FanHouse Caronbutler

Home sweet home. Well, for one night anyway. In front of a 42-inch big screen on opening night in the NBA. Let's go ahead and try to read too much into it ...

• You can't tell me the Cleveland Cavaliers aren't going to come knocking for Stephen Jackson at some point. Looks like LeBron James is going to need some more help.

Hard as this is to say, it doesn't seem like Shaquille O'Neal can even be your No. 2 option. Apparently, the Cavs are reluctant to give up Zydrunas Ilgauskas for Jackson because Cleveland doesn't want to get smaller.

Everyone knows preseason games don't count -- but considering the Wizards won a mere 19 games last season, it's hard not to be encouraged by their 4-3 record heading into Friday's finale.

In fact, Washington's record seems to confirm what many have suggested all summer: The Wizards should be one of the most improved teams in the league.

But before the Wizards turn the page, they re-visited their past, facing former coach Eddie Jordan, now with the 76ers, in a hard-fought win in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Washington forward Caron Butler spoke to FanHouse on Wednesday about facing his friend and former coach, as well as his relief in seeing the locked-out referees return, his expectations for the season, the senseless tragedy at his alma mater and more.

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FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Last fall, I sang the hymn of fandom. Caron Butler's Wizards responded with their worst season in a while, a true wire-to-wire disaster of incontinence, misfortuned struggle and self-imposed blurriness. Butler still had a Butler-like season: 21 points, six rebounds, four assists, 1.5 steals -- but there's no self-promoting allowed when there are only 19 wins in the ledger.

So the song remains the same: Butler is one of the most bizarrely solid players this league has, worthy of our attention and appreciation. Luckily, as the Wizards around him improve -- through addition of the previously injured (Gilbert Arenas, Brendan Haywood) and previously exiled in Minnesota (Mike Miller, Randy Foye) -- we'll get to see Butler's glow more frequently.

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.

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.

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.

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

* "Dude will do ANYTHING to win, up to and including going Tony Jaa on Mo Williams. Maybe my new favorite photo." -- this is the city line.

* Andrea Butler, wife of Caron: "I cried tonight," his wife, Andrea Butler, told me. "It was like we were in the Finals. I don't know what happened, I got a little emotional. The whole fourth quarter was so good, I just got really emotional. I was just happy to see the crowd get back into it." -- D.C. Sports Bog.

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.

Brandon Roy brought a thief class for Saturday's game in Paul Allen's basement, and Washington's mages Wizards just couldn't hang. Roy rolled 20 after 20 on his pickpocket attempts, and ended up with a whopping 10 steals in a fairly low-possession game.

Caron Butler, despite good scoring output (31 points), had almost as many turnovers (nine) as the entire Blazers roster (10). To go with his steals, Roy offered 22 points, five rebounds, seven assists and two blocks. Roy, you are overpowered. When will the Dungeon Master take control of this thing?!