Washington Wizards

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) San Antonio Spurs 91, Phoenix Suns 90 Cleveland Cavaliers 93, Washington Wizards 89 The Cavs have been cruising along this season against the weaker teams but they were snoozing along for most of the game versus the Wizards before making just enough plays to win 93-89. Mo Williams led the Cavs with 24 points and also had six assists, while Delonte West added 18 points, a team-high seven assists and three steals. LeBron James had 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. Antawn Jamison scored a game-high 28 points, while recently acquired guard Mike James had 26 points and shot 5-8 from three point range. Caron Butler put up a strange stat line: six points, six rebounds, 10 assists.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) Reasons to mope: The upside for this team simply is not as good as their rabid fans believe. With Gilbert Arenas they are a 41-45 win team and without him they are a 41-45 win team. When Arenas is out, they play a steadier, more methodical game; when Arenas plays, the Wizards may be more exciting but they are also more erratic. A rash of injuries in addition to Arenas' knee woes--Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood and Antonio Daniels are all out of action at the moment--has left the team looking very ragged during the preseason. Bottom line: This team is just not a serious contender--with or without Arenas. They will not miss Arenas as much as some people think and once Jamison and Daniels get back on the court the Wizards will resume being a team capabl...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) Ewing averaged 21.0 ppg, 9.8 rpg and 2.4 bpg during his 17 year career, earning 11 All-Star selections, one All-NBA First Team selection and six All-NBA Second Team selections; All-NBA honors were hard to attain for centers during that era: Ewing's career overlapped with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Robert Parish, Olajuwon, David Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal. Ewing never won an MVP, but he finished in the top five in the balloting six times (1989-90, 1992-95). The only real blank space on his resume is that he never won an NBA championship; he led the Knicks to the 1994 Finals, but Olajuwon avenged his 1984 NCAA Championship Game loss to Ewing by leading the Houston Rockets to a seven game. Ewing's Knicks also made it to the 1999 Finals...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) Arenas is an erratic gunner who has a me-first agenda that gets in the way of team success, which is why the Wizards do not suffer noticeably in his absence even though he is easily the most publicized player on the team. As I pointed out near the end of last season, during the past two seasons, the Wizards have done better with Caron Butler in the lineup sans Arenas than with Arenas in the lineup sans Butler. Last season, the Wizards started out 3-5 with Arenas before Arenas was sidelined by a knee injury. They went 35-31 without Arenas before he returned to play five late season games; the Wizards went 3-2 in those games and 2-1 in three late season games that he sat out. Overall, the Wizards were 37-32 without Arenas last year and 6-7 with him. Obvious...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) Baron Davis led the Golden State Warriors to one playoff appearance in three seasons and he has been injury-prone for most of his career, so the Warriors understandably declined to offer him a long term contract extension--but they inexplicably are reportedly willing to pay more than $100 million to pry Gilbert Arenas away from the Washington Wizards. Fortunately for Golden State fans, the Warriors apparently will not have a chance to overpay for Arenas because the Wizards and Arenas have reached a verbal agreement for $111 million over six years (contracts cannot be signed until July 9 when the precise amount of next season's salary cap is calculated). If that deal goes through it will be the sixth largest NBA contract signed since th...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) 16) The Washington Wizards will never make it further than the second round of the playoffs as long as Gilbert Arenas is their primary offensive option. Period. I don't care how certain people crunch various numbers to "prove" his value and I don't care that the Wizards were once in first place in the East for a minute and a half almost two years ago when Arenas had some high scoring games. Arenas is a player who is primarily focused on scoring points and on settling old scores (being a second round pick, being left off of Team USA, etc.). It seems highly unlikely that he will ever change his mindset and that makes him ill equipped to lead a legit contender.