Insider Special: "Will the Wiz use Jordan Wisely?"

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NBA position battles: Will the Wizards use Jordan wisely?

By Terry Brown

Wednesday, October 2 Updated 10:23 AM EST

Rule No. 1: Michael Jordan is always a starter.

Rule No. 2: When Michael Jordan doesn't start, refer to Rule No. 1.

Line them up, single file, last name first, by height, weight, age, hair color, whatever. Jordan with bum knees, tired legs, strep throat and a sore tooth was, is, will be better than Richard Hamilton, Courtney Alexander, Jerry Stackhouse, Larry Hughes and Bryon Russell.

Call them point guards, shooting guards, small forwards or swingmen.

On offense, defense or in transition.

Jordan starts.

Because before Jordan ever slipped on a Washington Wizard uniform and the team consisted of guys like Rod Strickland, Mitch Richmond and Juwan Howard, it won a grand total of 19 games, 29 the year before that and 18 the year before that. In the 18 seasons before Jordan became a starter in Washington (heck, a year before MJ was even a starter for the Chicago Bulls), the Wizards posted a total of only three winning records.

The question for the Wizards is not whether Jordan starts night in and night out at point guard, shooting guard, small forward or swingman averaging 30 plus minutes of competitive basketball, but whether Jordan plays night in and night out.

He's not coming off the bench, where he averaged an undignified 12.4 points per game as a substitute last season, and he's not playing 20 minutes a game like he did in the month of March of last year and putting up a paltry 14.2 points per game.

Refer to Rule No. 1.

Jordan will start and Jordan will play at least 30 minutes per game.

Jordan just shouldn't be playing every game.

When MJ started the season for the Wizards last season as the starting small forward, he averaged 26 points per game in November, 23 in December, 26.8 in January and 21 in February. Up until Feb. 24, 2002, Jordan was an all-star, playing in 53 of the team's 54 games up to that point and the Wizards were on the verge of making the playoffs.

After Feb. 24, 2002, Jordan played in only six of the team's 27 final games as the team fell to 37-45, only five games out of the playoffs and seven out of homecourt for the first round.

Jordan lasted 60 games last season, finally succumbing for good on April 2, 2002 against the Los Angeles Lakers. He scored a career-low two points on 1 of 5 shooting in 12 minutes of play, never entering the game in the second half due to that nagging knee injury. It was the 74th game of the season for the Wizards but their season was all but finished at that point despite having eight to play.

Let me say it one more time. Jordan lasted 60 games last season, 54 in the first three and a half months of the season and 6 in the last two and a half. None in the playoffs. One because of the other and so on.

You do the math.

The simple solution is to have Jordan spread out those 60 games throughout the season so that when the regular season ends, he will have something left for the, dare I say it, playoffs.

It's really rather easy.

All Jordan has to do is skip any game that falls on a back to back night. That means, if the Wizards have scheduled games on any Monday and Tuesday or Wednesday and Thursday or Saturday and Sunday, the MJ doesn't play on Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday. Period. Don't even let him suit up. Kick him off the plane. Revoke his pass into the arena. Stick a knife in his rear tire before he pulls out of his driveway.

And it just so happens that the Wizards are scheduled for one back-to-back game in October, four in November, four in December, three in January, one in February, three in March and two in April.

Which means Michael will have to play in only 10 regular-season games in November, 11 in December, 13 in January, 10 in February, 12 in March and seven in April, or about one every third day, for a total of 64 games on the year, spread out nicely with plenty of time for ice packs, hot baths and little league games with the kids.

Who cares? The Wizards were only 7-13 in back-to-back games, anyways.

And don't think for a second that Hughes, Stackhouse and Russell wouldn't mind the occasional spotlight. Once was a time that Hughes averaged 22.7 points per game, hanging 41 points on Kobe Bryant one night and exactly a month later dropping 44 points on Denver. Last year, he was a 12.3 point per game converted point guard, now playing for his third team in five seasons after the lowly Golden State Warriors decided his services were no longer needed.

Stackhouse once averaged 29.8 points per game all by his lonesome after complementing Allen Iverson with 20.7 points per game in 1997 and Grant Hill with 23.6 in 2000. Last year, he averaged 21.4 points per game as a converted all-star, totalling more assists and rebounds than he ever has before in his career as he led the Detroit Pistons to the Central Division crown. Thanks, but no thanks. He was traded before the next season could even start. Now, he, too, is playing for his third NBA team.

And make no mistake about it. It is Jordan's team.

The only reason you even know who Bryon Russell is rests in the fact that Jordan used him as backdrop for the game-winning shot of the 1998 NBA Finals Title game. Two years later, he was averaging 14.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in his finest season in the NBA. Two years after that, he was cut loose by the only team he had ever played for as a pro.

Point guard, shooting guard, small forward, swingman.

Substitute.

They all have something to prove that has nothing to do with points per game anymore. MJ included.

Pick your two to play alongside Jordan then pick your fights. It is an 82-game season in which the Wizards need to win at least 42 games with MJ giving them 64 of their best chances to do so.

Postseason validation awaits.

[Diesel]

I have a feeling, the Wiz will allow Jordan to rest in the midst of games and will play Russell in his place. Jordan may play about 30 mpg. Which should be good enough. They have a lot of talent and ability there in Washington.