Gilbert Arenas goes off

[Wizardspride]

Bottomline: Caron's having a hard time realizing that he's Robin...not Batman.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I'd be shocked if there weren't locker room issues. This was supposed to be our all-in year: everyone back from injury, added a highly thought of coach, loaded up with veterans in their primes, young talent on the verge of being regular contributors, unmatched depth, etc. A few weeks in, and nothing has gone well. Half the team has gotten hurt. Most of the younger players have shown nothing worthwhile in their limited chances. Several veterans are playing worse than we need them to. The team was probably hoping to be a dark horse contender, and at the very least, to be in the thick of things for home court advantage. Instead, we've been one of the three or four worst teams for the season's opening month.

Compounding the matter is that it is hard to see the way out. Arguably our two best players so far, Miller and Haywood, are free agents, and it's unlikely either will give us preferential treatment out on the market. Foye, our other big acquisition, looks like a bust who may not even be worth hanging on to past the season. None of our young players look primed to bust out in the short term, and only one of them (McGee) really gives even the slightest rays of hope for busting out in the long term. Arenas has looked relatively solid in his return, but there is a wide chasm between "relatively solid" and "maximum contract". Butler's awfulness has been well-documented; he could shake it off, but what if his career is just starting its downward slide? Jamison has looked rock steady as usual, but even the silver lining of his return comes with its black cloud, as it has completely neutered all the early season positivity generated Blatche, the one and only upward trend we had going.

I think I'd be in a foul mood too if I were on the team.

Great synopsis on everything that's going on. Early expectations have not been met and it's hard to see a way out. Of course foul moods exist.

The way out? I think of the expression "How do you eat an elephant?" One bite at a time.

First, the Wizards need to become a tight, together, cohesive team on the same page. It's not possible for Flip to meet everybody's selfish agendas but it is possible to keep team goals first and to address each player with dignity and respect. For the short run, playing a much deeper bench and limiting the minutes of guys who are playing 36 minutes or more is one way to accomplish it. Instead of deciding on using 8 players over all 240 minutes, think about using 10 or 11 players, with two or three getting token minutes. This part is simply stated Play Young and McGee and McGuire, too. Give them minutes that have been going to Arenas, Butler, Stevenson, and Oberto. I think having positive energy on the bench will ensue.

Second, shift the paradigm to include Blatche as a fixture at PF. Instead of giving the guy token minutes as a backup C only; and at the same time excluding McGee altogether as the third C; Blatche should get 15-20 minutes at least at PF and another 5-10 at C. That means Jamison must play some SF. Maybe let Butler play some SG. Andray's effectve at PF with Brendan at C. Don't undo what is working--Blatche shouldn't become an afterthought with Antawn back. Consider 10 minutes less of Butler/Jamison. The Wizards need size to defend and rebound, and they need to try Blatche at PF regularly.

Third, use McGee and Young much more. Nick can score. He's doing it in practice. Javale can sky and score. Don't expect veteran composure from either guy. Just have Haywood or Blatche on the court with these two players. I'd also maximize the minutes Foye is on the court with Javale--they have great chemistry. As for Nick, Eddie Jordan used Juan Dixon extremely effectively about three years ago. He rode him when he was hot. Nick needs to shoot 3 or so shots. If he's on, ride him. If not, park him on the bench. But I'd make sure he's playing a little every game. (10 mins would be great). Get these guys involved. As for Javale, he's a much better offensive player than defensive. he's got the skill to play some PF--he should be used with Blatche or Haywood in the game and not as the defensive C if the other team has post scorers. McGee is a spark player who can score and block shots! He's better than Oberto most of the time.

Fourth, address the lack of court awareness and leadership by Gilbert Arenas. Chris Paul is the best PG in the game IMO. He got injured. Funny thing happened. Darren Collison stepped right in and the Hornets have won something like three games. How? Collison's a good leader and a decent player in his own right! Similar story with Eric Maynor winning a game for Utah. What Washington should do when Gilbert's really struggling is SO SIMPLE. Sit his ass on the bench and play Boykins. If he's not forcing things and making good decisions, roll with him. If he falters, see if Foye's ankle's good. Gil needs to have a 25 minute game here and there and to maybe watch some of the fourth the way he's been playing. It would humble him and keep his legs fresher. Who cares if it pisses him off. He's getting paid a ton. Bottom line is give him every opportunity to become Zero Hero, or Agent Zero, or Hibachi; but most of all give the team a chance to win without ego getting in the way.

Anyhow, I think the single biggest thing to do now is to put those four things and the game plan in perspective. The team is 3-9 but maybe everybody expected them to be 5-7 or 6-6 and playing much better. WE'RE ONLY 3 WINS OFF THE PACE! Forget everything that has happened and just believe it's all going to be okay.

If Flip changes the dynamics from negativitiy to positivity, and if he gets everybody involved like I suggested above, and if he gets the young athletes going; MJG-- that's the way out.

[Rafael122]

Yikes. Caught up on this thread. So basically, 2 people have called ouy Butler. When Gil made those comments, I think it was a case of Gil just being Gil but when Brendan Haywood comes out and says something..then something is up. I don't think Butler is going to re-sign here, personally. Out of all the guys, he's the odd man out.

[tkunit]

Bottomline: Caron's having a hard time realizing that he's Robin...not Batman.

He has never been Batman

[ErikChowbay023]

Arenas, Butler talk and claim to resolve differences
I wanted to give you guys an update on what happened since my last blog post. The drama with these Wizards has to be charted in real time, it seems. I spoke with Caron Butler shortly after I wrote about how Gilbert Arenas said that 14 of the 15 players on the team get along and two of the three captains -- Arenas and Antawn Jamison -- would help the team heal the rifts in the locker room.

