Three years ago, Gilbert Arenas was playing as well as anyone in the NBA. Though never rewarded as an MVP, he was on the short list of best players in the NBA and an NBA All-Star. Injuries and knee surgery derailed his surging career.

But new Washington Wizards coach, Flip Saunders, seems to think Arenas is back to full strength. Read his comments, as reported by Yahoo! Sports:

I don’t see any difference as far as the things that he does now that he was doing three years ago, when he was one of the MVP candidates

That is a scary proposition for the rest of the NBA East, even if you consider that the Wizards were embarrassing last year.After Eddie Jordan was fired 11 games into the season, injuries & inconsistent play sent this team spiraling to the bottom-depths of the NBA. But in the last 6 months, the Wizards have significantly upgraded a roster that produced a franchise-low 19 wins last season. Some of it has to do with players returning from injuries — notably Arenas but DeShawn Stevenson & Brendan Haywood were injured much of last season also.

When you factor in a lineup that includes three former NBA All-Stars — Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison — and solid NBA players like Fabricio Oberto, Mike Miller, and Randy Foye, I think this team should be disappointed if they don’t win 45 games. If the Wizards stay healthy (a big IF with this franchise), I could see them challenging for the 4th spot in the NBA East.

Flip Saunders has said he is scrapping the Princeton offense and opening up the offense. This is only good news for Arenas. Expect this athletic team to run more and score in transition. If they can get some defensive presence from Haywood & Andre Blatche, I think they will make some noise.

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Tagged with: Andre Blatche • Antawn Jamison • basketball • Brendan Haywood • Caron Butler • Fabricio Oberto • Flip Saunders • Gilbert Arenas • Mike Miller • NBA • Randy Foye • Washington Wizards

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