FanHouse JavaleMcGee

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.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.

-- " 'You know, my issue with the players is that they're not working hard enough,' Jackson said Tuesday night. 'They're saving steps. When you do that, you try to get by without having to exert yourself enough to win games the right way. And Kobe is one of those people who is doing that. He's measuring out what it takes to win a ballgame. This is a veteran who's been through a lot of seasons. We just have to shorten his minutes a little bit to keep his legs live.' " -- Los Angeles Daily News

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Many people consider the NCAA Tournament to be the biggest sporting event of the year, and that includes NBA players. In this hilarious video we catch up with Wizards star Caron Butler (UConn) as he has a very funny exchange with teammate Nick Young (USC) over their alma maters' chances. But just because you are a basketball player does not mean you are into the tournament, as Andray Blatche admits he is not into "Match Mardness." Also in this video we find out which Wizards player looks like President Obama and which one does not.

Check out the video after the jump.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Mr. Pollakoff told you all about the ridiculous efforts of Misters Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, who faced off in Miami. But there's a whole 'nother galaxy of awesome out there. Its leader is ... Marvin Williams.

Marvey Milk had 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting, hitting four of six threes and adding four boards and a couple steals. Who did he do it against? That, that's not important. What is important is that, thanks in part to Marvelous, the Hawks were able to escape an awful shooting night from Mike Bibby. (Someone's always gotta clean up after that guy.)

Wizards bosses claimed that the early-season replacement of Eddie Jordan with Ed Tapscott came because the franchise management believe the playoffs could still be reached. At 4-23, Washington is now five games behind Charlotte for 14th place in the East. I think we can rule out the playoffs at this point.

Nevertheless, Tapscott is riding his veterans. JaVale McGee and Javaris Crittenton earned DNP-CDs for the Christmas game in Cleveland. Youthful Dominic McGuire didn't get some time to flourish or wilt until not-youthful DeShawn Stevenson requested to be benched. There's no hope for this season, and the team hasn't yet given the kids a chance to show they can be successful next season. Lose-lose, mates.

As such, this rumor from the Washington Post's Ivan Carter makes a load of sense.

They are only whispers but I'm hearing chatter that Gilbert Arenas and the team is seriously pondering whether to bring him back at all this season.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Blog-a-Bull. Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas are not making the most of their opportunities.

2. Ball Don't Lie. Video of the next president's election day pick-up game.

3. Sports Illustrated. Steve Nash is upset the Suns don't run when Shaquille O'Neal is on the bench.

4. Washington Times, via BallHype. More JaVale "Epic Vale" McGee: "A strip on the size-18 Nikes of Washington Wizards rookie JaVale McGee bears a peculiar phrase, written neatly in black Sharpie. 'Kill + Mode = Cheese.'"

5. Boston Globe, via TrueHoop. Carmelo Anthony might lose his personal chef ... to the White House.

6. Los Angeles Daily News. Why doesn't Chris Kaman surf the internet? "I'm into other stuff, shooting my bow and arrow around in my backyard, flying helicopters around. I just do stupid stuff you wouldn't think I'd be doing, but I'm the one doing it."

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Washington Wizards Blog, via Bullets Forever. The Zards are installing a new camera on the baskets at the Verizon Center ... because the current basket cams are too low to capture JaVale McGee in flight! JaVale Cam!

2. NBC Chicago. A tremendous Q&A with two of FreeDarko's writers. The book is out today! (Robo)Cop that!

3. Tim Kawakami. Al Harrington's broken heart bad back has him in bed for two weeks. The Warriors are so weird.

4. Orlando Sentinel. Magic GM Otis Smith on Kings GM Geoff Petrie's eternal quest for Hedo Turkoglu: "Smith said the Kings have been in touch with Orlando since the Magic signed him as a free agent in 2004. He said it has been a while since the Kings made some offers for Turkoglu, and added, laughing, 'They wanted to give us their trash.'" That's bad pool, Otis. Team pride forces me to now blurt out the following: FRAN VASQUEZ JJ REDICK RASHARD LEWIS FOR $200 BILLION. Whew, that felt good.

5. Riverside Press-Enterprise. Phil Jackson on Trevor Ariza: "He's like a ghost out there. Like a shadow. Just all of a sudden he shows on a screen and he's gone. He's a blip and he's away. He runs the court like that."

6. Both Teams Played Hard. It's the 61st edition of the Carnival of the NBA.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Basketball-Reference. What do the season-opening streaks by L.A., Atlanta and Washington mean? Less than you'd think.

2. Wages of Wins. Signing the song of Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Also, a reminder that Antoine Walker made three All-Star Games. (Shareef? One.)

3. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Not only is Atlanta surprising at 5-0, but they seem completely different from the Hawks of last year.

4. Basketball Prospectus. A tremendous analysis of the Lakers defense, which reminds Kevin Pelton of George Karl's SOS Pressure defense from mid-90s Seattle.

5. Ridiculous Upside. If you want in depth D-League draft analysis ... you are in need of therapy. Also, you belong to Ridiculous Upside.

6. Mr. Irrelevant. JaVale McGee is looooooooong.

And on a non-NBA note, FanHouse alum Howie The Hype Guy has a new comedy project you should definitely check out.

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.

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

After just barely making the playoffs, the Nuggets were unceremoniously swept out of them by the Lakers in the first round. There have been a lot of rumors lately surrounding Carmelo Anthony, which have been put to rest for the moment. But it's obvious the team is going to have to make some changes -- either philosophically or otherwise -- to get more out of obe of the league's most talented rosters.

Picks: #20.

Needs: This team has a lot of firepower offensively, but could use a low post presence who isn't opposed to playing defense.

Best case scenario: Roy Hibbert or Kosta Koufos would fit nicely, especially Hibbert with his defense.