[外電] 30 teams in 30 days - Wizards
http://tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=177226&hubname=nba
30 teams in 30 days - Wizards
Tim Chisholm
9/12/2006 9:32:52 AM
TSN.ca basketball columnist Tim Chisholm is looking at one NBA team each day
for the month of September.
Season Previews
Washington Wizards
Talk about a team stuck in neutral.
The Washington Wizards were inconsistent all of last year, got knocked out of
the playoffs in the first-round by Cleveland, and the only move they've made
all off-season is letting do-it-all swingman Jared Jefferies leave so they
could sign DeShawn Stevenson. They got no frontcourt help, no shooting help
and they still can't play defense. How this team believes it can do any
better this season than last is a mystery to me.
And personally, I find it a shame. I really enjoy Gilbert Arenas, even if he
isn't a pure point guard (you don't really need one in a Princeton offense,
as Mike Bibby can attest), and I hope very much for his sake that this
mid-season will see some trades to try and find him some help that can get
his team out of the middle-of-the-pack, where they are destined to reside as
long as they insist on throwing out this roster, one good player removed,
each season.
There are no more questions about the personnel on this team like there may
have been in years past; Brendan Haywood doesn't get it and would be far more
effective coming off of the bench. Caron Butler, when he's on, is a very hard
worker, but he isn't always on and he has never recaptured the game he
brought in his rookie season in Miami. Antawn Jamison is steady and
dependable, but he is as most North Carolina grads (outside of Jordan) have
been, and that's best used in a supplementary role.
Which leaves us with Arenas, who will once again have to pick up this team
and drag it himself to wherever it is they are destined to wind up. Is that
the playoffs? Absolutely. Is it the Finals? Not a chance. So then, I ask,
what's the point of keeping this group together? If this team isn't moving
towards a spot in the Championship round, which as built they are not, then
why insist on tweaking a sinking ship. Letting Larry Hughes go the way they
did is criminal, telling your second-best player to go find a deal and then
report back. It's no wonder that he left, but he was such an integral cog to
what they team did that year, that without him this squad just doesn't work.
It just gets frustrating to watch, because so many players have been let down
by their management in recent years (Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson come
quickly to mind) that I'd hate to see another career spent waiting for the
right pieces to arrive on the scene. Arenas made it clear this summer that
he's not going to stick around forever, and if management insists on losing
all their best role players, it's going to cost them Arenas, as well.
So what about this season? Well, this season should look a lot like last
season since Stevenson and forward Darius Songaila are the only additions to
last year's club, and it will probably take both of them to replace the
intangibles and defense lost by letting Jarred Jefferies sign with the
Knicks. They have done nothing to address their depth issues, nor their lack
of shooters and consistent post-players. Last year's squad finished two games
over .500, and there is no reason to assume that this team is capable of
putting anything more substantial on the board this season.
It's not that the Wizards are a bad team, because they're not. They're just
very mediocre, and I don't understand why any management would want to
perpetuate that mediocrity year-in and year-out. All I can think of is that
so long as this team is making the first round of the playoffs, and bringing
in the revenues that such an achievement signifies, management is content
enough with the team financially as is and doesn't want to rock the boat and
risk losing out on whatever profits this team is pulling down.
Too bad for Gilbert Arenas.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP
PG - Gilbert Arenas
It always seems like he's just outside the place he wants to be. He was an
All-Star last year, but only when Jermaine O'Neal couldn't play. He was
nearly on the World Championship team, but a nagging injury kept him from
sticking around (although popular opinion is he was getting cut anyway and
opted to bow out before he was pushed out). Now he's on a playoff-bound team,
but he can't quite crack to top half of the conference or whiff the second
round. Sometimes players are truly are at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Who knows, maybe Arenas will turn out to be this generation's Clyde Drexler
or (worse) Chris Mullin; guys who were always right there with the big boys,
but couldn't quite find a way to stick around.
SG - DeShawn Stevenson
I got many disappointed emails after I wrote a piece on Stevenson this summer
because I failed to mention that in 2001, when he was a bench-warmer for the
Utah Jazz, he was charged with statutory rape. He pled no contest and was
assigned 100 hours of community service, two years probation and a $1,100
fine. So, I freely admit that, in fact, I have perfectly good reason to
dislike Stevenson as a person, despite my statements to the contrary earlier
this summer. Whether or not I choose to do so, however, will require further
reading into the particulars of the case. I just wanted to make sure that
people knew I was aware of the incident, and that I apologize if the omission
offended anyone or if it was taken as a sign that I do not take such matters
seriously. That said, I maintain that I think Stevenson is a poor replacement
for Jefferies in the starting line-up for the Washington Wizards, and while
he may be able to pick up some of the defensive slack on the perimeter, he
has never displayed the kind of hustle Jefferies exhibited that kept the
Wizards afloat while so many of their players stood around and watched.
SF - Caron Butler
Without a doubt, last season evoked memories of what Butler is capable of as
a player when fully involved in a team's system, and now that he has had an
entire year to learn the system, as well as an entire year for the coaching
staff to utilize him, this year will go a long way to determining where
exactly Caron Butler sits as an NBA player. Is he a go-to guy? Is he a
dependable scorer? Is he a complimentary guy? Is he a bench player? Who
knows, but Butler will have every opportunity to solidify his role on this
team, and in this league, this season, no matter what he chooses to do with
that chance.
PF - Antawn Jamison
Jamison reminds me so much of Antoine Walker I can hardly stand it. Not in
terms of the style of game that they play, but rather the paths of their
careers. Both started off as guys who were seen as sure-things coming out of
college, and both were given the reigns to a struggling franchise before they
proved they could handle it. Both were handed maximum-dollar deals based on a
hope that it was best for the team, and now both have shown that they are
best used as complimentary players to more well-rounded and talented NBAers.
Jamison, like Walker, has shifted between both forward positions for his
entire career, and finally the league is catching up to his versatility.
Specific positions are going out of style in the NBA in favor of all-around
basketball players. Guys who have a skill set that fits with a team,
regardless of their position. I don't know that Jamison is right for this
team, and I don't think he'll last until the end of his contract in
Washington, but I think that any team that has him has a real stat-stuffer if
they are creative enough to use him effectively. Washington has gotten a lot
out of Jamison, but a more free-flowing system (like the one run by this team
when Larry Hughes was still around) would suit him much better.
C - Brendan Haywood
He is so symptomatic of the entire feel of this team. He should be better
than he is. Everyone keeps waiting for it to click with him and for him to
start playing in a higher gear, but going into his fifth year in the league,
Haywood has proven that this is all you get from him: flashes of brilliance
surrounded by weeks of mediocrity. As a bench centre, he'd be among the best
in the league because he wouldn't have to live up to the same kind of
pressure that he does in the starting line-up, where his mental mistakes are
far more harmful to the team. But since this team has no other options to
start in the middle, Haywood looks to be firmly entrenched, in all his
mediocre glory, in the starting five for the Washington Wizards.
--
Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 218.166.154.214
※ 編輯: ymcdc 來自: 218.166.154.214 (09/22 00:05)
Wizards 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
-14
93
