47 Wins?

Warning! What follows is not pretty. But don't ever accuse me of being a front runner.

The 2012-2013 NBA season tips off next Tuesday, October 30 when the Cleveland Cavaliers host the Washington Wizards. At the beginning of the last few NBA seasons, I have wondered if this is the year the Wizards will finally win 47 games. Why 47 games? Because since I became a Wizards season ticket holder in 2000, every franchise except two has won 47 games in a single regular season. One of those two lowly franchises is the Charlotte Bobcats, who maxed out at 44 wins in the 2009-2010 season; but the Bobcats have only existed for eight seasons so they are a little handicapped in this statistic. The other franchise, of course, is the Wizards, who managed 45 wins in the 2004-2005 season, the same year we reached the second round of the NBA playoffs.

That anecodotal futility mark started me wondering: are the Wizards really one of the two worst franchises in the NBA over the last 12 years? Turns out the answer might be yes. Let's take a look.

Wins Per Season
Over the past 12 seasons, the Wizards have won an average of 31.4 games, including the actual win total from the abbreviated 2011-2012 66-game season. That mark is good for second worst in the NBA over that period, 0.7 wins behind the Golden State Warriors but ahead of the Bobcats by a whopping 2.8 wins. Five teams (the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics) have AVERAGED more wins over that period than the 45 games the Wizards won in our best of those 12 seasons. The Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz would be added to that list if you throw out last year's shortened season. We may be thankful the Bobcats have only been around eight years.

From the 2000-2001 through 2011-2012 NBA seasons, there were 17 teams that won fewer than 20 games in a season. The Wizards did it twice: in 2000-2001 and 2008-2009. Three other franchises, the Bobcats, Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves, also failed to win 20 games twice during that span. No franchise won fewer than 20 games three times in that span. Note I included last year's abbreviated season in Charlotte's numbers because they only won seven games. Even if the season were 188 games long, they still wouldn't have won 20 games at their pace last season. The silver lining here (it's a stretch, I know) is that in the Wizards' two sub-20 win seasons, they did manage to win 19 games each time.

While the Wizards average win total is second worst in the NBA, their median win total is tied for dead last with the Los Angeles Clippers at 31.5 wins. The Bobcats, who saved us from being dead last in average wins per season, are a full game ahead of us along with the Timberwolves. None of these franchises are models of success, although the Clippers did make the second round of the playoffs last year behind Blake Griffin and Chris Paul and appear to be loaded with talent this year.

The graph below was published in an April 3, 2012 Washington Post article at a time when it appeared last year that the Wizards might set a franchise record low for winning percentage in a season. The Hopwood years start in 2000-2001. Lots of red; I told you it wasn't pretty. Despite that performance, I have never thought of not renewing my season tickets. Take that however you will.

Playoff Wins Per Season
In my time as a season ticket holder, the Wizards have made it to the playoffs four times. That may not seem like a lot to you and it's not. Only three teams, the Bobcats, Warriors and Clippers, have fewer appearances. The encouraging thing here is that if you added the playoff appearances of each of those teams since the 2000-2001 season, they would add up to the total for the Wizards, so I'm counting my blessings (I think) that I am not a Bobcats, Warriors or Clippers fan. And while we only appear in the playoffs more frequently than three teams, there are three other teams (the Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors) tied with us at four appearances so we are not alone in our lack of achievement in this category.

When we do make the playoffs, we don't win much. We have averaged 2.0 wins per playoff appearance with just one trip to the second round where we were unceremoniously swept by the eventual champion Miami Heat. That's better than only the Portland Trailblazers, Knicks and Bobcats, who in their lone playoff appearance during this stretch did not tally a single W. 

Division Titles, Conference Titles and NBA Championships

Nothing. That pretty much sums this up. No division titles, no conference titles and no NBA championships. Granted, over the past 12 years, the NBA Finals have been dominated by a small group of teams. Only six franchises have won a championship and another five have come up short by losing in the Finals. But of the 30 franchises in the NBA, 21 have won division titles over that period, led by the Spurs with eight and Lakers with seven. The ones that haven't: the Atlanta Hawks, Bobcats, Warriors, Houston Rockets, Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Knicks, Trailblazers and, of course, the Wizards. That record puts us either last or tied for 22nd, depending on how you look at it. I'll go with tied for 22nd.

