Bunch old Wizards in the NBA Finals, this we know. Unfortunately, two couldn’t play in game three last night due to injury, Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler, so they sat on the bench in nice suits while a cat to the far left stuck some finger guns up his nose.

Speaking of finger guns, what is our old pal Gilbert Arenas doing here?

His Twitter @agentzeroshow explanation: “I got on my mo hawk for shawn M..if he can wear a mo hawk durn the nba finals I guess I can wear in my house”

More Former Wizards?

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It’s struck me as odd when recently, before being traded to Orlando, Gilbert Arenas deferred to Josh Howard as a more vocal leader on the Wizards than him. Yes, the same Josh Howard whose past record will almost cause more scoffs than Arenas’ … the same Josh Howard who has played all of five games in a Wizards uniform since arriving via trade back in February, compared to Arenas, who appeared in 357 total regular season games with the franchise since being signed to D.C. by Ernie Grunfeld in August of 2003.

After a home game against the New York Knicks on December 10, Arenas was asked about the then forthcoming return of Howard.

“It’s going to help more in the locker room and on the bench because, you know, he has a strong voice. You know, I usually don’t say anything, but he’s more of a vocal person. So when we have those lulls like we did in the third [against the Knicks], he’s going to speak up,” he said.

When I asked Howard about needing to fill the role of vocal leader after the Miami game on Saturday, he said, “It’s different for me. I mean, I haven’t did this in a long time as far as college, and I led by example in Dallas as far as my play on the court. As far as being vocal, I have to remind myself that I can speak.”

After getting past your digestion of Arenas’ claims that he usually doesn’t say anything, move on to the leadership conundrum. Back when Eddie Jordan was the Wizards’ coach, it seemed, and validly so, that he didn’t see Arenas as a team leader. Stories later mutated with one side saying he never wanted to be a leader and the other saying that a certain subject didn’t want to lead. Or vice versa. The story could never get itself straight.

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Before tonight’s Wizards-Grizzlies game, I briefly spoke with Josh Howard about how the rehabilitation on his knee was coming along — because we are getting closer to the date that he might be back, even though he really has no timetable and the Wizards are bringing him along cautiously.

Howard said that he recently experienced a bit of a set-back with tendonitis, but indicated that such is relatively normal and that he’s going to keep working through it. I asked him if he’d circled any game in particular that he’d like to be back for. Howard said he did, but wouldn’t exactly divulge which game other than to say, “It’s in December, a big week in December too. People who keep up with our schedule, they’ll see it and they’ll know.”

Note that the Wizards play the Los Angeles Lakers in Washington on Tuesday, December 14, travel to New Jersey for a game against the Nets on Thursday, December 16, and then are back home for the their first peek at the Miami Heat on Saturday, December 18. Howard did also say that being more realistic, he might surpass whatever date that he’s targeted. Let’s give Josh a watch:

Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld addressed the media on Thursday afternoon and the major theme of his remarks was the team is in the “beginning of a new era.” While the most newsworthy item took place when the cameras were off, Grunfeld did give highly informational updates on various players.

Here Ernie talks about how John Wall will handle the extra attention placed upon the number one draft pick and discusses the games of the new youngsters:

Grunfeld details why the Wizards brought in two former lottery picks, Yi Jianlian and Adam Morrison:

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[Wizards 2010-11 Player Preview Index: Gilbert Arenas, Hilton Armstrong, Andray Blatche,
Trevor Booker, Kirk Hinrich, Josh Howard, Yi Jianlian, JaVale McGee, Kevin Seraphin,
Al Thornton, John Wall, Nick Young.]

The Intro.

-by Kyle Weidie

I reflected upon Josh Howard and his past a little bit the other day, now I’m going to do it some more.

