The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Thinking Skins]

So... quick question: Which FO move will prove to be the worst one for the franchise in the past 15 years?

A: Jordan picks Kwame Brown

B: Washington trades 5th overall pick for Randy Foye and Mike Miller

C: Washington trades Rashard Lewis for Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor

D: Washington trades Caron Butler' date=' Desean Stevenson, and Brendan Haywood for Josh Howard, James Singleton, Quinton Ross, and Drew Gooden

E: Washington trades Antawn Jamison and Drew Gooden for Ilgalksus ( who is released within a week and rejoins Cleveland) and Al Thornton

F: Arenas is misdiagnosed, is greenlit to play after major knee surgery... resulting in 2 more knee surgeries and the end of his career ( basically)

G: Andre Blatche is resigned

I am not quite sure which way i fall, as i hated every single move... but im voting D. We still have no shooting guard while Caron( albeit injury prone) continues to light it up at times, Stevenson had some great defense for a good 2-3 more years and is still starting in this league for ATL, and Haywood who is also still starting and has always provided decent defense. All three of which went on to win a title with dallas. Meanwhile, Howard barely even played for washington (even though everyone in the league knew he was already damaged goods due to his knees; I dont even remember Quinton Ross playing for Washington; Drew Gooden never played for Washington and is traded essentially for Al Thornton, and James Singleton is still playing in China. Just awful[/quote']

Way to depress me on a Sunday Morning.

[StillUnknown]

I go F or B from that list.

Arenas being misdiagnosed kinda got the wheel rolling on D & E.

Ted not firing Ernie the minute he acquired the team might trump them all though

[Warhead36]

I think resigning Gil after the knee surgeries was the dumbest. It completely crippled us financially as we were stuck with a dead horse. A smart GM would have let Gil walk, and with that not resign Jamison either. Instead we had to deal Gil for Shard(which actually was a good deal as it cut a year off the deal)but then dealt Shard for two more bad contracts. The Jamison trade I can live with as it at least got us some cap room.

[No Excuses]

B and C are the worst ones.

B: he got total **** in return for the 5th overall pick. Another team the year after was able to trade away their 5th overall pick for Ray freakin Allen.

C: absolutely horrendous trade. Give away one of the best trade assets in the league for one mediocre player and one ****ty player. Just absolutely terrible.

I think E was a good move. Jamison had a horrible contract and was declining in production.

[Going Commando]

Seraphin is the reason why I didn't want Nene and Okafor. He needs to play big minutes. We're finally starting to reap the benefits of a project draft pick and he's stuck on the bench because of a couple overpaid veterans...

He got more minutes after we got Nene. Nene has had a positive impact on Kevin's game.

Kevin will get all of the minutes he's earned. If he's going to earn more then he needs to start rebounding consistently.

---------- Post added November-4th-2012 at 03:05 PM ----------

Yeah Jamison had to go. Best for everybody involved. It seemed like Caron had to go at the time too, but that has become a bad trade in hindsight.

Although if we don't trade Caron, I wonder if we end up with Wall? It went down in February.

[Destino]

Okafor doesn't look capable of playing many minutes. In two games his effectiveness seems to fade FAST. I'd guess that his conditioning isn't very good or he's injured in some way. Seraphin will get plenty of time with or without Nene.

[the burgundy and gold]

Okafor needs to stop shooting. He threw up some ugly shots last night. I mean with that starting line up I guess he had to but hopefully Witt gives us a better starting lineup next game so we don't have to see Emeka throwing up disgusting jumpers.

[Destino]

Okafor needs to stop shooting. He threw up some ugly shots last night. I mean with that starting line up I guess he had to but hopefully Witt gives us a better starting lineup next game so we don't have to see Emeka throwing up disgusting jumpers.

It would help if this team had something identifiable as an offense. Also judging by that last second inbound okay... They haven't really gotten to practicing those yet.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

So... quick question: Which FO move will prove to be the worst one for the franchise in the past 15 years?

