For the record, S.O.S. doesn’t mean ‘Save Our Ship’ either, rather alphabetical representation of a Morris Code distress signal, and not the acronym I’d come to believe as a child.

What the hell am I talking about? The fact that it was announced today that Gilbert Arenas will be missing the first month of the basketball season because of debris in his knee, which was cleared out by a surgical procedure today.

While this isn’t a reason for the Wizards faithful to push the panic button, and the S.S. Washington Wizards is not going down in treacherous waters, it surely gives cause for us to shake our head an utter ‘yep, same ol’ shit.’

Fatalism is a lifestyle developed into a habit for Wizards fans. While in my heart, I’m confident that Arenas’ knee will be okay….as I’m sure the organization and their “crack” medical staff, about which there have been whispers of doubt, are being extra-extra careful with their $111 million investment, tippy-toeing around the situation like a teen sneaking in after a night out.

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Finally at the end of the ’07-08 evaluation line with Coach Eddie Jordan. My thoughts are below, head over to Bullets Forever to see what Prada and Jake have to say.

2007-2008 Washington Wizards Player Evaluations
Etan Thomas | Oleksiy Pecherov | Dominic McGuire | Nick Young | Andray Blatche | Roger Mason|
Darius Songaila | Antonio Daniels | DeShawn Stevenson | Brendan Haywood | Gilbert Arenas | Antawn Jamison | Caron Butler

It’s not exactly easy to do an in-depth evaluation of a coach. We don’t have the benefit of individual stats (I suppose team stats can suffice), we aren’t privy to in game strategy which will affect the ultimate outcome, and we are unable to witness a coach in action when a bulk of his work is done, behind the scenes. Nonetheless, here goes…..

The issues with Eddie Jordan seem to fall into a triumvirate of beef: defensive inefficiencies, substitution patterns, and him being a “players coach.”

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When Gilbert Arenas’ blog dropped the last week, I was all set to write a post on the past tumultuous relationship between him and Kwame Brown. However, I became distracted by Gilbert’s absurd lack of social responsibility. [Side Bar: I do realize that Gilbert's blog (or at least the one that some dude transcribes for him) spawning other bloggers to write blog posts (in some cases multiple) about his blog post could be considered absurd as well....and I'm comfortable with that possibility.]

What Arenas said about Brown and his migration to Motown seemed to be words of encouragement for the 26-year old, seven-year NBA vet.

I like that deal for Detroit and for Kwame. He’s in a quieter city now, he’s 26-years old, he’s on a veteran team, he’s growing up. In the past in D.C. and L.A. it was a case of him being a big kid in a big city, now he can settle his career down. You know that Sheed and McDyess and those other bigs will help him develop and this should be the best time of his career because in Detroit, the bigs get touches in the offense.

Don’t think that the Kwame Brown that was in Memphis is the real Kwame Brown. When you get traded, so much emotion goes into it and leaving a No. 1 team to come into a team with a bad record halfway through the season is a tough adjustment.

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As you probably know, the Washington Wizards have signed their 2008 draft pick, 18th overall JaVale McGee, to a rookie scale contract….just in time for a two-day mini-camp, which started today in DC, and so he can be ready for the Las Vegas NBA Summer League on the 14th.

How ready is this kid to capitalize on his potential in the National Basketball Association? If having four capital letters between his first and last names is any indication, then I would say that he’s well on his way to success sooner than later.

In all seriousness, before the Washington Wizards selected JaVale McGee in the 2008 NBA Draft, I knew nothing of the young man out of the University of Nevada, save that he carried the label of “soft.” This was enough to cause distain and shock within on draft night. But now that the dust has settled and I’ve had a chance to educate myself, what do I think of Mr. McGee?

Who you callin’ soft?
Draft Express uses terms such as soft, extremely weak physically, atrocious defender, bust, toughness, and hustle in it’s weaknesses ‘at a glance’ section.

At my first look, this assessment becomes questionable as ‘Basketball IQ’ is also listed as one of McGee’s weaknesses. You’re telling me that a kid who sat courtside in a stroller while his mom balled in Italy, and later as a youngster in Sacramento, lacks knowledge of the game? (In case you didn’t know, both McGee’s father and mother played college ball, the latter getting run professionally overseas and in the WNBA.) As JaVale himself puts it, he was “dribbling out of the womb.”

