The counterbalance to the suits and greed of the NBA lockout this past summer was the rise of the rec league games. The Goodman League. The Drew League. Rucker Park. More than ever NBA players were rolling into these leagues and playing, and soon the leagues were playing each other like the epic Goodman vs. Drew matchups. Then that evolved into countless charity games.
All entertaining if not exactly well played basketball.
But Flip Saunders watched his team get off to a slow start — they picked up their first win Tuesday — and wondered if all those summer games that John Wall, JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche, Nick Young and others played in hurt the team. Here is what he told CSNWashington.com.
Those summer games feature very little defense — there is almost no team defensive play. With guys like Wall or Young, nobody can guard them one-on-one and so in settings like that they can get their shot and score almost at will.
The NBA is different — selfish play will cost you games. It cost the Wizards as for the first eight games there were pick-and-rolls and isolations on the strong side but no weakside movement to free or shooters or freeze defenders. Finally that changed Tuesday.
It’s too simplistic to say the rec league games led to the bad Wizards start. There are a whole lot of problems in Washington that have nothing to do with the Goodman League games. But the games followed by a condensed training camp may not have helped, either.