TSN Season Preview: Washington Wizards

[bballCT]

PG - Gilbert Arenas

So what is there left to say about Arenas after that? It's tough, because Arenas as a person is far more encouraging than Arenas the player. The person is thoughtful, provocative and flirts with controversy via his nba.com blog. He is introspective and retrospective and he refreshingly stands as one of the few players in the league that doesn't communicate with the outside world in sound bites. However, Arenas the player allows a more narcissistic personality to dictate his style of play. He feels that because he is the most talented player on his team that he has free reign to conduct his game as he wishes. Sometimes that will be within the offense, sometimes not. The issue is that in the time he has been away from the game Butler and Jamison have shown a penchant for putting up big scoring numbers but have also complimented that with rebounds and respectable shooting percentages. So while he still holds the keys to the franchise in his hands, the two players behind him have shown that they can get the team just as far as he can without his help. It won't provoke a trade of Arenas, for certain, but it could start to rile a few feathers if he continues in a traditional Arenas manner.

SF - Caron Butler

If Butler were still in LA or Miami, he'd be one of the biggest players in the league today. He can do it all on the court - at both ends - and he's got an All-Star appearance (2007) to back it up. However, he plays second- (sometimes third-) fiddle in Washington (hardly a marketing Mecca) and he'll be doing so for the foreseeable future. The problem is that he, like Shawn Marion before him, can do so many things on the floor that his higher-profile teammates can't, so he is stuck guarding the other team's best player and getting steals and grabbing rebounds and dishing the ball that he doesn't get the offensive glory he'd need to get more media attention. However, unlike Marion, Butler actually has the scoring chops to carry that load if he's ever asked to. If he could stay healthy he'd be forcing the team to find a way to get him even more involved in what the team does because he does it all so well, but so far a healthy Butler has just been a fantasy and the team keeps the ball in the hands of Arenas and Jamison as a result.

PF - Antawn Jamison

If this preview has had a theme, it has been the importance of Jamison. Sometimes it isn't the single most talented player on a roster that is most invaluable. After all, Arenas and Butler have missed plenty of games in the last two seasons and yet the Wizards have managed to keep their heads above water (and it isn't because of Nick Young and AndrayBlatche). Jamison has been a model of consistency both in terms of his stats and in terms of his health. He has been integral to whatever success that this team has had since joining the Wizards in 2004 and that, more than his All-Star appearances or 20-10 stats, is what forced this team to lock him up this summer (even before they did Arenas).

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=249587&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nba

[closg00]

[quote="CB4rules

SF - Caron Butler

If Butler were still in LA or Miami, he'd be one of the biggest players in the league today. He can do it all on the court - at both ends - and he's got an All-Star appearance (2007) to back it up. However, he plays second- (sometimes third-) fiddle in Washington (hardly a marketing Mecca) and he'll be doing so for the foreseeable future. The problem is that he, like Shawn Marion before him, can do so many things on the floor that his higher-profile teammates can't, so he is stuck guarding the other team's best player and getting steals and grabbing rebounds and dishing the ball that he doesn't get the offensive glory he'd need to get more media attention. However, unlike Marion, Butler actually has the scoring chops to carry that load if he's ever asked to. If he could stay healthy he'd be forcing the team to find a way to get him even more involved in what the team does because he does it all so well, but so far a healthy Butler has just been a fantasy and the team keeps the ball in the hands of Arenas and Jamison as a result.

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=249587&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nba[/quote]

A decent article ruined by this in-accurate and back-handed comment. Washington IS one of the top markets in just about every statistical category. The author did nail Gil's playing style while leaving zero responsibility with EFJ. No discussion of the youth either. Overall, a pretty good analysis of where the team is going into this season.

[LyricalRico]

Wow, that was a pretty informed and even-handed article. A rarity to be sure. Not a complete season preview but better than most of the ones we'll see in the coming weeks. He cites Gil's weaknesses without resorting to name calling and he acknowledges Haywood's place as a starting quality NBA center. Solid effort for an outsider.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

"SG - DeShawn Stevenson

His feud last spring with LeBron James was a joke. To try and fire up one of the best players in the NBA going into the post-season is just asinine. However, to follow up those taunts with a pathetic 38% shooting clip in the series and a completely irrelevant presence on the defensive end of the court is just inexcusable. Stevenson is a marginal talent who is his own number-one fan. Having some swagger in the NBA is a positive (some say a necessity), but if you can't back it up then what good does all of your posturing do for your team?"

[DCZards]

Got to agree with clos & lyrical on this one...surprise, surprise. This guy has a lot of things right, especially about Jamison. I think we get a more mature and sharing Gil this year so I'm not worried there.

If CB's problem is being second fiddle...what would he be in LA. I think a tough, talented guy like CB is very happy playing in DC...closer to Wisc., Conn, Miami and all things east coast.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This is a franchise that is clinging (desperately) to a memory from two seasons ago when the team was fleetingly sitting atop the Eastern standings

Preach!

Arenas is one of the most talented scorers the NBA has ever seen. However, his penchant to breaking out of the team's offense for a little 'me-first' basketball would be deadly for any team with its sights set on a title, but it is especially difficult for the Wizards because he is viewed as the team's leader and franchise player.

