Rockets 114, Wizards 109: Can I write a check?

When Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison combine for 70 points, it's usually enough to get the Wizards the win. Tonight, however, it simply wasn't the case, as the Wizards fell to the Houston Rockets 114-109 at home.

In the game preview, I suggested that the Wizards let Yao and T-Mac get theirs and focus on stopping the rest of the team. Quite simply, it was a silly suggestion. Yao was unstoppable last night, as he constantly used his size and length to dominate Etan Thomas and the other Wizards centers. When he didn't score, he was fouled, and he hit 12 of 14 from the line. The Wizards had no chance against him last night. Before McGrady left the game with back spasims (be concerned, Rockets fans!), he was dominating on the perimeter with 28 points on 10 of 21 from the field. Finally, even with all of that, the Wizards still allowed 4 other guys to score in double figures. It was simply a dreadful defensive performance.

On the other end, the Big 3 played their game, but nobody else showed up. DeShawn Stevenson was 2 for 9, Etan Thomas 1 for 5, and Antonio Daniels 0 for 1. How in the world is Daniels only shooting one shot? That simply can't happen again. As good as Arenas, Butler, and Jamison are, they need a fourth scorer to do anything.

The defensive performance in particular is somewhat troubling. It's true that no other team has a guy like Yao, and the Wizards simply never have a chance to stop him. However, T-Mac should not be getting 28 points in such a short amount of time. The Wizards surrendered too many open jumpers to Shane Battier, Luther Head, and Juwan Howard. Once again, the Wizards struggled defensively to guard teams that play a half-court style. It happened in Chicago and it happened again last night.



I did see three encouraging signs, however. 38 free throws is really good, even if they gave up 38 to the Rockets. Jamison had a big game yesterday, and his production continues to be a major key for the team. Finally, Eddie opened up the bench, as Roger Mason, Calvin Booth, and even James Lang got into the game yesterday. I've been begging for this the entire season, and it finally seems like Jordan is getting the message. True, Booth and Lang probably only played because of Haywood's injury, but at least Jordan is making the effort.

All in all, it's been 20 games, and the Wizards are 9-11. They've proven they can beat bad teams and even a couple good ones. However, they have to beat good teams at home more consistently to reach the next level. They have two of those types of games next week against Denver and Miami. A sweep of those two teams will signal the Wizards are really back.

Postgame thoughts? What did you take away from the loss?

Wizards 106, Mavericks 97: HIBACHI!

For three quarters, the Wizards played possibly the best game they played in the last two years. A subpar fourth quarter made the Wizards’ performance look a lot worse than it really was.

The Wizards did two things very well. First, they really moved the ball well offensively. When the Wizards struggle offensively, it’s because there is too much one-on-one play. With Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, the Wizards have two fantastic one-on-one guys they can depend on when the shot clock goes down, but it’s dangerous to think they can just go one-on-one every single possession. It really wasn’t surprising to see than Antawn Jamison, a guy whose production rises when he’s in the flow of the offense, had his best game of the season last night. Dallas is a tough defensive team, especially inside, so to get all those open looks was really encouraging.

The other thing the Wizards did unbelievably well was they pounded Dallas on the glass. That really shocked me when I looked at the numbers. The Wizards outrebounded a very good Dallas rebounding team 53-39! That’s really solid, especially considering Dallas’ incredible offensive rebounding ability. Etan Thomas was an absolute monster last night with 10 points, 11 boards, and that one block on Devin Harris. That block was a play that really set the tone for the entire game. The Wizards showed tons of energy on defense and locked down on a really explosive Dallas team. Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and Devin Harris shot a combined 5 for 23. If you do that, you’ll beat Dallas.

While Arenas was huge with 38 points and 8 assists, (you listening, Michael Redd! You can score a shitload of points and be a good playmaker. It’s possible) the key to this game was Jamison. Unsilent pointed out a couple days ago that the Wizards are a completely different team when Jamison is playing well, and tonight showed it. Jamison’s the one guy that really needs to get his points in the flow of the offense. If the offense becomes too much based on one-on-one play, Jamison ends up trying to overcompensate and jacks up bad 19 foot jumpers. This also prevents him from getting inside for rebounds. When the offense is moving the ball well, Jamison is much more successful, and when Jamison is successful offensively, he’ll get in there and grab key rebounds. The play he made to seal the game at the end was a prime example of this.