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Of course, no Cleveland-Washington playoff game this year would be complete without the obligatory incident featuring extracurricular contact and jawing by Wizards' players, with both the contact and the jawing generally directed at James. This time, Darius Songaila made a backhand slap to James' face after Songaila had already fouled him on a driving move. James simply rubbed his jaw and moved away but players from both teams congregated around each other and started woofing and posturing. For no apparent reason, Stevenson slapped down Anderson Varejao's arm. After the officials sorted everything out, Songaila, Stevenson and Varejao received technical fouls.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Antawn Jamison led Washington with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Caron Butler had a solid game (19 points, four assists). Gilbert Arenas got his second consecutive start, with decidedly mixed results in 32 minutes of action, the most time that he has played since returning from his knee injury: he scored four points in the final minute to help the Wizards tie the score before West made the game-winning shot but Arenas also had a game-high four turnovers and looked out of sync most of the time, scoring 10 points on 3-8 shooting from the field, adding two assists and two rebounds. Arenas had a -4 plus/minus rating, while Antonio Daniels--who started in Arenas' place for most of the season--had a +5 plus/minus rating in 17 minutes, contributing se...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman In my Cavs-Wizards series preview article for CavsNews.com, I predicted that this series would start out 2-2 before the Cavs prevail in six games. I said that the keys for the Cavs, as always, are the brilliance of LeBron James supplemented by team defense and rebounding, while the Wizards must focus on teamwork and ball movement on offense while limiting James to near his average on defense, thus forcing other Cavs to perform very well. I also predicted that--contrary to all suggestions from the Wizards--Arenas would rejoin the starting lineup, most likely in game three. So far, the series has played out according to the script that I described. The Cavaliers stayed true to their recipe for success in the first two games while at the same ti...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Jamison is a thoughtful, classy individual who must privately be appalled at the way that Arenas and Stevenson have acted. Jamison tried to distance himself from their comments, declaring that they took place a month ago and that he and his teammates absolutely did not underestimate the Cavs. Of course, Jamison is not entirely correct: while Stevenson's statement is a month old, Arenas stuck his foot in his mouth right before the playoffs began and specifically said that the Wizards wanted to face Cleveland. There must be some fascinating closed door conversations in that Wizards' locker room, particularly between the business-like captains Jamison and Butler and Arenas and Stevenson.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Yes, this was just game one and the Wizards may very well win game two and seize homecourt advantage but the point is that we have years of evidence from the regular season and the playoffs about both James and Arenas and that mountain of evidence shows that James is a franchise player and that Arenas is not. That does not mean that Arenas has no value or that he makes the team worse or that he can't have a big game and carry the Wizards to a win or two in this series--but it does mean that, barring evidence to the contrary, he cannot lift the Wizards the same way that James lifted the Cavs last season. As Coach Brown predicted, several players took turns guarding Arenas. James can perhaps bother Arenas the most because James is much bigger and just as qui...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Eastern Conference First Round 3 San Antonio (56-26) vs. #6 Phoenix (55-27) During the playoffs you will probably hear things like "A series does not start until the home team loses" and "A series does not begin until one team faces elimination." The reality is that the game one winner in an NBA best of seven series has gone on to win the series 78.5% of the time. With that in mind, the most important game of this year's playoffs may be game one in the San Antonio-Phoenix series because it could play a major role in deciding which of those teams eventually makes it to the Western Conference Finals and which one suffers a devastating first round elimination.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The Bottom Line: The Sixers could have moved up to fifth place in the East but instead they slid to seventh and the Wizards are now in fifth place. Washington controlled this game on both the inside and the outside, outrebounding Philadelphia 48-36 and shooting a blistering 12-22 (.545) from three point range. Antawn Jamison had an excellent game, posting game-high totals in points (25) and rebounds (13) to help the Wizards make up for the absence of injured All-Star Caron Butler. Arenas got off to a slow start, shooting just 2-8 from the field, but he owned the fourth quarter, scoring 12 points on 5-6 shooting while also contributing as a rebounder and playmaker. This is the Arenas that Wizards' fans have been waiting all season to see and if th...