What went good

The Wizards have been a gun team in the NLL for quite a few seasons now. They are always in the mix come playoff time and always have a quality roster each season. That roster is the hard work of GM darko who is always exploring opportunities to improve that roster - 09/10 was no exception with the Wizards making 12 deals (from pre-season through to post-season) - who says OKC is the player turnstyle of the NLL? Washington isn't far behind.

But all the trades play their part and no one could say this team isn't well managed. The core of Chauncey Billups, Pau Gasol and Caron Butler have settled at Washington and proved to be the strength that took them all the way to the Eastern confernce finals. Unfortunately for the Wizards their dream of winning a NLL title once again fell short and it'll be back to the drawing board for next season.

The Wizards are a team that has a wealth of experience. Gasol and Billups are one of the better frontcourt-backcourt tandems in the league. And adding Caron Butler in the middle gives this team attacking options all over the court. The Wizards had to then fill in the pieces in between - Turkoglu spent half a season but was seemingly always on the outter until being traded for Nick Collison and Deltone West, who themselves seemed to fit into the Wizards rotation better, Collison having a great season and providing toughness up front to partner Gasol's finesse. Charlie Villanueva was also brought in mid-season, but his place in the team was a little hard to define - not really the PF they needed and not really a SF either. But none the less, the Wizards gelled all the pieces together to produce a strong run in the playoffs.

Missed it by that much

As the playoffs progressed, the Wizards' fans were probably scared to get too far ahead of themselves and think that they might finally taste NLL glory. They have not missed the playoffs for 5 consecutive seasons under darko's rule and they have always finished top of their divison, but they had never gone all the way, often being bundled out when raging favourites.

This time, coming in 4th seed probably took a little pressure off - maybe they work better as slight underdogs? They disposed of Cleveland and New Jersey easily to progress to the conference finals. But at that point they couldn't find the right matchup to trouble the 76ers. Maybe one more qaulity player up front may have made the difference. But whatever the reason, the Wizards fell at the penultimate hurdle and went home looking forward to the mirad of trades they could soon get into pre-draft.

Stars

- Pau Gasol, PF/C -

The heart and soul of the Wizards, Pau does most of their hard work up front. While he'd probably prefer to call himself a PF, Gasol has to get stuck in and do alot of the banging up front - and he does a fine job of it. Finishing the season with 22.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg and 2.3 bpg, Gasol had one of his best seasons in Washington.

- Caron Butler, SG/SF -

Most would probably consider Billups to be Washington's #2 guy right up there with Gasol. But Butler has proven to be a key to this team's recent success. He played predominantly at SG this season and presented all sorts of matchup problems for opponents. His scoring contribution was a team high 21.3 ppg making it a big 3 for Washington.

- Chauncey Billups, PG -

His numbers might be down a bit, but Billups is still the glue that makes all the peices that come and go in Washington stick. At the ripe old age of 34, Billups is still one of the premier PGs in the NLL. There are plenty of young guns nipping at his heals and the Wizards entertain the idea of trading him at times, but his value to the Wizards should not be under-estiamted.

Goats

Lets be honest, there aren't really any. And those that are don't stay long enough to eat the grass. Washington do very well on the trade market and rarely bring in players who need to contribute but don't.




Looking to the future

The dust had hardly settled on the Wizards' season when they turned their thoughts to changing their roster. Out went Deltone West, McDyess, Nick Collison, Wilcox and A.J. Price - in came a raft of draft picks (late 1sts and 2nds) - but also in came Ron Artest. He will add some valuable toughness to the Wizards and will be a contributor at both ends of the floor. A core of Gasol, Billups, Butler and Artest is a very solid base to work from. Unfortunately after that they currently only have Villanueva under contract, so there's some work to be done to fill the roster.

They have approx $3m in cap space - not much. They also have the MLE and BAE to use. They have a long list of late 1st and 2nd round rookies which they will be hoping to get some value from this season. But several of them probably won't see much time and will be stuck in the D-League, so there will be some work to be done either via free agency or, you guessed it, trades - Washington do like a trade.

Their primary need at this point is a solid big guy to put up front with Gasol. Its hard to say where they will get that from. Its believed Bulter and Villanueva maybe be shopped to try and bring in some more talent - Bulter's trade value is quite good, but Charlie lacks a real position and would need to find the right situation to be useful. Only Gasol has been said to be not available, but we'll see what pans out for Washington - you can bet there will be a move or 2 before the season starts.