This guy gets it, totally.

Really good read by Chisolm, whoever. Hope to read more from him in the future.

[MJG]

Overstates Caron's defense quite a bit, but all in all, I'm with everyone else: well-written piece.

[doclinkin]

He's got a better grasp of the conventional 'wisdom' than many mainstream writers, but I disagree with his tone and conclusions.

It's been a while since the team has seen a healthy Gilbert on court, so it's easy to forget his strengths in favor of his flaws. Maybe we never get him back at full speed-- in which case: right, the team is screwed-- but what the frontoffice and fans are banking on, if not 'clinging desperately to' is the idea that we're a better team with Gilbert than the team that played Roger Mason in his place. A team that this year 'had the tools to knock off the Big Guns' in defeating the World Champions back to back. Again, without Gil.

Somehow pundits have reached the conclusion that Caron's improvement for instance was entirely dependent on Gil's absence. Caron disagrees, he's played next to DWade and Kobe, but states that more than any other player Gilbert helps CB3 shine. His shot was better because he worked at it. His 3fg% dropped off because teams learned they had to guard him. With Gilbert back on court, in an attacking role, not just a distributing role, suddenly Caron is open again. Remember, players next to Gil on court have performed better here and in this offense than they did elsewhere before or since. Pundits may think Gil suppresses their game, but all-star selections and stats don't seem to bear it out. Ask Larry.

As far as throwbacks to the 90's, team throughout the league are borrowing concepts from the Wiz precisely because of the success of combo guards, and Gil chief among them.

Armchair analysts suggest that the team Defensive improvement rests solely on Gilbert's absence, though early returns last year showed that while Gil was in the game the team was leagues better than they had been, and far better than with either Daniels or Mason. Continuity and communication help team defense immensely. Yeah some of Gil's habits could improve, but the same quickness that allows him 3 steals a game contribute to making him a disruptive team defensive force pressuring the ballhandler etc when he puts his mind to it.

The real questionmarks on team improvement lie in the development of the bench, but while Chisolm spends 6 paragraphs on Toronto's bench, he clearly has no idea what the Wiz are working with. So, yeah, pessimism's great and all, but it hardly substitutes as a complete analysis.

Sometimes teams make moves just to make moves. Occasionally a non-move is the one that pays off most.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Sometimes teams make moves just to make moves. Occasionally a non-move is the one that pays off most.

Ok, I agree with everything but gotta take issue with the last sentence.

Last year everyone was moaning and complaining about how other teams had gotten better and we hadn't. But the celts are already better, the pistons are going to stay good, philadelphia was kicking butt and taking names last year and now they have Brand. And Toronto's acquisition of JO is kind of worrisome, although I was convinced last year he was done. Unless he was dogging it. And Orlando is one of those teams that can only get better, barring injury. Chicago should be better, and Miami has got to be a lot better than they were last year.

We get a maybe healthy half allstar back, and that's basically it. We've had major injuries to the big three each of the last four years, yes? I'm really worried.

[nate33]

It's a better analysis than most, but it has it's flaws.

He was way too generous to Butler. Butler is indeed a very good all around player, but he would not be "one of the biggest players in the league today" if he played in a different market. I love Butler's game, but he simply is not a first option scorer. He's fine as a 2nd or 3rd option, but he can't carry the scoring load with high efficiency - not like Arenas can.

He was also way too harsh on Stevenson. People make such a big deal out of the Lebron taunting. Lebron was going to play hard anyhow. I refuse to believe that Stevenson somehow fired Lebron up more. What Stevenson' taunting did was add some swagger to the Wizards. They truly believed they would beat Cleveland, with or without Arenas. That's half the battle. I thought it was a good thing.

Oh, and by the way, Stevenson played fine during the playoffs. He may have shot a "pathetic 38%", but most of those shots were 3-pointers. His playoff eFG% was .483, his playoff TS% was .545. Indeed, his playoff TS% exceeded his season average of .528. and his playoff per-40 scoring average of 15.2 exceeded his regular season per-40 scoring average of 14.1. That's not bad considering he was playing a slow-paced defensive team and he had to guard Lebron whenever he was on the floor.

[nate33]

We get a maybe healthy half allstar back, and that's basically it. We've had major injuries to the big three each of the last four years, yes? I'm really worried.

Half All Star?

Arenas is a top 15 player. A legit superstar. He's a top 5 player in the East. I share your concerns about his health, but if he is indeed healthy, one can easily argue that the Wizards have improved their team more than anybody else in the East with the possible exception of Philly.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Yes, hands down he is an all star. Offensively.

Defensively...

[Wizardspride]

Yes, hands down he is an all star. Offensively.

Defensively...

Half the All-Stars in the league are offense-first players. Gil is no different.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Well, there's "offense first" and then there's "no defense to speak of", where said lack of defense reduces your contribution to the team by about ten points per game on average. ALTHOUGH -- I thought our inability to guard against the three was largely Gil's fault, but when Gil is gone we SET A RECORD in futility in guarding against the three. So maybe it really is the coaching, and not Gil's inability to play d.