Washington Wizards 2008/2009 Season Update
Posted 2/10/2009
The Washington Wizards came into the season with high hopes that a healthy team could make a lot of noise in the Eastern Conference.
Instead, the injury bug has hit the Wizards much worse this year than last, and the result has been pretty much a complete and utter disaster.
The team signed guard Gilbert Arenas to a major contract in the offseason, convinced that his knee injury wouldn't be an issue. Instead, Arenas hasn't played in a single game this season and has only recently begun working out again. Talk about throwing money down the drain.
Center Brendan Haywood injured his wrist in the preseason and will be out until the last month or so of the regular season. While Haywood isn't a star, he is the team's only low-post player and has been sorely missed.
To try and shake things up, general manager Ernie Grunfeld fired head coach Eddie Jordan and replaced him with Ed Tapscott. Unfortunately for the Wizards, they have about 10 players that should be fired too.
The Wizards made further changes when they traded away oft-injured point guard Antonio Daniels for Mike James and Javaris Crittenton.
James gives the team a solid scorer who can bomb in the outside shot. He isn't the player he once was, but at least he gives the Wizards someone respectable to throw into the starting lineup.
Crittenton is a solid pickup. He is young and undeveloped but the team is hopeful he could one day become the team's starting point guard. Time will tell, I suppose.
The change didn't make much of a difference in the team's play, especially when Caron Butler missed time with an injury of his own.
When Butler or Jamison is nicked up, the starting lineup for this team becomes pretty laughable. You half wonder whether this group couldn't be beaten by the top college basketball teams. Talk about the ultimate insult.