SB Nation Cleveland: All Posts by Amin Vafa

Jason Collins praises John Wall, Wizards: "Great group of guys; great organization."

2013-05-02T12:00:13Z

It's been a tremendous week for Jason Collins. As we all know, Collins opened up about his sexuality in an article in Sports Illustrated on Monday. Since then, Collins's news has been met mostly with positivity, and he has repeatedly shared his appreciation of all the support he's been receiving.

As much praise as he's been getting this week, Collins has also been generously praising his family, friends, teammates, and heroes. He spoke at length with Bill Simmons on the BS Report about his decision to come out and about his life and role in the NBA. Not surprisingly, Collins's positive attitude translated into positive regard for his time in the league -- especially about his time with the Nets, Celtics, and Wizards.

Collins talked fondly about his days playing alongside Jason Kidd -- who he names as the best player he has played with in his career -- and of how playing with great point guards helped him grow as a player. The last name should ring a bell (emphasis mine).

Jason Collins: Anytime you play with a great point guard, the Rondos or the Jason Kidds of this world, they make you look so much better than you really are. You just catch the ball and score. It's pretty simple. They'll put you in the position, and they'll make the adjustment. And now, it's John Wall.

Grouping Kidd, Rondo, and Wall in the same category of court vision and intelligence carries a lot of weight coming from someone that has been a reliable contributor in the league for 12 seasons.

Later on in the interview (around the 57:30 mark), Simmons and Collins talk about Rajon Rondo's sense of humor, his prowess with Connect Four and his basketball I.Q., and the conversation steers into some high praise of the Wizards. The partial transcript is below:

Bill Simmons: Did you get a handle on Rondo after five months? Everybody says he's kinda like a genius.

...

Jason Collins: Sometimes during practice, Doc [Rivers] would let the players draw up the plays, because he wants guys thinking. And Rondo would draw up some great plays.

BS: Really?

JC: Yeah. I really gained an appreciation for his court-awareness on both ends of the court. Offensive and defensive, and the way he thinks the game. And along those same lines is John Wall.

BS: JOHN WALL? I NEVER would have guessed that.

JC: Yeah, exactly. But he really thinks the game. And, for a young player to already start to develop that sense of your awareness on the court and be able to anticipate what different plays are and where different players are going to be, you know he really impressed me with his court awareness.

BS: So you like the John Wall-Bradley Beal combo? Because I love Bradley Beal. Too bad he got hurt, because he was just coming on.

JC: Yeah. And a lot of that is just your body might not be used to playing so many games and stuff like that. But he's going to be--they're going to be a tremendous backcourt going forward. Because, I remember that with Jason Kidd was finding someone -- we had Kerry Kittles -- because J Kidd and Jonn Wall are similar. They push the ball up the court so fast, you gotta have somebody, and Bradley can run with him. It's fun to watch. And you don't want to leave him open. He can shoot the ball.

BS: You also played with Okafor on that team. Who is considered one of the league's most cerebral players. Do you guys have like a cerebral-off? Was there a cerebral world series?

JC: No, no. We didn't have a book club or anything like that [they both laugh]. We were actually talking about when he was getting recruited to Stanford and something happened and he was like "No, I'm not going to go there." And I was like "Man, we would have, that would have been awesome." But Emeka, he's a great team leader. Great locker room guy.

BS: That's why they traded for him.

JC: Yeah, he's a guy who isn't afraid to say what needs to be said in a locker room. And also lead by example. But the Washington Wizards, I really enjoyed my time in D.C. Great group of guys, great organization. Great city. Lot of stuff to do in DC.

BS: That's a team that really made an effort to change its culture, too.

JC: They needed to.

BS: Because they had some incidents, and they get Okafor, they get you, it seems like they're headed in the right direction.

Collins also discusses his decision to come out, playing defense in the NBA, and how he learned to set a certain type of "legal" screen from Kevin Garnett. You can check out the whole interview here. It's definitely worth your time.

Jordan Crawford finds greener pastures in Boston, calls out Wizards' management

2013-05-01T16:11:57Z

Like that of many Wizards players, Jordan Crawford's tenure in Washington was a mixed bag. Vacillating among hilarious quote machine, chucker-extraordinaire, game-winning savior, end-of-bench pariah, and cult-swagger hero made Crawford's time in D.C. as entertaining as it was frustrating.

In a recent interview with Michael Lee, Crawford said that when the trade deadline came in February, he "wanted to leave" and that it was "definitely time to go."

