The Wizards

I'd like to follow-up on Nick's post from yesterday.

As a devout Bullets/Wizards fan, I have no pretenses about beating either Cleveland or the Celtics in the playoffs this year. Chances are it won't happen. But that said, a solid argument can be made for the Wizards to pull a series of upsets, or even make the NBA finals. I'm telling you right here right now that it's very possible.

1. For the past three years the Wizards have never been healthy going into the playoffs. Last year it was Gilbert and Butler, and the year before it was Jamison. It's therefore impossible to base your impressions of this team, and their potential to do anything in the playoffs, based on their prior performances versus Cleveland and Detroit. They were not playing with a full deck of cards.

2. As I've mentioned many times before, this team has made the playoffs and beaten very good teams with and without their key players over the course of the past three seasons. I give Coach Jordan a lot of the credit for this consistent play. But consider this fact: the Wizards are now one of the few teams in the Eastern conference that has a winning record against teams in the West. Add ontop of that a 3-1 record against the celts, a 2-1 advantage against Detroit (both this year and last), and a split series against Lebron. The Wizards have basically proven two things: they stack up against the best teams in the league when they're healthy and when they're not; and they wouldn't necessarily get destroyed if they made the Finals (they've beaten the Hornets twice, the Mavs twice, and the Suns, Warriors, and Lakers once).

3. A healthy Wizards team has to be taken seriously, especially when they're best player, Gilbert Arenas, is now back in the lineup. You can always debate whether or not the Wizards are better with Arenas, but having a guy who can score twenty points off the bench (since that's where he's coming from now thanks to his knee) is going to be problematic for any team in the league. For instance, late in the second or third quarters, Eddy Jordan can insert Gilbert into the line-up forcing teams to expend fouls or minutes for their best defenders. Late in the game this will favor the Wizards if they keep it close.

4. The Wizard's now have so many role-players that they can effectively mitigate games where their big three do not produce or get shut down. All season long we've seen Antonio Daniels and DeShawn Stevenson come off the bench to score 15-20 points during crucial stretches. If the Cavs shut down Atwawn or Butler, now we have AD and Stevenson carrying their water with experience.

5. The Wizards are a prime darkhouse candidate to make a run this year. Both Antawn and Arenas are having contract years, Coach Jordan may be in the hot-seat if we lose again, home court advantage (at least in the first round) may be attainable, and I get the sense that the team is hungry to prove everyone wrong this year. The pressure is on, more or less and I think a first round victory would secure Eddy Jordan's job for the next few years. And honestly, this would be an excellent thing to occur - Jordan is a total class act and has proven his on and off the court basketball smarts. Of course this is a topic for another post...

The bandwagon will be in full-effect if the Wizards beat the Cavs during the opening round. Just go to Washingtonpost.com and click on the Wizards section if it happens. Basically you'll see a bunch of Post reporters reporting on the Wizards like they've actually cared two bits about them all year, which isn't the case.

But then again we could get the Magic if Philly wins and we lose the next few games. A Magic match-up would be tough, but all it takes is for D-Howard to get injured or play a few shitty games, and the Wizards could easily win that one, too.

I am guardedly optimistic right now, so let's hope the Wizards continue kicking ass.