Wizards Breakdown: Succeeding Without Gilbert Arenas

With Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler sitting out, the Wizards could have easily gone into the tank against the surging Jazz. The fact that they didn’t is a tribute to the wonderful coaching job Eddie Jordan has done with his team.

But can the Wizards conjure up wins when Butler and Arenas aren’t around to fill up the stat sheet?

Let's take a look.

Positives

Antawn Jamison (9-17 FG, 2-5 3FG, 11-13 FT, 8 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 1 TO, 1 BLK, 31 PTS) did his best to carry the Wizards offense. He mostly operated on the right wing, where he looked to fire long catch-and-shoot jumpers.

In early offense situations, Jamison was much more willing to use his right hand to attack the basket before the Jazz could set their defense.

Jamison executed a beautiful up-and-under in the right post, lifting Andrei Kirilenko in the air before stepping through to complete a layup.

Jamison also showed quick hands early on, deflecting a pass, picking up a steal, blocking a shot, and recording three very early rebounds.

The Wizards first-half zone caused a number of problems for the Jazz. Washington switched every screen and reacted beautifully when Utah tried to pass the ball or drive the ball along either baseline.

Andray Blatche has big-time athleticism and can become a special player in this league. He looked to shoot far too often, but he has good range, tremendous ups, and an impressive right-to-left spin move at the basket.

Blatche loves to gamble on defense and his long arms and quick first step allowed him to intercept three bad passes for steals. Blatche also loved to come over from the weak side of the Wizards zone and swat away incoming layups.

While Blatche made a number of mistakes as well, they were almost always mistakes of doing too much instead of not doing enough, at least on the defensive end. As he builds more muscle, relaxes more, and lets the game come to him, he’ll eventually become a force in the NBA.

Without Butler or Arenas hogging shots, Blatche and Antonio Daniels were given much more freedom to show off their offensive prowess. The two combined for 37 points.

Brendan Haywood was active on the offensive boards, coming up with four offensive rebounds and nine total. Haywood’s baseline rotations were timely, and he combined with Blatche to stymie Utah’s penetrations at the basket.

The Wizards played great transition defense and closed out hard.

Antonio Daniels, DeShawn Stevenson, and Roger Mason Jr. all played effective halfcourt defense.

The Wizards shut down Carlos Boozer, holding him to four points on 1-9 shooting.

Negatives

While Jamison is certainly a capable scorer, he plays like a 2-guard instead of a big man. He only went into the post five times, and here’s what transpired:

- A turnaround right hook from the right box was missed.

- The spectacular up-and-under mentioned above.

- A postup of Kirilenko on the right box resulting in a foul. Jamison made both free throws.

- Jamison backed down Kirilenko and made an explosive spin move but botched the resulting baby hook.

- Jamison posted Harpring but couldn’t get any leverage and settled for a wild fadeaway 16-footer that missed badly. He was bailed out when Harpring nicked his arm, and hit 1-2 free throws.

- Jamison bricked another long fadeaway, this time from the right post.

The result: 2-4 FG, 3-4 FT, 0 AST, 0 TO.

Jamison recorded seven points in six post possessions—a decent but not impressive number. He wasn’t double teamed, and often looked to shoot over, or shoot around post defenders instead of attacking his way through the hoop.

Without a post presence, the Wizards are at the mercy of their jump shooting.

Jamison and Blatche rarely made more than simple handoffs or reverse passes. In fact, Jamison and Blatche looked to score whenever they had their hands on the basketball.

Due to the fact that the Wizards offense was struggling to create open looks, and that Jamison was the only reliable point-maker on the floor for the Wizards, he gets a little leeway.

But the Wizards will need crisper ball movement to generate open looks.

When Utah figured out that they could have weak side cutters flash to the middle of the paint and then make right angle cuts to the basket, the Wizard zone was dissolved.

Nobody on the Wizards was physical enough to prevent Matt Harpring from cutting to the lane at will.

Because the Wizards are such a perimeter oriented team, they struggled to create easy looks in a half court set.

DeShawn Stevenson’s jumper (1-9 FG, 0-7 3FG) never made the trip.

Darius Songaila is soft and slow, an awful combination.

The Wizard bench provided no production. Songaila, Mason Jr., Dominic McGuire, and Nick Young combined for 2-16 shooting from the field, 0-4 from beyond the arc, no free throw attempts, four rebounds, three assists, and four points.

Combine that with Stevenson’s off-night and you have over half the roster not contributing anything on the offensive end.

All three of Young’s field goal attempts were blocked.

Twice in the first half, Blatche went up soft on dunk attempts, only using one hand. Twice, those attempts were shoved away by Andrei Kirilenko. In the second half, Blatche almost made the same mistake a third time, clutching the ball only in his right hand on liftoff before putting his left hand on it after he sensed Kirilenko was near.

This kid needs to realize that this is the NBA—where everyone can fly. If Blatche is going to go up with one hand, he’s going to end up on a lot of shot-blocking highlight reels.

Despite the negatives, though, the Wizards never stopped trying to claw their way to a win. The fact that they remained competitive without two All-Stars means that they have the right attitude.

In fact, with Gilbert Arenas on the bench, the ball moves better, the defense is more energetic, and more players are given the ability to show off their talents.

The offense is less of a “I’ll take this shot, you take the next shot” routine—and more of a patient, disciplined approach that relies on getting open looks instead of one-on-one play.

In other words: Eddie Jordan finally has the ability to coach instead of being hindered by Arenas’ need to have the ball in his hands.

Most importantly, Caron Butler has thrived now that his wonderful multidimensional talents are being showcased.

So the Wizards win without Arenas?

Absolutely—but they'd better have Butler healthy for the playoffs, because without him they have no chance.