Wizards Gear Up For Off Season
A scant 21 days remain until my favorite day of the entire year, the NBA draft. And while Cleveland and San Antonio start the NBA finals tonight (9:00 p.m. on ABC), the rest of the league, including the Washington Wizards, are firmly entrenched in the off season. What's in store for Team Zero? Let's take a look.
The Wizards have roughly $38 million in guaranteed salaries committed to the core of the team next year, that being Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Etan Thomas, Antonio Daniels, Brendan Haywood and Darius Songaila. For some reason Andray Blatche's contract details aren't listed, so I'm not quite sure what his contract situation is.
Jarvis Hayes has a $3.4 million qualifying offer that I doubt the team will pick up and DeShawn Stevenson has a player option worth about one million that he definitely won't be taking. After leaving $10 million over three years on the table at Orlando last year, Stevenson's going to be looking for at least that amount from either Washington or another team this summer. My guess is the Wiz will use the money on Mister Fifty and wish Hayes (a career 40% shooter that's played just 226 games in four years) all the best in his future endeavors.
After crashing and burning late in the season, Haywood also figures to be on his way out of town. He's a big man with a reasonable contract that shouldn't be hard to move, perhaps Ernie Grunfeld can work out a deal for someone like Milwaukee's Charlie Villanueva. Reports also have the Wizards inquiring about Seattle's Robert Swift.
Some of the flotsam and jetsam that filled the bench last year are likely to return for another season, but other than perhaps Roger Mason Jr., I can't say I feel strongly about any of them. But someone has to go on the inactive list every night, right?
As for the aforementioned draft, the Wiz hold the 16th pick, so last season's late swoon may yet be good from something. Last year's pick, European Oleksiy Pecherov, figures to be on the roster next year, leaving the Wiz looking for someone to replace Haywood in the middle or perhaps a PG to groom for the future. Names bandied during the middle of the first round on various mock drafts that might makes sense include Colorado State's Jason Smith, BC pothead Sean Williams, Dukie Josh McRoberts, Brazilian Tiago Splitter (who's seemingly been coming out for the draft since 2000) and Georgia Tech's Thaddeus Young.