Posts tagged AntawnJamison at FanHouse

If Gilbert Arenas' continued medical issues with his knee weren't worrisome enough, losing Brendan Haywood for four to six months because of that pesky wrist injury he suffered in practice this week. The Washington Post's Ivan Carter reports that Haywood needs surgery to repair a torn wrist ligament; the recovery period will keep him out until at least February, and possibly the entire season. Meanwhile, Antawn Jamison has an injury that keeps most players out two months; Jamison, however, says he will be ready for opening night.

Haywood was a huge, undersung cause for Washington's improvement last season. Perhaps being unshackled from constant battle with Etan Thomas allowed the ease of mind to finally perform well. Maybe Haywood finally got it. Some would argue Haywood had a fluke year, and would have come crashing back down to Earth in '08-09. Whatever the case, we aren't going to find out.

It appears Thomas will get the starting nod, though Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee figure as options, according to the Post's Carter. Is it an opportunity for the Wizards to see what they have in the youth corps? Sure, but it's also enough to suggest Washington won't be making the playoffs this season unless someone unexpected comes through in a major, major way.

Okay, so basically, we're going to take this one in two strides. First, we'll do the half-full version for any Wizards fans who might be reading as to not send them airborne, and then we'll do the half-empty version for the sadists among us.

Fresh off finding out that Gilbert Arenas had more surgery and won't be back for a while, the Wizards headed toward their first preseason game with the same "us-against-the-world" attitude that got them to the fifth seed last year without Arenas. Then center Brendan Haywood sprained his wrist in practice. No problem, there's a good chance he'll be back in a few weeks. And now, not five minutes into their first preseason game, Antawn Jamison hits the deck with what is being described as a strained knee.

Luckily, there's a good chance neither injury will be serious. Barring any severe second opinions or terrible MRI results, both players should be back within the month.

Okay, Wizards fans, that's all you need to hear, you can head back to whatever you were doing before. Drive safely.

...

I know, I know, "Impossible!" you cry. Sadly, it's true. Gilbert Arenas is going to miss up to a month of the regular season after minor surgery on his bionic frequently repaired knee.

The Washington Post reports Arenas had minor surgery this morning that "cleaned out some debris" from his knee and will be out until December. Arenas told reporters that he had planned all along on not participating in training camp or the preseason.

Well isn't that nice to know. In the words of Adam Sandler from The Wedding Singer, "Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention yesterday!" Don't you think it would have been nice to know if Arenas was going to ditch training camp and preseason before he went and re-signed for the 6-year, $111 million deal that was supposed to finally assure the reunion of Arenas, fellow re-signee Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler for a whole year? It's entirely possible that the Wizards were aware of this situation beforehand, but from the sound of the article, it doesn't seem like it. Arenas said it was slowing him down, so they decided to go ahead and do the surgery. He also mentions that he thinks it's a good thing.

"This should actually allow me to come back faster" he said. Well that's awesome. Oh, well. Wizards fans have gotten used to paying Arenas without actually having him play. And $111 million buys a ton of physical therapy. And a pool.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

For a Tar Heel, an old college superstar with a made-for-TV game, Antawn Jamison sure doesn't get much pub these days. It's all Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler ... which is understandable; Gil and Caron are more important, younger, a bit more boisterous and quirky. But it relegates 'Tawn outside the mainstream consciousness to an unfair degree, because this dude's a fine, fine player.

It has been a bit of a recurring thread since Washington extended both Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas, the idea that Washington has assured it will remain a mediocre, 44-win team for the next five years by capping out with this roster. Via Bullets Forever, ESPN's Chad Ford is the latest to tie D.C. to the middle of the pack. Fans have also been guilty of the thought.

I don't buy it: the Wizards should soon be better than average. Last year, with Gil missing most of the season, the team rallied its defense, Caron Butler went All-Star, and the team won 43 games. I don't need to tell you Arenas is vastly more productive than his noble replacement, Antonio Daniels. Healthy, Arenas is one of the best offensive players in the league, hitting a ton of threes and getting to the line often. Washington had the #12 offense in Gil's stead -- with Gil in 2006-07, it was #3.

If the Wizards can keep a modicum of defense in tact (the defense, though improved, was still modest last year), the team could easily see its offense carry it to 47-50 wins. That's not elite, but it's good. The Wiz could use more physical, defensive-minded help in the frontcourt, and improvement from Nick Young to boost the guard corps. Washington's hardly so capped out it can't make some moves to bolster its chances. It'd be a huge jump to contender status -- and yeah, that's the goal -- but it isn't like this team will be something awful the rest of the decade. The parts are there, it's just all got to come together.

Antawn Jamison, Washington Wizards fan and bloggers everywhere can breathe easy: Gilbert Arenas has agreed to ink a lower-than-max deal which will reportedly pay him $111 million over six years.

Arenas told the Washington Times and Washington Post that he was offered a maximum deal in the neighborhood of $127 million on Tuesday, the first day of the free agency period.

