Arenas, Haywood, and What Could Have Been
Up 7, three minutes left in the Washington-Cleveland game. Still plenty of time to blow it, if these are the same Wizards who've been playing all year. Then Mo Williams puts up a shot from the perimeter as Brendan Haywood stands intimidatingly in the paint. The Cavs have taken a lot of perimeter shots on this night, especially when Haywood's been on the court. Williams' shot clangs off the iron, and Gilbert Arenas, like Haywood playing in his second game of the season, goes up for the clutch rebound. As he comes down, Arenas whips the ball down the court to a streaking Antawn Jamison for the breakaway dunk. Up 9. Now it's real. All game long, the crowd has wondered if it should believe, wanted to believe, hoped to believe, and the players on the court seemed to be doing the same. Now they believe. You can see it on Nick Young's face as he takes an Arenas pass and charges to the hole with 1:30 left. You can see it in Caron Butler's eyes as he leaps up to steal the Cavs' inbounds pass down 5 and with 50 second remaining to essentially put the game away. You can see it in the body language of all the Wizards as LeBron does what LeBron does, finding open teammates, hitting long three after long three, and generally defying every rule about how basketball is supposed to work. The Wizards team that has played most of this season would have collapsed, folded, stopped playing defense and started throwing up bad shots on the offensive end. Instead, they keep hustling, keep getting after the boards, and let an eerily calm and collected Arenas take control of the offense. And, lo and behold, Arenas, Haywood, Butler, Jamison and the crew make more plays down the stretch than the King.
As the Wizards grab one last defensive board and run the clock out, I can't help thinking: “What if?” What if the Wizards had been able to play Javale McGee alongside Brendan Haywood all year, putting the big, dependable center on the opponent's best big man and freeing the explosive McGee to roam and block shots as he does so well? What if every opposing dribbler all year long had been thinking about the solid positioning and intimidating shot blocking that Haywood brings every night? What if Arenas, even hobbled as he clearly still is, had been around all year to throw those long outlet passes for easy buckets, and those quick lobs and bounce-passes to open players in the paint? Even a half-strength Arenas gives the Wizards something they've desperately needed all year – someone who can see the whole floor. Imagine Arenas running the show all year long with spectacular finishers like Butler, Jamison and McGee sprinting down the floor and rolling to the basket. If he had 10 assists in each of his first two games back with guys he hadn't played with all year, how would he have done if he had some chemistry to go along with maturity and court-vision that only seem to have improved in his time off. Imagine how different the defense would be if the Wizards' only centers hadn't been 1st- and 2nd-year players who still haven't quite figured out what “defensive rotation” means. Imagine how good the Wizards could have been if, instead of subtracting from a team that was one of the best in the East last year before Caron Butler's injury, they had added a healthy Arenas, a shockingly impressive McGee, and a much-improved version of Nick Young, the perfect 6th man. Imagine what could have been.
So I was imagining that, and then I had a big realization. Imagine that, and then imagine Blake Griffin coming off the bench or even starting at the power forward. Because the Wizards have a legitimate shot at that next year, and if they get it, Wizards fans everywhere may be thanking their lucky stars for the slew of horrific injuries that wrecked this season. This team is very, very talented, and all but guaranteed to get another great talent in the top end of the lottery this off-season. If you want to see a glimpse of what the next few years could look like, take a look at the tape of the Cavs game this Thursday. Of course there are a lot ifs. Will Arenas ever get completely healthy? Will the Wizards get a decent pick in the lottery? Will the core stay together and stay healthy, something they haven't managed to do in a couple of years? Will young and promising players like Young, McGee, McGuire, Crittendon, and Blatche continue to develop? I don't know the answers. But I also would take an even-odds bet that the Wizards will make the playoffs next year without a second thought. Hmm...anyone know what the odds are in Vegas? Bill Simmons always seems to know these things, but I'm not sure how...
