Jerseys In My Closet

I'm turning September into jersey month here at My Swag Was Phenomenal. Here's the first of three posts on that subject.

After Martell Webster decided to early retire in 2015, I had a conversation with my friend Mike about what jersey I was going to buy now that Martell was gone from the game. Yes, I bought a Martell Webster jersey. And wore it to games. Mike's response was classic, something to the effect of "Why don't you buy a jersey of someone who's good?"

Sound advice, no doubt. I've always had an admiration for the contributing role player on the Wizards and so time after time, it seemed (with the exception of my Arenas gold jersey), I had to that point in my Wizards fandom been clad in a no-way-is-this-guy-ever-making-an-All-Star-game player's jersey every so often at Verizon Center. A couple of months later I took Mike's advice and bought my first John Wall Wizards jersey.

Over my 17 year tenure as a Wizards fan, I've owned (and still own, for that matter) nine Wizards jerseys. Their story is a story of my decade and a half plus journey of me being a member of the Wizards faithful. Here's what I've worn over the years. Try to be gentle with your criticism, especially about halfway through this post. I was misguided. Nothing more.

Brendan Haywood

My first favorite Wizards player ever was Brendan Haywood. The year was 2001 and it was my second year as a Wizards season ticket holder. I'd just sat through parts of an awful inaugural (for me) Wizards season that saw my new favorite team go 19-63 and end up in last place of the Atlantic Division (this was back when there were just four divisions in the league).

Through the first 12 games of the 2001-2002 season, the Wizards didn't look a whole lot better than they did the prior year, winning just three times in 12 tries. Brendan Haywood was a rookie that year and didn't play in the first dozen games due to a hand injury. But when he did play starting in late November he just looked like he was trying way harder than anyone else on our team. And he seemed to be blocking a ton of shots, including seven against Atlanta on December 19 of that year.

Here was a guy I could get behind and follow: a role player who played hard, played D and did things like block shots. Instantly he fit neatly into the category of players I loved in this league. In the first 20 games Brendan played in a Wizards uniform, the team went 15-5. I'm not saying it was all due to B-Wood but there may be a cause and effect.

Over the years, Brendan had some high spots and low spots with the Wizards: fighting with teammate Etan Thomas (yes, literally fighting), some pouting due to loss of playing time, statements about not wanting to teach JaVale McGee how to be a professional (although he may have been really smart here) but also being the defensive anchor and a model of consistency on the court for years for a team that in its prime was really pretty good.

I didn't buy a Brendan Haywood jersey that first season when he wore 3 nor the second season when he wore 00. I finally broke down sometime after that and sprung for an authentic jersey which cost about $160 or something like that back then. I remember getting yelled at by some fan ("Hey Haywood, make your free throws!") after a game in which B-Wood missed some free throws towards the end of the game. I assume the dude could tell the difference between a 5'-11" (basketball height; not actual height) 30 some year old white dude and a 7'-0" black professional athlete but didn't care anyway. Brendan signed both 3s on the back of his jersey at some Washington Auto Show in the mid-aughts which I appreciate.

Gilbert Arenas

I remember being at my parents place watching television when the announcement that the winner of the NBA's 2003 Most Improved Player was Golden State's Gilbert Arenas scrolled across the bottom of the screen. My first reaction was to tell my dad "the Wizards should sign THAT guy." And they did. Gave him everything we had in cap space to sign him. Gilbert pretty much tied B-Wood for my favorite Wizards player that day without ever having played a second in a Wizards jersey.

When he got to D.C., I started hearing more and more stories about Gilbert that proved to me that this guy was not just an ordinary basketball player: the locker room hijinks as a rookie refusing to be hazed, the reason he wore zero as a chip on his shoulder, the gym rat mentality, the hyperbaric chamber, the playoff guarantee from his first press conference, his single parent upbringing. What was not to like about Gilbert?

Then he started playing. The first year in D.C. Gil was good. The next few, he was awesome. We had a guy who could go off for 50 points seemingly when he wanted. And of course there came with it all sorts of nicknames and crazy behaviors: hibachi, Agent Zero, the turning around on buzzer beaters before they hit the bottom of the net to kill the other team, throwing his jersey into the crowd at the end of each game, guaranteeing financial support to a local boy who'd lost his family in a fire, staying and signing autographs at fan events when all his teammates had split when the allocated time was up. Everything about Gilbert Arenas, I loved.

I bought the gold alternate jersey because that was Gil's jersey more than anyone else's. Gilbert made that jersey special. He set the all-time franchise single game scoring mark (60) in that jersey. He was Agent Zero in that thing. And of course I had to get the authentic jersey again which set me back again north of $150.

Gilbert's ending in Washington wasn't special. It was marred by a devastating injury to the best player I'd seen in a Wizards jersey to that point by far and then by a locker room gun showdown that I won't recount here because I just don't want to. Before he got traded to the Orlando Magic and started his farewell tour of other NBA franchises, Gil signed my jersey in the best way possible, with an "Agent 0" signature. I love Gil for that and for his time in D.C.

Caron Butler

OK, so my Caron Butler 2008 NBA All-Star Game jersey is a bit of an oddball in my collection because it was gifted, not bought. The Wizards gave one to each season ticket holder who renewed their full season plan in 2008. That's not to say that I wouldn't buy a Caron Butler jersey (because I totally would; I love Tough Juice), just that I already had my perfectly good Arenas jersey at that time and I didn't need to drop any more money on a new kit.

Of the big three of Butler, Arenas and Antawn Jamison, I appreciate that Caron has been the most vocal about what a missed opportunity his time in D.C. was and how much he genuinely thought that team would achieve greatness before (through no fault of Caron's) the team imploded and collapsed in on itself. The result of all that was Jamison playing with LeBron James and the hated Cleveland Cavaliers (and winning nothing) while Caron, B-Wood and DeShawn Stevenson ended up getting a ring each with the Dallas Mavericks. The Wizards meanwhile rebuilt around rookie John Wall which right now looks like a smart choice.

Of course, just like the other two earlier jerseys in my collection, my CB jersey is autographed. It came that way. Otherwise the Wizards would just be handing out old stock that they couldn't sell to their season ticket holders.

