The Washington Wizards are deep at point guard heading into this season. 27-year old Gilbert “Agent Zero” Arenas will be the starting point guard this season if his knees hold up. He only played in 2 games last season for the Wizards averaging 31.5 minutes, 13.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 10.0 assists per game. He has now played in 433 games in his NBA career and he has averaged 37.4 minutes, 22.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game. If Arenas is healthy he will likely get back to his old dominating self. If Arenas misses substantial time due to injury this season the Wizards would likely start Randy Foye at the point. 34-year old Mike James is a solid backup point guard. He played in 61 games last season for the Wizards and Hornets in which he averaged 27.0 minutes, 10.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. 21-year old Jarvaris Crittenton will be further down the depth chart for the Wizards. He played in 63 games for the Wizards and Grizzlies last season and he averaged 18.6 minutes, 5.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE POINT GUARDS IN 2009-2010: A-

The Washington Wizards’ talented and outspoken guard Gilbert Arenas says he is finally back to the old Gilbert Arenas.  The Gilbert Arenas before the three knee surgeries that kept him out of 149 games in the past two seasons.  Arenas credits trainer Tim Grover for “saving his career” and getting him back to his explosive self, however he has publicly criticized the Washington Wizards as one of the main reasons for his slow return.  Arenas says that the Wizards’ staff should have held Arenas back from himself, saying that he pushed himself too hard and came back too early.

I understand where Arenas is coming from, but he was basically demanding to play, so to publicly criticize your own team for letting you do what you ask them is a little ridiculous.  That is how “Agent Zero” works though, as he is known for his peculiar behavior.  It sounds like Arenas is bitter with the Wizards and this might be his first move to try and get out of Washington.  He just signed a six year $111 million contract in July of 2008 and if the Wizards aren’t contenders I could see Arenas demanding a trade.  I’m not sure how many teams would be interested in that big of contract combined with all those knee injuries though.

The Washington Wizards might not have had a pick in the NBA Draft (they traded them) but they improved the roster immensely due to the trade they made with the Timberwolves. SG/SF Mike Miller and PG/SG Randy Foye could both wind up starting this season for the Wizards and that would be a good thing as they are both good basketball players. The players the Wizards gave up (Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov) are all backup players which almost no upside. The Wizards also brought in backup center Fabricio Oberto to give them some toughness and rebounding off the bench.

OFF-SEASON GRADE FOR FRONT OFFICE SO FAR: B+