The 2015-16 NBA Schedule

Las Vegas Summer League ended on July 20. Since then it's been crickets for the true NBA fan. Unless your team had a minor signing or trade going on, let's face it, there's been nothing to pay attention to for the last three weeks or so. Until today.

That's right, today at 6 p.m., the 2015-16 NBA schedule was released. And while it's not like there's a ton of surprises in there (OK so there's one) there's at least something to study, dissect and talk and write about. O the joy! This is literally the best day in August.

But beyond the immediacy of the news and the excitement of poring over 82 dates over six months or so (I know, it's irresistible), the schedule release means there's something real to finally look forward to, a date on the calendar that can be circled and anticipated for the next two and a half months or so. And because I'm really really excited about the schedule release, here again are my annual seven takeaways from today's unveiling.

1. No Early Start.

For the entire summer, the NBA has been promising the players it would revise the schedule to cut down on the number of back to back games and the number of four games in five nights occurrences. I always figured they would do this by tacking on a week to the schedule and starting the season around October 20 instead of the normal, just before Halloween, season tipoff.

I was wrong. Apparently one fly in the ointment in this situation was TNT's stranglehold on Thursday night basketball. For the last few years the league has only been able to schedule two games on Thursdays so that network could show every game. This year, they allowed more than two games on the fourth workday of the week and that allegedly solved everything. Well, almost anyway. 

The number of four in five nights situations dropped from 70 occurrences last year to just 27 this year. Of course the Wizards are not one of the three teams without one of these. And in a strange twist despite the league's best efforts, the Wizards back to back situations actually increased, from 16 in the 2014-2015 season to 19 this year. Go figure. Should have known with the Wizards only playing three Thursdays.

On the flip side and on a personal note, if the season had started a week earlier than normal, I would likely have missed the home opener watching cars turn left around a 2-2/3 mile track in Alabama, but that's a story for another time. I guess I'm happy for now that TNT relented on the whole Thursday thing to keep the overall schedule the same length, even though it seems to not have benefitted the Wizards much at all.

2. Road Opener

Yep, for the tenth time in the last dozen years, Wizards fans get to watch our favorite team on television for their season opener. Well, unless we want to travel to Orlando on October 28. I'm not sure what the league's reluctance to let the Wiz open at home is, but it sure doesn't happen too often. The Milwaukee Bucks got their first game at home this year for the first time in 31 years. Maybe all it takes to make it happen is a new stadium deal?

Despite the first two on the road, the Wizards first dozen games this year doesn't look so bad, something I always check out for an historically slow starting franchise (can't figure this one out - players change, the result doesn't). Yes, there are games against San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the first 12 but they are both at Verizon Center. Of the remaining ten, nine are against Eastern Conference teams who finished sixth or worst in the conference last year. A slow start is a wasted start this year.

3. No Respect.

During the 2013-2014 season, the Wizards made the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and advanced to the second round for the first time since 2005. John Wall made the All-Star Game as a reserve. Things seemed to be headed in the right direction. And the Wizards were rewarded with ten appearances on national TV (in this case meaning TNT, ABC or ESPN; NBA TV doesn't count here). Finally we had arrived.

Last season, the Wizards again made it to the second round of the playoffs and might have advanced past the Atlanta Hawks if John Wall hadn't broken his hand (useless speculation, I know). John Wall STARTED in the All-Star Game and he made an All-NBA Defensive team. So now the popularity of the team is really picking up, right? And that has to follow with more national television exposure, right?

Umm…not so much. There are just five Wizards games on the national TV slate this year! FIVE!!!! The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers make their national debut on October 28. I have to wait until February 3rd this season to see the Wiz on TNT, ABC or ESPN. The Timberwolves (who were the worst team in the league last year as an aside) get the same number of appearances nationally as the Wizards. How is that even possible? The Lakers make 19 appearances this season. That's two fewer victories than they had all last year. Shouldn't be possible.

I'm not surprised. The NBA always cares about the teams which are the most popular, not the ones who play the best basketball. I just thought the Wall as an All-Star starter might have changed things. Guess not. And it doesn't really matter to me anyway. No other broadcast team can top Phil and Buck anyway.

4. A Lump of Coal in our Stockings.

Before tucking into some turkey and all the trimmings for Christmas dinner last year, I got to watch the Wizards take care of the miserable New York Knicks in a laugher in New York City. What an awesome Christmas present. How about a repeat this year? Yeah, not so much. I've complained enough already in this post. I'm not going to do any more. See number 3 above. Of course the Lakers are playing on Christmas. Sorry. Couldn't help it.

5. Welcome home! Or not so much.

For as long as I've been a season ticket holder, the Wizards have never fielded the same team two years in a row. So that inevitably means that some players who suited up for our home five one year are wearing a different jersey the following year. And some of those guys are bound to take the court against the Wizards sometime during the next season. Go down the list of returning players over the last 15 years and you'll find Richard Hamilton, Larry Hughes, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas, JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Andray Blatche and Trevor Ariza. This year you can add Paul Pierce, Andre Miller and Kevin Seraphin to the list.

Now usually I have a policy that if you turned down a Wizards re-signing offer and went with another team, you are getting booed; conversely, if you got traded away, I'll consider some polite applause to a standing ovation for you upon your return. I got yelled at by some dude behind me for applauding DeShawn Stevenson when he played for the Hawks and I know my former seat neighbors Adam, Brian and Jill cursed me silently inside when I showed up in my Brendan Haywood rookie t-shirt. Yes, I gave Gilbert some hearty clapping when he returned to VC with the Magic. And yes, I broke my trade and praise rule for Nick Young and JaVale McGee. I'm booing those guys every chance I get.