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The Washington Wizards are barely above .500 (41-37) and the Boston Celtics easily have the best record in the NBA (62-16) but with a 109-95 win on Wednesday the Wizards became the only team to beat Boston three times this season, claiming the season series by a 3-1 tally. Antawn Jamison led the way for Washington with 27 points and 11 rebounds and his third quarter throwdown over Kevin Garnett is sure to be replayed countless times. DeShawn Stevenson added 14 points and four assists, while Caron Butler filled up many spaces in the boxscore: 13 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds--and seven turnovers. Gilbert Arenas, playing in just his third game after returning from knee surgery, had 13 points, three assists, one rebound and four steals in...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman On Wednesday, injured stars Gilbert Arenas, Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki returned to action. The Wizards went 3-5 with Arenas at the start of the season and he had been out of action since then because of a balky knee. When the Wizards went 9-5 in their first 14 games this season sans Arenas, I asked, "Is Gilbert Arenas the Most Overrated All-Star in the NBA?" The premise behind that question is that Arenas was touted in some quarters as an MVP candidate midway through the 2006-07 season yet his team, to put it charitably, did not seem worse without him in those 14 games; in fact, their record improved the second that he exited the lineup, but I gave Arenas some benefit of the doubt regarding the eight games he played because he clearly was not 100% h...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman This game was shown on NBA TV using the feed from the Wizards' broadcast crew, who made an interesting point late in the contest that bears repeating: Butler credits Bryant for being a mentor figure during Butler's time in L.A., saying that Bryant taught him how to be professional and how hard you have to work in practice to maximize your potential; the process that led to Butler becoming an All-Star in fact began when Butler was Bryant's teammate. This bit of knowledge corrects the misperception that Bryant somehow held back Butler's game. The Lakers acquired Butler from Miami along with Lamar Odom in exchange for Shaquille O'Neal but after just one season they dealt Butler to Washington for Kwame Brown because they thought that they neede...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Tim Legler said that the Wizards need Arenas because his special talents give Washington a chance to beat elite teams on a given night. That is interesting--I guess Legler missed that Washington has beaten Boston twice this season and just recently routed Dallas. Legler added that this year's Wizards are much better defensively because Antonio Daniels is a better, more physical defender than Arenas and that Daniels puts more pressure on opposing point guards than Arenas did. Daniels is obviously not a big time scorer but that is not a bad thing; he shoots a good percentage, gets the ball into the hands of his team's scorers and plays good defense. In other words, Daniels plays like a point guard. With Arenas, it was all about the show--the Age...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The Boston Celtics still have the league's best record but they just lost two games in a row to the Washington Wizards, which automatically disqualifies the Celtics from ever again being compared to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10. In a related note, yes, right about now it is fair to not only state that Gilbert Arenas is overrated but to also seriously raise the possibility that the Wizards are in fact better off without him and the accompanying baggage of his off court antics and on court narcissism. When I first pointed out that the Wizards were doing just fine without Agent Zero, Washington fans breathlessly responded that Washington had not beaten anybody who was any good, as if they could not wait for their team to go on a l...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Mannix mentions how well that Butler, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood are playing. I don't dispute that the Wizards would not be winning games without their production; my point is that great players usually help everyone around them perform better, so it is a bit odd that so many Wizards players are thriving in Arenas' absence. Mannix raises the possibility that if the Wizards continue to do well without Arenas that perhaps General Manager Ernie Grunfeld will consider not re-signing Arenas and Jamison after this season and use the resulting $14 million in salary cap room to try to sign Elton Brand, Shawn Marion or Josh Smith. "The Wizards are obviously a more talented team with Arenas," Mannix concludes, "but thus far they've shown t...