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The Boston Celtics raised championship banner number 17 to the rafters last night and Greg Oden apparently can't play more than three minutes without getting injured. NBA basketball is back! The Washington Wizards start their season tonight at home against the New Jersey Nets at 7 p.m. Here are five hot issues that the Wizards will need to solve this season if they want to make it to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season:
1) Health: It's quite the understatement to say that the Wiz have had some health issues over the last two years. All of the team's big guns have missed significant amounts of time in the last two seasons, and Gilbert Arenas still has yet to make his way back from last year's knee injury. Losing starting center Brendan Haywood for up to six months is a crushing blow. Haywood was coming off of his best season as a pro and was finally at the point where the team could consistently count on him for a strong post presence on both offense and defense.
2) The Center Position: Haywood's replacement? Etan Thomas. Thomas isn't exactly the picture of health himself. He missed all of last season after open heart surgery. Even when he's healthy, he still only averages 57 games a season. Rookie JaVale McGee showed flashes during the preseason, but can he be counted on during the regular season?
3) The Bench: Moving two bench players into the starting lineup thins the bench considerably. What's left isn't going to scare anyone. Dee Brown certainly isn't the answer as the back-up point guard. Who is long-term answer as the backup small forward? Will the team get anything from the up-and-down Andray Blatche? Oleksiy Pecherov? Can Nick Young be a consistent scoring threat off the bench?
4) The East: The Celtics seem focused on banner #18. On paper, Toronto, Cleveland and Philly figure to be much improved. Detroit is still there. Atlanta took Boston to seven games in last year's playoffs. Chicago should rebound from a disappointing year. Miami added Michael Beasley and gets a healthy Dwyane Wade back. Orlando won 52 games last year. It's safe to say the Wizards begin the season as a long shot to make the playoffs.
5) Maturity: Will this team ever grow up? Do we want them to? They're incredibly entertaining on the court and off, but does that work against them? In the playoffs last year they seemed more concerned with talking trash and getting Soulja Boy courtside seats than they did about winning basketball games. And Gilbert is already talking smack to the Cavs. What gives?
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I could have made this a lot shorter:
They'll still suck.
McGee is hardly a center- he weighs about 95 pounds despite being almost 7 feet tall. Blatche is more likely to be Haywood's replacement, though the results will likely be mixed.
The East is a lot tougher but there is still room for the Wiz to squeak into the playoffs and lose in the first round again. Caron Butler is a star and Jamison has quietly been one of the more productive front court players in the league over the past few seasons. Are they good enough to beat Boston, Cleveland or Detroit? Nope, but if they get Gilbert back, they can hang with anyone else.
The east is tougher than what? The Atlantic 10?
The east is tougher than what? The Atlantic 10?
Tougher than the Hornets - with 4 A-10 players on their roster? No
Honestly, I don't get all the negativity. Gilbert's out for a month, but it's a long season, and if they can stay close to full strength after that (knock wood), they're competitive with almost anyone in the East. The center position is a weakness without Brendan, but there aren't that many great centers on other teams either. If the young guys start playing to their potential, it's a very deep team. Detroit's past its peak, Chicago and Miami will continue to suck. Boston, Philly, Toronto, Cleveland and Orlando are potentially better than the Wizzies, but that's about it. And they could all run into injury troubles, too. Given better luck on the health front this year, second round of the playoffs is not a big stretch.
dank: They aren't competitive with anyone in the East over the course a playoff series with every player on their roster healthy, which they won't be. This is the same roster that has gone nowhere the past 3-4 seasons, and it has only gotten older, more injury plagued, while the rest of the conference has gotten deeper and better. Those young players are all incredibly unproven and aren't going to make an impact. If you think they are, you aren't being realistic. Also, every team you listed has a better inside player than Washington (Boston - Garnett, Orlando - Howard, Toronto - Bosh, Philly - Brand, Cleveland - Z. Yes Z is better than Brenda Haywood).
Teams that are most likely better if not at least as good as the Wizards, assuming everyone is healthy: Boston, Philly, Toronto, Orlando, Cleveland, Miami, Detroit, and possibly Atlanta. This team plays a style that has consistently been proven to not work over the past 4-5 years. At best you're looking at a team that makes its way into the playoffs and gets knocked out in the first round. This team isn't built for any long term success.
Bets on a 4th Cle-Was playoff matchup?
I bet at least one of those post players you mention goes down for half the season. I'm guessing Bosch or Z, but it could easily be Garnett. Then where are we? Miami: in your dreams. Detroit? Everyone loves them, but I see them fading to sixthish. Atlanta: on the rise, but still behind DC IMO.
If Blatch figures it out this year, they're pretty good in the post. But he well may not.
We'll just have to wait and see, won't we? That's what makes if fun.
From http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081028
Not in a basketball sense, but in a "My God, why did we commit such a staggering amount of money to a guy who clearly has knee issues and might have already peaked as a player when nobody else could have come within $30 million of our offer?" sense. The Chris Webber contract murdered the Kings; Gilbert's contract could murder the Wizards. And by the way, C-Webb was better than Gilbert -- a healthy, happy C-Webb made you a title contender, whereas a healthy, happy Gilbert makes you a 5-seed in Round 1 at best. Big difference.
(When I asked for a one-sentence defense of Gilbert's $113 million contract from my buddy House, a lifelong D.C. fan, here's what he sent back: "I would prefer not to, as I think it is a franchise-crippler and thus indefensible." Well said. When do you think sports franchises will break out of the "We need him to put butts in seats!" mindset and realize winners are the only things that put butts in seats? 2015? 2020? 2030? Hey, that reminds me …)
I thought it was pretty accurate.
bah, that's not how the preview looked.
The Wiz have a good shot at making the playoffs, as a 7th or 8th seed, certainly better than my Bulls. And they do have some young talent, but the Arenas contract is worrisome, given his health issues.
I think it's pretty hilarious you are talking stuff about the Pistons, when they are the only team that has been in the Eastern Conference Finals for the entire decade. The Pistons will finish no worse that second in the conference, mark my words.
And we could beat the Wizards without our top three players. That's how much you guys suck. Trade Caron Butler while he still has a career to look forward to.