FanHouse GilbertArenas

Wizards forward Antawn Jamison hasn't been able to help his team on the court after suffering an exhibition schedule shoulder separation. But he's trying to inspire his mates in the locker room. Friday night, that meant the post-game gastronomy in Indianapolis had to suffer.

Washington fell to a rather miserable Indiana team by 16 points. According to the Washington Post's Michael Lee, Jamison gave the business to his teammates in the locker room after the final buzzer. Lee reports that a tray of snacks had been "tossed into a corner, shattered to pieces, with fruit and candy scattered everywhere." Quelle horreur!

WASHINGTON -- Peel off the cobwebs. Get out the dust pan. One of the NBA's best shootouts is back.

There was a time in the middle of this decade when Dwyane Wade and Gilbert Arenas conjured up some Wild West battles even though both play in the East.

In 2005-06, in the four games the two met, Washington's Arenas averaged 32.3 points to 31.3 for Miami's Wade. Arenas had a 47-point game against the Heat and Wade had games of 41 and 40 points against the Wizards.

But then injuries hit both hard. Wade missed 62 games in 2006-07 and 2007-08 due to shoulder and knee problems. For Arenas, it was even worse as he missed 149 combined games in 2007-08 and 2008-09 because of knee trouble.

So when the two squared off Wednesday night at the Verizon Center, it was their first meeting since April 8, 2006.

With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

Madison Square Garden is the crown jewel of NBA arenas. It's the oldest building in the league, and has hosted a ton of special moments throughout its history. Many of those moments likely helped shaped the hoop dreams of many of the league's current stars.

Of course, no one had a greater influence on making MSG a special place to play than Michael Jordan (sorry, Knicks fans). Since Jordan, every NBA player has wanted to come to the Garden and put on a show.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Wizards are hoping that a healthy roster, a few new additions and a new head coach will help the team get back to relevance and into the fairly stacked upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. But reconstructing a group that won just 19 games a year ago might be a project that will take longer than a single campaign to complete.

The good news is the Wizards have plenty of positives going for them as they head into the season.

Nothing like a $25,000 fine to kick your mouth into gear! Wizards star Gilbert Arenas has been on a self-imposed media boycott this season, given a terse group interview on media day and otherwise refusing to speak to reporters. The league didn't like that, and fined Arenas and the Wizards $25,000 each for breaking media availability rules.

In the wake of that announcement, Gil changed his stance and talked to reporters after a preseason win over the Pistons in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Yes, Gil talked to reporters. Technically.

Actor Rainn Wilson -- best known for his role as weirdo Dwight Schrute on The Office -- is heading up NBA on TNT promo duty this fall. This new spot with Wizards talisman Gilbert Arenas plays on the former Agent Zero's penchant for self-anointed nicknames. After the jump, we have Wilson's spot with Magic hoss Dwight Howard.

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.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the NBA's race for a championship is far less interesting with Kevin Garnett on the sidelines. Nothing would have been better to see the Celtics defend their title at full strength last season, and nothing would be better than a full strength Boston squad -- plus Rasheed Wallace -- battling the Cavaliers and the Magic to come out of the Eastern Conference this year.

But while KG is indeed back to practicing with his teammates, as you'll see in the following video clip, his knee appears to be far from ready for the rigors of the regular season.

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.

When Eddie Jordan got canned from the Wizards, primarily because he mishandled his roster after his starting All-Star point guard missed two years due to injury followed by his starting center going down before the start of this season, most people said the same thing.

"That guy's not going to be unemployed long.'

Today the Philadelphia 76ers made sure that prediction came true, and hired Jordan as their new head coach.

So was it the right move?