<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The NBA announced today that Wizards Head Coach Eddie Jordan was named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month and Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for December. This marks the first career monthly honors for both Jordan and Arenas. “This was a complete team effort,” said Jordan. “We had a very good month, which was highlighted by our West Coast swing. We competed successfully against some of the better teams in the NBA, and had some outstanding individual performances from our guys.” “I appreciate the honor from the NBA,” said Arenas. “December was an outstanding month for our team. We played extremely well and won some big road games. We were able to move into first place and create some excitement and momentum heading into the New Year.” </div> Link Congrats to both men.
Well at least it's starting to show and by that I mean the recognition of Gilbert Arenas by the NBA, hopefully this will in turn help Gil get his third consecutive trip to the All-Star Game, and this time without having to have another All-Star be injured. Also although the Wiz Kids did have a good month in December the true question is if they can continue their play at the level of a true Eastern Confrence challenger that all Wizards fans knew they had the talent of being.
There's no question that their high production on offense will continue, but what has hurt us was allowing way too many points on the other end. We've let some guys have highlight nights and take over like Yao, Boykins and Patterson did last month, topping off giving up 100 points in the last 8 games. Eddie Jordan mentioned recently how they're just working and trying to improve by working on the basics (defending pick and roll, protecting paint, etc). They know how important their lack of defense is hurting them, so they'll do everything they can to turn it around.
Eddie Jordan truly isn't a coach of the month worthy guy because his coaching leaves a lot to be desired, but he has shown some improvement lately, and when your team wins a lot, and also ends the streaks of good teams, you have to get rewarded. Arenas seems to be the new favourite target of all the writers because of how he responds to everything, it's interesting.
