Wizards Midseason Report: The Bad, The Badder, and The Ugly

Ahhh, the midseason report. It gives us a chance for all of us to reflect upon the poor decisions made in the offseason and their impact on a team's (lack of) success.  Let's examine the formula for the Wizards current state of being...

Bad offseason + injuries to key players + nonsensical coaching change + total unwillingness/inability to play defense = let's see, carry the four, add the... oh wait, last place in the Eastern Conference. 

Does this mean that Wizards fans should be in despair?  It depends on when you're hoping. 

The odds of a miraculous turnaround are, well, let's check with John Hollinger of ESPN, whose playoff odds have the Wizards playoff chances at...drumroll, please... ZERO. 

The Wizards are 25th in offensive efficiency and 28th in defensive efficiency, and have little hope for improvement on defense. What no one can predict is the impact that a possibly healthy Gilbert Arenas can have on the offensive side of the ball. 

5 Good Things From the First Half

1.  Antwan Jamison and Caron Butler are really good. The Wizards committed to winning with the Big 3 in the offseason, and two of them are playing really well.

2.  Andre Blatche is improving. Since the coaching change, Blatche is seeing more burn and he's rewarding the team with improvements in almost every category. I look for him to continue to get 25-30 minutes as the season wears on, and develop into a solid rotation player.

3.  Javale McGee was a good draft pick. Quietly, McGee has been very effective in short stints. As his conditioning improves, he should see more time and may validate the Wizards taking a chance on the raw big man.

4.  Mike James has improved since the trade. Buried on the bench in New Orleans, he was looking like one of the worst contracts in the NBA. Now that he's starting to contribute in Washington, his $6 million salary is seeming a little more palatable.

5.  Nick Young has a place in the NBA. Until Young learns how to...you know...pass, he's going to have trouble getting a lot of minutes.  As instant offense off the bench, a la Bobby Jackson, Young is a valuable role player for most teams.

5 Bad Things From the First Half

1.  Eddie Jordan. That's all I need to say. This was a good coach widely respected throughout the league, and anyone who looks at this team can see that the talent just isn't there. Boy, this change really made a difference in the win column.

2.  JaVale McGee, Bill Walker, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Oleksiy Pecherov, Vladimir Veremeenko, Andray Blatche, Devin Harris, Peter John Ramos, Jarvis Hayes, Steve Blake. Here's a list of Wizards draft picks since 2003. Other than Devin Harris, who was traded to Dallas for Jamison, there's not a single NBA stud in the group. Talent wins games in the NBA, and the Wizards have wasted draft after draft. This doesn't bode well for the very early (potential No. 1) pick next year.

3.  The end of the bench is awful. When Etan Thomas, Domick McGuire, and Dee Brown are all getting solid minutes, you have a major problem.

4.  As stated above, the Wizards are 28th in defensive efficiency. When this team was high-flying and high-scoring, this could be rationalized, but defense comes down to effort and coaching, and, frankly, the effort isn't there at all. Teams like Charlotte and the Clippers find themselves in the middle of the pack in defensive efficiency, and no one can say they're more talented.

5.  It's really clear that there's no plan. After firing Eddie Jordan, it was clear this team is lost. Gilbert Arenas and Brandan Haywood do not make this team suddenly a championship contender. The teams needs to stop thinking about winning 45-ish games and losing in the first round of the playoffs, and start thinking about building this team to win long-term.

Hope is Not Lost

Every team wants to win a title (we hope). Every fan wants his/her team to win a title.  So what do the Wizards have in their favor? All we've heard about is the summer of 2010. Well, the Wizards haven't been mentioned all that much, but they're actually set up nicely. 

Aside from Jamison, Arenas, and Butler, only Songaila, DeShawn Stevenson, and Andray Blatche are locked up through summer. Their salaries total $53 Million.That leaves roughly $20,000,000 of salary that summer for a big-time free agent. 

Hopefully the Wizards' front office is focused on 2010 as a time to contend again. They need to sell everything not named Caron Butler (Arenas is untradeable) for as many draft picks as they can get. 

Loading up on cheap and expiring contracts and trying to make this team an option for Kobe, Lebron, Wade, or Amare is the best chance they have of getting back to contention. The great news is they're all set up to do just that.

All management needs to do is make smart choices and be patient. On second thought, maybe there isn't any good news.