Washington Post<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Mark Bartelstein, the agent for Washington Wizards shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson, confirmed Tuesday that Stevenson will opt out of the final year of his contract. Stevenson was scheduled to earn just more than $1 million in the second year of the two-year contract he signed with the team last summer.</div>Link
This isn't good for the Wizards, he's a great defender and he also dosen't damand the ball a whole lot which is what the Wizards need with the big 3 putting 20 points up each all night, everynight.. so if I was them id look to get him back somehow.
He wasn't the best offensively, but wasn't he basically the only one that stayed constant for them last season? They should keep him, especially if they aren't planning on getting a 2-guard in the draft.
I don't really care if he leaves. I was big on this guy when he came to us last offseason, but now that I've actually seen him play, he's a terrible finisher at the basket and poor ball-handler. He also sucked big balls in the playoffs, one of the guys who was expected to step up after Gil & Caron went down. He doesn't play well without the Big 3, and I think mainly Gilbert Arenas inflated his stats here in Washington. Without them, he's really a scrub. Derrick Byars or Morris Almond would be better than Stevenson right off the bat starting at SG.
That logic doesn't make sense to me. He wasn't able to become a #2 scorer in the playoffs after 2 All Stars got hurt. That puts him on a LONG list with most other NBA players who couldn't do it either. That doesn't make them scrubs, it makes them role players. Its this kind of logic that get Tim Thomas a huge deal after one good month. It also guarantees the team who gave it to him will regret it FAST. Part of the reason he faltered in the playoffs was because of the energy and minutes he put in down the stretch with Caron and then Gilbert hurt. He went from getting anywhere from 25-30 minutes to playing 35+ and topping 40 multiple times in March. He had nothing left in the tank for the playoffs and it showed. Thats why it was so important for us to get a bench scorer.Deshawn is a glue player. He and Caron play solid D on opposing wings. Thats something we haven't seen a lot of. He was also one of the few guys that created shots for others. Of course his stats are pumped by playing with Gilbert in this system. So were Larry Hughes'. The difference is we aren't going to pay Deshawn 12 million to score 14 points. We're gonna pay him 4+ to score 12ish. Thats what players of his production level get paid. He'll wind up being a bargain again. And at 26, it won't kill us to have him coming off the bench is Young surpasses him in a year or so. He's exactly the kind of player that teams need supporting their All Stars. The difference is most teams have to overpay to get thees guys, like Brent Barry getting the entire MLE.