Andray Blatche

I'm a smart guy but sometimes I make silly decisions. Actually sometimes I make really dumb, naïve and ignorant decisions.

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 season, Andray Blatche made a decision. He decided to change his number from 32 to 7 as a signal to the world that he would now be dedicated to becoming a professional basketball player and the best he could be in a Wizards uniform all seven days of every week. This was a guy who was a second round pick of the Wizards right out of high school and had just completed the best season of his four year career, starting more games (32) than any other year, finally averaging double digits in scoring and having increased his scoring and rebounding number each year since his NBA debut. I bought it because I wanted to believe in Andray Blatche and the power of Ernie Grunfeld to pick a unknown gem out of the second round of the draft. I bought it so much that I dropped $170 on an authentic jersey, the last one (to this point) I have bought because the cost is just so freaking out of control now.

So there are some logical questions behind this move, right? The first is why would a professional athlete NOT be dedicated to being a professional seven days a week? What did Dray's number mean before he donned a number 7 jersey? 32 days a year? That answer is not out of the realm of possibility by the way. There were certainly flags about Andray's past that would raise some doubts. Before he even played a minute in the NBA he was shot in some kind of incident with a prior Wizards questionable second round draft pick Peter John Ramos and he'd been famously casual about his diet and work ethic, relying on his natural talents to keep him going despite being questioned seemingly daily on this issue by team captain Antawn Jamsion. As a fan, you could see Dray lacked any sort of real chiseling in his physique.

Of course, all this nonsense didn't work. Andray had his moments in a Wizards jersey after he started working full-time, twice scoring 36 points in a game and combining those two scoring efforts with 19 and 15 rebounds in those two games. But one of those games per year just ain't enough and before the 2012-2013 season the Wizards used the amnesty provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement to part ways with Andray, still having to pay him but not having his salary count against the cap.

After being released by the Wizards, Dray spent two years with the Brooklyn Nets and became one of Wizards' fans favorite targets for booing. He didn't look like he was in any better shape as a Net than he did as a Wizard. I remember one game at Verizon Center when he looked especially winded and was grabbing his shorts while standing on the edge of the lane during a Wizards free throw attempt. Because the arena was especially quiet at that time, I yelled "Hey, Dray! What are you, tired?" from my fifth row seat and I swear he looked right at me and smiled like a kid who didn't know what he'd gotten himself into. I felt bad about yelling that.

To his credit, I guess, Andray signed my jersey gorgeously before a road game in Indiana. I think it's one of the best and clearest signatures I have. Too bad the jersey and the signature are not only worthless but also really pretty embarrassing that I actually have this jersey in my collection. Like I said, sometimes I make silly decisions.

Chris Singleton

At the end of the 2010-2011 season (John Wall's rookie year), the Wizards decided it was time for a re-brand. They rolled out a couple of new logos (while also inexplicably refusing to kill off the Wizard logo for a year or so) and some gorgeous new threads. I still think the home whites are the best unis in the league. I had to get a new jersey. I mean after all, even if I could be seen in public in a signed Andray Blatche jersey, there's really no way I wanted to wear those hideous old blue, black and gold things any more.

Almost inexplicably (although I can and will actually explain), I picked rookie Chris Singleton's 31 as my new jersey. Singleton was the 18th overall pick in the 2011 draft and the Wizards second of three, selected between number six overall pick Jan Vesely and number 34 overall Shelvin Mack. It was a disaster of a draft for the Wizards. Vesely made it through all four years of his rookie deal but only just. Singleton made it just three years. The only one of the trio still playing in the NBA is Mack and the Wizards cut him not once but twice. To make matters worse, the Wizards selected opted for Ves ahead of Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard.

When the Wizards drafted Chris Singleton, I saw that as a commitment by the front office to put someone on the team who might be a defense first guy and I loved that. Chris had alleged he could cover the 1 through 4 positions in college and I supposed he would being some heart and toughness to a team that finished solidly in the bottom ten of the league in defensive rating. It didn't work. Chris proved too slow to cover the 1 through 3 spots at the NBA level and wasn't big enough to cover the power forwards in the league. 

I'm not sorry I bought a Chris Singleton jersey despite the questions I got on it (usually "did I attend Florida State?"). I talked with Chris a couple of times during his tenure with the Wiz and found him relatable and open to talking with a fan of the team and I appreciated that. 

And yes...I do have two Singleton jerseys (I downgraded to the cheaper Swingman version starting with this purchase) as shown in the picture above. I ordered the home white before the season started from the NBA store online. After a couple of weeks of it not showing up, they sent me an email saying the product I had ordered was not available so I ordered a road red one instead. About a day later the original white jersey I ordered showed up. I called the NBA store and ended up with a 2-for-1 deal. So I didn't really buy two Chris Singleton jerseys. I just own two now.

When I handed Chris the white jersey to sign (which you can just make out in silver on the "3", his comment was "Now that's what I'm talking about." I have a feeling the NBA didn't sell too many Wizards 31 jerseys from 2011 to 2014.

Martell Webster

After a couple of misses in the jersey department I was determined to right the ship with the next one I bought. I picked Martell Webster, a guy who was a lottery pick in the draft but had a history of back issues and had struggled to score the ball in his prior contracts with both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Surprisingly, Martell fit into the Wizards' offense perfectly and would become the first of a string of guys who put up gaudy numbers from beyond the three point line by playing on the same team as John Wall.

What I liked most about Martell was his team first attitude and his appreciation for playing in Washington and playing for Randy Wittman (who remains, barely, my favorite Wizards coach of all time). Martell didn't care how many points he scored or how much playing time he received. He (correctly) was concerned with the team winning. If that meant he played zero minutes some days or played 30 minutes and scored nothing, so be it. He was absolutely correct: individual accomplishments are secondary to the team's performance.

