Welcome to The Now

This Wizards' story by Jason Reid all but says this . Sure, Grunfeld knows how to cash the checks owner Ted Leonsis is writing for him, but with a record of drafting bums, burnouts or mix-matched pieces, the guy (who's more well known for trades anyway) seems to be the anti-thesis to Leonsis' "build through the draft philosophy." Sadly, that's the only way the Wizards are gonna build a winner because free agents (still) don't want to come here.

He's small for a 2-guard, but he's known for good shooting and rebounding .

Let's face it: Nick Young and JaVale McGee were talented Even-Stevens at best, and they we not going to help the Wizards with their most important objective: getting John Wall to re-sign with the team after his rookie contract expires. Depending on who you ask, the team either broke even or righted the ship a bit . Me? I'm just happy that they won last night.

I can say they'll never be so bad that they'll lose by 102 points .

Another day, another roadblock to having an NBA season. And while I agree that the players are being unjustly painted as the villains here , I have selfish reasons for these guys getting back on the court: namely, D.C.'s nightlife is conductive to unnecessary drama . And seriously; Nick Young couldn't say, "Hey, this is my girlfriend?"

And here I thought I'd never see a story involving Javaris Crittenton and guns .

The guys over at Bullets Forever are doing Gilbert Arenas Tribute Day, and this is one of their entries .

Not one professional sports team from the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area is on Forbes' list for worst teams .

As the story goes, he found out that his mom was, um, " dating " one of his teammates. When I first hear the "Shaq & Gilbert's fiance" rumors, I was like, " Man, does this type of stuff happen in the NBA or just to Wizard players? " Turns out that it might be the former.

Hey Dallas Mavs fans: want to know why you're one game from elimination ?

Some interesting nuggets were dropped.

Well ...

When STEPHEN A. SMITH talks, people should listen. Here's part of what he had to say about GunGate : For every foolish act like Plaxico Burress, Ron Artest or Arenas, there’s a Grant Hill, Shane Battier or LeBron James — guys who will be employing Black athletes one day, either in an executive or ownership capacity. But their behavior is not what is influencing Black America’s youth, specifically its cultural ambience. It’s the culture of tattoos (jailhouse or otherwise) enjoying increased prevalence and notoriety. This hyper-masculinity syndrome. This alpha-male environment that stimulates the worst in an educated individual like Crittenton (Georgia Tech), preventing a sensible young man raised by both of his parents from walking away from a crazy incident that could cost him millions in potential earnings. Even worse, it’s jeopardized the career of Arenas and his six-year, $111 million contract, plus an additional $50 million deal with Adidas allegedly over a gambling debt th...

And I think it will go a long way toward improving their fortunes of late: "We haven't had as much of a thrust with the ball," Saunders said. "We want [Arenas]to be aggressive with the ball, whether it's scoring or distributing, but we cannot walk the ball up the court. That's something we've really been trying to work on, from the beginning of training camp. If there is a miss, we shouldn't be in any sort of set play. We haven't done as a good a job as we need to." Now where have I heard this before? Hmmm...

Their defense is better, but the Wizards aren't going to win too many games relying solely on the jumpshot .

I didn't agree with every move he made, but the man certainly sacrificed for the Wizards . MCI/Verizon Center ( and by extension, most of DC ) exists because of him .

Upon reflection on the Wizards-Cavaliers game, I realized the biggest boon to Washington may not necessarily be offensive. After all, they have very capable scorers in Arenas, Butler, Jamison, Miller, Foye, Young, and Blatche. And while the team needs the Tri-Force to win the big games , a lighter roster should be more than capable of putting away the scrubs. No, the most significant change for the Wizards is their defensive potential . Consider the following lineups (going in order from PG to C, in in cases when more than one player can work, the preferred player goes first): Traditional Lineup : Crittenton/Arenas, Stevenson, Butler, Oberto, Haywood . Your standard NBA lineup...I say "standard" because as good and valuable as he is, Jamison is not a traditional power forward. You Want Small-ball? I Got Yer "Small-ball" Right Here : Boykins, Arenas/Foye, Stevenson, Jamison, Blatche/Oberto . There are still those teams (they usually have no reliable post players) tha...

Wisdom : That's Jamison. He's the "old warhorse;" the cranky old man who been there/seen that. Power : That's Arenas. He's got the star power, the charisma, and the attention of the opposing team's defense. Courage : That's Butler. He's not called "Tuff Juice" for nothing. I think last night's game showed that all three are key to victory , particularly in regards to the postseason/upper echelon element. Last year with just Jamison and Butler we saw a squad that lacked the special treatment that a team's best player receives, both from the opposition and the referees. Early on this season we saw a sullen star and his tough-yet-inconsistent teammate trade quips via the media instead of keeping that talk in the locker room. And while we haven't seen much of a Arenas/Jamison duo here, I'm sure it would be just as incomplete a product. I guess the bottom line here is this: to call Arenas, Butler and Jamison the Big Three is no...

If you're a fan of any Washington team, than you should know 26 is not really your friend . Byron Scott has been fired by the Hornets. The Wiz can't afford to start feeling sorry for themselves.

Via Mike Prada of Bullets Forever : The one thing that struck me about Tuesday's performance was how much we actually resembled a professional team. I'm sure that's going to ruffle some feathers, particularly those who are fans of Eddie Jordan . I don't come here to suggest that Jordan is not a good coach. Far from it. But what always struck me about watching an Eddie Jordan-coached team was how the players would alternate between overly robotic and overly free-flowing play. Either they used none of their brains, which happened when they'd take quick contested jumpers and miss a defensive rotation, or they thought too much, mostly when they ran the same three-man weave into the same cut, with the same players settling for the same shots too often. I didn't see enough moments where they achieved that happy medium of playing instinctively while also playing smart. To be frank, they were too inconsistent. While some of that is our personnel, a lot of that ...