Read Sports Geek’s argument and Loyal Homer’s arguments about what they believe are the biggest early surprises to the start of the NBA season.
I hope everyone had a very happy and safe Halloween weekend (and for those who donot celebrate Halloween, I hope your weekend was still safe and happy)!
In keeping with the Halloween theme from this past weekend… how ‘bout them Wizards? Not the kind that you may read about in Harry Potter, and not the fellow behind the curtain in Oz. I am, of course, referring to the guys who play basketball in our nation’s capital. The Washington Wizards have been by far the biggest early surprise at the start of the NBA season, and deserve some recognition for an impressive start.
The fact that the Wizards have been able to show improvement from last season is not the surprise I am referring to. Having won only 19 games in all of the 2008-2009 season, improvement is not difficult to achieve. Consider the fact that the Wizards did not manage to win a second game until a full month of the 2008 season passed (a feat ALREADY matched only three games into the 2009 season), improvement of any kind should be EXPECTED! I am not applauding the Wizards for winning two out of the first three games. Instead, the degree of improvement the teams has demonstrated has impressed me.
Surprise #1 – Gilbert Arenas MAY be the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2009
There are not many players in the NBA whose presence on the court makes the difference between winning and losing. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are two obvious examples of players who bring that type of value to their organizations, but there is a third person who has the opportunity to prove that he can have just as big an impact on the league and within a franchise.
Gilbert Arenas may not go on to lead the league in scoring, and he may not even lead his team to the playoffs (although both are very real possibilities right now). In three games this season, however, Arenas has officially proven something that we only assumes until now – having him on the court (rather than on the bench in street clothes) is automatically worth 20-30 wins. Arenas really is THAT good, and the Wizards CANNOT win without him.
Everyone knew that the Wizards would struggle without Arenas on the court. In 2006, which was the last full season that Arenas played, the Wizards averaged 104.3 points per game. Without him, however, the Wizards average dropped to only 98.8 points per game in the 2007-2008 season, and an even lower 96.1 average in 2008-2009. Now that Arenas is back at full strength he is single-handedly putting the Wizards back into contention in the Eastern Conference, and has the talent to lead his team once again into the postseason.
Surprise #2 – The best offseason acquisition in 2009 was… Flip Saunders?!
Last season, it seemed as though no organization wanted to touch coach Flip Saunders with a ten-foot pole. Saunders, who led the Pistons to three consecutive Eastern Conference Finals appearances and has already notched 589 wins in his career to only 399 losses, was fired from the Detroit Pistons at the end of the 2007 season after losing to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Although Saunders has seen much success as a coach during the regular season, he has developed a reputation for choking in the playoffs, and teams seemed uninterested in hiring him on for the 2008-2009 season.
In April of 2009, as the Wizards were on the verge of a franchise-worst record of only 19 wins, Ernie Grunfield, the Wizards’ president of operations, decided that he did not care about postseason chokes – he just wanted to get to the postseason again. It was at that point that Saunders became the 22nd head coach of the Washington Wizards.
So far, the match seems to be a perfect fit! Saunders, who emphasizes a very strong offensive approach to the game, has a very potent offense at his disposal in Washington, especially now that Gilbert Arenas is back to full strength. Along with Arenas, who averages 22.8 points per game (and has already scored 84 in his first three games of the 2009 season), Saunders also has forward Caron Butler who averages 16.7 points per game.
In the first three games of the season, the Wizards have managed to defeat the Dallas Mavericks and the New Jersey Nets, and the only loss is to a very talented Atlanta Hawks team. The Wiz have scored an average of 104.7 points per game thus far, and that is without All-Star forward Antawn Jamison who has missed the beginning of the 2009 season with a shoulder injury. When Jamison and his 19.9 points per game average returns to the court for the Wizards, Saunders should have all the tools necessary to make a very strong push for the playoffs next spring.
I am not yet convinced that the Washington Wizards will be a championship-caliber team in 2009-2010. There is a lot of basketball yet to be played, and a lot has yet to be proven by this team. However, the team has definitely made an early statement in 2009 that it is not the same team people got used to seeing over the past few season. Do not be surprised to find Washington in the mix in the Eastern Conference at the end of the season, right there with Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando!
What exactly was the treat Washington has earned?