I know I've already talked about Gilbert Arenas' future with the Wizards, but a lot has changed in the past two and a half months since that last blog post. Specifically, the Wizards got the 1st pick in the NBA draft, aka John Wall. With Wall, also a point guard, set to join the team, some critics are now saying that Arenas is expendable and should be traded as soon as possible. Now, let's just pretend that Gilbert Arenas is no longer a useful player for the Wizards and is in fact a used up husk, which I would like to emphasize is not true at all. Going down this line of thinking, lets say the Wizards shopped around for a player to trade Gilbert Arenas for.
Numerous sources are saying that with his huge contract, legal trouble, and the vast amount of time he's missed over the past three years, the best the Wizards would be able to get for him would be to swap him for someone like Eddy Curry or Hedo Turkoglu, both of whom have very bad contracts. Now, no one can argue that this would be a good trade. The Wizards would essentially be trading Arenas for nothing. So why not just keep Arenas for now and wait until at least the trade deadline next year for a better deal? Playing Arenas next year will result in his trade value going up dramatically as people realize that this guy can still play pretty well. Even if you are one of those guys who thinks Arenas stinks now, you can't argue that he'd hurt his trade value by playing next year. So instead of getting an Eddy Curry for Arenas, you could be getting a high draft pick or a Carlos Boozer. Doesn't this make sense?
Other people are saying that since the Wizards wouldn't be able to get anyone worthwhile in a trade, they should buy out Gilbert Arenas' contract now and let him become a free agent. They say he needs to go now because the Wizards need to start rebuilding as soon as possible and can't wait until next year to get rid of him. The thing is though, building a championship team takes time. It's not going to be done in 1-2 years. So what's the problem of delaying by a couple of months? It's more important to get it right than to do it fast. Besides, getting rid of Arenas wouldn't even speed up the team's rebuilding at all because the only thing his leaving would free up is more money, which they have plenty of already. In addition, to buy out Arenas the team would have to pay him the $80 million he's still owed to essentially go away. $80 million is a lot of money. People (even rich owners) don't just have that kind of money laying around. If Ted Leonsis wasted $80 million on Arenas then he would have lot less money to do more important stuff, like signing free agents to help the team out or buying another draft pick. Luckily, Leonsis has already stated firmly that there's no way he's buying out Arenas' contract.
The most ludicrous reason that people are saying Arenas should be shipped out for is that he is a cancer who cannot be allowed to interact with John Wall, as he would corrupt Wall and turn him to the dark side. Lets get this straight- Arenas is not a thug or a Sith lord. He's stupid and immature, yes, but not a cancer. This is the guy who wakes up at 2 AM to go to the gym to shoot hoops. He dribbles a basketball as he's walking in his house. He sleeps with his basketball. He doesn't go out to clubs and bars, instead staying at his hotel to watch infomercials (no joke- Arenas actually claimed he does this in an interview, although some claim he made it up). Arenas would not corrupt Wall. Just because he's immature doesn't mean that Wall should be kept as far from him as possible. I'd also venture that this whole gun situation has caused Arenas to realize that he needs to get his act together and that we will see a changed Gilbert Arenas next year.
The point is, even if you look at Arenas as an over-the-hill bad contract, there is absolutely no reason to trade him right now. So can any of you think of a reason he should be traded this summer? Comments would be appreciated.
