My homeboy Mikah came through the other day. A Spurs fan, he asked my opinion on whether or not we should trade Gilbert.  Now internally, I am still undecided about the move. But to non-Wizards fans? I shoot it down in a second. Reason being, they are asking because it's what the media suggested to them. They really have no idea the depths of both sides to the equation unless you watch this team on a regular basis like we do.

He offered up a couple players that I quickly said no to, then he brought up local hero, Kevin Durant (the OTHER KD from here... dammit ) Obviouosly the Sonics wouldn't trade him, but the question was more... would I take him. I debated and finally decided, that both KD and Caron are going to be 3's. I can't see KD ever getting enough weight on him to be a 4. Could Caron play the 2? Probably... but I don't think he'd be as effective without 2 guards on the floor with him.

He then asked me what I thought we were going to do in the draft... if I thought we would draft big man Roy Hibbert. Great, another player that I'm on the fence about.

And that's when the idea hit me. With the Sonics most likely ending up in OKC next season, I think they would be much better off working with a bonafied superstar, and the up and coming talent of KD and Jeff Green.

Wouldn't this trade make TONS of sense for both sides?

Washington trades Gilbert Arenas + #18 pick

Seattle trades Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison, and their #1 pick.

This trade could only be contigent on the one and only, Derrick Rose being available when the Sonics pick. I don't talk much college BB on here, but just know that I think Derrick Rose is an all-world talent.

Can you imagine adding Rose, Wilcox and Collison to the equation that we had the majority of the season? Wouldn't those three additions instantaneously make us a favorite in the East?

With 2007 salaries considered, the trade would work under salary cap guidelines, the Sonics would have a superstar veteran presence plus the 18th pick (which they could most likely use on Roy Hibbert. That would give them the DC summer league of Arenas, Green, Durant, Hibbert)

Thoughts?

Draft Express offers a fairly detailed scouting report  of the Wizards (the Magic too). Each player is assessed based on his strengths and weaknesses. I agree with their assessments mostly, although I think the profile for Roger Mason Jr. was written by Roger Mason Jr.'s mom (or perhaps his agent). 

(For the record, I very much appreciate RMJr's play this season and would like to congratulate him for getting whoever is going to overpay him next season to do so. It's too bad Isaiah Thomas is no longer alive to give him one of those Jerome James/Jared Jeffries kind of deals (although Roger obviously lacks the proper credentials initials for such a contract.))

Anyway, check it out for yourself if you're interested.

So Ernie Grunfeld has given clues that we'll be packaging away the 18th pick for a valuable player who can help this team improve.  Who do you guys think, if there is a trade, we'll trade for?

Continue reading this post »

[Ed. note: From the FanPosts.  I'll have something up later today, until then, enjoy cuppetcj delivering big time with the goods on this one.  If you want to leave him a tip for this effort, that's fine by me, but if you're going to go cheap on him, don't bother. -Jake]

As if we needed another reason to dislike LeBron, it turns out that DeShawn is not the only guy who gets shat on by "the King."

It went down like this: LeBron pulls up in his Mercedes outside XO. People stop and try not to stare, but c'mon, it's LeBron James. He enters the restaurant with a group of friends. On this special occasion, the King decides to dine late. He keeps his group there until around 3:45 a.m. During this time the waiter obsequiously pours drinks and fetches anything else His Greatness needs.

The final bill comes to $800. By the feudal laws of decorum, which stipulate that the affluent should administer a 20 percent gratuity, staffers figured they'd be pocketing an extra $160. But when they fetched the autographed bill after His Heinousness bolted back to Akron, their expectation turned to disbelief, then anger.

LeBron stiffed them with a meager $10 tip. This is what French nobles like to call your requisite Bourgeois Bitch-Slap. The waiter wouldn't even take it, tired of being shat on by guys like LeBron.

Does anybody else here feel a bit of schadenfreude at LeBron's poor performance against Boston right now?  He's shooting a combined 8-42 from the field this series (16%).  It looks like Boston's defense is treating LeBron like he treats other people.  What a jerk that guy is.

Just thought I'd throw these out there. I'm still too emotional after yesterday's loss to post something intelligent.

Most Valuable Player: This is tough. I go w/ Caron, because his best was better than Antawn's best. When Caron rolled this year, we won. When Jamison rolled, we won sometimes. As the Cleveland series indicated, we were at our most dangerous when Caron was at his.

Least Valuable Player: Gilbert Arenas. Has there ever been such a soap opera-ish knee injury?  It's pretty clear now that "the face of the franchise" hurt much more than he helped this year. Hopefully, he can get healthy and come back for a strong 08/09, but his 07/08 campaign was all anticipation and no impact.

Most Improved: I'm giving this one to Haywood over Blatche and Stevenson. Brendan really impressed me several times this year, including during the Cleveland series. His free throws, his back-to-the-basket game, and his pass-receiving were all much improved over last year. Blatche improved too, but he was much more of a roller-coaster ride. Stevenson had some great moments and he hit more 3s this year than all his other years combined, but his maturity and shot selection still need serious work.

The OOBA (Out-Of-the Blue Award): Roger Mason started this year as the 12th guy on a 12-man team. He ended the year being our 1st guard off the bench. He was downright deadly on some nights and he caught the attention of the league (Lebron James in particular). Wiz fans should have really enjoyed Roger this year, 'cause he'll be wearing a new uniform, and sporting a $20-$30 million contract, somewhere else next year.

