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Good luck, Mike Are you sure you know what you're getting into?
Updated: Tuesday October 02, 2001 8:14 PM
Welcome back, Michael. Are you sure you know what you're getting into? The Wizards, as presently constituted, are every bit as bad as your early Bulls teams. You have one decent scorer in shooting guard Richard Hamilton (18.8 ppg.) and a former All-Star in power forward Christian Laettner. But Hamilton is only in his third season, and he shot just 43.8 percent from the floor a year ago. Laettner, meanwhile, has never been able to match his '97 All-Star form. Not exactly Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, are they? Meanwhile, you have no real center or point guard. Center Jahidi White is an undersized 6-foot-9 in the middle, and though he works hard, he can't hold Shaq's tighty whities. Same goes for point guard Chris Whitney, a career backup.
The bench is a wreck: Hubert Davis. Courtney Alexander. Tyrone Nesby. Loy Vaught. You'd better hope top draft pick Kwame Brown, the high schooler from Georgia, can play right away. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, Mike. After all, as president/GM, you're the one responsible for acquiring most of them. (Of course, in many cases, you were mainly just trying to get rid of other players; but that's another story). We won't say here that you can't meet your stated goal of leading this menagerie, which won only 19 games a year ago, to the playoffs. You were the Greatest Player Ever, and you did lead every one of your early awful Bulls teams to the postseason. Also, you've got an improvement at coach in Doug Collins, as well as the $4.5 million exception to spend on a low-post scoring threat, such as Anthony Mason or Chris Gatling. . All we're saying is that it's going to be nearly as impossible as trying to hit big league curveballs. An early prediction: The Wizards win 35 to 40 games -- if you stay healthy. But the Sixers, Bucks, Raptors, Magic, Hornets, Heat, Knicks and Pacers all look like playoff teams in the East. That means you're going to have to knock one of them out -- assuming you can first climb past the Celtics, Nets, Cavaliers and Pistons. Best of luck, MJ. You're going to need it.
Marty Burns covers pro basketball for CNNSI.com. Click here to send Marty a question or comment.
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