Monthly Archives: April 2011

First Place in East Clinched

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Two years in a row.

Second best record in NHL clinched.

We await our first round opponent in the playoffs. It will be either the New York Rangers or the Carolina Hurricanes.

If it is the Canes that would mean the Southeast Division placed three teams in the playoffs. That would be something unique.

We have a game to play tonight still. I am hopeful that we play it with professionalism but that no one gets hurt.

We will know our schedule for the playoffs come Sunday night.

Wish us well.

Enjoy these moments. It is a difficult task to have the most points – two years in a row – in the Eastern Conference and to be placed first or second in over all points in the entire NHL for two years in a row. We have qualified for the playoffs now with this core of a team for four seasons in a row.

We should never take this work for granted. We are blessed. Enjoy the ride.

Thank you for your support over the years and for your best wishes. Go Caps!

Big Gains by a Good Big Man

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I have been most impressed with JaVale McGee’s development this season. The last ten games have especially given us all a look into great things to come.

He is a multi-talented big man.

He can run the floor. He is durable. He has athletic prowess and he is very coachable.

He can play very good defense. He is second in the league in blocked shots.

He is starting to learn how to work the boards and once he masters offensive rebounding and develops a “go to” offensive move. I think he has the ability to be a top tier big man in the NBA. He is averaging 10 points per game this season and eight rebounds per game, too. I have liked his interior passing of late as well.

Equally as important he has real charisma. He is valued highly by his teammates. He is getting active in the community and he has a developing star power.

He is creative and has a great sense of style and humor as well. Plus he does the best videos and may tweet the most and the best as well. I like that a lot.

He is just an impressive young man. He is the same age as my son, too, which is an amazing fact to type.

Big men develop at their own pace. JaVale is developing well and has been and will continue to be a big part of our rebuild. It is a joy to watch him blossom in front of our eyes. He has upside. We have upside.

I Think Nick is Most Improved

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And he stepped up and played a big and important role for us.

Nick is a cold stone shooter and scorer. He is developing an all around game but he can score and that is most needed in the NBA.

He also is a positive young man and a player who connects with fans and his teammates.

In the NBA it is difficult to get shots off. Defenders are big and strong and try to wear you down. Nick has a knack – “Nick Knack” – to get into nooks and crannies and seams and get his shot off. This is an “art and a science” and I was proud to see Nick develop this season.

It is a shame that he is missing time due to injury. We miss him.

Great teams have great back courts. Maybe we have the opportunity to develop a great back court with a three headed group of John Wall, Jordan Crawford and Nick Young. Detroit won championships with Thomas, Dumars and Johnson in the back court. As we have seen there are a lot of minutes to go around and Nick also is big enough to play some small forward. He will be an integral part of our team.

I am a Nick Young fan. He is young, developing, and talented and wants to be in DC.

I Was Pretty Direct Today, Wasn’t I?

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I Was Pretty Direct Today, Wasn’t I?

I hope I didn’t sound odd today on the Junkies radio show. I wasn’t annoyed. I was trying to guide the conversation back to what I thought we were going to talk about.

I thought I was going on the show to discuss the NHL playoffs and the Caps season.

Instead the talk was all over the place – NBA new rules; Flip and Ernie; NFL labor vs. owners; and new NBA CBA talks, of which if I ever discuss I will get fined. And so said I. I love the Junkies. They are great guys and talented radio hosts. I was just taken aback by the talk and that we couldn’t get to Caps related subjects.

Their radio station is our media partner as you know but just so everyone understands the relationship, we actually buy the time on the station to clear the games. We are really a gigantic advertiser on their network. They are free to bash us – or ignore us – or be supportive of us editorially – but we do buy time from them. Another sign of how complex media is these days.

So here are my comments in regards to our President of basketball operations and our coach at the Wizards organization. Click here.

I also want to add value on my recent comment regarding “The new big three.”

Each and every NBA team seems to need three options to score and win in the league.

Of late that is what we had developed: Three players that were scoring at high rates and filling up the stat sheet with big stat lines and numbers. Really big numbers. Just look at the stats. Wall, Crawford and Blatche. Very impressive set of games.

Our other big scoring options – Nick Young and Rashard Lewis – are out and injured.

So we have no choice but to rely on big numbers from these three young players and they have been delivering. Big time.

But we and I have zero intention to make and market our team around “a big three” theme. I hope you didn’t take away that notion from my comment on my blog.

Teams win – 7 to 9 men rotations win. One for all and all for one.

We need a great team chemistry and a great team work ethic. And we also need stars and I am hopeful we can develop that right balance between these two concepts. Onward and thank you.

Who Knew?

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I didn’t. So thank you.

According to Peerless if we win tomorrow night we would have 109 points, the second most in franchise history. And this is called – not surprisingly – “an up and down year.”

I think two years ago we recorded the second most points in franchise history and last season we generated the most points in franchise history. So that would be a pretty good 3 season arc at least for points gained during the regular season ranking as #1, #2 and #3 all time in terms of points for the franchise.

But as we all note – not the season we really are focused upon but nice none the less?

Am I looking at this correctly?