Wizards training camp winners and losers

Loser: The black team, including Nick Young, Yi Jianlian, Lester Hudson, Hilton Armstrong, Adam Morrison, and Kevin Seraphin. Young thought he had sent the scrimmage to overtime when he dropped a 3-pointer with 8.0 seconds left, but he missed his next shot, a potential game-winner at the buzzer.

Winner: John Wall. He didn’t quite dominate in the way that he did on Wednesday night, at times even push a little hard to make things happen and getting himself into bad spots. At one point, his errant pass was easily picked off by Young, who raced down the court to slam it home. Wall hustled back and may have even gotten a clean block, but Young got flattened and Wall was clearly frustrated by the sequence. But the things he did well will be easier to remember, and you may have already seen the highlight clip of his absolutely sickening 360 layup at the end of the first quarter.

“It was instincts,” said Wall. “I was going to the basket and I seen Yi there. I didn’t know if he was in the charge area or not, and it went in.”

Wizards head coach Flip Saunders jokingly took credit for the move: “I told him that’s why I brought him up there to Minnesota, those three days. So he picked up that move, finally.”

Loser (but not by much): Andray Blatche. Give the guy a break, right? After suffering a broken foot that required surgery back in June, Blatche finally made it back to full action on Friday. Two days later, he scored eight straight points in the fourth quarter to single-handedly eliminate the deficit the white team had been facing for most of the scrimmage. But Saunders didn’t hold back in some basic criticisms afterward, ones that sounded a bit like last year when the coach and the player worked through the growing pains that came with Blatche being thrust into the starting lineup. Blatche will need to heed them if he’s to shoulder the load the Wizards expect him to this season.

“Dray’s trying to get in shape,” said Saunders. “We got to get him just playing at the same level as everybody else from the standpoint of making sure he’s moving the ball and doing those things… He had some stupid fouls. If you’re going to be a main guy, and you’re a going to be starter-type, you can’t have stupid fouls, especially if you’re a big guy because you have enough fouls to waste fighting for rebounds and everything else. You can’t foul fifty feet from the basket, which he has a tendency to do sometimes.”

Winner: Hilton Armstrong. Loser: JaVale McGee. Again, Saunders realizes he has a massive project on his hands in transforming some promising late-season signs from players like Blatche and McGee into something that can result in competitive games and victories moving forward. To get to that point, Saunders used Sunday to put pressure on McGee – who by all rights expects to be the starter this season – directly contrasting his performance with Armstrong, who said before the season that he was aiming for that very spot.

“Hilton Armstrong’s had a really solid camp,” said Saunders. “He’s actually played better than JaVale has through camp right now. We gotta get JaVale defensive rebounding right now. With him, we need more substance than style. He has a tendency – he’s always been a style guy, and we got to get some substance out of that position.”

Saunders went as far as to say that Armstrong was the surprise of camp, shooting and handling the ball better than the coaching staff had anticipated.

“I feel like I’m doing better,” said McGee, who . “I’m boxing out, trying to find bodies. If I’m not getting the rebound, I’m just making sure my man is not getting the rebound. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Winner: Yi Jianlian. Not only did his midrange jump shot fall nicely at points during the scrimmage, but the Chinese big man had by far the largest fan contingent on Sunday afternoon, a full section of students from Beijing who added the practice to their Washington tour itinerary.

“My foot feel pretty good,” said Yi, who had a minor Achilles injury coming into camp, having gotten it during the FIBA World Championships in Turkey. “I don’t have any problem. My body feel great for the past week. Working hard, training hard. The team getting together, much better than the beginning. I’m ready for the season.”

“I thought he played very good,” said Saunders. “The last two days, it’s like he’s gotten his legs underneath him, and with that, he’s been a lot more lively shooting the ball, he’s been a lot more lively rebounding, running the floor. He’s big. You can play him and Dray together. I think we haven’t had the opportunity to play a total big front line yet because Dray’s been out, but you might be able to play all three of those big guys together.”

Winner: Lester Hudson. If it weren’t for Wall and Kirk Hinrich, he’d be the camp MVP. Of course he was knocking down shots early and often in the scrimmage, scrapping for cheeky rebounds, you name it. But that math problem – too many guards – could still come back to haunt him.

“I’m not surprised but I’m happy that Lester continued through what he did during the summer to show his ability to really compete and make shots,” said Saunders.

Winner and Loser: Kirk Hinrich. Saunders called him one of the best performers in camp, but Hinrich also had to leave the scrimmage early after bruising his right shoulder.

Loser: Gilbert Arenas. This topic has been covered.

Not sure: Nick Young. He’s knocked down some shots and played some defense, but the best indication of where he stands in Saunders’ mind probably will come once the preseason games begin. Then again, Young was all over the shop last year in the preseason. It may be the same this time around.

Not sure: Al Thornton. Despite the game-winner, the pressure is squarely on Thornton to defend a precarious hold on the starting small forward spot. Plenty of rotation during preseason wouldn’t come as a surprise.

No grade: Trevor Booker. He needs to work hard defensively and rebound. The focus isn’t on him to make a big leap, and as long as he doesn’t stick out negatively, he’s making progress.

Adam Morrison, Cartier Martin, Sean Marks, Kevin Seraphin, Hamady N’Diaye: The scrimmage gave little evidence to change Saturday’s analysis.

Loser: Kevin Palmer. But you already knew that. He didn’t have much of a chance coming into camp.

“Kevin played pretty well today,” said Saunders. “We’ll have to wait and see how it goes. His biggest thing is the numbers situation, but he’s competing and no matter what happens, he’s going to be able to build off this, which is positive.”

Winner: Wizards status quo. Saunders put it quite bluntly: “What I thought we had is what we have so what I learned was, what I thought we were, we are.”

What exactly is that? A team that has energy, plays hard, and has both quickness and length. Rebounding, however, will be huge challenge, as will defense, decision-making and execution. But the train is out of the station. Next stop: Dallas on Tuesday.

“I can’t wait,” said Wall. “The season’s here, and it’s going to be a great one, hopefully. I hope we do a good job. And preseason is going to something to see, what our test is before the season starts.”