Take A Seat: Gilbert Arenas Suspended Indefinitely

NBA Commissioner David Stern announced today that Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas will be suspended indefinitely for his recent involvement with handguns in the nation’s capital.

If you haven’t heard about the latest news surrounding Gilbert (or you just so happen to be living under a rock), Arenas was being investigated by the NBA, the FBI, and D.C. Metro Police for having handguns stored in his locker at the Verizon Center (located in Washington D.C.). Why he brought the guns to the arena is irrelevent (he said it was to get the guns out of his home and away from his kids) in this case because you are NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE A HANDGUN IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. And then, to add insult to injury, reports surface that Arenas pulled one of the guns on a fellow teammate in the locker room over an unpaid gambling debt.

Gilbert Arenas acted as if the whole thing was one big joke and I’m glad to see David Stern lay the law down on him. Although Stern said he thought of waiting for the justice system to take its course first, he decided to act early (pro-active). Arenas is suspended without pay and it will cost him about $150,000 for every game that he misses due to suspension.

This could quite possibly be a blessing in disguise for the Washington Wizards franchise. If the new ownership of the Washington Wizards can find some way to void the absurd $111 million contract that Arenas possesses, that would certainly give the management team more money to work with in order to better build a contending basketball team. The worst move the Wizards made (aside from the drafting of Kwame Brown and many others) was when they were convinced into giving an $111 million contract to an egotistical guard with rubber knees. Now we can only hope that the contract including something about maintaining good behavior, having morals, acting as a grown man, and avoiding stupid situations.

Here’s to hoping Gilbert Arenas came with a receipt.

With Just One Day Left Until the Draft, the NBA Gets A Shake

With just a couple days left before the 2009 NBA Draft, the league felt an abrupt shimmy along the way. With three blockbuster trades completed on Wednesday alone, don’t be surprised if several more deals go down and even more rumor clouds pop up.

1.) Milwaukee Bucks send Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, and Fabricio Oberto :                                          

As surprising as it is, your eyes are actually not playing tricks on you. That’s right, the Spurs actually acquired a player under the age of 30. Richard Jefferson is just 29-years-old and will serve as a nice offensive threat for the Spurs. The Bucks on the other hand, do not receive a whole lot in player value but they do get three expiring contracts, and they free up Jefferson’s owed $29.5 million over the next two years, in order to try and retain Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions. It should also be noted that the Bucks immediately sent Oberto to the Pistons for Amir Johnson in order to create even more financial flexibility.

Winner? Although a line-up with Duncan, Ginobili, Jefferson, and Parker is scary, I think I give the leg up to the Bucks because they have a future ahead of them. Spurs make out in the present. Bucks likely make out in the future. But then again, it’s the Bucks.

2.) Washington Wizards send Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov, Darius Songalia, and the #5 draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Randy Foye and Mike Miller :

I’m obviously a huge Wizards fan so this position may come off a little bias. In my opinion, the Wizards receive a ‘B’ grade while the Timberwolves receive a ‘C+’. The Wiz send off a huge and ugly Thomas contract and dump some expiring contracts. As a fan, I would say that they sent the #5 pick and a halfway decent bench player (Songalia). The T’ Wolves are now equipped with four draft picks for Thursday night, two of which are in the top-ten. Mike Miller will serve as a solid veteran bench player that can stroke it from three while Foye could compete for the starting point guard position. Although Foye has had injury problems over his first few years, there is no doubt that he can score and pass effectively when healthy. I would like to think that Foye and Miller will do just fine in D.C. However, don’t look for any of the three Minnesota additions to do anything in the production category. The T’ Wolves did this primarily to acquire the #5 draft pick and probably trade up on Thursday night.

Winner? I know, I know. I say the Wizards. The Wiz have plenty of young talent in the locker room (Young, Blatche, McGee, McGuire) and the last thing that would help the team would be a rookie other than Blake Griffin. Instead, the Wiz get two guys who can play right now and contribute solid numbers in most categories. But mark my words…::..the Wizards are likely not finished dealing…:::::….

