Washington Sports Wrap-up (week of 9/28)

Matt Trollinger    Articles, Basketball, Football, Redskins, Wizards     Albert Haynesworth, Baltimore Orioles, Byron Leftwich, Chris Horton, Dan Snyder, flip saunders, Josh Johnson, Nick Young, Reed Doughty, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Vinny Cerrato, Washington Capitals, Washington Redskins, Washington Wizards

It’s time for a little summary of what’s going on in the DMV this week.

Washington Capitals

The Caps opened up the season with a 4-1 win over Boston.

• Ted Leonsis believes the Capitals are built to be a dynasty that will at least be in contention for the Stanley Cup the next 10 years. (Wow, we haven’t had a dynasty in D.C. since the Gibbs I era.  Wouldn’t that be nice?)
• There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic if you’re a Caps fan (even after that heart-wrenching loss to the Penguins last season).  The main reason? Alexander Ovechkin of course.
• EA Sports has Pittsburgh repeating as Stanley Cup Champions. (But I mean come on, Madden this year has the Redskins winning the NFC East.  Talk about lack of credibility, oh wait….)

Washington Wizards

Flip Saunders gave the Wizards players t-shirts that say “Our Time” and an I-pod Touch with the 250 page playbook complete with diagrams and charts.  I think that’s pretty awesome.  Saunders seems to be highly organized and very creative.  Antwaan Jamison is definitely pumped about having the proven head coach.  Here’s an excerpt from an article by Michael Lee of The Washington Post,

“To me, those are the kinds of things that make a difference. There’s no excuse why you don’t know the plays,” said Jamison, adding that each iPod has an individual code to protect its contents in case it is lost or stolen. “That playbook is like one of those NFL playbooks, it goes on for days. [Saunders] incorporated things so quickly and you go right into it. His enthusiasm, attention to detail, he don’t play around. I like the overall concept of how we’re going to do things here.”

Oh yeah, and Saunders also apparently hired a hypnotist who used mind tricks to get Nick Young and Mike James to hop around, put their hands over a flame and danced.  Anyone know if we can get him to hypnotize the Wizards into playing defense?  Just a thought.

• Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood and _________at Shooting Guard. Fill in the blank: _____________ (a) DeShawn Stevenson (b) Dominic McGuire (c) Nick Young (d) Randy Foye or (e) Mike Miller. This is a tough decision for Saunders despite the great options tough.  Who would you pick?

Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals

Walk Off- Grand Slam for the season finale at home.  Not bad, but the Washington Nationals still suck.

After so much optimism in the last 3/4 of the season, the Baltimore Orioles have lost 13 in a row and also still suck.

Washington Redskins

Where to begin?  Let’s start with something positive.  Hard to do with Washington Redskins? Try this on for size: London Fletcher is as inspiring and active off the football field as much as he is on it.  (I wonder if Nancy Pelosi knows her about her bump-in yet?)

• On Mike Wise’s radio show, George Michael (that link is just in case you didn’t know, but you definitely already should) shoots straight with Wise on how the Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato machine works.  I’d have to say that this is probably one of the most insightful Redskins related pieces in the past few years.  I say that because of how much hate there is out there for Dan Snyder (see “Burgundy Revolution” and the latest Sally Jenkins article).
• Reed Doughty is starting this Sunday against Tampa Bay instead of Chris Horton.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are starting Josh Johnson this weekend instead of Byron Leftwich.  I’m actually glad Johnson is starting considering what Leftwich did last year to the ‘Skins.
• Albert Haynesworth was offered MORE money to play for Tampa Bay?  Wow.

Wizards lose the draft too-get the 5th overall pick.

Matt Trollinger    Articles, Basketball, Wizards     Blake Griffin, Brendan Haywood, Cleveland Cavaliers, DC Sports Bog, Ernie Grunfeld, Etan Thomas, failure, flip saunders, Gilbert Arenas, LeBron James, los angeles clippers, Lottery, mark sanchez, NBA, NFL, ricky rubio, Steinberg, Washington Wizards

After a season long of FAILURE without Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood (as well as other players suffering numerous injuries through the entire year) there was a glimmer of hope: the NBA Lottery Draft (Here’s a helpful explanation of the NBA Lottery).  

