a bench is a spark; a player who can play 20-25 minutes and potentially provide the necessary offense, defense, rebounding, or playmaking necessary to win a game. In lieu of one player, many teams like Dallas and San Antonio rely on a lot of bench guys to be successful.

Either way, you have to have one or the other to be a successful team. San Antonio makes up for the lack of star power with a ton of options, including Brent Barry, Michael Finley, Fabricio Oberto, Francisco Elson, and Beno Udrih. Dallas is very much the same way, but they also have a potential impact player in Jerry Stackhouse. Phoenix relies on the offensive spark of Leandro Barbosa off the bench to win games for them. The Lakers are at least two deep at every position, and Orlando often gets more production out of bench players like Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling than their starters. Even Utah gets a lot of intangible qualities out of guys like Matt Harpring, Ronnie Brewer, and Paul Millsap, and this change has arguably been one of the catalysts to their sudden improvement. Good teams therefore either need to have one of their best players come off the bench (like Barbosa, Harpring, and Mike Miller on Memphis last year ) or have a multitute of options so that someone invariably emerges every night (the Dallas-San Antonio-LA Lakers strategy).

This is ultimately where the Wizards have failed this year. The offense and defense have struggled, but I think it's all tied back to the bench. Only 7 players on the Wizards have a PER (player efficiency rating) over 10. The Hawks, Nets, Heat, Bobcats, and Sonics are the only teams that have a similar lack of efficiency from their bench.

The Wizards bench can basically be summed up as follows.

• Antonio Daniels: Nice player, a personal favorite, but best suited to being a 7th man. Probably isn't good enough to start on a playoff team. If there were 3 players as good as Daniels on this bench, it would be a solid unit, but there isn't.
• Brendan Haywood: Pretty solid backup center, but way too inconsistent to provide a spark every night.
• Jarvis Hayes: Has been really bad this year, with a PER under 9. He takes too many shots and doesn't make enough of them.
  
• Michael Ruffin: No offensive ability, pretty poor defensive ability, average rebounder, commits tons of fouls, and the team's +/- with him on the floor stinks.
• Calvin Booth: Michael Ruffin, but with slightly more defensive skills and worse rebounding skills.
• Roger Mason, Donnell Taylor, Andray Blatche: Unproven.

With this cast of characters, the Wizards' bench fulfills neither requirement presented above. There are no consistent impact players on the bench, and there isn't enough depth to ensure that the team will get something out of this unit no matter what. Daniels comes closest to being an impact player, but he doesn't really add a new dimension to the team game like Barbosa, Millsap, Ben Gordon, or Jerry Stackhouse do. Haywood is a decent backup center who would be a real asset if the bench was deeper. Hayes and Ruffin receive too many minutes, and nobody else really plays much.

Coming into the season, this wasn't expected to be a problem. At the end of last year, a lack of a bench really killed the Wizards, and Ernie Grunfeld went seeing a remedy to the problem. Songaila and Stevenson were brought in, and combined with the continued maturation of Blatche and the healthy return of Hayes and Etan Thomas, the Wizards were all set to be two-deep at every position. Songaila in particular was a particularly good pickup; he probably would have averaged a solid 10 points and 7 rebounds a game in this system. He would have been a versatile impact player off the bench for the Wizards all year and would have singlehandily significantly upgraded a sore weakness for the Wizards.

Then, Songaila got hurt and threw everything off. Injuries happen, and I'm not blaming the Wizards season on an unfortunate event. But the Wizards have dealt with this setback horribly thus far this season, as Eddie Jordan's shortening of the rotation have put too much strain on the starters all season, which has caused them to press and be prone to spells of inconsistency.

Entering the season, a great point of comparison for the Wizards in terms of their benches were the Sacramento Kings. The biggest knock on Sacramento entering the season was their lack of depth, made possible by a bench that seemed to only include Kenny Thomas and John Salmons. Any injury to their top seven would have potentially killed them. As John Hollinger said:

The Kings are so lacking off the bench, with their best reserve a year ago ([Kevin] Martin) now forced to start. The frontcourt has obvious weaknesses, but the backcourt is no picnic either -- just to have a decent seven-man rotation would require either [John] Salmons or [Francisco] Garcia to play much better than a year ago, or [Quincy] Douby to hit the ground running.

