FanHouse Brendan Haywood

WASHINGTON -- Gilbert Arenas may be eliminating the often outrageous, sometimes peculiar behavior that once added to his popularity, but the rest of his game is coming back just fine.

The explosiveness has returned.

The 28-29-point scoring average may be fading into history, along with the Agent Zero and the Hibachi personas, but a more valuable, more productive 20-point, 10-assist guy could be brewing inside him.

It's what the Washington Wizards need.

Every Tuesday this offseason, two of our NBA experts will go at it with a Debate in the Paint. This week, the topic is which team will be the most improved.

There are two generally accepted ways to massively improve your team's chances during the summer offseason: draft new talent, or acquire new talent by trade or free agency. But the Wizards -- my choice for most improved team of 2009-10 -- have tapped a little-known third way: let all your injured stars return to health.

That was the biggest factor in the return of the Heat, 2008-09's most improved team: Dwyane Wade got healthy, and the team got back to contention. The Wiz stand at the start of a similar path, with Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood ready to roll. Of course, Wade is more vital than either. But together, it's like signing two major free agents at arguably the two most hard-to-fill positions.

On Tuesday, some comments Brendan Haywood made about Stephon Marbury and perceived homosexual behavior in Marbury's lifestreaming escapades came to light. In short, Haywood said that because Marbury got a shirtless massage from a male friend and danced to a disco song on video, no NBA player would want to share a locker room with him. Because, you know, he might be gay. Kelly Dwyer and Kevin Arnovitz have both responded in exemplary fashion -- read those reactions if you care at all about the issue.

Haywood has since posted what he dubs an apology on Yardbarker. As an avowed fan of the newly unfiltered relationship between athletes and fans, I'm encouraged that Haywood knew enough to know he needed to apologize. But in that apology, Haywood invokes the name Tim Hardaway (as in, "I wasn't trying to come off like Tim Hardaway") and offers up ye old "if it doesn't affect me, I don't really care" response to the very existence of homosexuality.

In other words, Haywood notifies us that he will continue to be a part of the problem.

Michael Lee of the Washington Post followed up recent Wizards rumors in a piece this morning on the No. 5 pick and Caron Butler. Lee said the 'Zards and Suns discussed an Amar'e Stoudemire trade, but D.C. balked when Butler became a requirement from Phoenix's end.

Washington GM Ernie Grunfeld famously has little interest in keeping No. 5. Phoenix needs to do two things in short order: get younger, and get rid of its (spiritual) question marks up front (Stoudemire and Shaquille O'Neal), one way or the other. So can the Wizards and Suns arrange a deal without involving Butler, Gilbert Arenas or Antawn Jamison?

Ready or not, here Flip comes.

After much discussion, rumor mongering and ballyhoo, Yahoo! Sports reports that the Washington Wizards will make former Pistons and Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders their new head coach, reportedly agreeing to a four-year, $18 million deal.

That's not Yankees money or corporate bailout money, but for the Wizards, that's a pretty hefty chunk of change.

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

Only one NBA team can legitimately claim its season ended before it began. Starting center Brendan Haywood, Washington's defensive anchor, tore a wrist ligament during a preseason practice. The injury basically ensured a mediocre defense would be destined for completely awfulness.

But Eddie Jordan's Wizards have always scored efficiently and frequently. Surely, the offense could save Washington. That'd be nice ... except that a month prior, the team's most potent scorer -- Gilbert Arenas -- had another surgery completed on his knee. His return date went from December ... to January ... to post-All Star break ... to Saturday.

You can understand how Washington finds itself at the bottom of the standings.

There was a dead certainty that some changes would be occurring in the Washington Wizards' organization following the team's 1-10 start.

And because it seemed unlikely that Ernie Grunfield would fire himself, and it was already too late to start trying to trade Gilbert Arenas or Antawn Jamison and because Caron Butler is the truth ... well, it stood to reason that the first scapegoat would be Eddie Jordan. According to the Post's Wizards Insider, that has now come to fruition.

According to sources familiar with the situation, the Wizards have relieved Coach Eddie Jordan of his duties. Jordan was informed of the decision this morning.

Ed Tapscott, who had carried the title of Director of Player Development but traveled with the team and essentially served as an extra assistant coach, will take over coaching duties, starting with a practice that will begin today at 11 a.m.

Again, I don't know if it's deserving -- Jordan has done a pretty fine job of coaching up what is a quasi-limited roster since he's been in Washington. And additionally, he's currently missing about $110 million worth of said roster ... but yeah, the team is in the basement of a very winnable division, Gil and Brendan Haywood are talking about not coming back this year if the playoffs aren't an option, and someone has to get blamed. If the reports are accurate, looks like that guy is Jordan.