So after all that, are the Wizards one of the two worst franchises in the NBA over the last 12 years? Maybe so. If not, they are pretty close to that. There is definitely some company; the same teams appear over and over in my description above. That doesn't make me feel any better.

So as this season starts, I'm again hoping for 47 wins. That seems more realistic than hoping for division titles or championships at this point. Hopefully this is the year. It all starts Tuesday.

Three Signs The NBA Season Is Almost Here

The 2011-2012 NBA season ended a long time ago for me. I've had to endure the NBA playoffs (remember, the playoffs don't usually count as part of the Wizards' season), free agency, Summer League, the Olympics and two months of waiting, waiting, waiting. But finally the NBA is almost back and I can once again experience a time when all teams are theoretically equal, before an 0-8 start, or a 2-6 start, or a 2-7 start or...well, you get the picture.

In a normal year, there are three signs which serve as my security blanket during the couple of months of waiting, waiting, waiting prior to the tip off of regular season game number one. The first reminder that basketball is almost upon us is the first preseason or regular season NHL game, when I am perched high in section 405 of Verizon Center watching the Capitals take the ice and longing for that white surface to be replaced with the hardwood. It usually takes me about a period to get over it and get into the game I'm watching. With apologies to all my NHL fan friends, hockey just doesn't come close to basketball. Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my middle age but I seem to have little tolerance for long scoring droughts (I know, I should appreciate the defensive struggle) or games decided by shootout (read: not much better than a tie or kissing your sister).

But this year is not a normal year for a number of reasons. As it turns out, the NHLPA and the NHL are no smarter than the NBAPA and the NBA were last year and there is no hockey season yet as millionaires and billionaires are still trying to figure out how to split insane sums of money. As a result, this year we just skipped the first sign that the season is near and we have proceeded directly to sign number two, which means the season is even closer!

The second harbinger of the NBA season is the opening of training camp and a season ticket holder open practice. Camp opened this past Tuesday and mercifully, it's at George Mason University again. I loved the camps at VCU but honestly, I'd way rather drive to Fairfax than to Richmond to take in an open practice or scrimmage. Getting to the Patriot Center in rush hour traffic is no picnic either (it took me 13 songs on the new Mark Knopfler album to get there this year) but at least the trip home is quick (less than five songs).

Open practice was held last night followed by a Dave Johnson hosted Q and A session with our new players, meaning the guys who are pretty much guaranteed a roster spot who weren't here last year. I'm not sure these events ever really provide unique insight into how the team will perform, especially with all the media coverage these days. Everyone said there were a great group of guys together and everyone was working hard. They have to say that, right? But if I learned nothing else, it is that Martell Webster is a pretty interesting guy. He's very eloquent and intelligent. During drills where players were required to count out the number of passes made during the drill, he counted out in English except when playing with Kevin Seraphin when he counted in French. He also said he would be an asbestos remover if he weren't playing in the NBA (he was kidding) and genuinely made fun of himself when asked if he had any embarrassing moments in the NBA. The only reason I know anything about Martell Webster is due to this play, where he steals an inbounds pass with a few seconds left and his team down by three, takes it the length of the court and dunks, meaning his team lost by one. It was a moment of almost McGee-like concentration but he was able to joke about it in a way that JaVale never would have. JaVale's response would probably be that he didn't understand why the coaches were upset or something like that. Martell did say he dunked it hard enough that he thought it could have counted for three. He also said he had no idea what he was thinking when he decided on that haircut.

By the way, I really really wanted Dave to ask "Over the last 12 years, the Wizards are about the worst franchise in the NBA. What did you think of this team before you got traded/signed and what makes you think it's going to be any different with you here than the guys we jettisoned last year?" He didn't ask that question and maybe it's best because I may not want to know the answer. I'm actually genuinely hopeful this year and think we could make some noise, despite the fact that our best two players are injured and can't practice right now. I'm deluding myself a little, I know.

Our new players: Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster, Jannero Pargo, Bradley Beal, A.J. Price and Emeka Okafor.

And finally, I really really know the NBA season is right around the corner when I get my season tickets in the mail. They arrived yesterday. I picked them up from the concierge desk before heading out to practice. Their arrival each year is a source of unimaginable joy for me for about 30 minutes despite the fact that there is absolutely nothing I can do with them right at the moment except look at them. Just opening the package and pulling out those virgin, glossy, unseparated sheets of tickets and checking them out thrills me. And 30 minutes is literally the time I devote to these things before realizing they are not actually that interesting as objects and I find something else to occupy my shortening attention span. But for that half hour, I love it.