However, I hate to say it again, but this game didn’t really prove all that much. The Wizards are 7-2 at home and could very easily be 9-0. We know they can play up to their potential against anyone in the Verizon Center. Now, they have to prove it and play well on the road. The offense needs to keep moving the ball well instead of stagnating and watching Arenas or Butler go 1 on 5. With road games against the Knicks and the Sixers on the docket this week, the Wizards have a great chance to finally get a road win.

In other news, Gilbert Arenas is going to be signing autographs/discussing his new shoe over at the NBA store in New York City. This wouldn’t ordinarily be newsworthy, but, apparently, Dan Steinberg, Unsilent Majority, Will Leitch, SLAM, and With Leather are all going to be there. Steinberg is calling this event a “Blogocalypse.” If anyone else is planning on being there, I’d really like to hear about it.

Also, Steinberg pops the “what if you could pretend you guys are at home when you’re on the road” question, and gets a ton of player responses. In an earlier Bog entry, Post Wizards beat writer Ivan Carter wondered aloud, "Is there a Shakespeare tragedy about an army that was great on its own soil but couldn't win on the road?" Clearly, this road thing is getting old and the players really have to find a way to break through. It better come this week with the Knicks and Sixers on the docket.

Finally, if you were at the game yesterday, let me know and send me your postgame thoughts. I’ll put them up here on the blog when I get them. E-mail me at pradam@brandeis.edu.

Postgame thoughts? Please someone be positive for now!

Pistons 115, Wizards 111: I'm Getting Nightmares of 2000

No doubt about it, this was a game they needed to have.

The Big 3 all had big games at the same time. Scoring, as a whole, wasn't really a problem. Gilbert Arenas had arguably his most complete game with 28 and 10 assists. Antawn Jamison had 22 and Caron Butler had exactly the type of game I know he can have with 25 points on 12 of 16 shooting. DeShawn Stevenson even chipped in with 15. Offense is solved, right? How could the Wizards lose?

Two uncharacteristic things killed the Wizards. The first was the huge free throw difference. Detroit is really more of a jump shooting team, yet they were able to get to the line 40 times! On the road! They were +18 at the free throw line, which is an insane difference. At some point, the Wizards need to be able to defend without committing too many fouls. Offensively, the Wizards only got to the line 23 times, which is a lot less than usual. Considering this also happened against Memphis, it may be the beginning of the trend.

The second uncharacteristic thing that killed the Wizards were the turnovers. The Wizards forced only 9 turnovers and had 17 of their own. This probably was the main reason why the Pistons were able to score at will on Washington last night. The Wizards were not able to get easy buckets in transition, which is something that has become a trend recently. However, the Wizards still usually take decent care of the ball, which makes the 17 turnovers tonight troubling.

This team is starting to remind me of the 29-53 team of 2000. I went to many home games that year, and after a while, each one started to mold together. The Wizards would fall behind early, be down like 8-10 at the half, and would see the lead baloon to 15 or so in the third quarter. Then, by the end of the quarter, the Wizards reserves would make a run and it would carry over to the fourth quarter. By the middle of the fourth, the lead would be down to 6 or so, and we'd honestly believe the comeback would continue. After a timeout by the opposition (this always happened after a Tracy Murray three...this was simply uncanny), the Wizards would miss a shot to cut it down further and the opponent would close them out eventually. I can't tell you how many games have followed that same pattern this year. It's just unbelievable.

I still think this ship can be rightened. The Wizards played pretty well tonight, to be honest. Detroit is just a super team playing really well right now. They could have beaten nearly any team tonight. There still is more that needs to be done, but the schedule calms down and the Wizards have a lot of home games coming up. A nice run is going to come sooner or later, just like it did last year.

I'd have more to say, but I need to keep watching this Kansas-Florida game. If only the Wizards had an athlete like Julian Wright on their team...


Postgame thoughts? What's your take on tonight?

Wizards 87, Wizards 82: The Real Problem is Clear

With 4:45 left in the third quarter, Tracy McGrady's three pointer gave Houston a 15 point lead. The Wizards then went on a 26-12 run to pull to within one point at 72-71 with 5:43 left in the fourth quarter. This was probably the best offensive stretch the Wizards have had on this road trip. But a second glance at the play-by-play of the stretch reveals the very problem the Wizards' offense has had.

