There were many questions about Yi Jianlian's game entering the FIBA World Championships. Some critics questioned his shot selection, interior play and defense - to name a few. Well through three games, Yi has had three very solid performances. Currently he is averaging a very impressive 25 PPG and 10 RPG, but statistics alone do not tell the full story.

Previously, I suggested that Yi could struggle at the Worlds due to the relative inexperience of his team. Well, statistically speaking he has not struggled - he has excelled. Often facing double teams, Yi has managed to lead his team in both points and rebounds. And if his young guards were more proficient at getting him the ball in the paint, Yi could easily be averaging 30 PPG. There have been a number of possessions in which Yi was in great position with his defender sealed and his guard was too late with the pass (if he passed it at all), attempted to drive to the hope on his own, or took a bad jump shot (which is more often the case).

Many Wizards fans are paying special attention to the performance of Yi Jianlian leading up to the FIBA World Championship.  The goal is to get a sense of how his game has improved and how that might translate into helping the Washington Wizards this season.  In the vein, a few in the press and blogosphere, have already begun to analyze his early performances in the tune-up games.

For those of us who follow the Wizards, there wasn’t much new information generated by the questions of Dana Jacobs or Skip Bayless.  John Wall gave his Summer League performance a C+ or B- largely due to his number of turnovers and his shot selection.

And as we have learned over this short period of time with John Wall, he appears to be an incredibly level-headed individual.  When Jacobs commented that he does not appear to be a person who is ever satisfied with his performance.  Wall responded by saying,  “You can never be satisfied, you always got to be determined to keep getting better and improve yourself every night.”  It is a very rare trait when such a young player clearly understands this, but it is a trait that helps him endear himself to Wizards' fans.

This is the time of year in which we begin to wonder which players will make significant improvement from one season to the next.  One player who should be sufficiently motivated is Nick Young.  The 2010/11 season marks Nick’s final season of his rookie contract, which means that he will be playing for his next contract.  Whether that will be with the Wizards or another team will likely unfold before our eyes.

The NBA offseason has quieted down as of late in the wake of a whirlwind free agency period and aftermath. As such, it is only natural to try to condense all of the action into qualities and quantities. The Washington Wizards are a team that made a number of roster moves between the draft, trades, and free agency.

Not all of those moves were received with glowing praise, but such is to be expected from a team in the early stages of genuine rebuilding.

The Good

This is a no-brainer for anyone who actively uses theirs, but John Wall is the best thing to come out of this offseason. Washington was projected to pick fifth in the draft, but through some stroke of luck or the cosmic intervention of their late owner, the Wizards managed to leap to the top of the draft after winning the draft lottery. With that pick, they took the first step toward ushering in a new legacy for a beleaguered franchise.

Wall is young, talented, and has a true passion for the game. Nevermind the doubters and haters who claim he has been jaded since his high school days; Wall showed his worth during the Wizards' Summer League in Vegas. Forget the part about Summer League having no real structure or defense and you'll see that Wall improved with each game, made the most of his time and touches, while making his teammates better.

We have been waiting for this year of free agency to come for quite some time (and now gone), and it lived up to the hype. Though there is a lot of offseason left, we can size up the contenders in the Eastern Conference now that the big free agents have chosen their destinations. The focus on the East is being emphasized because it is the Wizards conference, but also because the power has shifted to the East in a shocking series of events in free agency. At the end of this article I will evaluate the Washington Wizards and projected roster, and then I will analyze the field.  By analyzing both of these categories we can estimate what spot in the Eastern Conference the Wizards have a good shot of obtaining.

Player Profile of Trevor Booker

Trevor Booker doesn’t look like the biggest guy in the league, because he is nowhere near that. Standing at only 6`7 with a `7 foot wing span, this former University of Clemson is not your average undersized power forward. He can bang with the best of them. He was drafted 23^rd by the Minnesota Timberwolves but was then traded to the Washington Wizards.

Wizards vs. Clippers

The Wizards pregame warm-up was like a university midnight madness, just full of oohh’s and aww’s. JaVale McGee, Nick Young, and even John Wall showed off to the crowd their athletic display. John Wall showed not only his talent but his toughness. As he was going for a layup, the clippers defender landed right on top of him, and it seemed to me the clippers defender on the way down, kicked Wall in the head. He got up slowly and went straight to the bench, but came right back out to shoot his free throws. Wall sat on the bench and Michael Lee from the Washington Post reported that he was having ‘sharp pains’ in his neck, but came in shortly showing no signs of pain.

Game 1 of the 2010 NBA Summer league is in the books as John Wall and the Wiz Kids showed off their skills In front of a huge crowd at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. The gym was comparable to a high school gymnasium but of course the Wizards were playing and not Oak Hill Academy. The anticipation was high and you can sense the John Wall in the air. The Wizards were coached by the ever favorite, Sam Cassell. I of course, mentioned to several NBA officials, and not one disagreed with me.

The Wizards came out with the starting lineup of Trevor Booker at the 4, JaVale McGee at the center position, Cartier Martin as the shooting guard, of course John Wall as the point guard and surprised of the night, at small forward Raymar Morgan of Michigan State.

It was a tale of two halves as the Wiz kids were a little jittery to begin the game which transcended into the 2^nd quarter. Felt like John Wall was rushing his shots and was a little tad bit nervous as expected. Comcast’s very own, Chris Miller pointed out to me, that this is his first game played since March, when he was on Kentucky in March Madness.

Being that this is our first time covering the Wizards mini-camps I cannot compare the experience to previous years. What I do know is that there was an energy in the Verizon Center practice court and it wasn't all about John Wall.

Media is only allowed to see the last 15 minutes of practice so I'm not going to even pretend to give you a full recap of the entire practice but we will go off of the quotes from players, the coach, the GM, and from the portion we were able to watch.

We started things off with a visit from Ernie Grunfeld who touched on topics including the acquisition of Kirk Hinrich and how he would fit in to the backcourt to some of the needs of the Wizards which include potentially adding a SF and another big.

Among the Wizards veterans not only in attendance but participating in the camp who are not listed on the Summer League roster were Al Thornton and Nick Young. Young who is undoubtabley going into one of the most important years in his brief career was not ruled out by Saunders afterwards as a candidate to be in Vegas with the team. Asked specifically about Young, Saunders said that the team has not made a decision yet and that after speaking with Nick they felt it was best if he came in and worked out in the minicamp. I couldn't agree more.

Also present and surprisingly in good spirits was Andray Blatche. Blatche was extremely vocal on the sidelines yelling out words of encoragement and even throwing in a little bit of trash talk to Cartier Martin after JaVale swatted a basket attempt. After a couple good plays the guys on the sideline would join Blatche in yelling out the nickname "Juice" for Al Thornton and "JDub" for John Wall.