I'm not sure how I'm going to react to this year's crop of returnees. No doubt I'm not dissing Miller and Seraphin. I'll always be grateful for Andre's last second pass to Bradley Beal last year in Orlando and Kevin was for a while my favorite Wizard based on personality alone. But Paul Pierce? I'm torn. He did so much for the team's confidence in the playoffs last year, said he wanted to stay and then bailed. This is going to be a game time decision. First trip back to VC for Andre is March 25 with the Minnesota Timberwolves; I expect the New York Knicks will have #KSLife playing a prominent role when they hit town for the home opener on October 31; and the Clippers game is December 28. I'll decide by that point if I boo or politely clap for The Truth. He won't get more from me I know that.

6. The Only REAL Surprise…

Every year the Wizards play each team from the Western Conference twice. That's 30 games. We also play each of the four teams in our division four times. That's another 16 games. The remaining 36 games are split between the other ten teams in the Eastern Conference who are not in the Southeast Division, meaning every year there are four teams in the Eastern Conference we play only three times. 

While there's real fun to be had today in examining when we play other teams, when we have long home stands and road trips and when we battle teams in our own division (three Atlanta games in the last month might be huge for a potential Wizards' Division title - I'm still hoping), the most basic thing we didn't know before 6 p.m. today was who the Wizards are playing just three times.

This year, the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets will visit Verizon Center just once and the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks will be visited by the Wizards just once each. I'm not upset about the lack of a fourth Bulls game, although I'd rather have two at home, but I'd feel pretty good about getting all four games against those other three teams. Indiana, Brooklyn and New York all finished in the bottom five in the Conference outside the Southeast Division. We are being robbed of a potential easy victory or two here.

If you ever travel to Toronto to watch the Wiz or for any other reason, go here for some food. And beer.

7. Traveling Time.

So here's the best thing about today's schedule release. Today's news is going to structure my life schedule (and therefore my travel schedule) for the six months from late October to mid-April. In those months, I'm going to need to get away for at least one pretty good length trip in addition to renewing my quest to see the Wizards play in all the NBA arenas in the league. That means I'm looking for long gaps in the home schedule and Friday or Saturday night road games where I can spend a couple of days out of town.

For long vacations, the time around the All-Star break looks wonderful. The Wizards are out of town or  just not playing at all from Saturday, February 6th all the way to Thursday, February 18th. Good road trip candidates to me this year look like Friday, December 11 at New Orleans; Saturday, January 30 at Houston; Saturday, March 12 at Denver; and/or Sunday, April 3 at the Los Angeles Clippers. Who's coming with?

So that's what I got this year. I'm refraining from an in depth analysis of the Wizards' chances to take the Southeast Division this year because, well, you know… October 28 is just 77 days away.

NBA Logo Rank, Part 2

Last Saturday I posted part one of my five part ranking of NBA logos, which is serving as my distraction or methadone (whichever you prefer) for the lack of NBA activity this month. I have to do something to keep my mind occupied. I expect the NBA schedule to be released sometime in the next week or so. Until then, let's get to part two of this countdown.

24. Cleveland Cavaliers

It's no secret that I have no love for the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise, their star player, their second star player, their fans or their owner. That lack of love is not, however, the reason why I put the Cavs 24th on this list. Their logos just aren't very good. I dislike the diagonal wordmark and the huge basketball in their primary logo in addition to the sword running in the opposite diagonal direction. There's no refinement or grace in this logo and it's just too busy.

The secondary or partial logos are a little better although I don't understand how the flag is staying on the razor sharp cavalier's sword unless it's just dull. My favorite by far would be the center logo above. Without my glasses on it looks like a red cocktail onion on a miniature sword toothpick, which is an image far more appealing than anything to do with the Cavaliers, especially if I haven't drunk the martini I'm imagining the logo came from yet.

I just think the Cavaliers branding is clumsy. Better than the Clips, Thunder, Nuggets, Pistons, Kings and Mavs but that's about it. And I wouldn't blame Mavs fans for being upset that they fell one spot behind here.

23. Orlando Magic

Let's get this out of the way right away: I actually think the Magic's partial logo is OK. Maybe even more than OK. Maybe good. It's difficult to draw these non-tangible names like the Thunder, Heat and Magic so on that level, I think the folks who designed Orlando's logo actually did a pretty good job. There are some teams ranked way higher in this list who have one good logo as their saving grace. 

But for me and the Magic, I just have one question: is that it? I mean all you have is a shiny basketball with a swooshy looking lightning bolt thing with three stars. Really? That's all you got? I need more out of my basketball team logos. I'm sorry but I just do.

I'm also offended by the font in the primary logo, especially the word "Magic". Where did they find these letters? I'm especially irked by the middle leg of the "M"; why isn't it as long as the other legs of the letter. I'm disappointed by the lack of complexity here. Good effort but it's like getting a naked hamburger patty when I really want a complete sandwich complete with all the trimmings.

22. Phoenix Suns

Why the Phoenix Suns roll out the logos above when they have one of the best NBA logos of all time stashed away in their closet is beyond me. But let's imagine I let that go and evaluate the collection of images based on their own merits relative to the offerings from the rest of the teams in the league.

I'm actually OK with their primary logo. The suns have been using some variety of the streaking skyward basketball sun for a while now and I think it works. I'm not sure I'd put it in the sort of leaning parallelogram with two rounded corners but it's still alright.