During the stretch, here are the facts.

Number of Gilbert Arenas shots during the stretch: 3
Number of Gilbert Arenas points during the stretch: 4
Number of Gilbert Arenas shots the rest of the game: 23

In those 11 minutes, Arenas shot only 3 of the Wizards 15 field goals and scored only 4 of the team's 26 points. Yet during this two game road trip, Arenas has jacked up 51 of the team's 159 shots. Nearly one third of the Wizards shots on this road trip so far have come from the hands of Gilbert Arenas. This all despite the fact that the Wizards best offensive stretch on this road trip came when Arenas was shooting the least.

The problem, therefore, is clear. If the Wizards do much better when everyone is involved in the offense, why is Arenas shooting the ball so damn much? Where is that Princeton-style rhythm offense that was so good last season? How the hell are the Wizards supposed to win games scoring only 87 and 82 points?

When most basketball pundits analyzed the Wizards' potential problems this year, chief among them was the defense. Well guess what. The defense is doing quite well. The Wizards held Dallas to 40 percent shooting last night, and they held Houston to 41 percent shooting and only 86 points tonight. DeShawn Stevenson has been really solid on the wing, and Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood have given the Wizards some semblance of an inside presence. All should be good. But instead, all is bad.

The Wizards can't win on the road right now because Arenas is taking matters completely into his own hands. The Wizards are never going to win by going down the court and adopting the Arenas attitude, jacking up the first decent look they get. There are certainly times when Arenas' quick-scoring ability will be instrumental. Hell, he almost brought the Wizards back with that bank three in the final seconds. There is a reason why you can rarely count the Wizards out of any game.

But you can't do this for 48 minutes. If all you're doing is jacking up shots with 18 seconds left on the shot clock, no matter how good the shot is, you're incredibly easy to defend. Opponents have to expend very little energy on defense and can therefore focus on attacking a suspect Wizards offense. It's no wonder the Wizards have had three games in the 80s on the road this season.

Here's what needs to happen on offense. Antwan Jamison has his faults, for sure, but he is an extremely difficult matchup off the dribble and off the ball for any power forwards. Jamison is at his best hitting open threes or driving to the lane. Instead, Jamison is simply jacking up mid-range jumpers and missing them at an alarming rate. It's as if Arenas' disease is rubbing off on Jamison, who had previously been one of the league's most efficient scorers.

More importantly, the Wizards must get Caron Butler going. Butler is such a tough matchup off the dribble. He's strong enough to post up most threes, but has too good of a mid-range jumper to lay off him. If you get too close to him, he can take it to the hole and is among one of the best finishers in the game. Butler is also a monster on the offensive glass, and his rebounding has been awesome so far this year. There is no reason why he should not be getting 18 shots every game.

Finally, Antonio Daniels, when he's in the game, needs to be utalized offensively. He's among the best slashers and finishers out there and has become adept at the mid-range jumper. It seems like every time the Wizards make a comeback, it is a Daniels drive and three-point play that catalyzes it.

When Arenas shoots the ball 26 times a game, that means fewer shots for those 4 players. The Wizards offense functions best when Arenas is Option 1, Butler option 1A, and Jamison option 1B. When Daniels is in the game, he is usually option 3. The four of them played off each other
so well last year, so I really don't understand why suddenly it's become this bad. Arenas doesn't strike me as the kind of player who will suddenly become big-headed, making this all the more worse. Quite simply, this has baffled everyone, including me.

Oh, and one more thing. I don't think this is Eddie Jordan's fault. Sure, he's made a couple questionable substitution patterns, but it's not his fault if these guys have concentration lapses. Ivan Carter, in his latest Washington Post chat, said it best.

Didn't this guy just take this franchise, which hadn't pissed a drop in decades, to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons? Am I missing something here? Who do you want to hire? Sam Mitchell? Flip Saunders after he's fired in Detroit? Isiah Thomas? Larry Brown? Bill Fitch? Leonard Hamilton? Gene Shue? Kevin Loughery?

I agree 100 percent. There's nobody out there better at this point.

Anyway, I've aired my grievances, and I'm sure you have some, so I'll step aside for now and let you guys have the floor. Consider this an open forum for complaints thus far. I realize it's the time of year to be thankful, but I'm sure people have a lot to say.

