Report: Arenas out three months

by OptionZero on Nov 23, 2007 12:44 PM PST

According to Ivan Carter and Michael Lee (Wizards Insider):

Arenas, who has missed the last two games, underwent an MRI in Washington today. He said he won't be able to do any basketball related activity for at least three weeks and could be cleared to return to practice in three months.

"It's a downer because I really thought I was getting back," Arenas said. "It's a big setback but I guess I'll start all over again."

(Note: From what I could discern on the RealGM Wizards forum and the Bullets Forever blog, Carter and Lee are pretty trustworthy sources, not random bloggers).

Is this the start of an "Injury Prone" Gilbert Arenas label? Remember, Baron was healthy and durable at the beginning of his career; now its the opposite. After missing the end of last season and now this, Arenas is no longer as shiny a free agent target as he used to be.

Personal prediction: Wizards don't collapse like it seems like they would. Antonio Daniels is a purer point guard that gets to the rim and distributes (check his insane FTA/40 and AST:TO ratio numbers); that means fewer chucked threes or wild shots from the "point guard" (still makes me laugh) and more shots for the more efficient Butler and Jamison. I'll say they continue playing .500 ball (they weren't gonna win 50 with or without Arenas, they just weren't that good).

Bill Simmons' Ewing Theory might be in full effect on this one.

At least Arenas will still be a good free throw shooter.

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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MADDEN CURSE!!!

except that its only Nba Live Curse!!! I really hope we can get a win in washington since gil aint gonna play...

gdubb

by gogomaplata on Nov 21, 2007 3:04 PM PST 0 recs

wow man

this is a tough situation for Gilbert. He had to sit out and watch his team struggle in the playoffs, and now he has to sit out again? Hope he gets better quick.

WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOW!

by tadams1080 on Nov 21, 2007 3:24 PM PST 0 recs

let my officially retract

the Agent Zero movement I suggested at the expense of letting Baron walk when we were discussing what is clutch. I guess it is back to lamenting about Yi.

You call me ancient, I say "oldguysrule"

by commish on Nov 21, 2007 8:06 PM PST 0 recs

While we're talking Wizards...

(I'm fully prepared for the flaming that this might elicit.)

So y'know, our good friend Antawn Jamison is going to be a free agent next year... Is it just me, or would he finally be a good fit here? Yes yes, I remember he doesn't play D. But he does a lot of other things: scores inside and out, rebounds, shoots a high FT%, runs the court well.

The biggest problem with Antawn as a Warrior was that he was our best player, when in fact he should maybe be a team's third best player. Right now he's only second to Arenas, which is one reason why they're only a .500 club--it shows their lack of top-tier talent. The other problem with 'Tawn, of course, was his absurd contract, but what he gets in free agency won't even be close to the $16m+ he's making now. Any takers?

</diary_hijack>

I dunno if this signals chronic knee probs for Gil or not, but it's something that'll certainly be on the minds of GMs next summer when Agent Zero is testing the free agency pond.

by ffgolden on Nov 22, 2007 12:47 AM PST 0 recs

wha...

Caron Butler

24 > 23

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Nov 22, 2007 1:10 PM PST up 0 recs

Ya

Seriously...

Also, Carter and Lee are trustworthy sources because they're the Washington Post reporters. They can't just make things up.

Bullets Forever, your Washington Wizards blog.

by Pradamaster on Nov 22, 2007 1:53 PM PST up 0 recs

moreover

Defense- Jamison doesn't play any.

his rebound rate is only marginally better than Harrington

he has no post game

seriously all this talk about upgrading our front court ignores how well our frontcourt has actually played

if we didn't have Nellie running Barnes and Pietrus out there as power forwards all the time, we'd be fine

GET A BACKUP POINT GUARD

24 > 23

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Nov 22, 2007 2:05 PM PST up 0 recs

Diary moved down the list fast!

But in the hopes that you come check for counterarguments:

Jamison's rebounds per 48M is 11.9; Al's is 9.6. I'd argue that that's beyond marginal, though Al has indeed done better this season.

If you define a post game as backing a defender down and scoring one-on-one, then yes, he does not have a post game. But Jamison is incredibly comfortable scoring in the paint, very crafty and effective. It's hard to deny this if you watched him as a Warrior.

Also, I wasn't talking about upgrading this year, or even upgrading over Harrington. I was talking about picking him in free agency next summer if he can be had for a reasonable price (full MLE?), maybe as an interchangeable frontline player much like Harrington (who starts or comes off the bench wouldn't really matter).

Lastly, we have a backup point guard. His name is Monta Ellis. So either trade him and get your dream-date Arroyo, or ... hope that Monta works out.

by ffgolden on Nov 22, 2007 11:19 PM PST up 0 recs

naw

Why would you want to give him the MLE to be a backup big when we have Brandan Wright? Again, for all the people clamoring for front court help, our front court is fine: Harrington/Biedrins starting, Wright/POB as cheap, young backups brimming with potential, Cro and Diop as token change of pace guys. Cro might disappear next year, oh well.

