Arenas for Vince or dump Arenas for cap space?

[miller31time]

I think a lot of people are overstating Arenas' defensive deficiencies a tad bit. When he was in Golden State he was not nearly as bad as he's been here. He was playing in a system dedicated to Protecting The Paint at all costs for most of his Wizards' tenure. I think the system was a big part of making everybody look a lot worse on defense than they may have already been. Antonio Daniels was always noted as a good defender when he got here, he didn't do too much more than Gilbert to keep teams from penetrating at will and kicking out for open 3's over, and over and over again.

Not trying to paint Gilbert out to be the next Bruce Bowen, but I think given a full season in a technically sound defensive system he would not look nearly as bad as he has in the past.

Let's hope so. I've just never seen him talk about defense or put a lot of time into acquiring the skill. A Gilbert Arenas who is adequate on defense is a top 10/15 player in this league.

[willbcocks]

Gil has always been terrible on defense. Gil's presence on the court means all the other team has to do is run a pick and roll or ISO at the point and our only shot of winning becomes making it a shootout. Even if he hasn't lost a step and gotten worse, why should we expect he's gotten any better?

If he proves me wrong and somehow, someway plays average defense at the SG spot, I will stop wanting to dump him.

[montestewart]

Gil has always been terrible on defense. Gil's presence on the court means all the other team has to do is run a pick and roll or ISO at the point and our only shot of winning becomes making it a shootout. Even if he hasn't lost a step and gotten worse, why should we expect he's gotten any better?

If he proves me wrong and somehow, someway plays average defense at the SG spot, I will stop wanting to dump him.

Your mission Gil, if you choose to accept it; show willbcocks that he's wrong and play some average defense. This thread will self-destruct in five seconds.

[LyricalRico]

I think a lot of people are overstating Arenas' defensive deficiencies a tad bit.

That's like saying that I was overstating my hate for EJ. It's literally not possible.

[dobrojim]

I think a lot of people are overstating Arenas' defensive deficiencies a tad bit. When he was in Golden State he was not nearly as bad as he's been here. He was playing in a system dedicated to Protecting The Paint at all costs for most of his Wizards' tenure. I think the system was a big part of making everybody look a lot worse on defense than they may have already been. Antonio Daniels was always noted as a good defender when he got here, he didn't do too much more than Gilbert to keep teams from penetrating at will and kicking out for open 3's over, and over and over again.

Not trying to paint Gilbert out to be the next Bruce Bowen, but I think given a full season in a technically sound defensive system he would not look nearly as bad as he has in the past.

Let's hope so. I've just never seen him talk about defense or put a lot of time into acquiring the skill. A Gilbert Arenas who is adequate on defense is a top 10/15 player in this league.

nitpik alert - a healthy GA has already been a top 10 player in the league having been
named AllNBA second team once.

[Induveca]

The thread that never dies, great blog post from Leonsis today.........speaks directly to competing now and winning a championship later. The man won't accept losing for any reason. He wants to build chemistry through success and blending the old with the new, including Arenas.

http://www.tedstake.com/2010/08/27/ther ... #more-9386

Good post, and happy to see tanking or aiming for LeBron types isn't even in his vocabulary when it comes to running a pro franchise. If it happens, great, but you don't destroy your franchise in the search for cap space and landing a "brand name" player. You just try to win, and over time continual competition/winning will result in a championship.

[nate33]

The thread that never dies, great blog post from Leonsis today.........speaks directly to competing now and winning a championship later. The man won't accept losing for any reason. He wants to build chemistry through success and blending the old with the new, including Arenas.

http://www.tedstake.com/2010/08/27/ther ... #more-9386

Good post, and happy to see tanking or aiming for LeBron types isn't even in his vocabulary when it comes to running a pro franchise. If it happens, great, but you don't destroy your franchise in the search for cap space and landing a "brand name" player. You just try to win, and over time continual competition/winning will result in a championship.

My first thought while reading this is that Nick Young is as good as gone.

[LyricalRico]

Seeing what's happened to Strasburg and McNabb, might as well deal Gil now since there's no way he's going to be healthy.

[AceDegenerate]

I think a lot of people are overstating Arenas' defensive deficiencies a tad bit.

That's like saying that I was overstating my hate for EJ. It's literally not possible.

Oh it totally is. How much time did you spend watching Arenas with Golden State? I'm pretty sure you spend more time on the Trade Checker than you have watching Arenas in D.C., so I'd venture to say not that much.