[editor's note]: The title is actually the number of points the Wizards scored in the last two games, not the actual game score tonight. I realize it's pretty misleading, but I was trying to illustrate how bad the Wizards offense has been. It is pretty confusing though]

Open Thread: Game 2

Regular Season Game 2
Celtics (0-2) at Wizards (0-1)
Verizon Center
7 PM
NBA TV

It may be hard to believe, but one of the Wizards' most difficult opponents last season were the Celtics. The Wizards won the season series 2-1, but each game went down to the wire. Gilbert Arenas hit game-winning free throws twice--once with 3.5 seconds left and the other time with 1.7 seconds left--to lead the Wizards to two close wins over Boston in January. On March 7, the Celtics returned the favor, as Paul Pierce hit a game-winning three-pointer to give Boston a 116-115 victory. If thise year is any indication, this game will be pretty close.

Celtics Blogs: Celticsblog, Celtics 17, Celticsstuff Live, LOY's Palace, and many more.

I'm a bit conflicted on this one. On the one hand, the Celtics are in the second night of a back-to-back. On the other hand, they may be playing much harder to redeem themselves from an embarrasing 17 point loss to Detroit. In addition, last year's games were all close ones, and the Celtics arguably have more pieces this year. Still, with the Wizards at home, where they've dominated the past couple years, I can't see them losing.

Keep an eye on: Antawn Jamison. He's a tough matchup for either Al Jefferson or Ryan Gomes, because he's quick enough to beat Jefferson off the dribble, but big enough to get plenty of rebounds on Gomes. I expect him to have a big game tonight.

As a sidenote, I'm going to see Borat tonight, so I don't think I'll be watching. If you are watching, let's get a discussion going up here. In the meantime, you'll get a Borat recap along with a game recap.

Prediction: Wizards 106, Celtics 92

Cleveland 97, Washington 94: Welcome Back, Inconsistency!

The calendar may have turned, but there was a distinct flavor of 2005/06 season and the 2006 playoffs in the game tonight. At times, the Wizards showed us why they're one of the up and coming teams in the league, but they also had a lot of bad moments.

As a whole, though, I wasn't too upset. Gilbert Arenas isn't going to shoot 2 for 14 very much this season, and the rest of the team played pretty well as a whole. Here's what else I took away from this game.

• The Wizards need to get to the rim more in road games. Last year, the Wizards resorted too often to shooting jumpers on the road and seem allergic to the rim. Tonight was no exception, as they didn't consistently get to the line until the fourth quarter. Arenas in particular was the biggest culprit, shooting only two free throws in the game. Getting to the line will be the difference between winning the close road games and losing them.

• As long as they stay healthy, Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood will be a competent duo in the middle. Both played well in stretches during the game.

• Jarvis Hayes had a good game, but why is he the one shooting the biggest shot of the game? Why not Arenas or Butler?

• Cleveland is going to be really good. Larry Hughes had a big game and Drew Gooden was awesome on the boards tonight. They played a really strong game tonight, with the exception of their sloppy stage in the second quarter. The fourth quarter was more of the Wizards finally getting it offensively, and Hughes and James were out at points during the Wizards' run.
  

• As important as the Big 3 are, the Wizards cannot afford an injury to Antonio Daniels. His driving to the rim and solid ball-handling is invaluable and it was the reason the Wizards started their comeback.

• I can't believe Jamison missed that shot.
  

Next up is Boston on Saturday in the home opener. Let's see if they can fix the problems of this game.

Postgame thoughts? What did you think of the loss?

Community Projection: Antawn Jamison

Last year was quietly one of Jamison's best years, as he set a career high in rebounds while shooting really well from the field. His defense left a lot to be desired, but on the whole, Jamison was a valuable cog for the team. He continued to transition into a perimeter forward, averaging a career high in three-point attempts and nearly averaging a career low in free throw attempts per game. This makes it all the more incredible that Jamison was able to average a career-high in rebounds, and he was only 0.7 rebounds a game away from averaging a double-double.

What's in store this season for Jamison?