I also appreciated Martell's life story. Not that it's unusual for an NBA player to have a difficult upbringing, but his reaction to what he experienced through how he deals with his own family is what impresses me. He was raised by his grandmother after his mom disappeared when he was four years old. And when I say disappeared, that's true. Nobody knows what happened to her, although there are theories that she was a victim of a serial killer. His dad left before he was born but lived nearby in silence until after Martell was drafted and was then predictably and appropriately rejected by his son. Martell's response to his personal history is to put his own family first above all else, determined to not repeat anything like his father's mistakes.

I bought my Webster jersey right after the team eliminated the center horizontal stripe from the back of their uniform (see the jersey below) that made some of the numbers (particularly 2s, 3s and 5s) too difficult to read so when it showed up in my mailbox it was already a throwback. Of course, I got the jersey signed and wore it to games with Martell's ink on the back.

John Wall

Ultimately, I took my friend Mike's advice and made my next jersey someone good by picking up a John Wall jersey. It's been the only jersey I've worn to games for the last two years at Verizon Center and I anticipate it will be the only one I'll wear (although I may need a new one at some point) for the foreseeable future.

John Wall is without question in my mind the best player who has ever pulled on a Wizards jersey. By the time he's done in D.C. he seems pretty determined to be one of the best, if not THE best, who has ever worn a Wizards or Bullets or Zephyrs or Packers jersey. And he may get there, either with or without a championship.

I love that John works constantly to improve his game. I love that he takes every slight anyone in or out of the league throws his way (and there have been a lot) and uses those to push himself to get better. I love that he wants to be in Washington in an era when loyalty doesn't matter much to teams or players or even fans sometimes (the author of this post is definitely excluded). I love that he's deservedly a four time All-Star and has been named to an All-NBA team and an All-NBA Defense team. I love that he's getting better every year. I love his commitment to the community and those less fortunate than himself. And I love watching him throw passes from my seat in Section 105 of Verizon Center and now Capital One Arena. I am proud to wear this jersey each time I slip it over my head. I can't see myself wearing another jersey until John no longer plays for the Wizards.

So I sort of lied. By the time I asked Mike for some advice about my next jersey purchase, I already owned a John Wall jersey (below). I had the extreme good fortune to attend the 2015 NBA All-Star Game in New York a couple of years ago and sprang for a John Wall All-Star jersey as a souvenir of that experience, which coincidentally is the only All-Star Game start of John's career. I have worn this jersey exactly once and that was at the game itself. After that, I had John sign it, which looks great in silver against the blue number, and retired it. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this and my other signed jerseys. For now I'm just holding on to them.

17 years and counting. Nine jerseys and counting. They are some of the most expensive and useless (it's not like I can wear them at time or anywhere other than to games) Wizards souvenirs I own. But collectively they tell a story of my love for the Wizards, as passionate and frustrating and glorious and misguided as it has been since I first ponied up some dough for a full season back in the year 2000. I don't think I need to get my 10th jersey anytime soon but you just never know in this business.

Where's Bradley Beal?

Earlier today, the Wizards finished their first of three straight pre-season games at Verizon Center. This season features the greatest number of preseason games at VC since I've been a season ticket holder. The other two are later this same week, which means I'll be making two more trips down to F Street before the end of the day Friday.

I generally spend very little time around Verizon Center in the summer months since I stopped working downtown seven years or so ago, so the first Wizards game of the season, be it preseason or regular season, brings an opportunity to see how the neighborhood has changed since the previous Wizards season was over. The most dramatic change was some years ago when they finally took the construction scaffolding off the front or south face of the Smithsonian American Art Museum which allowed an uninterrupted view down F Street all the way to Union Station; after years of seeing the American Art Museum under renovation, the change was striking. This year, the only changes I noticed were that the FroZen Yo store on F Street has moved to Chinatown and Souvenir World at the corner of 10th and F has closed. It seems like that place has been there forever.

In addition to changes outside the arena, it's exciting to see what's happened to the inside of Verizon Center over the summer. The most obvious changes this year were the repainted main entrance to the building and a brand new basketball court (shown above) with the Unity Hand logo replacing the Wizards wordmark at center court and solid red lanes beneath the basket. In past seasons, the lanes have generally been striped for the professional game (at 16 feet wide) and the college game (at 12 feet wide); this year, it's just one lane for the NBA game. I love the lane change but I'm a big fan of the Wizards wordmark so I'd rather they just stick with that. I realize I'll be in the minority on that one.

But there's still work to do inside Verizon Center to get ready for opening night on November 1. Let me explain.

A couple of years ago, the team installed a series of photograph panels or billboards, if you will, on the lower concourse of the building. These billboards feature Wizards, Mystics, Capitals and Georgetown University basketball players, in addition to some other acts who play Verizon Center frequently. A little over a year ago, I had a picture of myself taken in front of the picture of Martell Webster for my "About This Blog" page. I was curious to see who would be up on these panels this year, so before the game, I took a quick stroll around the 100 Level of Verizon Center. Here's what I found, starting at the north entrance to the building and walking counterclockwise.

Marcin Gortat

Marcin's our starting center and just signed a new five year, $60 million deal. During the 2013-2014 season he played in all but one of our regular season games and averaged 13.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. He poured in 31 points and snagged 16 rebounds in game five of our playoff matchup against the Indiana Pacers, the last playoff game we would win before being eliminated by the Pacers. It makes a ton of sense to have Marcin up on the wall. I believe he was placed there after we traded Jan Vesely to the Denver Nuggets for Andre Miller at the trading deadline last season. It would be nice for Marcin if the Wizards ticket sales table were not blocking most of his picture but whatever.

Nenê

Nenê was the first real building block in the Wizards' culture change that started at the trading deadline of the 2011-2012 season with the team trading goofball center JaVale McGee for a legitimate professional NBA player, in this case Nenê. Critics decried the trade when we made it; most felt the Wizards had traded a player with tremendous upside for a broken down, overpaid, undersized center. A year and a half later, it looks like the Wizards fleeced the Nuggets. Nenê not only brought a sense of professionalism and seriousness to the Wizards, he's actually played in way more games than McGee has since the trade (124 regular season games plus 10 playoff games to McGee's 104 and 13). How could a big picture of Nenê not be on display at VC?