It's the other two logos I have a real issue with. The design on the right is especially awful. The colors are terrible (yes, I know they are the Suns colors), the shape of the logo is weird and the negative space sun looks like the logo has been scratched and bitten my some hideous unseen monster. It reminds me of the really really really bad Syracuse University "Artsy SU" logo that the school adopted in the early '90s which most students compared to a stylized dollar sign, which is all the University seemed to care about back then.

Finally, I have to take issue with the "airport code" logo. The graphic of a basketball on fire with a phoenix rising from the image of the flames is I guess acceptable. But an airport code? Really? The concept makes me shudder, especially when I think about the YYZ Raptors or the MSY Pelicans. Not sold. Please, Wizards, never adopt a DCA uni, although I guess it would be better than IAD.

21. Houston Rockets

The Rockets are a team that's suffering from the same sort of malaise that the Magic are suffering from: one logo recycled over and over again, only they do it just a little bit better, even if it's just in the font that they chose. I think the primary Rockets logo is actually fairly pleasing. Depending on the day, I either see the design as two rockets shooting towards space or one rocket on the rise with the scaffold holding it in place next to it.

For those of us who can remember back this far, this Rockets logo replaced one of the worst logos in NBA history, the vicious cartoon rocket racing around a red basketball Earth. Sort of creepy. For that fix alone, the Rockets deserve the 21 spot, no matter how inventive or un-inventive they are. The logo was created when Houston was anchored by Chinese star Yao Ming, which explains the sort of Chinese calligraphy feel to the letters spelling out the name of the team.

If the primary logo here is a success, the secondary or alternate logo is a bit of a fail. The three rockets in the "HR" logo look more like a bank of surface to air missiles ready to shoot down an aircraft invading whatever airspace they are protecting. Good to have in real life maybe but I can do without them in my hoops branding.

20. Minnesota Timberwolves

When I was a kid, I used to spend hours in study hall, mostly in sixth grade, drawing sports logos, mostly football and hockey. Back then, it seemed like all the logos were fairly easy to draw which made them appealing as simple expressions of something that could bring fans together. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves logos are the exact opposite of those logos I used to draw as a kid. How can any 11 or 12 year old possibly draw these things? Just look at how complicated they are. For that reason and that reason alone, the Wolves are relegated to 20th place here. I admit, I'd struggle as a budding architect with some drawing ability to hand sketch the Cavaliers primary logo or the Phoenix Suns airport code logo, but I know I could take a shot at the cocktail onion on a sword shaped toothpick or the ugly Suns graphic pretty easily.

There's nothing necessarily that wrong with Minnesota's logos, they are just too complicated for kids to draw. OK, so I really don't like the wolf howling at the basketball moon. I'm just not into it. Can't quite explain why. Next!

19. Brooklyn Nets

If the Timberwolves logos are too complicated, here's some relief: Brooklyn's ain't. These things in fact might be a little too simple. But somehow they work well enough to crack the top 20 on my countdown.

When I've assembled these lists of mascots, names and logos over the past two years or so, there have been some teams in whichever countdown which move around a lot from their initial placement. Brooklyn is that team in this ranking. I initially had the Nets placed at 27th, but the more I look at these designs, the more I'm convinced that simple is OK here.

Don't get me wrong, the shield shaped logo is poor at best and there's no way any of these things work if they are represented in any colors other than just plain old black and white, but there's an appealing straightforwardness to the "B" in the ball with or without the text ring around it that seems to represent what Brooklyn is all about. And I love the fact that the text in the center logo says "Brooklyn New York" rather than "Brooklyn Nets." It's all about the simple blue collar borough here. It works well enough to place 19th, which in reality is not that much to be proud of.

NBA Logo Rank, Part 1

It's August 1, the first day of the slowest NBA month of the year. Admittedly, I could consider September the slowest but at least we are getting really close to training camp in September. Maybe it's a tie. Anyway, die hard fans who live off NBA news get no satisfaction in August other the release of next season's schedule and no satisfaction in September other than it's closer to October. So to kill the boredom each of the last two years, I've ranked all the NBA mascots (2013) and all the NBA team names (2014). This year, it's time to take on each team's logo and rank them 1 to 30 (or really 30 to 1 would be more accurate).

Unlike team names which rarely change, especially in today's era of non-relocation, and team mascots which seldom change (although I did have to re-rank mascots last year and I will again this year), team logos are seemingly constantly in flux. At least for most teams anyway. Whether it's a small tweak, the introduction or change of a secondary logo or a wholesale re-design, it seems like these days there are at least a handful of franchises which are introducing new branding each offseason. Because of that, this rank may be a yearly moving target.

Generally speaking, I love sports teams logos. Growing up in England, I found football (soccer) teams' emblems rather dull. They were mostly centered around some sort of heraldry-like theme in a badge type format. They strike me as almost like the equivalent of college seals over here in the United States: stately, dignified, tradition-filled, venerable, sometimes sporting a saying, boring and NO FUN! Logos of American sports teams are not no fun; in fact, to a kid moving to this country at the age of 11, they were a breath of fresh air, especially considering the abundance of cartoon like logos around in the 1970s. No way we would see the smiling Baltimore Oriole or the swinging for the fences San Diego Padre or the old Milwaukee Buck twirling a basketball on his hoof in the UK.

Cartoon logos seem to have been a trend in the 1970s and I think there are trends today. There have been a number of (mostly unsuccessful) franchises recently who have deliberately changed their branding to harken back 20, 30 or 40 years ago when NBA times were happier in their cities. A few years ago, the Golden State Warriors changed their loges and uniforms to evoke their old "The City" uniforms. In 2010, my beloved Washington Wizards changed their color scheme, logos and uniforms to re-invent the old Washington Bullets teams of the late '70s. Last year, the Atlanta Hawks brought back the Pac Man logo. We'll get to all that.

