As a casual Wizards fan, I think if they're healthy they're pretty good. They ought to go out and get themselves Brian Skinner. Not that he's the end all and be all, but he's a big body who actually plays defense. </p>
They need to obtain some closure on the whole Haywood/Thomas fiasco and unload one of them. Skinner's a decent enough player that he'll fill that hole, because obviously they're not going to get a big back by trading one of those two bozos.</p>
Darius Songaila is not awful, and he missed most of the year last year. It was hard to get a read on him. I think Blatche will be able to consistently get minutes this year. He's like 6'11" and 250, and athletic, so unless he's a complete mental midget, he should be pretty good. The downside is that, with a history scary (getting followed home and shot) and stupid (picking up hookers) history of bad judgement, he may very well be a mental midget.</p>
I think Oleksiy Pecherov, their first round pick last year who will actually be here this year, will be a mild surprise. Maybe I'm wrong, but he really seems to have a nose for the ball. If he turns out, he might be a Drew Gooden-like player. Not a star, but a you could do a lot worse than an athletic 6'11 guy who rebounds and has range all over the court. </p>
So you add those three guys up, and I think you've got cause for hope in the froncourt. Jamison is about as unorthodox a 4 as they come, but I think he's somewhat overlooked too. Truth is, his defense is average, not bad, and he's very smart player.</p>
Butler is everything you could ask for in a 3.</p>
Arenas, I worry about him not being fully recovered from the knee injury, and I worry about him being a nut. But what are you gonna do? He's still one of the best players in the league otherwise.</p>
Antonio Daniels is a very good 3rd guard to have.</p>
Deshawn Stevenson is pretty iffy IMO, hopefully Nick Young puts him on the bench. Young is a guy I'm not all that sure about, but I guess he was a pretty good value where the Wizards picked. I probably would have gone with Jason Smith just because, if you're going to pick on guys that aren't sure things, you might as well pick the athletic 7 footer. </p>