Only this year, it's sort of a disaster: there are no tickets. Seriously. I have a credit card sized piece of plastic that I am supposed to electronically load up with my tickets from the ticket manager site which curiously has been out of commission for the last two days. Now considering I was about the last person I knew to get a cell phone, I just bought my first computer with more than 48K of memory in 2009 (I loved that Atari 800 in the '80s) and I still write checks by hand and put them in envelopes and mail them to pay my bills, this could be a challenge for me. I'm not embracing this all electronic culture.

So it turns out things are not normal this year but even though things are a little bit different, I still have basketball to look forward to in 25 days and that's without doubt one of the most wonderful times of the year.

No tickets this year???

NBArank 2012 Wrap

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the complete waste of time that is ESPN's NBArank project. Then I admitted that I would be following it closely to see how the Wizards' players were rated and then using that data as an indication of how the team might perform during the 2012-2013 season. While I know the only thing that will truly make me feel better about my team is performance in the win-loss column, I'll take any dram of hope I can get before the season starts. After all, with the Wizards, it's often all about hope.

The 2012 NBArank data is now in the books. Well, that's not exactly true. Number one won't be revealed until late next week or maybe even the week after, but for the Wizards, it was in the books once spot number 51 was reached. That of course means that the ESPN "experts" feel our team has none of the top 50 players currently playing in the NBA and that may very well be true. But does that mean that we don't have a better team on paper than last year? Maybe or maybe not. Let's take a look at how the team stacks up in the NBArank this year.

We currently have 14 players under contract, which is one less than the league roster maximum. Our 14 players, with NBArank position are:

• 52: Nenê
• 55: John Wall
• 101: Emeka Okafor
• 142: Trevor Ariza
• 170: Bradley Beal
• 218: Jordan Crawford
• 266: Jan Vesely
• 279: Trevor Booker
• 281: Kevin Seraphin
• 292: Martell Webster
• 360: Chris Singleton
• 384: A.J. Price
• 396: Shelvin Mack
• 435: Cartier Martin

Last year, the Wizards placed two players in the top 100; three players each between 101 and 200 and 201 and 300; four players between 301 and 400; and our other three fell outside the top 400. This year, our results by hundred are similar, except that instead of three players between 200 and 300, we now have five, with the upward movement coming from the 300s and 400s. Three of our players between 201 and 300 (Vesely, Booker and Seraphin) moved up at least 40 spots from last year, with Seraphin moving up more than 150 spots. That sounds right: Book and Kevin made significant progress in their second years; I'm actually surprised Kevin wasn't ahead of Ves and Book. These guys are in all likelihood going to be the first guys off the bench. Having these guys more developed for the entire season is going to be key. Overall, better on paper this year.

Our two players in the top 100 last year were John Wall (at 40) and JaVale McGee (at 99). This year, our two in the top 100 are Nenê and Wall. While Wall fell 15 spots from his ranking last year, I'm not sure that means he's worse than he was last year. Consider the personnel John has had to work with in his first two years; I am sure guys like Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul would struggle with Nick Young and Jordan Crawford as their leading scorers too. I don't know how much I really have to say about Nenê as an upgrade over McGee. The difference is night and day. Sure, you don't get the highlight dunks out of Nenê that you get out of McGee but you don't get all the other baggage either. I don't think we'll see Nenê alley ooping to himself while the Wizards are getting blown out or claiming to not understand what coach says he's doing wrong or running back on defense while we still possess the ball. No cinnamon eating either! Top 100, better on paper this year.

Last year, our projected starting five were the top five guys on NBArank's list: Wall, Nick Young, Rashard Lewis, Andray Blatche and McGee. This year, our projected starting five at least at the beginning of the year are our top four plus the sixth man, Jordan Crawford, on our list this year. Personnel-wise, there's only one man in common: John Wall. By the numbers, Young blows away Crawford at shooting guard, Lewis last year supposedly beats out Ariza this year, Nenê destroys Blatche at power forward, and McGee edges Okafor at center. On paper, the starting five is better last year but there's no way that starting five lived up to its potential. Not even close. I'll take the personnel we have this year over the dysfunction that pervaded the organization last year. Our starting five last year didn't stay that way for long. By mid-season, Lewis and Blatche were sitting in favor of Chris Singleton and Trevor Booker. Compare that starting five to this year's starters and this year is better on paper.

