Well I'm not going to be able to top Prada's tribute, but I still feel a sense of obligation to pay some kind of tribute to the River Walk Rainmaker.  Did you see how easy that nickname transition was?  Let's hope if Roger ever plays with another team, there's a major waterway nearby.

Anyways, during his two years as a Wizard, we've come to learn what Roger is all about.  As he heads off to San Antonio, let's take a look back at he's taught us.

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As many of you know, I interned last summer at Comcast SportsNet.  My main job was to be their Blog Show intern, but I had the same experience other interns did, in that I logged tape, helped to cut highlight packages and did some field work.

During my time there, I met exactly one Wizard.  It was Roger Mason.

It was actually pretty random.  He apparently runs a basketball camp down at George Washington over the summer, and we were shooting some puff piece about it while also hoping to get him to comment on his free agent status at the time.  Initially, it didn't seem like one of Mason's finest moments.  When we arrived, there were several kids randomly shooting around with almost no supervision.  Mason was nowhere to be found.  We were told he'd arrive any minute. 

A minute passed, then another, then several more.  Finally, an hour and a half later, Mason showed up with a sheepish look on his face.  He quickly came over to our crew, and I figured the interview would happen right away.

Instead, Mason and my producer chatted for a good 10-15 minutes off camera, talking about things that had nothing to do with basketball.  Events they both attended, job complaints, etc.  Throughout the exchange, save for the beginning, my producer was doing most of the talking.  Mason stood there, listening attentively, but not talking much.  He was so genuine off-camera.  I never really got a chance to jump in, but honestly, I didn't want to.  It was so intriguing watching an athlete be so quiet and unassuming when the cameras weren't on.

It's that quality that made Roger Mason an easy guy to support.  He never got in trouble, never complained about his role and played the same way no matter how many minutes he received.  He could be counted on to start and play a lot of minutes, but on nights we didn't need him, he could still be of some use.  He improved his game so incredibly from year to year that I was often shocked at what I was seeing.  I remember how skinny his arms looked when I saw him that summer, yet those arms were still good enough to launch from deep and handle the ball solidly.

As a person, I'll miss him.  I realize why all the coaches and beat writers love him.

Yet I'm also happy about this development, because I was worried that the organization would value his character over the needs of the team.  Next year, and in the years to follow, we won't need Roger Mason's services.  Gilbert Arenas should return, Antonio Daniels is there to back him up, and Nick Young is the shooting guard of the future.  Meanwhile, fragile Caron Butler had no backup and plenty of solid options were available to fill that hole for the remaining money the Wizards had under the luxury tax.  To spend that money on a fifth guard—even one with as high a character as Mason's—would have shown where the organization's true motives lied. 

Luckily, we won't have that chance, as the Spurs scooped him up for 7.5 million over the next two years.  As it turns out, Mason's annual salary is for more than we could have afforded anyway. 

And that's great for him.  It's only fitting that Mason goes to a classy organization like San Antonio's.  He turned down a similar offer from the Spurs last summer because he felt he could make more if he had a good season, even though he was well behind Arenas, Daniels and Stevenson on the depth chart and had no guarantee to even return to the Wizards.  In the end, he got his chance, made the most of it, and will now rake home a lot more dough than he would have received last season.  He deserves it, and I'm overjoyed to see him get his chance to make a difference on a real contender.  San Antonio will definitely put him to good use spotting up behind the three-point line.

But the Wizards also deserve this chance to use his money to sign someone to fill Mason's spot in the rotation.  That's why Gilbert left the money he did on the table.  Now, the Wizards have no choice but to use it on someone else.  Someone that will help this team far more than Roger Mason possibly could have.

Goodbye, Potomac Rainmaker.  I'll always cheer you on.

As mentioned in this FanPost, the salary cap and luxury tax figures became official last night.  For our purposes, the only number that matters is the luxury tax.  It will be at 71.15 million next year.

To review: In theory, the luxury tax does not serve as a hard cap.  Teams are allowed to pass the threshold, but if they do, they must pay an additional dollar to the league for every dollar over the tax.  That money then gets redistributed to the teams that are under the threshold.  Essentially, if a team was right at the tax level, then signed another player for five million dollars next season, it would be as if they are signing him for 10 million dollars, since the team must pay five million dollars to the league.  That's why, in practice, many teams treat it like a hard cap.  They don't want to pay money to the league and lose out on the chance to benefit from those teams that do.

