Well, Ivan, I'm not really B-Ball smart but I posted that info yesterday to
C-Town, a cleveland fan. I felt Duncan and Parker would be the vicious keys to the game. When those two are focused - its gonna be lights out.

Well, Ivan, I'm not really B-Ball smart but I posted that info yesterday to
C-Town, a cleveland fan. I felt Duncan and Parker would be the vicious keys to the game. When those two are focused - its gonna be lights out. Thanks for update.

Well, Ivan, I'm not really B-Ball smart but I posted that info yesterday to
C-Town, a cleveland fan. I felt Duncan and Parker would be the vicious keys to the game. When those two are focused - its gonna be lights out. Thanks for update.

We were all "witnesses" -- to the "King's" impotent performance. Let's see more of the same in Game two, all the way to a resounding sweep by the Spurs.

Let's shift to a little draft news. John Mitchell reports this morning that, "Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld saw some of the [potential draftee] workouts, conducted on the practice court at Verizon Center, but did not comment."

"Some" of the workouts? Did he have a reservation at Jaleo for lunch or something? Or was he displeased with what he saw, and bolted?

Sean,And I bet you couldn't even find out who he watched and didn't watch if you tried!

Ivan / Lee,

I love the updates but isn't this a Wizards blog??? How about some drft workout info????

Who showed something??

DJ

Photos are up on the wizdotcom site from the workout with:

pg/sg J. Crit
sg N. Young
g/f Byars
g/f Sun Yue.

I like all those guys one way or another. There's a nice shot of Young blocking Sun, good extension on his block.

Vids should be up later today after the 2nd workout.

Hope to get some word on the workouts and who looked good. Man it's killing me... I can't wait til the draft!!!! Who are we gonna take?!?! Probably that guy SMith but I read he got outplayed in Orlando by Gray and FAZEKAS. I can't stand waiting for this! It's why I always open my Christmas presents on Christmas EVE!!!!!

Agreed with the earlier post... I could care less about the Finals (and I am from St. Croix). The draft, who will the Wizards take, why, who looks good. Appreciate the posts, but in addition to the Finals information let us know what the u believe the braintrust is thinking.

good points on Bowen, but LeBron tends not to exert his 6-8, 2-fiddy like he should! they'll make adjustments and the next game should be a little better.

Question as the draft approaches: has anyone else noticed how much talent slips to the second round as every team speculates with the Euros? you can go back to gilbert and Michael Redd, and now this guy Gibson is showing some worth.

good points on Bowen, but LeBron tends not to exert his 6-8, 2-fiddy like he should! they'll make adjustments and the next game should be a little better.

Question as the draft approaches: has anyone else noticed how much talent slips to the second round as every team speculates with the Euros? you can go back to gilbert and Michael Redd, and now this guy Gibson is showing some worth.

I'm with you, Darnell.
Based on the publicly available information as to who the Wizards are working out, it does not appear that the Wiz are looking to trade into a different spot in the draft. All of the guys are potentially available and appropriate picks at #16 or #47.

Don't sleep on Fazekas-- the #1 rebounder in the NCAA. He's a 6'11" version of Darius Songaila-- tough as nails easy to underestiomate but knows how the game is played. He'll be a more productive pro than many of the guys taken ahead of him.

He'd be an ideal fit for the Wiz, if we didn't already have him, basically. But I'd snatch him up anyway in the 2nd round if he were available.

(He won't be).

I agree when you said "it's never good to place too much emphasis on one game in a seven game series". Cavs obviously had a case of the butterflies and their offense total stunk. Except for Gooden and Boobie, they couldn't buy a bucket. Credit the Spurs for good box and one zone defense, but don't expect Bron and Z to continue to miss shots.

Of bigger concern is the Cavs being totally out rebounded by the Spurs, and Tony P. running free to score and dish at will. Expect to see the Cavs make adjustments and play better in game 2.

Biggest concern is that hottie Eva making all the Cleveland honeys look bad on TV when the series goes there. We may have to bring back Halle Berry from Hollywood and prop her up to even things out.

The biggest concern is Eva making the Cleveland honeys look bad??? You must not be much of a fan if that is your biggest concern.

Well we've got some cute ladies, but let's face facts, Cleveland is not exactly LA or South Beach material.

DC has some prime hotties too. Maybe we can get some to come to Cleveland and wear Witness T-Shirts?

Come on C-town, you're better than that. You already used that line.

I am torn with the Wiz draft pick since they need a big man but didn't they address that last year? I would like to see them go Crittenton for his passing and defense. He's young but you can't ignore natural talent and it's not like this is a veteran team needing one more piece to put them over the top. But if they do go big with the first pick, maybe Splitter.

Then I would like to see Ernie move up in the 2nd round for one of the bigs that is being projected in the top of the round: Fazekas, Gasol, Sean Williams, or Aaron Gray.

Are we gonna work out any of the Euros like Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez or what??!! Man it seems like Grunfeld is just puttzin around!! How come we ain't workin out guys like Demetrius Nichols and Zabian Dowdell for the 2nd round. What about Sean Williams? What about AC Law or Marcus Williams or Stuckey or Almond or Jeff Green?? MAn what is going on?? Who organizes these workouts, Bozo the Clown??!!

