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BRAVEONAWARPATH

By BRAVEONAWARPATH
in The Tailgate

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Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

They forgot to trade Gortat after they signed Mahinmi.  Him getting hurt in preseason was a disaster because it made us gunshy about trading Gortat and then Mahinmi never established himself.

 

Mahinmi should have been starting this season, but locker room politics kept Gortat as the starter.  He would have been impossible if he'd gotten benched.

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StillUnknown

StillUnknown

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I feel like Mahinmi being a decent human being makes it worse. I want to hate on a guy making 16mil to foul people, but he's just taking advantage of the idiot who called his people. 

 

Actually looking forward to the summer league game. I dont think Troy Brown Jr will contribute in a meaningful way this year, but it would be nice to see some flashes in summer league.

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Going Commando

Going Commando

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Posted

I think Mahinmi could have been OK if he'd gotten a chance to start right off.  He was a six win share player as a starter in his final season in Indy.  Even if you take that as an outlier or ideal system situation, I think it was reasonable to expect he could have been a 5 win share player as a starter here.  For context, that's average starter or exceptionally good bench player territory.  Keef is a five win share player as a starter.  That doesn't blow you away, but in the crazy ass summer of 2016, that was a reasonable return for 16 million a year.

 

We really needed a defensive specialist 5 who just needed to run pick and rolls on offense.  Mahinmi fit that bill, at the time he was one of the best defensive fives in the NBA.

 

But he's a cautionary tale now.

 

A couple of really bad things happened that have made his contract awful:

 

1 - The market got squeezed.  The cap completely stagnated after the massive bump, so all of those summer of '16 deals are albatrosses now.  Just about everyone except Golden State, Toronto, and Boston who signed big money deals that summer has been ****ed by it: Us, Miami, Detroit, Atlanta, Memphis, Orlando, both LA teams, Charlotte, etc.  It even the Rockets, who've I argued made the sole mistake of that Ryan Anderson deal, and it cost them Trevor Ariza.

 

Summer of 2016 spending wiped out the entire Southeast division and it's a big reason we're the worst division in the NBA now.  Every single one of us suffered significant setbacks, and the reason we're the only ones coming out of it relatively unscathed is because we had a high quality foundation of drafted players that we were able to keep by using Bird exceptions.  But we also didn't make huge strides like Boston, Toronto, Indy, and Philly did.

 

2 - The center market absolutely collapsed.  Golden State has essentially revolutionized the NBA game and tanked the value of the center position.  Guys with the traditional skillset to be monsters at the position add absolutely no extra value and are having their minutes drastically reduced.  Hassan Whiteside has no place in the league today.  Andre Drummond should be one of the NBA's most valuable players and he's toiling on middling teams that can't even get an 8th seed in the East.  DeMarcus Cousins is a career loser whose never made the playoffs and had to settle for the tax payer MLE this summer.  We just signed Dwight Howard for the taxpayer MLE and he loafed his way to a 6.8 win share season on a bad team.  That would have been Mahinmi's best season of his career.

 

3 - And like I mentioned before, Mahinmi got seriously injured immediately.  This killed his ability to establish himself and his value here. 

 

There were other things that we should have seen coming (and many did): Gortat was still here, making it very easy to neglect Mahinmi.  They couldn't play together.  The decline of the center position meant you simply can't find 20+ minutes a night for two traditional fives.  And Mahinmi had never made it through a 2000 minute season before, making it very tough to rely on him as your only good option at the 5.

 

The lesson to take away from this costly mistake is that you should avoid committing a lot of money and years to the center position unless that guy is a bonafide star.

* Actually I was wrong, Keef is a 4 win share starter.  That's slightly below average starter territory.  5 win shares is solid starter territory.

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RonArtest15

RonArtest15

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14 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

We wouldn't just get rid of him because there is no other option.

 

If his act is wearing thin and it's causing a ripple in an already tense locker room, I wouldn't be shocked if the team cut their losses. 

 

I'm not expecting much out of the Wizards this year.  46 wins or bust. 

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Warhead36

Warhead36

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Posted
Just now, RonArtest15 said:

 

If his act is wearing thin and it's causing a ripple in an already tense locker room, I wouldn't be shocked if the team cut their losses. 

 

I'm not expecting much out of the Wizards this year.  46 wins or bust. 

I mean I guess that's possible, but I have a feeling Howard will behave, if at least for a year. Wall can spoonfeed him enough baskets.

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RonArtest15

RonArtest15

Posted
Posted
Just now, Warhead36 said:

I mean I guess that's possible, but I have a feeling Howard will behave, if at least for a year. Wall can spoonfeed him enough baskets.

 

On the flip...Dwight is probably playing for one last multi-year contract.  He could ball out this year and shock everyone...

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BRAVEONAWARPATH

BRAVEONAWARPATH

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4 minutes ago, RonArtest15 said:

 

If his act is wearing thin and it's causing a ripple in an already tense locker room, I wouldn't be shocked if the team cut their losses. 

 

I'm not expecting much out of the Wizards this year.  46 wins or bust. 

54 wins or bust....

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Destino

Destino

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Posted

These 50 win predictions make me feel like that contestant on The Price is Right, stunned by what everyone else imagines a bottle of shampoo might cost, who bids a dollar.  

 

It’s not a question of talent, and really hasn’t been for years at this point.  The problem is that this team is somehow less than the sum of its parts.  The big contracts seem to spend a lot of time injured and when they are on the court, the effort level is frustratingly inconsistent.  The offense and defense look like half the team was emailed the wrong gameplan.  

 

I need to see consistency before I expect it, though I sincerely hope I get to see it.  

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CrypticVillain

CrypticVillain

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, RonArtest15 said:

Just read on twitter that the Wizards, Lakers, and Rockets will be in on the Melo sweepstakes. 

 

 

However awful you feel about us signing Howard... Triple that and you might get how I feel about Melo coming here. I don't want any parts of that drama...

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CrypticVillain

CrypticVillain

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1 minute ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

Also, he's not any good any more.

I'd take the bamma off the bench... It's just that he said he wouldn't do it. Don't need nobody like that on this team.

He's probably going to Houston to replace Ariza. It all but guarantees the Warriors may go Fo Fo Fo through the Playoffs now. lol

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Skin'emAlive

Skin'emAlive

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My god, if this team picks up Melo, man. What an off-season by Ernie. He went for the moon here. Sure Melo looked bad in okc. But Westbrook is not John Wall. They play different styles. He is an upgrade from deep over Morris, and is still absolutely automatic from the corners. Morris excels with the bench unit anyways. Wall/Beal/Porter/Melo/Howard? Holy balls. It’s like the replacements. And he has a huge Baltimore following here. It might rejuvenate his confidence. A team of guys no one believed in, and everyone said wouldn’t work because of attitudes. That’s the recipe for a movie. If he’s even remotely available for us, you get him! Morris/Melo/Green/Otto at the 4 spot is ridiculously deep. 

 

Ernie Is setting us up with a roster that excels at running an improvisational offense. Scott Brooks will be a non factor on the offensive end because there is no strategy to be coached here. It’s all Wall and Beal drive and kicks or pick and rolls. Then he can just focus on what he does best: being a nice guy that guys want to play for. Adding Melo is so crazy that I am absolutely sure it would ****ing work. 

Edited by Skin'emAlive
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