Things in Wizards Nation aren’t that bad. At least in a “can’t get any worse” type of way as releasing Antawn Jamison to go win a championship with LeBron was probably the worst rock-bottom imaginable back in September. It can only go up from here, no guarantees though.

Time for fans to move forward the best they can. One way to do that would be to find positives among the new pieces, even if they are just temporary. The events which unfolded during and after Washington’s 108-99 victory over Minnesota on Tuesday night (but not before, I’ll cover the Jamison trade to Cleveland later), showed that Josh Howard and James Singleton could be spots of light cutting through dark skies. Latest acquisition Al Thornton, however, does not come with a ringing endorsement from the LA Clipper fan base. One can only hope he gets off on the right foot like Singleton and Howard have. Here are each of their stories …

{Starting Fresh Like The Farmer’s Market}

Josh Howard seems like a humbled man ready to do his best. If he somehow gets a bad mark on his record over the remainder of the schedule, we’ll know an even darker cloud than originally thought hangs over the franchise. In other words, expect him to be on his very best behavior.

Howard is frank and matter of fact, but with a twist of character. When asked about the win, a big smile crept across his face as he said, “Oh it meant a lot. C’mon now, it meant a whole lot. Just to come into a new organization and show them I want to be here, plus … uhh, stick it back to the Mavs.”

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The first practice for new Wizards Josh Howard, James Singleton and Quinton Ross had a media buzz in the air, yet a slightly somber tone on the court. Most of those already on the team ducked the awaiting press by exiting the practice court from a side door. Antawn Jamison, however, made his presence known by singing the Black Eyed Peas’ “I got a feeling,” down the hallway as he headed into the locker room. He later would make the media wait around 30 minutes for him to speak until a Wizards PR person finally declared that ‘Twan had left the building. For good? We don’t know.

It seemed like forever since I’d been in the Verizon Center. Sixteen days to be exact. With the Atlanta Hawks game originally scheduled for February 6th postponed because of snow, the last time I was around in the catacombs of the house that Abe built was on February 1st when the Wizards barely mustered 10 points in the fourth quarter and lost to the Boston Celtics 99-88.

Days like Tuesday afternoon’s practice are always interesting. I walked into the press lounge to see several faintly familiar faces; the television personalities who only show up on noteworthy days with their camera crews in tow. Some of the regulars wondered how many of them knew the difference between Ross and Singleton. Nonetheless, I don’t expect much coverage from the infrequent media masses once the trade deadline passes.

Of course, I type this as if I were some grizzled veteran when I just started covering the Wizards with media access last September. Then again, the circumstances surrounding the team this season is enough to give a blogger some gray hairs.

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I’ve written about Caron Butler and Josh Howard being different players off the court. But what about on the court? To get the best perspective, I turned to Rob Mahoney of the ESPN TrueHoop Network Dallas Mavericks blog, The Two Man Game. In addition to his Mavs blog, Rob does great work all over the internet, including his contributions to Hardwood Paroxysm and NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk.

Below is the question I asked Rob about Howard and his answer, and then my response to his question about Butler.

Tell me about Josh Howard. I know about all of his off-court stuff. I know about some of his “can’t control what the ball do” statements regarding on-court stuff. I know about a debate between you and Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com over whether Cuban and the Mavs were coddling/babying Howard too much. Any other reasons why Howard fell so far from grace in Dallas? Did you get any indication that he was a disturbance in the locker room? Or can his down year mostly be attributed to injury issues? The Wizards likely see J-Ho as just an expiring contract, but he certainly will play. How healthy is he now? How motivated do you think he will be to contribute to his new, yet very, very bad, team?

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Howard’s decline has been truly bizarre. From 2005-2007, Josh was a rock; he ignited the Mavs’ offense in the first quarter, played solid perimeter defense, and showed tremendous versatility in terms of scoring the ball. It looked as though Dallas had come away with a complete steal with the 29th pick in the 2003 draft, and Josh was named an All-Star in ’07 to commemorate his rise. But Howard was injured virtually throughout the ’07-’08 season, and even when he returned to action for the Mavs, he was visibly limited.

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Two of the three below are gone, the third on this Wizards Mount Rushmore might be gone by President’s Day. And that would make not one, but two banners needing to be removed from the 6th Street facade of the Verizon Center in 2010.

