Well, he was in a similar situation in Cleveland. Those squads lacked Ilgauskas, out with injury, and did not have the talent like Davis, Miles, LBJ, and Wagner that they do now - at least not at the talent level of each player now. In fact, about all they had outside of Miller was Lamond Murray, and that doesn't say a lot. 'Dre has shown a knack for getting lesser players the ball in a position to score, and I think he could've done the same in Wash.
Arenas going to the Wizards was a surprise to me. Actually, the Wiz trying to get Arenas was a shock to me as well. They have enough guards to log minutes; I thought they'd be looking for a pass first point guard, which Arenas really isn't. Add into that the fact that the Wiz are a pretty young team, and I thought they'd add veteran leadership, especially at the PG position. Andre Miller probably would have been a better fit, IMO, but I guess they saw more potential in Arenas. But I guess we'll just have to see what happens next year. Overall, good sign by Wiz.
If I remember that Cav team the one thing it could do was spot up shoot from the wings. Murrary, Davis (I think he was playing and starting to get good), Person, maybe another player too, the Wiz IMO don't have a team anything remotely like that. The Wiz needed a scorer to go along with Stack, now they have one of the 5 best scoring PGs, who also happens to be the youngest stud PG in the game with a great ceiling. A Stack/Arenas backcourt is going to be impossible to handle on some given nights.
They had Hughes, they had Dixon - both scorers. They are getting back Jeffries, who can shoot and is a lanky scorer. They didn't lack for guards who could score; it's down low where they need a scorer. The backcourt may be hard to handle, but how is this going to improve their bigger area of need, down low? I can't see Haywood or Brown improving based off of this signing, and that's where they need improvement.
Dixon has promise I give you that, but Hughes and Jeffries have yet to prove they have NBA jumpshots, let alone the gunning ability of Murray, Person & Davis at that time. The LAC didn't even have gunners of Dre's Cleveland quality and it showed with Dre's effectiveness--even though Maggette, Q, Odom and Pike are not horrible from outside. I agree in theory but 1) but we comparing Dre versus Arenas--I they need some offensive punch along with Stack that Arenas better provides, 2) there were not many bigmen left. If it were Arenas versus J. Oneal or Brand--yeah take the latter. If it is Arenas versus Brad Miller with either at 10 million, I think they did the right thing long term. Arenas is about 6-7 years younger, the better scorer, and is more elite in his position. Brad Miller, the best available big, might have helped them more short term, but I think Arenas was the best player/prospect they could get long term.
Agreed. For who is still available at that price, Arenas is the best choice. I think they'll have to address a lot more down the road, including finding a distributor at least at the backup PG spot, but if they were going to pay someone $10m/yr, Arenas is the only one left who is close to worth it.
That's why they drafted arguably the best/second best distributor in the draft, hometown hero Steve Blake. He'll be a change of pace from Arenas and is more than capable of putting up good assist to turnover numbers. He kept a better than 3/1 AtoT ratio in his 6 summer league games. So he's got some potential as a backup.
Jaybird - perhaps, but I'm not sold on Blake as a pro yet. He's got a shot, but I think they need someone more experienced as the backup...Blake would be better suited as the 3rd PG.