3.) Golden State Warriors send Jamal Crawford to the Atlanta Hawks for Acie Law and Speedy Claxton :

With the Atlanta Hawks not expected to be able to match an offer that Mike Bibby receives, bringing in an offensive backcourt player like Crawford is a smart idea. Joe Johnson is the primary point-scorer on the Hawks squad but Jamal Crawford can chuck it from all over…and they usually drop. Crawford is like a ticking time-bomb – he could all of sudden drop 50 right before your eyes. The Warriors had to trade him because he never fit in Golden State’s formula while it was the same case for Acie Law in Atlanta. With the Warriors expected to release Claxton, this trade is basically heads-up, Crawford for Law.

Winner? I would say Atlanta by a long shot. Take a look at the stats and see who you would take, Law or Crawford. Acie Law hasn’t had the opportunity to prove himself quite yet but I wasn’t high on the guy when he entered the league anyway. The only problem that may form in Atlanta is who gets more shots, Johnson and Crawford can turn into ball-hogs reeeaaaal quick.

……:::::…It can only get BeTTer from heRe…:::::>>>

Washington Wizards Are Screwed In 2009 Draft Lottery

The Wizards usually don’t get the better end of the deal, and Tuesday night was no different.

The Wizards had something like a 17.8% chance of earning the #1 overall pick in the draft lottery selection process. So do the Wizards get lucky and receive that #1 pick? Of course not. They fall all the way to fifth. And I say “all the way” because the law of probability says that the Wiz should have received the #2 pick, at least. But instead, the Wizards miss out on the Blake Griffin sweepstakes and the 2009 Draft for Washington Wizards fans just got that much worse.

Most Mock Drafts have the Wizards selecting James Harden from Arizona State. That’s all fine and well, but as a fan myself, I need some time to sleep off the horrendous pick we just received before I start thinking about what to do with it.

Perhaps this is a curse that will haunt the Washington franchise for the rest of its existence? Does anyone remember the last time the Washington Wizards had the #1 overall pick?

That’s right, it was 2001. Probably not one of the greatest drafts to ever come across the table, but the Wiz had the top pick nonetheless. It was the first #1 selection the franchise had ever had. Michael Jordan was in the front office at that time and he had some decision making to do. The first-round was rich with talent, but not necessarily security. Names like Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Shane Battier, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Gerald Wallace, and Tony Parker floated around. Who would Jordan select? After (what I assume) about 10 minutes of solid thinking and looking at draftees vitals, Michael Jordan decided to make a young man named Kwame Brown the first-ever #1 pick to be drafted out of high school. And if you know anything about basketball or you watched a single Wizards game in ’01, you know what kind of player Kwame turned out to be. You would also know what kind of players the other mentioned draftees are.

I am convinced that that one June evening in the summer of 2001 has permanently crippled the Washington Wizards franchise for years and years to come. Tough luck I suppose. That’s just the way the balls fall…

And The Season Gets Worse For The Wiz

Just when you think the season couldn’t get any worse for the 10-win Washington Wizards…it does. The Wiz are the proud representatives of the NBA’s worst record (10-40) with only four conference wins and zero division wins.

Now, after 50 games of utter disappointment and no excuses, the Washington Wizards are guaranteed a lottery pick in this year’s draft. Sounds good right? At least they can suffer the dismal season and draft a guy like Harden, Thabeet, or Griffin. Well, not so fast…

If the Wizards happened to land the number one pick in the draft, they would be forced to trade the pick (or find another way to clear space) because they do not have the funds to back the #1 pick’s salary. Say what?

That’s right Wiz fans, Abe Pollin and Ernie Grunfeld did such a horrible job with signing players over the summer that the luxury tax is exceeded and we won’t even be able to afford a number one. How can this happen? It happens when you give a guy with a bum knee (Arenas) $111 million dollars because he threatens to leave D.C. for L.A. (Clippers I might add). This happens when you bring in a guy like Mike James who counts for $6.5 million and he knows how to do nothing but shoot. It happens when you pay a beat-up half-decent rebounder (Etan Thomas) between $6.5 and $7.5 million. And of course it could happen when you keep a guy like DeShawn Stevenson employed.

The Wizards are horrible and their front office needs to wake up. There is some serious potential in the 2009 Draft and the Wizards will go on the clock early. With a team this bad, Mr. Pollin and Ernie Grunfeld should be chomping at the bit to land a kid this good.

