Listening to whispers around the water cooler is appears that the Wizards will keep 28-year old point guard Gilbert Arenas instead of trading him for pennies on a dollar and I think it is a smart move. Arenas will likely move to shooting guard next season and he should be able to handle it as long as he behaves both on and off the court. Arenas played in 32 games (all starts) for the Wizards before his suspension last season and he averaged 36.5 minutes, 22.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Arenas has now played in 336 games (327 starts) in his 7 years with the Wizards and he has averaged 39.7 minutes, 25.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He is the Wizards’ all-time leader in three pointers made with 821. He is also #6 in assists (1,929), #5 in steals (606) and #10 in points scored (8,567) in Wizards’ history.

The Washington Wizards were blown out by the Utah Jazz 103-87 on Saturday, giving them their 15th straight loss.  The Wizards are in disarray right now, and its not just the losses that are cause for concern.  The face of their franchise, Gilbert Arenas, was recently sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house for his gun incident earlier in the season which resulted in his indefinite suspension.  Then their is the Andray Blatche situation.  Blatche, who is having a great season individually this year, refused to talk to his coaches after being taken out early in the game.  He sat at the very end of the bench and then later refused to return to play.  Head coach Flip Saunders ripped him after the game, and Blatche blamed Saunders for the incident.  Blatche has a reputation as a “lazy” player who doesn’t respond well to criticism.  He has shown he is a great talent though, and if he could keep his head on straight he could do some great things in Washington for years to come.  The Wizards aren’t playing as a team and they are not responding to coach Saunders at all, especially Blatche.  I expect a lot of changes to be made this offseason, because things have been going downhill for quite some time now.

SG/SF Mike Miller is a solid “team” player but the Wizards need him to be a little more selfish due to the lack of playmakers on the team. Miller has played in 33 games (29 starts) for the Wizards this season and he is averaging 32.0 minutes, 9.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists. Miller is the best shooter on the team and for that reason they need him to shoot more. Miller has connected on 53.4% of his shots from the floor, 52.1% from three point range and 82.5% from the free throw line. Miller has the potential to easily average 15+ points per game if he just would shoot the ball a little bit more.

With Brendan Haywood off to the Mavericks in tonight’s trade it appears as if 23-year old Andray Blatche will be the new starting center for the Wizards. He has played in 49 games (4 starts) for the Wizards this season and he is averaging 21.9 minutes, 8.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Blatche has now played in 287 games (68 starts) for the Wizards in his career and he is averaging 18.5 minutes, 7.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. I’m anxious to see how well Blatche plays because he has a boatload of talent.

Veteran point guard Mike James is buried on the Washington Wizards’ bench and he is not happy about it right now. He has played in 3 games (0 starts) for the Wizards this season and he is averaging 14.3 minutes, 6.0 points, 1.0 rebound, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steal per game. James is buried on the depth chart for the Wizards but with the trade deadline approaching the Wizards could make a team wanting to trade of one of their betters players take him also.