Land O'Lando

Hate all you want, but if Gilbert was given control of our offense months ago, I guarantee we wouldn't be in this predicament. You really just hate the player he is forced to be. SVG is to blame. Arenas, during his prime with Washington, was an offensive juggernaut, equally as efficient offensively as the likes of Wade and Kobe -- and the true shooting %'s support that statement. He also made a joke of a franchise a legitimate conference contender. Blame his poor play on his knees all you want, but that's only a fraction of the story. He's still an extremely talented and creative player, who really just needs more offensive freedom and playing time to get in a flow. And we've all seen how good Gilbert can be when he gets into his zone, when SVG lets him off his leash.

I have always been an adamant supporter of SVG, but frankly, his system is too rigid for a player of Arenas' caliber, and it's really beginning to hurt our team. It hurts me to say this, because I respect what he's done for our team, but it's time for SVG to go if he can't give his PG more offensive freedom. Twice, now, I've noticed a trend that reflects poorly on SVG. In the period right after we make a mid-season trade (first Alston, then Arenas), just a few games in -- the period where SVG is mostly letting the team just play since they haven't learned his system -- our team has looked better than ever. I always recall saying to myself, "man, we've never looked so good." It happened right after we got Skip and it happened when we got Arenas. Then, slowly, as the players learn SVG's system and the leash gets tightened on the PG's, things start to fall apart. We become predictable and one-dimensional, and players like Arenas start to suck and we wonder what happened. Players like Arenas are too talented and creative with the ball, and the pick-and-roll is too effective to continue like this.

Decisions? team moves? Yes and yes. Seriously, we need to start Gil next game. All our hopes pretty much rely on Gil this series, and also moving forward as our PG. Nelson is probably gone this off-season.

Three predictions... 1.) The magic will come back to win this series 2.) I will wake up 3.) We will lose this series