Why Antawn Jamison Should Be The Washington Wizards' Sixth Man Next Season

Right before he came to Washington, Antawn Jamison was the designated first player off the bench for the Dallas Mavericks in 2003-2004, packing a scoring punch of 14.8 points per game.

He won the NBA's "Sixth Man" Award that season.

If you ask me, Jamison should entertain that role once again, this time for the Wizards. His deficiencies on defense were highly noted this year without center Brendan Haywood communicating on the backline of the defense (Haywood missed 76 games due to a broken wrist this past season). 

While Jamison shows no signs of slowing down offensively at the age of 32, he sure as hell isn't getting any better defensively. In fact, Jamison is probably the Wizards' worst defensive player.

It's not because of a lack of effort that he struggles on defense, its beacuse of his slow lateral movement. Jamison has always been that way, since he entered the league out of North Carolina. It's not that Jamison doesn't want to play defense, it's that he simply can't.

I know that he didn't particularly like the role he was given with Dallas in 2003-2004, and I would have understood his case then considering the fact he was only 26 years old.

But the man will turn 33 years old in June and him giving the team a boost off the bench would be in the best interests of the organization, overall.

With the Wizards having the second-best chance of having the number one overall pick in this year's June 2009 NBA Draft, highly praised man-child Blake Griffin out of Oklahoma may fall into their laps.

Let us assume that the Wizards do indeed draft Griffin, then they would have a bit of a logjam at the power forward position with Jamison, Andray Blatche and Darius Songaila.

Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler cannot start together in the backcourt because each player is below-average on defense and Butler is not quick enough to guard the opposing teams' star players at the shooting guard spot. He is best suited to play at his natural position, which is small forward.

Therefore, Jamison would have to be moved to the bench and the battle for the starting shooting guard position between DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young and Dominic McGuire would ensue.

Out of those three players, I would prefer McGuire because he is everywhere on the court, hustling for loose balls, contesting every shot and runs the floor well. He can defend all five positions and at 6'8, would have a height advantage over the average shooting guard he would defend.

Stevenson, with the bad back and all, would best be suited as the three-point shooter and perimeter defender off the bench. He would be Roger Mason 2.0 (boy, he'd be pretty helpful right now, wouldn't he?).

Young is the worst defender of the three but is the most gifted offensive player. I'm sure newly hired head coach Flip Saunders would prefer Young's offensive attack paired with Jamison's coming off the bench.

So, this could be the potential starting lineup for the Washington Wizards in 2009-2010 NBA season:

PG - Gilbert Arenas

SG - Dominic McGuire

SF - Caron Butler

PF - Blake Griffin

C - Brendan Haywood

Bench: Antawn Jamison, Nick Young, JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche, Darius Songaila, Javaris Crittenton

That lineup is better defensively than any starting lineup the Wizards have had this decade. Every player is played to their strengths, not to mention a very big frontcourt teams such as the Cavs and Celtics would get a heavy dose of in the East.