I have 2 specific games recorded from his time in Golden State, when they played MJ"s Wizards. Both in D.C. and in Golden State. He actually played pretty solid, sound defense under Eric Musselman. He was no world-beater, or Bruce Bowen, but he looked leaps and bounds better than he did under Eddie Jordan's "Protect The Paint" philosophy.

[AceDegenerate]

Seeing what's happened to Strasburg and McNabb, might as well deal Gil now since there's no way he's going to be healthy.

Hmm, this is the NBA buddy. Not NFL or MLB. It's becoming increasingly clear to me why you know so little about the NBA and Basketball in general.

Balancing multiple Fantasy Football leagues, following the MLB, and all along spending days on end in the RealGM Trade Checker doesn't leave you too much time to actually watch or play any Basketball now does it?

Now it all makes sense to me. I thought you were just trolling, apparently not.

[LyricalRico]

Ah yes, the time honored "you must not watch games" argument. Never fails to amuse.



Thanks for the laugh on a Friday!

[Induveca]

<<It is good to be reserved.

We have to earn people’s confidence. We have to earn their excitement and passion. We get it.

We have to get results. We have to win. We have to have a crisply articulated plan and we have to stick with it.

It is good to be a cynic. It is easy to be a cynic even though I am an evangelist for being in the business of happiness, as you know. Know many happy and successful cynics?

It is good to hold us accountable.

All I ask in return is that if we do improve - win and start to see a brighter day - that we get acknowledged in a positive light and our franchise gets treated with respect. Our players, too. If we win - the fans will come - and in a big way.

That seems like a fair set of asks and transactions as to value exchange>>

Great Post from Leonsis. Guy never ceases to amaze me, he once again stated the "we have a plan, we have to keep it" for the sake of fans. Calls out cynics, and asks for some respect when we do indeed win.

I think it's time for all of us here to accept we're rolling with what we have this season. Time to move this discussion away from these pointless hypothetical armchair GM trades posted and move into a discussion about ideas for adjustments Saunders can make to minimize flaws, and/or what players need to improve.

Arenas isn't going to be traded, Leonsis has said it 1000 times. Your opinions may count next offseason if he is atrocious and costs us a ton of games, but for now the negativity is doing nothing but hurting the franchise which is in desperate need of some respect and positivity.

We have #1 pick in John Wall, a guy capable of putting up 50 EFFICIENT points on a given night in Arenas, an up and coming double double monster in Blatche, the most athletic 7 footer in the league in McGee and a solid prospect in Seraphin, and a consistent Hinrich and sometimes explosive Young coming off the bench to spell Arenas or Wall.

We're in pretty good shape. Stop complaining about who we have, and how the grass is greener on the other side. I've been accustomed to losing and complaining under the Pollin ownership, because the franchise was run very poorly. Things have changed......Leonsis will have as much impact as Cuban had in Dallas. Don't forget in the late 80s through the mid 90s Dallas was absolutely horrific. New ownership changed all of that.

Between the "trade Arenas now for nothing! we won't win anyways" to the "we have no big man, this is all so pointless! TANK!" arguments on here, you guys have quit on this squad before it even has a chance to perform under a brand new regime with the most talented player to come into the NBA since LeBron James. Stop whining, and realize we are for the first time in decades in a place where drastic improvement isn't just a possibility, it's a probability......mostly due to Leonsis approach to doing business. Failure just isn't in the guys vocabulary.....he has a very logical/sound plan for success, get on board. We owe him a chance to succeed.

[Ruzious]

Seeing what's happened to Strasburg and McNabb, might as well deal Gil now since there's no way he's going to be healthy.

Hmm, this is the NBA buddy. Not NFL or MLB. It's becoming increasingly clear to me why you know so little about the NBA and Basketball in general.

Balancing multiple Fantasy Football leagues, following the MLB, and all along spending days on end in the RealGM Trade Checker doesn't leave you too much time to actually watch or play any Basketball now does it?

Now it all makes sense to me. I thought you were just trolling, apparently not.

This is what I meant by sniping. I though you said you were going to stop it...

All of the regular posters here are rooting for the same team. There's just no good reason to keep taking cheap shots at people rooting for the same team.

[DCZards]

I think it's time for all of us here to accept we're rolling with what we have this season. Time to move this discussion away from these pointless hypothetical armchair GM trades posted and move into a discussion about ideas for adjustments Saunders can make to minimize flaws, and/or what players need to improve.

We have #1 pick in John Wall, a guy capable of putting up 50 EFFICIENT points on a given night in Arenas, an up and coming double double monster in Blatche, the most athletic 7 footer in the league in McGee and a solid prospect in Seraphin, and a consistent Hinrich and sometimes explosive Young coming off the bench to spell Arenas or Wall.