"(The Wizards) offered me the max, and I'm basically giving back $16 million," Arenas told the Washington Times from China, where [he] is traveling as part of promotional tour for a shoe company. "This is in line with what I've been saying the whole time. You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don't wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can't do anything about it."

Jamison was putting the screws on Arenas to resign, Wizards fans were worried they would be mediocre and fail to entertain, and well, we bloggers just like Hibachi hanging out in the capitol. It makes for good news.

Arenas had two separate max deals on the table from the Wizards and the Warriors, but no one really thought he was going to do anything other than sign again with Washington.

Agent Zero also noted that he took less than the max, and that is true. So kudos to him, but remember, Jamison did the same thing so Gil could get paid, and without any additional cap space, this is a second round team. In other words, not taking the max actually benefits Arenas in the long run as well.

Gilbert Arenas is quite arguably the top free agent option heading into the 2008-09 season. It has been assumed that once Antawn Jamison inked a new deal -- and Gil said as much himself -- that Arenas would sign on as well.

But things got a little more complicated Monday night/Tuesday morning as Baron Davis opted out, and the Warriors, in response, allegedly offered Agent Zero a max deal.

Then, according to my sources, the Warriors quickly burned the phones and offered former Warrior Gilbert Arenas a maximum-level contract, one that would pay him more than $100 million over five years. My source told me that Gilbert received a flurry of phone calls from the Warriors in the first 30 minutes of free agency.

After Gilbert drove to the Verizon Center for a late night workout and a meeting with Ernie Grunfeld, the Wizards came strong with an offer of a maximum contract that covers six years for over $124 million (Not sure whether they knew about the Golden State offer or not. I hear they didn't. Ernie came strong but also laid it out for Gilbert that if he asked for the maximum, the team would be in a tough spot.)

As Ivan at the WaPo noted, Arenas is more inclined, according to sources, to take the Wizards deal. He has also, however, been approached by Sacramento with a "whatever it takes" credo.

Odds are good that he ends up returning to Washington, especially if the money is similar. On the other hand though, there are few spots in the NBA that would fully utilize his talents (some passing, mostly free reign to jack threes) more than Golden State. Actually, check that: the Warriors would be the perfect place to utilize Gil's talents. So, yes, there's some mulling going on here.

Antawn Jamison did his part to keep the current core of Washington Wizards players together for next season, signing a four year, $50 million deal with his current team. There is no huge surprise here (except for how freaking much they are giving the former Tarheel) and now we all wait with semi-baited breath to find out what Gilbert Arenas will do. And yes, I do include Jamison in "we".

"He said he'd take less money if he got me, and they got me," Jamison said. "So I think everything will get worked out with Gilbert."

[...]"There wasn't any doubt in my mind that I'd be back," said Jamison, 32, who has been a strong locker room leader during his four seasons with the Wizards.

[...]"Once he heard that I had reached a deal, he congratulated me," said Jamison, repeating a text message conversation he had with Arenas. "And I said 'I can't wait to congratulate you tomorrow."'

I get the impression from Jamison's response that if Agent Zero played games about signing on, then Antawn would probably throw a tremendous hissy, or at the very least, exert his influence on Gil, whatever that may be, to make sure the Wizards locked him up.

After a great amount of discussion about Gilbert Arenas and his contract status, Agent Zero has gone ahead and pulled the trigger. According to Arenas, in a Washington Post article, he filed to opt out of the final year of his contract with the Washington Wizards on Friday and will test the free agent market.

Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld has stated numerous times that the team plans to resign both Arenas and Antawn Jamison, and Arenas has stated that resigning Jamison is a requirement for his return to DC. With Arenas going and ahead and opting out, according to him to "get it out of the way," the Wizards are going to be doling out some cash this summer.

Particularly interesting is the fact that Arenas is going through this process without an agent. Take a second and imagine what those conversations must be like. With Gilbert Arenas untethered, it's entirely possible his contract demands could include a flamethrower or something.

Even though Wizards' superstar Gilbert Arenas has spent most of the last year not playing basketball because of a knee injury, he still plans to opt out of the final year of his contract in hopes of signing a bigger one. Teams can't begin signing free agents in the NBA until July 1, and Gilbert has no intentions of filing his paperwork until June 30. When asked why exactly this is his strategy, Gilbert only responded by saying "I just want to wait."

It's worth mentioning once again that the quirky Arenas is going to handle this contract negotiation all by himself, without the help of an agent. This might have seemed like a fine idea when Gilbert was looking to sign a max deal with the team, because, well, you don't really need an agent to negotiate a max deal. But Gilbert has hinted recently that he'd be willing to take less money to stay in Washington as long as the team resigned Antawn Jamison.

Whether this is a gracious move to help the team or one to save himself a little face in case his recent injuries make the club think twice about offering him max money is irrelevant. The fact is, there's a reason agents exist: negotiating dollars and years with your team can be a little tricky, and it allows the player to not look like the bad guy if things get heated at the bargaining table. It'll be interesting to see whether Gilbert gets his max deal or settles for something smaller, but either way don't expect him to opt out until the last possible moment.