Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
October 22, 2009, Washington Post

Wizards need more than magic to improve

The Washington Wizards have a chance to be the most improved team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) when the season starts next week.

Why? First, the Wizards can't get much worse than the awful 19 wins and 63 losses they had last season. Plus, the team has made some smart moves during the off-season, including adding Minnesota Timberwolves guards Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the roster.

Washington also brought in a new head coach. Flip Saunders has led winning teams in Minnesota and Detroit.

But if the Wizards are going to improve enough to compete with Eastern Conference powerhouses such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, a few things have to go right. Let's take a look:

-- Stay Healthy: Injuries ruined the Wizards' chances last season. Three starters -- guards Gilbert Arenas and DeShawn Stevenson and center Brendan Haywood -- missed big chunks of the season. The Wizards have more depth with Foye and Miller, but they can't afford to lose key players to injuries again this season. So far, the Wizards' luck has not been very good. Forward Antawn Jamison, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, hurt his shoulder during the preseason. They need Jamison to be 100 percent.

-- Gilbert Arenas: The Wizards' all-star guard played just 15 of the 164 regular-season games in the past two years because of knee problems. Before he got hurt, Agent Zero, as Arenas is called, was one of the highest-scoring players in the NBA. Arenas does not have to be the unstoppable scoring machine from a few years back to help the Wizards. But he does have to give the Wizards steady scoring and playmaking at the point guard position for the team to improve.

-- Andray Blatche and Nick Young: Many people say that Blatche, a versatile 6-foot-11 forward, and Young, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, have loads of potential. But potential is not enough in the super-competitive NBA. The Wizards will get a lot better when folks can talk about how good and consistent Blatche and Young are, instead of their potential.

-- Defense: Unlike in football, where there is an offensive team and a defensive team, basketball players have to play both. One of the Wizards' biggest problems is that some of their best offensive players -- Arenas and Jamison -- are not very good at playing defense. Coach Saunders has to get all the Wizards to commit to playing hard on defense during every game. If they do, the Wizards will see a big improvement.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is the author of such kids' books as "Touchdown Trouble" and "Soccer Team Upset."

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