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A D.C. pic, commentary and links …

[Frazier's Funeral Home - Florida Ave. & Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

Josh Howard recently said ‘all the right things’ in an interview with HoopsHype … ‘all the right things’ that are almost hard to believe. Perhaps it was a proclamation, of sorts — a personal challenge from Josh to Josh. Howard saying that the Wizards “see a natural-born leader” in him certainly drew faint scoffs from several prominent websites: ESPN Dallas, SLAM, Yahoo!.

Which makes me wonder … is skepticism wrong? Why are we skeptics? I’m sure there’s been a ton of psychoanalysis about it, but does it accomplish much aside from a potential future “I told you so”? That being said, I’ve been guilty of skepticism before … from being leery of Ernie Grunfeld’s romanticism of old school team management tactics to past battles with assessments of Andray Blatche (after being around him as a person this past season, I’ve grown to like him … it’s just that his previous bonehead decisions and court attitude have been teeth-grinders).

Maybe skepticism is just human nature. Unavoidable. And as with anything else, you need to keep it in check. You can be skeptical of a chef opening a new restaurant when, from experience, you didn’t think his last one was so great. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the new endeavor a fair chance, especially if the restaurant is in your neighborhood.

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So I was called out by Ted Leonsis this past weekend. I know, not good to be called out by a billionaire … oops, millionaire. But in reality, it was more of a challenge (or question) from Mr. Leonsis, i.e., it wasn’t anything like his emotional “Unemotional Response” or calling me “Simply Uninformed,” as he’s done with others. Different by far, let me explain.

While relaying a good deed performed by Josh Howard (his past record of note has many bad deeds), I poked fun at his outfit, and loosely related something that Brendan Haywood (supposedly) said about Howard. It was joking. It was fun. And that’s what this “blog” thing is all about: writing, analysis, pictures, graphic design, stats, reporting, break-downs, video, opinions, links, and I’ll reiterate, fun.

But, considering Howard’s past bad news and how it’s nice to hear good news associated with him (and because they say the good things are never written about), was it fair for me to poke fun at his outfit (which honestly isn’t that bad, more silly)?

Well, I’m not answering that question. Too bad. Easy way out on my part? Maybe. But my poking fun at Howard’s outfit isn’t the point. Neither is the fact that Leonsis comes to the defense of his players, as their employer. I don’t necessarily see it as Leonsis being “too sensitive,” as I’ve heard others amongst my web social network imply. An employer goes to bat for his or her employees. That’s the way it should be, in most cases. It makes the employees feel appreciated. It creates unity from top down. More than understandable, in my book. (Although, I did giggle when my girlfriend called Mr. Leonsis their “Papa Bear” in a joking manner.)

Since Leonsis’ post was relatively short, I’ll just quote the whole thing: Read more »

{flickr/SneakinDeacon}

Last Thursday, it seems that Josh Howard was on hand for the Wake Forest football opener against Presbyterian. While there, Howard donated $100,000 from his foundation to endow the “Josh Howard Scholarship” at Wake. Good stuff to hear. However …

Via pictures graciously provided by Flickr user SneakinDeacon, we must wonder what the 30-year old Howard was wearing. Looks to be comfortable gear for a football game … or questionable gear for handing over big novelty checks. But I’m not one to judge.

What one really must wonder is if Brendan Haywood considers the outfit “Josh Howard Hood” … ahhh, the answers to the unknown questions of the universe.

Moving on … (links below the pic)

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The return of Josh Howard is unexpected, surprising and baffling. It’s also smart. And it’s the topping on a dessert of questions … I’ll get to that in a bit. First, let’s go through some reasons why it’s an agreeable move, without protest.

First, Howard comes relatively cheap — $4 million for a year with incentives, as reported by the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. He’s a player with the potential to show above average skill in a wide range of categories. In 2006-07 he had a PER of 20.0 and the tenth lowest turnover percentage in the NBA.

