Washington
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
The Wizards face some long-ranging consequences this summer and have to make some important decisions by the end of next month. Should they try to negotiate a contract extension with Kwame Brown? How about Brendan Haywood? Should they pick up the team option on Juan Dixon for 2005-2006? How about Jared Jeffries? And what to do about Larry Hughes, who will be a free agent next summer?
The no-brainer in the above question should be picking up the option on Jared Jeffries for the season after this coming one. He's a double-double guy if he plays starter minutes. He's 6-11 and will always be at least a tradeable asset if nothing else.
The Juan Dixon decision will probably be tabled till as late in the preseason as possible to see if he will fit into the Wizards rotation and plans.
A contract extension with Haywood also seems to be in order, or at least the beginning of a negotiation. He is not a max player and if the Wizards can get him for about 60% of the MLE-equivalent or less, they would be getting a great deal on a big man.
Now what about Kwame Brown? He's certainly worth an MLE-equivalent salary and if he agrees to such a deal, the Wizards should snap him up, again, if for nothing else, his trade value. But what's the highest they should pay? Certainly they shouldn't be talking max money here.
Most likely Brown is unlikely to come to an agreement on a contract extension, meaning that next summer the Wizards will have little choice but making him a qualifying offer to keep him an extra year and make him a restricted free agent. In two years, then, Brown could be an unrestricted free agent.
That may be, for him, the best possible plan. In that summer, he will be only 24 years old and able to command a significant salary if he plays strongly these next two seasons.
Larry Hughes, meanwhile, will be a free agent in just one year. He therefore provides three great assets for the Wizards this season: (1) a terrific and explosive scorer and teammate, (2) an expiring contract in trade, and (3) a contract year meaning even extra output.
TEAM NOTES
See the2004-2005 Wizards dance team, whom Wizards center Brendan Haywood helped select and judge.
Brian A. Sereno of WashingtonWizards.com writes: For those involved with the Washington Wizards, from players to coaches, staffers to fans, management to media and merchants, November 3rd can’t get here soon enough. As a summer of preparation gives way to a season of suspense, WashingtonWizards.com takes a look at the 2004-05 Wizards in a three-part position preview.We begin with the men in the middle and the ‘centers’ of attention for the upcoming season.
Eve Zibart ofThe Washington Postwrites: Now, in what sometimes feels like a development abracadabra, D.C. is Downtown Chic. Penn Quarter, as the neighborhood is now called, is packed with restaurants and nightclubs, bars and brewpubs -- all of them full at once, it seems, especially on nights when MCI Center (where the Washington Wizards play) is booked -- plus bookstores, boutiques, art galleries and theaters, high-end spas and salons, fitness centers and a weekly farmer's market.More important, what was for a long time adults-only territory is now extremely family-friendly.