Finally, it turns out I was totally wrong about the ranking order of our players last year. I clearly have a higher opinion of Kevin Seraphin's ability than the experts. I guess that's why I'm a fan and not an expert.

So what does all that mean? Absolutely nothing. But I'm excited to see how we do. Training camp starts two weeks from today. By the way, ESPN (probably a different panel of experts) picked the Wizards to finish 12th in the East with a 31-51 record. In the past, I've bristled at the low projections for my team's finish by ESPN. I even printed out the predictions one year so I could pull it out when they were proved wrong, but by mid-season it was obvious they weren't. 12th in the conference and 31 wins would be an improvement over last year. I'm hoping our team is a sleeper who can make a little noise this year. Hope has to be worth something, right?

123 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York

Last Wednesday, I attended a portion of the 2012 Obama Classic, a basketball fundraiser in New York City benefitting President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. The schedule details of that event were fuzzy at best until the day right before and when they were finally released with an apparent 4 p.m. finish, I thought I might have a little time to kill before my 6:45 p.m. train home. Turns out I was right. What better way to spend it than with a quick trip over to Kalustyan's on Lexington Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets? I needed some supplies anyway.

What is Kalustyan's? Well quite simply, it's THE one stop shopping destination for all foods dried, canned, jarred, bottled and more and if there's anything in this world that might rival my fanaticism for the Washington Wizards, it's my love of food (notice I said "if" and "might" in that sentence). There are so many wonderful products from mustards to spices to seasonings to sauces to oils and more packed into this tiny store; just everything you could want, except maybe habanero and chipotle flakes, which are mysteriously absent. And you just can't find all this stuff in one spot in the Washington DC area. Not like this; no way! I'll add it to my list of reasons why New York is just the greatest city in America. Although honestly, I still don't want to live there.

This is about a quarter of the spice section at Kalustyan's.

I first discovered Kalustyan's in late 2010. I cracked open a recipe book that fall and decided to make tacos al pastor, a dish which required 40 guajillo, 20 ancho and 20 pasilla chiles. Since I couldn't imagine traipsing round to grocery store after grocery store in northern Virginia in search of that many chiles, I opened up Google and searched for spice stores in New York. I was headed up to the Big Apple a couple of weeks later with my friends Mike and Bryan and decided I could wait that long to make the al pastor. That first trip I think I spent about $100 on chiles, chile powder and Mexican oregano. The irony is that I never did make tacos al pastor. But I've kept returning to Kalustyan's.

Venturing into Kalustyan's is like an event for me. I could go in, grab what I need, and split but what would be the fun in that? I think it's amazing to just wander around the store and check out everything that man uses to make food, some of which I would never ever buy or use, but I'm sure I buy things some others would never use. On this trip, I checked out the selection of fish sauce, bulk salts and pickled vegetables. Who knew there were this many types of fish sauce? Sometimes I wonder how long some of this stuff has been on their shelves. There's actually one part of the store which has a dead end passage that you have to turn sideways to walk down. It's just not wide enough to walk straight ahead. I didn't go down there; afraid of getting stuck maybe.

The object of my desire!

But ultimately, I had to get what I came for: a very large jar of hot mango chutney and some ancho chile powder (because you can never have enough ancho chile powder). This chutney is the nuts. If you ever come across it, grab some. I've been eating it in tacos: warmed flour tortillas with ancho cumin chicken thighs, a smear of the chutney and some homemade pickled onions. You get warmth from the tortillas and chicken, heat from the chicken and chutney, sweetness from the chutney and a sour crunch from the onions. And it's really quick and cheap too. I should be set with the 40 oz jar of chutney for a few months at least. The last 10 oz jar I bought disappeared in less than two months. And of course I impulse bought on the way out. I can always put lime pickle and Mexican chocolate to use, right?

Before I left, though, I had to wait for the cashier at checkout because she was talking someone through a recipe on the phone in Indian. Love this place!

The final haul: 40 oz jar of hot mango chutney, ancho chile powder, Mexican chocolate and a jar of lime pickle.

