Gilbert Arenas Re-Signs with Wizards, 6 years $111M

Part of it is PR. Arenas is popular because he's a character, and the Wiz were bad for so long that they're still just happy with making the playoffs around here, and they can't see that Arenas will never take a team to a championship as a #1 option.

Ernie Grunfeld couldn't just have let Arenas walk, no matter how much basketball sense it would have made; that would have been professional suicide. But the smartest thing for him to do would have been some kind of S&T where the Wiz could have gotten some real quality back instead of another season of empty stats. Unfortunately, there isn't really a market for those kinds of deals this year.

A few people did note how much better the Wiz played both on defense AND offense when Arenas went out. And if the Wiz get off to a bad start with a healthy Hibachi this year, the light may finally come on. Of course, by then it will be too late.

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Originally Posted by Kindergarten Cop

Would you use this same example with the Lakers and Andrew Bynum? I know that this isn't an "apples to apples" comparison, but the Lakers were able to get all the way to the Finals without him and now there is talk about him demanding a max contract coming off of knee surgery.

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:lmao. Yea man, ship his ass out!

"What can I do for my family with $127 million that I can't do with $111 million?


What a hero. :rolleyes In 3 years the stupid Wizards will be trying to get rid of this overpaid clown. They'll never get past the Celts, Cavs or Pistons because they don't give a shit about defense, especially Arenas. But I guess all they care about is ticket sales in D.C.

Congratulations Wizards...you just paid 111mil to continue in mediocrity. Have fun. :toast

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Originally Posted by TheMadHatter

:lmao. Yea man, ship his ass out!

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Where in my post did I say that (even though I believe those were the exact words of Kobe Bryant a little more than a year ago :lol )? I was referring to the fact that the Lakers are going to have to overpay to keep him and it appears that he is not the difference-maker for the Lakers, a luxury if you will. That's going to hurt the Lakers, having two max players on the payroll - one of them still unproven and coming off of knee surgery.

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Originally Posted by timvp

Sometimes it can be frustrating watching the Spurs front office operate, but moves like this put it in perspective. Trading away Scola for nothing really doesn't compare to this franchise suicide signing the Wizards are prepared to follow through with.

First of all, Arenas is coming off of two knee surgeries, one of which including microfracture surgery, and there's no guarantee he'll ever get back to 100%. But even at 100%, he's easily one of the most overrated players in the NBA. The Wizards are as good or better off without him. Give Arenas' touches to Caron Butler, use this $111M to surround Butler and Antawn Jamison with talent and the Wizards could have a chance. Arenas is the one-man stat whore who will never be a main player on a championship team.

Arenas is a pretty good writer but as a basketball player, he's hugely overvalued. A low percentage gunner who doesn't play defense or make teammates better? I just don't get how a team can kill itself by giving him this deal. They even got to see how Arenas being out made no difference last season. That was like the basketball gods giving the Wizards a free helping hand ... and they still are going to mess it up.

Amazing.

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it's very simple. Arenas sells tickets.

as overrated and overpaid you say he is(I agree) he has not lost anything in popularity. He is easily top 5 most popular and marketable players in the NBA. Wiz want to keep that.

Wiz stuck in mediocrity purgatory for 6 years. Good job.

Bear in mind that he's his own agent which means he doesn't have to give 6-10% of his annual salary to s/o else.

In addition his "discount" allows Whasington signing both the MLE and LLE without hitting the luxury tax.