Who are the most important pieces to the future of the Washington Wizards, and yes, we are talking post-Michael III?  Is it Richard Hamilton?  Perhaps Courtney Alexander?  Wrong.  According to John Mtchell of the Washington Times the most important players may be Etan Thomas, Kwame Brown and Brandon Haywood.

Having already watched star players Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace come and go like ordinary role players the Wizards may already have their frontcourt of the future.  The Wizards? three rookies this year have each gone through a different transition period; Haywood started like a man possessed, Thomas played as if he was scared and Kwame, according to coach Doug Collins, was simply green.  However all three have also given glimpses of the future at times this season, with Thomas and Brown doing so as of late, which has put smiles on the Wizards? managements faces, playoffs or no playoffs this season.

"The toughest thing in this league is to get good big guys, and we've got some good young big guys, which is good," Collins said. "Now we've got to be able to shore up some other areas, but it looks like we're moving in the right direction.?

"We've got a lot of reasons to be optimistic," Collins said with a smile