Tom Knott: A roster fraught with hard realities

The drive, the kick, the open 3-pointer.

This is one of the many hard realities before Saunders.

The Wizards are a poor defensive team on the perimeter. Haywood protects the basket with conviction. But out on the perimeter, where perspiration and players willing to rotate are necessary, the Wizards are too often indifferent.

Saunders is not apt to change the culture of the players. That challenge is usually beyond the influence of coaches, and that includes Phil Jackson.

For all his championship success, Jackson presided over some of the most dysfunctional teams in NBA history in Los Angeles. As much as he wanted the relationship between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant to be healthy, he could not reach them with his bag of psychological tricks.

O'Neal and Bryant were both stubborn alpha males, neither willing to acquiesce to the other.

Saunders has no such worries with the Wizards. Butler and Jamison, as team-first players, are more than willing to follow Arenas if he ever expresses an inclination to be a locker room leader. That is not a responsibility Arenas has wanted in the past. But it is one he perhaps is starting to see as necessary, judging from his comments in recent weeks.

A sober-minded Arenas would be the start of a productive offseason.

The addition of Griffin would be next, followed by an ultrabusy Grunfeld.