The other fad that seems to be happening in the NBA is franchises taking existing circular logos and adding a ring around them with the team name. I'm not necessarily a fan of these types of logos but the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks have all added this type of logo to their branding in the last half decade or so. But enough chatter…let's get to the good stuff. First up, the Los Angeles Clippers.

30. Los Angeles Clippers

Last summer, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers from the exiled Donald Sterling for a cool $2 billion (yes, that's with a B). Apparently, Ballmer didn't want to waste any time carrying around the Clippers 30 year old logo and so he set about getting someone to re-brand the team in record fashion, taking just under a year before rolling out a new set of logos and some new unis to match.

The result? You're looking at it above. Congratulations, Mr. Ballmer you now have absolutely, hands down the worst logos in the NBA. I mean it's not even close and you can probably already see the less than impressive Oklahoma City Thunder logos awaiting you below. Now I admit, the previous Clippers logo was pretty poor and was really just sort of an adaptation of the Lakers' not much better logo. But these things above? Did you actually pay money for someone to design these? You would have gotten a far superior product by opening up a public competition and offering a couple of sets of Clippers season tickets as a prize. Heck, you might have even done much better with like a $500 cash prize and some credit for a job well done.

Some people have pointed out that the primary logo (on the left above) is pretty much just the EA Sports NBA Live logo and I don't think they are necessarily far off. This is an epic fail. I think the only question about this set of designs is how long until Ballmer pays for a better set. Hopefully he gives it two years this time.

29. Oklahoma City Thunder

For the longest time (OK really just since 2008 when the Thunder arrived in Oklahoma City), the Thunder has had the worst set of logos in the NBA. Thanks to the Clippers, they are now sitting at number 29 on my list and they are pretty safe given the Clips' lack of vision there.

I'm not sure exactly what the deal with the Thunder logo is. I get that it's connected to the native Americans who inhabited the open plains of Oklahoma before the United States government decided to round them all up and make them live (generally speaking) in a confined and maybe totally foreign part of the country. I think that's an honorable gesture on the part of the team. But this logo? A bulging triangle with a partial basketball and two swoopy marks going behind the triangle? I'm not sure they are honoring anyone with that look. I understand it's difficult to convey thunder in a logo since it's a sound but they did a hell of a job with their mascot; just adopt a bison as a logo.

As if the logo itself wasn't bad enough, the team has added insult to injury by rolling out a "secondary logo" and a "third partial logo", all of which are exactly the same with the exception of some words being added or taken away. This is the laziest, cheapest form of having multiple logos. Just keep one. Somehow adding two more with little imagination makes the whole thing just way worse.

28. Denver Nuggets

I have to confess when it comes to the Nuggets, I'm at a bit of a loss for words. This franchise has been horribly mired in mediocrity in the branding departure since the 1970s. After they ditched their excellent prospector with an ABA ball nugget, they've lost their way. First came the 1980s to early 1990s Tetris rainbow logo then they rolled out the primary logo on the above left in gaudy dark blue and copper colors before changing their color scheme to the garish colors above and just re-coloring the same logo in the new colors.

I like the connection between the Rocky Mountains and the Nuggets franchise in the primary logo and the picks and partial mountaintop in the secondary logo help reinforce this theme. But the font in the logo is just terrible (why is it arched?) and the banner with the word "Denver" on it sort of draped on the front of the mountain doesn't work for me. I don't get it.

The Nuggets rolled out a snowy mountaintop third logo (at the top of this post) but this thing can't really stand on it's own and appears custom designed to go on the backs of the player's jerseys in the spot where they moved the NBA logo this past season (to make room for advertising on the fronts of the jerseys). That logo now seems sort of homeless to me. The Nuggets sit at 28 because none of their logos work for me.

27. Detroit Pistons

In evaluating all the logos in the NBA, I came across a team or two with one or two pretty pedestrian and uninspired logos and then one awesome super spectacular logo. Some of those teams ended up higher in my ranking than a lot of teams with solid across the board logos none of which are really going to make a top 10 logos of all time list.

The Pistons are sort of in the opposite category from those teams. The Pistons' primarily logo is really pretty OK. Indeed, I'd say it's better than any of the other logos in this post, even the teams ranked ahead of them. But I have a real issue with the "DP" secondary logo. It's literally just the "P" taken off their main wordmark with then a "D" placed where the hole of the "P" would usually go. This is Clippers logo bad; it's like a joke that someone who was less successful at logo design would invent before the idea got summarily rejected. Only this one never did.

I don't like anything about this secondary logo. Nothing. It's a complete graphic disaster to me. If I were a Pistons fan, I'd refuse to wear any clothing with this abomination on it. Good middle of the pack primarily logo. Worst secondary logo probably ever.

26. Sacramento Kings

If there's a franchise out there with worse overall branding (meaning name, logos, uniforms, colors and product on the court) than the Sacramento Kings, I'm not sure what sport they play or what town they live in. The Kings have been anything but kings for most of their history. Success since they moved to Sacramento seems to be confined to the early years of the 21st Century when they were battling the Lakers in the playoffs. Even back then, their uniforms, colors and logos were still terrible.

Are either of the logos above even remotely palatable for a professional basketball franchise? True, there are basketballs in both designs. But take away the balls and the images would look way more at home in the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas than they do in the National Basketball Association. You might be able to leave the balls back in even. There's nothing modern or taking about the Kings' current logos. These things need a ton of work.

