Caron Butler News

At Pradamaster and the gang's suggestion, I'll be posting some stats-oriented pieces on a weekly basis--Wednesdays noonish.

Venus Williams, tall and lanky, stood out among a pack of fidgety children, all with tennis rackets by their side.

In the fall of 1997, before his first and only full season as the Sacramento Kings' head coach, Eddie Jordan invited his mentor, Tom Young, to the team's training camp.

They are finally competing with someone else, though the season is over. It seems as though the Wizards are dead set on being just as inept a franchise as the LA Clippers.

Seeing how the trade is, oh, three minutes old and not yet consummated, let's take stock of what Ernie 'Small Ball' Grunfeld hath wrought anyway:

Washington's pro basketball team gets two scoring swingmen who like to have the ball in their hands, and gives up a onetime starting center, a banging veteran forward, a young 7-footer and the fifth pick in tomorrow's NBA draft.

Hey, at least Brendan Haywood will never have to worry about his minutes in the pivot being cut again.

In an apparent ongoing attempt to run, gun and mirror the pre-Shaq Suns, Grunfeld, the Wizards' president, dealt away that depressing No. 5 selection and three contracts to Minnesota for Mike Miller, Mr. Outside, and Randy Foye, Another Mr. Outside, last night.

In addition to discussing the trade rumors that have been surrounding him all summer, Wizards forward Caron Butler also discussed yesterday his desire to see just how far the team can go with its core players together for a full season.

The Washington Wizards entered the NBA lottery in May hoping to get the No. 2 pick of the draft so they could select Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio.

Jump like "Tough Juice" in this pic for the 4-1-1. Michael Lee over at the Washington Post has the details and more in Wizards Rebuffing Inquiries for Butler : About half of the teams in the league have spoken with the Wizards , according to a league source, and most of those discussions have revolved around the draft choice.

HereI thought Kevin McHale no longer was with the Timberwolves. Or perhaps David Kahn was channeling McHale's ghost.

By Zach Lowe , CelticsHub.com June 23rd, 9:04 pm Filed under: Notebook Offseason Both Yahoo! and ESPN are reporting that the Wizards are dealing the #5 pick, Etan Thomas , Darius Songalia and Oleskiy Pecherov for the T'Wolves in exchange for Randy Foye and Mike Miller.A And holy hell did the Wizards just become interesting.

The Washington Wizards' infatuation with Minnesota continues. The Wizards agreed in principle last night to a deal that would send the No. 5 overall pick, Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for forward Mike Miller and guard Randy Foye, two league sources said.

The Wizards had been open to dealing the pick from the moment they slipped to the fifth pick in the draft lottery. Ernie Grunfeld, the Wizards' president of basketball operations, was considering several offers and had spoken with more than a dozen teams, but he jumped on the offer from Minnesota two days before tomorrow's NBA draft.

Injuries to star guard Gilbert Arenas and center Brendan Haywood crippled the Washington Wizards last season as the team tied a franchise record for fewest wins in an 82-game season with 19.

In an NBA Draft that - like many before it - features one perceived franchise savior and only a handful of elite prospects followed by many question marks, the forecast for Thursday is anything but predictable, and many trades are expected.

Coming off one of their worst seasons in franchise history, the 2009 NBA Draft will be critical to the future success of the Washington Wizards and general manager Ernie Grunfeld... by Mike Acosta 201 reads Opinion Coming off one of their worst seasons in franchise history, the 2009 NBA Draft will be critical to the future success of the Washington ...

Marvin Williams is the least essential Hawks starter. He scores points and takes rebounds but seems to leave no imprint on games, and one of the reasons Joe Johnson gets the ball with three seconds on the shot clock a ' or, worse, Josh Smith gets it 25 feet from the hoop a ' is that Marvin, four years a pro, still wona TMt assert himself.

Would you trade your draft pick to get me? View full size photo uploaded June 15, 2009 In last week's edition of Pollin', Wes Unseld was the runaway favorite for which former Bullet/ Wizards would help the current team the most, with 38% of the vote.

Holding the No. 5 and No. 32 picks in this year's NBA Draft, the Wizards worked out seven potential future pros Wednesday, most notably North Carolina standout Ty Lawson and Southern Cal freshman DeMar DeRozan.

College players only in this post, their 2008-09 stats below. Six shooting guards under consideration First, shooting and scoring: Name Pts/100 eFG TS 2PTFG 3PTFG 3PTA/FGA FT FTRate Douglas 34.98 52.5 58.8 48.9 38.5 41.2 81.0 35.1 Ellington 28.4 57.4 60.6 53.4 41.5 45.9 77.7 19.9 Harden 37.4 55.3 61.7 56.4 35.6 36.1 75.6 45.1 Henderson 33.2 49.4 ...

Washington Post writer Michael Lee seems to think that the recent slate of Wizards workout participants - Louisville forward Terrence Williams and Virginia guard and Metro native Mamadi Diane - indicates ... by Jarrett Carter 1 76 reads Sports Washington Post writer Michael Lee seems to think that the recent slate of Wizards workout participants - ...

In the middle of his plea to Philadelphia 76ers fans that the decision to hire former Washington Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was indeed a good one, he inserted his opinion on current Wizards' guard, Gilbert Arenas: "Gilbert Arenas is the worse person on earth.