The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[No Excuses]

Maybe the Wizards can attract an athlete who is interested in social justice and politics rather than the limelight of LA and other pop-culture centric markets.

 

Imagine LeBron in DC, with access to the local political scene and media. It would be some powerful stuff.

[Renegade7]

7 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

Maybe the Wizards can attract an athlete who is interested in social justice and politics rather than the limelight of LA and other pop-culture centric markets.

 

Imagine LeBron in DC, with access to the local political scene and media. It would be some powerful stuff.

LeBron for President, he's popular enough that if he stayed in Ohio he could go right into office after he retired.

[CRobi21]

 

[Going Commando]

28 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

Imagine LeBron in DC, with access to the local political scene and media. It would be some powerful stuff.

 

This was the crux of Wilbon's argument for why LeBron should go to the Wizards.  It would be crazy.  As far as I know, DC has never had an athlete of LeBron's stature and fame playing for one of its teams.  During the Trump administration, LeBron in DC would be a lightning rod.  The basketball media in this town and interest in the Wizards would explode over night, and we'd be under one of the biggest microscopes that any team has ever been under.

 

It would be uncomfortable for us since we've existed in obscurity for a long time.  There would be a lot of distractions and every little thing Wall and Beal say would be blown up.  But it would be absolutely fascinating.  And I think it would be really good for the league.  LeBron and the Wizards could raise awareness for all kinds of causes here, and help drive social change if they wanted to.  No other black athletes in American pro sports could have the kind of influence and ability to lead that the Wizards players would have.

 

But we don't have the money or the assets or the appeal to get LeBron.  Every way I've tried to figure out how the Wizards can get LeBron, some other team either has more money to give him, a better on court product, or a better package of assets to trade to Cleveland for him.

[Destino]

1 hour ago, No Excuses said:

Maybe the Wizards can attract an athlete who is interested in social justice and politics rather than the limelight of LA and other pop-culture centric markets.

 

Imagine LeBron in DC, with access to the local political scene and media. It would be some powerful stuff.

The limelight doesn’t matter.  Palm trees don’t matter.  Nightlife doesn’t matter.  Organization quality matters over everything else.  Players want to join good well run teams where they imagine they can fit in and succeed.  Everything else is secondary. 

 

The Wizards can’t attract talent because the organization is bad.  This is the place with guns in the locker room, stars hating each other behind the scenes, and team meetings that make things worse.  The place with no D League team, a bad medical staff, and subpar practice facilities.  

[No Excuses]

29 minutes ago, Destino said:

The limelight doesn’t matter.  Palm trees don’t matter.  Nightlife doesn’t matter.  Organization quality matters over everything else.  Players want to join good well run teams where they imagine they can fit in and succeed.  Everything else is secondary. 

 

The Wizards can’t attract talent because the organization is bad.  This is the place with guns in the locker room, stars hating each other behind the scenes, and team meetings that make things worse.  The place with no D League team, a bad medical staff, and subpar practice facilities.  

 

 

True.

 

 

Feels bad man. 

[Llevron]

Yea thanks alot you jerk @Destino

 

[Destino]

Oh come on do you guys @Llevron @No Excuses not follow the team?  I included some of those negatives specifically to highlight how things will be changing.  Ted has been spending money on upgrading some of the important aspects of the team I mentioned.  So in case you didn’t know, good news!  The Wizards G-League team, the Capital City Go-Go, bursts into existence for the 2018-19 season.  They’ll be playing in the Wizards brand new practice facility that is still on schedule for a September 2018 opening.  I have no news on medical staff plans though, it’s hard to even find specifics on that stuff.   

 

The bad news is Ernie remains employed.  

 

[Llevron]

I did peep the D league thing but didn't say anything cause it's the G league now. 

 

But that doesn't change that fact that you hurt me. 

 

(Totally missed the training facility)

[StillUnknown]

14 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

We don't need to drastically remake the front court, we just need to get rid of Gortat and find one quality five man.  Probably not Mahinmi, but I am interested to see what he can do as a regular starter for 26 minutes a game.  The game has changed anyway.  Golden State has won three rings in four years with garbage center play.  It's all about positionless perimeter-oriented play and being able to put the best combination of switchers, passers, and shooters on the court at the same time.  Brown is going to help us do that.

 

Disagree here, frontcourt needs a complete remodel. Right now our best option is likely playing small and putting Otto at the 4, which probably means his hip will give out by the 2nd week. Gortat/Mahinmi/Keef all hurt the team more than they help at this point. Scott was Grunfeld's one find the last 2 or 3 seasons and unless he really likes the area, he's likely gone.