Just when I thought the season couldn’t get any worse…

Where do we go from here?

Unfortunately I have not been able to write much about my beloved Washington Wizards, mostly because they’re the worst team in the Eastern Conference and the second-worst team in the league.

Gilbert Arenas was overpaid over the summer and he won’t play this year. Brendan Haywood went down and people suddenly realized how important he really was. The Wiz are horrible and I continue to suffer. I’m not a fan of “tanking” in order to help your chances of a better draft pick, but what the Wiz are playing for right now is pride alone.

 I don’t even think  Michael Jordan could do anything in a Washington uniform right now.

Wizards get two guards in three-team trade…investing wisely?

The Washington Wizards finally got involved in the NBA trade market yesterday, breaking what feels like a drought by general manager Ernie Grunfeld. The Wiz traded away veteran guard Antonio Daniels and a 2009 conditional draft pick (the one the Wiz received from Memphis in a trade involving Juan Carlos Navarro last season) and received veteran guard Mike James from New Orleans and young point guard Javaris Crittenton from Memphis. Who wins? Here’s how I break it down:

Shipping Antonio Daniels – Daniels was old, 33 to be exact, and the injury bug has taken its fair share on him. With that said, I was not a huge fan of Antonio Daniels. He did provide some leadership on the team but it wasn’t enough to make up for his extremely streaky shooting. One night he would show up and other nights you’d be better off playing with four guys. His $6.2 million contract for 2009 needed to go. Average move

Acquiring Mike James – Mike James can shoot the three-ball, fine. Mike James hasn’t been productive since the 05-06 season in Toronto, oh. Mike James, like Antonio Daniels, is 33 years old and has just seven years of experience in the NBA. He averaged a crazy 20 ppg and 5 apg in Toronto 4 years ago, that’s about it. His stats so far for this year are very misleading (2.5 ppg, 1 apg) because of his disagreements with former head coach Byron Scott. James may be able to come in and make a couple three’s here and there, but I am more concerned about shipping off his $6.2 million contract for 2009. Below-average move

Acquiring Javaris Crittenton – Bringing in a young (20 years old), strong, and athletic point guard is a smart move for the Wiz. The Wizards have lacked a true point guard for a long time, becaue Arenas is NOT it. Crittenton has had some bad spots, first in LA behind Kobe and then in Memphis playing behind…well, Memphis is Memphis. Apparently, Crittenton was called the second best player on the court during practice when he was in LA. Whether that is true or not is yet to be determined. Crittenton is a pass-first point guard that is 6’5 and able to penetrate. If Arenas comes back healthy and Crittenton gets a true shot at playing point guard, this could be a dangerous and semi-balanced line-up. Crittenton, Arenas, Butler, Jamison, McGee? Or shall we think about next year. Solid, above-average move

At the end of the day, the trade really means nothing in the short-term…at least not in my opinion. I want to be wrong, but I think Javaris will need some time to develop into the true starting point guard position. From what he did at Georgia Tech, he certainly has the talent and athleticism to compete for a job. I love the fact that he is pass-first, especially with people like Jamison, Butler, and Arenas on our team. The bad part about this trade is the fact that we traded a 33 year old Antonio Daniels that was making $6.2 million in 2009 and received a 33 year old Mike James that is making $6.2 million in 2009. Am I missing something here? Supposedly Mike James is a great “locker room guy”, but so was Daniels. Of course I would have liked to have seen the departure of DeShawn Stevenson rather than Daniels, but I guess other teams have to want the player in order to trade them. So, I see this trade as an investment for the future (hopefully the near-future) by acquiring Javaris Crittenton. He’s only 20, he wants to play point guard (the real point guard), and his potential is through the roof – possibly a slight stab at potential. I like it.

Gilbert Arenas is an idiot

For those who haven’t heard, Gilbert Arenas feels like it’s a good idea to just tank this season and ‘be like the Spurs’ and win the lottery to land a Duncan-like player. Whether or not he meant a Duncan-style player or just a player with Duncan’s sudden impact is irrelevant. My question remains the same; why the hell did we pay this guy $111 million? Not only were his knees completely shot, but he obviously has no idea about what winning is all about. Could that be the reason why this team gets clobbered in the first round every year? Could it be why there are arguments as to why Gilbert Arenas is NOT a great player? Sure, he can score, but so can 75% of the other guys in the league.