Last year: 20.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 44.2 field goal percentage, 39.7 three point percentage

My Projection: 18.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, 46% field goal percentage, 41% three-point percentage

Considering that I'm projected Caron Butler to significantly improve his scoring numbers, I expect Jamison's numbers to drop off. Butler is going to take more shots this year, and while Jamison has never been a player to demand the ball, he will invariably have some of the shots he had last year taken away. I still expect Jamison to have very good percentages, and he will still be a very good rebounder, but I think next year will be the start of a decline in his scoring production.

Now, it's your turn. Predict Jamison's numbers in each of those categories.

My Wizards Preview is up!

Check out my Washington Wizards preview for NBA Blog Previews here.

Feel free to discuss it either here or there.

[edit]: It's been a really hectic week with two midterms and such, but now that it's over, I'm going to re-post the entire thing here. Enjoy!

The psyche of a Washington basketball supporter is one that is unlike any other in the NBA. Let’s consider the history. One playoff series win from the end of the Bullets Fever era of 78-79 to 2005. No seasons with more than 45 wins since 1979. 10 different head coaches in the last 10 years. One ridiculous name change. These are just a few of the things that drive a Washington fan crazy.

But it’s not just that the Washington franchise has been in a constant state of mediocrity for the better part of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Unlike their mediocre brethren in the Clippers, the Wizards have always had some sort of a novelty among the league. Consider that former stars like Spencer Haywood, Gus Williams, Moses Malone, Bernard King, Rod Strickland, Mitch Richmond, Charles Oakley, and, of course, Michael Jordan all teased the Bullets/Wizards with their star power at the end of their careers. On top of that, whenever the Wizards got it right with a promising young player, they either got hurt (Chris Webber, Gheorghe Muresan), were traded too early (Manute Bol, Muggsy Bogues, Rasheed Wallace, Webber, Richard Hamilton), or underperformed (Juwan Howard, Calbert Cheaney, Kwame Brown). For years, Washington D.C. was essentially the league’s one-stop shop for aging veterans and underachieving youngsters.

If you ever wonder why the guys at Wizznutzz act like they do, try being a fan of Les Bullez for your entire life.

Why do I bring this all up? Because for the first time in ages, the Wizards actually have a real team that should be taken seriously. Sure, Gilbert Arenas is a strange dude, but the guy can play, and he has a ton of help on the court and in the front office. There’s reason for the hometown faithful to be excited about this team, so while I may not be as crazily optimistic as some of the previews so far, I’ll certainly struggle at times to contain my excitement.

Last Year/Offseason

When we last left the Wizards, they came out on the short end of a compelling six-game series against the Cleveland LeBrons…I mean Cavaliers. This loss followed a season where the Wizards were like the yo-yo in Gilbert Arenas’ head; up again, down again, up again, down again, and back up again. Early-season wins against San Antonio and Detroit were the bookends for a five-game losing streak. After falling to 12-18, the Wiz picked it up and put themselves in a prime position to match their 45 wins from the year before until a late 5 game losing streak pushed them down to 42 wins. You never knew which team was going to show up last year, but you knew they would be fun to watch

In the offseason, the Wizards said goodbye to Jared “The Enigma” Jeffries, letting him go to New York, where he will baffle Isaiah Thomas when healthy. In his place, the Wizards signed Darius Songalia from the Bulls and stole DeShawn Stevenson from the Magic for the league minimum. In the draft, the Wizards took two random guys from Europe who both won’t contribute this season.

The Strength of the Offense

It’s obvious that the Wizards’ strength is on the offensive end of the floor. When you have the highest scoring trio in the league for the second consecutive season, your offense is doing something right. What makes Washington particularly consistent offensively is their ability to get to the free throw line. Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antonio Daniels in particular do such a great job of getting to the charity stripe off the dribble without turning the ball over. This allowed the Wizards to finish sixth in the league in scoring ability despite finish 21st in true shooting percentage.

The great thing about this ability is that it doesn’t go away from night to night. Teams will have games where their jump shots aren’t falling. However, because the Wizards attack the basket so well off the dribble, they will rarely be subjected to off nights offensively.

Making this offense even scarier is the potential return of Jarvis Hayes from knee surgery. Without Hayes, the Wizards had trouble kicking the offense into full throttle unless each of the Big Three had monster games. Hayes adds a new dimension to the attack with his instant offense off the bench. He gives the Wizards a spot-up shooter on the wing that will benefit from Arenas’ penetration. Now, if only he could stay healthy…

The Weakness of the Defense

It’s no secret that the Wizards were poor defensively last year. They ranked 23rd in defensive efficiency last year, a ranking they need to raise about 8-10 spots in order to be a real contender.

