There's a sneaky PowerPoint presentation feel to the way the Wizards have been reshaped in the last week, and it's not a bad thing.

First off, the Great Wall has taken over Chinatown. There's a massive banner on the 6th Street side of Verizon Center that says so.

The Wizards also have added the first Chinese player in Chinatown (Yi Jianlian), a Senegalese center (Hamady N'diaye), unofficially a French center (Kevin Seraphin) and an Iowa-bred point guard (Kirk Hinrich) to go with a high-motor energy guy from rural South Carolina (Trevor Booker).

All of a sudden, Washington's NBA team feels about as multicultural and international as the city itself -- especially with a brash, young American superstar as the centerpiece -- and it's almost as if the idea was conceived on a whiteboard in the corporate conference room adjacent to Ted Leonsis' office.

But make no mistake, there's no arguing with what Leonsis did for the Capitals or what he's doing for the Wizards.

"I don't think we're as concerned with the marketing aspect of it," Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld said of the Yi trade.

Nor should he be. If the team stinks and doesn't show any signs of progress next season, it won't matter where the players are from or what language they speak.

But there is something larger at play for a franchise that is desperate to rebuild its roster, its image and the culture surrounding it after what went down with Gilbert Arenas last year.

Whether it is coincidence or intent, a roster that reflects its surroundings is an intriguing way to start.