So far this season, the Kings have suffered a loss from one of their top 7 (Brad Miller) and survived okay. Instead of shortening his rotation, coach Eric Musselman lengthened it, giving extended looks to youngsters such as Salmons, Garcia, and Ronnie Price and old relics like Corloss Williamson. The end result is that Williamson has experienced a revival and Price has emerged as a solid backup guard, thereby giving Sacramento more sources for the spark they desperately need. What was once a putrid bench is now a solid one now that Miller has returned to the lineup.

For the Wizards to improve and snap out of their slump, they need to develop the same type of bench Sacramento did when they lost Miller. Eddie Jordan needs to play the young guys more so they can gain experience where they can be potential sparks off the bench for the rest of the season. Instead of playing Michael Ruffin 8 minutes, why not play Andray Blatche? The kid is still raw, but the only way he will significantly improve is if he gets more playing time. Instead of playing the Big 3 over 37 minutes a game each, why not cut their time down to the 35 minute range and give the remaining minutes to Roger Mason and Donnell Taylor? Mason impressed Jordan in camp, but he barely even gets a look now. If he's not going to play, I don't see any reason to have him on the team.

Here's the current average minutes breakdown of the team, rounding up the decimals.

Jamison: 39
Arenas: 38
Butler: 37
Stevenson: 27
Daniels: 27
Thomas: 22
Haywood: 18
Hayes: 16
Ruffin: 8
Blatche: 7
Booth: 6
Taylor: 5
Mason: 5

Here's what I would propose until Songaila comes back.

Arenas: 38
Butler: 36
Jamison: 33
Stevenson: 27
Daniels: 25
Thomas: 22
Haywood: 20
Hayes: 12
Blatche: 12
Mason: 10
Booth: 8
Taylor: 7
Ruffin: 5

In each situation, the total minutes are the same, but the three youngsters, along with Haywood and Booth, see a hike in their minutes. To compensate, Jamison sees his MPG drop by 6 and Ruffin and Hayes see much less of the court than before.

More minutes for the youngsters is the key to improving this team. The Big 3 are currently forced to do too much, and when they're having a bad game, the team suffers significantly. The Wizards need to develop a decent bench, or else their fortunes will continued to be tied to Gilbert Arenas' shooting. The only way to do this is to give Blatche, Mason, and Taylor more playing time in the hope that someone can emerge as a decent threat, a la Ronnie Price. Only then will the Wizards make that jump into the East's upper eschelon.

So Eddie, What's the Rotation?

[As a sidenote, be sure to check out the must-see Bullets Fever team preview here and here.]

The Wizards closed the preseason with a 110-105 win over the Hawks and a 101-94 loss to the Pistons, meaning that they ended with a 4-4 record.

Interestingly enough, when you look back at the 5 things I said to watch out for, they were either answered very quickly or not answered at all. Stevenson took the shooting guard spot right away. Songaila's injury raises questions about the division of minutes in the frontcourt, we still don't know about defense or Gilbert Arenas, and the mentality really was only a factor early on.

The two biggest stories were ones I didn't anticipate.

First, it sounds like Etan Thomas is going to start over Brendan Haywood at center. At the very least, Thomas appears to have the upper hand after a really strong performance against Detroit. 3 blocked shots in 12 minutes speaks loudly, even if it was the preseason. From what I've observed, it doesn't appear like this is just a message to Haywood anymore. Both players have had pretty good preseasons, so for Thomas to wrestle the job from Haywood, he had to really impress Jordan. From the sound of it, he has done just that.

When I went on the Hoops Addict podcast, I talked about how Thomas may be the key to the season for the Wizards. Of all the guys on the roster, Thomas is the closest thing to the 4/5 athletic center that an up-tempo team really needs. When Haywood is in the game, he slows down the Wizards' offensive sets and isn't all that great in transitioning from defense to the fast break. If Thomas is all the way back to his pre-contract level of 2004, the Wizards will be a significantly better team. He's faster than Haywood, a better rebounder than Haywood, and, from the looks of it, a better defensive center than Haywood. If you ask me, the news that Thomas has earned the starting job is fantastic for Wizards fans.