Second, he needs to get his knee healthy. The team doesn’t expect him to be ready by the start of the season. Howard’s camp says he’ll be full speed in October and that he is “ahead of schedule” — of course, Howard has been saying that he’s ahead of schedule since before last season was over (Good to know he’s still on track). Nevertheless, the knee, in a sense, was a blessing … selfishly for the Wizards.

Sure, it was essentially inevitable that the team would decline to pick up Howard’s $11.8 million option for 2010-11. But was it inevitable that he would re-sign with the same team for $7.8 million less (minus incentives)? Maybe, maybe not. In speaking with him before the end of last season, it was clear Howard understood that his option would not be picked up and that he’d be willing to come back to the Wizards. Still, that’s a lot of change to swallow and to re-sign for just a single season with the team that just forced you to chew.

Perhaps Howard felt the Wizards wanted him, as he said after the trade that brought him to D.C., and thus decided the best course of action is to stay put for a bit — to follow through with loyalty to the team that acquired him and to stick it to the team that traded him away. OR, maybe offers from the Bulls, Celtics and Cavaliers, franchises reportedly interested in Howard, just weren’t up to monetary snuff heading into a potential lockout.

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[Links and a D.C. picture ... keep scrolling ...]

[Skate or Door -- 500 block of Florida Avenue, NW - Washington, D.C.]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Links!

First … Josh Howard is back in D.C.! Michael Lee of the Washington Post reports the details, and Mike Prada puts down some thoughts on the signing at Bullets Forever. I’ll have some more in-depth thoughts soon … but until then, I’ll say I love the move (especially at $4 million for one year).

Second … 17th pick Kevin Seraphin has signed with the Wizards after a buyout agreement was reached with his team in the French pro basketball league.
[Wizards Insider]

Joe Glorioso of Wizards Extreme wonders where Gilbert Arenas has been and thinks that Arenas should be making a public apology to the DMV during this basketball dead period. I’d have to agree.
[CSN Washington]

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{flickr/Rob Inh00d}

I recently took part in a Wizards-related round-table at the DC Pro Sports Report. You should go check out the whole thing, but one question in particular got me pondering … What should the Wizards do with their cap space next season?

[Which, by my calculations, factoring in the salaries of the 1st, 30th and 35th picks, assuming that Quinton Ross takes his player option and that the Wizards do not extend Randy Foye a qualifying offer, will be around $21.4 million. Sham Sports used for salary info.]

Here’s what I wrote:

In a perfect world, the Wizards take their six current players (Arenas, Young, Ross, Thornton, Blatche & McGee), draft Wall, sign Livingston, Howard and Singleton (to around $11-14 million total between the three of them — could be auspicious pricing here), draft a couple promising big men with the 30th and 35th picks (Larry Sanders and Jarvis Varnado anyone?), and sign whomever else for the minimum to fill out the roster.

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Doing some spring cleaning while watching the NBA playoffs on Sunday, I found myself ripping off covers of old ESPN The Magazines and trashing the rest, but not before quickly flipping through to make sure nothing was keep-able.

Times were different in December 2007. Well, not so much for Wizards fans. The turmoil was just getting started with the news that Gilbert Arenas would be having a second surgery on his knee just two weeks old. That December 3rd edition of ESPN The Magazine ironically had part of an NBA advertisement featuring a picture of Arenas and the words, “Where I’m back happens.”

In that same edition, which had Terrell Owens giving Tony Romo ‘bunny ears’ on the cover (Jason Witten was in the picture too), was the above ‘Got Milk?’ advertisement featuring two former Dallas Mavericks, coach Avery Johnson and player Josh Howard.

December 2007 represented some of the last days of NBA harmony for each Howard and Johnson. The Mavericks as a one-seed lost to the eight-seed Warriors the previous Spring, an ’06-07 season where Howard also represented the Mavs in the NBA All-Star game. But from there, it would go further downhill.

The Mavs finished ’07-08 as a seven-seed in the West, losing to the New Orleans Hornets in the first round. Johnson was fired days later. Howard would subsequently go through a tumultuous six-month span in 2008, including some off-court incidents that severely damaged his public image.