Josh Groban

OK, so Josh Groban doesn't play for the Wizards and never has. Verizon Center has two musicians on display in its lower concourse. One is Bruce Springsteen. I find it curious that Groban is the other.

John Wall

I'll be brief here talking about Wall. Franchise player. Number one overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft. 2014 NBA All-Star. 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest winner. Led the NBA in total assists during the 2013-2014 NBA season. John is the only player on the team with a maximum contract and the unquestioned leader of the team. As he goes, quite often, the team goes. The best player deserves his picture up in the building.

Martell Webster

Martell's first season with the Wizards two years ago was his best as a pro as he averaged 11.4 points per game with a 42.2% success rate from beyond the three point arc in 76 games. He parlayed that season into a four year deal for the full mid-level exception or between $5 million and $6 million per year. Coincidentally, the Wizards put his picture up near Section 102 just before he re-signed. Martell's production dropped off last year as a sixth man. I'd love to see him back in the starting lineup with John Wall this year. I feel he really prospers with Wall on the court. You can debate the merits of Martell getting a billboard but the fact that he's my favorite player is good enough for me to keep him there.

Chris Singleton

I like Chris Singleton a lot. I love the interview he gave to ESPN during the lockout before the 2011-2012 season, we've hung out in Vegas together (OK, maybe not so much) and I've always found him one of the most approachable Wizards players in his three years in Washington. But…he doesn't play for the Wizards anymore (he's currently playing as a training camp invitee on a non-guaranteed contract with the Indiana Pacers). 

Now I'm not sure what the Wizards' attitude toward retaining Chris in the off season was but I'm pretty confident considering they didn't pick up his contract option and really made no significant strides to retain him that they probably knew by the end of last season that they had no plans to retain him. So why is his picture in our gorgeous white home uni still up in the building?

I can't imagine how much money it costs to replace the graphics on one of these panels but Chris can't stay here more than like another week, right? And if the Wizards can't think of someone to replace him, I'd suggest they try Bradley Beal because this is the last Wizards related graphic on the lower level of Verizon Center starting at the north entrance and walking counterclockwise. I think Bradley's earned it. The real deadline to get this fixed is November 1 when we open our home slate against the Milwaukee Bucks. Verizon Center spent a bunch of money this summer installing a Capitals hat trick display which is just awesome. They need to fix this next. It's on the east end of the building in case this is just an oversight.

Martell Webster Bobblehead

I had planned to blog this weekend about the Washington Wizards' winning record after their crushing defeat of the Milwaukee Bucks, owners of the worst record in the league, in front of a rabid home crowd Friday night at Verizon Center. The ensuing above .500 record would have been the latest that the Wizards had owned a winning record in a season since the 2007-2008 campaign, the last year the team made the playoffs. But I guess the Bucks didn't want to cooperate and the Wizards came out in a lackluster fashion, let Khrys Middleton drop 29 on us, came back, and then let the Bucks push us around in overtime en route to a disappointing 109-105 loss.

Fortunately, I have enough going on Wizards-wise in my life to fill the space before the first in-season winning record lets me write the post I wanted to write this weekend. Maybe the next couple of weeks will let me get back to that other post. In the meantime, I found something else to write about courtesy of the United States Postal Service.

If there's one thing I look forward to more than most things during the NBA season, it's adding a piece or two to my expanding Wizards bobblehead collection so when I finally get my hands on the season's promotional schedule, I comb it instantly so I can understand when exactly I have to be in line early to get my hands on the one or maybe two bobbleheads the team offers during the year. This year, I was hoping to find a Martell "My Favorite Wizard" Webster bobble on the giveaway schedule considering the new four year deal the team and he agreed on in the off season. Instead I found only a Nenê bobblehead on December 28. Now I like Nenê but I already have a Nenê bobblehead as part of last year's season ticket holder gift so naturally I was disappointed. 

I got set up for disappointment a little on this one. My anticipation for a Webster bobblehead had been extra high this year because I saw an advertisement for the G Wiz Kids' Club on the Verizon Center scoreboard before the first preseason game which promised delivery of exactly the bobblehead I wanted. Why can't I, devoted fan and diehard bobblehead collector, get what kids are getting just for having their folks shell out $20 to join the Kids' Club? I mean I'm at VC every game watching the Wiz and have shelves full of Wizards bobbleheads. 

So naturally, I did the only thing a rational human being can do in that situation: I signed my niece up for the G Wiz Kids' Club! Fortunately my niece is a little too young to have bobbleheads, so I'll have to hang on to the miniature version of Martell until she's old enough to appreciate the amazingness of the collection I'm forming. Just before the Bucks game Friday, her package arrived and I finally had what I wanted.

The Kids' Club package this year includes a backpack, membership card, folder, pencil, temporary tattoos, activities, a lanyard and the piece-de-resistance, one Martell Webster bobblehead. I'm vowing right now to keep my niece in this club at all costs. If I have anything to do with it, she'll be raised a Wizards fan. Of course everything in the package is important, but I'm focused on the bobblehead and put all that other stuff to one side so I could open up the box and see what my investment had brought me.

I love adding bobbleheads to my shelf and having Martell as part of my collection is an important addition. Despite being a Wizards season ticket holder for the last 14 years, there are probably only a handful of players who I would consider as favorite players. Martell is, despite only one year on the team, one of those guys.

He was drafted straight out of high school in 2005 by the Portland Trail Blazers as the sixth overall pick. After some success with the Trail Blazers got him a four year contract extension he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves where he underwent two back surgeries that essentially killed his T-Wolves career and left him labeled by some a "draft bust" and "done" at the age of 25.

The Wizards took a chance on Martell in the fall of 2012, signing him to a one year, $1.6 million deal and it paid off for both sides. Martell not only performed at an all time high level on the court, he brought veteran presence and leadership to the locker room. He also infused the Wizards with genuine personality the likes of which we haven't seen since Gilbert Arenas, although the effect of Martell's personality on the locker room is unifying rather than divisive. For evidence of Martell's personality, I suggest you watch his interview of Marcin Gortat or the brand new CSN Washington's Mar-Tell It Like It Is, which may or may not be on ongoing segment. But if you truly want to understand what I think Martell brings to the team, you should read Sarah Kogod's discussion with him over a pedicure.

