We’ll start with the hard hat because it’s easy, obvious, and has become the only distinguishable quirk of actual training camp that we’ve been able to witness as reporters so far.
The winner? Ronny Turiaf. Why? See for yourself. Yeah, nasty. So nasty that Hamady Ndiaye left the court with his left shoulder wrapped in ice. (Interesting, too, that the video ended before showing him hit the floor in ugly fashion.) Back luck for the second-year center who only signed his contract over the weekend. We’ll have to see how that injury situation develops tomorrow.
Turiaf made the team-inspired move to hand off the hard hat to Roger Mason Jr., but there was little doubt that the big man earned his award.
“He had a nasty block,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. “He had an unbelievable amount of energy, how he played, and that’s been the hardest thing, trying to decide who to give that thing to.”
Other observations:
Turiaf wasn’t the only one with a wicked block. John Wall raced from behind to pin a Shelvin Mack layup to the glass – something he’s done repeatedly over the last week once the two both had arrived in Washington to start workouts. It’s nothing against Mack, a player Saunders appears to have confidence in, even if playing time isn’t going to be on Mack’s side once the season starts.
“I think it’s helped him going against John every day,” Saunders said, “Because he’s got to go against John’s quickness defensively so he’s really improved from Day 1 to Day 4, just his ability on his hip, get us into an offense.”
The bigger statement may be about Wall’s drive and determination to improve defensively, too.
“John’s been really good as far as getting after it, really concentrating,” Saunders said. “Last year he had problems at times keeping people in front of him. He’s really worked on trying to contain people and put pressure on people. Because he’s healthier, that’s helped him a little bit.”
Mason looked solid and not entirely one-dimensional as he led the second-string team against the starters. The teams of five as practice was opened to reporters: Wall/Jordan Crawford/Rashard Lewis/Andray Blatche/JaVale McGee vs. Mack/Mason/Chris Singleton/Jan Vesely/Turiaf – that first group is almost certainly your starting five on Friday against New Jersey, perhaps even if Nick Young walks in the door tomorrow.
The first group was clearly better, but Mason had his moments for the reserves, knocking down open jumper after open jumper and moving well with and without the ball. Of course, in talking to him afterward, his role is much bigger than offense off the bench – even if it strengthens the argument that Young isn’t being missed as much as he might’ve hoped. From the moment Mason said there was interest in him coming to Washington, I was curious whether it could be at Young’s expense. Multiple sources told me that Young (scorer) and Mason (veteran) were very different. But Mason may have more “scorer” than Young has “veteran.” Who knows.
“I’m older. I have much more experience,” Mason said. “I’ve been on a championship franchise so my role is just to share some of the knowledge that I’ve learned. Learning from guys like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, pros, being with Amar’e Stoudemire, those are things that I can bring to Andray Blatche, to let him know how Tim Duncan prepares for games, to let John Wall know how Tony Parker prepares for games. They’ve won championships and so my role now is to come here and to teach these guys what champions do.”
I also had to ask him about Chris Paul.
“That’s an unfortunate situation,” Mason said. “I feel horrible for CP3. Here’s a guy who has been a complete professional, and it was a little weird being on the board and in those [collective bargaining] negotiations. A lot of the points that we were talking about had a direct impact on Chris. So you’ve got [NBA commissioner] David Stern in the room, and you’ve got Chris in the room, and the dynamic, it was a little weird. Now the negotiations are over, but to see this happening, it’s just strange. It really shows you how much of a business this game is.”
After practice, Vesely worked on his free throw form, with Wizards assistant coach Ryan Saunders putting his hand against the Czech big man’s back as he extended, trying to emphasize the up and forward motion, not a retreat and lean at the line.
Flip was asked about what he’s working on with Vesely’s shooting motion: “He’s been so used to being able to get out and run in the open floor, he’s got really good form, he just has a tendency, he fades a little bit, loses his concentration and I think it’s just more to tighten up his shot a little bit, he locks in, doesn’t fade as much and keeps a little better body balance.”
The praise for this group continues to pile up. Whether it’s an accurate description of where they are vs. other teams in the NBA remains to be seen. But with four days to go before the Wizards’ first preseason game – “A lot of guys will probably get out there and hyperventilate the first time with the crowd,” Saunders said – the coach was asked about the lack of distractions in camp, something the Wizards haven’t experienced in, wow, many years.
“Usually that’s how you want it to be,” he said. “You have a chance to comprehend, and you’re players have a chance to comprehend, and you get a very serious camp, yet you have fun. That’s what you hope to do, especially with a shortened camp, with it being so many young players. When you have eight players under 23, you’re constantly in a teaching phase so what you can’t do is you can’t really afford to have a lot of slippage from distractions.”
In a potentially related question, he was also asked about the basketball IQ of his current group, and how it relates to what he’s had before in Washington.
“A lot higher than we’ve been,” Saunders said. “Not even close, really.”
