THE VERY LAST ONE- Washington Wizards

Recent Past Lots of short-lived playoff appearances, and general Hibachiness. Totally a word. Anyway, last year things pretty much completely fell apart, mostly because of injuries. Now they attempt to climb back to....a point somewhat beneath the summit?

Offseason They had the semi-weird Randy Foye/Mike Miller for Pecherov, Thomas, and Songaila deal, which sort of bummed me out because Ricky Rubio+Gilbert Arenas= happy fun time. But, still, it wasn't bad, as Mike Miller can sometimes do things and Randy Foye could be not bad. Also, DeShawn Stevenson got tattoos, and Gilbert took a vow of silence.

Probable lineup Gil, Mike Miller, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, and Brendan Haywood as the five. Randy Foye, DeShawn Stevenson, Nick Young, Dominic McGuire, Andray Blatche, Fabricio Oberto, and Javale McGee as key subs.

General Overview We sort of know how this works, but then again, we have no clue how this will work.

Because, really, it still depends on Arenas. And who the fuck knows what's going to happen with him? He's attempting to be a quasi-true point guard now, and even assuming he can pull that off (or could, at some point), we have no idea how he's going to do after being out for approximately three decades. Obviously, I think most of us (or, at least, those of us with souls) hope he pulls it off, but..there's a lot of anxiety there.

Other than that, you have some pretty nice pieces. Let's not forget Flip Saunders, the new coach, who has proven that he can do pretty nicely with this type of team, and (if nothing else) amass a lot of regular season wins and decent playoff performances. That's sort of damning with feint praise, obviously, but the Wizards will be pretty fucking pleased if they can pull that off. This season, anyway.

Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison are two legit demi-stars, guys that are just really nice players and can do a lot of damage on a team like this. They'll both likely put up pretty big numbers, and so along with Arenas they form a pretty fucking powerful trio, probably the best outside the title contenders. And the depth..it's not awful. Haywood's back and healthy, and he's a somewhat legitimate defensive presence for them. Mike Miller can do a job, if he just decides to stay behind the goddamn line and shoot threes...like he's supposed to. Some pretty decent youth guys in Foye, Crittenton, Young, Blatche, and McGee, where I'm sure at least a couple of those guys will contribute pretty nicely. And then I'm sure Stevenson's look will give them...something.

Anyway, this team has a decent amount of uncertainty attached to it, although admittedly that's mostly just because of the nature of trying to come back from a nineteen win season. But there's no reason to think this team won't make the playoffs, and if things break right for them they could well challenge Atlanta/whoever else out of that giant pack in being the top team outside the big three out East. Which is...deserving of some sort of consolation prize, I think.

If they were a hip hop act Blu + whatever producer Blu is working with. Because, a) like Blu, the 'Zards probably get most of their attention from the internet, and b) I sort of dig the "Blu as Arenas" angle. So there.

Guessing how they'll do Like I said, this team can be quite nice, and I'm going to be optimistic and go best-case with this. 4 or 5 seed, and a first round win. And once again, I've likely contradicted some other preview. But whatever. Hopefully we get another Cleveland-Washington matchup in the playoffs.

AND WITH THAT WE'RE DONE