Washington Wizards Tickets

Washington Wizards 2008/2009 Season Preview
The Washington Wizards lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year, leading many to question what the next step may be for the franchise.

There is no doubt that injuries decimated the team in 2007-2008, as Gilbert Arenas missed almost the entire season while Caron Butler missed significant portions.

At a crossroads this offseason, the Wizards elected to re-sign forward Antwan Jamison and point guard Gilbert Arenas to major contracts, believing that the team could compete for an NBA title if it was held together and the injuries were not a factor.

Giving Arenas such a huge contract is a major risk considering his knee injury. Arenas has attempted to come back twice from knee surgery in the past two years and play, but both times he has had to sit back down because the injury was too much to overcome. that doesn't sound like a player I would want to invest more than $100 million in.

If there was any good news to come out of last season, it was Butler further establishing himself as a star in the league. He earned a trip to the All-Star game based on his performance and it was more than well-deserved. He may not be the flashiest player in the league, but the guy simply knows how to play the game.

One of the team's biggest holes is in the low post despite a career year from center Brendan Haywood. Etan Thomas probably isn't the answer and his status remains up in the air after he underwent open heart surgery and missed all of last season.

The Wizards selected center JaVale McGee in the first round of the NBA Draft, hoping he could possibly be the answer in the future. McGee is certainly a project and will not be an impact player anytime soon, but for a franchise that needs a center, it might have been risk worth taking.

The biggest lose of the offseason was guard Roger Mason, who resurrected his career following serious knee surgery and became a spark plug and scoring machine off the bench. With his departure, shooting guard Nick Young is likely to see a serious increase in playing time in his second season in the league.

I think the Wizards would have been better off letting Arenas and Jamison both walk, saving all of that money and attempting to rebuild around Butler and some of their other younger pieces. Thinking really far ahead, the team would have had a ton of money to throw at LeBron James when he becomes a free agent in a couple of years.

As it stands, I see the Wizards once again being among the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference. If the team can stay healthy, they should be able to get out of the first round of the playoffs, but a lack of defensive intensity will keep them from going any further.