<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I'm not sure I can help the Bulls anymore, at least until they play better. You don't sell stock at the bottom (though that's what we kept saying when Tribune Co. was public and its stock kept dropping). Hey, if I were smarter about investments, I wouldn't be around to give general managers all these great trade proposals. They'd be on their own. What is intriguing is the success of the Washington Wizards, whom we all assumed would fold without Gilbert Arenas. On the contrary, they've come together as a team, defending and sharing the ball. The knee-jerk reaction is to say they're better without Arenas. There is something to that, but you are never better without an All-Star. The issue is the subtleties of the game, a team game. Arenas is a wonderful talent, but he has two major flaws. One, he is widely considered perhaps the poorest defensive guard in the league, someone who dives so far under screens he isn't close to guarding the pick-and-roll. Perhaps it's just coincidence the Wizards are giving up almost 10 fewer points per game than last season. Two, Arenas is a world-class jacker. He averaged about two fewer shots per game than Kobe Bryant last season. Arenas is a great talent who'll make big shots and energize a crowd, a star who can carry a team through soft spots with individual brilliance and, of course, an outsized personality. But he stops the ball with his dribbling and his shooting takes others out of the offense. With the way the Wizards have played, what an opportunity to cash in Arenas for something good. If I were Ernie Grunfeld, I'd make a run at the Clippers' Elton Brand, like Arenas out with an injury but also due back this season. Brand has one year left on his contract. It's questionable whether he'd stay after that, especially with the low-post development of Chris Kaman. Brand is from Duke and often works out in Washington in the summer. He has talked on occasion about going back east. Plus, it seems like a bad time for the Clippers again. Last week, owner Donald Sterling told the Los Angeles Times, "I'm not happy. The fans aren't happy and can't be happy when they don't see a motivated performance. I want to make L.A. fans proud of this team, but if [Clippers GM Elgin Baylor and coach Mike Dunleavy] can't make it happen, then I have no choice but to make changes." This was bad form, but nothing compared with Dunleavy, who basically threw the entire organization under the bus after being rewarded with a huge extension last summer. With his ego challenging George Clooney's, Dunleavy said if Sterling wanted to fire him, "Be my guest. It would be the biggest mistake you ever made. … You can find any coach you want, bring him in here and run the situation. But I don't think they are going to do as good a job as I do." Then Dunleavy lied to the media about speaking to Sterling and patching it up. They didn't speak. Wow! Anyway, I'm here to help. Sterling long has courted a star to match the Lakers. Arenas could be the one. He's from Los Angeles and may be the league's biggest personality, even when not playing. He's eccentric and iconoclastic. And he can score 30 a game. With a center like Kaman and some of their pieces, the Clippers could have a show to match the Lakers. The Wizards add a player to make salaries match—maybe the soon-to-return Etan Thomas so Brendan Haywood doesn't punch him again—and Brand could be that low-post presence the Wizards miss and few in the East have.</div> Source: Chicago Sports
