Wizards Expected to Pick Up Drew Gooden on 10-Day Contract

The Wizards aren’t waiting long to recover from losing Nene after the forward went down Sunday night in Cleveland during the third quarter of a 96-83 win. Earlier today, Yahoo! Sports reported that the Wizards and Drew Gooden are close to agreement on a 10-day contract. The Kansas grad and former fourth overall pick most recently played for the Milwaukee Bucks last season, then this past July was let go by the team under the amnesty clause provision that allows teams to re

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This is a great contingency plan for Nene. Gooden would be a solid rotation player while fan favorite Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin likely see a boost in minutes — at least at the start of his indefinite hypothetical tenure with the Wizards. He has career averages of 11.8 points, 7.8 boards and 1.2 assists per game. Last year in Milwaukee, Bucks fans saw a colossal drop off across Gooden’s stat line. The rumor mill churned out the idea that there were external factors that attributed to Gooden’s decline, but I maintain that he can return to form as one of the solid veterans in the league.

From a financial perspective this would be a great get for Washington, who stand to lose next to nothing on a cost efficient 10 day contract for a 32 year old with gas in the tank. Should Gooden perform, the Wizards will hopefully have found the short term solution to the Nene dilemma. And if not, then they will likely take a 10-day contract swing at someone else, maybe Antawn Jamison in his twilight. But it’s reassuring that the Wizards are looking at resolving this situation immediately, and their front office has given fans nothing but reason to be confident that they will handle this injury crisis effectively.