Washington
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Gilbert Arenas is not a pure point guard. Kwame Brown is Kwame Brown. Jerry Stackhouse? Who even knows what's going on there. That leaves Larry Hughes, rookies, and sophomores for your team. The Wizards should examine every deal that comes their way and look to orchestrate themselves: this team needs big big changes.
David Stern says the league likes to tell new owners that most teams are just one player away from a championship. Unfortunately, he says in the next breath, that player is usually Shaquille O'Neal, and he's playing in Los Angeles. But is that advice true for the Wizards? Are they just one player away?
Say you put Shaq on the Wizards. Then you're looking at a team that's quite similar to Houston, which is built around the 1-5 axis of Steve Francis and Yao Ming. Washington would be built around Arenas and Shaq. Would the Wizards be a contending team?
No.
They'd be an exciting team, and a playoff team, but they wouldn't contend for the championship. They'd be worsethan the Rockets were this season. And that's with the addition of arguably the most dominant player in the game today.
That's not to say the Wizards aren't going anywhere; it's just to say they aren't going anywhere with what they have now. They need to make some big, sweeping changes to bring in some super players. They don't need superstars but they do need team players.
Eddie Jordan is a good coach and will get the most out of whatever he's given.
But will the fans suffer through another season like this one?
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