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?
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.
If Gilbert Arenas' continued medical issues with his knee weren't worrisome enough, losing Brendan Haywood for four to six months because of that pesky wrist injury he suffered in practice this week. The Washington Post's Ivan Carter reports that Haywood needs surgery to repair a torn wrist ligament; the recovery period will keep him out until at least February, and possibly the entire season. Meanwhile, Antawn Jamison has an injury that keeps most players out two months; Jamison, however, says he will be ready for opening night.
Haywood was a huge, undersung cause for Washington's improvement last season. Perhaps being unshackled from constant battle with Etan Thomas allowed the ease of mind to finally perform well. Maybe Haywood finally got it. Some would argue Haywood had a fluke year, and would have come crashing back down to Earth in '08-09. Whatever the case, we aren't going to find out.
It appears Thomas will get the starting nod, though Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee figure as options, according to the Post's Carter. Is it an opportunity for the Wizards to see what they have in the youth corps? Sure, but it's also enough to suggest Washington won't be making the playoffs this season unless someone unexpected comes through in a major, major way.
Okay, so basically, we're going to take this one in two strides. First, we'll do the half-full version for any Wizards fans who might be reading as to not send them airborne, and then we'll do the half-empty version for the sadists among us.
Fresh off finding out that Gilbert Arenas had more surgery and won't be back for a while, the Wizards headed toward their first preseason game with the same "us-against-the-world" attitude that got them to the fifth seed last year without Arenas. Then center Brendan Haywoodsprained his wrist in practice. No problem, there's a good chance he'll be back in a few weeks. And now, not five minutes into their first preseason game, Antawn Jamison hits the deck with what is being described as a strained knee.
Luckily, there's a good chance neither injury will be serious. Barring any severe second opinions or terrible MRI results, both players should be back within the month.
Okay, Wizards fans, that's all you need to hear, you can head back to whatever you were doing before. Drive safely.
NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
1. TrueHoop. Spending a day with NBA referees. Tons of great notes in here. 2. Palm Beach Post. Michael Beasley comes ... err, clean: "And when asked if he was hiding in the hotel room when security first entered Beasley answered, 'Honestly, I don't know.' I'm not sure our young protagonist understands what that word means. 3. Ball in Europe. Highlights from Josh Childress' first preseason game in Greece. 4. OregonLive. Nate McMillan wants to dampen the high expectations facing the Blazers. Good luck.
*Don't actually. If you still have them. Which you probably don't. Unless you're DeShawn. In which case, you should probably be guarding West.
1. The West Is Strong, Allright:Delonte West, that is. West is averaging 11.3 points per game in this series, including 16 points in Game 4, propelled by some huge shots down the stretch. The big problem with the Cavs during a pretty mediocre (at best) regular season was the lack of an auxiliary scorer. If you reduce this team to just LeBron, you have a much better chance at beating them, though even that's shady depending on how the King feels. The Wizards have to lock down on the perimeter shooting in this game. They allowed 13 three-pointers on 46% shooting, including five from West, in Game 4.
2. It's The Boards, Stupid!: The Wizards are getting murdered on the glass. Not surprising, given Cleveland's army of bulky power forwards and the Wizards gaggle of slender gunners. But to be outrebounded by an average of 10 in the series. Their shooting percentages are the same, the Wizards are actually turning the ball over less, and their defense has been solid. But Cleveland is getting 5 more offensive rebounds per game. That is huge for this series. Andray Blatche needs to step it up, and Brendan Haywood needs to focus less on LeBron being weak and more on getting double digit rebounds and shoring off the Cavs on the offensive glass.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Cavs-Wizards game tonight.
1. Will The Real Cleveland Offense Please Stand Up?: They almost had me. With a 2-0 series lead after shooting 46% from the field at home, I started to think, "You know, maybe this Cleveland offense is better than I thought." Then came Game 3. Oh, there you guys are! I missed you! Make no mistake, the Wizards defense was unrelenting and their offense was en fuego in Game 3. But to assume that game was an abbe ration in terms of performance for the Cavaliers' offense is quite a mistake. This team was built for rebounding and defense. That' why Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskus, and Ben Wallace get the majority of the minutes. The problem is, they're now up against a Wizards team that has remembered its ability to score from anywhere on the floor. The Cavaliers can do that ... with LeBron James. But if they want to walk out of Washington with that killer 3-1 lead, the backcourt better show up like it did in the first two games. Otherwise Deshawn Stevenson et al are going to have another field (goal) day.
2. The Mysterious Mystery of Agent Zero: Your guess is as good as mine as to whether Gilbert Arenas is going to play today. But it might not make that big of a difference. This team was at its best this season with Zero on the shelf. If he can't go for significant minutes today, and they can get back in that zone they were in during Game 3, the Wizards can still shoot the lights out. Then again, if he comes back healthy and starts pouring in points on top of their newfound offensive efficiency, it makes them even more deadly. The only bad scenario is if he continues to get minutes and can't find his groove. Eddie Jordan has to be flawless with his handling of this situation today.
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.
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.
Ready or not, here Flip comes. 
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, 
There was a dead certainty that some changes would be occurring in the Washington Wizards' organization following the team's 1-10 start.
If 
Okay, so basically, we're going to take this one in two strides. First, we'll do the half-full version for any Wizards fans who might be reading as to not send them airborne, and then we'll do the half-empty version for the sadists among us.
In another of 
In another of 
Everybody knows that 