Here's how the Wizards stand for next season.  I got most of the salaries from ShamSports.  Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison's salaries are their reported first-year numbers.  JaVale McGee's salary is based on this rookie scale. 

As you can see, we don't have enough space to offer someone the full mid-level exception (5.585 million).  Even if we were to make this proposed salary dump, we still wouldn't be able to use the whole thing without going over the luxury tax. 

That essentially takes us out of the James Posey sweepstakes, unless Abe Pollin decides to go over the luxury tax.  Even if he did, I don't think Posey is a big enough prize to do it.  He was great in the playoffs, but he's also 31 and is looking for a four- or five-year contract.  For a team that's really close to contending, he'd be a great fit, but I'm not sure we're close enough yet.  Maybe we will be in 2010, but not yet.

From the looks of things, management wants to carry 14 players next season, which is smart because it allows the team to add a non-guaranteed salary during the season without having to cut anyone.  That leaves one roster slot open for a potential addition, assuming nobody gets traded or cut.

So who can we get without going over the luxury tax?  One option, of course, is to just re-sign Roger Mason.  Even though he's getting a decent amount of interest around the league, I'm pretty sure he'd agree to come back to the Wizards for less than three million dollars a season.  But re-signing Mason, as good as he was last year, doesn't make much sense to me.  We'd be paying Mason to be a fifth guard down the road even though we don't have a true backup to the notoriously fragile Caron Butler.  Dominic McGuire isn't quite there yet, and Andray Blatche seems better suited to playing power forward than small forward.

So if we're going to use the money, I'd like it to be on a small forward who can play behind Butler.  Who's out there that we can get while still staying under the luxury tax?  Here's a comprehensive list of all free agent small forwards out there

• Josh Childress (Restricted, last year's salary: 3.6 million): A great fit, but will surely command someone's full mid-level exception, if not more.
• Posey (last year: 3.2 million): Again, out of our price range
• Mickael Pietrus (last year: 3.47 million): Gone to Orlando for the full mid-level exception, aka more than we could pay.
• Ricky Davis(last year: 6.81 million): No thanks. 
  
• Ryan Gomes (last year: 770,000): Gomes would be really nice.  He's young, can play the 3 or the 4, and put up really strong numbers across the board last year.  Unfortunately, he's probably out of our price range.
• Kelenna Azubuike (Restricted, last year: 687,000): Again, someone who would be a great addition, but probably played his way out of our price range.  I see him getting someone's mid-level (maybe the Spurs)
  
• Bonzi Wells (last year: 2.28 million): Too much baggage, but I have to say, he intrigues me because he can score in the paint.  Only for less than 1.5 million, though.
  
• James Jones (last year: 2.9 million): Just signed a five-year, 22 million dollar deal with Miami.  I wouldn't have wanted him anyway, since he's not much of a defender.
  
• Bostjan Nachbar (last year: 2.5 million): Intriguing.  New Jersey appears to be his first choice, but they're worried about signing him for more than 2 years.  He might command too much, but for 3 million a year, he works for me.
  
• Trevor Ariza (last year: 3.1 million): Already exercised his player option to remain with the Lakers. 
  
• Matt Barnes (last year: 3 million): He's the name tossed around a lot, but his production really took a dive last year, and he hadn't done much prior to 2007.  I worry that his reputation is mostly due to the Warriors' system and his playoff exploits two years ago.  One thing's for sure: Golden State definitely isn't keeping him, and his market value is pretty low.  I suppose he works fine.  He apparently has an interesting connection to Gilbert Arenas, for what it's worth. 
  
• Devin Brown (last year: 1.2 million): We nearly signed him instead of DeShawn Stevenson last summer.  Instead, he went to Cleveland late and was decent until being benched in the playoffs.  He's a good option to me.  Always been underrated and should come pretty cheap.
  
• Michael Finley: Too old.  His game fell off a cliff last year.
  
• Maurice Evans (last year: 1.74 million): Another decent option who is definitely available now that Orlando signed Pietrus. 
  
• Tony Allen (last year: last year: 1.86 million): Boston didn't pick up his qualifying option, so he's definitely available.  I actually like him a lot.  He can't shoot, but he can defend like crazy and is athletic.  He'll come cheaply, and he's young enough to become something more than a simple reserve.  Remember, he's one more year removed from ACL surgery.
  