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Gilbert Arenas is an All-Star, he has a popular blog and he is a fun-loving player who is a fan favorite. He is also the most overrated All-Star in the NBA. Note carefully how that sentence was phrased; I'm not saying that he is a bad player or even that he does not have All-Star level talent--but last season this guy was pumped up by the adoring media (including NBA.com, USA Today and the Washington Post, among others) as a top MVP candidate. The Wizards had the best record in the East for about a minute and a half while Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and Toronto worked through various issues but most people seem to forget that the Wizards had already fallen to 39-34 before Arenas and Caron Butler suffered season-ending injuries. As strange as it may so...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman At halftime, the Wizards retired Earl Monroe's number 10 jersey. He is just the fourth Wizard/Bullet to have his number retired, joining Gus Johnson, Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld. Monroe, a Hall of Famer and one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, spent the first four seasons of his career with the franchise, then known as the Baltimore Bullets. He was the 1968 Rookie of the Year and he made the 1969 All-NBA First Team after averaging 25.8 ppg. The Bullets traded Monroe to the New York Knicks in 1971 and he formed the "Rolls Royce" backcourt with fellow Hall of Famer Walt Frazier as the Knicks captured the 1973 NBA title. During this year's All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, Monroe shared with me his memories of playing against various ABA teams--includin...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman 1) George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers (1955-56; 10.5 ppg in 37 games) 2) Cliff Hagan, Dallas Chaparrals (1967-68; 18.2 ppg in 56 games) 3) Richie Guerin, Atlanta Hawks (1968-69; 5.6 ppg in 27 games) 4) Bill Walton, San Diego Clippers (1982-83, 14.1 ppg in 33 games) 5) Dave Cowens, Milwaukee Bucks (1982-83, 8.1 ppg in 40 games) 6) Bernard King, New York Knicks (1986-87, 22.7 ppg in six games) 7) Sidney Moncrief, Atlanta Hawks (1990-91, 4.7 ppg in 72 games) 8) Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls (1994-95, 26.9 ppg in 17 games) 9) Magic Johnson, L.A. Lakers (1995-96, 14.6 ppg in 32 games) 10) Michael Jordan, Washington Wizards (2001-2002, 22.9 ppg in 60 games)   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Reportedly, Boston is interested in having Miller play roughly 15 mpg, with the hope that he would provide three point shooting and veteran leadership. With Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen taking up virtually all of the team's payroll, the Celtics are desperate to find players who are productive and inexpensive; presumably, Miller would play for the veteran's minimum, so the "inexpensive" part of the equation will not be a problem--but how productive can he be at this stage? Miller will turn 42 later this month and he has been retired for two seasons. There have been fewer than 20 players who played in the NBA after the age of 40; most of them were big men who logged a small number of minutes. Only two NBA guards have been productive af...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Cleveland beat Washington 97-90 on Monday night, completing a sweep of the game but undermanned Wizards. LeBron James had 31 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. He shot just 2-10 from the field in the first half but rallied to connect on six of his 12 second half shots. Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 20 points and 19 rebounds, noting with a smile after the game that if he had known his stats he would have tried to get one more rebound to reach 20-20 status. Larry Hughes contributed 19 points, four rebounds and three assists, including some key fourth quarter field goals as Cleveland held off a late Wizards rally. Antawn Jamison, the only big gun left for the Wizards after All-Stars Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler were felled by injuries, scored 32 po...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the injury depleted Washington Wizards 97-82 at Quicken Loans Arena in game one of their first round playoff series--but the biggest news is not the final score but how close the Cavaliers came to also being injury depleted. LeBron James sprained his left ankle with 8:03 remaining in the third quarter. He writhed in pain on the court for a few moments while the sellout crowd of 20,562 held their collective breath but he did not come out of the game. James finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Cleveland also got a strong effort from Larry Hughes, who had 27 points and seven rebounds. Antawn Jamison led the Wizards with 28 points and 14 rebounds but he shot just 10-27 from the field and could not m...   [read the full post]