So as for the bobblehead itself, I have mixed emotions. I love the monument ball logo base and the home uniform detailing, including this season's deletion of the stripe on the back of the jersey. I think our home unis rival any in the league as the best and the removal of the blue stripe on the back which used to run right through the red number (making it sometimes illegible) is one of those devil's in the details things that improves the overall appearance way more than it would seem possible.

But the head of the bobblehead…well, I can't decide if this really looks like last season's Martell Webster (he's missing the beard this year). On a purely academic basis, garden gnome and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (discounting the skin color, of course) come to mind. I think the way too pointy nose is responsible for the garden gnome effect. But the more I look at it, the more they got a lot of the details right: the hair and beard, if nothing else, are spot on. They just needed to do something about that nose. I'm glad I can place Martell on my shelf with the other bobbleheads and slide Jordan Crawford to the rear (turned backwards in accordance with my own personal tradition, of course).

Unfortunately, the high of picking up my new bobblehead wore off quickly. Friday's loss to the Bucks was sort of a triple whammy of bad news. In addition to losing to the team with the worst record in the league, we also may have lost Nenê and Martell to injuries for a while (although Martell is currently listed day to day). This in addition to already being without Bradley Beal and Al Harrington may make what looked like a favorable mid-December schedule a lot worse for us.

But I'm confident in our ability to keep going while and if these two are out. We still have three solid starters in John Wall, Trevor Ariza and Marcin Gortat (who is fast climbing my favorite Wizards board) and first round pick Otto Porter made his season debut Friday. I'll keep the faith and hope our guys heal quickly. In the meantime, I'll keep showing up in my number 9 jersey game after game. Can't understand why there aren't more Webster jerseys at VC. Just baffling to me.

Next bobblehead post: as soon after December 28 as I can find to write.

Martell Webster taking Jordan Crawford's place in last year's team bobblehead set. We need a Marcin Gortat unannounced bobblehead giveaway badly.

What?!?! You Missed The NBA Draft?!?!

Yes, I missed the NBA Draft. Despite the Wizards having the third overall pick and the Draft being at the brand new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, I skipped it. I also missed the start of free agency, perhaps critical to the Wizards this year because we actually have a free agent in Martell Webster that I desperately want our team to re-sign. I skipped both of these "events" (the start of free agency isn't really an event) because sometimes, other stuff gets in the way. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true. And from June 27 to July 7 this year, I was off exploring Bavaria, and the history, geography, food and beer it has to offer and that kept me away from the draft and the subsequent start of free agency.

But being out of the country doesn't mean a complete break from being a Wizards fanatic. I took a few shirts with me on the off chance that anyone in Germany wanted to talk Wizards hoops with me. I also followed the Draft on Twitter on my phone from the runway during our flight delay and free agency every day on my laptop and (until I left it in a bathroom) my iPad.

So, a lot happened while I was gone. I managed to stay dialed in to the Draft to the seventh pick by the Kings, so I knew before I left the U.S. that the Wizards selected Otto Porter out of Georgetown University or exactly the player we wanted. I'm glad we resisted the temptation to take Nerlens Noel despite my opinion that our biggest need for a young player is at center. After five years missing the playoffs, it seems that we needed to be more realistic about taking a solid player and not shoot for the stars taking a flyer on a freshman center coming off an ACL injury. Good restraint there.

I had to wait until 8 a.m. Germany time and our connection in Frankfurt to find out that we  traded our two second round picks to the 76ers in exchange for the draft rights to Glen Rice, Jr. meaning the organization stayed true to its word about not wanting three rookies on the roster on opening day. I saw Rice down in Hidalgo playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers during my February Texas road trip. While his 18 points in the game I watched didn't stand out (the Vipers scored 139), his 33 and 25 points in two NBDL Finals games sure did.  Hopefully Glen can occupy a more deluxe sort of role that Cartier Martin had on last year's team.

Hanging out at Castle Neuschwanstein in the German Alps.

Then free agency hit July 1st and the Wizards made short work of that whole process. The organization wasted no time wrapping up Martell Webster for the full mid-level exception for three years with a partial guarantee on a fourth year (pretty much exactly what I asked for by the way). Good for Martell. He deserved it with his play last year and he really wants to be in Washington. It's so refreshing to get a team first guy who can contribute and wants to be here. I'm just remembering the whole Gilbert Arenas contract negotiation/blackmail ploy. Now I can finally order my Martell Webster jersey and relegate my Chris Singleton jersey to games I watch from my upper level seats at VC. Sorry, Chris.

In addition to re-signing Martell, the Wizards picked up point guard Eric Maynor to back up John Wall and re-upped Garrett Temple on a guaranteed one year deal. I think Maynor's a good move. I appreciate what A.J. Price brought to the team last year but the Wizards get a guy in Maynor with a little more experience in the NBA and probably a little more upside. I'd have preferred someone with a little more experience here to mentor Wall but it's too late for that now, I guess. I already put it out there that I think it's worth giving Garrett Temple another shot so I'm OK with that move.

If there's a concern here, it's that the Wizards are essentially sticking with a team that won just 29 games last year. I realize that's grossly unfair to characterize it that way considering the number of injuries to, well, pretty much everyone except Emeka Okafor last year but that's really what we are doing. The organization is clearly counting on the magic (not kidding here) that our starting five (Wall, Beal, Webster, Nenê and Okafor) brought last year while on the court together and hoping they can make it happen for close to the whole season this year instead of about 25% of the season. 

The strategy also counts on Wall, Beal and now Porter getting better month over month and contributing more. Don't get me wrong, I know this is how it's supposed to work with young players. I also agree with the overall strategy and wouldn't have asked for anything else. I think this team can be a playoff team and with the offseasons that the Celtics, Bucks and Hawks have had this year, there may be room for some different teams in the top eight come next April. I'm just hoping that pressing the repeat button and having everyone together more allows the turnovers to go down and the offensive rebounding to go up.