• Quinton Ross (last year: 826,000): Good defender, but literally has no offensive game.
  
• Dorell Wright (Restricted, last year: 2.04 million): Another intriguing option like Allen.  Not a great defender or shooter, but has lots of room to grow.
  
• Kirk Snyder (last year: 2.35 million): Minnesota didn't pick up his qualifying offer.  Doesn't really do anything for me.
  
• Devean George (last year: 2.37 million): Too old.
  
• Jarvis Hayes (last year: 1.2 million): Yeah right.  Just making sure you were paying attention

I'm actually pretty optimistic here.  A lot of those names are pretty intriguing and can provide about as much as Posey or Pietrus could for half the price.  Maybe they don't have the entire package those guys bring, but they also have room to improve.  Besides, we're looking for a backup, not somebody who will play a ton of minutes. 

The key, though, is to sign someone on a short-term deal.  I don't want any of these guys tying up cap space for the next five years.  They're all pretty similar anyway, so if one guy wants five years, we can just move on and sign another who'll take two or three years.

My top choices are probably Devin Brown, Tony Allen, Maurice Evans or Matt Barnes.  If we get one of those four guys, I think our backup small forward position is secure.

Who do you guys like?  Do any of these guys do anything for you?

We're still six days away from July 9, when the salary cap and luxury tax figures officially come out.  That means we're still six days away from Gilbert Arenas presumably signing the dotted line to make him a Wizard next year. 

There's only one problem, and it's one Ivan Carter astutely pointed out yesterday:

Here's the the thing about the Gilbert Arenas contact situation: until he and the Wizards establish some exact figures on that contract, the Wiz won't be able to be active in free agency.

Hmm...that is a bit of an issue.  Nobody can officially sign a contract until July 9, but the highly sought-after free agents are being wooed right now.  Some of them are even verbally agreeing to deals.

All this is happening, and the Wizards can't really do anything because Gilbert is taking his time while in China.  Ernie has been trying to tell free agents to wait it out before the Wizards know exactly what can be offered, but for a highly sought-after guy like James Posey, why should he wait when he's getting so many offers from teams who can make the deal right away?  That's asking a lot.

By the time Gilbert makes his decision, Posey might be a Celtic, Corey Maggette might be a Spur, Mikhael Pietrus might be a Piston and Roger Mason might be a New Jersey Net.  The Wizards will be left with the scraps.

It's unfortunate, to be sure.  Ideally, one of two things should happen.  Either Gilbert says "alright, I'll take less no matter what just so we can try to get these guys," or Abe Pollin commits right now to going over the luxury tax no matter what.  Then, we could offer our mid-level to Posey and let Gilbert make his own decision.  

Then again, however, if we aren't going the luxury tax, how much room would we have anyway under it?  As mentioned on Tuesday, assuming the luxury tax level is around 71 million, Gilbert would have to leave about 45 million dollars on the table for us to have enough room to sign James Posey, who almost certainly will go for the full mid-level exception.  Unless we go over the luxury tax, Posey may be a pipedream.

That doesn't mean adding anyone is a pipe dream, but it does mean that losing the chance to add a top-notch free agent isn't much to lose sleep over.  It's annoying, but I'd rather have Gilbert consider for six days and sign for less money than Gilbert deciding right away to take the max.

Back on Monday, we ran the "Will he stay or will he go?" series where you could rate how confident you were that our three free agents would return for next season.  Of course, just hours after I posted the polls, Jamison had to throw a monkey wrench in the process by signing, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Today, I tallied up the votes and tried (emphasis on tried here people, I got my math skills at community college) to average them out to get an average confidence rating of the BF community for each of our free agents.  Here are the results, together with some notes of importance

Antawn Jamison: 82.8%

• I forgot to close the poll after the Jamison deal was done, so the vote may be slightly skewed by some rogue voters, but in the end he still has less 100% votes that Gilbert, so I'm going to assume the damage was minimal.
• Less than 12% of voters rated their confidence at less than 70%
• 26% rated their confidence in Jamison's return in the 70-79% range, the highest percentage of any choice in the poll.
• Nobody voted in the 0-9% range or the 10-19% range for Antawn.

Roger Mason: 30.8%

• 73% of voters had their confidence in Roger's return at 39% or lower, with 19% having Roger at 0-9%.
• The largest chunk of the pie goes to those who voted 10-19% range as they took 21% of the vote.
• Roger received only one 100% vote.

