The Wizards have lost backup point guard Mike James for the next 4-5 weeks with a broken left ring finger. He has only played in 1 game (0 starts) for the Wizards this season and he scored 6 points, grabbed 1 rebound, dished out 3 assists and he stole the ball 1 time. The Wizards shouldn’t miss James too much as they have a lot of depth at point guard.

The Wizards will be without Mike Miller for the next 7-10 days due to a sprained left shoulder. Miller has started 5 games for the Wizards this season and he has averaged 28.8 minutes, 8.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game. The Wizards will go with Randy Foye and DeShawn Stevenson while Miller is out so they should be in good shape. Foye has played in 5 games (1 start) for the Wizards this season and he is averaging 27.0 minutes, 11.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. He will likely start while Miller is out of action at shooting guard. DeShawn Stevenson has played in 5 games (0 starts) this season for the Wizards and he is averaging 19.6 minutes, 3.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.

The Wizards will be without point guard Javaris Crittenton until at least December after he had recent surgery on his left foot. This won’t hurt the Wizards who won’t push him to return too soon. That is because the Wizards are loaded at point guard with Gilbert Arenas, Randy Foye and Mike James.

The Wizards will be without starting power forward Antwan Jamison for the next 3-5 weeks due to a shoulder injury. This is a huge blow to the Wizards and it will have a ripple effect on the playing rotation at both power forward and center. Andray Blatche will move into the starting lineup to replace Jamison. Blatche is not near the offensive player that Jamison is but he should be able to rebound and play defense. Fabricio Oberto will move into the backup forward slot for the Wizards until Jamison returns to action. JaVale McGee will now get a lot of playing time behind Brendan Haywood at center and he should do a good job. The Wizards will miss Jamison who along with Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas (when healthy) a great offensive trio.

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.