Gilbert Arenas & John Wall together in 2010?
Contradicting an earlier report from John Mitchell, Mike Jones writes today that the Wizards have no intention of getting rid of Gilbert Arenas and are preparing for a back court of Arenas and John Wall. What’s more, Arenas, who has previously expressed great bitterness towards the Wizards for not helping him cover up his crime and then publicly stripping his face from team property, is apparently eager to get past all that and play for Washington in 2010.
Arenas was released from a halfway house in Montgomery County, MD earlier this month and has reportedly spent much of his time since then shooting and practicing inside the Verizon Center.
"On Sunday, Arenas met with Leonsis at the incoming owner’s home, to discuss moving forward and his place within the franchise.
Leonsis on multiple occasions has told reporters that his goal was to heal any rift between Arenas and members of the organization, and that – along with expectations of the former three-time All-Star – was conveyed during Sunday’s meeting.
“Everybody’s getting a fresh start,” a team insider said. …
“As I’ve said all along, Gilbert will be a Washington Wizard next season,” said Grunfeld, who also maintained that landing the top pick (which is expected to be Wall) had no bearing on Arenas.
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Of course, all this is exactly what you’d expect the Wizards to say if they were furiously trying to trade Arenas, whose trade value is low right now due to his behavior and concerns about his repeated injuries.
"There had been debate as to how Arenas would respond to not having the ball in his hands 90 percent of the time, but the guard is said to be very receptive to the change, and believes that sharing the back court with Wall will be similar to his early days with the Wizards when he and Larry Hughes (another combo-guard) played off one another and in the 2004-05 campaign averaged a combined 47.5 points (25.1 for Arenas, 22.4 for Hughes) and 9.8 assists (5.1 for Arenas, 4.7 for Hughes). Sharing a backcourt with Wall also could mean that Arenas wouldn’t have to draw the assignments of guarding the league’s quicker younger point guards – a task that’s not exactly attractive for a 28-year-old who has survived three knee surgeries.
One Eastern Conference executive when asked about how Arenas and Wall would work together, and his take on Arenas’ receptiveness to change, had this to say, “Gilbert Arenas may be misguided at times, but he’s not stupid. He knows he’s on a short leash and doesn’t have many chances left, so I expect that he’ll do whatever the Wizards tell him to do. And from what I hear, after being out for as long as he has over the last three seasons, he just wants to play.”
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