Crawford also talked to Lee about the different organizational environments in Boston and Washington. While he didn't find acceptance with the Wizards for his style of play, he has found that and more with the Celtics:

"[The Celtics] let everybody be themselves. Everybody a man over here. They treat you like a man and do things the right way," said Crawford, who scored 10 points in a Game 2 loss. "I'm around better people. People that, when they see talent, they appreciate it and they try to work you in. They accept real people around here."

In Lee's interview, Crawford definitely comes off as a sympathetic (while still classically cocky) character. Hearing him describe his time with the Wizards organization as being with "people that hold you back and hate on you for no reason" may sound abrasive at first, but it's no different than what many other former players have said.

Crawford's reaction sounds strikingly similar to that of Andray Blatche, who was the organization's second-most recent pariah. In November, Blatche complained that the organization wasn't there for him when he was struggling:

"They could've had my back. They could've done anything. I don't care what they could've done. It could've been small, than to say, you know what, ‘This is our escape route. We're going to leave him out for himself. He's going to have to fend for himself now,' " Blatche said. "No, that's not what you do when it's your family. And supposedly say this is a brotherhood. That's not what you do. I don't care, whatever my brother, my uncle, my sister, whatever anybody does, I'm going to have their back 100 percent. And that's what you do with family. That's all I'm saying.

"If we're family, then act like it."

While Crawford never really struggled in the same way Blatche did, the two would probably agree that the player-organization relationship is a two-way street.

"If they would've accepted what I was doing, plain and simple," Crawford said, when asked what could've kept him in a Wizards uniform. "I put in the work. Nobody else doing what I'm doing."

It's easy to see the "I" statements in both their words. From a team standpoint and from the standpoint of many fans and observers, that can definitely be interpreted as selfishness or a "me-first" mentality. And if a team is trying to build a culture that doesn't include people who cite their personal contributions as reasons to be applauded (as opposed to, say, blaming yourself if the team falls short), it makes sense to expunge that mentality from the locker room.

But if the efforts to which the team goes to rid itself of that mentality move into treating a player like a "knucklehead" or "cancer in the locker room" (which may have been the team's last options), then a pattern of negativity starts to emerge.

After Blatche's remarks in November, Randy Wittman was asked about Blatche's time in D.C. "We did everything we could to help him, as we will with every player that ever comes here."

I believe that's true for Dray, and I believe that was true for JCraw, as well.

Both Crawford and Blatche have talked about how much they've enjoyed their change of scenery and how their separation from the Wizards has allowed them to move on professionally. But they both have remarked that they didn't get their fair shake in the eyes of those watching in Washington.

In Blatche's own words:

"I'm quite sure, they can ask every last one of my teammates here and I guarantee you what they say about me is completely different than what y'all think of me in D.C.," he said. "For them to say, ‘Oh, he's a bad teammate. He's a cancer in the locker room.' He's this and that. All that was a bunch of lies! A bunch of lies. That's what really made me mad. That showed me, they tried to end me."

And Crawford's:

When asked what he has learned most from this season, Crawford said, "Let the haters hate. Simple as that."

Lots of teams rebuild their rosters and their identities and trade their players, but is there a pattern in Washington that leads to these burned bridges? Doesn't sound so simple to me.

(H/T the Washington Post for quotes from Jordan Crawford and Andray Blatche)

Washington Wizards 2012-13 Player Evaluations: Chris Singleton

2013-04-28T15:25:12Z

Our look back at the 2012-13 season begins with our player evaluations. Today's installment: Chris Singleton.

BASIC STATS: 4.1 points per game, 3.2 rebounds per game, 7.8 PER, 38.2% from the field, 42.5% TS%, 11.0% rebound percentage.

CONTRACT STATUS: Singleton just finished the second year of his rookie contract. The Wizards exercised the team option on his contract (~$2.5 million) for the 2013-14 season back in early October before the season started.

PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS: The long and short of it: to be better than last year.

Singleton was coveted by a lot of teams during the 2011 draft for his expected-talent on defense. No one ever thought he was going to be an elite scorer, but teams were high enough on him that the Wizards contemplated taking him with the 6th pick because they didn't think he would last until 18th.

Last season, Singleton was the primary starter at Small Forward. He... was probably thrown into the lion's den too quickly. Regardless, the hope was that he would turn into a 3-and-D guy.

