Comment from Phemy
Time March 24, 2008 at 11:55 AM

haha, gilbert arenas about game-winning shots (on nba tv daily from yesterday):

“I enjoy breaking somebody’s heart at the last minute, you know, it’s a great feeling”

Comment from Bridge
Time March 24, 2008 at 12:24 PM

Yeah I watch me some nbatv daily.

Gil is crazy for that one…

Comment from Bridge
Time March 24, 2008 at 12:30 PM

I wish that this whole Gil status will get straighten out because it’s breaking all of our hearts…GOSH! (the Napoleon Dynamite “gosh”) Lol.

Comment from Brickjp
Time March 24, 2008 at 12:39 PM

I agree that last night was a great win. A huge boost of confidence for this club. We can build on this win. We should take at least 3 of the next 5 road games. Then we got two home games v losing teams.

Comment from Wizards4Life
Time March 24, 2008 at 12:50 PM

we are now Ranked 13 on NBA.Com power rankings and i am not at all worried about this team on the 5 game road trip looks like the guys are back to the same high lev.. there were at B4 CB3 went down

Comment from neal
Time March 24, 2008 at 1:35 PM

Well I’m worried. We need to win 3 of the 5, and to do that means we have to play up to our potential.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time March 24, 2008 at 2:21 PM

I’m worried too — in a funny way, I’m most worried if Gil comes back. Especially, if Eddie decides to start him. I’d rather see him take Roger’s minutes if he does come back.

I was about to say that Roger could then take Nick’s minutes — but I note that Nick is not playing much if at all.

What do you guys think about that? About the current chemistry? About Nick not playing?

Comment from Brickjp
Time March 24, 2008 at 2:40 PM

Definitely some crucial decisions to be made by Eddie and Co. I agree, Gil should come off the bench at least until it is clear that he is 100%. I hope he takes a look at what Caron and the rest of the team is doing, which is finding the open man for a high percentage shot. He needs to take that into account, as well as our defensive surge this season.

Comment from Bridge
Time March 24, 2008 at 2:53 PM

Here’s how I think their roles/positions should be (because I was sitting here thinking about it):

Arenas/Mason/Young – SG
Caron/Daniels – PG
Stevenson/Mcguire – SF
Jamison/Songaila – PF
Haywood/Thomas/Pech – C
Blatche – PF and/or C

Comment from AUNDRA
Time March 24, 2008 at 3:10 PM

I love these Bloggers on this website because they like to Dream the Big Dream. Tom I have to admit while I was visiting the inlaws here in Detroit,
the question came up that Agent Zero would mess up chemistry initially with ball hogging and turnovers. I countered with a rebuttal that he is the most exciting athelete/businessman to come to Washington DC area in 20 years.
He is intelligent and can change colors to blend into surrounding and then come out of the bushes like a lion and pounce on the prey!The only thing I am concerned with is how long it will take him to get his playoff game face.
The Wizards Team doctors only want whats best for the organization and whats best for there 100 million dollar investment prospect! He will definitely play on the road trip so he better get his mindset right for the perfection and efficiency!

Comment from neal
Time March 24, 2008 at 3:10 PM

An interesting idea, Bridge. But I’d worry about Butler being beset by the quick little guards and giving him fits with him playing PG. And I think small forwards would post up Stevenson too easily.

I’d rather see Arenas back up Daniels when he comes back. Need to make sure we don’t upset the chemistry – let Arenas adjust to what’s going on rather than the team adjust to Arenas.

Comment from Wizards4Life
Time March 24, 2008 at 5:00 PM

well Arenas was playing the passing game B4 he had to have that surgery on his knee so i don’t see him coming in and just trying to take over even he said that he did not want to do that and would rather come off the bench..

and you guys worry too much i worried about the team when we had no D but… we just beat the best Defencive team in the NBA with Defence wile hitting 52% of our shots that’s got to give you some hope

Comment from Bridge
Time March 24, 2008 at 6:21 PM

I just want y’all to know that my position layout for each player was just something spontaneous – just something that I was thinking about. I’m NOT AT ALL worried about Gil’s return, if anything, I’m excited. I agree with you Wizards4Life that people are worrying too much. Agent Zero won’t mess up anything, he’ll be the missing puzzle to the team and when Etan comes back, he’ll be completing that puzzle.

I’m not worried at all though. I’m always positive about my Wiz!

GO WIZARDS!!

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time March 24, 2008 at 6:40 PM

Oh, I’m *excited* about Gil coming back too! Didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.

But, Gil aside, how do you guys (and gals) feel about Nick not playing? Any thoughts?

Comment from neal
Time March 24, 2008 at 8:41 PM

I’d like to see him get more experience while Gil is out, in hopes that he will eventually develop into a good player. Presumably Gil will be back when the team comes home and then I’d like to see Young sit out the rest of the year.

Comment from wiz-skins07
Time March 24, 2008 at 9:27 PM

why would you want to see Young sit out the rest of the season are you crazy..he has good and some bad…his a rookie what do you expect if you have him 40 mins a night like we gave gil he would score 20 or 30 a night with as many turnovers as gil maybe 5 or 6…so what are you complaining about

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time March 24, 2008 at 9:36 PM

Well… no, not exactly. I mean you are right that he would turn the ball over frequently, but he is not as productive as Gil. For one thing, he fouls a lot, which Gil doesnt. For another, he does not get any assists, which Gil does.

