Injury update 2: Gilbert Arenas [and more]

Gilbert hasn’t played since the 8th game of the season and, as I
expected, couldn’t meet that March 3 target date he set for himself.
So, how is he doing? Well, he went through a full practice on Thursday.

Coach Eddie Jordan talked a little bit about it after
practice. “He looked OK. I thought he looked better two practices ago
but we did some things that were new to him, some defensive schemes
that I wanted him to touch on and get a feel for so that sort of screws
you up, when you think and try to do your work (Eddie said this while
cracking on Chick Hernandez of Comcast)….We want him to get into a
muscle memory habit with our defensive schemes, our pick-and-roll
(reads) and those kinds of things so, he was out there thinking and
moving and wasn’t as instinctive as he was in his first practice.”

Of course, looming behind Gil’s injury situation is his unrestricted
free agency status in the offseason. Part of what is making Gil so
cautious with the injury is that he came back too early in October, but
the other part is his free agency. Gil knows he has a decent chance to
wrangle max dollars out of some team in the summer, but his chances of
doing so drop considerably if he suffers a 3rd knee injury in one
calendar year. He wants and needs to stay healthy before he signs
another contract.

For Washington, the good news is that no other team can offer Gil as
much money as the Bullets can and Gil definitely wants to get every
last dollar he can. From a Washington Post chat earlier this week:

Columbia, MD: Any insight on other
teams that could offer Gilbert a FA contract? Have any teams hinted
they might take a shot, any teams that need a Gilbert type player and
will have the $$ to make an offer?

Ivan Carter: That’s an issue because the way the
market is shaping up, very few teams are going to have money and those
that will (Memphis and Philadelphia) aren’t very good. I can promise
you that Gilbert isn’t going to a bottom feeder.

Tom Knott has more on that:

The Wizards know what Arenas wants, and they know they
are in no position to play financial games with their franchise player
because of the message it would send to their fan base.

If the Wizards offer Arenas a maximum contract and he bolts to
another team, Ernie Grunfeld could say, and rightly, that he did all he
could to re-sign the three-time All-Star, and no one would be able to
fault him or the organization.

…

This is his city now, and although it is a Redskins city, Arenas is the
preeminent athlete of the city, a title that can be debated only by
Alex Ovechkin.

Arenas has put down roots here and recently had a swimming pool installed at his upscale home in Great Falls.

That is not the act of a player looking to skip town.

And it is his team. And he is fortunate to be the teammate of two
other All-Stars, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, whose egos do not
need to be constantly massaged. Both Butler and Jamison are confident
enough in their abilities and contributions that they have no problem
being overlooked at times because of Arenas.

…

It is merely up to Arenas to get healthy, sign his maximum contract in
the summer and lead the Wizards to a championship in the seasons ahead.

Twenty or so years from now, a graying Arenas will be in attendance to watch his No. 0 being raised to the rafters.

I confess, I’d be a lot more worried about Gil being around in the
long term if there were lots of other teams out there with money to
spend. As it turns out, there are only a few teams that will have
enough space under the cap to throw big bucks at Gil and they are not
the sort of teams Gil would likely be interested in playing for. Arenas
lost a lot in Golden State and he lost a lot in his first season here.
The arrival of Antawn Jamison brought wins to the Bullets [and Gil] for
the first time in years and the arrival of Caron Butler a year later
brought the tantalizing possibility of an NBA title in DC. I think Gil
would take a max contract from another team if the situation was
attractive. The way things stand now, I’d say Gil looks like he’ll be
wearing our uniform for a long, long time.

Let’s just hope he spends most of his remaining years in the NBA
actually wearing that uniform during games. I’m tired of seeing him in
suits.

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