It’s very easy to judge based on the Cleveland series that the Wizards need a physical, defensive big man to ever get to the next level. While that certainly was a problem in the playoffs, the reality is that there are bigger problems than that with this defense. Getting a big man like Joel Pryzbilla in free agency would not have been the best way to fix the problem.

The biggest problem was that the Wizards allowed far too many open looks at the basket in games. Had the Cavaliers’ shooters been playing at the top of their games, the result of the series could have been worse. For all of Arenas’ strengths offensively, he tends to drift off his man when he’s defending off the ball, allowing them open shot after open shot. Butler struggled with this problem as well, although he’s a much better on the ball defender than Agent Zero. While they both have been extremely dedicated to improving this in training camp, we have yet to see it translate to actual game play, although Arenas’ insistent to guard LeBron in the teams’ preseason game against Cleveland is certainly a good sign.

The other major weakness was on-the-ball defense. Jeffries was hyped as a great perimeter defender, but his sole value was his versatility rather than his man-to-man defense. Butler is a tough defender, but he lapses a lot of the time. DeShawn Stevenson should help, but on the ball defense remains a significant worry.

The Verdict

Many people have the Wizards pegged for a similar season, with a possible drop out of the playoffs. Naturally, I disagree with those predictions. There are those who wonder aloud whether the defense can ever be decent, and while those are legitimate claims, we need not look further than Dallas last season and Seattle the season before to illustrate that teams can improve their defense without making significant changes to the team’s core. In addition, the Wizards had the point differential of a 46-47 win team last year, and I don’t expect them to be as unlucky again. They’ll win more of those close games this season.

I don’t think the Wizards can contend for the title, but I think they will improve on last season. Stevenson gives the Wizards much-needed toughness on the wing, and Hayes’ return will make the offense even better. If Darius Songaila can come back healthy, the Wizards’ frontcourt will also be deeper than before. Throw in anything from Andray Blatche and a healthy return of Etan Thomas, and the frontcourt suddenly isn’t so shallow anymore.

Finally, I expect Caron Butler to have a monster year this season. It took the Wizards half a year to figure out how to use him effectively, and it was no accident that the Wizards’ 5 game losing streak at the end of the season occurred without Butler in the lineup. If he can stay healthy, he should approach 20 points a game and provide strong perimeter defense. It feels like we’ve been waiting on Butler for ages, but with a starting spot ensured and increased familiarity with Eddie Jordan’s offense, I see Butler finally showing his full potential.

There are certainly concerns, yes. The Wizards still aren’t particularly deep and I am concerned about the frontcourt depth, the defense, and the lack of a pure point guard. In addition, Orlando and their young players scare the crap out of me, and Miami is always the Wizards’ kryptonite. However, in the end I think this team will make the city go crazy with basketball fever for the first time in over a quarter of a century.

Predicted Record: 50-32, fourth seed in the East

[image via Yay! Sports]

Wizards are apparently less sleepy than Bobcats

The Wizards and the Bobcats played a preseason game at 10 AM (seriously, 10 AM!) this morning, with the Wizards coming out on top 100-91 despite turning the ball over 26 times. Apparently, the two teams needed to play for the local-area Charlotte schools, and the only time that would work was 10 AM. Naturally, I wonder what those kids were doing watching a basketball game at 10 AM instead of being in school, but the question apparently never was considered by the organizers of the game.

Other than Antwan Jamison having a monster game with 22 points, there's not much to report here. Etan Thomas got the start at center, but neither he nor Brendan Haywood played much during the game. Caron Butler had his strongest game of the preseason with 17 points in 18 minutes. Donnell Taylor turned the ball over an astounding 8 times, hurting his quest to earn the backup point guard spot. Gilbert Arenas and Jarvis Hayes didn't play, with Hayes sitting out because of a sprained ankle. Hayes' injured ankle certainly doesn't sound good considering his past history, but I think he'll end up being okay.

Now that 4 games have been played, what's been good and bad at Bullets training camp?