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[UPDATE/Correction] It looks like I misunderstood Josh when speaking to him the other night. Per a recent (3/11/10) tweet of Michael Lee (and post on Wizards Insider) he actually has yet to have surgery and is waiting for the swelling to go down. I thought that sounded a little soon. Next time I’ll be sure and double-check. My bad.

I briefly caught up with Josh Howard about an hour before tonight’s game. He was here at the Verizon Center to rehab his knee with the Wizards’ training staff. A couple weeks out of surgery to repair a torn ACL, he said everything was going according to plan and that he was waiting for the doctors to tell him the next step. Howard said he’s been rehabbing by lifting light weights and that he was about to try some light jogging/backpedaling.

He referred to his knee injury as a “little setback” and said that it would not affect rehabbing his ankle, which he had previously said was around 80% when he arrived in Washington after the trade and reaffirmed that percentage tonight. Before he got hurt during a February 22nd home game against the Chicago Bulls, the first knee injury he said he’s ever experienced, Howard was hoping to make the ankle, which has given him so many problems over the past couple of years, better and stronger by playing on it.

I mentioned that a lot of people are assuming the Wizards will not pick up his $11.8 million option for next season and asked if that would factor into the possibility of him resigning with the team. Howard gave a sheepish smile and said, “That doesn’t mean anything.” He indicated it did mean something that the Wizards brought him in and touted the fact that the team has two first round draft picks this summer and plenty of cap space.

Despite the disappointment, Howard seemed genuinely happy to be in Washington around a group of guys his age who were playing hard-nosed, hustling basketball at the time he got hurt. It’s a ways until summer, but I think the Wizards brass, and Howard himself, hope that this change of scenery will help the former All-Star mature and return to his past level of play. If his rehab goes according to plan, all of this could translate to the 29-year old being apart of the team’s talent in the future.

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Despite his team just coming off a nice victory over the Bulls, Flip Saunders was curt when responding to the first query of Monday night’s post-game press conference.

“Josh Howard update?,” began a voice from the media corps.

“Knee,” Saunders deadpanned. “Know more tomorrow,” he followed. “I’m sure he’ll be out for a little bit,” the coach trailed off as he surveyed the room for the next question.

It’s hard to tell what Saunders really knew about what had been called a sprained left knee at that exact moment, judgment is usually withheld until an MRI is procured. But his demeanor regarding the subject spoke of a grim outlook, as if the worst was expected, as if the post-game diagnosis divulged a strong possibility that it was more than a sprain.

The injury turned out to be much worse than a sprain. As you probably know by now, Howard will be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. Wizards Insider reports that Saunders found out the final and official verdict about a half-hour into this morning’s practice.

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Antawn Jamison’s Last Exit

When both Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler were traded, you knew Antawn Jamison just had to be traded too, sent to greener pastures … via leaving the Verizon Center in a car worth over a quarter-million dollars. Which, by the way, I’m told is a Bentley Continental, most likely a GT, and not a Maybach as was originally reported (thanks to @CarbonPrimo and the car nuts at @UpshiftReviews).

Michael Lee reports that Jamison even requested a trade. But did he even have to? Well, let me put it this way, he shouldn’t have had to. But you can’t blame  ‘Twan for wanting to make sure Ernie Grunfeld wasn’t going to hold him hostage on an un-seaworthy ship with a plank, a revolver and perhaps an eye-patch and a devious smile.

Antawn Jamison wasn’t perfect, but he was a a pro’s pro. A throwback player. I wish ‘Twan all the best, but not necessarily a championship with LeBron in Cleveland. I’m not sure, I’ll have to see how I feel when NBA playoff time comes around.

There will be plenty of tribute posts for all the departed Wizards in the future, but until then, a couple quick parting shots of Jameson for Jamison’s last night as a Wizard in bullet-point form: Read more »