My First Political Fundraiser

I know you're thinking "Hey! This blog's supposed to be about the Washington Wizards. What does politics have to do with the Wizards?" Well, before Barack Obama was elected president of the United States...nothing. But on Wednesday of this week, NBA basketball and politics became intertwined, at least for a few hours, at Chelsea Piers in New York City. If you follow sports, you probably know Obama is well known as a hoops junkie: he appears on ESPN annually to reveal his NCAA bracket (both men's and women's); he's attended Georgetown, USA Basketball and Wizards games at Verizon Center (his Bulls lost to the Wizards in front of him - just saying...); and last season during the NBA lockout, there was talk of a fundraising basketball game in DC to raise money for his re-election campaign. That fundraiser never materialized because the NBA owners and players settled their dispute over splitting billions of dollars and got back to work, but it somehow morphed into Wednesday's event.

The Obama Classic, as the event was called, was comprised of three separate parts: a $5,000 per couple, two hour basketball fantasy camp, a $250 per person post-camp autograph session and a $20,000 per plate dinner at night co-hosted by Michael Jordan and Obama himself. The event was advertised featuring players like Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and the Wizards' John Wall. While the fantasy camp and dinner were a little rich for my blood, I figured I could stomach the cost of the autograph session especially considering the attendees, although Magic Johnson didn't end up attending. I kept my expectations very low considering the lack of information forthcoming and took the plunge, figuring if nothing else, I'd end up donating some money for Obama's re-election campaign. There are worse ways I could spend my money.

Eventually, details about the autograph session emerged via email about two days before the event with the start scheduled at 2 p.m. and ending by 4 p.m. Of course, I received this email after I bought train tickets that got me to New York at 10:45 a.m. with a return departure of 6:45 p.m. but I can always kill extra time in New York. That email also told me the players would be split into four groups and I had the right to choose who I got to meet, as long as I acted quickly and the room with my selected players wasn't already full. I opted for a subject-to-change-at-any-time-without-prior-notification group which included Alonzo Mourning, former Wizard Antawn Jamison, Dawn Staley, Brandon Knight, Dahntay Jones, John Wall and Rajon Rondo. As it turned out this was not the most popular group. In fact, it might have been the least popular. From talking to others at the event, it sounded like the groups which included Patrick Ewing and Carmelo Anthony filled up the quickest, which makes complete sense considering the New York Knicks affiliation of those two.

Brandon Knight, Dahntay Jones, John Wall and Rajon Rondo.

The session started with a question and answer portion and the discussion that emerged from the audience's questions summed up just how difficult the Wizards' situation the last two years have been. Rajon Rondo was asked about how his transition to the NBA was helped by being part of a veteran laden, championship ready team. After Rondo talked about how wonderful that was, John Wall talked about the exact opposite situation, where he was drafted by the Wizards as the face of the franchise with questionable veteran leadership to lean on (those words about questionable leadership are mine, not John's). A few minutes later, Alonzo Mourning was discussing how difficult he had it when he entered the league because of the strength of the center position in the NBA when he was a rookie having to play against grown men like Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon. Rondo, Brandon Knight and Wall all responded at once to Mourning's comments and explained that the point guard position in the NBA is probably the most talent laden position today. I'm not sure I'd disagree. Wall talked about having to play a stretch of games against Steve Nash, Rondo, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, essentially being a young player in the league with no easy nights. I didn't fully realize until this point that the Wizards had placed high expectations for franchise turnaround on a 20 year old (as a rookie) guy playing the position with the most competition from the opposition with little to no help from his "veteran" teammates. I may need to revise my prediction about our finishing second in the Southeast Division this season.

The autograph signing was pretty much as pedestrian as these things are: a little assembly line like with opportunity for a comment or two between player and fan. I've been through enough of these things to know how it works. There was a specially designed poster available for signature that, while not incredibly creative, I think is actually pretty attractive. I feel like I got at least something worthwhile for my $250. I was happy to see the prohibition on signing personal items (which these events often stipulate, I assume to discourage autograph memorabilia sellers from attending) was not enforced and all the players seemed very open to taking pictures and to signing items other than the event sanctioned poster. While my expectations were set suitably low, the only thing I found disappointing about the event was that Antawn Jamison wasn't in attendance. It would have been great to ask AJ how he felt about what is probably his most realistic shot at an NBA title.

John Wall signing...

