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 Wizards took a player who has upside but it might take a while to get to his full potential. McGee is a big guy at 7′0″, 237 pounds but he’s only 20 years old so time is on his side. He played in 66 games (31 starts) in his career at Nevada and he averaged 8.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 1.8 blocked shots per game. Most of McGee’s game is around the basket as evidenced by his 54.2% shooting from the floor at Nevada. This might look like a genius pick down the road but don’t expect much in his rookie season.

The Wizards have signed Oleksiy Pecherov who was their first round pick (#18 overall) in the 2006 Draft.  Pecherov played last season in his native Ukraine.  In the Ukraine Pecherov played in 22 games and he averaged 21 minutes, 11.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.0 block per game.  He also hit 22 of 66 (33.3%) of his three point attempts.  Pecherov has nice size at 7′0″, 210 pounds and the Wizards will likely use him at both center and power forward.

The Wizards felt they needed rebounding help and that was the reason for the selection of Dominic McGuire with the #47 pick in the NBA Draft.  McGuire played at both California and Frenso State in his college career.  He played in 86 college games and he averaged 8.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 blocked shots per game.  He’s not much of a shooter though as he hit 46.2% from the floor, 25.3% from the three point range and only 55.6% from the free throw line in college.  McGuire projects to be a backup in the pros.

With DeShawn Stevenson opting out of his contract the Wizards felt they needed a shooting guard so they drafted the best one on the board and that was Nick Young from USC.  Young has a good arsenal of moves and he’s a good shooter.  Young played in 96 games at USC and he averaged 15.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.7 steals per game.  Young shot 48.4% from the floor, 36.8% from three point range and 76.4% from the free throw line at USC.  He was a good pick for the Wizards as he will likely be a starter for a long time for them.