If Haywood does indeed start on the bench, I wonder whether the Wizards are admitting to themselves that he has wasted their time. Haywood doesn't strike me as the type of player who would want to come off the bench. He doesn't provide the same type of quick spark that Thomas could provide, instead relying on defensive consistency and a stabilizing presence in the middle. Thomas and James Lang's preseasons may indicate that the team is heading in another direction inside. I severely doubt Haywood will be traded--after all, he's the only 7 footer on the team--but he may have reduced minutes.

The one trade I'd like to see happen would be with Memphis. The Grizzlies have long been searching for a traditional big guy in the middle, and they have classic tweenter Stromile Swift stuck behind Gasol (when healthy) and the rest of the frontcourt. Swift is a miscast in Memphis, but his style is perfectly suited for the Wizards up-tempo game. Wouldn't a Haywood for Swift swap make some sense? The problem is salary, but the Wiz could throw in a guy like Calvin Booth or Donnell Taylor to even things up.

Second, and more significantly, the Wizards have had significantly more success with the starters in the game than with the reserves. Preseason games have followed the same type of script. Starters give Wizards the lead, reserves cough up the lead, rinse and repeat. There are two ways of looking at this. One way is to say that it doesn't matter much, because the players on the floor were guys like Donnell Taylor and Andray Blatche, players who aren't a part of the regular rotation anyeay. The other way is to say that it does matter, because injuries and the long season are both going to force these guys into action. I tend to lean closer to the second view.

I'm particularly concerned about Andray Blatche. After a great summer league, he looked lost this preseason. The Wizards let go of Jared Jeffries partly because they believed Blatche could at least help to fill the void. After this preseason, I'm not so sure he's ready to play much at all. Making matters worse is the Songaila injury, which sounds like it could bother him all year. With Songaila out, the Wizards need Blatche even more than before. Up front, the rotation now is Haywood, Thomas, and Michael Ruffin. That's not going to get it done. Blatche was supposed to fill the void, but it appears he's not ready yet.

The lone pleasant surprise deep off the bench has been Roger Mason, a personal favorite of mine back when he played for Montrose Christian and Virginia. Mason's a local boy if you've ever seen one, and it looks like he's making Donnell Taylor expendable. If he can carry over his strong preseason to the regular season, he could even make Jarvis Hayes expendable. He's a strong shooter in rhythm, has international playing experience, and has worked hard to become a better ball-handler. If he can keep this up, it stings the blow of passing on Marcus Williams and Rajon Rondo in the draft.

Here's my projected rotation. I'm assuming Mike Hall is the final cut, as he's injured and Mason pretty much makes him redundant. I don't imagine they'll cut James Lang considering the lack of frontcourt depth, so Hall is a pretty logical cut.

PG: Arenas/Daniels/Taylor
SG: Stevenson/Mason
SF: Butler/Hayes/Blatche
PF: Jamison/Songaila/Ruffin
C: Thomas/Haywood/Lang/Booth

Ideally, they'd cut Calvin Booth, but he is under contract. If Songaila wasn't hurt, I'd cut Lang, but with the injury, Hall makes perfect sense. Lang's been good this preseason and if the Wizards decide to trade Haywood, he may end up playing a role.

What's been the biggest story of the Wizards' preseason in your mind? Do you think the Wizards have shown progress in solving their most important questions?

My Wizards Preview is up!

Check out my Washington Wizards preview for NBA Blog Previews here.

Feel free to discuss it either here or there.

[edit]: It's been a really hectic week with two midterms and such, but now that it's over, I'm going to re-post the entire thing here. Enjoy!

The psyche of a Washington basketball supporter is one that is unlike any other in the NBA. Let’s consider the history. One playoff series win from the end of the Bullets Fever era of 78-79 to 2005. No seasons with more than 45 wins since 1979. 10 different head coaches in the last 10 years. One ridiculous name change. These are just a few of the things that drive a Washington fan crazy.

