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May
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GUEST COLUMN: Postmortem
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Well, it's over. As Scottie Pippen crashed on his back, the Bullets chances of extending their season went up in smoke.But alot of positives (and a few questions) have emerged from a season in which, quite frankly, the Bullets reached their main goal. They made the playoffs. In the best case scenario, I felt that this team could win 48 games and they came within 4 games of that.
First, the positives:
This is a good, not a great, young team with an outstanding veteran point guard. They have been extremely well coached during the second half of the season as Bernie has done an admirable job of assigning roles and getting the most out of tangential players like Cheaney and Murray. They acheived a goal together and, by all accounts, the players get along and WANT to be Washington Wizards. The emergence of Cheaney was welcome and Chris Webber's perimiter game has greatly improved. Towards the end of the year, Juwon began to reassert himself. It should be exciting for years to come.So here is my list of off-season needs:
That's about it. Looking forward to a great '97-'98 season.
- Sign Rod Strickland to a long-term deal. Salary cap is obviously not an issue and, with my upper deck season tickets costing $1700 each, money should not be either. Rod is the pouty type so get him signed, make him happy and watch him go.
- Make Bernie GM. Give Bickerstaff full control over personnel decisions. He is a shrewd judge of talent and, besides, you know Abe and Wes will have to concur.
- Upgrade the bench BIG TIME. Gone: Jaren Jackson, Tim Legler (though I love him so), Harvey Grant, Ben Wallace, maybe Chris Whitney. The big need is for veteran leadership. Guys like Ricky Pierce, Byron Scott, Terry Cummings, Buck Williams would be welcome additions. I am not sold on Chris Whitney, but, with the general lack of point guards in the league, he is serviceable as a backup. They do need a veteran big body for when Gheorge or Chris gets in foul trouble, but that guy also has to have an offensive game.
- Make a decision on Tracy Murray. He will never be a great defensive player, but we saw in the Bulls series that he can be an Vinny Johnson-type instant offense guy. A decent sixth man.
- Hit the weight room. That means Webber, Howard, Muresan, Cheaney and Murray. They were pushed around underneath all year.
Goal for '98: 50 wins. 4th or 5th seed and a 1st round victory.
Edward Katz 1 May 1997
