Well, the first post-Rashard era sure went well, huh? Hello, and welcome to the DC Wizards' 2011 Preseason Presser. Let's start by taking a quick look back.
The Wizards' forecast for the past season
The Wizards' weather forecaster for the past season
This pretty much sums up our season last year. Despite a few early moments of hope, things eventualy regressed to the mean, and a few injuries made sure that we'd never get back into our early-season groove. It had become clear that despite our hopes, the team had run its course, and with extremely limited cap space, it wasn't going to get any better. It was time.A visual representation of our plans for the roster
Zaza, an upcoming unrestricted free agent, was the first to go, being dealt to the Hornets for a bag of chips. Then, Danny Granger was sent to the Kings after a lengthy series of talks between our two organizations. In return, we ended up with James Johnson, Tyreke Evans, Reggie Evans, and two draft picks, one each in 2011 and 2012. Unfortunately we had to give up our own 2011 pick, a risky move given our position in the standings, but we felt that the positive of acquring a rising young star in Tyreke outweighed the negative of losing our first. And not too long after we completed the deal, our risk paid off unexpectedly when we were able to use our newly-gained cap space and future pick to acquire NBA Champion Ersan Ilyasova, a player we've admired from afar for a long time. A similar situation emerged this offseason, when we were able to use the draft pick gained from trading Carl Landry to Boston during Free Agency to bring Gerald Green back to DC. Brandon Roy was also shipped to New Orleans in the deal. We really want to thank Zaza, Carl, and Danny for the time they spent here, and dearly wish things would've gone better. Oh, and Gilbert Arenas was traded to Denver for a couple of second rounders. That also happened.The reason why Arenas wanted to go back to Denver
Now on to the good stuff. Thanks to the mass exodus of talent, we found ourselves with more cap space than we've had in years, and we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it - aggressively go after young talent to team with JaVale, Tyreke, and Ersan. That strategy paid off when Wilson Chandler and Thaddeus Young, as well as Gerald Henderson, decided to sign with us. Training camp came, and just about everybody came in and put in work to get better.The "about" in "just about"
To be totally honest, spirits haven't been this high for the Wiz in a long time. I know from the outside looking in things don't look quite so rosy, but I can tell you, we feel great about our future. We have the youth, the talent, and most importantly, the cap space. Sooner or later, we'll be back in the playoff mix. Count on it.
