<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">To be a contender you have to contend -- you need a realistic shot at winning. Heck -- the Warriors could make the NBA finals in the mediocre east -- but once they got there, they'd get swept like any other eastern team. winning the Eastern Conference championship and contending for an NBA Title are 2 vastly different things -- one can be done by a good but NOT great team, while the other takes the complete package at the right time, something Washington does not have IMO.</div> The Washington Wizards already are Eastern Conference contendors. We saw that when we were healthy in January. Just by adding a post scorer/defender won't make us a championship team, you're correct. However, if the Wizards do follow the developement of Arenas and Butler with a few tweaks on the roster for defensive purposes. I believe[/b] that the Wizards are heading in the correct direction.
<div class="quote_poster">GArenas Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Washington Wizards already are Eastern Conference contendors. We saw that when we were healthy in January. Just by adding a post scorer/defender won't make us a championship team, you're correct. However, if the Wizards do follow the developement of Arenas and Butler with a few tweaks on the roster for defensive purposes. I believe[/b] that the Wizards are heading in the correct direction.</div> I do agree -- I think the Wizards are indeed headed in the right direction, and Butler/Arenas/Jamison is a good 3. I just thought your argument was that Gilbert wouldn't leave the Wizards because, unlike the prior situation with GS, the Wizards are actually contenders. Where I disagree is that IMO the Wizards are not contenders yet, they're a decent team in a weak conference but it's not like they're ready to offer Gilbert a ring. If he was getting paid the same amount and he was on Dallas / Phoenix / Utah, etc. teams that are really on the verge of grabbing a ring, then I don't think he would be willing to leave. But if you think Gilbert is sentimental, I'd say think again. He had every Oakland fan wrapped around his finger; GS was the team that took a chance on him when no one else did. Not only did they believe in him by drafting him, they played him, and played him, and gave him the keys to the ferrari, and then offered to negotiate a hand-shake deal for a long-term ride. He says he would have stayed if only Chris Cohan would have "looked him in the eye and shook his hand on it." Who knows. Cohan might not have even been in the country. All we know is that he went to another HORRIBLE team to get paid, to get his mils. Now, he's coming out and saying he will opt out? Why say it a year early? Why let all your Washington fans know they better be on point because he just might leave them all out in the cold next year? Over dollars? hell yeah, over dollars. Gilbert wants to get paid like a scoring champ. That deal he signed a few years back? He doesn't think it's a good deal anymore. And if the Wiz don't ante up, he's gone, I'm sure. Again, if the Wiz were on the verge of a ring, then he might consider the "hometown" favortism. But I'll guarantee you he probably sees the Wizards just like he saw GS a few years back -- an okay team that he's willing to abandon for a bigger deal.
Of course money is an issue in this Gilbert Arenas situation however I believe that the scenario of the team he's entering will play a role in his decision. Luckily for the Wizards, championship teams like Dallas, Pheonix, and San Antonio can't afford to give Arenas the money he is asking for. I don't know how this is going to end but it's pointing as though it will be in the Wizards favor.