The Good:

-Starting Lineup: As Michael Lee and Ivan Carter note, the Wizards have outscored their opponents by 14 points in the first and third quarter of games, the time when starters are usually on the floor. The Big 3 in particular have had really strong showings this preseason. Gilbert Arenas opened the preseason by dropping 29 in 29 minutes against the Raptors and has been very strong when on the floor. More importantly, the Black President has showed a willingness to improve his defense, as evident by his insistence on guarding LeBron James in the Wizards' win over the Cavs on Friday. Antwan Jamison, featured in this article, had a big game today and seems to be carrying the momentum from his Team USA performance over to the preseason. Caron Butler, when playing, has been a solid third scorer, and has proven to be one of the team's most consistent options. As for newcomer DeShaun Stevenson, wait until the next point.

-The shooting guards: This was point #1 for me on my list of things to watch in the preseason, and the results so far have been more than encouraging. I'm becoming more and more convinced that signing DeShawn Stevenson for the veterans minimum may prove to be the steal of the offseason. Stevenson seems to be exactly what this team needs. With Arenas, Jamison, and Butler providing more than enough scoring on their own, the Wizards didn't need more offense. When Stevenson is out there, he is a tough, physical, lock-down defender in the Bruce Bowen mold, and is a much better fit for this team than Jared Jeffries ever was. He's even shown a solid outside touch, hitting on over 50 percent of his shots in the preseason.

Jarvis Hayes, meanwhile, has also had a big preseason. He nearly led the Wizards to a win over Toronto in the fourth quarter of the preseason opener and has averaged a solid 8 points in only 16 minutes per game. We've been down this path before with Hayes, and every time he seems to gain momentum, he gets hurt or shows inconsistency. With that being said, he's still very young and, if he can stay healthy, he will provide really strong scoring punch off the bench.

With Stevenson blending in easily with the starters and Hayes showing that he could be a potential 6th man candidate, the shooting guard spot, which seemed unsettled entering training camp, has now become a potential strength.

-The defense: Granted, it's preseason, but the Wizards have held each of their opponents below 95 points and 45 percent shooting from the field. That's a good sign no matter how you slice it.

The bad:

-Andray Blatche-Granted, the youngster had a very good game today, shooting 4-7 from the field and scoring 8 points in limited minutes. Prior to today's game, however, Blatche has been struggling. His stats prior to today's game have been ugly to say the least. He's shooting under 20 percent (5-28) from the field, committing turnovers at an ungodly rate (3 per game), and averaging nearly as many fouls (4) as rebounds (5). With the injury to Darius Songalia, the Wizards have given Blatche many opportunities to succeed, but he just hasn't been able to carry over his strong summer league performances to the preseason. Hopefully, today's game can be a turnaround, because he may find himself back in the D-League with more poor performances.

-Darius Songalia-The Wizards' top free agent signing continues to be out of action with his back injury. On the first day of camp, the team expected this to be a day-to-day thing, but here we sit over two weeks later and Songalia is still injured. There's no denying that Songalia's offensive game is tailor-made for Eddie Jordan's system, but unlike fellow newcomer Stevenson, Songalia hasn't gotten the opportunity to get used to the system. If Songalia's back continues to bother him, the Wizards may be forced to play more of Michael Ruffin, who should not ever be playing more than 5 minutes a game. With Blatche's poor preseason and Songalia's injury, the Wizards haven't really had the chance to develop the frontcourt depth they desperately need.

Overall, I'm liking this preseason so far. Despite the problems of Blatche and Songalia, the Wizards are proving to be a much deeper team than they were last year. Gilbert's dedication to defense also is incredibly encouraging, and the starting lineup looks to be clicking already. Barring a serious injury to a top player, the Wizards will enter the 2006/07 season with their best team in 25 years.

Bonus stuff...The NBA Blog Previews keep rolling along. Be sure to check out these awesome previews for Detroit (Need4Sheed and Detroit Bad Boys), Indiana (Donning Craig Sager's Suit), Milwaukee (5 Point Bucks), and Denver (The Nugg Doctor). Each of them predicted an over .500 record for their teams, which, at this point, is hardly shocking to me.....Blog-A-Bull is still in limbo with the decision to accept my wager. I'm eagerly waiting for Matt to stand up for his team and pull the trigger. There's nothing like a little friendly blog rivalry between two fanatic team bloggers. Well, maybe if we were actual professional athletes...

What's your feeling on Bullets training camp thus far?