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.

Gilbert Arenas will miss at least the first month of the 2008-09 NBA season due to knee surgery. This will hurt the Wizards big time as they can’t replace what Agent Zero can do on the basketball court. At least the Wizards have a solid point guard to step in (Antonio Daniels) to hold the fort down until Arenas is ready to return.

The Wizards will be without Caron Butler for a while with a labral tear in his left hip. Butler has played in 43 games (all starts) for the Wizards this season and he is averaging 40.2 minutes, 21.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game. The Wizards will miss Butler big-time as they are struggling to hold onto the playoff spot that they are sitting in right now.

The Wizards will be without Gilbert Arenas for the next three months after he had surgery on his left knee. Arenas has played in 8 games this season (all starts) and he has averaged 39.5 minutes, 22.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.1 steals per game. Antonio Daniels will take over as the starting point guard for the Wizards and he has played in 10 games (2 starts) this season and he has averaged 22.5 minutes, 5.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.

Etan Thomas has recently had a physical that revealed a heart condition that could be career threatening.  Thomas played in 65 games (32 starts) last season for the Wizards and he averaged 19.2 minutes, 6.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 0.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game.  Thomas has now played in 347 games (66 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 18.4 minutes, 6.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 0.4 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.  If the Wizards are without Thomas this season it will hurt them because he does his damage without the ball with his defense and rebounding.