“Character, Commitment, Connection”

-Wizards 2009-2010 Season Motto

The Wizards aren’t putting Josh Howard’s face next to that on a banner anytime soon … unless they want to ad a fourth ‘C’ for cap space. Like Caron Butler, Howard was once an All-Star. And like the one they call Tuff Juice, the one they call J-Ho has recently fallen far from basketball skill grace.

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The Washington Wizards play the Toronto Raptors tonight….two franchises that have caused a great deal of disappointment for their fans this season. So, in anticipation of the game, I hooked up with Scott from RaptorBlog.com for a quick Q&A session. Read on….

1) The Raptors seem on the verge of making a run for the playoffs….what do they need to do for this to really happen?

I don’t know where you get the idea that the Raptors are “on the verge of making a run for the playoffs”. This team is seriously flawed. Their offense is average, their defense is subpar, their rebounding is atrocious and their bench is shallow. It’s possible that they could make a surge toward the seventh or eighth seed so that they can get stomped by the Celtics or Cavs like narcs at a biker rally, but I can’t fathom why that would be something to shoot for. This team needs to rebuild and get off the treadmill of .500 seasons and first round playoff losses.

2) The Jermaine O’Neal experiment…..verdict? The Basketball Jones podcast seems to think that J.O. is a hindrance to the Raptor offense. What say you?

Jermaine O’Neal has given the Raptors everything I expected he would in terms of post presence on defense, but it hasn’t translated into improved team defense or wins for some reason. If another team is interested in his defensive presence and would be willing to send players that would give the Raptors some 2009 cap space in return, I would like Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo to make that happen so that Andrea Bargnani can take over the starting center role full-time. Raptors management, coaching and fans need to really see what Bargnani brings to the table and I don’t think they can properly make that assessment with O’Neal still in the mix.

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The Mavericks game is in the books, another L for the Wizards. There will be game blogs, recaps, etc. posted soon…..but until then, the guys at Dallas Dedicated, an all encompassing Dallas sports blog, agreed to be part of a Q&A session. Their answers about the Mavericks are below, I’ll update this post with a link once my answers about the Wizards are posted over there.

1) How’s the Rick Carlisle era going? Do you miss Avery Johnson? Do you think the Lil’ General would be a good fit for the Wizards?

The beginning of the season was more of an adjustment period; once the team got used to his system, the better performances came (13-4 in the last 17, including tonight). To be honest, Avery isn’t too missed. It didn’t make too much sense to us, though, that both Johnson and Devin Harris were gotten rid of. They couldn’t coexist with each other, but instead of getting rid of one and keeping the other, both were replaced. Avery would be a help to Washington, especially on the defensive side of the ball. He has an ability to relate to the players given his young age, yet still be able to coach and improve them.

2) Josh Howard, trade him or keep him?

We say keep, and we say that for two reasons. First, and more optimistically, we think Howard can still perform at an All-Star level–he needs to stay healthy. In last season’s playoffs he played poorly, which began the calls for him to be traded, but people forget that it was only an isolated time of bad play. Secondly, with all his off the court issues of late, his trade value has decreased below his value. If the Mavs wanted to trade him, they wouldn’t receive the compensation that a trading a player of his caliber deserves.

3) The Mavs are currently a 1/2 game behind Phoenix for the 8th playoff spot. Other stats from KnickerBlogger.net indicate that Dallas is a middle-of-the-pack team (ranked 10th in pace, 16th in offensive efficiency, 12th in defensive efficiency) — so what do the Mavs need to do to boost themselves to a championship contender….make a move or simply do _____ better? Read more »

I was kinda willing to give Josh Howard a pass for his weed smoking radio proclamation. Sure, for his own sake, he should have kept his mouth shut. And of course, throwing NBA colleagues under the bus was stupid. But at least he told the truth…….or lied less.

Back home in North Carolina and running a basketball camp, one would hope that Josh Howard avoid being the anti-role model for the kids. Nope, he decided to street race his black Lexus against a silver Volkswagen, and get caught by the police. ESPN is reporting that Howard was going 94 in a 55. Speeding and reckless driving was the case that they gave him.

The first thing that came to mind was the eight counts of vehicular manslaughter recently charged to two Maryland men. Back in February, eight bystanders were killed as a result of an illegal street race on Indian Head Highway just outside of Washington, DC.

Then, there’s the Bobby Phills incident. Which make me wonder, would Brad Miller do something like this? I don’t know, but something tells me that Josh Howard should be added to this list from Pyle of List. Read more »