Where do the Wizards stand?

Hoopsworld surveys the offseason field for the Washington Bullets and approves of the team re-signing Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas, as well as the drafting of C Javale McGee. The gist: Washington gets a B+ grade for the offseason.

Kudos to the Wizards for keeping Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison in house, but management still has some work to do in free agency. Acquiring an addition player in the post would certainly benefit Washington and perhaps those dealings to round out the roster are in the works. If not, that’s a lot of money Arenas left on the table for nothing.

The article contains a pretty glaring editing error — that Washington has $71.5 million to spend on free agents. Actually, that’s about the same Washington has already spent on its current roster and its available spending cash is very, very limited.

I’m not quite thrilled about McGee as the draft pick — I would probably have gone with a different player — but I like grabbing another center with that selection and I think it will take McGee a couple of season to turn into an NBA player.

I supported retaining both Arenas and Jamison because rebuilding in the NBA is so uncertain. It’s not like the NFL, where teams can go from bad to good with a smart draft, a couple of good free agents, and a some additional good luck with the bouncing oblong football. NBA players get guaranteed contracts and the free agent system is rigged to favor the incumbent team. Franchises that give up on All Stars to rebuild often find themselves still rebuilding a decade later. What you really need to rebuild is to win the lottery in a year when there is at least one franchise-changing player in the draft. Considering the Bullets only won the lottery once — in 2001 — and that brought Kwame Brown to town, I’m not convinced that’s the proper route.

We need to see what a healthy Bullets team can do in the playoffs. With Jamison, Butler and Arenas healthy and receiving assistance from quality role players like Brendan Haywood, Deshawn Stevenson, Andray Blatche and Nick Young, I think the Bullets can make some noise. I applaud Abe Pollin and GM Ernie Grunfeld for giving this team another chance to prove what it can do.

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