What do the Wizards need to become contenders?

[wezbo]

u missed 1 team with 3 allstars

Shaq Amare Nash

[Duiz]

Jazz (Deron, Boozer, and choose one between Okur and AK)

Deron hasn't, and won't be an All-Star this year. Stern has a vendetta against the Jazz, so we will be looking at Roy or B-diddy before Williams in the All-Star.

However, both Okur and AK have been All-Stars. You made the trio the wrong way around.

Also... Suns have Nash, Amare, Shaq, and Hill that have been All-Stars.

Mavs have had Howard, Nowitzki, and Nash.

Rockets have had Ming, McGrady, Francis, and Artest too.

Anyways. The Wizards can score, we know that. They have scoring first guards, scoring first forwards and centers. Caron Butler is pretty versatile, but he at times seems to be the only one into this. To me, what they need is an all-star caliber role player. Only few superstars like Kobe, KG, Duncan are both useful as scoring first and also role players. Ask Arenas to defend Kobe, and an 82 point game is coming. Ask Jamison or or any of their centers to have a Cambyesque or Kirilenkoesque night with 10+ blocks, and they won't get close to it.

Caron can't be the only one. Besides, smart team defense, with lots of help defense, not one-on-one collapse prone defense is what wins championship.

[Wiz Fo Champz]

Here's the thing though, Wizards did improve their defense tremendously last season and won 43 games without their best player. If they can stay healthy I believe they're a 50 win team and can beat Cleveland. Now that doesn't mean they'll be contendors, if Blatche becomes what we hope him to become then it will help alot.

[miller31time]

A few corrections to this thread....

1. Cleveland isn't really a huge problem for us. Sure, you can blindly look at 3 years of defeat to the hands of the Cavaliers and make a sweeping generalization that we just can't win against them, but look a little closer. Year 1 -- Series goes 6 games, with 3 or 4 of the games being decided by a point or so. Not to mention one of the, if not the, most egregious no-calls in NBA Playoff History with the ol' 5 step layup. Year 2 -- The Wizards two best players, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, were not playing. Take away LeBron James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas from the Cavs and give the Wizards a healthy roster and see who wins that series. Year 3 -- Arenas is injured and only manages to play a few games (and even then was ineffective because of the injury). Butler was playing injured (as he usually does). Once again, you simply cannot win a 7-game series against a good opponent when your two best players are injured. It just can't happen. So what does this say? It says that we need to get healthy and stay healthy to show what we can do.

2. Do the Wizards really need to shut up? -- Let's backtrack a bit. Everyone gets on DeShawn Stevenson for "starting" the flame war last post-season, but if you remember correctly, it was LeBron James who initiated the "feud" by saying some unkind things about Stevenson that hit close to home. James told this to Drew Gooden who passed the information along to Stevenson. It was DeShawn who retaliated. Now, should he have retaliated? No, but let's not forget that it was not he that started the war. He just took part in the battle. As for Arenas, the statements he made regarding teams wanting to play Cleveland in round 1 were legitimate. I can say this because Cleveland Cavaliers posters and fans on RealGM were saying the same thing -- that they were going into the post-season on a skid and without a lot of chemistry and cohesion. When you see Cleveland fans saying that they weren't going to have a successful playoffs, then we can conclude Arenas hit on a salient point.

3. We shouldn't trade Jamison -- Antawn's defense wasn't really a problem last season. He was abysmal the year before but last year, he was around average, league-wise. He was much improved and held his own. Jamison was the Wizards MVP last year (considering Arenas was out and Butler was made of glass all year), and put up a legitimate 20+/10+ all year consistently. Getting rid of him would be absolutely absurd, and Wizards management seemed to agree, as he was promptly resigned.

[L&H_05]

Here's the bottom line though... Your Washington Wizards continue to lose...You can say it's due to this or due to that, excuses after excuse, but the BOTTOM LINE is the following --> they lose.. FACT !! They run their mouths and they lose...

If LeBron and company wants to say something, they have the right to do so, because they win... The Wizards run smack, and lose...

Gilbert talks smack and he misses FT's
Caron mocks LeBron and pops his jersey out, and proceeds to miss game winning attempts..
Deshawn throws his hand in his face when his team is down 30

That team needs to shut the hell up, and do their talking on the court... This other approach sure as hell isn't working..