The Rookie of the Year: Since we only had 3, there is little suspense in this one, but its winner, Nick Young, is now put on notice. He had some nice rookie moments, but he needs to improve his defense so he can challenge Stevenson for the starting 2-guard spot. If he does (and I'm not sure how, by the way), our team will become instantly more explosive, athletic, and aggressive. Right now, however, his defensive liability outweighs his offensive potential.

The Welcome Back Award: Etan Thomas. At the beginning of the year, I said I could not endure another season with the Wiz's two-headed debacle of a center combo. Now, I don't see how we can succeed without it. The Cleveland series made it painfully obvious how much we need size and strength on the floor at all times. It's too much to ask of Haywood to be physical all 48 minutes and to stay out of foul trouble. Hopefully, this year has made them both realize their role (Haywood the starter and Thomas the back-up), and they can work together next year to give us good stability at the 5-spot.

The Funny but Useless Award: Pecherov. I know it was just his first year and that the team loves him, but Olesky needs to figure out what he's doing. Has any 7-footer ever spent more time behind the 3-point line? He may be able to make some outside shots, but he too often looked too soft and too afraid of contact. If he doesn't improve, he may go down the Jiri Welsch highway to ignominy.

Editor's Note: eva.future was first to this story , but people had already been commenting here, and this had a link, so I bumped it to the front page.

I'm with everyone in saying the suspension is pretty silly.  From what Ivan said, though, it sounds like Songaila just took the fall for DeShawn's so-called dirty flagrant in Game 1.  Any little thing would have been a suspension.

It's a ridiculous decision, but instead of crying sour grapes, I'm curious to see what happens now to our frontcourt depth.  Behind Haywood, all we have now is Andray Blatche, who has struggled in this series.  We need Haywood to come up big tonight, otherwise, we're in big trouble.

http://www.nba.com/news/songaila_suspended_080502.html

for game 6.

this is going a little bit overboard. the flagrant was a so-so call, but this is too extreme, i think. i still cant determine whether or not the contact was intntional.

what should merit a suspension is lebron's reaction. that was a really bad acting job.

this series is just spiralling out of control, but thats what i love about it. hope it goes seven

From Wizards Blog:

UPDATE: Well fans your not going to like to hear this but the NBA has decided to suspend Darius Songaila for game 6 due to the technical foul he received in game 5.

what does the league have against us? seriously.. lebron intentionally bows andray in the face and gets a silent flagrant 5 days later... gets nothing else..

lebron swings darius' arm into his own face, darius gets suspended..  i really dont get it.

Look I know he's the next coming of St. Buddah Christ, but I'll bet even LeBaby is going to find it tough to go left and make the game winner.  Deshawn lucked out, and for the first 47 minutes did a great job of forcing him left, but my god, this isn't rocket science.  Anyone think LeBooBoo is going to burn out sometime soon?? He's been carrying Wally World and Wallace's corpses around for 5 games.

My favorite part of the article was the quotes he got from Antawn:

"All the talk, all the silliness had gotten so much attention, it was time to just play ball," Jamison said. "We were down 3-1, on the brink of elimination, I just told them that all this talking was not making them look bad, it was making us look bad. We're a veteran team and it was time for us to start acting like it."

Asked if he and Butler were annoyed with DeShawn Stevenson and Gilbert Arenas doing so much talking in the time leading up to the series and early in the series, Jamison said it was a fair way to depict how the two felt. "We've got a lot of personalities on our team," he said. "Sometimes you can tame them, sometimes you can't. But this was out of hand. I told them: 'You can't get your point across through the media. You have to get your point across on the court.' That's what they were doing. They've been just staying quiet and playing. For Caron and myself, it was just difficult.

"Don't get me wrong, I love D-Steve and I love Gil, and I'll strap it up with them anytime. You have to have your teammates' backs, but what was going on was just nonsense. It had nothing to do with getting respect, because you can only do that by playing well and demonstrating professionalism. You make your noise that way."

 If the Wizards can respond to Antawn and Caron's leadership, this might just be a series again.

Take that KDP!

Lets face it, before losing his team this year Avery was a great coach for the Mavs (he has an insane winning percentage).  I'm actually not entirely sure either Avery or D'Antoni would be an ideal fit for the Wizards, but then again, who is?

Avery:

Pros: Inherited a good team and made them better, culminating in a trip to the NBA finals where he got killed by terrible officiating. Could do the same thing for us - we are an established team, while not as good as the Mavs under Nellie. Took an all-offense team and managed to make them play defense. Tough coach who wouldn't let Arenas run the show - a good thing, as I'm still not convinced EJ has any control over Agent Zero.

Cons: Completely lost his team this year, and that has to make you wonder. Two straight first round exits, we know what that feels like. Could completely clash with Arenas and ruin what is one of the better locker rooms in the league. Played with his lineups sometimes - would probably still play Songaila at center sometimes.

D'Antoni:

Pros: Nothing would make us more "Suns of the East" then getting the coach of the Suns. While EJ has the Princeton Offense, D'Antoni would make sure we played at an even faster pace and not get bogged down in the half court - which plays to our strengths. I think Blatche would really step up as an offensive force in his system.

Cons: More of the same - all offense, no defense. Doesn't play his bench at all, and we have some promising young players that need to be developed. Could be a lateral or even a backwards move - how would he fare without a PG like Nash? Would his system work with Arenas, who's more scorer than facilitator? Two words: Small Ball.

I'm not sure what the answer is here. If we do fire Eddie, we HAVE to look at these guys. (Assuming D'Antoni's gone.)