Gilbert Arenas: 82.1%

• 19% of you voted that you had 100% confidence (a.k.a. I agree with Roger) that Gilbert would be back next season, the highest percentage of votes for any player at 100%.
  
• On the other end, 2% of you felt that there a 0-9% chance of Gilbert returning, which is higher than Antawn's percentage, but (much) lower than Roger's.
• Less than 6% of voters had their confidence at lower than 50%.

So there you have it, we were ever so slightly more confident that Antawn would be back than we were with Gilbert, and it looks like it's played out that way, with Antawn getting his deal done and Gilbert seems to be a lock to be back, barring some unforseen revelation during his trip.  Just remember to take all of this information with a grain of salt.  After all, "people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that."

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: Mike Jones provides some great insights in his latest blog post.  It turns out Gilbert's trip to China is actually the first leg of his journey.  In the second leg, he's going to Berlin and Barcelona to promote the Wizards' preseason October Europe tour.  Why would he do that if he really was going to leave? 

More importantly, there's this:

Agent Zero knows he isn't hurting for money. He has a $35 million deal with Adidas and knows that gives him flexibility to sign for less. He is aware that he could take much less and go to a championship contender, but this is his city, in his words, and he'd rather try for a title alongside two other All-Stars, playing for an owner that loves him and a general manager that loves him. And that's why he will wait until the salary cap figures and luxury tax figures come out next Tuesday to decide what to sign for. The cap is expected to be somewhere around $58 million and the luxury tax could come out at about $69 million. The Wizards can go over the salary cap to sign players. But if they spend more than $69 million, they will have to pay dollar for dollar every dollar that they go over that luxury tax ceiling. So, Gilbert wants to help by making sure whatever he signs for gives the team some room to sign someone else in addition to him while avoiding exceeding the tax.

If Gilbert is really waiting to see the cap figures for next year, it shows that he's taking his comments about taking less money to avoid strapping the team's payroll very seriously.  That's a sign of maturity, and it's something Baron Davis, for example, didn't demonstrate.

Of course, if the tax is really going to be as low as 69 million this year, we're already screwed, but I'm going to choose to focus on the positive instead of the negative.  You're free to do the opposite, of course.

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UPDATE, 5:56 p.m.: Just a reminder to those suggesting the Wizards use Gilbert's money on someone like Emeka Okafor, Josh Smith or Monta Ellis, they can't.  This comment and this post explains it all, but to recap:

The Wizards already used a lot of their potential cap space to sign Antawn Jamison.  If they let Arenas go, they'd have about four million dollars in cap room and about 17 million dollars under the luxury tax, but could only sign another team's free agent outright with the remaining four million, the mid-level exception (about 5.75 million) or the low-level exception (about 2 million).  You can't combine exceptions.

That puts us out of the price range for Okafor, Smith, Ellis, Corey Maggette, Elton Brand, Baron Davis and possibly even Josh Childress.   The only way we get one of those guys is in a sign-and-trade.  We would have to give up players on our team to properly match salary (though it wouldn't have to be exact because of our four million dollars of cap space).

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UPDATE, 1:35 p.m.: Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Abe Pollin has OK'd a 6 year/$125 million deal.  He's also saying that it looks like the Warriors are "losing hope" of bringing him back.

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UPDATE, 12:26 p.m.: Well, Abe just gave Gilbert the "You're my guy" treatment.  So much for negotiation.

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UPDATE, 12:08 p.m.: Mike Jones says Gil is "close" to accepting a max contract offer, then says two paragraphs later that Gil will likely sign for less than the max to free up cap flexibility.  I'm confused.

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Yesterday, I wrote a ton about how the Wizards needed to wait on Gilbert Arenas, because the market wasn't there.  My, how I was mistaken.

Seriously, screw Baron Davis.  If Davis does what he said he was going to do, we wouldn't even have this problem.  Davis decided to opt-out into a market that doesn't have much money available, even though his current team is showing little inclination to re-signing him.  Because Davis opted out, Golden State had enough money to offer Arenas the max, thereby driving up Arenas' market. 

(By the way, I'm not concerned about the Sacramento angle.  They'd have to give us players to get Gilbert, which isn't the worst alternative)

Now, we are kind of stuck.  Like with Jamison, there is a very real threat that Gilbert leaves to go somewhere else and we get absolutely nothing to show for it.   Even worse, we won't have very much cap room to show for it now that we've re-signed Antawn. 

