I love this offseason. GS offer max to Arenas!

[mrhonline]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/

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Gilbert Arenas will soon board a flight to Toronto and then China for a promotional trip he's doing for Adidas. When he lands later today, Arenas is scheduled to have a phone conversation with Wizards' owner Abe Pollin. The subject will be Washington's offer of a lucrative longterm contract.

As I first reported early this morning via the blog, the Wizards offered Arenas a maximum level contract, one that would pay the three-time all-star around $124 million over six years. According to my sources, the offer came shortly after the Golden State Warriors aggressively jumped out and offered Arenas a five-year deal worth just over $100.

The Warriors, who drafted Arenas in the second round in 2001 and lost him when the Wizards signed him to $65 million deal in 2003, had the cash available after Baron Davis surprisingly opted out of the final year of his contract.

Getting Arenas back would be a huge move for the Warriors because he remains a popular player in the Bay Area. When the Wizards play in Oakland each season, it's interesting that many Warriors fans can still be seen wearing Arenas jerseys (they still love Antawn Jamison as well).

The word on the street is that Davis, a Los Angeles native, has a deal in place with the Clippers where he would join forces with Elton Brand.

I think Arenas will stay, but if he jumped ship, wow...The Wizards would only have $5-$8M cap wiggle room because of Jamison's extension. They would be screwed.

[Admin]

Wow talk about an interesting twist. If I were Jamison (or the Wizards) I would be seriously pissed if Arenas bolted after all that talk of wanting the Wizards to step up and sign Jamison before he would agree to come back. The Wizards did right and signed Jamison and are now offering a max deal to Arenas. If Arenas blows them off I would lose a lot of respect for them.

[AnakinJoe]

If I'm the Wizards, I'd have to seriously consider letting Arenas walk and going aggressively after Monta Ellis. The Wizards actually had a much more balanced attack when Arenas was gone. Caron Butler really blossomed and the team was able to play slightly better than average defense. Ellis is a comparable player to Arenas but would likely not be the ball hog that Gilbert has become. This should be fun watching the chess match play out.

Oh and I can't believe that 2 teams are offering over $100M to a player who is coming off a season-ending injury. Obviously, they must know for certain that Gilbert hasn't lost any of his quickness from last season's injury.

[crimedog]

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If I'm the Wizards, I'd have to seriously consider letting Arenas walk and going aggressively after Monta Ellis. The Wizards actually had a much more balanced attack when Arenas was gone. Caron Butler really blossomed and the team was able to play slightly better than average defense. Ellis is a comparable player to Arenas but would likely not be the ball hog that Gilbert has become. This should be fun watching the chess match play out.

Oh and I can't believe that

2

teams are offering over $100M to a player who is coming off a season-ending injury. Obviously, they must know for certain that Gilbert hasn't lost any of his quickness from last season's injury.

Leaving out any talk of money.

I agree that Arenas' numbers don't add as much basketball value to the Wiz as you'd expect but he is more of point guard than Ellis.

[capstone21]

monte is not a good pg. He is a undersized sg a lot like L. Barbosa (without the 3 point shot). He does not really have the ability to run the offense so I don't see him getting the big bucks he is going to want.

[skyhawk]

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Oh and I can't believe that

2

teams are offering over $100M to a player who is coming off a season-ending injury. Obviously, they must know for certain that Gilbert hasn't lost any of his quickness from last season's injury.

Yeah, I can't believe that either. I like Arenas but he's not a $100m player even when completely healthy and didn't have any injury concerns. Sure, losing Baron would hurt the Warriors especially since Ellis is not a true PG but $100m dollars for Agent Zero? No way.

[Diesel]

If GS did max out GA.. then we ought to see about Monta Ellis!

[jezmund]

I'd consider Marvin for Ellis in a Sign-and-trade.

Have a 3 guard rotation of Ellis/Law/JJ. Move Bibby to the west for some expiring vet bigs and maybe a shooter or draftpick.