He does have a beautiful jump shot, though. Not that it goes in at an especially high rate, because it doesn’t

Comment from GrifonRacing
Time March 24, 2008 at 9:50 PM

These next 3 are winnable games. It would be very sweet to beat them and steal one against the Lakers or Jazz.

The only reason Nick isn’t playing is because of a deep thigh bruise. If he weren’t hurt he would be getting his normal minutes. He needs just as many minutes as we can give him without hurting the team. That all depends on the night he is having. If he is to develop into the player he can be he has to be on the court getting experience.

When Gilbert comes back, if Gilbert comes back, he will not be coming off the bench. It just isn’t the Coach’s way. Caron’s first game back he played 41 minutes. When Gilbert is cleared to play I don’t forsee it being any differant with him. As far as him fitting into team chemistry that remains to be seen, but, he is a smart guy and a very talented athelete. He shouldn’t have any trouble adapting to the team he has been watching intently all season from bench.

Comment from wizfan and the kid
Time March 24, 2008 at 10:13 PM

Well, I am kind of wondering if we are going to keep up this ball movement deal. If we do, I think we actually will have a real shot of winning the first three “winnable” games. We should be able to handle each of those teams, but if we return to how we played against Clippers and Hawks, who knows.

As to this discussion about Gil, if I were to bet, he would want to come back against LA. I am sure in his mind, coming back and playing in the place he dropped 60 would be good. No matter how Gil comes back, it is good for this team. I am sure teams are not really looking forward to trying to decide whether to leave him open or double somebody and get killed. The real difference between last year and this year is:
1.) Caron is better.
2.) Bendan is a lot better. This is the big key.
3.) Antwan basically can score at will.
4.) If you put Mason on the floor with 1-3 above and Gil… Roger can actually make the other team pay several times in a row. Frankly, I think DeSawn can do the same thing.
5.) After all that worry while trying to defend our line-up, we actually play some real defense, so it is not easy on either end of the court.

Just my 2 cents…

Comment from suzie-qwiz
Time March 24, 2008 at 10:22 PM

What is have here is finally a team, we don’t have one guy scoring 60. We need to have everyone continue to do their part and share the scoring and defensive load. Will Gil be able to play d-fence is the question. And who said that he did not have his share of turno’s and fouls just like Young?

Comment from GrifonRacing
Time March 24, 2008 at 10:32 PM

Wizfan and the kid I sure hope so! I’m not a stats guy, but, it seems to me that every game we pass the ball a lot and get a lot of assists we Win. And… YES no more “atlanta” games this season!!!

You pretty much know what you are going to get night in and night out from Caron and Antawn. They are All Stars and show us why every game. I half way agree with you. The HUGE increase in Haywood’s game “and” Deshawn’s game this year, I think, is the reason we are still climbing the eastern conferance ladder instead of falling off of it. Both of them really came to play this year. I totally agree with you about the defense thing. I can’t remember a season when the Wizards/Bullets played such good defense. Neal even mentioned how even Antawn is playing good defense (and he is!). That man didn’t have defensive bone in his body before Coach Ayers came to town. Mason has hurt some teams this season. I’m sure you are right. If, in such circumstances, Gil and Roger were on the court together a few teams would be hard pressed as to what to do on defense.

We are a young team and we are only going to get better from here.

(ps) did the kid ever get her autograph?

Comment from gee wiz
Time March 25, 2008 at 12:01 AM

i dont know about yall but im a little pieved at the lebron/stevenson battle. this is a men’s league, no offense ladies! but there is no need for juicy gossip here. play ball. the media is taking the stakes up higher building up a feud. let it go. let them play. the wizards can compete with the elite for a title in the east. this may startle some of u, but i see washington and orlando in the eastern conference finals. why. we are deep. we have beaten the best teams in the east without gil. and guess what he’s back! detroit does a good job on howard but they cant match up with turk and lewis. but ne way im out on a limb with this one but hey…… this is where “amazing happens”! lol. i hope this feud with deshawn and lebron ends. this is a job people. play ball. and call me a homer…… but lebron did act like the wizards were pushovers. and he is an idiot because deshawn and drew knew each other since they were kids.

Comment from LilGil
Time March 25, 2008 at 6:57 AM

I’m also excited about Agent Zero coming back. Honestly I’m even a lil more confident now because when he started saying “I could have come back against Cleveland” and everything I was like damn he might finally be rushing a lil bit. But now that the team doctors try to slow him down and wait for him to be at 100% I really think he could come back without hurting the team and without hurting himself. The only real problem is gonna be the defense, cuz Gilbert for sure hasn’t elevated his level as much as the other guys have and that might hurt us, but again with good matchups from Eddie we could get something positive with Gil on court. Now as for when he comes back, the doctors said what about waiting for another week, and if that’s true it would bring his comeback in LA which he would love but how are they gonna contain the kid in him until then?
As for Nick Young I think he’s role was pretty clear when he came in. When Gil came on the bench we didn’t have that production, those points and we needed someone to do that. Nick sure can score but do we still need that? This team has changed and today we don’t need to systematically overscore the other team. Now we play defense and one thing for sure we can score, but we don’t need to shoot on every posession. Nick still has to get some minutes of course, but anyway he’s out right now…

Comment from Bridge
Time March 25, 2008 at 10:42 AM

If you guys love Gil, vote for him on gilbertology.net –

The competition is kinda stupid (I’ll admit) but vote!!

Hopefully I’ll catch you guys later on the blog during the game. We could get this W!

GO WIZ!!