All because Baron Davis wants to play for the Clippers.  Goddammit.

Anyway, Ernie is trying to get GIlbert to accept less than a max deal to leave us room for other free agents.  How could that work?

As Truthabout wrote, for Jamison to sign a 4 year/50 million dollar deal with 10.5 percent raises, his first year would be for 10,694,000.  Using Sham Sports' salary page, we would have 54,019,317 currently committed to our roster for next season once you subtract Gilbert's old deal and add Antawn's and JaVale McGee's.  If Truthabout's rough guess at the luxury tax (just over 71 million) is correct, that gives the Wizards about 17 million dollars in cap luxury tax space for next year. 

Gilbert has previously said he won't accept a contract that will pay him less than 15 million in the first year.  If that were to happen, we'd have only 2 million dollars of wiggle space under the luxury tax next year.  That's definitely not a lot to keep Mason, and I doubt we'd be able to find anyone worthwhile for that amount of money.  For Gilbert to sign a contract that allows us to use our full mid-level exception (for between 5 and 6 million dollars), his first year would have to pay him only 12 million.  Adding in 10.5 percent raises, and his final contract under that scenario is for just over 81.5 million dollars.  Something tells me he won't accept that one.

And that's just this year.  Add in everyone's raises, plus a new rookie, and we're probably over the tax threshold next year as well, unless we dump one of our mid-level contracts.

We'll just have to wait and see, but our cap flexibility stinks no matter what after this deal.  I'm hoping Gilbert signs a deal that allows us to use about half our mid-level exception, but even that doesn't give us much room under the tax.  If Abe really wants to improve this team, he might have to bite the bullet and go over the tax.  That's our predicament right now.

All thanks to Baron Davis.

Free agency starts tomorrow, and with it comes the chance that some current Wizards might find new homes this off-season.  Today, we give you the chance to weigh in on whether or not you think our free agents will stay in D.C. or be with a new team next season.  In our second installment, we'll be taking a look at Roger Mason.

Why he'd stay:

• Roger is from the D.C. area, so a
  
• Last season, Roger gave an inexperience and streaky bench a steady contributor that could come in and produce.
• Without question, Roger has enjoyed the most success in his NBA career while in Washington.  Why mess with success?

Why he'd go:

• With Nick Young slotted as the shooting guard of the future for the Wizards, and DeShawn Stevenson slotted as the shooting guard of the present, it doesn't leave a lot of room for someone who doesn't fill either spot.
• Gilbert and Antawn's salaries will take up most of the available cap space, so Roger will probably be able to get a better contract somewhere else.

So do you think we'll see Roger back next season?  With 0 being "I've already sold my Roger Mason bobblehead on eBay" and 100 being "I just ordered a new, authentic Roger Mason #8 jersey" rank how confident you are that The Potomac Rainmaker will be back next season.

So you might have heard about the "secret agreement" rumor, alleging that Gilbert already has a deal in place with Ernie Grunfeld on a new contract.  At first, this might just seem like one of those rumors you hear from time to time that don't really hold any weight.  But before we dismiss it all as hogwash, let's go back to the end of the season when Caron had this to say about Gilbert and Antawn as they headed to free agency:

I look forward to both of them coming back. Obviously, I don't have that much input but publicly, I'm saying what I'm saying right now. I would love to have them back. I think that will be the case and I'm almost positive that will be the case.

I just have a hunch, a reliable source.

Caron seemed to reinforce the idea that he thought Gilbert and Antawn would be back in a recent interview:

And let's not forget a few weeks ago that Roger Mason said that he was "100% sure" that Gilbert would be back next season.  Now, there's a lot of rational ways that you can explain those quotes away.  Maybe Gilbert has given the team the impression, or bluntly said that he wants to stay.  Maybe in those exit interviews Ernie reassured all the players that he would do whatever it takes to keep him.  Or maybe, just maybe this "secret agreement" was already in place at the end of the season.