The most fascinating part of the whole event for me, though, was Rajon Rondo. Rondo is regarded by many as the best point guard in the game, an opinion which I happen to share. He is also sometimes labeled as a surly, moody malcontent. He reportedly withdrew from interaction with Boston Celtics management after they traded Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder and there were rumors about his relationship with Ray Allen being a factor in Allen signing with the Miami Heat for half the salary offered by the Celtics this offseason. He has also until recently been the subject of regular trade rumors. But in watching Rondo it is clear that he is more engaged and aware of his surroundings than most people. I've seen a lot of NBA players sign autographs but I've never seen anyone interact with fans the way Rondo did. He didn't just say hey or answer questions from fans. Instead, if he saw or heard something that intrigued him, he pursued it by asking questions. Pretty amazing. I came away even more impressed than when I entered the room.

...and then the no look pass.

I'm glad I went. It was actually one of the most low key NBA events I have ever attended (I know it wasn't run by the NBA). If you didn't know what was going on, you would have had no idea that a few of the best basketball players on the planet were gathered together. There were no announcements, no signs and the press was excluded. It was well done. Before I left, I asked Wall about the playoffs this year. I got a "hope so" in return. Not exactly filling me with confidence there, John. What else could I really expect, right?

My $250 poster!

The Things We Do With Our Lives...

If someone from about 500 years ago managed to find a time machine and took a trip forward to 2012, I am sure they would look at some of the things we do today and marvel at some of the useless, non-productive stuff we spend/waste our time on. Case in point: ESPN's NBArank project.

Last fall, ESPN canvassed a group of 91 NBA "experts" to rank players who play, have recently played or are likely to soon play in the NBA on a ten point scale. The network then compiled all the results and published the top 500 list, in reverse order, over several weeks on their website with announcements through Twitter. The result of all this time and effort is theoretically a list of the best to worst NBA players. I have no idea how these experts would have spent their time, let alone how they would have earned money, before ESPN existed but whatever. Well, this year it's back but this time with 104 experts to make it even better.

Having sort of argued this is a total waste of time, if there are two things I could spend all day doing, it's making lists and examining statistics so of course I love this stuff. I'm sure I'll be spending the next few weeks awaiting the next batch of results as the list counts down from 500 to 1. 500 seems like the right length, by the way, since there are 30 teams carrying a maximum of 15 players thus capturing all the players from last year, recent draftees and maybe a handful of free agents.

So since this is the first day of the list, I thought I'd take a look at how my beloved Washington Wizards fared last year in the eyes of the experts. Since the list was published at the beginning of last season, I figure it makes sense to start with the players that made the team on December 25, the first day of the season. If the experts were right, I'd expect our players to rank pretty low on the list, although the case could easily be made that last year the Wizards collectively performed at a level below the sum of their parts, at least until shortly after the trade deadline when we shipped out JaVale McGee and Nick Young and told Andray Blatche to just stay home and keep collecting a paycheck. The ultimate point of this whole exercise will be to make myself feel better about this upcoming season.

The Wizards opened last season with 15 players and all 15 were on last year's NBArank. Here's our roster from opening day last year:

• 40: John Wall
• 99: JaVale McGee
• 124: Rashard Lewis
• 146: Nick Young
• 147: Andray Blatche
• 210: Jordan Crawford
• 247: Ronny Turiaf
• 279: Roger Mason, Jr.
• 313: Jan Vesely
• 320: Maurice Evans
• 321: Trevor Booker
• 360: Chris Singleton
• 435: Kevin Seraphin
• 469: Shelvin Mack
• 486: Hamady Ndiaye

Of the top eight on the list, six are gone: McGee, Lewis, Young and Turiaf were traded away; Blatche was released via the amnesty provision in the collective bargaining agreement; and Mason departed via free agency. Of the bottom seven on the list, five are still around: Maurice Evans remains an unsigned free agent and Hamady Ndiaye was released last year. On the surface it doesn't seem too smart to jettison six of your supposed eight best players, unless what we got back was greater in value and/or you subscribe to my theory that the reason our team underperformed in the first half of last season was due to lack of team cohesion rather than lack of talent. Don't get me wrong here, lack of talent was still a contributing factor.

