25 wins, countless questions

Gilbert Arenas’ dog apparently ate his travel itinerary.

This story is as good as the next one, in a season of stories on Fun Street.

Arenas missed the plane to Detroit, the Wizards missed the season.

Jerry Stackhouse shut it down in late February, which turned out to be the team’s worst habit.

The Wizards shut it down on specific nights, sometimes a week at a time.

Eddie Jordan took notes and voiced objections.

The nearly end result is 25 victories, questions galore, and a queasy feeling going into an uncertain offseason.

Is Kwame Brown a player?

Rasheed Wallace thinks so, whatever that is worth after considering the source.

Three is a crowd on the perimeter, given the ball-massaging proclivities of Arenas, Stackhouse and Larry Hughes.

Stackhouse would not object to a change of address, except his availability is not likely to result in equal trade value after his injury-plagued, mentally addled season.

Stackhouse is starting to look like an old 29 years old, distant from the 2001 season, when he averaged a career-high 29.8 points a game. He is the one-time All-Star of second-tier quality who has plummeted to third-wheel status with the Wizards, an incriminating descent, given the team.

Stackhouse is not obligated to be hitting the sunset portion of his career. Yet he raised the notion in play and temperament this season. The rest of the league is allowed to wonder.

The Wizards are allowed to protect eight players from the Bobcats, the NBA’s bad idea to go back to Charlotte, N.C.

There are not enough quality players to fill the rosters of 29 teams. What is one more bad team, is the thinking?

Jordan and Ernie Grunfeld could struggle with the eight, but not because of the efficiency of the eight. There is a significant gray area with all too many of the Wizards.

Arenas, Hughes, Stackhouse, Brown, Brendan Haywood, Etan Thomas, Jarvis Hayes, Jared Jeffries.

That comes out to eight.

What about Steve Blake?

Juan Dixon, anyone?

Dixon remains a favorite of the fans, despite his redundancy around Arenas, Stackhouse and Hughes.

Blake, perhaps the biggest surprise on the team, showed he could play in the NBA, plus deliver the ball to others. That trait is forever in short supply with the Wizards.

They shoot first, pout later.

Brown demonstrated the rare quality to go for 20-10 in a game, then 8-3 in the next two. The glimpses were intriguing, hopeful. The no-shows were puzzling, worrisome.

Not that the Wizards are built to squeeze the last bit of production out of a post player.

Jermaine O’Neal could get overlooked with this bunch on certain nights.

Haywood is almost serviceable, as far as serviceable goes in the center-deficient Eastern Conference.

Jordan and Grunfeld are saddled with the unappealing prospect of judging whether the talent is promising enough to stick with it the next season or two. The talent is young, Arenas the most mercurial.

In the past, the Wizards have blown up the roster just to blow it up, an understandable reaction around a generation’s worth of misery. The Wizards appear to have overcome their fascination with retreads, both coaches and players alike.

Now they are asking: What’s next?

The Wizards have not earned the benefit of the doubt, but it goes to them anyway because of the alternatives, which usually result in assuming someone else’s problems.

Perhaps with a healthy team, Jordan and Grunfeld would not be in this thankless position.

But the protracted absences of Stackhouse and Arenas gutted the season and undermined the delicate psyche of the team.

About a year ago, soon after Michael Jordan was dismissed, Abe Pollin vowed to put a young and exciting product on the floor. He meant well. It even might have been if not for this or that bum limb.

Pollin was off the mark by about 10 victories, the 36-win mark apt to be the final haul of the eighth-seeded Celtics.

A quickie appearance in the playoffs would have satisfied the long-suffering basketball populace of Washington.

Even an unsuccessful playoff push would have given everyone cause to hope.

Instead, the Wizards are checking out with a sense of unease and only traces of what could be.