NorthEast Wiz

I think BCH is right and that it will be quiet on the news front for a while. Let's start a poll to keep the juices flowing. How many wins this year? Here are the teams in the East and whether I think they have gotten better, worse or a push (I know there is a ton of free agents):

Atlanta - Added Dan Dickau, lost Jacque Vaughn - PUSH
Boston - Added JR Bremer, Bruno Sundov with lots of free agents - PUSH
Chicago - Added Jay Williams, lots of free agents - BETTER
Cleveland - Added Dajuan Wagner, Nick Anderson, lost Wesley Person - PUSH
Detroit - Added Chauncey Billups - BETTER
Indiana - Added Fred Jones, lost Bruno Sundov - WORSE
Miami - Added Coran Butler, lost Chris Gatling - BETTER
Milwaukee - Added Marcus Haislip - PUSH
N.J. Nets - PUSH
NO - added Courtney Alexander - BETTER
NYK - added Antonio McDyess - BETTER
Orlando - Added Olumide Oyedeji, Jacque Vaughn, Grant Hill - lost Ewing BETTER
PHI - Added Mark Bryant, Sam Clancy, Efthimios Rentzias, John Salmons, lost Speedy Claxton - WORSE
TOR - added Lindsey Hunter, lost Tracy Murray - BETTER
WAS - added Juan Dixon, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries BETTER

I know there are a ton of free agents out there but let's this is where we are. Also assume a healthy Jordan for this year. You can also give your number with Jordan out.

Here is mine:

With Jordan - 44
Without Jordan - 33

BCH

Tough call. I need to look at the other teams a little more before I make my prediction. You have a lot of teams getting better and I want to gauge how good they did get before I amke a prediciton.

I will give my gut feeling right now as
43 win with MJ
34 wins without MJ

We are still a couple years away.

NorthEast Wiz

I got most of my information from:

http://www.hoopshype.com/market_center.htm

There you can see the list of free agents per team.

spartanfan2003

With MJ - 38
Without MJ - 13

jazzy1

Good post Northeast, well I think everything is coming along pretty nicely we will surprise a little this year,

with MJ - 45 wins with the new players were going to be better and more athletic than last year and even if MJ is completely healthy or plays a significantly lesser role we will be solidlly in the mix all year, there won't be as big a drop off as last year when Jordan isn't in the game we will be improved.

without MJ- 30 wins will be a good year I see some of the same things plaguing us again but not as bad we'll only win 30 or so without MJ mainly because we can't replace the scoring but we'll be in most every game we play , Rip will hyave a really good year and JJ ,Kwame and Etan could really emerge more likely Etan and jj and dixon will be solid, Kwame will be much improved but still at least 2 years away from becoming a star,

Knicks -Push Mcdyess won't stay healthy
Magic-push GHill won't stay healthy
Celtics-Better more confidence especially if they get Baker
Nets-worse sliightly teams will gun for them and kidd will be dogged by FA questions.
Heat- push Butler an upgrade but Mourning and Grant don't play well together
raptors-Better Vince healthy will return them back to year before's form,
sixers-worse to old to many injuries to many iverson questions
bucks-better will rebound from last years debacle too much talent their
pacers-Isiah will lose job,young guys will complain about pt miller will criticize young guys.
Hornets- better Alexander will really help them\
cavs- Worse because they want to be worse
Bulls- much better, young guys mature more and williams will be solid
Hawks-worse Shareef is a fraud franchise player bad chemistry with Terry, has talent but bad mix
Detroit-better Billups, Okur and White will help this year become deeper
Wiz -better Mj knows what to expect young talent added, young guys mature

Crossword

I'd have to say with MJ - 44 wins
With MJ playing 60 games - 32 wins
Without MJ - 26 wins

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BCH

I think the Wizards have vastly improved this offseason and guys like Haywood, Thomas, and Brown could have only gotten better.

The addition of size in Hughes as well as the additions of Dixon, Jeffries, and Grizzard, can only benefit the team.

Courtney contributed nothing last year that led to any victories.

Not having Popeye may hurt if we don't resign him, but Laettner started playing well last year right before he broke his leg, and if he has a decent year, we should be okay.

I do not see us being worse than last year if MJ does play. And I think 9 games is the max impact you will see a 6th man contribute in terms of wins and losses, by his playing time.

It has been a while since the Wizards had coaching consistency. I believe that it is going to help a lot. Collins has shown in the past that he improves teams over the first 3 or 4 years of his tenure.

mjisback

Small disagreement about CA - he did lead the Wizards to 1 victory last year. His game against Orlando, where CA went head to head with T-Mac and we won the game in overtime.

Other than that game, I agree - CA was a non-factor in the number of Wins the Wizards got last year.

Coaching consistency and team cohesion is a big factor in how well the Wizards do this year. I do not expect another double digit losing streak this year coming out of the gate. If MJ doesn't play, I'd say we have a high 20's to low 30's win season. With MJ (and healthy), I think we can win 45-50 games easy.

erickboy22

Just want to leave my input on this topic ... i think that mj is going to play this year as the 6th man and the wiz will win 45 games and make the playoffs.

We are going to see a very athletic team and fun team to watch