Summer League starts for the Wizards Saturday and I plan to be in Las Vegas for the first two games. That means this coming weekend I'll be eight time zones removed from where I was this past weekend. I hope the liter glasses of beer in the two pictures in this post suggest I had a great time while in Bavaria. It took me all the way to the last full day there to get a reaction to my Wizards attire. I ran in to a "John Wall fan" from Boston at the Hofbrauhaus gift store and got a "Wizards! Yeah!" from a passerby on the Marienplatz later that same night. I'm assuming there will be more Wizards fans in Vegas. Can't wait until Saturday.

Part way through a half liter of Spezial Hell at Andechs Abbey.

Off Season Priorities

It's conference finals time. My rooting against the teams and players I dislike the most has helped bump the Brookyn Nets, Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks from the postseason so far. I'm still delusionally hopeful that the NBA Finals this year will feature the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs despite the current deficit the Pacers face in their Eastern Conference Finals. I like the way Indiana's team is built around a defense first, no star system. In my wildest imaginings, I could see the Wizards resembling that team in the next few years. 

In the meantime, there's been some good news for the Wizards in the form of a top three Lottery pick when the team could have stood still at the eight spot or, God forbid, moved down as far as 11th. That win gives the team a whole lot more options when approaching the off season. It's a lot easier to make deals with a number three overall draft pick than it is with the eighth pick.

When I look over the Wizards roster at the moment, I see some glaring holes that need to be addressed. However, for the first time in years, I feel pretty good about our top five guys under contract, which coincidentally can be fashioned into a credible NBA starting lineup of John Wall and Bradley Beal in the backcourt, Trevor Ariza and Nenê at the forward spots and Emeka Okafor in the middle. I think management has done a good job cobbling together a unit that can score and defend at a playoff caliber level in the NBA.

Beyond the "starting five" listed above, the team is thin. We have some free agents whom we may or may not try to re-sign and a bench of four guys on their rookie contract deals. It's definitely easy to understand how this team finished tied for seventh worst in the NBA last season. Despite that assessment though, we may actually not need to tweak our roster that much to slide into the seventh or eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. Sounds crazy but it might be true. Here's how I view our offseason priorities.

1. Draft The Best Available Player

For the first time in several NBA Drafts, the Wizards are in a position where they don't need to draft someone who has to start next season or even contribute in a major way right away. I am sure between now and draft night both the front office of the Wizards and most folks in the press who cover the team will debate whether the team should draft for need or take the best player available. Here's my message to everyone: the Wizards have needs at every position; select the best available player, even if that player is a guard and has to come off the bench behind John Wall or Bradley Beal for the next four years.

Fortunately, the Wizards this year moved up in draft order by winning the Draft Lottery and hold the third overall selection, rather than the eighth spot based on order of finish. The third overall pick allows the Wizards far more flexibility in making a draft choice and should allow them to not only get a quality player whether or not that player can contribute right away. If I were drafting for need for the Wizards, I'd select a center. The Wizards have young potential at every position except center (I'm putting Seraphin at the four for the purpose of this discussion). But if the right player isn't there, I'm picking the best available. Based on early projections, it appears Nerlens Noel (center), Ben McLemore (guard) and Otto Porter, Jr. (forward) are the top three talents in this year's draft. If that proves to be true, I'd take whichever one of those three wasn't selected in the top two and hope I made the right choice. To me, the draft is a total crap shoot anyway.

2. Re-Sign Martell Webster

The Wizards signed Martell Webster right before the start of the 2012-2013 season as a presumed sixth man at a pretty much bargain price of $1,600,000. Martell turned that opportunity into a season with career highs in points, rebounds, assists and three point field goal percentage while managing to shoot almost 85% from the free throw line. He replaced Trevor Ariza in the starting lineup when Ariza went down with an injury in December and never gave it back. He embraces coach Wittman's game philosophy and also seems to play off other players on the team, and particularly John Wall, very well.

So it looks like Martell has set himself up in a "contract year" to be paid really well or even overpaid. It seems like the Wizards are in a position where they have to pony up some dough to keep him or risk losing him to free agency like we have lost other players in the recent past. If I had a vote, I'd pay Martell. In fact, I'd probably pay him (assuming he would accept it) the full mid-level exception for a period of three years. That would allow us to bring back our starting five from last year plus sixth man Ariza and then start to incorporate other players into the mix, including our first round draft pick and whatever other free agents we retain or sign. And with a three year deal, Martell would be coming off the books in time for the team to throw a boatload of cash at Bradley Beal after his rookie contract expires.

I wonder what the offseason holds for Chris Singleton and his over life size billboard at VC.

3. Figure Out The Seraphin / Booker / Vesely / Singleton Thing

Over the past three seasons, the Wizards have drafted four small or power forwards in Kevin Seraphin, Trevor Booker, Jan Vesely and Chris Singleton. Other than the "starting five" mentioned earlier in this post, these four are the only players currently under contract for the 2013-2014 season. I believe the Wizards drafted so many players to fill potentially one position because they hoped one of the four would naturally rise to the top of the pile and become a regular rotation player (or even a starter) on their rookie deal. That hasn't exactly happened. If you could take Seraphin's offense with Booker's rebounding and defense and Vesely's passing, I think we'd get what I think we intended to get.

So it's probably time to part ways with one or more of this group but which and how? Over the past season and a half, Seraphin has clearly established himself as the most reliable of these four. Towards the end of last season, once he shook off injuries from the first half of the season, Booker emerged as the better of the other three primarily due to his ability to rebound consistently. Trading Vesely and Singleton for someone or some thing of value would be the best thing for the Wizards but to make a trade they need to find a partner willing to take a gamble on one of those two. It may be that we have to trade Booker to get a team to accept one of the other two and hope that whatever we get back is of greater value and that whomever we don't trade can contribute something of real value going forward.

4. Find Some Backcourt Help

During the 2012-2013 season, A.J. Price started 22 games for the Wizards and Garrett Temple started 36. Both guys were thrust into a starting role by injuries to either John Wall or Bradley Beal. I like both A.J. and Garrett as pieces on this team and as players. I love A.J.'s high assist-to-turnover ratio and his ability to play defense. I love Garrett's size and ability to defend both guard spots and toward the end of last season, I actually liked his ability to score in bursts. But if this team is going to succeed beyond maybe squeaking in to the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference, I'm confident when I say that these two guys cannot be our third and fourth guards next year.

