{Game Faces}

A focused pre-game Gilbert Arenas.

A plotting, thinking Flip Saunders.

Contrasting bench facial expressions.

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flickr/Keith Allison

If the Washington Wizards prefer to lie amongst the weeds and surprise everyone, a panel of 53 ESPN experts is trying to make that happen (despite the Wizards being voted by the same ESPN panel to have the biggest turnaround this upcoming season).

Tied with both Philadelphia and Toronto to achieve 39 wins, and finish seventh through ninth in the East (the averages actually break out to PHI – 39.4, WAS – 39.1, TOR – 39.0), the ESPN panel believes that the Wizards will be fighting just to make the playoffs.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix and The Wages of Wins Journal both seem to think the Wiz will be significantly better than sub-40 wins, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe some of the ESPN experts think the Wizards’ defense won’t be up to par, or that their frontcourt is too thin and they desperately need an upgrade. Of course, when Mike Prada of Bullets Forever wrote the two previously linked pieces, he had improving the team to compete for a championship in mind, not so they can solidify a playoff position. Still, both defense and frontcourt are valid areas of concern.

No one will argue that the Wizards are definitively behind Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando when trying to predict the East. And with the improvements Atlanta has made this summer, it’s even hard to put the Wiz past the Hawks. But thinking that the Heat, Bulls, and 76ers will all be better than Washington is absolutely absurd. Let’s take a glance at what those team have done this summer: Read more »

We all like to reminisce to the days of health in 2004-05 when the Wizards started the year by winning 26 out of their first 41. Since, they haven’t gotten out of the gates so well.

In 2005-06, they won five out of their first six, but then lost 17 of the next 24, going 12-18 in the first 30. The Wiz started 4-9 in 2006-07 before they got going, 0-5 in 2007-08, and last year … well, do I really need to give out the numbers?

It’s the NBA, and no game this year is going to be easy. Hell, this team can’t afford to think one might be easy. A good start is tremendously imperative to setting the swagger level of the year. Why? Because the playoff stretch of March could be brutal.

We already know this from the previous post:

The toughest stretch comes from Feb. 28th to March 31st when the Wiz have 12 road games (versus the Nets, Bucks, Celtics, Pistons, Jazz, Nuggets, Blazers, Lakers, Pacers, Bobcats, Rockets, and Hornets) against only 5 home games (versus the Bucks, Rockets, Magic, Bobcats, and Jazz).

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