Bullets Forever, a Washington Wizards community

The most interesting part of the article to me is this: Yes, this even means moving the players you like, the absolute professionals who could easily wind up helping playoff teams elsewhere. Multiple teams want Antawn Jamison. Multiple teams want Butler. They're assets. Their new coaches and their new teammates are going to love them.

It's a really good column; probably his best effort in years, to be honest. It certainly made me pause. I just wonder whether his mythical perfect coach is in fact Avery Johnson, like he claims. The line between Avery and Terry Porter seems remarkably thin. It's why I'm such a big fan of the Sam Cassell AC hiring; Cassell does everything Avery would do, except with far less risk. Yet Wilbon dismisses it offhand, since he's not the head coach. The title, to me, seems far less important than Wilbon makes it out to me. Then again, one area Wilbon clearly has an advantage over me is assessing locker room dynamics. Neither of us are perfect, but he's got better contacts and access to make educated guesses.

Ok, so I finally got around to reading Knott's "injury" column on the Wizards in The Washington Times. And as pessimistic as Knott can be sometimes, he blew Wilbon's column out of the water. My favorite parts: "The Wizards are working on their fourth 'next season' after advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2005." and "Twenty-one months ago, the Mavericks were en route to winning 67 games, the Celtics were gearing up to tank games, and Kobe Bryant was in the process figuring out that Los Angeles was not where he wanted to spend the rest of his career. Now the Celtics are champions, Bryant is happy in Los Angeles, and the championship window of the Mavericks has closed. The Wizards? They are not unlike the Rockets. These star-crossed franchises dare to be special until injuries intrude on their quality of life. It apparently is their lot to be among the afflicted and unable to find their rightful place in the basketball universe." At least Knott was NBA knowledgeable enough to cite the troubles of the Rockets....but I'm still not shedding any tears for the denizens of H-Town. After all, they won back-to-back titles in '94 and '95.

Pretty much another Wilbon babble fest of throwing junk against the wall to see what might stick... Arenas for 'Melo Arenas for Iverson Arenas for Brand Arenas for Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins Arenas for Shawn Marion It's all there. Problem is, none of those players is getting you closer to playing in June either....although the Davis-Biedrins combo is the most intriguing, I'm not so sure Golden State bites.