If there’s only one blog post that you read today regarding Gilbert’s impact on the Washington offense, make it this one from Truth About It.

Of course, we all want to see Gilbert back in a Wizards uniform next season, but as we head into what should be a very interesting off-season, it’s important to know the different ideas that are thrown out there, absurd or not.  The first one comes from Mavs writer Eddie Sefko:

Q: Do you think the Wizards would be interested in a sign-and-trade of Gilbert Arenas for Josh Howard?

Aaron in Wisconsin

Sefko: Are you the only Mavericks fan north of the Red River? Certainly you are the only one in Packerville.

But that’s OK, because you asked a terrific question.

The Wizards, like most of the league, can use another swingman. The question is whether they feel they could lose Arenas for nothing if they don’t make a move. And any team interested has to be absolutely positive Arenas is going to be physically fit next season.

Due diligence, they call it. But this sort of deal actually makes some sense. Arenas is damaged goods right now, though clearly a better player than Howard if the playing field is level.

Howard, also, is on the low end of his market value right now. Saying you are a pot-smoker and having a late-night party for yourself during the playoffs can have an impact on your trade value.

For those reasons, it’s not a bad piece of speculation, though it would require extra pieces by the Wizards — probably a bad, long-term contract — included.

Now, I doubt this would happen for a few reasons, first among them being that the Mavericks would have to move Arenas to shooting guard unless they could find a way to trade Jason Kidd somewhere else.  Then you have to consider that the deal would have to be part of a sign-and-trade deal, which would make it even harder for Dallas to match Arenas’ contract.

The trade is probably more speculating for the sake of speculation than anything else, but you can bet it won’t be the last the trade idea that gets bounced out there.

The Washington Wizards Blog has some quotes from Gilbert who talked to the media after practice today.  This is the first time that Gilbert has talked to reporters since making his comeback.  Here’s a little bit of what he said:

On Charles Barkley’s comments:
“It’s his opinion. Obviously he’s going to be watching. They have LeBron (James). We have Antawn (Jamison), myself and Caron (Butler). We’ll take our chances. We’ll take our chances.”

On his silence:
“I didn’t want to hear, ‘How is your knee?’ ‘How does it feel to be back?’ ‘Are you still going to opt out?’. Let’s worry about the playoffs; then I’ll be back at it.”

Derek Hanson of TWolves Blog was lucky enough to meet Gilbert Arenas at Friday Night’s Wizards-Heat game as a guest of Dan Occhiogrosso who won a contest by Spalding, whom Gilbert endorses. Included in his recap from the experience was this exchange that’s classic Gilbert:

[...] after taking in the shootaround, we were ushered into the hallway just outside the Wizard’s locker room and out came Gilbert Arenas. He was nice and gave both me and Dan the hug/handshake move and talked to us for a bit. Although, I do have to wonder how much attention he was actually paying to the encounter, because he gave me the hug/handshake move three different times over the course of our three minute encounter. The first was when he came out - he gave Dan one and then me one. Then like fifteen seconds later, I think he forgot that he already did it and gave me another one. Then after Dan told him about winning the photo contest, he said, “And this is my friend, Derek, who I brought along with me.” Gilbert, then said “What’s his name? Berek?” Dan said, “No, it’s Derek”, and then Gilbert gave me the third hug/handshake. After spending just a few seconds with him, you could definitely tell that Gilbert was the funny/quirky guy we’ve all come to know him as.

The SacBee has a short interview with Gilbert Arenas about his blogging. Did you know, the NBA edits some of the things he says?

I did a steroids one, about, “How can you not think (Roger) Clemens is on steroids?” And, “He looks like an Escalade truck.” They took that out. They took a Michael Vick thing out. But other than that, whatever goes on, they’ve already filtered through it.