OFFENSE: Um... well... not so great. He had a stretch of games in the middle of the season when was was back in the rotation (after being DNP-CD almost the entire month of January) where he was playing the small-ball power forward and contributing on offense. He was playing 20 minutes per game and hitting nearly 70 percent of his shots -- and he was playing very well off John Wall (check out the charts in this post). And then... he fell out of the rotation again.

DEFENSE: That same stretch in February against teams like the Knicks and Spurs, Singleton was doing what he was drafted to do: use his length to smother opponents. But... then he fell out of the rotation again.

OTHER STUFF: Before this season, Martell Webster was signed and Trevor Ariza was acquired via trade. Many thought the Chris Singleton experiment was over. With injuries abounding to other guys, Singleton was thrust into the Power Forward slot.

Then, this happened (excerpted from a piece I wrote in February):

He played sparse minutes here and there, but he was "in the doghouse," as they say. Now, he wasn't really insubordinate or anything, but he didn't fit into the mix. He seemed lost at times on the floor, trying to figure out whether he should be a 3 or a 4. Part of that was on Wittman for not settling on a rotation. Part of that was because the team was too deep at the 3-4, so it was difficult to get comfortable. Part of it, though, was he really didn't seem to know what he was doing. He was fouling at a high rate, and he wasn't contributing offensively or defensively. Wittman made the right choice to pull him out.

All in all, Singleton played 57 games this season. That shouldn't be so weird, since lots of guys on the team didn't play full years. But Singleton was healthy. All of the games he didn't play (25) were DNP-CDs. For a first-round pick that was supposed to be the start of the defensive revolution on this roster, that's not a good sign. We thought things would improve when he got back into the rotation midseason, but they didn't last. He slipped back out of the rotation, only to reemerge towards the end of the season when others were being shelved for injury precaution.

DID HE MEET, EXCEED OR FALL SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS? I'd say he fell short. For a second-year guy to drop off statistically like he did and not be able to make his way into a rotation that was full of holes... it's not a great sign. I guess the holes weren't where his strengths were, though.

OVERALL: I like Chris Singleton. I really do. I think, though, that 2011 draft is looking worse and worse for Washington. Some of it might have to do with those rookies not having a real preseason/camp/summer league because of the lockout. But essentially what happened was the team drafted Singleton, Jan Vesely, and Shelvin Mack to fill out the rotation with a 3-and-D wing, a screen-setting big man, and a backup point guard. Then, after they all failed at their jobs, the team traded for Martell Webster, Trevor Ariza, Nene, and Emeka Okafor and signed A.J. Price to fill all those needs instead. That's an explicit abandonment of a rebuild and an explicit condemnation of the quality of play from those draft picks.

Based on the makeup of this roster going forward, I don't know if Chris Singleton will be around much longer. That's just speculation, but I don't think he ever notched a proper role here. I do think, however, he would thrive in a better-defined role on another team with more veterans and a more stable rotation playing about 10-15 minutes per game (sounds classic Wizards, doesn't it?)

HOW WOULD YOU RATE SINGLETON'S SEASON ON A SCALE OF 1-10? Vote below.

Basic stats and contract information from Basketball-Reference.

Poll

How would you rate Chris Singleton's overall performance this season?

1 (terrible)

17 votes

2

27 votes

3

51 votes

4

61 votes

5

31 votes

6

14 votes

7

2 votes

8

3 votes

9

0 votes

10

1 votes

207 votes | Poll has closed

What does Flip Saunders's new role in Minnesota mean for Washington?

2013-04-26T17:35:20Z

In "guys that used to be related to the Wizards" news, it appears that Flip Saunders is going to be the new President of Basketball Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves. That means everyone's top-5 favorite punchline GM, David Kahn, is out in the Twin Cities.

As you may remember, Saunders was brought in after Eddie Jordan was let go (and Ed Tappscott rode the tide for the rest of the year) to try to give the team a new identity and another run with the Jamison-Arenas-Butler core. Yada #fingagunz yada RIP Abe Pollin yada, Saunders was also let go, and Randy Wittman was made the head coach.

With Wittman at the helm and a few more vets on the roster, the Wizards are starting to develop an identity. A little more health luck would have made this season completely different, but all in all it does appear as though this team is starting to stabilize.

Here's where things might get tricky: Wittman and most of the rest of the coaching staff were brought in under Flip Saunders. And as Truth About It's Adam McGinnis opined on Twitter earlier today, Saunders's new role in Minnesota could mean some losses to the coaching staff in Washington.

