Jason Maxiell was rotting away in the Detroit bench in favor of Kwame Brown, what a joke. He was a big reason why Detroit was able to contain Howard during last year’s playoffs. I’d be very happy if by some fluke we could get an energy guy like him.

But even with Brendan back, and if Stevenson can come back 100% and be at least adequate at perimeter defense – the Wizards still have a major hole in their defensive alignment with Jamison in the game.

Perfect scenario? Trade for Chris Bosh. I know you said keep it realistic, but a trade for Bosh IS realistic. Toronto may be looking to move him. He’s reportedly told the Raptors he will not resign with them. And RealGM is reporting that the Warriors and Bulls are both interested in making a play for Bosh this Summer.

Now Brian Colangelo and Chris Bosh can deny the reports all they want, but the fact remains that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The rumors persist, and Toronto will most likely not be able to keep Bosh when his contract is up in 2010.

Shawn Marion’s salary comes off Toronto’s books this year… The Raptors could re-tool very quickly if they trade Bosh, dump salary, take on young inexpensive players and draft choices. They could be $20-30 Million under the Salary Cap for the 2010 season, and perhaps go after a 2010 Free Agent or two.

The Wizards have expiring contracts, young inexpensive players and draft choices……… hmmm…

Would Chris Bosh want to play in Washington with Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, Antawn Jamison etc…?
A trade for Bosh should NOT include McGee, McGuire, Javaris Crittenton or the 1st Round pick this year if it’s #1 or #2….

Start Bosh in Jamison’s PF spot. Move Jamison to the bench. Draft or trade for a dead-eye 3-point specialist for the bench. The Wizard’s starting lineup of Arenas, Stevenson, Butler, Bosh and Haywood is now a solid offensive team, but more importantly a very good defensive team. The Bench also includes some solid defenders (Songaila, McGuire, Javaris Crittenton) as well as some firepower (Jamison, Young-if he’s not traded),,

Boom – the Wizards are instantly a Contender next year…. Toronto suffers through one tough year (2009-2010) – gets a High draft pick from Washington, some young talent, a high pick in a very deep and talented 2010 draft – and has $20-30 Million to throw at LeBron James, or Dwayne Wade, or Dirk Nowitzki, or…..any of the other premier 2010 Free Agents

He reminds me almost of Javale if he played small forward, just in how much raw talent he has and how he’s exceeded expectations this year. I don’t know what kind of deal we could pull off to get him, though. Maybe work something out to include Jamal Crawford and use Crawford as a sixth man? Or I guess we could maybe swap picks with the Warriors and get him in exchange for Pech, but we’d have to trade away some of our power forwards in order to clear playing time for him next year.

Then you move that defensive liability to the bench….

Now all of a sudden, the Wizards are a pretty good defensive team (Haywood, Bosh, Butler, Stevenson & Arenas) – with Arenas being the lone weak spot. Arenas CAN play defense, he just doesn’t. But if the rest of the team is playing D, then perhaps he’ll buckle down.

The bench is no longer inexperienced (Jamison, Songaila, McGuire, Crittenton and Young??), but has both Defensive players, and some offensive firepower.

Don’t want to play inexperienced young guys during a 7 game playoff series? Young, McGee, Pech, Draft picks, etc… can sit the bench; while the Wizards play mostly veterans in an 8-man rotation: Haywood and Bosh can share Center duties. AJ, Songaila and Bosh can share PF. Butler and Stevenson can share SG. Butler and McGuire can share the SF minutes – and you only have to play Javaris Crittenton 15 minutes a night with Arenas getting the remaining 33 minutes at PG.

It’s hard to wrestle a decent piece from a playoff team, so we should probably be looking at rebuilding teams and cellar-dwelling ones. To me, this means that Dallas, Phoenix, Portland and Chicago (the latter two mostly just because of how overstocked they are with quality players) are the only teams that’ll win more than 40 games that would be open to a deal that would favor us a little bit more than them. New Orleans would likely want Blatche for Butler and we can probably get something better for him or a combination of him and other players/picks.