I don't know how to fix the Kings situation. There's no easy answer. But I'd nix the lances to start and make the whole thing less heraldic. It's just not necessary. Surely Vivek can hire someone (or a team of someones none of whom agree) to try to sort this mess out. The Kings ought to feel lucky they finished as high as 26th here.

25. Dallas Mavericks

I love Mark Cuban and everything he does and has done to get his team in position to win an NBA Championship as frequently as possible. But I don't like the Mavericks logos one bit. They are not the abandoned after one game alternate silver unis the Mavs rolled out some years ago, but they are pretty uninspiring.

I'm actually OK with the partial logo shown in the center above, which shows a horse's head in front of a basketball. And I've already rationalized the use of a horse as a Maverick (rather than a cow) in a past post on this same blog. I guess if I were a Mavs fan, I'd look for this logo to be on all my shirts.

But the other two logos, I don't know. I don't understand the whole shield motif on the primary logo and the "Mavericks" wordmark exploding out from the bottom of the design is distracting. But it's a damn sight better than the alternate logo on the right above. I'm not sure what this thing is about. I get the M and the shield and the basketball. I just don't know what's going on for sure.

The horse and the basketball is good enough for the Mavs to finish at the top of the worst list but these designs need work.

Summer League 2015

Today is the final day of the 2015 Las Vegas Summer League. The championship game, which is the only game played today, pits the Phoenix Suns against the San Antonio Spurs in a tournament that means little more than pride. Last year my beloved Washington Wizards bowed out in the semi-finals of the event, a fairly impressive outing that saw an overall 5-1 record plus two all tournament selections in Otto Porter and Glen Rice, Jr., who also managed to snag the most valuable player honor for the entire league. Last year's trip to Vegas was all about those two second year players and the Wizards made pretty much the most of their summer trip to the desert.

This year promised to be completely different. And it was. With no returning summer leaguers whatsoever, the Wizards experience this year was all about Kelly Oubre, our first round and number 14 overall pick out of the University of Kansas, and to a much much lesser extent Aaron White, who we grabbed with our second round pick out of the University of Iowa. White has pretty much zero chance to make the team with our roster already filled with the offseason signings and trades of Jared Dudley, Gary Neal, Alan Anderson and Drew Gooden III. As I've done the past two years under the tournament style format, I made it out to Sin City for two of our three non-tournament games before heading back east with little tolerance for more than three nights in Vegas.

By all accounts (considering the Wizards won three of their last four), I made it to the wrong two games. Not only did the Wizards lose their first two games to the Phoenix Suns and the D-League Select team, they lost pretty handily, getting pushed around by the Suns' second year center Alex Len in game one and then getting out-worked, out-desired and out-experienced by a group of perennial NBDL players dying to make it to or back to the NBA in game two. Not like winning really matters too much in Summer League, but winning's better than losing under almost any circumstance and it's just nice to have it happen once now and again.

The Wizards 2015 Draft class: Aaron White (left) and Kelly Oubre (right).

I think Wizards fans sort of got what we expected in the first two Summer League games out of our draft picks this year. In Oubre, we got raw talent and most likely a project who if he pans out at the projected level of ability, is THE steal of the draft. But we'll likely have to wait and see what he can do in not many minutes on the floor this year. He'll likely be parked on the bench behind Otto Porter and likely Jared Dudley for much of at least the first half of the season.

In his first two games in Summer League he looked more often lost than found. It's not entirely surprising considering he's playing on a team that had been together less than a week but from my perspective in the fifth row or so, Kelly got more than he bargained with when he was going up against older, stronger players, some of whom were almost fighting for their basketball lives. It might not have helped at the beginning of the league that he was being cheered on by a number of visitors from nearby Findlay Prep where he finished out high school. He was one of the only guys I saw there with local and personal support. Sometimes those things can cut both ways.

I thought on the offensive end he was far more effective letting the game come to him than when he created on his own. I suppose every player is but the difference early on was striking; he got rejected several times going to the hoop in what looked like far too ambitious circumstances. When you are 19 years old and going to the basket guarded by two or three older players, you might expect to get blocked or miss. He settled down after the first half of game one but never looked fully comfortable to me unless he was putting back off a rebound or receiving a pass close to the hoop. I would have loved to have been there for his final game when he dropped 30 on the Oleksiy Pecherov-led Denver Nuggets. Just to see Pech and KO going at it would have been amazing.

In other parts of the game, I thought Kelly looked much better. He made a couple of nice defensive plays in the Phoenix game, including blocking a shot on a fast break and taking a charge. He got beat on some one on one match ups but is clearly both gifted and talented. There were a couple of rebounds that he got in traffic that showed how big his wingspan is relative to his height. That's a tantalizing skill if he can harness that.

Final score: D-League Select 94, Wizards 74.

Then there's Aaron White, who showed enough in games one and two where you could understand why he got drafted but also showed enough to validate him being a second round pick. Since draft night, the Wizards have unfortunately (for Aaron) signed enough players to have zero roster flexibility barring an unbalanced trade or waiving a player via the stretch provision (I wouldn't be surprised if we let someone like DeJuan Blair go this route). That means he's stuck in a spot where the Wizards have control of his rights but have no home for him. Barring the Wizards letting him go, Aaron's options appear to be overseas for  decent money or staying at home in the NBDL for very little money.