Besides the thought that next year might be the year where the Wizards might finally be healthy for a season (oh yeah and the trouncing of Cleveland when we DID have a starting lineup) was the fact that although they only won 19 games out of 82 it wouldn’t go to waste.  No, at least they’d get a good draft pick out of it.  

I, for one spent the remaining games of the Wizards season gleefully imagining Blake Griffin getting some of those sweet assists Arenas was tossing out in the two games he played at the end of the season.  But I wasn’t the only one, the Wizards front office had imagined it too.

Not so fast though, tied for the second worst record in the league doesn’t guarantee anything other than a top 5 pick.  This isn’t the NFL, the lottery reigns.  

So what did the lottery say to the fans in the nation’s capital?

“SCREW YOU WASHINGTON“and ping pong balls of sadness fell to the Clippers tonight.

Now what?  Many think Ernie Grunfeld will try and package the pick with a player or two(Etan Thomas?) to get a veteran to help out.  Michael Lee with the Wizards Insider thinks they should draft James Harden  (The NY Times likes him at least).

If you need a laugh, continue with the links and reading below.

As always, Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog makes me smile in a sad situation:

Dan Steinberg via twitter:

“Ah, the week that was for D.C. sports fans. Too much joy than 140 characters can contain. http://tr.im/lPER ”

CURSED

Jamie Mottram of Mister Irrelevant via twitter:

Maybe the Wiz could get Taylor Griffin with the 5th pick, and Blake could come visit sometime?

Top Local Sports Stories of the Week

Matt Trollinger    Articles, Basketball, Football, Redskins     ACC, American University, Basketball, Blake Griffin, Bobby Knight, Brendan Haywood, Caron Butler, Clinton Portis, DeShawn Stevenson, Devin Thomas, Dominic McGuire, Ed Tapscott, Gary Williams, Gilbert Arenas, Injury Problems, JaVale McGee, Javaris Crittenton, LeBron James, Malcolm Kelly, Maryland, NBA, NBA Draft 2009, NCAA Basketball Tournament 2009, NFL 2009 Offseason, Nick Young, Offseason Workouts, Washington Redskins, Washington Wizards, Worst Team in the League

Top 3 Local Sports Stories

Maryland and American University make the NCAA Tourney

This is pretty big for Gary Williams and the Terps. They’ve had a really up and down year and have been considered one of the most undersized teams in the ACC. During midseason many were calling for Gary’s ouster at season’s end. The Washington Post even did a piece on how Gary had missed a ton of local talent.

This was all before the monstrous win over UNC and the solid showing in the ACC Tournament last week where Maryland beat its first two opponents (NC State and ranked Wake Forest) and put up a fight against Duke (a much better one than eventual ACC Champ contender Florida State).
Now it appears that Garyland is alive and well again with the NCAA berth, even as a number 10 seed. It will be a tough road for the Terps however, because they face Cal in the first round and if they win, the very strong Memphis in the next.

American University is the other local team that made the tournament, they are a 14 seed and will be playing Villanova in the first round.

Redskins Begin Off-season Workouts

Update from Redskins.com

Although Portis was not expected to be there for the early off-season workouts, he was!

However, Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly were not! Unfreakingbelievable…

Wizards News

The Wizards are still hurting with injuries and are still awful but not the worst..yet

Butler’s got hamstring problems, Gilbert and Haywood probably won’t play this year and DeShawn is done. That’s four starters folks. Not to mention Etan Thomas, and other players’ health concerns.

Not many teams can compete during the season with such a shakeup of the planned starting lineup. But don’t worry, the Wizards did not rewrite the script and they now have the league’s second worst record with only 16 wins. But hey, we can show the Sacramento Kings (the worst team in the league with 14 w’s) who’s boss.

A lot of fans are calling for the team to give the youngsters (Nick “the young one” Young, Dominic McGuire, JaVale McGee and Javaris Crittenton) more time for the rest of the season. With the injury problems, I don’t think Tapscott has a choice.

On a very much related note, here’s a look at Blake Griffin from Oklahoma through Bobby Knight’s eyes:

Hopefully we get a chance to draft this guy, I think he’s going to be a dynamic player in the NBA. I love the part where Bobby Knight was talking about how Griffin doesn’t complain or whine he gets contact. That’s quite different than another #23 we have all come to know and love!