The Washington Wizards lost half of their all-star-caliber backcourt when Larry Hughes left for Cleveland, but they still have the potential to compete for the Eastern Conference title this year.
No doubt Hughes's offensive scoring and defensive quickness will be missed in the Wizards' starting line-up. And you can't coach the chemistry that Arenas and Hughes created as backcourt teammates. But that will hardly matter when the 2005 Eastern Conference is won in the paint.
The conference is loaded with big men, like Miami's diesel Shaquille O'Neal, Detroit's lengthy Rasheed and Ben Wallace duo, Philadelphia's breakout Samuel Dalembert and Andre Iguodala tandem, Indiana's "fight me if you can" Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest, and Cleveland's all-star Zydrunas Ilaguskas. Each Eastern Conference team knows the key to wining conference basketball games starts with rebounding and interior defense.
Larry Brown calls this style "playing the right way," and the Pistons personified Brown's sentiment last season, allowing a near league-low opponent average of 89.5 points. No team in the East posted similar numbers, so it's no surprise they repeated as conference champions. But this year, the Wizards are one of the teams with the potential to change that.
The addition of 6-foot-7 shooting guard Caron Butler - usually good for six rebounds a night - next to Brendan Haywood and Antawn Jamison gives the Wizards the third best starting front courts in the conference behind Detroit and Miami. But the bench is a question mark.
Bench additions of Antonio Daniels, a healthy Jarvis Hayes, more experienced Jared Jefferies, and perimeter shooter Chucky Atkins could boost scoring, but at the expense of needed bench size. No Wizard bench players can score effectively in the paint. Power forward Kwame Brown, who at his best resembled a poor man's Dikembe Mutombo, is now with the Lakers. While tempermental, he is a big body with lots potential that the Wizards will miss. But Washington is right to get rid of a player that didn't produce.
Yet, remember when Grant Hill was traded for Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins in 2000? It seemed like a grave error for Detroit.
Wallace had potential, but not yet success as a NBA player. But he contributed to a modest Pistons team with modest names, and he developed. And eventually, he won a NBA championship, eliminating arguably the most dominant team of all time, the 2004 Los Angeles Lakers.
The Wizards are built in a similar way to that Pistons team. They are big, athletic and play a high-tempo defensive game.
Coach Eddie Jordan used a full-court press Tuesday night in their first preseason game against the Cleveland Cavaliers for most of the opening quarter, displaying his team's athleticism. The Wizards then turned seven Cavs turnovers into 17 points.
While Washington ultimately lost, 116-94, its starters dominated whenever they were on the floor.
Common sense says pick the Heat and the Pistons to come out of the East. But the Eastern Conference style is about more than big names and flashy scoring. It's a style that gets to the type of basketball purists love to see - full of defensive chemistry, rebounding and effort.
The Wizards proved last season they had some of those attributes. But their bench no bigger than it was then. With one big, solid, role-playing addition, the Wizards should challenge the Diesel and the Wallace brothers for the conference title.
