What a difference having a Lawyer and a Quasi-Agent makes huh?

He is finally saying the right thing. It took long enough though. I have to wonder if he is wanting to play for the Wiz again. I’d like to still have him on our team. I just hope something can be done to make this a wininng team.

That message of nonviolence will be front and center as I try to rebuild my relationship with young people in the D.C. area.

Little by little, I’m gaining more hope that he will still play here next year. From what Mike Jones has said, Gil’s dad has said, and now this op-ed. It’s no longer a foregone conclusion that he’s no longer a Wizard.

I mean we can keep the team as is and probably never be better than 3rd or 4th in the East because we can’t defend and will be valuable players every year with only mid round draft picks to replace them. We could try and ship off certain guys and rebuild on the fly around Arenas. That would be really tough to do and remain competitive as Arenas needs guys with certain skills sets(a 2 who can guard both PG’s and SG’s), guys who can score without the ball, etc. Not saying it can’t be done but it’s not an easy proposition. So if we do rebuild around Arenas it is most likely we take a step back for a year or 2. Does Arenas want to be on a bad team for 2 years? What would we gain from that other than tickets sold? And thats assuming he stays healthy and productive(I think he will but it’s certainly not a given). For me I want to be a championship contending team sometime in the next 4 years. I think keeping Gilbert and trying to build around him would end up more like Milwaukee’s endless rebuilding period under Michael Redd.

Personally I think we need to start from scratch. Around here we like to think that the Wiz were a good team during the Big 3 years but the fact is we really weren’t all that great. 3 of the 4 times we made the playoffs we wouldn’t have qualified if we were in the West(not taking into account the easier schedule we played against in the East). The one time we did we would have been tied for 8 so I’m not even sure if we would have made it. Here is our total league wide finishes during those 4 years in order 13th, 13th, 15th, 14th. Thats not all that impressive. Personally I want to get to where we are a top 10 team atleast. Since the team sucked even with Gilbert and we can’t afford to keep our own players I think starting from scratch and trying to emulate OKC is the way to go.

There has been a story put out there that this summer Gilbert might look good to a team that doesn’t get Lebron. I’m hoping we can get some decent cap relief for him. It has been rumored that NYK could want Gilbert if they get stuck with Curry and Jeffries and don’t get Lebron. I don’t know if there is any validity to it but if NYK would really swap Jeffries and Curry’s expiring contracts for Gilbert I would do that in a sec. We could then wait till the deadline and have atleast 24mil in expirings(curry, jeffries, DS) to acquire more assets. Basically any trade for relief even if we don’t get a decent player back would help us. We could stockpile the assets we get from trading everyone but McGee, AB, and NY with any asset we get for any expirings we get next year and have a decent team of young players to play with our first rounder this summer and likely lottery pick the year after that. Plus once we get under the cap we can really start building the team.
  The Beauty is being under the cap really helps you even if your not signing people the first couple years. Look at OKC. They were one of the only teams significantly under the cap the last couple years. This allowed them to pull off some really lopsided trades. Because they were so far under the cap a couple years ago they were able to trade a second rounder for Kurt Thomas and 2 first round draft picks from the Suns. This year they got handed Eric Maynor for helping the Jazz reduce their luxury tax hit. I think that also played a hand in them getting Sefelosha for a 2nd. Now they have an up and coming young team and still have salary cap room to grab a final piece to put them over the edge.

Maybe you feel Arenas is Kobe, Dwight Howard, Lebron, Wade, Duncan type player but I think he’s a clear step below those guys even assuming he comes back as good as he was. He was the worst defender in the league this year according to ESPN. He’s really good but not quite elite. So I say if we are gonna rebuild let’s really rebuild and do it right. I’m tired of having a ceiling that is barely in the top half of the league. I doubt we can rebuild around Arenas and be a top 10 team in the next 2-3 years. Why not let him go if we can get some significant cap relief and let him be on a winning team. Obviously we should keep him I guess if the only offer are players with bad(relative to value and length) contracts. I think there might be an offer or two that gives us some significant cap relief.
 
Also the dynamic of the league is changing. The cap is shrinking and there is talk of it being really reduced in the upcoming CBA. Gilbert’s contract will only get worse and could potentially mean 2-3 years from now our owner has to go like 30 mil over the cap just to field a winning team if Gilbert is on it. As the league changes we might be able to take advantage of it if we are way under the cap.