Truth About It» POLL: A Rip Hamilton trade, a Carmelo Anthony trade or a Wizards Road Win?

{flickr/Tim Yates}

Back on November 24 of last year, my Truth About It colleague Kyle Weidie posed a question to site readers: “Who Will Give The Washington Wizards Their First Road Win?”At the time, the Wizards were 0-6 away from home, but their slow start could easily be attributed to youth, a tough road schedule and the fact that Gilbert Arenas still wasn’t traded.

Two months and an Arenas trade later, the road loss count has ballooned from six to 20, and the cause cannot be easily explained away.  Depending on who you ask and when, blame can be placed on anyone from Ernie Grunfeld to Josh Howard’s knee.  Still, the fact remains that last night’s second halfcollapse in Milwaukeeleft the Wizards with an 0-20 road record to start the season— just nine away from the record held by the1992-93 Dallas Mavericksof 29 consecutive away-from-home losses to start a season.

The Wizards’ next 10 road games look like this:

Mon. Jan. 24– @Atlanta

Fri. Jan. 28– @Oklahoma City

Sat. Jan. 29– @Memphis

Mon. Jan. 31– @Dallas

Sun. Feb. 13– @Cleveland

Wed. Feb. 16– @Orlando

Wed. Feb. 23– @Philadelphia

Fri. Feb. 28– @Miami

Sun. Mar. 6– @Detroit

Tue. Mar. 15th @Chicago

While Washington keeps losing, Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton and Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony have yet to be traded, despite making subtle overtures for the opposite.

Hamilton has seen his minutes diminished, his starting job revoked, and he’s even been of accused of mailing it in— a shocking accusation for a player who’s very game is built on tirelessly running through multiple screens.  Anthony still starts, and he’s still putting up good numbers (23.5 points and 8.1 rebounds), but his wanting to be traded is the elephant in the room, and the Nuggets aren’t playing as a cohesive unit as a result.

There was a rumored trade that would have ended the madness and sent both Hamilton and Anthony to the New Jersey Nets, butMikhail Prokhorov shut that downin demonstrative fashion yesterday.

So why am I bringing up a former Wizard and a Baltimore native in relation to the Wizardss road futility?  The short answer is, something’s got to give.

The Wizards can’t lose all of their road games, Carmelo Anthony can’t be asked to carry a team he doesn’t want to be on, and Richard Hamilton is too valuable of an asset to languish on a Pistons squad that is clearly rebuilding.  So what will happen first?

A)A Carmelo Anthony trade

B)A Richard Hamilton trade

C)A Wizards road win

D)None will happen this season

{Vote in the poll below.}

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