Ryan Sanders is likely back to MSP, I could see Flip raiding Sam Cassell and possibly Don Zierden #wizards
— Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) April 26, 2013

At this point, we don't really know anything for certain. But coaches like Ryan Saunders (Flip's son, and a big analytics guy), Don Zierden (worked with Flip in Detroit and Minnesota and coached the Lynx), and Sam Cassell (been with Flip for years, has a great "balls dance") have been integral to the development of this Wizards roster.

it makes sense for Wizards fans to keep an eye on the situation in the Midwest to see if anything changes at home.

H/T to Adam McGinnis

Wizards vs. Bulls final score: Chicago silences Washington's season finale 95-92

2013-04-18T02:44:24Z

Was there a more Wizards game than this?

I mean, who among us watchers of this game thought this game was over after the first quarter? Show of hands, please.

That's right. All of us.

I mean, are you freaking kidding me? This game was a blowout in the first quarter. The Wizards were losing by 21 at one point. Then AJ Price--AJ PRICE--comes in and has a career high 24 points to make this game a nailbiter all the way to the end.

Tied in the 4th? One possession with 10.1 seconds to go in the 4th? This is such a Wizards game. Get creamed by the Sixers at home. Lose another game on the road to Brooklyn. Fight their ASSES off against the Bulls. The Bulls, who are fighting for playoff seeding. The Bulls, who were missing their marquee player all season and were banged up but still managed to be better than ten other teams in the East.

But that's the Wizards' MO. They get up for good teams. I mean, they really do. They fight tooth and nail. They play fantastic defense, and they try to keep themselves in it. It takes a few more offensive miracles than I'd like for them to stay firmly in the game or in the lead, but their defensive effort is there.

And really, could the game have ended any more symbolically? This whole season was a referendum on John Wall. The team was nothing without him, then he came back, and they stormed to a .500-ish record (24-25) with him. He had a stretch of March/April when he went berserk and made a case for that 5-year/$80-million max contract.

And how did the game end? With John Wall, taking the game in his hands. This season was on him, do or die. He took the ball, and he launched it up behind the three point line. It had good arc, but the distance was short. Ball game.

The Wizards set a ton of mini-milestones for themselves this season after they pretty much knew they weren't going to the playoffs.

Get better than the next team.

Win 5 games in a row at home.

Win 10 games in a row at home

Get to the 9th seed.

Get up against great teams and surprise the hell out of them.

Get 30 wins for the first time since 2008.

Play some tenacious defense.

Some of the milestones they hit; others, not so much. But tonight, we watched our team play. It was the prototypical 2012-13 Wizards game. They were short-handed, and they started poorly on the road. Then, they played some great defense, and they showed a top-tier team their mettle. They fought for each possession, and inched their way back into the game on John Wall's back, on a veteran's offensive punch, and on a decent night from one of the Seraphin/Booker/Singleton/Vesely gang. And they sucked us in to the last second. There was no changing the channel. This game was a game until the end. And then, in true Wizards form, it was over. And they lost.

Why we lost doesn't matter right now. That'll hopefully be addressed in the offseason. But for now, just try to remember fondly that your team played its ass off for you in its last game of the season.

#SoWizards

Wizards vs Bulls: Washington's comeback falls short

2013-04-18T00:06:20Z

The Wizards fought back after a rough first quarter, and made a real game out of it down the stretch. With 10.1 seconds to go and the Wizards down 3, Chicago's defense was too good to let the Wiz back in at the end.

Well this is bittersweet.

The Washington Wizards close the 2013 season tonight with a game against the Bulls in Chicago. After a tumultuous season that saw friends become enemies and enemies become friends, the Wizards head into tonight's game with a team that's almost the complete opposite of the one that struggled through the first two months of the season.

The Wizards began the season with a roster full of finishers and no one to set them up. Now, with Nene, Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster and Bradley Beal out for the year, the offense should be all Wall, all the time tonight. The scary thing is that, despite Chicago's legendary Tom Thibodeau-orechestrated defense, Washington's offense might run better than it did at the beginning of the year. Wall's emergence as a capable scorer has changed everything about how teams have to prepare for Washington, and tonight we'll get a chance to see if his physical gifts and automatic elbow jumper are enough to overcome a system notorious for stymieing ball-dominant players.

Where and when? The game is at 8 p.m. in Chicago.

