NBATV's Real Training Camp: Washington Wizards

Has anyone seen the 2 hour program NBATV put together this year for the Washington Wizards? It is much more in-depth than the 30 minute program they did last year. If you haven't seen it yet, I would suggest you stop reading this post as it contains spoilers.

*Spoiler Alert

Rick Kamla (NBATV) and Glen Consor (ComCast SportsNet) host the impressive 2 hour look into the Washington Wizards training camp that was again conducted on VCU campus at the Siegel Center. For those of you that don't know Rick Kamla, he's the superfan of NBATV. He hosts his own Fantasy NBA show on NBATV and he acts like Mark Cuban from time to time. Also, he talks about chauvinistic subjects that is just laugh-out-loud funny. Overall, he's like one of your sports buddies. BTW, Rick is a T-Wolves fan cuz he's from Minnesota. Glen, on the other hand, is very professional and much more serious. I've never seen Glen blink on TV. He's always focused and only criticizes the team when necessary.

The first thing the cameras show is Coach Jordan running a defensive play. Coach makes the players run the drill over and over again until he's satisfied. Interestingly, Coach screamed "good job" at Arenas and Jamison several times. I didn't know that these all-star players needed encouragement from Coach. Maybe it was a sign to the younger players that even veteran guys needed work on fundamentals, especially defense. Nonetheless, Arenas appeared to be slightly slower than he was last year. Maybe he gained more weight (from eating too much McDonald's)? Maybe he didn't care to play full-speed during practice? Newbie Stevenson looked solid. I was very down at DeShawn when he was drafted out of high school by the Utah Jazz and I was not a supporter of him when he got involved with underaged females. Somehow, these things made him grow up a bit and he's a solid starter now. Caron is always energized. Caron was clapping at his teammates when they did something positive. You gotta love team chemistry. Jamison looked like he's already in mid-season form (Team USA play helped), but I hope he can reserve more energy for the long, regular season. The battle for center, to me, isn't really one that Coach made it sound to the media. Even with all the stuff between Haywood and Coach, I feel that Brendan will be starter. Etan's solid, but his over-aggressiveness will hurt him when he picks up fouls he shouldn't.

The bench guys, AD, Jarvis, Donell, and Ruffin, look fine. Fingers are crossed that these guys stay healthy for the season. Nowhere do we see Darius Songaila. He's not even on the sidelines stretching. Several GMs noted that the Songaila signing was excellent for the Wizards, especially at the price. Darius was very energetic when I saw him play on Team Lithuania this past summer; however, impatient fans may not give this guy a chance. History tells us that we should look into last season, where fans were mixed with AD's performance for the first 50 games of the season. Afterwards, AD just exploded and became the leader he is. I feel that Darius will do the same thing for the Wizards. He is a tough banger and the Wiz definitely needs someone like him. Darius' inside-outside game is good and he'll be a tough cover.

The tv program just centers around Coach running drills. You see assistant coach Tom Young showing players where they're supposed to go. You also see assistant coach Mike O'Koren monitoring the drills. Coach tries to keep the players from getting bored - always switching from drills to games and back to drills. One thing that caught my attention is Coach "stuffs" his plays in his pants. You see this a lot from NFL coaches where their laminated play lists are stuffed in the front or in the back of their pants. Coach Jordan does this too and I have to wonder if this is uncomfortable.

The program contained a quick Q&A session with GM Ernie Grunfeld and you can sense that expectations are high. Many have said that it's not easy to run the "Princeton Offense", but with players that can pass the ball well, the motion offense will work. Offense doesn't worry me with the Wizards.

Overall, this 2-hour program is very entertaining. Coach didn't scream as much as he did in last year's program. I remember during last year's show, Coach yelled at Donell and Awvee Storey so many times that I was sure both would not make the team (to my surprise, they both made the team last season; however, Awvee moved back to NJ this season and Donell is fighting for a spot with the Wiz).

It's time to "Go All In" because it's back to "One Team; One Goal". I'm ready with my Arenas and Butler jerseys - are you?