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Normally, Gilbert Arenas might be the last, but not the least, Washington Wizard to be evaluated. But that’s not the case this year…..Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison formed an alpha dog duo this past season. My thoughts on Agent Zero are below, head over to Bullets Forever (coming soon) to check out what the Pradamaster and Jake The Snake have to say.

Previous Entries:
Etan Thomas | Oleksiy Pecherov | Dominic McGuire | Nick Young | Andray Blatche | Roger Mason |
Darius Songaila | Antonio Daniels | DeShawn Stevenson | Brendan Haywood

This past season provided me, along with others, a lion’s share of negative thoughts about Gilbert Arenas. Unfortunately, many of those others allowed such ideas to consume the previous good will built by Agent Zero to the point where they no longer wanted Gilbert on their team. I will not allow myself to forget what I’ve learned from the past.

For one, I’m a believer in Gilbert Arenas. He came from humble beginnings and has successfully overcome every real and perceived slight handed down upon him. I remember seeing Gilbert Arenas play live in college from the opponent’s end of the court way back in December of 2000. That day, Mississippi State defeated 10th-ranked Arizona, in Tuscon, in ‘Zona’s own Fiesta Bowl Basketball Classic tournament, for the first time in its 16 year history. That Wildcat team featured the likes of Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Jason Gardner, Loren Woods, Luke Walton, Eugene “High Socks & ‘Fro” Edgerson, and team leading scorer, Michael Wright. Gilbert dropped 14 points, but I barely remember him being on the court……he surely didn’t live up to scouting report expectations. Gilbert Arenas? Who’s that dude? Lo and behold…..almost seven years later…….I’m writing blog letters to the guy.

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The precursor to this post, ‘Washington Wizards Defense: is there any good news?’ statistically assessed whether or not the Wizards defense really improved in 2007-2008. Many per game statistical changes from year to year hinge on game pace, the average number of offensive and defensive possessions. According to KnickerBlogger.net, in 06-07, the Wizards ranked 5th in the NBA in pace at 92.9 total possessions per game. In 07-08, the Wizards dropped to 26th with 88.3. The previous post outlined that the slowed down pace was not significantly affected by improved defense.
So it had to be the offense, right?

We all know that Antonio Daniels, as admirable as his job at the point was with Gilbert Arenas out, isn’t made for the transition game. He’s not enough of an offensive threat to get teams focusing on him…..leading to open teammates and increased ball movement. Let me illustrate:

As goes the theory with defense, the earlier an attempt occurs in the shot clock, the better the Wizards shoot. The numbers below from 82games.com illustrate the averages for offensive shot clock usage during Eddie Jordan’s 5-year tenure at the helm.

>> Shot clock time elapsed: Wizards eFG%

0-10 seconds: 0.531
11-15 seconds: 0.453
16-20 seconds: 0.448
21+ seconds: 0.413

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Avidly watching (and blogging) the Wizards this past season, I came to the conclusion that while meaningfully improved, team defense still had a long way to go, especially in terms of guarding the perimeter. Since the end of the 07-08 season, there have been differing opinions on whether the Wizards defense had really improved from 06-07.

First came the Washington Times Wizards beat writer, Mike Jones, citing a “dramatic transformation” resulting from the debut of Randy Ayers’ defensive philosophy. Jones’ main statistical argument was that the Wizards went from allowing a league worst 104.9 points per game in 06-07 to 99.2 ppg in 07-08, 12th in the NBA. Mike Jones also pointed out that the Wizards went from getting out-rebounded by 1.8 boards per game to having the edge over opponents by 0.4 rpg.

Kevin Broom, in a polite counter-point on RealGM.com, concluded that the theory of Wizards defensive improvement was a fallacy. Broom was correct to write that per game statistics should not be used as a true indicator of improvement as game pace (the average offensive and defensive possessions) helps to tell the true story. In 06-07, the Wizards played at the 5th fastest pace in the NBA. In 07-08, Washington was the 4th slowest. As Kevin Broom puts it:

What happens if this season’s Wizards played at the same pace as last season’s? Their points allowed per game would rise from 99.2 to 104.3. In other words, this “improved” defense that Jones and mainstream media are celebrating is in reality an “improvement” of just 0.6 points per game.

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Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)

[note: this game blog also appears on Bullets Forever]

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