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The "Wall/Beal vs Arenas/Hughes" thread made me think about how things would have been different if Larry Hughes resigned with the Wizards in 2005. It's a classic Wizards "what if"...

Would he have been able to prevent Arenas from going maniac Agent Zero? Maybe, I know they were good friends.
Would EG have traded Kwame for Butler? I don't think so.
Would he have actually been a productive NBA player on the Wiz rather than the Cavs? I think he would have.
Would the Wizards have signed D-Sleezy? Probably not so we'd never have moments where we can't feel our face.

Anyways, what are some of your Wizards what ifs and how would they play out?

I think the single biggest "what if" for the Washington Bullets/Wizards franchise is; what if Robert Pack didn't have his mysterious leg injury in 1995? He was 26 averaging 18/8 with a 19 PER. You could legitimately say he'd have been the PG of the future in 1995. With Howard, Webber, Wallace and Muresan the future was bright.

Would the Bullets have traded Wallace for Rod Strickland? Never
Without Rod Strickland would Abe have had a concern about the image of the team? Probably not.
If Abe didn't have concerns about the image of the team would he have traded Webber? Probably not.
With a core of Pack, Webber, Wallace you'd assume the Bullets would have been highly successful, would Abe change the name from Bullets to Wizards if they were a highly competitive team instead of a doormat? I dunno

Conclusion = Pack's injury is why the Bullets changed to the Wizards.

What are some of your Wizards what ifs? I know there's a ton because they've sucked for so long. Only rule; can't what if lottery results. i.e. what if the Wizards won the Blake Griffin lottery.

John Williams is one of the bigger What Ifs (literally). He was steadily improving and was borderline All-Star level when he hurt his knee and got fat.

I'll always wonder what would have happened if they had given Charles Jones the offensive freedom he deserved.

Great post, UD. I still have "what if" memories of Weber running with the Pack and a roster loaded with interesting young players. They were going to get nothing but better and betterer. Things looked so bright...

If we retained Hughes at that price, our cap situation would have been a disaster. We would have been unable to afford the Kwame for Butler trade and probably would have let Kwame walk for nothing. We might have had enough to retain Haywood, but wouldn't have signed Songaila or Daniels.

Basically, we would have had the same team but with Hughes replacing Butler and with much worse depth.

Yep, this franchise could have had a roster with Webber, Sheed and Ben Wallace all in their primes. As much hate as the Ted & Ernie show gets around here, they remain (imho) a distant second to the Pollin/Unseld combo. Pollin/Nash was pretty god awful, too.

Hughes wouldn't have been on the Cavs and perhaps the Wizards would have gotten past the Cavs in the 1st round. I wonder if Butler's career would have taken off like it did here.

What if we built around Ledell Eckles? This team would have at least 2 more trophies.

TGW wrote:What if we built around Ledell Eckles? This team would have at least 2 more trophies.

I thought it was really odd that the Wiz hired him as a PR guy after he basically ate himself out of the league and seemed like a rather selfish player even when he wasn't 30 plus lbs overweight.

What if Muresans knees/feet had held up or a few more years?

Many, many playoff appearances.

What if...we had competent management/ownership/training staff.

That's the biggest what if of all...

Severn Hoos wrote:I'll always wonder what would have happened if they had given Charles Jones the offensive freedom he deserved.

Exactly. He was a Beast.

What if everyone was healthy to start the season?

From the power rankings on nba.com

Having eclipsed the 100-minute mark on Saturday, the lineup of John Wall, Bradley Beal, Martell Webster, Nene and Emeka Okafor are the league's fourth best five-man unit to have played that minimum. They've outscored their opponents by 23.2 points per 100 possessions, especially strong defensively

Nivek wrote:John Williams is one of the bigger What Ifs (literally). He was steadily improving and was borderline All-Star level when he hurt his knee and got fat.

+1

John Williams was holding his own against the very best the league could throw
out there on a nightly basis. He was on the doorstep of real greatness.

Severn Hoos wrote:I'll always wonder what would have happened if they had given Charles Jones the offensive freedom he deserved.

same could be said for the Chem Eng from Tulsa