Butler, one of the team's three captains, was shocked to hear about Arenas's comments and refused to say anything in retaliation. He told me that he has no problems with anyone on the team and understood that guys start pointing fingers when things go poorly.

"It's crazy, losing and everything. Man, it's tough," he said, "but in the midst of all of this, we've got to remain positive. That's all you can do. That's what I'm going to do. You got to find the silver lining in every situation. Collectively, we got to find a way to win games and work hard in practice. We'll see what happens."

Shortly thereafter, Butler called Arenas to discuss the comments that Arenas had made to reporters that afternoon. The conversation eventually grew into a discussion about how the team can get better, according to Butler and Arenas, who called me a few hours ago to confirm the talk. After the phone call, Butler texted me to tell me that the two had resolved their differences and added, "I never had a problem with him."

Both guys made it clear to me that they want to help this team to get back on the right track and start winning again. We'll see if they can get it together. The Wizards really need them to.

In his conversation with reporters, earlier this afternoon, Arenas explained the reasons why the Wizards have been unable to click offensively. He said Flip Saunders's system is not the problem.

"It's not difficult to pick up the offense. It's difficult to get the guys the ball without killing the rest of the team," Arenas said. "If I want to get Antawn off, just like I did in Cleveland, I just do pick-and-roll. If I want to get Randy the ball, I just call two plays. If I need Mike Miller to shoot, I call the play. Certain people just need certain plays.

"That's the easy part, but they're telling me to be in attack mode while getting them the ball," Arenas said. "They want me to attack more than I already am. They say if I go and do what I do, everybody will score easy. But if I attack all the time, I'm going to take away from everybody else. It's not like Chris Paul in his offense where he is the offense just pick-and-rolling everything. It's different. But, like I say, Antawn, he comes back and he has [31 points] because I know what he needs because I've been playing with him the longest: pick-and-roll. Caron, he needs isos. But how do I get him the ball without cutting other players out? That's been the problem."

When you hear stuff like that, you realize that it might be too much to expect Arenas and Butler to have everything figured out when they've only played together 11 games this season. Arenas really is like adding a new piece since he's been out the past two seasons. And, in that time, Butler got accustomed to being one of the primary go-to-guys with Jamison. They aren't the same players they were when they last played regularly. These are just the truly agonizing growing pains of getting re-acclimated with one another.

Butler will be a game-time decision on Tuesday after an MRI showed no structural damage on the right ankle injury that has been causing him problems the past week. Mike Miller's MRI showed that he has a strained right calf muscle and will miss the next three to six weeks.

"It does hurt because when he came off that screen, he made everything happen," Arenas said. "Either he'd get a wide-open jumper, or he'd drive or kick or drove and hit Brendan [Haywood]. But Randy can do the same thing, and somebody else just has to step up."

Randy Foye and Arenas had developed some good chemistry in the first few games, but Foye has had difficulty regaining his rhythm after missing nearly a week with a sprained right ankle. "He can't push off the way he wants. That's why I just said I need him to hurry up and get back to where he was in the beginning."

Leave it to Jamison to serve as the voice of reason for this bumpy start to the season. "It's only 12 games into the season. If the season was based on what happened the first 12 games, then okay, it's a done deal. But 82 games, we still got a long way to go," he said. "We've been in this situation before. The most important this not to let this linger any longer to the point that its really hard to get out of the win-loss column. It's a sense of urgency already. I hope it can be a good holiday weekend for us, get a little turkey and gain some weight."

Brendans comments from his blog
I also wanted to address some comments that I recently made in the paper. After a very frustrating two-game road trip where my team was defeated by the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, I made some comments that were misconstrued. If you didn’t catch it, I basically said that everyone on our team needs to check their egos at the door and play as a team. I thought it was a simple comment but some media outlets made it sound like my comments were directed toward Gilbert Arenas. I just wanted to let all Wizards fans know that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Please don’t believe or buy into that. Gil and I are friends and we communicate all the time off the court through text messages. If I ever had a problem with him, I’d take it directly to him and not go through the media. My comments about people needing to check their egos at the door was not directed at one person but to my entire team – myself included. Because, at different points in this season, we’ve all let our egos get in the way of what we’ve needed to do to be successful.

[DCZards]

As much as I didn't like the "calling out," if it gets GA and CB to air things out and get on the same pages, then it's a good thing. I don't want to trade CB. He's still a very, very good NBA player...and still the toughest SOB on a kinda soft Wizards team.

New players (and coaches), playing a new system with new and different roles, deserve time to gel.

[tkunit]

going to be interesting to see just how bad things will get.

[nate33]

I agree with Doc, that the singing was unnecessary and unhelpful.

Haywood denies the singing part:

iamse7en said 14 hours ago

But what's up with Arenas going back into the shower after seeing you talk to reporters, and what's up with you singing something about "ego" as Arenas is talking to reporters? Was it all BS?
Reply


BrendanHaywood replied 4 hours ago

Iamse7en, That never happened. Straight bs!!! I would never do anything that disrespectful. I don't sing beyonce song's anyway, that's not masculine at all!!! lol

[Zerocious]

I agree with Doc, that the singing was unnecessary and unhelpful.

Haywood denies the singing part:

iamse7en said 14 hours ago

But what's up with Arenas going back into the shower after seeing you talk to reporters, and what's up with you singing something about "ego" as Arenas is talking to reporters? Was it all BS?
Reply


BrendanHaywood replied 4 hours ago

Iamse7en, That never happened. Straight bs!!! I would never do anything that disrespectful. I don't sing beyonce song's anyway, that's not masculine at all!!! lol

maybe he was dancing 'put a ring on it' song which made gil turn around.