If I were running the Wizards, I'd try to re-sign both A.J. and Garrett at the right (i.e minimum) price. I think they both did enough to earn a spot on the team next year. But I'd also go out and find some help to be a first backup at both guard spots. At the point guard, I'd love to find a former starter that had a good contract who is now willing to accept a role for less money backing up John Wall. A guy like Devin Harris would seem to be a good fit. He's coming off a 5 year, $43 million deal and last year was supplanted in the Atlanta Hawks' starting lineup by Jeff Teague. He's still a good point guard and he can defend. If we could wrap up someone like that for a couple of years, I think that would help tremendously.

At the shooting guard first and foremost, we need someone who can score in bunches and I'd even overpay a little or find someone traditionally not thought of as a defender to get that instant offense off the bench. I'm thinking someone like Nate Robinson here. Nate made the veteran minimum with the Chicago Bulls last season but clearly saved some games singlehandedly for that team in the Bulls' playoff run this past spring. If we could wrap up a guy like that for a year or two at a reasonable (less than $2 million per) price, I'd do it. 

5. Fill The Roster With Professional Veterans

During the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons, after it was clear the team wasn't competing for a playoff spot, the Wizards starting auditioning players from the D-League for a spot on the team. Larry Owens, Shaun Livingston, Cartier Martin, Othyus Jeffers, Mike Harris, Cedric Jackson, Mustafa Shakur and Alonzo Gee all made stops in D.C. during those two seasons. I believe the organization's hope was that one of these players would prove to be a diamond in the rough, and we'd be able to pick up a quality rotation player for very little investment. It didn't work. The Wizards couldn't or wouldn't afford to sign Shaun Livingston, who proved to be the most effective in his time in Washington, and they missed out on Alonzo Gee, who last season started all 82 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

During the off season last year, the Wizards traded Rashard Lewis and his $22 million plus salary to the New Orleans Hornets for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza. While it first looked like the trade may have been a mistake because we took back another season's worth of salary when Lewis' expiring deal would have given us cap flexibility this summer, the veteran presence of Okafor and Ariza helped the team immeasurably. Both Emeka and Trevor are smart professionals and both understood and supported the plan to make this team into a playoff contender. Sure they cost more than someone on a rookie contract or a D-League call up, but their maturity and  experience was essential in allowing other players on the team to weather tougher times last season. When it comes to filling the rest of our 2013-2014 roster, I'd love to see the Wizards invest in high character, veteran players who provide leadership on the practice court, from the bench and in game situations in spot duty.

So that's how I see the Wizards' priorities for the 2013 off season. I'm looking forward to the NBA Draft on June 27 and the start of free agency three days later. Hopefully we can pull together something between now and the start of next season that will allow a playoff appearance in 2014.

Will the future ever get here for Dippin' Dots??

Glass Half Empty Or Half Full?

The Washington Wizards played their 41st game of the season last night, a 114-101 thrashing of the Minnesota Timberwolves. With the end of the last night's game, the 2012-2013 season is officially halfway over for the Wizards. Based on my expectations at the beginning of the season, I'd have to say that I'm not thrilled with our 10-31 record which is good for second to last place in the Southeast Division, Eastern Conference and, well, the entire  NBA. The 0-12 start to the season in all likelihood killed our season. Based on the winning percentage of the Boston Celtics, who currently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot in the East, we would need to go 29-12 in the second half of the season to qualify for the postseason. But there is hope: our record in the last nine games is 6-3, including two wins on the road and victories over three teams with winning records. It would still take a near miracle to make the playoffs though.

There have been positives in addition to the negatives. Here are ten things I get from the season so far.

1. Our Early Season Offense Was Offensive
The Wizards rank 29th (of 30) in the NBA in points scored per game at 91.5 per contest, down 2.1 points from our 93.6 point average last season. Our leading scorer is averaging only 14.9 points per game and we have had no player score 30 points in a single game. We also rank last in field goal percentage, 24th in three point percentage and 24th in free throw percentage. None of that is good. However, in the silver lining category, all those numbers are trending up and our defense is much improved. The Wizards currently rank 12th in points allowed per game at 96.8 points per game and while we may not be putting up 30 point individual games, neither are our opponents. Only three players (David West, James Harden and Kobe Bryant) have scored 30 in a single game on our team this year.

2. Thank God for Jordan Crawford
Seriously. And I never thought I'd ever write that. I always thought of JC as an undisciplined chucker who could pass but just chose not to. There's a guy behind us at VC who yells "Jack it up, Jordan!" every time he checks in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking Nick Young territory here but Jordan has definitely never met a shot he didn't like. But this season, Jordan really carried the team in the first third of the year. When our offense was struggling (and in the first third of the year, when was our offense NOT struggling?), Jordan was the spark to at least keep us close. He's been our leading scorer most of the year, has the team high in points in a single game (27) two times, has the team's only triple double and have you seen some of the insane stuff he gets to go down? Check out the January 4 Nets game or the buzzer beater against the Trail Blazers this past Monday if you need proof. I'd put Jordan in my top three Wizards list this year so far.

3. The Okafor/Ariza for Lewis Trade May Be a Mistake

Empahsis on "may be." I realize we are only a half season with tons and tons of injuries into this trade but when it was made, it was made to go for it, to get us over the playoff hump NOW. Clearly, 41 games in, it doesn't look like we are making the playoffs this year. That means in the offseason instead of having $23 million or so come off the books for Rashard Lewis' contract, we have $22 million or so of salary cap space tied up in Emeka Okafor (the highest paid player on the team by the way) and Trevor Ariza. That's more than a third of the total cap spaced tied up in two guys who are not huge contributors (yet?). This trade still frees up money when we need it to re-sign some of our 2010 draft picks so ultimately it may make little difference in the long run and I actually think Ariza at $7.2 million is a decent contributor; he's without doubt our best one on one defender. Unfortunately, Okafor is stuck in my least favorite player status, which probably doesn't really make any difference to Emeka. I actually really like him as a person, just not as the highest paid player on the team.

