The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[CrypticVillain]

Is it a way we could get Horford, Anderson, and Norris Cole?

[StillUnknown]

so its basically Horford or scraps at this point right?

[Renegade7]

so its basically Horford or scraps at this point right?

 

Looking at the number of overpaid contracts of late, I'd rather get scraps instead of getting desperate.  I still want to trade Gortat for Nerlens Noel if we can't get Horford, but ya'll keep looking at me like I'm crazy or something.

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by Renegade7

[Warhead36]

Horford is 30. He doesn't really mesh with the idea of building a core group of young guys around Wall, like we have currently with Beal, Porter, Oubre, and possibly Satoranski(if he ever comes).

 

I think our best bet is to roll into next year with a lineup of Wall/Beal/Porter/Morris/Gortat, spend the remainder of our money on solid bench guys, and hope a new coach and young player development will allow us to take a step forward and then maybe we can try our luck again next year.

[Renegade7]

That's already a better team then last year, honestly.

[Going Commando]

Is it a way we could get Horford, Anderson, and Norris Cole?

Unfortunately not. Horford would use up most of our cap room and we definitely wouldn't be able to afford Anderson any more. But you wouldn't really have the minutes for Anderson any more either unless you trade Morris.

Don't know what Norris would cost. But we'd only have like 4 million in cap room after signing Horford to a max deal, so I'd imagine we wouldn't have enough for him.

[Taylor703]

Horford improves this team greatly. Especially with a distributor like Wall.

[SuperBash]

I think Horford would rather play the 4 and not have to play as many minutes at the 5 like he would other places, right? Much better core here to play with than Boston but Boston has a huge Dominican community. 

 

I guess we will find out tonight.

[CBass1724]

 

 

CBS Sports NBA Verified account ‏@CBSSportsNBA

Report: Celtics, Wizards 'frontrunners' to sign Al Horford, decision Saturday http://cbsprt.co/29cOIUM 

So you're saying there's a chance!

[Taylor703]

I really want him to sign here which most likely means he ends up back in Atlanta or signs with Boston.

[Popeman38]

My dream FA was Whiteside and Horford. If we can get Horford, and some decent vets to come off the bench, we can be sitting pretty for the 2/3 seed in the East.

[TradeTheBeal!]

Horford/Gortat/Morris is pretty sweet frontcourt rotation.

[pjfootballer]

50 wins? Come on man. You guys need to let go of that dream, even if Horford signs.

Edited July 2, 2016 by pjfootballer

[GOSKINS_08]

Great news, hopefully we land Horford.

[Renegade7]

Refraining from comment until Horford makes a decision.  The overall pessimism about this team right now is completely understandable, but getting kind of annoying.

[Destino]

50 wins? Come on man. You guys need to let go of that dream, even if Horford signs.

Eh? Last year was the worst of the previous three and this team managed to win 41. Adding an all star, upgrading the coach, and a bit of luck in the health department should make 50 perfectly reasonable. This team isn't the 76ers.

Horford is not ideal. He's old. He's kind of soft. His numbers are regressing. But he's a major upgrade for at least two seasons, can play the 4 and 5 while still giving us a shooting threat, and Morris as the first big off the bench leaves us with a good rotation of bigs for the playoffs.

I doubt he chooses the Wizards but if he did the team would be better in the short term.

I still want to know who the back up guards will be.

[Going Commando]

Boston's Dominican community is like 100 k + I believe, whereas DC's is only around 15k. That is supposedly a big factor in his choice of destination. I don't see how we're going to get around this disadvantage. Our advantage in roster talent isn't big enough and our coach and management aren worse. DC taxes are high and our weather is fairly miserable too. And our game atmosphere is lousy in comparison.

[pjfootballer]

Eh? Last year was the worst of the previous three and this team managed to win 41. Adding an all star, upgrading the coach, and a bit of luck in the health department should make 50 perfectly reasonable. This team isn't the 76ers.

We've been saying that for years. 1978.

Refraining from comment until Horford makes a decision. The overall pessimism about this team right now is completely understandable, but getting kind of annoying.

Well, they have to give us something to be positive about. This has been a clown show the last couple of weeks and Ted's actions have been embarrassing. I'm not quite in "Warheads" territory, but the team is slowly losing me.

[TradeTheBeal!]

We talking about "the weather" up in here?

We might be the ****iest fanbase in America right now.

[Going Commando]

It's a factor for these guys.

To get Horford to sign here, we basically have to sell him on Wall + Beal >>> Thomas + Crowder + Bradley, etc.

I think that's true. But it's a hard sell given the disappointing season we just had and the season of promising overachievement Boston just had.

Getting Horford would be a fairly substantial coup. As disappointing as the retention of Grunfeld and the Durant situation has been, an offseason where we get Horford, keep Beal, finally bring over Sato, and replace Randy with Brooks is actually pretty damn good.

One more thing I forgot, if Horford wants to play PF, that could help us. He would probably play C for Boston, whereas he would get most of his minutes at PF for us.