But it’s not just that the Washington franchise has been in a constant state of mediocrity for the better part of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Unlike their mediocre brethren in the Clippers, the Wizards have always had some sort of a novelty among the league. Consider that former stars like Spencer Haywood, Gus Williams, Moses Malone, Bernard King, Rod Strickland, Mitch Richmond, Charles Oakley, and, of course, Michael Jordan all teased the Bullets/Wizards with their star power at the end of their careers. On top of that, whenever the Wizards got it right with a promising young player, they either got hurt (Chris Webber, Gheorghe Muresan), were traded too early (Manute Bol, Muggsy Bogues, Rasheed Wallace, Webber, Richard Hamilton), or underperformed (Juwan Howard, Calbert Cheaney, Kwame Brown). For years, Washington D.C. was essentially the league’s one-stop shop for aging veterans and underachieving youngsters.

If you ever wonder why the guys at Wizznutzz act like they do, try being a fan of Les Bullez for your entire life.

Why do I bring this all up? Because for the first time in ages, the Wizards actually have a real team that should be taken seriously. Sure, Gilbert Arenas is a strange dude, but the guy can play, and he has a ton of help on the court and in the front office. There’s reason for the hometown faithful to be excited about this team, so while I may not be as crazily optimistic as some of the previews so far, I’ll certainly struggle at times to contain my excitement.

Last Year/Offseason

When we last left the Wizards, they came out on the short end of a compelling six-game series against the Cleveland LeBrons…I mean Cavaliers. This loss followed a season where the Wizards were like the yo-yo in Gilbert Arenas’ head; up again, down again, up again, down again, and back up again. Early-season wins against San Antonio and Detroit were the bookends for a five-game losing streak. After falling to 12-18, the Wiz picked it up and put themselves in a prime position to match their 45 wins from the year before until a late 5 game losing streak pushed them down to 42 wins. You never knew which team was going to show up last year, but you knew they would be fun to watch

In the offseason, the Wizards said goodbye to Jared “The Enigma” Jeffries, letting him go to New York, where he will baffle Isaiah Thomas when healthy. In his place, the Wizards signed Darius Songalia from the Bulls and stole DeShawn Stevenson from the Magic for the league minimum. In the draft, the Wizards took two random guys from Europe who both won’t contribute this season.

The Strength of the Offense

It’s obvious that the Wizards’ strength is on the offensive end of the floor. When you have the highest scoring trio in the league for the second consecutive season, your offense is doing something right. What makes Washington particularly consistent offensively is their ability to get to the free throw line. Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antonio Daniels in particular do such a great job of getting to the charity stripe off the dribble without turning the ball over. This allowed the Wizards to finish sixth in the league in scoring ability despite finish 21st in true shooting percentage.

The great thing about this ability is that it doesn’t go away from night to night. Teams will have games where their jump shots aren’t falling. However, because the Wizards attack the basket so well off the dribble, they will rarely be subjected to off nights offensively.

Making this offense even scarier is the potential return of Jarvis Hayes from knee surgery. Without Hayes, the Wizards had trouble kicking the offense into full throttle unless each of the Big Three had monster games. Hayes adds a new dimension to the attack with his instant offense off the bench. He gives the Wizards a spot-up shooter on the wing that will benefit from Arenas’ penetration. Now, if only he could stay healthy…

The Weakness of the Defense

It’s no secret that the Wizards were poor defensively last year. They ranked 23rd in defensive efficiency last year, a ranking they need to raise about 8-10 spots in order to be a real contender.

It’s very easy to judge based on the Cleveland series that the Wizards need a physical, defensive big man to ever get to the next level. While that certainly was a problem in the playoffs, the reality is that there are bigger problems than that with this defense. Getting a big man like Joel Pryzbilla in free agency would not have been the best way to fix the problem.

