Right now im thinking a trade is order if the lineup change doesnt work. maybe Gil is pretty untradeable given his price tag and lack of ability to earn it. but Gil and Caron together.. I wonder what we could get for that?? hmmm…

I haven’t seen that Jamison hustles more than Arenas or Butler on defense. Do others see that? Actually, I haven’t noticed Butler giving up as much as the other two. Maybe because I haven’t watched him as much.

Wow! Slick goes from DNP to starting. It does seem, however, that when he only subs he never gets into a rhythm.

Someone posted stats on the Wiz as a team compared to the other teams. Where did you get those?

I think we need change on this team and i dont mean take out one player and leave the 3 guys causing the most problems on the floor in differnt positions. GIl and caron need to come off the bench. That is the best way to make sure guys check their ego’s at the door. nothingg more humbling than benching your so called “star” player. The only reason i dont also say bench twaan is because at least he attempts to play defense. he is not quick, and is not a high jumper, and is not as big as some other bigs, so its harder for him to go up against players like duncan or josh smith. but he gives 100% every game.

right now twaan and haywood are the only startes deserving of the title. i would include miller but he’s hurt.

so for the starting lineup i would pick

1. foye or boykins
2. nick young
3. dom
4. twaan or blatche i’d split the time evenly between these two
5. haywood

6. blatche
7. mcgee
8. caron
9. arenas

that would humble these guys with “hidden agendas” and “egos”
9.

part of the blame with caron’s struggles is toward flip saunders. he is NOT running plays to get caron into positions on the court where he’s comfortable taking those jumpshots. at least eddie jordan knows where caron’s sweetspots are and gets him the ball in those situations.

caron has to create way too much for a guy that’s not good at creating his own shot – thus, the turnovers.

caron is playing hard as usual, but he has no flow or rhythm with the game. it is hard to make baskets when your body cant get with the program. it is even harder to play basketball when there are so many distractions and backtalking and expectations hanging on everyone’s heads right now.

@ W4L

i’m going to help you out with a subliminal message to the Wiz players

puffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALLpuffpuffPASSDABALL

I am glad I missed the Spurs game. I have been reading everyone’s comments, and I only have one thing to add.

I realize that Caron has not been playing that well this year, but I do believe that he can change. Caron seems willing to do whatever is asked of him by Flip, and he has always seemed like a team-first kind of guy. Gil, on the other hand, I’m not so sure about. I guess what I’m trying to say is to give Caron a chance. He probably knows he is not playing well, and he will probably take whatever suggestions Flip hands him into consideration, and will try his best to do what is asked of him. He seems to have the right attitude, even if his game is off right now. To me, that means there is hope for him to get it together. It might not happen right away, though. All the pieces are out of order right now anyway.

I’m curious to know what happened to TOM? What do you think, Tom?

as far as starting caron over antawn, i see your point about the defense, but that hasn’t been the problem in the starts. i think if you are going to have twan coming off the bench, the starts will go right back to being horrid, and the wizards will still be playing catch up.

Haywood’s mouth is more refined – he actually thinks through about the situation and tells it as it is. Haywood cares to win as a team and cares very little about individual statistical glory. However, this season is somewhat complex for Brendan because he is trying to maximize his stats to get a $$ long-term contract. You can call it the “Tim Thomas rule”. I can’t completely agree with what Haywood says but I know where he’s coming from.

Arenas, on the other hand, just fires comments to get HIS theories out in the open – which is typically going to irk most everyone involved. Arenas doesn’t care about the emotions of the players around him – he’s egocentric and it was obvious from his latter days in Golden State. WAS fans gave him a pass because he did come in and made Bullets/Wizards basketball somewhat relevant again. However, he treats his teammates like robots and wants to be worshipped as the alpha dog in the league when he only helped guide the team to 45 wins – an average standing at best. It seems like day-in-and-day-out, the drama of Arenas is parallelling with the Iverson saga. And as we see right now, the AI story doesn’t end well. Oh, and guess what – Arenas’ current contract ends at about the same age as Iverson’s …

I’m very sure that Arenas is NOT buying into anything Flip is selling because the team is 3-9. Arenas, as he has all his basketball life, thinks he needs to carry his team and control everything from his position. Haywood knows this will lead down a path for disaster (UNC always preached team – even during the Jordan days), but Gil doesn’t know any other way. Gil is trying to be like Wade, Kobe, and LeBron – 3 guys that can carry teams, but Gil is not good enough to do so. He’s blinded by his own limitations. And when he steps back and sees the situation worsening, he believes it is all on him to right the ship.

What I fear is that if the Wiz goes back to their winning ways, all this back-and-forth will be brushed under the mat. These problems never go away and will always rear its ugly head when another losing streak pops up. Flip and his staff are in a no-win situation at the moment. If Flip decides to bench any of the Big 3 for reasons other than if he’s injured and the team continues to lose, Ernie is going to put him on a short leash like he did with the Eddie Jordan fiasco. If Flip doesn’t bench the Big 3, someone from that group will continue to undermine the team (either with Gil going 1 at 5 or Caron racking up more turnovers per game than points or whatever) and the Wiz will be no better off this season than last year.

On Tuesday night, watch Arenas take 40 shots because he wants to show his old boss that he’s an alpha dog. Gil will get his stats. If this happens, watch the Wiz lose to the 76ers.