A league source with knowledge of the situation said the Wizards are not among the potential suitors for former Wizards guard Larry Hughes.

According to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Dec. 24th, the Cavs have contacted "several teams" - one of them the Wizards - about trading for the 6-5 Hughes, who in 2005 signed a deal worth between $65-$70 million.

According to multiple sources, Hughes has never been happy in Cleveland. However, Hughes has three years and more than $39 million remaining on his contract, a number the Wizards - already flirting with the projected luxury tax trigger ($67.865 million).

Any trade for Hughes would probably have to involve team captain Antawn Jamison, who will earn more than $16 million this season. However, Jamison is in the last year of his contract and having a very productive season with averages of 21.7 points and 10.7 rebounds. As of Christmas morning, Hughes had appeared in 14 games, was averaging 9.8 points and shooting just 32.7 % from the floor.

-- John N. Mitchell

The Washington Wizards will fill injured Antonio Daniels' roster spot with Mike Wilks, who was recently released by Denver last month, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation.

Wilks, a five-year veteran, was released by the Nuggets after eight games. In that time he averaged 3.0 points per game and 0.8 assists.

Wilks will not receive a guaranteed contract mostly because the Wizards (13-10) don’t want to surpass the luxury tax trigger of $67.86 million, the point at the end of the season where teams over the trigger must pay a dollar-for-dollar tax for every dollar they exceed the plateau. His future with the team upon Daniels’ return is unlikely.

Daniels, who replaced Gilbert Arenas in the starting lineup after Arenas underwent knee surgery on Nov. 21, did a good job replacing Arenas. In 14 starts in place of Arenas the Wizards went 9-5 and Daniels averaged 11.0 points, 6.6 assists ad 4.0 rebounds.

Daniels is the third starter to go down this season. The Wizards have already lost center Etan Thomas most likely for the rest of the season (heart surgery) and Arenas is expected to be out at least for next two months.

-- John N. Mitchell

The Washington Wizards, already without starting point guard Gilbert Arenas, learned Saturday that they will be without his backup Antonio Daniels for the next two-to-four weeks.

Daniels, who filled in for Arenas after the All-Star underwent knee surgery last month, sustained a sprained medial collateral ligament in the second quarter of the Wizards' 104-91 victory at Miami on Thursday.

Daniels has started the last 14 games in place of Arenas. In that time Daniels, an 11-year-veteran, has averaged 11.0 points, 6.6 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

The injury will force the Wizards to start Roger Mason at point guard. Mason is not a true point guard, but the University of Virginia product has been playing that position to some degree with the second unit.

Daniels becomes the third starter the Wizards have lost this season; now the team has just nine healthy players.

Center Etan Thomas was lost indefinitely at the start of the season when after undergoing open-heart surgery. Shortly after that Arenas, who missed the end of the regular season and the playoffs last season after suffering a torn Meniscus in his left knee, underwent another surgery on the same knee last month.

The Wizards had hoped rookie forward/center Oleksiy Pecherov would be back by now after suffering a fractured right ankle. However, the fracture has not healed and Pecherov isn’t expected to be available to the team until at least the middle of January.

-- John N. Mitchell

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, LeBron James won't play against the Wizards tonight at Verizon Center. It will be the fourth straight game the MVP candidate has missed with a sprained index finger.

The Cavaliers have lost all three games James has missed with the injury.

- John Taylor

The shooting of Sean Taylor is a tragedy that sent the area and the nation into shock. A Mother is without a son, a fiance without a husband, a child without a father.

Forever.

I got caught up in the emotion of it all last week and made the egregious mistake of attacking another colleague, the Washington Post's Len Shapiro, calling him a "racists," a "dog" and a "skunk" while giving my two cents on the matter in an interview with Mark Gray on The Sports Groove on WOL-AM.

Len, you didn't deserve to be attacked like that. I don't know enough about you to lodge these charges against you, especially when we are in a time when real hate crimes are on the rise according to every indicator.

Did I disagree with what you wrote? I did. I had a huge problem with you claiming that Taylor, whom you admitted you never got to know, embraced the "thug" lifestyle, and I have found this to be a stereotypical analogy made by many of my colleagues covering African American Athletes.

The African-American community is tired of these unfounded conclusions - that we are hopelessly pathological and bent on our own destruction - and the generalizing that too easily goes with it.

And guess what? The rank-and-file of black athletes are sick of it, too. This explains why one Wizard who saw what I said reported on local blogs voiced his support of my position with a protracted hug and a handshake prior to the game in Philadelphia.

What we are finding out about these alleged killers is that Sean Taylor's past youthful indiscretions didn't even create a negligible connection between his murder and how he lived his life. They are charged with unpremeditated murder for a killing police say was unplanned, and with each and every detail and fact we are finding out that Taylor was almost certainly chosen by random.

But I stray.

While you now appear to be dead wrong in your rush to judgment, I was certainly wrong to assail you the way I did. I should have voiced my opinion in more civil terms and we could have agreed to disagree and left it at that.

In the end, it won't bring back the son, fiance and the father.

-- John N. Mitchell