Rock Bottom
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for the Washington Wizards, they lose to the hapless Detroit Pistons, who had lost 13 in a row.
The Wizards' season has been tumultuous to say the least, from injuries to the Gilbert Arenas debacle, but now they've become a total embarrassment. The Clippers laugh at the Wiz.
It's almost unfathomable. When Flip Saunders was named the new head coach, everybody assumed this was a playoff team, especially with the return of a healthy Gilbert Arenas and the additions of Randy Foye and Mike Miller. Sure Miller has missed most of the season because of injuries, but the Wizards' issues are much larger than that.
Flip Saunders appears exasperated. Though coaches have stressed defense for years and Flip has tried to emphasize his defensive principles, it just hasn't worked. Nothing has. Not the return of a healthy "Big Three," not starting lineup tweaks and not exercising patience.
Previously I wrote there was no reason to panic. Well, start panicking. The Detroit Pistons had lost 13 in a row and are a shell of their former selves, and yet they came to the Verizon Center and easily handled the Wizards 99-90. Charlie Villanueva led the Pistons with 23. Charlie Villanueva! Are you serious? Even worse, only 13,544 were in attendance. The fans have given up. It seems like nobody even cares that Gilbert Arenas has been suspended indefinitely.
So now is the time for Ernie Grunfeld to shake things up. Trade somebody. Trade everybody. Why not? The Wizards have hit rock bottom.
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I think you have to send Butler and Jamison out and get whatever you can for them (hopefully expiring contracts), then try to lure a big name FA. If they couldn't put it together as a team before the gun nonsense, they sure aren't going to be able to do it now. Use the character clause and dump Gil. He isn't the face of the franchise. He's the face of an immature child.
There are a bunch of "I have to get mine" donks on the Wiz. Flip Saunders looks like he wants to jump off the Washington Monument. They need to play team ball instead of nub ball.