If there's one thing that impressed me about Aaron it was his ability to run the floor. This is a really athletic guy out on the court, not some stiff who can just shoot. He also had some impressive hops, especially on one offensive rebound putback for a dunk. But he clearly has tons of room to grow. Lack of obvious success seemed to discourage him out on the floor and any hope we had for him being a homegrown stretch four this coming year evaporated with his game two shooting performance where he started 0-8, including a number of bricked wide open three point shots. I know it's difficult to draw any conclusions from two two-hour games but there's more development required here.

Jordan Crawford defending Seth Curry (right).

The Wizards played two games within a span of about 24 hours, playing their first game vs. the Suns on Saturday at 3 p.m. and their second, a 20 point loss to the D-League Select, at 1 p.m. the following day which finished a couple of hours later. Just like that, my two Wizards games were done. I'm not sure I've had a quicker Summer League. Maybe I should stay longer next time. Maybe.

But one other thing I wanted to do with my few hours over at the Thomas and Mack Center was to catch up on a couple of former and almost Wizards since the schedule worked out just perfectly that way. I was not able to see any play from "I got buckets, son" Oleksiy Pecherov but I did catch up on a couple of old friends.

The Wizards played in the third game on the Saturday we arrived in Vegas. The first game that day featured the Dallas Mavericks taking on the New Orleans Pelicans. The starting two guard for the Mavs that day? Jordan Crawford, a guy traded three times in his first four years in the league who once denied ever playing for the Wizards, the team who really gave him the best shot to show the league what he had.

When we first traded Kirk Hinrich to the Atlanta Hawks for Jordan, we acquired our fourth first round selection from the 2010 draft and got a guy who was apparently instant offense and had once dunked on LeBron James and LeBron's own camp. How could we not love this guy? But the organization soon had Jordan playing deep in the rotation behind rookie Bradley Beal, who was younger and more talented and definitely was more interested in playing some defense. Last year Jordan played in China and then spent the tail end of the year playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the NBDL, ultimately failing to get picked up for a playoff run by a contender.

The few minutes Jordan played in the one Summer League game I saw were pretty unremarkable but he still gets lost on defense pretty easily, especially when circumstances require him to do something different than just cover his own man. I typically hold grudges against guys who badmouth our franchise after leaving but I don't with Jordan; I just think he's too much of a character. Maybe he can work on his defensive liabilities and be a bit of a spark plug for someone in the next couple of years. If not, I think he's got to be resigned to playing somewhere else other than the NBA.

Glen Rice, Jr., hands on knees, vs. the Phoenix Suns.

Speaking of offensive minded guards who play questionable defense and have perhaps a higher opinion of themselves than they should…

Last November I headed to Toronto to watch the Wizards take on the Toronto Raptors in an early season matchup that didn't go very well at all for my team. There was little positive for the Wizards to take away from that game but ultimately they managed to fix most things about their on court performance which ultimately culminated with a 4-0 sweep of Toronto in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

But one thing we didn't fix about that game was an on court encounter between head coach Randy Wittman and Glen Rice, Jr. which apparently led to another verbal altercation between the two the next day. I noted Glen had some words for Sam Cassell last year during Summer League so this had sort of become a pattern. A couple of weeks after Toronto, Rice was in the D-League. Two months later, he was no longer a Wizard.

I got to see maybe five minutes of Glen Rice on the court during last week's Summer League action. In those five minutes he scored ten points, including two three pointers, one of which beat the buzzer at the end of a quarter. As far as Summer League and scoring go, Rice has that down pat. He led the tournament last year with a  25.0 points per game average and he finished this year with a 19.0 points per game average.

But I have to say as soon as I sat down at the Suns-Rockets game on Sunday afternoon, I saw Rice yelling at the official for some perceived non-call while the play was going on and his man had the ball. While he was focused on the referee, the Suns scored. A minute later on the next Suns trip downcourt, Rice was still upset, lazily kicking his leg out while defending an inbound pass for what should have been a layup (the Suns just blew it) instead of getting his head back in the game and playing some D. Maybe this is super unfair to write this based on five minutes, but he's clearly got some issues to overcome here. No matter how good he is at putting the ball through the hoop, he's not good enough to overcome attitude like this. If he won't outgrow this, I don't see him back in the league anytime soon.

The packed packed packed Thomas and Mack Center.

Finally just a few words about Jordan Clarkson and the popularity of Summer League in general. Jordan Clarkson was the Wizards 2014 second round pick whom we parted with for cash from the Los Angeles Lakers which one could argue we spent on multiple attempts to find a quality bench point guard to back up John Wall. Clarkson's a point guard who made the All-Rookie first team last year. We had him and we let him go.

I've often opined about the Draft being a total crap shoot when you get outside of the top few picks and I get that nobody could have seen an All-Rookie selection out of the 46 pick in the draft but this kid is electric. You could see it in some games the Lakers played last year (especially January 27 when the Wizards visited Los Angeles) and you could see it in Summer League this year. Ernie Grunfled was on our flight out to Vegas this year and I thought about asking him about the draft but ultimately decided against it; every time I talk to Ernie I get very little information because he plays things so close to the vest.

I watched Clarkson last week in the game the Lakers played against the Philadelphia 76ers, a game which featured the Lakers' D'Angelo Russell (number two overall pick) and the Sixers' Jahlil Okafor (number three overall pick). After the Wizards succumbed to the D-League, we figured it would be a good game to watch in a relaxed atmosphere over in the main arena at the Thomas and Mack. Not so much.

I've been coming to Vegas for Summer League since 2008 and I have never ever ever seen the big arena filled the way it was for this game. I get that part of it was the Lakers contingent being so close to Los Angeles but the upper deck was open (never seen that before) and it was genuinely difficult to find a seat in the place. It was insane.