Are they good? Yes. Chicago is 44-37 on the year with the point differential of 41-41 team. They've made up for the absence of Derrick Rose and their once-great bench mob by running more of their offense than ever before through Carlos Boozer while letting Nate Robinson run wild with the ball when the offense gets stagnant.

Why should I care? It's the last Wizards game of the season.

Who's out? Chicago is looking to clinch the fifth seed in the East, so they'll be going all out tonight, with no one other than Rose unavailable. Washington will be missing Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster, Nene, Bradley Beal and Emeka Okafor.

What are they good at? Defense and offensive rebounding. Chicago's defensive rating is seventh in the NBA, they're fourth in the NBA in effective field goal percentage allowed and they manage to pull down more offensive rebounds than only four other teams. Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Luol Deng all have had a lot to do with all of this, with additional contributions from Boozer and Nazr Mohhamed on the glass.

What are they bad at? As tends to happen when you lose an MVP-caliber player like Rose for the year, Chicago's offense is nowhere near as effective as it was last year, ranking only 23rd in the NBA in efficiency. Boozer and Noah can pass, Deng can create a shot from time to time, and Robinson's still good in a ball-dominating way, but all of these guys are overmatched when asked to be primary offensive options. Much like Washington before Wall returned, Chicago has a lot of guys who can finish plays but no one who can set them up.

Where else can I read about the Bulls? Check out Blog A Bull.

What are your thoughts on and predictions for tonight's game? Sound off in the comments and vote in our poll!

Wizards vs. Bulls game time, TV schedule and open thread

2013-04-18T00:01:24Z

2012/2013 NBA Regular Season
	@
April 17, 2013
United Center
8:00 p.m.
CSN, 106.7 The Fan
Projected Starting Lineups
John Wall	PG	Kirk Hinrich
Garrett Temple	SG	Jimmy Butler
Cartier Martin	SF	Luol Deng
Kevin Seraphin	PF	Carlos Boozer
Trevor Booker	C	Nazr Mohammed
2012/13 Advanced Stats
92.2 (14th)	Pace	89.3 (27th)
100.2 (30th)	ORtg	103.5 (23rd)
102.9 (5th)	DRtg	103.2 (7th)
Also see: Blog-a-Bull \| StoryStream \| Fast Break

IT'S THE LAST GAME OF THE YEAR! OH EM GEEEEEEEEE!

No Okafor tonight. That's in addition to no Nene, Ariza, Webster, or Beal. Young guys gonna get minutes, y'all!

Will that elusive road win come tonight? Will it accompany that somehow more-elusive 30th win? Only one way to find out! Watch the game!

Go Wizards!

2012/2013 NBA Regular Season
	@
April 17, 2013
United Center
8:00 p.m.
CSN, 106.7 The Fan
Projected Starting Lineups
John Wall	PG	Kirk Hinrich
Garrett Temple	SG	Jimmy Butler
Cartier Martin	SF	Luol Deng
Kevin Seraphin	PF	Carlos Boozer
Trevor Booker	C	Nazr Mohammed
2012/13 Advanced Stats
92.2 (14th)	Pace	89.3 (27th)
100.2 (30th)	ORtg	103.5 (23rd)
102.9 (5th)	DRtg	103.2 (7th)
Also see: Blog-a-Bull \| StoryStream \| Fast Break

IT'S THE LAST GAME OF THE YEAR! OH EM GEEEEEEEEE!

No Okafor tonight. That's in addition to no Nene, Ariza, Webster, or Beal. Young guys gonna get minutes, y'all!

Will that elusive road win come tonight? Will it accompany that somehow more-elusive 30th win? Only one way to find out! Watch the game!

Go Wizards!

Emeka Okafor out for season finale tonight

2013-04-17T17:17:10Z

So remember when the Wizards were missing four of their top six guys for the last two games of the year? Make it five of their top six guys.

Emeka Okafor (right ankle) is out for season finale vs CHI #wizards
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) April 17, 2013

Welp.

So that means--for those of you who have lost count--Bradley Beal, Martell Webster, Nene, Emeka Okafor, and Trevor Ariza are all out tonight in Chicago. That also means we'll be seeing a lot more of Kevin Seraphin, Jan Vesely, Trevor Booker, and Chris Singleton. One may think of these last two games of the season as perhaps an audition for roles next season by these four youngsters. These four have many overlapping duties (and some overlapping skills), so they might not all be back next year.

You know what? It doesn't matter that Okafor isn't playing tonight. I hope he enjoys the additional rest. And congratulations to him on his impending fatherhood! Very cool!