Washington Wizards:
If healthy, the Wizards can go far

The Washington Wizards have been playing the NBA since the 1974-’75 season when they moved from Baltimore to Washington D.C. and were originally named the Washington Bullets. It wasn’t until 1998 that the Bullets changed their names to the Wizards. The Washington franchise has a long tradition of winning and was a very well respected franchise during the 1970’s. During the ‘70s the team won 6 Central Division crowns and four Eastern Conference Championships. The Bullets also played in four NBA Finals series during the ‘70s and cashed in on one of them in 1978. During that season the team finished with a 44-38 record which was second best in the Central Division. The team was led by Elvin Hayes, Mitch Kupchak, Bob Dandridge, and Wes Unseld. In the first round of the playoffs the Bullets drew the Atlanta Hawks and made easy work of the by defeating them 2-0. In the next two series the Bullets disposed of the Spurs and 76ers each by a series count of 4-2. In the NBA Finals the Bullets met up with the Seattle Supersonics. It was a hard fought series for the Dick Motta coached Bullets but they pulled it off in the end and won the series 4-3 by winning game seven in Seattle by a score of 105-99.

In more recent memory the Wizards haven't been a franchise that other teams would strive to be. Since the 1988-’89 season the Washington Wizards franchise has only made it into the postseason once; that’s one playoff appearance in 16 seasons. The greatest excitement the franchise has had in the last couple of years is when Michael Jordan became the president of basketball operations and then threw his suit to the side and put his sneakers back on for the team. He led the to two consecutive 37-45 seasons and found himself just outside of the playoffs each time.

Last year was the first year without Michael Jordan and all of the coaching staff that he chose. The team finished with a 25-57 record which was largely in part to the lack of health the team displayed all season. Their leading scorer, Gilbert Arenas, who averaged 19.6 points a game, only played in 55 games and the second leading scorer, Larry Hughes, only suited out for 61 games. Their other superstar Jerry Stackhouse only played in 26 games. The 57 losses are about right for a team that is missing their top three players for a majority of the season. It wasn’t a matter of not playing well it was more of a matter of not having guys to play.

In the off-season the Wizards made some pretty decent moves to help out their team. They traded their first round draft pick, Wisconsin point guard Devin Harris, Christian Laettner and Jerry Stackhouse to the Dallas Mavericks in return for rookie center Pavel Podkolzine and Antawn Jamison. The Wizards also signed veterans Michael Ruffin, Samaki Walker and Anthony Peeler to their roster to add some much needed playoff experience.

In the draft the Wizards pulled off the aforementioned trade with the Mavericks. They did get first round man-child Pavel Podkolzine from them. Podkolzine is a 7’5”, 303 lbs. monster and he is only 19 years old. With their second round pick the Wizards elected to take the 19 year old Puerto Rican center Peter John Ramos. Ramos is also 19 years old and a monster. Ramos is listed at 7’4” and 260 lbs. He should get some decent playing time with the Wizards this year.

The Wizards starting five looks pretty good on paper, but then again games aren’t won on paper. At point guard will be Gilbert Arenas, at shooting guard will be Larry Hughes, at small forward will be Jarvis Hays, at power forward will be Antawn Jamison, and at center will be Kwame Brown. With a starting lineup with this kind of fire power the team should make it to the playoffs if they’re healthy, but that’s a huge if.

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