Considering last season's results, I'd change the order of the list for the seven guys remaining on our roster. I'd put Wall first without a doubt, but then follow him with Seraphin, Crawford, Booker, Vesely, Singleton and Mack. I also think Wall was ranked too high at 40 (as was McGee at 99, in my opinion) and Seraphin too low at 435, but I'm not sure I'd expect dramatic movement out of anyone else remaining from Christmas Day last year.

The real improvement on the court this coming season (if there is any real improvement) is going to come from the guys who were not on the team last year. Perhaps NBArank can help portend these results. Right now we have six guys under contract who didn't start last year with the Wizards: Bradley Beal, Trevor Ariza, Nenê, Cartier Martin, Emeka Okafor and A.J. Price. Beal is a rookie and wasn't ranked last year. Nenê and Okafor were 31 and 71 respectively and Trevor Ariza was 113. So basically we traded away 99 and 124 (McGee and Lewis) and got back three guys all ranked higher in the eyes of the experts. All three should be starters when the season starts on October 30. Price is potentially our backup point guard; he was ranked higher than Shelvin Mack last year, but not by much. Having Price and Mack backing up John Wall continues to be a question mark. Cartier Martin came in at 432 last year but I believe Cartier will end up higher on the list this year. I think he will prove to be useful as a clutch shooter as the season progresses.

So are the Wizards a better team on paper in the eyes of the experts? I think so. I think our starting frontcourt will grade out well and our starting two guard will be the weakest link in the starting lineup. I also think NBArank will demonstrate this weakness and our lack of depth at point guard. I'll follow over the next few weeks and see how it goes.

Apparently I Was Wrong

Only one day after I stated that we probably don't have to deal with paying attention to Dwight Howard's nonsense until mid-January, the Orlando Magic just went and traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers in a four team deal involving the Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers. Just one day! Shows how much I know, I guess. So what does this mean to me and the Washington Wizards? Five things, I think.

One: The 76ers sent away Andre Igoudala, one of the 85 small forwards on their roster, and got back Andrew Bynum. This instantly makes the Sixers a more complete team and a real contender in the Atlantic Division. I was hoping the Sixers had slipped backwards a little. There's no way that's the case now.

Two: The Nuggets acquiring Igoudala means JaVale McGee is no longer the highest paid player on their team. That seems right, especially since JaVale doesn't even start.

Three: The Magic losing Howard for three players, two of whom are on their rookie deals including one who hasn't played in an NBA game yet, means the Wizards now finally have a real shot at finishing second in the Southeast Division this year. Yep, that's right, I'm probably setting my own expectations waaaaaaay to high here (note I'm skipping over the Hawks here too). Don't worry, as a New York Jets fan the last 34 seasons and a Wizards season ticket holder the last 12, I have a lot to rely on to remain grounded on this issue.

Four: Lakers-Wizards games at Verizon Center are going to have even more Lakers fans-who-have-never-set-foot-in-California-let-alone-been-to-Los-Angeles in attendance. We'll have more people  around us in section 402 offering lame excuses for their Laker fan-dom like claiming they have either always been a Lakers fan "for some reason" or that they admire Kobe Bryant. Memo to all Lakers fans who show up to VC who aren't from LA: you like the Lakers because they win, and you'd rather root for a sure winner than show some backbone and actually follow a team you have some actual connection to for years. I might be bitter on this one, but it sure is sweet to watch the Wiz come back from a 20 point deficit in the third quarter to take the game while the Lakers "fans" around sit in stunned silence and mutter to themselves about still being a better team.

Five: If it comes down to a Lakers-Miami Heat NBA Finals, I'm actually going to have to root for Dwight Howard to win. Ugh! I'm not a fan of either Howard or LeBron James for the way they turned their backs on the fans of their former teams. I think both guys are completely disingenuous. But Howard hasn't scorched my team in the playoffs even once, let alone three times, so I can't root for LeBron's team ever. If it comes to that, I'll focus on rooting for former Wizard Antawn Jamison and tell myself that Jamison's classiness sort of counterbalances Howard. Looks like AJ will probably have some very real hope in pasting the picture of the Larry O'Brien trophy in his locker this year. I hope it doesn't come to this, but I fear it might.

After being so wrong yesterday, maybe I should write about other things I am sure won't happen just to see if they do. In closing then, I guess we'll never see Kevin Durant in a Wizards uniform any time soon. Hopefully I'll be up early Saturday morning retracting that statement as well. I won't set my alarm.