When I first started coming to this event, nobody knew about it. If you got in a cab on the strip and asked to be taken to the Thomas and Mack Center the cab driver usually asked what was going on over there. Getting a cab home was honestly touch and go; the only way you usually got one was if someone was getting dropped off. I have in past years walked to either the Hard Rock Hotel about a half a mile away or all the way to the Strip, which is about a mile and a half. There was never a line for tickets and seats were plentiful inside the arena, with the exception of John Wall's first game in 2010 when the Cox Pavilion was packed solid.

Two years ago, we had difficulty getting tickets and immediately entering the arena so the couple two years, I have bought the first day in advance, incurring hated Ticketmaster service fees. That same year, I finally saw some cabs waiting outside the arena. Vegas was clearly catching on.

This year when we arrived for the Wizards' game one, we saw guys directing traffic and cones set up to define lanes for the expected flood of cabs which were coming. We also stood in line to get into the building all the way down the main steps to the arena. Every year we see Summer League founder Warren LeGarie stalking the sidelines of both the Thomas and Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion and he has to be absolutely ecstatic with the way things are going. This thing is huge business now. I hate complaining about success but this event is no longer the intimate experience it was the first year I went in 2008. It's now Vegas sized and it's different. Might be time for a year off for me. Or I just need to go all in mid-week maybe. Anyway, that's all from Vegas this year. Next up: two months of thumb twiddling before training camp. Ugh!

Waiting in line to get in, Saturday afternoon. Are you kidding me?

2015-2016 Wizards Bobbleheads?

With Summer League just a couple of days away (Vegas, here I come!), a couple of new signees and a trade in the books, the promise of a new season of hoops is right around the corner, once we get through the NBA starved months of August and September. So with an eye towards the new season this fall, it's time for the Wizards to start thinking about this year's promotional slate. At least I think it is. Here's some help for those in the giveaway war room.

I've been going to Wizards games at Verizon Center in downtown Washington for about nine and a half years now. Before that, I watched my favorite hoops team play ball at MCI Center, which is the exact same place but with a different name. Whether the building has carried the MCI name or Verizon name, signage letting you know who paid some bucks to get their logo on the marquee have been prominently displayed on F, 6th and 7th Streets NW since day one. Reports surfaced earlier this year that Verizon was considering pulling its sponsorship of the arena in 2018 when their current deal expires. Until then, the place remains theirs.

But sometime last season, some new names appears on the outside walls of Verizon Center. There was no fanfare that I noticed but sure enough, Monumental Sports and Entertainment affixed metal signs just to the left of the main entrance doors with the logos of Capital One Bank, GEICO, Pepsi and Etihad Airways. It's the first time I've ever seen this kind of acknowledgement of a second tier of corporate sponsors at an NBA arena. Not that I spend a lot of time at any other team's home; I just find it interesting. It probably means that these four sponsors are paying a little more than the average advertising partner at VC, which means we as fans might start to expect more than just a logo on a metal sign. What do I mean by this? Well, read on please.

Last year the Golden State Warriors won their first NBA Championship since 1975. They defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, who made only their second Finals appearance in franchise history and their first since 2007. Last year, the Warriors gave away six bobbleheads to thank their dedicated fans for showing up game after game, year after year; the Cavaliers gave away two. Now, I'm not trying to correlate the number of bobbleheads distributed by a particular team to postseason success but I am trying to make the point that successful teams give away multiple bobbleheads in any one season. Not to get fans in the door with some cheap piece of plastic but to say thank you. And bobbleheads need sponsors to pay for them or at least defray the cost. Getting the picture?

Last year the Washington Wizards gave away zero bobbleheads. Sure there was a G Wiz bobble made available "free" with a $20 Kids' Club membership but that's not giving a bobblehead away. It's also G Wiz. As much as I love our mascot, it's not the same as a player bobbblehead. I know we got a Marcin Gortat action figure but action figures are not bobbleheads. The previous year saw a similarly disturbing trend: just one player bobblehead (Nenê) given away plus a bonus Martell Webster bobble if you pony up some dough for a Kids' Club membership.

So now that we have some second tier sponsors (or Legacy Partners as Monumental Sport and Entertainment prefers to call them) on the outside of our building, can't we get some more bobbleheads? I'm thinking YES! Now just in case our new Legacy Partners are at a loss as to what to do here, I'm offering a few suggestions totally free of charge. Here goes.

Otto Porter, sponsored by Capital One Bank

So when I originally conceived of this post, I of course wanted to have Paul Pierce in this spot since he banked in one of the most famous Wizards shots in recent memory in last year's playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks (the "I called game!" game). But…since Paul decided to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers and not take a serious run at an NBA title, I'm sliding Otto Porter into his spot, who demonstrated that he is likely more than ready to take Pierce's starting spot this coming season.

The Wizards have been hesitant in recent years to give away bobbleheads of their rookies to fans. Sure, John Wall and Bradley Beal got bobbles their first years but Otto did not two years ago, nor did Jan Vesely, JaVale McGee, Nick Young or Oleksiy Pecherov before him. So after last year's playoffs, when Otto doubled his rebounds and assists per game over the regular season in about 80% more playing time and had the entire arena chanting "OT-TO POR-TER!", I think Otto needs a bobblehead this year.

