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Some Wizards love

By Mike Prada

The Wizards have become a hot topic in ESPN chats this past week.  Here are some of the questions that have been brought up.  

From Friday:

Marvin(Woodbridge,VA): Gilbert Arenas is still trailing Wade and Vince Carter in the all-star voting for the Eastern Guards. He should be starting in the ASG, do you agree John Hollinger? I'm sure you have some amazing stat that proves I'm right.

SportsNation John Hollinger: If by "should be starting" you mean, "he's been better than Carter." well, yes, of course -- if we're just going by performance this season, Wade and Arenas are obviously the two guys. But All-Star voting is a popularity contest, and Arenas hasn't made enough commercials yet.

Guess they should show the Take 5 commercial more often then.

From Thursday:

captain quirk - dc: Chad, I've got a fever..and the only perscription, is more Arenas. The Wiz are hot right now but that will obviously cool. Where do you realistically see them finishing when its all said and done.

SportsNation Chad Ford: Got to love Arenas and don't downplay Caron Butler's great season either. But until they get some post scoring, this is a middle of the pack team in the East.

I'm not sure I agree.  The Wizards don't need post scoring; their offense is predicated on great spacing, which maximizes the dribble-drive strengths of Arenas and Butler.  The Wizards need to upgrade the perimeter defense, pure and simple.  The last thing they need to do is work only on improving their offense.

From Wednesday:

Sam: (Wake Forest, NC): What strategies will teams employ to stop the Wizards in the play-offs?

SportsNation David Thorpe: I think "Agent 0" will feel like another agent, 007, fighting off Spectre's fleet of bad guys.

I guess that means we're going to see the same triple teams on Arenas that Orlando utalized last night.  If not, I'm kind of clueless here.

More from that chat.

Adam (Woodmere, NY): Can we now say that Arenas is the best in the league? Who would you rather have right now? Don't say wade or bron, because Arenas can also make his teammates better. Caron Butler?! He's an all-star. Brendan Haywood?! Decent center?! Oh ya, and Arenas can score WHENEVER he wants. P.S. Im a knicks fan

SportsNation David Thorpe: Arenas is amazing, and deserves to be in the conversation of "best in show". I still lean towards Wade.

I'd probably lean towards Wade too, but the gap is definitely closing.  

Also, here are a couple excerpts from Thursday's  Daily Dime.  

First, this Jon Barry nugget.

These are clearly the Phoenix Suns of the East, third in scoring (behind the Suns and Nuggets) in the NBA. So, who should the Wiz fear?

Nobody. There's not a team in the East they can't beat. Everyone said Phoenix couldn't win with its offensive style, but we've seen them get to the conference finals in two of the past three seasons, and they're doing it against tougher competition. The Wizards probably wouldn't want to see the Heat with Shaq. The Wizards are a dangerous team.

Finally, David Thorpe said this about Brendan Haywood.

NOT JUST GIL: Brendan Haywood may have only scored eight points in Charlotte, but scoring six of the first 15 Wizards points with nice post moves and one strong dunk seemed to open the floodgates for their shooters. Caron Butler was just as instrumental -- he had the other nine of the first 15 and together with Haywood went 7-7 from the field in the opening minutes. Coaches always stress strong starts on the road -- Haywood and Butler got them going before Gilbert Arenas took over.

I guess it's nice to know that the Wizards are becoming a bigger story every game.