The Wizards Accidentally Drafted Well
There’s been an excitement to the Wizards this year that hasn’t been there in the past. I’ve been trying to put my finger on it for weeks, but I never could. Then it hit me. For the first time in twelve years it’s possible to be excited about the team’s recent draft picks. While fans of other teams often take their talented rookies for granted, Wizards fans have 14 reasons not to do that.
Ronnie Henderson, Predrag Drobnjak , God Shammgod, Jahidi White, Calvin Booth, Richard Hamilton, Mike Smith, Kwame Brown, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rod Grizzard, Juan Dixon, Jared Jeffries, Steve Blake, Jarvis Hayes.
Those are the Wizards’ 14 draft picks that followed Rasheed Wallace. Comedy aside, it’s not a very impressive list. Hamilton is the only above average player in the bunch, and he was traded before hitting his prime. At no time in their entire Wizards careers did any of the guys on the list show the ability the take over a game the way Andray Blatche and Nick Young have this year (or the way Dominic McGuire did in the summer league).
For that reason the 2007 Wizards have an element that hasn’t been there in more than a decade. They have homegrown youngsters who can be superstars even outside the minds of deluded Wizards fans. It’s a welcome change, and hopefully the next time Nick Young and Andray Blatche are basking in the love and adoration of grateful Wizards fans, they take a moment and think about the 14 men before them who made it all possible.
And now to abruptly change the subject. During last night’s Wizards game (at about the 9:30 mark of the 3rd quarter) Deshawn Stevenson, Antonio Daniels, and Caron Butler headed down court with a 3 on 2 break. Corey Brewer and Sebastian Telfair were defending. Stevenson missed a shot, the Timberwolves got the rebound, and Brewer and Telfair headed the other way with a clean 2 on 1 break (Telfair would also miss). Why am I bringing this up? Because the sequence looked exactly like the classic 3 on 2—2 on 1 drill that middle school basketball teams run in every single practice. I don’t know where to find video of it, but if anybody has it please share the video with the world. Consider this the sportsblogging version of a guy posting on craigslist that he wants to meet the cute red haired girl he met at the bar the previous night.
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