A: Jordan picks Kwame Brown

B: Washington trades 5th overall pick for Randy Foye and Mike Miller

C: Washington trades Rashard Lewis for Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor

D: Washington trades Caron Butler' date=' Desean Stevenson, and Brendan Haywood for Josh Howard, James Singleton, Quinton Ross, and Drew Gooden

E: Washington trades Antawn Jamison and Drew Gooden for Ilgalksus ( who is released within a week and rejoins Cleveland) and Al Thornton

[b']F: Arenas is misdiagnosed, is greenlit to play after major knee surgery... resulting in 2 more knee surgeries and the end of his career ( basically)[/b]

G: Andre Blatche is resigned

I am not quite sure which way i fall, as i hated every single move... but im voting D. We still have no shooting guard while Caron( albeit injury prone) continues to light it up at times, Stevenson had some great defense for a good 2-3 more years and is still starting in this league for ATL, and Haywood who is also still starting and has always provided decent defense. All three of which went on to win a title with dallas. Meanwhile, Howard barely even played for washington (even though everyone in the league knew he was already damaged goods due to his knees; I dont even remember Quinton Ross playing for Washington; Drew Gooden never played for Washington and is traded essentially for Al Thornton, and James Singleton is still playing in China. Just awful

A, B, and F.

A because we missed terribly on Kwame. We had no idea how to develop him or how good he could be. That draft did not produce a franchise player (closest being Gil and Parker imo), so I get with going with potential but we had the #1 pick who was effectively a major bust.

B, altho we did get John Wall in the next draft this, trading for these players was nothing but desperation. Clinging on to playoff hopes was ridiculous. We could have taken Rubio, or even traded down. Taking Minnesota's trash was ridiculous.

F, Gilbert's misdiagnosis lead to the mess that this organization has been in since 2007. Gilbert was the hottest player int he NBA before that injury and was on the verge of superstardom. I have my reservations about him being a franchise player but the guy was an elite NBA scorer who made clutch shots. He was HUGE for this area. Was the biggest star and those teams played exciting basketball as well a playoff team. If we traded one of Jamison or Butler for an inside scorer I think this team could have been something special. Alas, it was not meant to be. The organization's medical team failed Gilbert by indulging him and it resulted in the demise of a potentially great NBA career, a great relationship with this city, and the only bright spot in this franchise since the 70s.

I think F is the worst move.

---------- Post added November-5th-2012 at 02:50 AM ----------

Ted not firing Ernie the minute he acquired the team might trump them all though

yea, I think this is the right answer.

And its been 3 seasons too.

[Thinking Skins]

What's sad about the D move is that the talk then was all about changing the culture here and stuff, as if Caron was a part of the bad culture. I thought he and Stevenson were some of the few guys who played hard every night, given Singleton couldn't shoot worth a lick except for that miraculous year where he got a big contract, but I never liked that move.

[Skin'emAlive]

Asiatic, you might be right. Everything after that moment was just one mistake after another.

But then again, what if it was all Ernie pressuring him to play to save his own ass. Or influencing the medical staff. I wouldnt put it past him. And he was the first to throw him under the bus. I probably should have include EG as an option H. He had a hand in every single one of those bad decisions. Ugh.. and we resigned him.

People thought that because Stevenson went through a dry spell on the 3's and he made fun of nba's golden boy at the time ( Lebron has earned his status as the best in the world now. i got nothing against him) that he was a cancer to the team.

---------- Post added November-5th-2012 at 09:29 AM ----------

Yeah Jamison had to go. Best for everybody involved. It seemed like Caron had to go at the time too, but that has become a bad trade in hindsight.

Although if we don't trade Caron, I wonder if we end up with Wall? It went down in February.

Caron got injured just after we traded him. So we still would have had a bad record. Also, we would have gotten the top pick anyways because Abe died that year and his wife was there for the lottery pick. No chance we were losing. Just like there is probably no chance Orlando doesnt get the top pick this year ( unless they inexplicably keep winning).

Edited November 5, 2012 by Skin'emAlive

[Destino]

I miss the frequency of games from last years shortened season.

[Going Commando]

I miss the frequency of games from last years shortened season.