The biggest problem was that the Wizards allowed far too many open looks at the basket in games. Had the Cavaliers’ shooters been playing at the top of their games, the result of the series could have been worse. For all of Arenas’ strengths offensively, he tends to drift off his man when he’s defending off the ball, allowing them open shot after open shot. Butler struggled with this problem as well, although he’s a much better on the ball defender than Agent Zero. While they both have been extremely dedicated to improving this in training camp, we have yet to see it translate to actual game play, although Arenas’ insistent to guard LeBron in the teams’ preseason game against Cleveland is certainly a good sign.

The other major weakness was on-the-ball defense. Jeffries was hyped as a great perimeter defender, but his sole value was his versatility rather than his man-to-man defense. Butler is a tough defender, but he lapses a lot of the time. DeShawn Stevenson should help, but on the ball defense remains a significant worry.

The Verdict

Many people have the Wizards pegged for a similar season, with a possible drop out of the playoffs. Naturally, I disagree with those predictions. There are those who wonder aloud whether the defense can ever be decent, and while those are legitimate claims, we need not look further than Dallas last season and Seattle the season before to illustrate that teams can improve their defense without making significant changes to the team’s core. In addition, the Wizards had the point differential of a 46-47 win team last year, and I don’t expect them to be as unlucky again. They’ll win more of those close games this season.

I don’t think the Wizards can contend for the title, but I think they will improve on last season. Stevenson gives the Wizards much-needed toughness on the wing, and Hayes’ return will make the offense even better. If Darius Songaila can come back healthy, the Wizards’ frontcourt will also be deeper than before. Throw in anything from Andray Blatche and a healthy return of Etan Thomas, and the frontcourt suddenly isn’t so shallow anymore.

Finally, I expect Caron Butler to have a monster year this season. It took the Wizards half a year to figure out how to use him effectively, and it was no accident that the Wizards’ 5 game losing streak at the end of the season occurred without Butler in the lineup. If he can stay healthy, he should approach 20 points a game and provide strong perimeter defense. It feels like we’ve been waiting on Butler for ages, but with a starting spot ensured and increased familiarity with Eddie Jordan’s offense, I see Butler finally showing his full potential.

There are certainly concerns, yes. The Wizards still aren’t particularly deep and I am concerned about the frontcourt depth, the defense, and the lack of a pure point guard. In addition, Orlando and their young players scare the crap out of me, and Miami is always the Wizards’ kryptonite. However, in the end I think this team will make the city go crazy with basketball fever for the first time in over a quarter of a century.

Predicted Record: 50-32, fourth seed in the East

[image via Yay! Sports]

The preseason keeps on rolling along...

Another day, another meaningless preseason loss for the Wizards, as they fell to the Chicago Bulls 87-86 on Tuesday. The Wiz were leading 86-81 with a minute and a half left until the Bulls put the clamps down defensively and eventually took the lead on an Andre Barrett jumper with 17 seconds left. Roger Mason missed the chance to give the Wizards the win, and the team dropped to 0-2 on the season.

This game was much less interesting and important for the Wizards, as they rested Caron Butler and played Gilbert Arenas and Antwan Jamison 14 and 15 minutes respectively. The Wizards team that was on the floor for the late-game collapse was mostly composed of deep reserves and guys that may not even make the team.

So what can we learn from this game?

-Jarvis Hayes continued his strong preseason with a solid 11 points in only 18 mintes. Ivan Carter obviously believes this is a big story, as he devoted much of his beat article today to Hayes.

-The story essentially was the same for the Bulls game as it was for the Raptors. When the first unit was in the game, the Wizards were a much better team. Once it got down to the reserves, it was a bit of a different story.

Donnell Taylor played a lot of minutes and scored 12 points, but Eddie Jordan was not too happy with his decision-making. This may become a slight problem, because I think Jordan was expecting Taylor to step in and be able to log some minutes this year as Arenas' backup. The Wizards kind of lack that pure point guard, and while Arenas, Antonio Daniels, and Taylor all have point-guard ability, none of them really are distributors. This makes you wonder whether taking Marcus Williams over Oleksey Pecherov may have been the right decision.

