Tanking Not Answer to Wizards' Woeful Season

Veterans should play

The Wizards lost Wednesday night ... again, dropping their record to 7-31. In times like this, everyone and their labradoodle has an opinion on what the team should be doing.

Some want the Wizards to start tanking in hopes of more draft lottery balls, but what exactly does 'tanking' mean? Start Oleksiy Pecherov and JaVale McGee in the post, and tell Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to take an extended vacation? Preposterous.

Others want the Wizards to focus more on developing youth. A good idea, but again, what do you do with the veterans? You just don't sit players like Darius Songaila and Jamison, who lead by example. Haphazardly throwing a bunch of kids on the court will only compound mistakes. Nick Young, Javaris Crittenton and Dominic McGuire will be better served learning the game of basketball while their playing time is interspersed with experience.

Lost season? Sure, we can admit that.

But Ed Tapscott should continue to coach the team as if they are trying to win every game. Of course, development for the future needs to be a part of the immediate plan, but don't take away pride and dignity from veterans by telling them they can't play. Rather, hope that this team somehow grows on the court, together.

Tank the season? That absurd idea will only propel the culture of the Wizards further into the depths of negativity, if you can imagine that.

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