I am not yet in the "blow-it-up" and start over camp.... Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but I still think the trio of Arenas, Butler and Jamison - under the Coaching of Flip Saunders; can turn this ship around and take the team deep into the Playoffs.  Once the team is in the Playoffs, anything can happen.

My optimism springs from the fact that the Wizards December and January schedule is full of winnable games.. The rest of their games in December are against the Sacramento Kings , Golden State , Phoenix , Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Minnesota  , Memphis , Oklahoma City - all are winnable games (with perhaps the exception of Phoenix). January, the schedule makers were especially kind to the Wizards; giving them an almost unheard of 11 home games versus only 5 away games; and only two of the away games should be tough (at Cleveland and at Atlanta)....

So, you can see why my optimism may have overridden my common sense. I am especially worried that I may have overrated this team, after their recent losses to Charlotte, Toronto, Detroit, Indiana and the debacle in LA against the Clippers.

 

So - if, and remember I said I'm still not yet in the "blow-it-up" camp, but if the Wizards come through December and continue to stink up the Verizon Center - how can Management possibly make any changes; given the current salary situation...

Well - here are some trades that could free up salary this year, save on the Luxury tax this year, and get the team UNDER the salary cap next year. Impossible? No.... Improbable?  Not really; especially if you don't mind giving up quality players for expiring contracts and youngsters.

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No, that's not a mistake. The Wizards played very good, tough defense tonight against the Miami Heat. Although it was a team effort, with multiple players having good games; the one that stuck out to me was Nick Young. That's right..... Nick Young played defense tonight. Nick had 22 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds; but for the second game in a row, the real reason he played so many minutes was because of his defense.

That's two games in a row that Nick has been tasked with defending the opponent's best player. On Tuesday, Nick helped the Wizards defense hold Andre Igguodala to 12 points on 2-10 (20%) shooting. Tonight, although NO one player can completely stop Dwayne Wade, Nick was a major part of the reason D-Wade scored "only" 18 points on 6-19 (31.5%) shooting.

And for the second game in a row, the Wizard's offense shot a good percentage (48.8%) and that helped their Defense. Dwayne Wade gets a lot of his points attacking in the open floor. As Flip Saunders said in his post game comments, "Tonight we shot a very good percentage, didn't turn the ball over too much - we were able to get our defense set, and not give him too many open lanes". The Heat were held to 41.8% shooting for the game and a number of the shots they did hit were semi-desperation contested shots, late in the shot clock. The Wizards dominated the boards, with Blatche (9 rebounds), Butler (7 rebounds), Jamison (13 rebounds) and Haywood (7 rebounds) doing the heavy lifting; giving the Heat very few second chance opportunities.

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Following he jump is a list of the 2006 draft class and their status for next year. There are some interesting names including Randy Foye, Tyrus Thomas, Hilton Armstrong and our old friend Oleksiy Pecherov.

 

Anyone available on this list that you think could help the Wizards next year?

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In his first NBA game action, DeJuan Blair played 23 minutes, scored 14 points on 7-10 shooting (70%), grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 3 assists.

 

Spurs Coach Greg Popovich inserted Blair with 1:40 left to play in the 1st quarter and the game tied at 13.  The Rookie paid immediate dividends by scoring 2 points and grabbing 2 rebounds even before the quarter ended.... Giving Spurs fans hope that he might actually be able to grab a rebound for every minute of play.

Beastman, as the Spurs fans have taken to calling Blair, scored 6 points, snagged 6 rebounds and 1 assist in a little over 5 and a half minutes before he was replaced by Tim Duncan at 7:47 of the second period - with the San Antonio Spurs enjoying a 31-16 lead.

The Wizard's, who received $2.5 Million for their 2009 second round draft pick (#32 overall), played their season opener yesterday. However their stack of cash never entered the game - and was a non-factor in their win over the Dallas Mavericks.

 

ESPN the Magazine grades the contenders. (insider required)

Although I agree with where they ranked the Wizards; and I mostly agree with the rest of the rankings - some of the individual grades are puzzling.

Of course at ESPN, "grading" is done on somewhat of a curve; with Boston, Cleveland and Orlando getting the benefit of a positive grade on anything that might be considered iffy, while any "doubts" on the rest of the teams are strictly graded negative.

 

 

Boston Celtics
ECONOMICS — B-plus
If the Celtics don't look like contenders by the break, they may try to unload Allen. There will be takers because he's in the last year of his deal.

Washington Wizards
ECONOMICS — C-plus
Mike Miller (unrestricted) and Randy Foye (restricted) are both in the final year of their deals. Will they play for wins or stats?

 

I fail to see how an expiring contract on one team (Boston) is treated as a positive; while expiring deals on another team (Wizards) are graded down.... Doesn't Washington have the same option as Boston to trade their expiring contracts? If ESPN thinks that Miller or Foye could "play for stats", what makes Ray Allen so special that they can't even contemplate the same from him?

 

As a matter of fact... It would seem to me that Washington has an advantage over Boston here. The Wizards have a player (Mike James) with an expiring contract that does not fit into the team's long range plans. They may be able to trade that "asset" at the Trade Deadline for help down the stretch and into the Playoffs. Boston can only trade Allen and hope they get value in return.

 

And the Wizards get a "C" for Biology because of the uncertainty of Gilbert Arenas' knee. While the Celtics get a "B" even though ESPN admits that

The Celtics are old. Ray Allen is 34, Kevin Garnett, 33, Paul Pierce, 32, and Rasheed Wallace, 35. But the bigger deal is KG's knee. Preseason reviews were mixed. Some saw a limp, others saw that old explosiveness.

 

 

 

On the other hand, this is one of the first times I've seen ESPN actually acknowledge that, when healthy, the BIG-3 are capable of playing contending basketball;

The last time Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison were running at full tilt for a long stretch (2006-07), they had the Wizards revving at a 45-win pace. And incoming coach Flip Saunders has a much better supporting cast this time.