No Your Links: 2/7/08

Look, if Caron is fully healthy, then he could help the Wizards steal one, maybe even two of the next three games.  But he isn't healthy, and a hobbled Caron probably won't make any difference against the Nuggets, Suns, and Warriors on the road.

So it seems clear to me that Eddie ought to leave Caron on the bench to heal his hip and his knee.  He should then use these next three games as a learning experience for our bench.  I wouldn't even play Antawn all that much for fear of straining one of his rickety knees in a meaningless game.  I would play Antawn about 30 MPG and try to develop our bench against some of the premier talent in the NBA.

I would then circle Wednesday on the calendar, the game against the Clippers.  I would evaluate Caron that day to see if he's healthy enough to contribute without risking re-aggravation of his hip.  If he is, great, play him then and try to grab a win before the All-Star break.  If not, then wait until the home game against the Knicks on the 19th to reevaluate.

What I don't want to see is Eddie continually pushing Caron back onto the floor so that he never really has a chance to heal and he winds up playing the rest of the season hurt.  When Gil comes back in March, the Wizards are going to need all three of their All-Stars fully healthy and ready for a big push towards the playoffs.

The schedule lets up a bit on the Wizards after this month, with half of the last 24 games against teams below .500, so it would be a perfect opportunity for the Wizards to finish the season strong.  We all should be looking at the big picture here, and not get worried about these next handful of games.

But then again, I wouldn't feel comfortable just giving up on these games. Just look what the Bulls did against the Warriors last night.

Talk about a crazy game. The Bulls had 6 less rebounds, had 11 more turnovers, and took 29 less shots than Golden State.....yet won the game in Oakland.

So how did the Bulls do it? By going to the rack and getting to the FT line where they went 35-48 while the Warriors were 19-21 from the charity stripe.

It'd be so nice to see the Wizards get aggressive in going to the basket. It'd also be nice to have a post scoring presence. And no, despite a career year, Haywood is not a post scoring threat. ....and don't tell me it's because they aren't going to him.

Thanks for the link Jake.