Wizards' Draft

The NBA draft has come and once again I am not impressed with what the Wizards have done. With the 16th pick in the draft they selected Nick Young. He is a SG from USC, who I admit I don't know a lot about. Atleast he has put up good numbers throughout his college career and appears to have been highly rated. He is described as having the classic basketball body, tall and lean with long arms. However, from what I've read his motivation in college has been questioned. Cons about his game have dealt with his effort on defense and when he doesn't have the ball. That doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement. This seems like the Wizards still feel that scoring 105 every night is the best way to make a winning team, even if they can't stop anybody on defense.

I also don't know much about Dominic McGuire. While his stats in college have improved as he went through school, they aren't that impressive. He had 3.7 TOs per game last season at Fresno State. He appears to rebound well and block shots, but his offensive game is described as underdeveloped. He is another guy who seems to be well rated because of his athleticism, but doesn't have the skills to match. He is also listed around 6-8 or 6-9, with a weight of 210-220. That doesn't sound like a bruiser to me. With the uninspiring play of the Haywood/Thomas tandem at center in 2006-2007, I would have thought the Wizards would have addressed that need better.

In addition to the flaws in each of these players games that I read about, I also just don't trust the Wizards because of their draft history. The last great draft pick they had was Rip Hamilton in 1999, and he was only given 3 years to play in DC.

Recently the Wiz have chosen...

2006 - Oleksiy Pecherov and Vladimir Veremeenko - Both have yet to play for the team...hell I don't know if either of them has even been in the country yet.

2005 - Andray Blatche - He was a prep schooler taken in the second round, so he is undeveloped and still has time to grow. Although he has only averaged 3.7 points and 3.2 rebounds in his first 2 seasons, without really cracking the rotation.

2004 - Devin Harris and Peter John Ramos - Devin Harris was a good pick, but he was essentially picked by Dallas in order for the trade for Antawn Jamison to go through. PJR scored a total of 11 points with the Wizards.

2003 - Jarvis Hayes and Steve Blake - Hayes has been a disappointment for a # 10 pick. He has averaged 8.9 points and 3.4 rebounds for his career, and simply has not gotten better from year to year. He is what he is, and its nothing special. Blake was a good second rounde choice. He is a good backup/part time starter at PG. His numbers aren't huge, but he was 7th in the NBA last year in assist to TO ratio. That certainly isn't a bad thing to have on your bench, but the Wizards didn't think Blake was worth keeping.

2002 - Jared Jeffries, Juan Dixon, Rod Grizzard, and Juan Navarro - Jared Jeffries looks like he will never average double figures in the NBA, and his rebounding isn't great for a big guy. He truly has been a disappointment for a lottery pick. Juan Dixon has better scoring numbers than more highly touted picks Hayes, Jeffries, and Brown. Atleast with Dixon you knew you were getting a guy who would bust his ass on the floor. He is a decent bench guy, but the Wizards and him went their separate ways. Grizzard was waived before playing in an NBA game, and has yet to do so. Navarro seems to be a great player, but apparently he has no wish to come to the US.

2001 - Kwame Brown and Bobby Simmons - Everybody knows about Kwame. His potential right now seems to be a 10 and 8 type of guy over the course of a season. His pick wouldn't be bad if he was chosen late in the 1st or in the 2nd, but for a number one overall guy he has been a huge disappointment. The 2-4 picks in that draft were Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, and Eddy Curry, who have all been better players so far then Kwame. Bobby Simmons actually averagd over 16 points one year for the Clippers, but he never averaged 4 ppg in his first two years for the Wizards. Not a bad 2nd round choice, but didn't show his talent in Washington.

That recent history has been abysmal. Only Jarvis Hayes started for the Wizards this past year, and he couldn't keep that status for most of the year. None of their early picks have been great, and their later picks have had a few misses just like everybody else. Only two of their draftees played for the Wizards this year, Hayes and Blatche, and their futures aren't exactly going to be stellar with Washington. While the Wizards have created a good team through free agency and trades, they certainly have not taken advantage of the draft. While I hope for the best for Nick Young and Dominic McGuire, something is telling me that these two guys will be like most of the rest. They will toil along with the Wizards for several years without truly making a mark.

Baseball is On...Everything else is Off

At this time of year there really isn't much going on in sports in this area besides baseball. The biggest news recently in local football is that Clinton Portis thinks its acceptable to hold dog fights on private property...even if it is a felony. Clinton should have went with a "No Comment!" when asked about Mike Vick, and went on planning what he will do during his weekly news conferences this fall.

The Ravens are having a mostly quiet offseason...except for Steve McNair getting into a little trouble with his brother in law. Can't wait to see if Willis McGahee can really bring some explosion back to Baltimore's running game.

I watched the NBA Draft Lottery last night expecting to see the Wizards represented. With the way they finished their season, they felt like a lottery team. The Wizards greatly need an impact player, especially down low. Hopefully they can find that player outside the lottery, and don't keep drafting projects like Andray Blatche and the 2 Russian guys they selected and haven't even signed yet from 2006. The Zards are a playoff team, and need help now...not 5 years down the road. I'd much rather have a solid player who has proven himself in the NCAA than a guy who is playing in some obscure foreign league or not living up to his potential in college.

