I don't think that any of us would say that we dislike Darius Songaila. Sure, when he got injured before the season started and wasn't able to play the first half of the season it was upsetting, but we understood. When he played, he brought about what we expected of him nothing more, nothing less. When he needed to step up his game after Arenas and Butler went down he did just that, and now after a successful off-season where he helped carry Lithuania to a bronze medal at the FIBA European Championship, he appears to be better than last year. With all that said, it might then come as a surprise when I say that I think he needs to be traded, here's why:
1) We already have a Darius Songaila
Back when I wrote this post about Dareisky Songailerov, I was hoping it would start some debate about how the Wizards in effect, have two of the same player. While there are some minor differences in the their games, the bottomline is the Wizards have two big men with good shooting touch and less than average rebounding skills. If you're Eddie Jordan, how do you go about dividing minutes between two players with the exact same skill set? If you're Ernie Grunfeld, does it make sense to hold on to a shorter, older, more expensive version of player that you already have?
2) Something just doesn't look right about those Massenburg uniforms...
I'd be lying if I didn't say I was intrigued by the prospect of seeing Blatche get some playing time at center, but I think we all know that Blatche isn't going to max out on his potential playing the 5. Why not trade Songaila for a center who could backup Haywood? Not only would the Wizards get a reliable backup for the nights that Brendan struggles, it opens up minutes for Blatche and Pecherov. Not to mention Grunfeld could trade for a center with an expiring contract to open up more cap space to re-sign Arenas & Jamison. Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not good with trades, but I think that moving Songaila would make sense in this situation.
Again, I have nothing against Darius as a person or a player, but I don't think he fits Washington's need at this present moment. If you have any trade proposals, feel free to post them, just remember to use the primer.