Wizards trade with Wolves

Washington gets Mike Miller and Randy Foye, Minnesota gets the #5 selection in the 2009 draft, Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila, and Oleksiy Pecherov.

A bit deflating, because there had been chatter about the Wizards getting Amare Stoudemire. This trade addresses several needs, and probably sets up another deal.  The main downside is the opportunity cost of the 5th pick.  Someone selected at 5 or after will blow up, but will it be someone the Wizards realistically might have selected?  After Blake Griffin everyone has questions and issues.

Brendan Haywood blogging

Wizards’ center Brendan Haywood has a blog.

Arenas comeback: so far, so good

Late posting this, but here’s the DC Sports Bog review of Gilbert’s return to the court last Saturday.

President Obama with Wizards jersey

This is from Bulls-Wizards game he attended earlier this month.  Neat picture.

Arenas practicing

A couple links to cheer us Wizards fans up. Gilbert Arenas has been practicing full out for a week.

This video reminds us of what he can do at the top of his game:

Wizards: Could Grunfeld pull an “Ainge”?

This piece by Ben Becker on the RealGM site compares the situation the Wizards are in this season with the 2006-2007 Boston Celtics. Celtics GM Danny Ainge was able to put together deals for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the wake of a “tank” year. As we know, the Celtics won the title last season. The article provides an inventory of trade pieces that Ernie Grunfeld could use to engineer a similar turnaround.

Wizards win last night in Sacramento.

Nick Young hitting his stride

Nice article in today’s WaPost about the Wizards’ 2nd year guard, Nick Young. Although the Wizards continue to lose games at a prodigious rate, Nick has had some outstanding individual performances recently.

Nick rolled out a move last Saturday where he fakes losing his handle, drawing the defender in, then spins and throws a no-look pass to JaVale McGee. Number 3 on the video.

Wizards beat Nets

I haven’t been blogging much about my main teams, the Washington Wizards and the Michigan Wolverines, because they’ve had such rough seasons and it hasn’t been the greatest time to be a fan. The Wizards did win last night, to go to 3-12. Hopefully this is a harbinger that they will be able to turn things around at least a little bit.

Hollinger predicts Wizards will finish 36-46 (4th in the Southeast Division, 11th in the Eastern Conference)

On ESPN, stats-wiz John Hollinger predicts that the Wizards slide out of the playoffs in 2008-2009. Hollinger’s recent prognostications for the Wizards haven’t been exactly dead-on. Last year he predicted a 33 win season at a time when Gilbert Arenas was expected to be healthy for the season. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s wrong this year, but on the RealGM Wizfans board doclinkin provides a rejoinder and some reasons for optimism that don’t get factored into Hollinger’s equations.

Wizards Media Day

The Wizards held their annual media day yesterday (9/26) and start training camp today. Some nice pictures here. New faces include PG Dee Brown and first round draft pick C JaVale McGee. New-again is former Wizard and University of Maryland star SG Juan Dixon.