The Nats are proving to be irrelevant this year. Even with their winning ways of late, they are still 5.5 games behind the 4th place NL East Phillies. Ryan Zimmerman has been heating up lately, but nobody else on that team really interests me much.

The Orioles lost to the Jays again last night. O's are really bumming me out right now with how they are playing, because each loss seems to be by just 1 or 2 runs. They are capable of winning these games, but are really not coming through in tough spots. Particularly disappointing is Miguel Tejada. Not only is he not hitting homeruns(2), but he isn't hitting anything for power with just 6 doubles on the year. I love the high average, but he is supposed to be an RBI guy for this club. Not an average guy.

Losing Streak

Have the Orioles coming crashing down to Earth this early? It seems the Orioles are always raising hopes early in the spring, only to crumble as the season goes on. Just last Sunday the Orioles were 11-7. 4 games over .500 and even ESPN was praising the birds on Baseball Tonight. Well 4 days later the O's are back to 11-11 and 3.5 games out of 1st. What is the lesson from all of this? Baseball is too long of a season to pay any mind to the standings until after the All Star break. Remember how the O's led the AL East into June of 2004. Palmeiro was chasing 3,000 and the O's were winning. It felt like '97 again for a few months. Than the ship sank. The Orioles started losing...Palmeiro tested positive for an illegal supplement, Roberts got injured, and the Orioles lost a whole lot more. That will be remembered as an awful year for the O's, but early on it looked great.
Remember that year when you judge the current team at this point in the season. I still check the scores every day to see if the Orioles win or lose, but their record won't matter for another couple of months.
Quick Pros and Cons from the most recent game.
Pro - Adam Loewen has a 3.20 era. Other teams have a lot of difficulty scoring off of him.
Con - Loewen is walking a ton of guys. He isn't letting those guys score, but it knocks him out of the game way too early.
Pro - Ramon Hernandez - Dude had a good debut with 2 hits and a walk. The O's finally played a game with their full contingent of players tonight.
Con - Chris Ray - Only been scored on twice this year, but both times were Grand Slams that blew a save and lost a game for the O's. To AL East rivals no less.

Wizards Note...They can't hang with the Cavs. Should be a lot of seats available at the Phone Booth.

Nats Note...Tied for the worst record in the league with KC. Atleast the stadium project seems to be coming along nicely.

Draft Note...Mel Kiper and other experts predict the 'Skins will take LaRon Landry from LSU. I think the Redskins need more help on the D-line than in the secondary. Okoye from Louisville is amazing. Just 19 years old and already graduated college. Not only is he a sick player, but he seems to be an even more incredible person. The type of person you want on your team. Not much excitement for the Skins after that first pick.
I don't know where the Ravens will go with their picks, but Ozzie Newsome never screws up the draft. Baltimore always finds impact players on draft day...no worries there.

Curse of the Wizards

It has become apparent that the Washington Wizards are not just an awful franchise, but they have been cursed for the last 25 years. When the curse was placed on the franchise, its originator played the cruelest of tricks. Not only were the Wizards made eternally awful, but they were allowed a 2 and a half year period of hope before everything was dramatically pulled away. How else can you explain the events surrounding the Wizards in the last week?

The Bullets/Wizards have been an awful team as long as I've lived. It was always so hard to get behind them because they just didn't win a lot of games. They also never had any marketable stars in the area. Good players never seemed to last long in DC, and being a fan of the team was tough. Then a couple of years ago the Wizards started making good moves. First it was Gilbert Arenas, a rising star who had yet to enter his prime, then Antawn Jamison, a proven scorer, and finally Caron Butler, an aggressive slasher who is also an offensive force.

Not only did this team continue to get better over the last few years, but they were fun to watch. Sure...they didn't play great defense and didn't have a quality big man. But this is the Eastern Conference!!! They don't need those things. Winning the Southeastern division and having home court and a good matchup are what fans want to see. We don't expect a Championship team yet, but we were making progress towards that type of team.

Now the Wizards are a playoff team again for the third year in a row. They were battling the Heat for their divison lead, and things were looking well. DC fans finally think they have a great team, but then the curse's twist kicks in. Caron Butler break his hand. DAGGER! ok... we can live with that...it will be hard but the Wizards can succeed. DAGGER!!! Gilbert Arenas tears his meniscus.

Crap! The Wizards just lost their two best players with just a few weeks before the playoffs start. Antawn Jamison is still a good player, but he can't create his own shot like Caron and Gilbert. He doesn't play as well on his own as the other 2 guys would. The Wizards lost the 2 most important pieces on their team, and will struggle the rest of the way. Can anybody else remember another team losing their 2 best players this late in a playoff year? Its so bizarre to see that happen in a sport where most injuries leave a guy out for just a few games. This isn't football, where season ending injuries are more common.

I'll still be rooting for the Wizards to win, just like always. However, my hopes have vanished. I don't see the team being competitive in the playoffs, and its already time to start looking towards next year.
This truly must be a curse.