The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Taylor703]

The more articles I read (like today's in the Post) that say the Wizards have no choice, but to give Beal a max contract even if he doesn't warrant one... the more I think we should pass. Maybe that means that Wall's tenure comes to little here, but do we want to be anchored to Beal for so many years at max money if he's only a good producer and oft injured?

You have to pay him. Losing Wall is not an option. You make sure he's comfortable here and that means paying Beal. It is what it is.

[Skin'emAlive]

When you can't drive more than a few blocks in the bay or Denver without hitting a dispensary, the shock and awe of having smoked a joint is barely a light breeze in the wind. Wake me when it's something big.

We absolutely can't lose out on beal and Durant. It's pretty simple. You gotta take a leap of faith.

[@DCGoldPants]

#1. Don't care about the weed. It's not a PED. I think it should be legal. However, I care about him being this dumb.

#2. Such a move for an Ernie guy.

#3. A team that didn't have a bottom 5 front office with only a handful of guys under contract could afford to not give Beal a max. They don't have much of a choice. There is no right move there.

[Burgold]

So, who's your replacement?

I wouldn't trip over Beal getting the max. Even with his injuries, I think it's a good gamble.

That's short term thinking and not team building thinking. You don't buy a debt ridden pharmacy if you need a band aid.

You don't go shopping for groceries when you are hungry.

I guess the question really is what are you with Beal vs without him. With him you are a borderline or just below playoff team. Is that worth breaking the bank for?

[Taylor703]

That's short term thinking and not team building thinking. You don't buy a debt ridden pharmacy if you need a band aid.

You don't go shopping for groceries when you are hungry.

I guess the question really is what are you with Beal vs without him. With him you are a borderline or just below playoff team. Is that worth breaking the bank for?

You don't know what you are with Beal. He's 23-years old and not remotely close to hitting his prime years.

[@DCGoldPants]

You don't know what you are with Beal. He's 23-years old and not remotely close to hitting his prime years.

 

How much of his prime years will be be hurt? 20%? 40%? more?

[StillUnknown]

You have to pay him. Losing Wall is not an option. You make sure he's comfortable here and that means paying Beal. It is what it is.

 

Wall will be comforted by winning. If Beal signs, misses time, and Wizards are still hovering around 41-45 win mark, he's gone anyway. Then we're stuck with a maxed out, injury prone Beal as our best player.

 

We are in an impossible situation really, thankfully we have the incredibly competent Ernie Grunfeld to lead us through these troubled waters.

[SuperBash]

My biggest fear is Beal becoming Eric Gordon. Kinda heading that way as well, especially with his recent comments.

 

Having said that, eff my fears. Sign him.

[StillUnknown]

Jorge Castillo said in the Post that we're going to offer him a 5yr max on July 1

[Going Commando]

Without Beal we're stuck. There is no real upside to letting him walk. Avoiding a potential bad contract isn't worth ensuring mediocrity until we get blown up when Wall leaves.

Beal can only get four years. If we extend him and still suck and Wall walks at the end of his deal, then Beal will be an expiring that season. Being stuck with him on a bad deal after losing Wall isn't really an issue.

It's also flat out bad resource management to let a young talent like Beal walk for absolutely no return. No matter what, you sign him, even if you're still looking to trade him.

The market is what it is. Reggie Jackson got a max deal last summer. Harrison Barnes is going to get a near max deal this summer. Beal is going to cost what he costs. We're going to match whatever it takes to keep him because not doing so is a horrible decision.

Jorge Castillo said in the Post that we're going to offer him a 5yr max on July 1

I think the CBA rules prohibit this. I'm pretty sure a team can only designate one player at a time for a five year rookie extension and we used that provision on Wall.

[earl]

Only way I'd max out beal is if the appeal of wall/beal can draw a big time FA.  then I sign big FA and then max out Beal like the spurs did w/ leonard.   But otherwise I give beal a sub max contract or let him walk or sign and trade.    Even if Beal develops into prime Joe Johnson or Mitch Richmond it won't be enough.   He's not a Kobe Bryant type player and now a days if your highest paid/ top player is a joe Johnson/ Mitch Richmond caliber player, then you are not a good team and you are stuck in NBA purgatory.   top it all off w/ his injury history no way I'm doing this.     Finally the notion to max him out to keep wall happy feels an awful like the Juwann Howard signing.

[Going Commando]

Two other things to consider:

Because of the timing of their extensions, we got lucky with huge market inefficiencies on the Wall and Gortat contracts. If Keef keeps out of trouble, then you can say the same about him too. This time the market is not in our favor. But we're saving enough money over the next few seasons that we can afford to overpay Beal.

I like Beal's chance to reach his potential better with Scott Brooks coaching him. I doubt he'll be worth 20 million dollars a season, but I do think he'll be an All Star. If that happens then his contract won't be dead weight and we would be able to deal him for a solid return if need be.

[StillUnknown]

I like Beal's chance to reach his potential better with Scott Brooks coaching him. I doubt he'll be worth 20 million dollars a season, but I do think he'll be an All Star. If that happens then his contract won't be dead weight and we would be able to deal him for a solid return if need be.

 

does Scott Brooks know some medicinal juju to fix his knees?

[@DCGoldPants]

does Scott Brooks know some medicinal juju to fix his knees?