Get Darnell some prozac, stat.
Keep in mind that (1) some agents with guys projected to go higher than 16 are reluctant to have their guys working out for lower "seeded" teams. As least for now. They want their guys working out fresh for the teams with higher picks, and they don't want it being thought that the player might be a 16th pick; (2) as for Fernandez, Stuckey and AC Law, perhaps those workouts have been scheduled, but not publicly known yet. On draftexpress, Fernandez has no listed workouts yet, Law has workouts with the Bulls and Sonics (strange), and Stuckey with the Sonics, Suns and Heat.

I am with you Doc on Nick Fazekas. That would be an excellent second-round pick and there is a decent chance he might slip. GM was saying that it looks likely that Law IV is going to the Clips at 14. Maybe they made him promise already.

Thanks Sean! At least you got some info. Unlike Ivan talking about a game he's watchin from behind the backboard in the upperdeck, a game I saw for myself on TV with closeup and instant replay n whatnot! What a revelation, it could be a sweep! Yo dog I told you it could be a sweep a week ago!! You supposed to be the Wizard beat man, an you ain't beatin!! They're workin out the possible new addition an you ain't even there!??! You lettin us down bro! We already got Michael "I wanna be just like Wilbon" Lee coverin the show. You supposed to be our eyes behind the scene! What is goin on with the Wiz!!?? What is up with HAYWOOD??!! Where is DeShawn at?! What's the deal with these lame workouts??!!! What's happenin with Navarro?! Are we scoutin the Euro prospects or what?! How did Nick Young do today??! This is what I need to know bro!!!!! And finally, it was a GREAT line so I gonna repeat it.... Who's organizing these workouts, BOZO the CLOWN??!!!!!

And another thing....
What moron decided game 2 of the finals isn't until Sunday?! Not Friday night! Not Saturday! We gotta wait all the way to Sunday??!! And they got it scheduled the same time as the FINAL SOPRANOS EVER!!! Who made THAT schedule??? BOZO THE CLOWN !!!!!!?????

Hey!!!back to NBA basketball and the draft!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys lets keep it rollin....

One thing I'm curious about this offseason that hopefully Ivan can investigate is what Jarvis Hayes is doing workout-wise this summer. I think it became pretty clear this year that Jarvis needs to rework his game to become an effective player. He was primarily a scorer in college and I think he has had that mindset in the pros, but it's now pretty clear that he's not the kind of player who can survive/thrive in the NBA being primarily a scorer. He needs to become a solid all-around player. I think he has the talent to do so. (Lots of players need to make the scoring stud to different type of player transition from college to pros; Jarvis hasn't done it yet, perhaps due to injuries.)
So, the question is whether Jarvis is doing the same old workout this summer, or whether he is working to reinvent his game. And if the latter, is he doing it at Verizon Center, where Grunfeld and others can see him and the results? That obviously would become a factor in whether the Wizards resign him.

For the Wizards to get better some of Eddie Jordan's favorite players have to be taken away from him. That means no more Arvis and no more Ruffin. If the Wizards draft Nick Young then I think we know for sure that Arvis is gone for good.

I'm not sure, as a restricted free agents can Hayes or Blatche work out at Verizon until they actually resign? Anybody know what the status is of those guys until they can resign? Isn't July 1st that the free agent period starts? Which is after the draft.
I always thought that teams should be able to sign their restricted FA's before the draft so that teams had a chance to see which guys wouldn't offered new deals.
I agree with George, Ruffin's got to go, EJ can't wean himslf off of using him so EG should. Somebody else mentioned signing Joe Smith awhile back, he's a Vet that could come cheap and could do much of what Ruf did, plus make a layup. Good locker room guy like Booth, would be a great vet to have behind Opec and Blatche.
If Hayes doesn't get any multiyear offers that we'd have to match, I could really see making him a one year qualifying offer and bringing him back. He has improved defensively and if he could regain his confidence to drive to the hoop he still could bounce back. Late in the year when he was used at SF and two gaurd he was fairly effective. He may end up being a decent second unit guy.
It's hard to build depth and let a guy that should be a rotation player walk.

Sean, I thought Jarvis becomes free agent sometime near end of this year if not sooner. There was also some discussions of him being part of a package deal along with Brendan. Now, according to Mike Wise articles near end of season - Gil Arenas wanted to keep the same core guys together. I thought jarvis was one of those "core guys" That said, Gil apparently has something to say about who stays or goes. Although he says he can't tell mgmt who to select I guess he will have some input. he may allow Jarvis to go.

We'll see.

I have been having the best time watching the old NBA Finals marathons. NBA champs Bulls 91, 92 loss to Suns in 93. Great basketball. Fun to see John Paxon, Danny Ainge, Mike Jordan, Cartwright, Kearsey, Pippen, Drexler and Barkley.

Most amazing part was hearing Barkley predict openly "God wanted the Suns to win the championship" Who would have thought something like that would have come from his mouth. Great basketball.