The Wizards will be better with Michael Jordan. That's a safe assessment. But how much better? And will it be enough to matter?

	Hamilton wasn't bad last season, but alongside Jordan how will he be?

Let's go out on the proverbial limb here, however, and make the following prediction: with Jordan, the Wizards will win 20 more games than they would without him. Having said that, will the extra 20 turn them into a playoff team or simply a Cleveland clone?

The Wiz won 19 games last season, but that's a misleading number for a variety of reasons. First, their three best players were either hurt, traded, upset, suspended or underachieving for most of the season. All three now are gone. Juwan Howard, whose day-to-day enemy in Washington was his colossal salary, was dealt to Dallas. Sultan Mark Cuban simply doesn't care how much Howard makes. Rod Strickland and Mitch Richmond (in the offseason) were released; no players came for either lad.

The Wizards thus have veterans Christian Laettner, Loy Vaught and Hubert Davis and two unproven kids, Etan Thomas and Courtney Alexander, to show for the jettisoned trio. Laettner and Alexander could both end up starting. But they've also added Doug Collins to coach the team, and that is an upgrade from the overmatched Leonard Hamilton. Collins won't have to deal with the malcontents and he will have Jordan's official and important imprimatur from the start. As long as Doug doesn't go nuts, he will make a difference as well.

It's hard to think that Collins took on this thankless task without some assurances from Jordan. But he says he did and that's his story and he's sticking to it. It makes about as much sense as Jordan's explanation of his broken ribs.

With Jordan in Armani, here is what Collins would have for a likely starting five: Laettner, Alexander, Jahidi White, Chris Whitney/Tyronn Lue and Richard Hamilton. A bench would have players like Vaught, Popeye Jones, Mike Smith, Davis, Kwame Brown and Thomas. You like that bunch? It might look good to Tim Floyd. But that team would be lucky to match the 19 wins that the dysfunctional 2000-2001 team had.

	Lue

	White

Add Jordan to the equation and the Wizards are immediately better because it's addition by addition. That's assuming that he still has anything left in his tank, which he apparently does, and that he stays injury-free, which is hardly a given at his age.

With Jordan, every team in the eastern Conference probably loses a game to Washington it might otherwise have figured it would win. So instead of penciling in all those 4-0 or 3-1 predictions against Washington, those teams now will have to settle, respectively, for 3-1 or 2-2. That adds up to 14 wins right there.

The Wizards also play 28 games against the Western Conference. All teams in the East are going to feel the crunch here; the Clippers will be a tough task in Los Angeles, for goodness sakes. So if you figured the Wiz for maybe six wins out of 28 without Michael, you could reasonably double that total with Jordan around.

	Who Moves Over?
	Michael Jordan will likely play at both shooting guard and small forward for the Wizards, positions where Richard Hamilton, Courtney Alexander and the departed Mitch Richmond were the most productive players last season. Here's a look at the production of those three players in games they started at shooting guard and small forward in 2000-01.
	Hamilton	GS	PPG	RPG	APG
	SG	41	21.1	3.6	3.3
	SF	1	9.0	1.0	2.0
	Alexander	GS	PPG	RPG	APG
	SG	6	5.7	1.8	0.8
	SF	18	19.6	3.2	1.8
	Richmond	GS	PPG	RPG	APG
	SG	18	15.8	2.5	2.8
	SF	12	18.6	3.5	3.3

The main area where a Jordan-led Wizards team could show the most improvement is where every decent team holds sway: at home. The Wiz were a hapless 12-19 at the uninspiring MCI Center last season. That will change with the inevitable improvement of the team and the presence alone of Jordan. You may actually see real sellouts instead of papered crowds. The road, however, will still be a minefield. Jordan and Laettner notwithstanding, this is still a very young team and the road is an unforgiving proving ground.

The unknown at this point is if a 20-win improvement will be sufficient to propel Washington into playoff contention. (We know NBC and TNT are hoping that it does.) You can't simply add the 20 wins on to last year's 19 and come up with 39, which, even in the East, probably won't be enough to crack the Elite Eight. That's because it's an almost completely different team, You are not likely to see the quantum improvement that, for instance, the Spurs showed when David Robinson arrived or the Celtics showed when Larry Bird arrived. Both of those players joined teams who were bad the year before, but teams which also had good players in place. (Sean Elliott joined the Spurs the same year that Robinson did while the Celtics got a healthy Nate Archibald as well as a new coach in Bill Fitch.)

The Wizards nucleus is not even close to either of those teams. And although the talent base is undeniably diluted in this day and age, a non-Michael Washington entry would end up battling Jordan's former team, the Bulls, for the conference cellar. Does that mean 15 wins? Twenty? Twenty five?

We'll never know because that team won't exist. Instead, it will take on a certain Hall of Famer, one of the greatest players to ever lace 'em up. Yes, he's 38. But he's also determined, competitive and likes challenges almost as much as fine cigars and complimentary greens fees.

He'll lose like he hasn't lost in 15 years. That will only make the wins that much sweeter. They'll be more of those than if he stayed in his expensive suits and watched the action from his private box. In other words, underestimate him and his new team at your own peril.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.