What Will the Wizards Do?

Now that Ted Leonsis is the Owner of the Washington Wizards what should we expect from this team? Especially now that they have the #1 pick in the 2010 draft. The Wizards have won the John Wall sweepstakes, but does it make sense to draft him? I’ll get back to that question in a minute. Leonsis bought the Capitals back in 1999 and the team was not that bad. He brought in super stars like Jagr and Robert Lang and had stars like Peter Bondra and Sergei Gonchar on the team. The problem was they never made it far enough. So during the strike year in 2004 Leonsis and his GM George McPhee blew up the team and started building around the young stars like Alexander Semin and Alex Ovechkin (the teams #1 draft pick in 2004). Ovechkin was the centerpiece and nobody is going to argue that, but the players drafted by the capitals from 2002 until the present also include, Fehr, Schultz, Green, Varlomov, Alzner, Backstrom, and Carlson. All of these players have played major roles in getting the Capitals to where they are now as a team. A team that won the most games of any team in the NHL this season. A team that should be playing for the Eastern Conference Championship right now, still a little bitter. What many Capitals fans may not remember though is that it took 3 years before Leonsis and McPhee built the team that has won the South East Division the last 3 years. So the question is will Leonsis build a championship caliber team out of the draft or will he take the number 1 pick this year and sign somebody in free agency and try to make a run at the playoffs.

Building around the number 1 pick and trying to unload Gilbert Arenas seems like the most likely option. If this is the case I think the Wizards should take John Wall with their pick and build around him. Then hope they can get somebody later in the draft or trade Gilbert for more draft picks. If the Wizards can get two guys out of this draft they could be in a similar situation to Chicago with Rose and Noah. I think it would be a better position because Wall has more upside to Rose. The good news is the Wizards could maybe make a run at the playoffs, but to be honest it would be better if they ended up in the lottery again so they could get another top tier player. The hope is the Wizards do not succeed too fast so that they can build that team. Although if they do, Leonsis has shown that he will spend money on the right veteran players. If this is the way the Wizards go about building a team the Wizards will be Wall’s team, not Gilbert’s.

As I said the other option is the Wizards take Wall or maybe Evan Turner with the first pick. This will depend on how long the Wizards really want to hold on to Gilbert Arenas. Either way Arenas is on this team for another year or two so why not take Wall or Turner and add someone like Chris Bosh and be competitive for a year. Now why would Bosh come to Washington to play? So he doesn’t have to play in Canada anymore where his team is less important than the high school hockey teams. The other hurdle with Bosh is giving him a tempting enough offer to keep him from following Bron-Bron to Chicago, New York, New Jersey or LA. However if Bosh doesn’t want to play in the Nation’s Capitol the Wizards could go after Amar’e Staudemire. Staudemire has found his game from four years ago over the past few months of the season and has been healthy for the first time in those same 4 years. The problem is I don’t see building a team right away as an option unless they get rid of Arenas. The contract Arenas has is worth too much money and the team has to get out from under it before they can spend on a big time free agent.

I still think John Wall is the way to go with the first pick because Gilbert is going to be gone as soon as the team can unload him. One thing I know with Ted Leonsis owning the Wizards now this team will be fun to watch over the next few years.

Oh and cant you see everyone doing the John Wall Dance in DC? Brammer?