[DraftBoy10]

- Shut the **** up-
Gilbert Arenas talks so much, he really needs to stfu. Seriously, his comments are out of this world, and he does this job for passion, not for a dedication. He loves basketball, he loves interaction with fans. He doesn't love to win and strive for win, or mainly sacrifice to win.

DeShawn Stevenson, the bitch can blame LeBron for hateful comments to Drew, but LeBron is younger and has much more of a rep to consider. LeBron would never call him out mid-game or try to provoke a fight. If anything Stevenson provoked on the court, acted way more immature about it. He needs to really, really learn a lesson from that.

Brendan Haywood two, three mockings of LeBron on national television. This the same guy that back pedaled when Antonio Davis chased him down the court in that pre-season fight? He needs to stop acting like he's hardcore, he's a soft bitch. Wah Wah ? Whose laughing you son of a bitch, you've been out 3 times to that team.

- Play Defense/Be Serious-
Caron Butler is the best two-player on that team, most diligent, hardest worker. If others took his efforts on both sides, this team just improves from that. Very talented team, very, very talented. They are just a bunch of kids, no serious basketball people here, just players. They bring little intensity to none.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

They can beat the Cavs if everybody is healthy.

Of course they can beat the Cavs. Why would anyone even doubt such a thing?

Wizards > Cavs.

[TheKingOfVa360]

Here's the bottom line though... Your Washington Wizards continue to lose...You can say it's due to this or due to that, excuses after excuse, but the BOTTOM LINE is the following --> they lose.. FACT !! They run their mouths and they lose...

If LeBron and company wants to say something, they have the right to do so, because they win... The Wizards run smack, and lose...

Gilbert talks smack and he misses FT's
Caron mocks LeBron and pops his jersey out, and proceeds to miss game winning attempts..
Deshawn throws his hand in his face when his team is down 30

That team needs to shut the hell up, and do their talking on the court... This other approach sure as hell isn't working..

When did Caron ever mock Lebron and miss a game winning attempt? He made a game winning lay up (which Lebron mugged him on and the refs wouldn't call anything) in Cleveland in game 5 on a limp knee. You can say what you want about the rest of the team, but don't ever try to disrespect Caron Butler again. He is a triple double machine, plays hard on the defensive end of the floor (top 5 in steals), and an efficient offensive player.



Now on to the question, the Wizards just need to stay healthy. Last time this team was healthy, it was sitting on top of the Eastern Conference. If they can keep their core players healthy then they should be a top 3 team in the East if not a top 2 team in the East. The only team that would be better than them on paper would be Boston, a team they beat 3 times last season without Gilbert Arenas playing a single minute.


Contrary to popular belief the Wizards are an average defensive club not the worst in the NBA. With the improvement of Blatche and Nick Young (who both could be future all-stars if they get their heads screwed on straight) the Wizards are a threat to win the East. Let's not forget Arenas is one of the most clutch players in the NBA and maybe the most explosive scorer when he is on fire besides Kobe Bryant himself. He has a deadly mid range shot, a great 3 ball, gets to the free throw line with ease, and knows how to run an efficient offense. He is on track to be the best player to ever don a Wizards jersey.



This is a team who made the playoffs minus their best player who is a top 10 or top 15 player in the NBA. How many teams would even sniff the playoffs if a 30 ppg 6 apg 4.5 rpg 2 spg player missed the whole season? That injury helped the rest of our team improve. We will see this season how good of a team the Wizards really are.

[miller31time]

Here's the bottom line though... Your Washington Wizards continue to lose...You can say it's due to this or due to that, excuses after excuse, but the BOTTOM LINE is the following --> they lose.. FACT !! They run their mouths and they lose...

If LeBron and company wants to say something, they have the right to do so, because they win... The Wizards run smack, and lose...

Gilbert talks smack and he misses FT's
Caron mocks LeBron and pops his jersey out, and proceeds to miss game winning attempts..
Deshawn throws his hand in his face when his team is down 30

That team needs to shut the hell up, and do their talking on the court... This other approach sure as hell isn't working..

Thank you for proving my point that broad sweeping generalizations are much easier than actually looking into situations thoroughly.