I'd put the chances of a secret agreement already being in place at the end of the season at about the same probability as a secret agreement being in place as we speak, which is to say that I highly doubt that a plan has already been made.  But I think there's enough evidence here to at least make you consider it a possibility

• Every day the draft is getting closer and closer (less than 3 weeks to go!) and it looks like Wizards management is kicking it into high gear with pre-draft workouts.  If you want to find out how your favorite prospects measure up, Draft Express has you covered. Yesterday, I mentioned the second batch of prospects that were in Washington for workouts, here was the first group, which you'll probably notice is much more distinguished than the second group.
• Free agency is getting also getting closer and closer by the day and as it happens, more and more people are throwing their two cents in on whether or not Gilbert will be back.  Dan Steinberg and Sally Jenkins both point to Gilbert's entertainment value as one of the key factors in the decision for Wizards management.  If it means anything, Roger Mason is "100 percent sure" that Agent Zero will be back next year.  Let's just hope that Gilbert knows which day to opt out.
• You might remember last week's submission by Rook6980 into the "You be the GM" contest.  Here is his alternate plan should the Wizards be able to retain Gilbert for less than the max.
• As you've probably heard by now, Flip Saunders got the axe in Detroit.  Some members were clamoring for him to take over for Eddie Jordan here, which I understand, but I think if EG was looking for a replacement he probably would've done it when Avery Johnson and Mike D'Antoni were looking for jobs.
• Speaking of Detroit and ch-ch-changes, here's an interesting trade idea involving them and Denver.  Denver might need a draft pick to sweeten the pot, but I think it would give both teams the shake-up they're looking for.
• Here's what SLAM had to say about Isiah Thomas' brilliant signing of Jared Jeffries:

A 6″11 Forward, from Long Island City…Jared Jeffries!

LIC is supposed to be a city, hence the name, but it isn’t; it’s just an increasingly expensive neighborhood that looks across at "the city." To that end, while Jeffries is supposed to be a defensive stopper that can guard 4 out of the 5 positions on the floor, he hasn’t lived up to his billing and often resorts watching other taller-building ballers (David Lee, Renaldo Balkman) play actual defense.

This all about context: To the non-thinker (Thomas), it stood to reason that Jeffries was a defensive standout because he was arguably the best defender on the 05-06 Washington Wizards. The truth is those Wizards were a weak defensive team that relied on offensive prowess. In fact, Jeffries’s defense was kind of like the needle in a haystack of crap: s****y.

• When did ridin' dirty become all the rage again?  First, it was Andray getting arrested, leading to this response from Ernie Grunfeld.  Then Ty Lawson decided to get in on the action.  I'd make a joke about who's next, but I don't want to risk it coming true.
• Finally, here's a little montage of the top dunks from the season (Audio NSFW) that should cheer everyone up:

Previously:

• Etan Thomas
• Oleksiy Pecherov
• Dominic McGuire
• Nick Young
• Andray Blatche

Stats: Per-game: 21.4 minutes, 9.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.9 turnovers, 4.1 three-pointers attempted

Per-36: 15.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.5 turnovers, 6.9 three-pointers attempted 

Percentages: 44.3 FG%, 39.8 3PT%, 87.3 FT%, 55.2 eFG%, 57.3 TS%

Advanced (explanations): 13.8 PER, 13.2 AST%, 18.9 Usg%, 9.9 TOV%, 114 ORtg, 113 DRtg, 0.5 WSAA (Win Shares Above Average).

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Pradamaster: Clearly, Roger Mason was the biggest surprise of the 2007/2008 Wizards season.  With Gilbert Arenas sidelined for most of the year, Mason, who nearly didn't even make the roster, took advantage of his opportunity and emerged as one of the better third guards in basketball.  He gave the team the deadly three-point shooter that Jarvis Hayes was supposed to be and even impressed me with his ball-handling.  The biggest worry with Mason was that he would struggle handling the ball, but while he didn't pass well, he was excellent at holding onto the basketball, turning in over on just 9.9 percent of his possessions, a mark good for second on the team behind Antawn Jamison and ahead of Antonio Daniels.  In short, Mason was a godsend this year.

It's often said that it takes a while to learn the Princeton offense, and Mason is proof of that.  The jump in his shooting percentages was astronomical.  In 2006/07, he hit only 33 percent of his threes, with a 42.2% effective field goal percentage and a 44.3% true shooting percentage.  Those numbers jumped to 40 percent, 55.2% and 57.3%, respectively this season.  My theory is that he was overanxious with his three-point attempts in 06/07, firing whenever he had any sort of daylight, no matter the situation.  He still shot a lot of threes this year in bad spots (6.9/36), but he displayed an ability to drive and was far smarter in his attempts.  More importantly, instead of just hanging out in the corner waiting for someone to pass the ball, he finally embraced the importance of constantly moving in the Princeton.  The end result was a banner year shooting the ball.