4. We Can Beat Good Teams
True, we have lost to the Charlotte Bobcats twice. Considering the Bobcats' 7-5 start, that didn't look so bad. Considering the Bobcats' 3-27 record since then, it doesn't look so good. But we have wins over the top team in each conference (Miami and Oklahoma City) and we managed to beat the Denver Nuggets on the road, a place we haven't won a game in almost a decade. And the wins against those teams were not flukes, or the result of a letdown by the other team as LeBron James and Kevin Durant might have implied. They were good, team basketball wins which show we can play with anyone in the league. There were no end of game questionable calls or anything like that. There's something immensely satisfying about beating an elite team when your record suggests your team is not an elite team.

5. Rotating Point Guards Didn't Work

Training camp this year featured a point guard battle that to me originally looked like a fait accompli. Just before the start of training camp, it was announced that John Wall would miss about two months of action (it actually ended up being three months) due to a knee injury. So the team brought Jannero Pargo into training camp when we already had Wall, A.J. Price and Shelvin Mack at the point guard position. I figured we'd keep both Jannero and Shelvin (both on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed deals) and then throw whichever one wasn't working out to the curb when Wall returned. Instead, we decided to keep Pargo and big man Earl Barron instead of Shelvin and then re-considered the Pargo choice after a particularly bad three point shot decision against the Dallas Mavericks in favor of Shaun Livingston, who had resurrected his career in DC but was released by the Houston Rockets just before opening day. But Shaun didn't work out this time and with the Wizards down to zero point guards after releasing Livingston and with A.J. Price injured, Mack was brought back (along with fellow D-League call up Garrett Temple) but was released shortly thereafter for a second time. Got all that? Temple stuck but while all this was going on, we clearly struggled at the one, and our record reflected that struggle.

6. Martell Webster is a Find

Martell joined the Wizards pretty much as late as you could a team before training camp at a time when the Wizards appeared to be taking applications for good players at the veteran minimum only. Somehow, Martell managed to wrangle a one year deal at more than the veteran minimum and he's proved he's worth it. Martell came with perceived baggage: back injuries and surgeries over the past few years had limited his effectiveness. Not so this year as he's settled in at the starting three spot after Trevor Ariza missed time with injuries. He's averaging 10.1 points per game, shooting 42% from three point land and 86.2% from the charity stripe. His three point and free throw shooting percentages are both career highs and he's the best on our team from the line. Martell, like Jordan Crawford, is a top three Wizard for me this year. We should have wrapped him up for a couple of seasons.

7. The 2011 Draft May Not Be So Good
Our 2011 Draft class featured two first round picks in Jan Vesely (6th overall) and Chris Singleton (18th overall) and one high second rounder in Shelvin Mack (34th overall). Due to a slew of injuries to just about everyone except those three last season, all three received heavy minutes as rookies, even without the luxury of a true training camp due to the lockout and delayed season start. Mack is no longer with the team after two stints this season. Vesely and Singleton are but they are not high production guys.

Last year, Vesely averaged 18.9 minutes per game with 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He also shot 53.7% (good) from the field and 53% (bad) from the free throw line. This year he is averaging 13.1 minutes per game with 2.7 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, so his numbers have dropped more than proportionally to his minutes. His shooting has declined too: this year he's shooting 49.4% (not good for his position) from the field and 22.2% (not good under any measurement system) from the line. Now that most all our guys are healthy, I wonder how much time Ves is going to see on the floor.

Chris Singleton, on the other hand, has gone from a guy who started 77% of our contests last year to a forgotten man, logging only 6.7 seconds of meaningful game time over the last nine games. His point production per minute and rebound production per minute are actually up over last season but the play of Martell Webster and Trevor Ariza are keeping Chris on the bench for now. Maybe a D-League assignment would do some good for Chris at this point?

8. Wall and Nenê are Difference Makers

When healthy. John Wall has played in only eight of our first 41 games and Nenê has played in just 28. The two are clearly the best two players on our team yet have only 18 starts between them (all but one are Nenê's). They are both averaging around 25 minutes per contest in the games they have played. During the eight games John has played, our scoring has jumped to 100.8 points per game; before John re-joined the team, we were averaging about 92 points per game. That's a huge jump. He's clearly speeding up the pace, making our team more effective (witness the 5-3 record when he plays) and is far better at breaking down opposing defenses than anyone else on our team. Nenê just makes the whole game easier. He can score, rebound, pass, run the offense and defend. He's the complete package. He's one of only three Wizards with a positive plus/minus this season and he's more than tripling John Wall's numbers who is in second place. During our December 26 game against Cleveland, we outscored the Cavs by 25 with Nenê on the court but managed to lose the game by three. Read this article if you want to understand more about just how good he is.

9. Bradley Beal is the Real Deal

After looking a little overwhelmed in his first month or so, Bradley is really coming on strong. What a difference a couple of months in the NBA makes when you are 19! In October/November, Bradley averaged 10.9 points per game. In December and January, he has averaged 13.4 and 16.6 points per game respectively. He's also shooting an astonishing 53.4% from beyond the three point arc in January which has raised his season average in that category to 36.1%. The Wall/Beal backcourt looks great and despite a couple of trade rumors regarding Bradley, it appears the team loves him and he's here to stay. And his game is not all about scoring. He appears to be the complete package. Any doubt? Just watch this block on Luke Ridnour from last night's game.

10. Losing the MLK Day Matinee Sucks!

On this point, I don't mean losing to another team, I mean losing the game to an entire other city due to the presidential inauguration. I know the point of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is not to hold matinee basketball games. Still, the MLK Day game is one of the highlights of the season for me. It's about friendship and basketball in addition to never forgetting that at one time not so long ago this country was inexplicably a segregated society and I miss all three of those things on that day every four years when the presidential inauguration takes place. Already looking forward to 2014.

During the 2008-2009 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder started the season 5-32 before going on a season ending 18-27 tear to finish at 23-59. The following year they went 50-32. That's my hope. On to the second half. Chicago up tonight at home.