Everybody knows that LeBron James is the NBA's favorite son, right? Brendan Haywood does, as well, but he just wishes that Cavs coach Mike Brown would quit acting like an over-protective father every time someone looks at his star player the wrong way. From Dan Steinberg's Sports Bog:

"That's just how it is," Haywood said. "You know, any time LeBron gets touched, Mike runs out there like LeBron got shot or something. Calm down Mike. It's not that serious. We're not trying to take him out. It's all within the confines of the game. I don't see how coaches should be running out on the court like that anyway. Isn't there a coach's box? Since we're talking about the confines of the league rules, he shouldn't be out of the box."

I've noticed this, as well, and like Haywood says, I'd like to see the refs actually enforce this. Not having a coach on the court screaming bloody murder every time there's a foul might help both teams keep their emotions in check. As for the play that got Haywood ejected last night, he's not really sure what the big deal is about.

During the third quarter of Cleveland's Game 2 blowout win over the Wizards, Brendan Haywood was apparently unaware of the score. With his team trailing by 15 points (and believe me, the game wasn't even that close) Haywood basically gives LeBron a two hand shove while he's flying towards the rim, sending him to an awkward landing on the hardwood.

The play resulted in a flagrant two foul being assessed to Haywood, which is an automatic ejection. I'm fine with that call, because to go at the other player's superstar like that and not even make an attempt on the ball -- especially with the game out of hand -- is asking for trouble. If the refs don't take control of the game after that, players are going to start throwing punches.

After the game, LeBron commented on the foul, and said it definitely wasn't a "basketball play."

"It was scary, honestly ... definitely scary being up that high and then getting pushed up some more. I bounced up though.

It was definitely ... it was not a basketball play at all, it had no part, in no shape, way or form, and you know, definitely somebody could have really seriously been injured."

That's really the issue here: do we want defensive players making intentionally "hard fouls" that could result in injuries to the league's superstars? Obviously, the answer is no. I'm all for physical basketball and not giving up easy shots, but you have to at least make a play on the ball and not just send guys flying out of bounds with a shove. Now, should Haywood be suspended for this? I say no. It was a dumb play, but not an excessively violent one, so I think being ejected from the game in which it occurred is punishment enough.

UPDATE: The league has confirmed that Haywood will not be suspended for this.

B-Ball, B-Fast is a rundown of last night's NBA action from a fantasy basketball perspective. Bookmark it and visit often.
Cup of Coffee
So you know, the third leading scorer in the National Basketball Association was Chris Quinn. And so you know that I know, yes the headline has probably already been used once or twice. But whatevah. Quinn's 22 points off the bench -- the return of Jason Williams prompted his removal from the starting lineup -- are fairly interesting. For one, the Heat suck. Shaquille O'Neal got dominated by Brendan Haywood. (Roll that one around in your brain this morning. It hurts.) So they need scoring. Quinn connected on six of 10 three's against the Wizards, and with Dorell Wright playing the Jekyll-Hyde role (his box scores are like roller coasters), one has to wonder how long Pat Riley is going to let this squad stay on the floor without a true perimeter gunner in the mold of Jason Kapono from last season. In admittedly little time, Quinn's hit 35 percent from beyond the arc since coming into the NBA, so don't be surprised if he gets more run as Riles tries to rest J-Dub and find another source for scoring.

Hot Cakes
I suppose I really shouldn't make fun of Haywood -- he is having a career season so far in 2007-08. Last night marked his ninth double-double of the season, and with Etan Thomas out of DC, he's finally getting the run he needed to actually gain some legitimate fantasy value. Yes, he's always been proficient at picking up blocks, but it seems like his one-trick pony show could be a thing of the past. 10 points and seven boards aren't exactly Chamberlinian numbers or anything, but they're a vast improvement from the Brendan of old. Just another reason to hate Carolina. Don't be afraid of picking up on the chance these numbers bottom out.

Tony Parker, who, um, has some other things going on right now, missed last night's game. With Tim Duncan already on the shelf, things got ugly for the Spurs. First of all, Jacque Vaughn ran the point. Into the ground. For about 20 minutes. Vaughn will get some assist numbers but unless Parker misses more time than Timmy, he's not going to be worth much in fantasy. Deeper leagues certainly want to make the add though, as the Spurs have indicated Parker could miss more than one game.

The bigger concern though, is Manu's play. He's been superb this year and that won't quit ... providing he's not the number one (and only) option for offense on his team. If he's forced into ball handling duties, has to become the primary offense threat and play 40 minutes a night, things are going to get ugly for fantasy owners and the defending champs. Yes, the points will (maybe) rise, but so will the turnovers, while the percentages plummet. If you're treading the line there, now's a nice time to sell Manu with his value so high.