We're in pretty good shape. Stop complaining about who we have, and how the grass is greener on the other side.

Between the "trade Arenas now for nothing! we won't win anyways" to the "we have no big man, this is all so pointless! TANK!" arguments on here, you guys have quit on this squad before it even has a chance to perform under a brand new regime with the most talented player to come into the NBA since LeBron James. Stop whining, and realize we are for the first time in decades in a place where drastic improvement isn't just a possibility, it's a probability......mostly due to Leonsis approach to doing business. Failure just isn't in the guys vocabulary.....he has a very logical/sound plan for success, get on board. We owe him a chance to succeed.

+1

[AceDegenerate]

Ah yes, the time honored "you must not watch games" argument. Never fails to amuse.



Thanks for the laugh on a Friday!

Fact still remains that your posts contain more emoticons than substance.

[AceDegenerate]

Seeing what's happened to Strasburg and McNabb, might as well deal Gil now since there's no way he's going to be healthy.

Hmm, this is the NBA buddy. Not NFL or MLB. It's becoming increasingly clear to me why you know so little about the NBA and Basketball in general.

Balancing multiple Fantasy Football leagues, following the MLB, and all along spending days on end in the RealGM Trade Checker doesn't leave you too much time to actually watch or play any Basketball now does it?

Now it all makes sense to me. I thought you were just trolling, apparently not.

This is what I meant by sniping. I though you said you were going to stop it...

All of the regular posters here are rooting for the same team. There's just no good reason to keep taking cheap shots at people rooting for the same team.

BS, of all the posters here, what Rico does with Arenas is most apt to be considered trolling. I am just as much a fan of Arenas as I am the Wizards. If somebody was here talking the same trash about the Wizards all day on this forum, he would probably be suspended. Rico is putting himself out there by bashing Arenas every chance he gets, I can do my part to bash his garbage posts.

[hands11]

Seeing what's happened to Strasburg and McNabb, might as well deal Gil now since there's no way he's going to be healthy.

Hmm, this is the NBA buddy. Not NFL or MLB. It's becoming increasingly clear to me why you know so little about the NBA and Basketball in general.

Balancing multiple Fantasy Football leagues, following the MLB, and all along spending days on end in the RealGM Trade Checker doesn't leave you too much time to actually watch or play any Basketball now does it?

Now it all makes sense to me. I thought you were just trolling, apparently not.

This is what I meant by sniping. I though you said you were going to stop it...

All of the regular posters here are rooting for the same team. There's just no good reason to keep taking cheap shots at people rooting for the same team.

Now that would be a welcome change.

[AceDegenerate]

I'm done responding to folks to like to call me out and run away when I respond to them.

I've said before and I'll say it again, you can use your fancy ignore feature if you don't like what I have to say.

[Induveca]

KZ, for what it's worth I hear you on your last few posts. I respect Rico as a fan and board user, but honestly I think he does bait quite a bit on the Arenas subject. You're really the only one to call him out on it, but certainly not the only one who sees it.

Not trying to encite here, just not leaving one of the posters I respect on here hung out to dry with no support when I concur with the point he's trying to get across. KZ may be brash, but he calls it like he sees it with some emotion, and I respect that.......and think this rather dry board needs more people like him at times.

I'm toning down with old age, so he can pick up my slack.

[AceDegenerate]

Thanks Induveca, I appreciate that somebody doesn't have me on ignore, but regardless all it is going to take is for Gilbert to come out and play this season like I know he will. Rico will be chewing on his emoticons. I've endured 8 months of Arenas bashing, a couple more is not going to hurt anything. Those that do bash him have also set themselves up to be in a hell of a situation when the team has success with Gilbert, especially considering the amount of support Gilbert has gotten from Ted. If Gilbert has an All Star season this year and somehow the Wiz sneak into the Playoffs, there is a VERY good chance that Gilbert will retire a Wizard.

Just keep in mind Rico, this is NOT Kwame Brown, this is NOT Eddie Jordan, those were EASY targets to pick on. This time you've surely bit off more than you can chew with Arenas, the king of the payback story.

For me, there would be no greater way to throw it back in all of your faces (YOU being anyone who wants Arenas gone or has bashed him during this downtime) than for the team and player to have success and cement himself as a part of this franchise's future.

So while we may all be on the same page in regards to the Wizards' success, there is clearly some folks here who have a bone to pick with the way the squad has been assembled.