These are exciting times in the life of a new Washington Wizards owner, and Ted Leonsis is making headlines pretty much every day. After being blessed with John Wall, the Wizards owner has come out with discussions of changing the name of the Wizards back to the bullets and cutting down on in-game nonsense.
But perhaps most significant for the future of the the Wizards franchise is what Leonsis said about Gilbert Arenas. As the Washington Post reports, Leonsis reasserted that the Wizards are “not actively trading” Gilbert Arenas and discussed the fact that most general managers will be reticent to put up anything for the former All-Star turned gunslinger.
“We’re not actively trading him,” Leonsis said. “But I would ask you to put yourself in another general manager’s shoes. He was injured for two years and suspended for a year and he’s a max [contract] player. If you were another team’s general manager, would you be trading for Gilbert Arenas right now?”
It’s a realistic perspective, and one that Wizards blog Bullets Forever has been advocating for a while. The only question is if Arenas’ presence could damage the integration and development of John Wall. The discussions of Arenas as a leader have always been somewhat of a red herring, and in general, he’s just Gil. Crazy, gun toting, occasionally brilliant, ocassionally super-usage Gil.
At the same time, Leonsis’ statement indicates that a decision has been made regarding the realistic implications of trading Arenas and how those implications make it impossible. So now the Wizards will have to figure out how to make it work. It’s not an impossible task. Arenas isn’t Ricky Davis by any means. or even Ben Gordon. He can work off-ball, and maybe this whole ordeal has taught him something about humility. This can work, and it appears to be how the Wizards will approach it.
Just make sure Wall doesn’t like card games.