Andray Blatche showed more flashes of ability, but still was extremely inconsistent. He grabbed 5 rebounds on the defensive end, but shot only 2 for 9 from the field and somehow found a way to foul out. This isn't summer league, Andray. You don't get unlimited fouls. Ultimately, Blatche probably will take a while to become a real contributor this season. The Wizards should continue to bring him along slowly and hope he can make some noise late in the season.

The reserves as a whole shot 34 percent from the field against Chicago, which is not such a great sign. Mike Hall and Roger Mason struggled all game, shooting a combined 3 for 14. This is not a major concern, but one of the two will likely make the team, making their performances slightly troubling.

Enough preseason, though! I remind everyone of the 10 commandments of the preseason, decreed by Blazers Edge.

Some more Wiz news...

-Antonio Daniels hurt his ankle in practice and is listed as day-to-day. This doesn't sound too serious, but then again, Darius Songalia was also day-to-day early in camp and he's still out with the back injury. Daniels seemed to be playing really well in training camp this year, so let's hope this doesn't set him back anymore.

-The Washington Times is reporting that Peter John Ramos is "not in our plans," according to Ernie Grunfeld. This is pretty sad, actually, because PJM was the brunt of a lot of blogosphere jokes. As far as his playing ability, I trust Ernie Grunfeld, but how in the world can a 7 foot 3 guy on a team starving for physical play not make it? I guess Ramos has absolutely no basketball ability. The article also reports that James Lang is getting a real look for the third center's job, and judging from his playing time yesterday, that makes plenty of sense. Lang is smaller than Ramos, standing only 6'10,'' but he fits in better with the Wizards' scheme.

-Dan Steinberg has even more Gilbert Arenas stuff up today, with a post featuring 10 of the funniest Gilbert Arenas moments of all time. More stuff can be found at this article he linked in the entry. While I think we may be hyping up Arenas' quirkiness a little too early in the season, I loved hearing most of these stories. However, this is by far the best line.

I'm now willing to argue that our humble little market has either the best, most famous or weirdest young star in virtually every pro team sport: from Ovie (best) to Adu (most famous) to Gil and Portis (weirdest). Bloggers go to sleep happy at night with a foursome like that. Thanks, Stealth. Seriously, thanks. And thanks, Esquire.

Truer words have never been spoken. Thank you Dan for putting all our thoughts into words.

-In case you haven't noticed already, Dan and I were both linked on Deadspin today in this post.

-YaySports' Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Blog Preview is up now. Go over to see the Cavaliers fan drink the Queen James coolaid. I like Cleveland this year, but 58 wins? That's pretty bold, if you ask me. Still, I agree that Cleveland could easily be the best team in the league...until they get the Wiz in Round 2 and fall for real this time.

-While the Wizards-Bulls tilt last night may have been a close game, it was not nearly as competitive and nasty as this old clip from a couple years ago. Enjoy this brawl from the 2005 preseason.



What are your thoughts on the Bulls preseason result?

By the way, in case you were wondering, the guy in the picture up at the top is not me.

Training Camp Roundup

Lots and lots is happening in Richmond at Wizards (Bullets) training camp. Here is some of the latest.

-According to multiple news sources, the Wizards have extended the contract of general manager Ernie Grunfeld. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is a multi-year extension. While the Wizards probably didn't have to worry about Grunfeld going anywhere, signing him to an extension was a must. Grunfeld is completely responsible for the Wizards turnaround, having orchestrated the signing of Gilbert Arenas and the trades for Antwan Jamison and Caron Butler. For an organization who has been through many failed regimes (*cough Wes Unseld, Michael Jordan*cough), Grunfeld has been a breath of fresh air. It's about time the Wizards rewarded his success with an extension. Great, great news for Wizards fans.

-In lighter news, Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Blog has been all over Gilbert Arenas these last couple days, providing updates on his new tattoos, his nickname (Agent Zero or The Stealth...I personally like Agent Zero), and his views on the new ball. It's really cool that Steinberg is giving us a look at the other side of the Wizards training camp, especially because Arenas is such a character. While it's much easier to be entertaining when we're talking about a personality like Arenas, it's still really impressive for a newspaper reporter to have a type of relationship with the players where they'll tell him anything. That type of trust is hard to build, and I commend Steinberg and the DC Sports Blog for building it.