I do too. As much as I objectively understood last year's schedule was bad, I still enjoyed seeing games all the time. It seemed like forever between games one and two this season.

---------- Post added November-5th-2012 at 12:23 PM ----------

The NBA should think about moving its start date back closer to Christmas, making it go farther into the Summer, and condensing the time in between games a bit.

It doesn't make sense to me that all four major leagues are going in October and yet there is essentially a two month dead period in the Summer where only one of them is going.

[nuposse87]

Just make it so they have games every day. Shorten the season if need be. It would be beneficial to fairly young teams like ours.

Edited November 5, 2012 by nuposse87

[StillUnknown]

Just make it so they have games every day. Shorten the season if need be. It would be beneficial to fairly young teams like ours.

Product would suffer though, fatigue would make the games just about unwatchable if they played every day. The travel logistics wouldn't allow it anyway.

Edited November 5, 2012 by StillUnknown

[Warhead36]

You can't have NBA games every day. But I do enjoy last year's reduced/condensed schedule more. 82 games over 5+ months is just too long.

[Going Commando]

We should sign Kenyon Martin. He said he wanted to piggy back on a contender at first, but now he says the first team to call him--he's gone.

We could use him. Dude is still a nasty defensive player that can play every spot in the front court. Cut Price and sign Martin and probably push Ariza to the bench for now. Eventually you can run defensive lineups with him, Ariza, Vesely, and Okafor with John running point and play Bulls caliber defense.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--kenyon-martin-upset-he-can-t-get-nba-job-04311709.html

[StillUnknown]

We should sign Kenyon Martin. He said he wanted to piggy back on a contender at first, but now he says the first team to call him--he's gone.

We could use him. Dude is still a nasty defensive player that can play every spot in the front court. Cut Price and sign Martin and probably push Ariza to the bench for now. Eventually you can run defensive lineups with him, Ariza, Vesely, and Okafor with John running point and play Bulls caliber defense.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--kenyon-martin-upset-he-can-t-get-nba-job-04311709.html

Who's going to score with that lineup though? We would have to hold people to virtually no points because any half court offense would be comical.

[SuperBash]

Part of his rehab.

[SiCkSoULjA]

Bieber looks tall there if Wall is 6'4 to almost 6'5 like he's listed then how the hell little Justin B looks too be standing face too face?

[SuperBash]

Bieber looks tall there if Wall is 6'4 to almost 6'5 like he's listed then how the hell little Justin B looks too be standing face too face?

I think he's on a Seqway

[SiCkSoULjA]

O I see! Had me a little confused there

[CrypticVillain]

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/65333_10151132952043741_703511211_n.jpg

Part of his rehab.

I was about to post this.

[ixcuincle]

Nick Young worst shot ver

[Going Commando]

Who's going to score with that lineup though? We would have to hold people to virtually no points because any half court offense would be comical.

It wouldn't be your only lineup. It's a defensive lineup.

---------- Post added November-5th-2012 at 10:46 PM ----------

Is that our locker room? Justin Bieber is on a segway in the halls of our locker room. wtf?

---------- Post added November-5th-2012 at 10:59 PM ----------

I watched the TWolves tonight and found myself thinking, "why couldn't we sign Kirilenko or Brandon Roy?" It's astonishing to see such smart, efficient, super high energy play from small ticket veterans who were supposed to be roster filler.

There is simply no way Minny is a more attractive destination than DC.

If we're searching for vets for a year or two of solid play to show our young players how it's done, we would have been far better off buying out Shard and using the space to sign one or hell, both of those guys instead. Okafor and Ariza are worse and more expensive. As far as I can tell, Kirilenko has no salary against Minny's cap.

Why are our vet FA acquisitions even more worthless than our young developmental talent? It's not like that for other teams. I'm saying Vesely, Seraphin, Crawford, and Booker are all better players today than Price, Pargo, Okafor, and Ariza are. WTF is the point of bringing in those scrubs other than to make us worse and eat up minutes that the younger players deserve. We're already bad and we're trying to tie a hand behind our back. Okafor is the only one of that lot who deserves to be on the team.