 

I know Wash was famous for the worst coaching staff all together last year according to Windhorst (said it on Tony). But what about their training staff? What about their medical staff? You'd think Ted would love to be on the cutting edge of that stuff. But I get the sense that if it doesn't help him post something online, then he's maybe not so big on it. Basically when you have a ****show like this, that's one of the places you need to start.

 

Then again.....Ernie. 

[Fergasun]

NBA marijuana policy requires 3 strikes until suspension.. so unless Morris has strikes already, he is not looking at NBA penalties.

[Destino]

Is Beal better than Barnes? Harrison Barnes could probably be had for a max deal. I think he is, when healthy, but my point is that it's not simply "we have to pay Beal" and a GM that thinks that way is lazy. Ours is lazy, and Beal will get a max offer on the first day that it makes sense to give him one.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

does Scott Brooks know some medicinal juju to fix his knees?

 

Yes, he hired Mr. Miyagi to their training/medical staff.

 

 

[Warhead36]

I just don't buy the "he's better then what we have so we have to keep him" logic regarding Beal. That's the type of talk that gets you into trouble. That's the type of talk that gets you into long term deals with the likes of Antawn Jamison and Juwan Howard.

 

I like Beal as a player, but we're talking about a guy who has himself already admitted he'll likely never play more then ~60 games a year or so. A guy who has never been an All-Star. And we want to give him max money? Really?

 

I know we did the same with Wall, but that was different. He was a #1/#1 and clearly trending upwards. Beal is basically Jordan Reed pre 2015. Now Reed balled out last year, and got a big contract, so that's fine. I'd like to see Beal play at a high level over the course of an entire season and not just look great in some playoff games before committing max money to him.

 

And the "Wall will be unhappy if he leaves" is flawed logic too. If letting go of Beal allows us the money to go after say a Cousins, or 2-3 good players that helps the team better overall, he'd be fine with it. I don't think Wall and Beal are particularly close anyway.

[The Gibber]

If Beal can be Klay Thompson, then he's worth the max.  Klay took a few years to get where he is now so there is a shot that Beal can get there too.  We know he works hard and he has never shown to be a apathetic player or get into any trouble.  He's not a head case.  He cares about winning and getting to the next step in his progression as a player.  He's the type of player you want on your team.  The injuries are an issue but that is the only issue, imo.

 

Hopefully, Brooks can get him to reach his potential and he learned something from his OKC years.  I'm sure they told Brooks that they would extend Beal before they signed him so its probably a done deal.  

[Going Commando]

Is Beal better than Barnes? Harrison Barnes could probably be had for a max deal. I think he is, when healthy, but my point is that it's not simply "we have to pay Beal" and a GM that thinks that way is lazy. Ours is lazy, and Beal will get a max offer on the first day that it makes sense to give him one.

Yeah, Beal is better than Barnes.

[Skin'emAlive]

Otto is better than Barnes, and we hardly talk about Otto being in Beal and Wall's league. Barnes is just a guy who's going to cash in on a sucker franchise while playing with the two most lethal perimeter shooters in nba history. If we were to even entertain the notion of bringing him in to Washington while we have 2 promising 1st round picks at the same position already on this team...

[RonArtest15]

Still haven't seen anyone come up with any roster alternatives if the Wizards were to let Beal walk. 

[Destino]

Otto is better than Barnes, and we hardly talk about Otto being in Beal and Wall's league. Barnes is just a guy who's going to cash in on a sucker franchise while playing with the two most lethal perimeter shooters in nba history. If we were to even entertain the notion of bringing him in to Washington while we have 2 promising 1st round picks at the same position already on this team...

 

I'd take Barnes over Otto.  I would take a healthy Beal over Barnes.  I would not want any of the above at a max deal, though I do understand that Ernie is a sucker and has painted himself into a corner. 

[SuperBash]

Still haven't seen anyone come up with any roster alternatives if the Wizards were to let Beal walk.

Crabbe or Bazemore? Then throw money at Anderson or Horford?

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Fwiw.....

 

http://www.csnphilly.com/the700level/chad-ford-high-likelihood-sixers-trade-jahlil-okafor-or-nerlens-noel

 

CHAD FORD: 'HIGH LIKELIHOOD' SIXERS TRADE JAHLIL OKAFOR OR NERLENS NOEL

 

 

 

I think that there's a very high likelihood, that whether it's to move up in the draft or use them to grab a free agent in a sign and trade or just to a trade, that you will not see the Nerlens Noel-Jahlil Okafor pairing at the start of next season. I think that they'll gauge the interest of both players.

 

I think that there might be a slight preference for Noel, to keep him around with the Sixers, and I think you might be right, there might be a slight, better value for Okafor out on the market, but I think everyone agrees that that combination of those two players doesn't necessarily work.

 

The Sixers needs to pick up assets, especially if they're gonna go ahead and do a Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram with the first pick in the draft.

 

Then they're gonna need those assets to start to fill out their backcourt, because the 24th pick and [the 26th pick], you're not finding starters. I'm not even sure that you're necessarily finding rotation players at that back end of the draft that are gonna make big impact, so they're gonna have to do that via free agency or via trade, and I think either Okafor or Noel — I don't think they'll trade both — but one of those two is probably their best trade chip.

 

Edited May 27, 2016 by BRAVEONAWARPATH