Andray Blatche, shown here with a sprained shoulder during a Wizards-Bucks game last March. Photograph by Flickr user Keith Allison.

If you squint hard, you can start to see what the 2014 Wizards will look like.

They’re an athletic and aggressive playoff team (stop laughing and squint, dammit) in the mold of their franchise point guard. They generate plenty of turnovers, and they like to get out and run. Trevor Booker, Chris Singleton, and Jan Vesely have developed into excellent complementary players alongside John Wall and the first pick of the 2012 draft. Meanwhile, Andray Blatche is nowhere to be seen.

And how could he be? Blatche—the recipient of a regrettable contract extension from Ernie Grunfeld at the outset of this rebuilding project—doesn’t have a place on a team like this. His presence runs contrary to everything these new Wizards are trying to become. His game, while oftentimes effective, is lethargic.

John Wall and the Wizards are off to a rough start this season. Photograph by Kyle Gustafson.

As you may have heard, the Washington Wizards are off to their worst start in franchise history. And for a franchise with such a rich tradition of losing, you know it must have been an especially difficult ten days.

Okay, that was mean. I apologize for piling on more pixels of despair, but a run like this makes it pretty difficult to stay positive. How can we focus on #NewTraditions when lackadaisical offensive sets and defensive indifference keep popping up to remind us of what we’re trying to replace?

Forgive the frustration, Mr. Leonsis—I’ve spent most of my life watching this franchise rebuild.

I know, this was never going to be an easy year. As a fan, all I’m looking for are glimmers of hope for the future. Some indication that this team is on the path to improvement. Yet through six games, it’s been more of the same: some nice individual efforts spoiled by a lack of cohesion.

Is Mike Shanahan on the naughty or nice list this year? Photograph by Brian Murphy.

The holiday season is upon us, and I’m in a gift-giving mood. Now that I’ve finished shopping for friends and family, it’s time to find something for the coaches in our sporting lives.

Mike Shanahan: A quarterbacking automaton
What do you get for the man who has an entire room in his house dedicated to video golf? The one thing he truly desires, of course: A fully operational robot programmed to run the offense exactly as he and Kyle intend. Every single step in its drop and every read in its progression predetermined without the slightest hint of variance. That’s all he’s ever wanted.

I know the world moves fast in the Internet age, but I had no idea it moved this fast. Yesterday, Washingtonian.com published a column of mine chronicling the story of 23-year-old army veteran Daniel Rodriguez. If you haven’t read it, my desire for you to do so now goes far beyond self-interest.

To summarize: Daniel was a captain and three-year starter at Brooke Pointe High School in Stafford, Virginia, and led his team to a district championship in his senior season. Because of a series of personal hardships, including the death of his father, Daniel did not go directly to college. Instead, he enlisted in the army, serving two 12-month combat tours—one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. On October 3, 2009, Rodriguez and his unit were at the center of one of the bloodiest showdowns of the entire war. The Battle of Kamdesh unfolded in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan and saw a force of roughly 300 Taliban soldiers ambush an American force one-fifth its size. The American force suffered eight deaths; the Taliban lost 150. Daniel was wounded. He caught shrapnel in his legs and neck and took a bullet fragment through his shoulder. He received the Bronze Star for valor for his acts during that battle, which, according to accounts, include him running 300 meters under heavy fire to take the place of a fallen soldier. Daniel was treated for his wounds in-country and completed his 12-month tour. He is home now, and is taking advantage of the GI Bill by attending school at Germanna Community College in Fredericksburg. He wants to transfer to a four-year institution and resume his football career—and his dream is to do it at Virginia Tech.

Maybe you had a guy like Daniel Rodriguez on your high school football team. He wasn’t much to speak of physically (five-foot-six, 140 pounds his senior year), but what he lacked in size, he made up for with a set of intangibles that makes guys like him coaches’ pets wherever they materialize: uncanny football instincts, an indomitable will to win, and a motor that could power a Mack truck. Second and third strings across America are littered with guys like Daniel—good teammates, valuable practice players, occasional subs, but most often relegated to the bench to cheer for players with more prolific physical tools. 

But not Daniel.