[bearrock]

DC taxes are high and our weather is fairly miserable too. And our game atmosphere is lousy in comparison.

 

It's fairly easy for DC players to not pay any income tax in DC http://www.taxaball.com/blog/why-athletes-should-track-dcs-autonomy-efforts

 

I really hope that the Wizards organization are aware enough to sell this to free agents or at least call Mike Rizzo for some ideas!!!!!!!!

[Renegade7]

We've been saying that for years. 1978.

Well, they have to give us something to be positive about. This has been a clown show the last couple of weeks and Ted's actions have been embarrassing. I'm not quite in "Warheads" territory, but the team is slowly losing me.

 

The only team I let get to me like that anymore are the Redskins, though I have a tattoo, so still definitely not going anywhere.

 

I keep telling myself there are Cleveland Brown season ticket holders out there, so even though I've been wanted to get to a game with a paper bag on my head or make a "Fire Ernie" sign, I still couldn't fathom just not watching them or rooting for someone else.

 

Most of my exposure to the rest of the NBA comes from watching Wizards play other teams, and I'd rather the Wizards win no matter what.  It's easier for me to separate the 40 years of no rings from specific eras I have hope for (like the Arenas or Wall era) because looking at it any other way would drive me bat **** crazy.

 

I also don't want to just come around when they finally get it right.  Not saying you are doing that, though hope does help me sleep at night.  That is a long time to wonder if they will ever get it right, really that is fair, but its not helping anything right now.

 

We have very different perspectives on this matter:  I was three years old the last time the Redskins won the Super Bowl.  You have something to compare to, this is all I know.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Renegade7

[Bozo the kKklown]

If they can get Horford, a starting 5 of Wall, Beal, Porter, Horford, and Gortat is nice. Wont win the division or make it to the ECF, but a solid playoff team.

Ambition

[pjfootballer]

The only team I let get to me like that anymore are the Redskins, though I have a tattoo, so still definitely not going anywhere.

I keep telling myself there are Cleveland Brown season ticket holders out there, so even though I've been wanted to get to a game with a paper bag on my head or make a "Fire Ernie" sign, I still couldn't fathom just not watching them or rooting for someone else.

Most of my exposure to the rest of the NBA comes from watching Wizards play other teams, and I'd rather the Wizards win no matter what. It's easier for me to separate the 40 years of no rings from specific eras I have hope for (like the Arenas or Wall era) because looking at it any other way would drive me bat **** crazy.

I also don't want to just come around when they finally get it right. Not saying you are doing that, though hope does help me sleep at night. That is a long time to wonder if they will ever get it right, really that is fair, but its not helping anything right now.

We have very different perspectives on this matter: I was three years old the last time the Redskins won the Super Bowl. You have something to compare to, this is all I know.

Sure, I understand different fans points of view. I get where you are coming from and even though I saw us win it all once, I was 10 years old and didn't really appreciate it. Hope you can see my point of view being that I did see us win I think makes older fans more salty. Not saying that younger guys don't feel the same pain, but I think it's different.

I'll never root for another NBA team if that was what you thought I was saying. I'd more or less become apathetic with the league. I hope I'm alive long enough to see us win another one, but with every fleeting year, I get less confident in that.

Maybe one day man; one day. Like you said, as fans, all we can do is hope.

[Going Commando]

50 wins is a reasonable expectation if Horford signed here. Horford is a 9 WS player and Keef is a basically 5 WS player. That's 14 wins coming from the PF position, whereas last season we probably got around 6 from the PF position. 4.5 from Dudley and just under 2 from the minutes Keef and Humphries played there. That's an 8 win improvement from last season just off improvement at the PF position.

Should get a natural increase of win shares at the SF position because Otto will likely improve and we didn't have a back up SF that contributed much last season. If all Oubre does is give you like 2 win shares this year, then that'll be more than we got last season.

Now you'll have to replace Nene's 2.7 wins at the C position and Sessions's 3.8 at PG. You'll also have to replace Garrett Temple's 2.7 at the SG position. Getting a good fourth big back up C and back up PG is key. Bringing over Sato and signing a solid back up PG can replace what Sessions and Temple did for us last season. Wouldn't be opposed to bringing back Sessions and Temple back either. Replacing Nene's production will be tricky since we wouldn't have any money after signing Horford. But if you can dig up a decent fourth big from Europe or the D league or whichever lightly regarded back up C is left, you'd come close.

I also think it's realistic to expect Scott Brooks to coax more wins from the team if given the exact same roster that Randy had. He's a better coach and his teams don't have the same history of underachievement. I think you'd mainly see the effect in substantially increased WS totals from Wall.

But the real candidate to make a big jump in WS production is Beal. He had 2.7 last season. If he makes the leap to a 7 or 8 WS player then that would be a net gain of four or five wins. Along with signing Horford, that would be a game-changing development that would put our realistic expectations above 50 wins.