Who has more upside for Wizards fans right now than Otto? The last couple of years he's been labeled a bust by folks from one end of this country to another and the Wizards were mocked for taking him with the number three pick. But the Wizards always insisted that while he had no obvious one strength, he did show a well rounded game with no obvious weakness and they (and he) saved all that for the playoffs last year. His length, improved shot, passing skills, speed and ability to rebound in a crowd were all on prominent display in last year's postseason. He got passed over his rookie year and his second year, it's time to make the Otto bobble. Andray Blatche got one a couple of years late. Otto ain't Dray (he's better) and he deserves one too.

Drew Gooden III, sponsored by GEICO

Need some insurance off the bench for the Wizards? Maybe a couple of three balls to get the offense going and keep the other team's defense honest? And perhaps at a 15% discount over other bench players? Looks like it's time to call on Drew Gooden. 

If you had asked me in the winter of 2010 how I felt about Drew Gooden, I'd likely have had some unkind words to throw his way. Drew was acquired by the Wizards in a deal that sent Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson to the Dallas Mavericks but he made it pretty darned clear he didn't want to play for the Wizards. A couple of days later he was gone to the Clippers in a deal that sent Antawn Jamison to Cleveland and brought back pretty much nothing in return. Drew's first tenure with the Wiz brought nothing but heartache.

Fast forward a few years and Drew's one of my favorite players. I'm always there screaming DREEEEEWWWWW! whenever he checks into the game or hits a three. The Wizards should make all players wear "III" on the backs of their jerseys. It paid off great for Drew. After the Wizards picked up Drew from the parking lot of the Bethesda Whole Foods about a season and a half ago on a veteran minimum (he was amnestied by the Milwaukee Bucks and was still drawing a $6.5+ million salary), my opinion of Drew has gone way up and I'm all for keeping him as long as he can do what he's done or close to it the last couple of years.

So why not a bench bobblehead from an insurance company? I think he's as worthy as anyone else? Who else you got? Garrett Temple? DeJuan Blair? Kris Humphries? I don't think so. If it's insurance guys at a discount on the bench, Drew has to be the guy. And it has to have a headband.

Yes, I realize Drew has not technically agreed to re-sign with the Wizards yet. And yes, I know with yesterday's Alan Anderson signing that we only have one other roster spot right now but plan on it just the same, GEICO. 

Marcin Gortat, sponsored by Pepsi

Over the years, Pepsi has sponsored a ton of bobbleheads in a variety of sports all over the country. Don't believe me? Search for "pepsi bobblehead" on eBay and you will come up with a ton of hits. A recent search I did while writing this post yielded 179 items, including a Ray Allen bobblehead from 2001 (Milwaukee Bucks), Vince Carter from 2010 (Orlando Magic) and undated Al Harrington (Indiana Pacers) and B.J. Armstrong (Chicago Bulls) bobbleheads in addition to an enormous number of baseball bobbleheads; I especially like the Manny Sanguillen throwback Pittsburgh Pirates bobblehead from 2003. 

If that's not enough, the Wright State University Raiders have promised a Pepsi sponsored Coach Ralph Underhill bobblehead giveaway for the 2015-2016 season. Now that they have their name on the front of Verizon Center, they should be itching for a Wizards bobblehead night. If other teams can get one from Pepsi, why can't we?

If I were Pepsi, I'd be pushing for a Marcin Gortat bobblehead night. I know we had an action figure giveaway featuring Marcin last season but as I've already stated, action figures are not bobbleheads. Why Marcin? Well the best I can come up with here is he's sweet and bubbly just like Pepsi or if nothing else, Pepsi and everyone else ought to be dying to get Marcin's melon onto a bobblehead with their logo on the base. Of the Wizards projected starters right now, only Gortat and Porter are without team issued bobbleheads. I've already fixed Otto by setting up Capital One gorgeously; Pepsi should take Marcin.

Randy Wittman, sponsored by Etihad Airways

If Verizon decides to not renew their sponsorship of the Wizards' home arena, I'm guessing Etihad will step into the void and plonk down some serious bucks to get their name on the place. They already have a huge presence in (perhaps) the number one sports league in the world by sponsoring the Barclay's Premiere League's Manchester City's jerseys and stadium. Now they just need a foothold in a United States sports league. Washington's up and coming basketball team and its location as the capital of our country seems an ideal match.

So with Etihad presumably looking for the brass ring to raise their profile instantly, why not just go straight for the head man with their bobblehead and get what most all true Wizards fans long for: a Randy Wittman bobblehead. OK, so let's face it, right now the Wizards fan base probably has a love-hate relationship with Randy. And by that I mean half the people love him and half the people hate him. Well, maybe it's likely to be skewed more one way than the other.

I love Randy so personally speaking I'd be thrilled to get my paws on my very own Witt bobble. Plus right now I have a bunch of players, a mascot and even a mini model of Verizon Center but I have no bobblehead coach. Randy's earned it. Please, please, please do this for me, Etihad. 

And for those of you who don't know by now, Etihad is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. There…a little free air time for Etihad. I'm sure we'll see a spike in the number of travelers to Dubai as a result of this post. If we do, you know how to repay me.

A couple of final notes here. First, If our sponsors decide other players are more worthy or four just ain't enough, well who am I to argue? But we need at least one from each I think and your name on the building sort of ropes you into sponsoring a bobblehead each year. Even if it's not contractually required, you should feel a moral obligation anyway. Show us what you got.

Secondly and finally, yes I know the graphics in this post are horribly amateur. Half of it was intentional and half of it was due to technology and/or user limitations with the software on my MacBook Air. If you are similarly limited with technology or find my graphics appealing, feel free to use them absolutely free of charge. I won't mind at all. The promotional schedule usually comes out in October. You have about three months to make good on this post. Go Wizards! Go bobbleheads!!