Season 2006/2007

Record 41-41

Songaila, Butler, Arenas, and Jamison – all missed parts of the season with Butler and Arenas missing the most important time. The team kind of rolled into the playoffs by virtue of accumulating wins early when most of the core players were healthy and then was soundly beaten in the first round by LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers.

Offseason

Draft

Nick Young and Dominic McGuire. Young looks more exciting and should be able to help the team right away. He is a classic 2. He has a decent shot, good ball handling skills. He has an ability to get open and moves well without the ball.

Offseason grade: C

Season 2007/2008

Washington is one of the three or four NBA teams that play distinct attacking game. The others are Mike D’Antony’s Phoenix Suns, Don Nelson’s “Golden State Warriors”, and to the less extent George Karl’s Denver Nuggets. However, Eddie Jordan’s Wizards are a different story. And not in a good way. There’s probably not another team in the league that has more problem with big man that can play. Phoenix has Amare, Denver has Camby and Nene, even Golden State has Biedrins and Harrington (arguably). But Washington has a huge hole at 4 and 5. The team has two players that are filling the center who are hopeless: Ethan Thomas (looks like out for the year after an open heart surgery), who is less hopeless and Brendan Haywood, who is totally hopeless. They look nothing like one another, but their effectiveness is about the same as if they were basketball twins. One can also add their constant fighting to the list. Now looks like Haywood has the position all to himself. The team is going to also use 6’11” Andray Blatche (who just recently had some legal issues) and 7’ Oleksiy Pecherov (to the less extent) to fill the void created by Thomas’s condition.
Besides those, Wizards have Jamison who doesn’t like to play close to the basket; he doesn’t like to fight for rebounds and prefers to play a long distance game. Last two seasons he and Butler gathered the most rebounds for the team, just because someone has to do it.
If Wizards bigs could just play solid D, regardless of their offensive output, the team could be challenging for the conference crown. However, today even such an uninspiring tandem of Ilgauskas and Gooden averages these numbers against the Wizards: 33.5pts, 60%fg, 22rbs. Unless this improves, Washington is going to struggle trying to win in the playoffs.
Trio of Arenas-Butler-Jamison is what makes this team go. Especially Arenas. He scored winning baskets, he had incredible short periods during the games, and he was team’s leader. However. It is easier promise 50-point games than actually score those points. At some point during the last season, Arena’s irrational part was overshadowing his great game. It wasn’t quite as noticeable during the games (games with 1-8 from 3-pt line are norm for him), but the public opinion of “Agent 0” went downhill. Why is this guy making so much noise? Did he lead his team beyond the second round of the play-offs? Those are the questions that have been asked by the basketball people all around.
We all know that he is extremely talented to the extent of winning the 3-pt shooting contest with one hand. But now the game needs “Agent 0 – the winner”.

Note of importance

Oleksiy Pecherov. I wasn’t able to find much info on the guy, just saw a couple of his games during the summer league. From what I read he was never hailed as the next Russian Shaq or future Magic. But he was characterized as a solid player. Most of what I read about the guy was positive. He is a workmanlike player and he is a gym rat. From what I heard he regularly spends 7-8 hrs a day in the team’s gym working on his game. He has a solid shot, doesn’t mind doing dirty work – chasing the ball, fighting for rebounds and loose balls, decent on the fast break. His main problem is his inconsistency, but that should get better with playing time.


Bottom Line

Playoffs – most likely
Championship - no

__________________
I think the Washington Wizards have got to be the dumbest team in the history of civilization. - C.Barkley

Thanks for the preview, Mik. Suddenly our center situation doesn't look so bad.

Well, if you look around the NBA how many legit centers are there?

....11

Seems like the Wizards has been playing really well without agent 0. Butler is quietly putting up All Star numbers. Jamison is consistent as well. Antonio Daniels is surprisingly doing a good job as agent 0 replacement so far. Can this last?