-Not to be outdone, Ivan Carter has been hard at work as the Wizards beat writer for the Post. He has a great article on Andray Blatche, a player he and I both see as an X-Factor this season. If Blatche can give the Wizards 10-20 solid minutes off the bench this season, the Wizards frontcourt issues will be much less glaring. Blatche's versatility was one of the main factors in letting Jared Jeffries go, and if he can have a good training camp, it will springboard him into the rotation, where he can finally show off that versatility.

Eddie Jordan has this to say about Blatche so far (via the Post's Wizards Insider).

"Right now, I'd give him an incomplete. Everyone is jacked up at the start of training camp. Let's see how he is when he's a little soar, a little beat up, a little bruised...when he gets tired. Let's see if he stays in it."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it's probably accurate. Let's wait and see on Blatche throughout training camp.

-In more concerning news regarding the frontcourt depth, new free-agent acquisition Darius Songalia missed his second straight practice with a sore back. While the injury does not appear to be too serious, back issues are never something to be treated lightly (just ask Tracy McGrady). Add that to the fact that Songalia hasn't exactly been mister durability in his NBA career, and there is some concern. Hopefully, we will see a healthy Songalia before the Wizards preseason opener against the Raptors on Monday.

-This Ivan Carter post on the Wizards Insider is a must-read. I haven't really seen much commentary from Carter in most beat articles, but through the medium of a blog, we see some real constructive commentary.

A portion of last night's practice gave me an idea of what to look for. The Wizards were working in a half-court set walking through a few basic defensive rotations. A visiting coach -- Kevin O'Neill, who is known for his defensive philosophies -- walked the fellas through a series of situations they will see in just about any game. A player drives from the wing to the baseline and is cut off by a rotating big man. Now what? O'Neill concentrated on the back side guys, in this case instructing Gilbert Arenas and DeShawn Stevenson on how the coaches want them to react to a play that is going away from them.

To me, this is key because it is precisely how the Wizards were often hurt last season. Gilbert, Caron Butler, Jamison and other wing players would sometimes get caught shooting for a steal or sagging into the paint off of a weak-side shooter and that player would break the defense down either with an open shot with dribble penetration. Remember that late season night in Chicago when Ben Gordon made all of those threes off of skip passes or dribble penetration and kick-outs?

The area where Gilbert has struggled is not necessarily with on-the-ball defense though he hasn't exactly been Joe Dumars. The bigger issues have been when he's off the ball or has to get through screens while chasing his man (remember Jose Calderon running him off screen after screen in Toronto last season and gettting whatever he wanted?). Gil tends to turn his head, stop his feet and follow the ball with his eyes when it goes away from him and he tends to drop his hands and runs shoulder smack into a screener instead of using his upper body to slide around the screen. Caron got better at getting over and through screens as the season went on but also gets caught either che hiating to get into passing lanes or sagging off when the ball went away from him.

-Former George Washington star Mike Hall has impressed so far with his defense and may have a chance to stick with the team as a backup small forward.

In other NBA stuff...

-The Atlantic Division previews are officially done, as Jon from Passion and Pride posted his 76ers preview and Ryan from Hoops Addict posted his Raptors preview. Both guys are very optimistic about their team's chances. Jon predicts 47 wins from Phily this season, while Ryan predicts 42 for the Raptors. This means that every single Atlantic Division blogger has predicted their team to win at least 40 games. Either the Atlantic Divison is even more wide open than we thought, or there's a slight overdose of preseason optimism on the part of Atlantic Division bloggers. Personally, I'm leaning towards the latter, with a side dish of the former.

-The interview I had with Ryan at Hoops Addict for his Training Camp Rundown should be up soon. In the meantime, check out Ryan's interviews with ClipperBlog, Bobcats Bonfire, and The Nugg Doctor.

-With nothing more to say, I leave you with this old classic Sports Center commercial.