The opening of training camps for the upcoming 2008-09 NBA season will take place in 13 days and the news out of Washington is looking bleak for Wizards fans and Gilbert Arenas.

Reports have confirmed that Agent Zero will be out of action until at least December after undergoing yet another surgical procedure on his left knee. This was his third surgery on the knee in 17 months. It was also the reason that he only played 13 regular season games last season, including hindering his team’s playoff performance in the first three games of the Wizards’ first round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

So the real question is: how much return on investment will Wizards’ owner Abe Pollin receive on that colossal $111 million dollar contract that Agent Zero inked over the summer?

Though Arenas claims this latest surgery should allow him to come back more explosive than ever, I, among others, remain skeptical. Will Arenas ever be the same player again? Not to mention, how many times was his return pushed back last year? Several. First, he was guilty of coming back too soon after injuring the knee at the end of the 2006-07 season, then finally opted out of playing the remaining games against the Cavs in 2008 playoffs because he clearly was not helping his team by playing less than 100%. So why should we really believe that he will be back by December? I certainly don’t and the Wizards organization should be frantic right about now. This is the same team who offered Arenas $127 million but he was gracious enough to take one for the team, accepting an offer 16 milli less. How nice, but when will your services really be available Mr. Arenas? What are Caron Butler and Antwaan Jamison thinking right now? Something deep inside my woman’s intuition tells me that Jamison is now having second thoughts about staying in Washington.

So what will the over/under be on Agent Zero’s return? He says early December. If I had money to bet, I would say late January.

Stay tuned.