Listen, excuses should be used sparingly if at all, but when you can't field a team with your top 2 players healthy (or actually playing) for 2 out of 3 years, then that seems like a prime time to use one. And let's not kid ourselves. If the same scenario took place with any other team (including the Cavaliers), their fans would make the same points, undoubtedly.

[Jase]

They need to stay healthy and they need depth. If any one of their big 3 gets hurt, they have a lack of backups who can make an impact. Antonio Daniels is solid, and Songaila has proven he can be effective, but aside from that, they get thin on the bench. Mason looked promising, so the Spurs snatched him, and Young is still a few years away.

[BillsGiants_Rep]

They need to utilize McGee to his fullest potential

[Alex_De_Large]

I understand the health thing, basically, because i'am a rockets fan, and we are probably the wizards in the west, not similar teams, but when we reach the playoffs one of the superstars gets injured and we CAN'T NEVER make the second round.
But i remember watching some games after Arenas returned (not only playoffs), and the wizards did lose some of them, i remember one Bucks-Wizards game when arenas returned, he made some points and a solid game overall, but the bucks ((who had nothing to win and nothing to lose because they were out of the playoff)) beat the wizards with all the players, you can say arenas was a not at 100%, but so are some other superstars in the league and are still beasts. obviously they need to stay healthy, but as people said in this thread, they need a change, and that change involves trading one of jamison or arenas, even if get less value in return, they should do it, it's an unbalanced team, with 3 allstars: 1 combo-guard and 2 small forwards.

[Kuq_e_Zi91]

I remember that Bucks-Wizards game as well. The Bucks won on a buzzer beater by Ramon Sessions. I understand that other people play through injuries, but Arenas had two surgeries on the same knee. No matter how much he tries he's going to have setbacks. Even when he's able to physically, he's going to have doubts mentally on if he can use that knee the same way he did before the injury. Also, why do people keep referring to Jamison as a SF?

[Alex_De_Large]

For me Odom and Jamison have PF bodies and are great rebounder's because of his size, but mentally are SF's, i feel they are more comfortable playing at SF.

[Gordon Bombay]

Here's the bottom line though... Your Washington Wizards continue to lose...You can say it's due to this or due to that, excuses after excuse, but the BOTTOM LINE is the following --> they lose.. FACT !! They run their mouths and they lose...

If LeBron and company wants to say something, they have the right to do so, because they win... The Wizards run smack, and lose...

Gilbert talks smack and he misses FT's
Caron mocks LeBron and pops his jersey out, and proceeds to miss game winning attempts..
Deshawn throws his hand in his face when his team is down 30

That team needs to shut the hell up, and do their talking on the court... This other approach sure as hell isn't working..

Thank you for proving my point that broad sweeping generalizations are much easier than actually looking into situations thoroughly.

Listen, excuses should be used sparingly if at all, but when you can't field a team with your top 2 players healthy (or actually playing) for 2 out of 3 years, then that seems like a prime time to use one. And let's not kid ourselves. If the same scenario took place with any other team (including the Cavaliers), their fans would make the same points, undoubtedly.

injuries are part of the game, tho. the cavs werent exactly looking like worldbeaters themselves going into the playoffs - which is why many were picking the wizards (hell i did...i think theres a post where i congratulated the wizards on their advancement into the second round before the series started because i hated how the cavs were performing). but the series started and everything changed. the cavs turned into the playoff cavs meanwhile the wizards crapped the bed and the cavs took out the wiz in a rather easy 6 games. did injuries play a part? maybe, maybe not (besides wasnt caron leading the charge in that game 5 victory for wash, he didnt appear to be hurt, i could be wrong tho). i think one of the major reasons for the wiz demise last year against (besides the inability to stop lebron) was the fact that deshawn stevenson took himself out of the series by trying one-up lebron and not really focusing on winning the game

id love to see both teams at full strength and playing their best (which was not the case for either team last year)

[TAI8]

Well obviously any team that looks to be a legit contender needs to play defense. I think that Washington is scarred by running into bad luck year after year. I think I remember at one point they were the best offensive team in the East and on top of the conference but then injuries came and took it all away. Then they run into the team that has their number. When this team is healthy I think they are up there with Boston and Cleveland and I'm feeling top three. The offense is there and will always be there as long as the Big 3 remains healthy. It is up to the big men and the role players to step their game up a notch and play D.