You want numbers?
1976
1980

Those are Jamison and Harrington's birth years. I'll stick with our young frontline instead of blowing the MLE on a guy on the downside of his career.

We do not have a backup point guard. We have a backup combo guard who plays point guard because w e have no more options. Ellis is trying, and has shown flashes, but the gap between him and the point guard we need is greater than the gap between our front court players and an whatever front court people think we need.

We need a PG who actually creates for others, distributes the ball, who can shoot 80% from the FT line while getting to the line at a good clip; if he can hit 45% FG and 35% 3P that'd be dandy as well.

The only situation in which Jamison makes a modicum of sense is if you don't believe Harrington is a solution and you want Jamison as a stand in + expiring contract rolled into one. (i.e. trade Harrington + filler for Jamison, let Jamison walk this offseason, spend the money on something).

24 > 23

WE NEED A BACKUP POINT GUARD

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Nov 22, 2007 11:34 PM PST up 0 recs

Downside of his career

Perhaps, though he hasn't quite shown it yet. He's almost averaging 20 and 10. Wright is promising, but if he's destined to be a 20/10 player, it's not for a few years. I'm not looking for him as a "solution" at all; I'm looking at him as a possible piece of our small-ball puzzle, and I haven't seen any arguments why he wouldn't fit. (Except for defense, which I conceded early in my post.)

Hey, I couldn't agree with you more on your backup PG/Monta take. I'm just saying there's no way we bring in another PG until Monta is gone (or Baron is gone). If an efficient backup PG is more of a solution than Monta, Mullin should trade him while his value is still high.

by ffgolden on Nov 23, 2007 12:02 AM PST up 0 recs

another PG

It's easy to solve the situation, in theory.

Trade away Monta (and/or Pietrus, Kosta, the TPE).

Trade for point guard X, whomever it may be

They do not need to be the same trade, but those are the two moves to make.

I cannot understand all the demand for frontline help when our Harrington/Biedrins have been good and Croshere, POB, and Mbenga have been better than expected. The only thing missing is playing time, since Harrington has had personal issues lately (unknown), Biedrins ran into Garnett and Curry, Cro has been out, POB nailed to the bench, and Mbenga recently signed.

This just brings up another point: we're 10 games into the season, which is only halfway to Nellie's "20game evaluation" point.

But I guess making wild demands for massive changes is what "fans" are for.

24 > 23

WE NEED A BACKUP POINT GUARD

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Nov 23, 2007 12:02 PM PST up 0 recs

When

did we get Diop?

The J-RICH show is on his way out...=(

by dajrichshow on Nov 23, 2007 12:22 AM PST up 0 recs

Maybe he meant DJ BangerHands

Best duo since...

by Tim N Chris Burger on Nov 23, 2007 9:59 AM PST up 0 recs

hmm

I'm going to have to disagree about Harrington/Biedrins. Any given night, I look at the other team's depth chart and I just KNOW that someone in their frontcourt is about to have a career night against us. We can jibber jabber all we want about how good a help defender Biedrins is and how well Harrington does against defending mobility, but the reality of the situation is any average to above-average PF/C in the league can single-handedly destroy us any given night. If we get to the playoffs again, it's going to be Boozer, Duncan, Amare, Bynum, Chandler, Kaman, etc; and once again we will be at their mercy and all we'll be able to say is "Hey at least Harrington can score X amount of points and Biedrins can get X amount of blocks, so they're good enough."

The backup PG situation is definitely a big concern as well, but I don't think we've solved our frontcourt problems just yet..

by jlagace on Nov 23, 2007 8:17 PM PST up 0 recs

power forward

There's no power forward available that can guard those guys AND be halfway decent offensively, so its a moot point.

The only option is Artest as an undersized PF, but that also requires alot of help defense.

The problem now is that the TEAM is not putting in effort offensively, not just our bigs.

24 > 23

WE NEED A BACKUP POINT GUARD

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Nov 23, 2007 9:06 PM PST up 0 recs

Agree with OPZ

We have more pressing needs at backup PG. The offense grinds to a halt when BD isn't out there. While Stephen Jackson is a great passer for a SF, overall we have way too many scorers and not enough distributors. .If Nellie keeps playing Baron like this, he'll be too worn out to make any run late in the season. Brevin Knight would've been a great backup to BD. Heck even Jason Williams would've been better. And we actually could've gotten him.

by ThermoElectro on Nov 22, 2007 4:21 PM PST 0 recs

Brevin Knight

is garbage. Utter garbage.

He's shooting 33% from the field. Whether he sucks or is hurt, he wouldn't have done jack for us.

Jason Williams, however, would have been nice.

Not drafting Crittenton or trading for someone quality was the biggest mistake off the offseason.

Knight was an excellent point guard for a halfcourt team where he could feed it inside and run a structured offense. He is a horrific fit in an uptempo system where the point guard needs some semblance of ability to create.

24 > 23

WE NEED A BACKUP POINT GUARD

AIM: Jetforze

by OptionZero on Nov 22, 2007 4:30 PM PST up 0 recs