Summer League 2012

This past weekend I made my (almost) annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to take in some NBA Summer League action. I managed to catch a 6:15 a.m. flight out of BWI last Friday which put me in Vegas in plenty of time to see the Wizards play the Atlanta Hawks in the first Summer League game of the year at 1 p.m. that afternoon. I also managed to take in our Saturday and Sunday night games before having to head back to DC Monday morning on a 6:10 a.m departure. Not loving the flight times but at least they were direct.

In case it wasn't obvious, I absolutely love Summer League. It's definitely a highlight of the basketball year and this trip reinforced all the reasons why I love this event. All three of our games Friday through Sunday were held at the Cox Pavilion, which is the more intimate of the two venues at the Thomas and Mack Center. The proximity to the court; the sounds of the game in what was sometimes at most a quarter-full arena; and the conversations with fans, players, general managers and coaches make this an anticipated annual experience for me.

Me and Chris Singleton.

Wins and losses in Summer League are completely inconsequential and that's a good thing considering the Wizards' on court perfomance during the long weekend. Our starting lineup featured three players with significant court time during their rookie years and the number three overall pick from the 2012 NBA Draft but you would never have known it from their performance in the Friday game against the Hawks and the second half of the Sunday game against the D-League Select team. Turnovers, inopportune fouls, lack of defense and poor rebounding sunk us. We were thoroughly outplayed by the Hawks, losing by 20 in a game that was over long before the final quarter and managed to fall behind to the D-League select team by 21 points in the fourth quarter after leading at the half, before realizing how embarrassed we should be and rallying for a seven point final margin of loss. The Saturday game against the Houston Rockets was a solid win where our guys executed well for the most part at both ends of the court.

On an individual level, our players experienced mixed results. Shelvin Mack, Jan Vesely and especially Chris Singleton played a lot in their rookie campaigns. All three logged double digits in minutes played per game last year with Singleton leading the three at over 21 minutes per game in 51 starts. In addition to those three, I was especially interested to see Bradley Beal and Tomas Satoransky, our recent draft picks, play.

Chris Singleton at the line. Not sure about the pink shoes. The arena is packed, right?

Of our three rookies from last year, Chris Singleton definitely fared the best. I thought his performance was aggressive in all three games, like Chris felt he had something to prove, but the results of that aggressive play were uneven. In Friday's game against Atlanta, he was called for a couple of turnovers, some fouls and an out of bounds screening violation in the first half before calming down in the second. I talked with Chris after that game and he talked about the officiating hampering his game. The team was obviously trying to experiment with him running the point and that had good and bad results, with Sam Cassell at one time telling him "Chris, you gotta pass the ball, man" after a turnover. The Saturday and Sunday games brought better results: he played tough defense, rebounded well and had an explosive dunk in the game against the D-League Select team. If you look carefully in the video, you can see me in the third row aisle seat.

Vesely really had a Summer League to forget. He struggled at the rim to score and rebound, missing several dunks and got really pushed around in the paint, especially by Houston's Royce White, who was just way too big for Jan to handle. On the positive side, he showed off a jumper which looked far more confident and effective than he showcased last season and his passing skills are still just incredible. He had a couple of gorgeous touch passes that barely touched his fingertips before being sent to the open man.

After this Summer League, I'm not sure Shelvin Mack is going to be around long as John Wall's backup at the point. He played solid defense over the weekend but didn't impress with his ball handling skills. When I compare Shelvin to Tomas Satoransky, our second round pick in this past draft, Tomas has better ball handling skills but has a good four or five inches of height on Shelvin. Satoransky, by the way, can distribute and he can get up there. He had a dunk in the Houston game that was impressive.

Singleton, Vesely, Mack and Beal: Future of the team? Shavlik Randolph is deliberately omitted.

Bradley Beal, our third overall pick from this past draft, was impressive but also even keeled no matter how the game went, which after the moping of JaVale McGee and Nick Young the past few years was comforting to see. Bradley was just solid and gained obvious confidence from game one to two and two to three. I thought he ran the floor well and handled the ball well when he had to. I think good things are in store for us from this rookie.

As usual, our players on the court weren't the only members of our team who showed up for Summer League. Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor, recently acquired in a trade with the New Orleans Hornets, arrived early to touch base with the coaching staff and offer encouragement to their new teammates. Jordan Crawford arrived in the second half of the Rockets game complete with gold-rimmed sunglasses and a bright orange shirt (it was dark outside, by the way) as did Trevor Booker. And just before tip off of the Sunday game, John Wall sat down courtside trying to maintain a low profile in thick rimmed glasses and wearing a towel around his neck. His low profile was busted by Sam Cassell and about five kids in minutes.

Emeka Okafor and John Wall sitting courtside.

Head coach Randy Wittman and general manager Ernie Grunfeld were also in attendance. I managed to talk with both Randy and Ernie about the status of James Singleton, whom I hope we bring back after his second partial-season stint with the team in the last three years. While both said they'd love to have him back and that he's still in play for the team, I wonder if the front court isn't just a little too crowded. I hope I'm wrong. I also asked Ernie if he would tell me which way he was leaning with Andray Blatche. He didn't, but after we released Andray via the amnesty provision in the CBA on Tuesday, I know the answer anyway.

One of the things I love about travel is the chance encounters with strangers and almost every basketball trip seems to have one. This trip's encounter was a cab ride from the arena to the strip we shared with Hosni Ali, a former basketball player at NAIA Division II Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Hosni played last year in Egypt and talked about his efforts over the past week working out for various teams while in Las Vegas. He  turned down a contract offer to play in Egypt for three years for $3,000 a month. From what I have read about contracts overseas, it sounds like that was a smart move. He might make more than that in the NBDL which he was also exploring, having been offered an opportunity to try out for the Texas Legends by assistant coach David Wesley. A guy like Hosni is likely never making an NBA roster, but I love that he's still chasing his dream to play professional basketball. He's hoping to catch on with a team in China.

Oh...by the way the odds of the Wizards winning the NBA Championship: 100 to 1. I didn't place a bet.