Mason didn't really contribute much in the other areas of the game, but really, who expected him to do so?  His job was to hit open shots and provide instant offense from the bench, and he did an outstanding job filling that role.  If one has quibbles with his season, as I did on many occassions, it's over things that will never really be fixed.  Mason is going to shoot some bad shots, and he's never going to be a great passer or a great driver.  It would be nice if he developed those parts of his game, but I don't see it happening at this stage.

Still, it's probably time Mason moved on to greener pastures.  The Wizards just don't have the money or the space on the roster to pay him, not when Nick Young is expected to take another step forward.  There's also no way Mason can shoot as well ase did this year, so for him, it's optimal to test the free agent market.  I look for him to go somewhere and disappoint now that he's no longer in the Princeton offense, because he's a combo guard and all combo guards that don't pass well find a home in the Princeton offense.  He'll probably be relied on to be a backup point guard, and in a more traditional setting, I don't see that going too well. 

Either way, it was a pleasure to have Mason on the team this year.  He was one of the true surprises, and one of the many reasons why this season went as well as it did.  I'll always wish him luck no matter where he goes. 

JakeTheSnake: I can't help but go back to September when we heard that Roger turned down a 3 year deal with the Spurs to sign a one year deal with the Wizards, in the hopes that he would get a better contract this off-season.  I think we were all pretty stunned that Roger would make such a move especially considering that he'd never really been much more than a guy who stood around the 3 point line and shot it when he was open and even when he was open he wasn't all that good at getting it in the hoop (33% from the field, 32.4% from three)

Needless to say, he made us all look like a bunch of idiots.  Roger is going to make himself a good bit of change this season because he got better in every facet of the game this season.  His defense improved, his ballhandling got good enough to where he could do some other things with the ball besides just hoisting treys, although that's always going to be his bread and butter.  Other than some spotty shot selection from time to time, Roger filled his increased role on the team very well.

If the circumstances were different, I'd love to have him back, but Antawn and Gilbert are bigger priorities and Nick needs more PT.  But Roger is going to be fine.  His gamble paid off and he's going to get the money he was looking for.  My bet is that he ends up where we thought he would go originally in San Antonio, where he'll become a younger, cheaper Michael Finley.

Truthaboutit: Roger Mason Junior.....DC's own ....the Potomac Rainmaker. Mason Junior was the recipient of this year's Pleasant Surprise Award. Ok, I made that up.....but the fact is that Roger Mason had a career year, averaging 9.1 ppg and almost 40% (39.8) from 3-point land. Oh yea, his PER and Usage-Rate bested that of both DeShawn Stevenson and Antonio Daniels. Mase-ON was truly an invaluable offensive spark off the bench as the Wizards dealt with an array of injuries in 07-08. Not only that, but in the nine games he was asked to start (five of which came in late December), Mason averaged 17.4 ppg, 3.4 ast, 52.6% fg, and 43.1% 3p.

But alas, it's the opinion of most that this four-year, three-team NBA journeyman (with stops in Greece and Israel in between NBA stints) will continue his travels elsewhere. Does it have to be this way for a hometown guy who seemingly wants to play in DC and for the Wizards.....especially considering that he turned down a 3-year $3 million contract from the world champion (soon to be former) San Antonio Spurs to sign with the Wizards for one year and $895,341 this past season? Or, did Roger have that much confidence in his game that he figured he would get more run with the Wiz, and thus be able to parlay that into a larger contract?

Whatever the case, people noticed and Roger will get paid. However, Mason's NBA future (and he does have an NBA future) is in limbo until a couple of questions are answered:

1. What is the market for an NBA journeyman who can shoot? It seems that a team in rebuilding mode would rather opt to fill a roster spot with a draft pick, although Mason will just be 27 in September. But there is probably a contender out there who will throw at least half the MLE at Roger.
2. If the Wizards have the money to meet Mason's market value, does he even fit into the team's future plans? Many are ready to anoint Nick Young as the backup 2-guard, and assuming health, Antonio Daniels will be backing up Gilbert at the point. Would I like Roger Mason as a 5th guard.....a guy who can drain jumpers off the bench? Sure. Will the Wizards be justified in paying someone in that position as much as Mason's market is projected to be? Hmmm......Good luck Ernie!

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