Wake up Gilbert, you’re a moron. I went from calling you a savior for the sport of basketball in Washington to questioning your honest motivation. I used to think that you played to win a championship and become the best player you can be. Now I feel like your selfish (threatening to leave D.C. for L.A. unless he got his $111 million) and brainless for saying that we should tank the rest of the season.

With such a lack of intelligence, Gilbert, may I inform you that the NBA season is 82 games. The Washington Wizards are 1-8 through 9 games…NINE GAMES! You have 73 more frickin’ games to go, and you suggest tanking? Through nine games, if you really feel like you cannot win another 41 games, then you obviously have no idea about team cohesion, motivation, hard work, dedication, etc. Now that Gilbert has taken all of our money to make any runs at big names in the near future (Bosh), he comes out with awful ideas like this one? And one more thing; who the hell does Gilbert think we can draft? Is there another Tim Duncan in the upcoming draft? Not from what I can see, certainly not through just nine games.

Haywood done for the Wiz

ESPN.com reported today that our Washington Wizards’ center Brendan Haywood could miss the entire season after having surgery on his right wrist today. The surgery was to repair a ligament that was torn in training camp on October 2nd. What does this mean for the Wiz?

1.) Haywood finally came into his own last year and gave a reasoning as to why he was ever drafted. I know you can’t teach 7-feet, but Haywood put up some pretty decent numbers last year too. He also took more jump shots from just outside the box, which he is surprisingly pretty good at. He averaged career highs of 10.7 points and 7.3 rebounds last season and was a KEY part to our success. Without that inside scoring, who do we have in the post? On the offensive glass?

2.) This isn’t the only injury that D.C. needs to deal with this year. Gilbert is expected to be out until at least January. What the Wizards do not need is another injury-plagued season that keeps them from getting a decent, yet pathetic, seed in the East. Gilbert’s resigning and all his personal bull crap is a completely different issue, however, that I would be more than willing to argue with someone about.

3.) Our center position now becomes extremely sketchy. We now have Etan Thomas, Andray Blatche, and JaVale McGee. Etan Thomas didn’t even play last season and he was just as effective as when he does play, so there’s no real help there. I have heard repeatedly that Etan is good trade bait, but I don’t know what Ernie Grunfeld is waiting on. Pull the trigger! Andray Blatche is a guy that I like a lot who I think has the potential to be a pretty good player for us. However, he is tall and somewhat lanky and doesn’t have the same big-body that Haywood had to make his presence felt in the middle. And then there is the rookie, JaVale, who is going from playing at Nevada to playing against LeBron and the Cavs. I don’t see JaVale making a smooth transition but I will certainly hope and pray that he proves me wrong.

You can say what you want about Haywood and his attitude in D.C., the point is that we are loosing a key player of the team. I know it was getting to the point where some people could not stand to read about Haywood, trust me I was one of those people, but he finally did come around and he showed D.C. that he was needed. With him going down we lose a large inside presence. And then you add Gilbert’s injury and we lose a substantial amount of points per game. We do know that we can succeed without Gilbert’s buckets, but I don’t think we can succeed without the shamefully little defense that we had with Haywood in the middle.

Surprise surprise, Arenas is ready to ride the pine

I really don’t like it when people say “i told you so”, because it sounds so rude. But I will admit that I am definitely thinking about saying it. In fact, I’m repeating it over and over.

I cursed and sweared all over the place when the Washington Wizards decided to pay Gilbert Arenas $111 million. I hated the move because I knew he would NEVER be the same. Well guess what? He’s had his third knee surgery and fans won’t expect him back until January. That’s three seperate surgeries on a basketball players’ knees. Sorry fans, not happenin’. Thanks Gil for what you did for D.C., but this is a business and you don’t fit in with our plan right now. That’s too bad though, he’s stickin’ around to ride the pine! Gilbert is used goods and the Wiz are out of any kind of sweepstakes in the next 2 – 3 years.