 

Brown will help, but you can't depend on that this season or next most likely. We need susbtance

 

15 hours ago, Skin'emAlive said:

The name of this thread should be changed to the Ernie Grunfield Era. John Wall should be furiously ****ting down EG's throat for pissing away another draft. But he can't be bothered with giving a damn unless someone calls him out on Twitter or something. Dude either doesn't have the foresight to see how terrible our roster moves will turnout repeatedly, or just gives no ****s during the offseason. 

 

Its mindboggling how how far this team has fallen for me this year. I am a step away from abandoning this team for atleast a year. I'll wait and see what idiocracy EG draws up in the FA. Completely expecting picks and Ian for Alex Len or some other unathletic 5, as well as an injury discounted gunner. 

 

First thing Wall said after the season was essentially that he wanted a new frontcourt. 

[Destino]

55 minutes ago, StillUnknown said:

Disagree here, frontcourt needs a complete remodel.

The elephant in the room is that Wall, Beal, Otto, playing under Brooks do not work well together.  The major change the Wizards need to be thinking about is between those four names.  We're obsessing over role players when really, a three star team should be far better than the Wizards have been able to show.  If you want to depress yourself check out the wizards 4th quarter post season offensive stats from this past year.  There's also culture to consider, because it's evident that this teams locker room wasn't good. 

 

As far as the front court goes, with three max contracts already and draft picks being spent on projects the Wizards can't really expect to sign great bigs.  If a miracle happens and the wizards can unload Gortat and Mahinmi, they're still going to have mediocre players at center. 

 

[No Excuses]

Hypothetically, this team should be able to overcome mediocre 4/5's because it has three max players at 1-2-3. With that much money in three positions, you aren't getting great talent at other positions unless you hit a miracle draft pick.

 

Destino is right. Wall-Beal-Porter is really underwhelming. This team can make do with decent role players at other positions.

 

But to make matters worse, Ernie has always sucked at building depth. The depth on this team in the Arenas-Butler-Jamison years was pretty bad.

Edited June 23, 2018 by No Excuses

[Going Commando]

34 minutes ago, Destino said:

The elephant in the room is that Wall, Beal, Otto, playing under Brooks do not work well together.  The major change the Wizards need to be thinking about is between those four names.  We're obsessing over role players when really, a three star team should be far better than the Wizards have been able to show.  If you want to depress yourself check out the wizards 4th quarter post season offensive stats from this past year.  There's also culture to consider, because it's evident that this teams locker room wasn't good. 

 

As far as the front court goes, with three max contracts already and draft picks being spent on projects the Wizards can't really expect to sign great bigs.  If a miracle happens and the wizards can unload Gortat and Mahinmi, they're still going to have mediocre players at center. 

 

 

I don't think Wall, Beal, or Porter are the problem.  Yes, I wish John and Brad played better defense, but I also recognize that their offensive role limits them on that end, and their offensive value offsets their mediocre defense.

 

When John and Brad are healthy, our offense works.  It's actually really good.  We finished 7th on ORtg the year before, at 111.2.  And we were able to score in fourth quarters.  John and Brad are dynamic shot creating scorers who can give you crunch time scoring.  Last year was an aberration.  And they're good passers who can play team ball.

 

I think the offense has room to improve, but I think it's already good.

 

For me the issue is the interior defense and the rebounding.  Look at our league rankings from last year.  22nd in defensive rebounding.  23rd in opponent 2 pt %.  We ranked 6th in defending the 3 pt line! We were 9th in forcing turnovers.  We have the horses on the perimeter to be an excellent defensive team.  We're getting undermined by terrible interior play.

 

And the reason the terrible interior play is so damning is because of how much we're spending for it.  35 million committed to centers.  43 million once you add in Keef.  That's almost half our cap space devoted to a position group with four replacement level players.  It would be fully half our cap if we hadn't sacrificed a first round pick to dump Nicholson.  And we also spent two first round picks to get Keef and Gortat.  That is an absolutely crippling resource commitment to guys who now suck.

 

We don't have to make this more complicated than it really is.  The problem with this roster is that we've spent a ton of draft picks and money on bigs who can't match up, not the three guys who are actually good players.  A sane resource allocation would be to spend 80% of our cap on guards and rangy forwards and then get like one single center who can give us 25 quality minutes a night.  This is our ticket to improving.

[Going Commando]

18 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

With that much money in three positions, you aren't getting great talent at other positions unless you hit a miracle draft pick.

 

The thing is, we are spending a ton of money on the front court.  Last year we spent 46 million on and committed six roster spots to power forwards and centers.  That's almost half the cap and it's 40% of available roster spots on two positions which are of dwindled importance.  And like I said before, we spent three first round picks in four years trying to fix the PF and C positions.  We have spent so much money and draft capital recently on guys who suck.

 

Finding the resources to fix the front court even when you have three max players on the perimeter is doable.  We've just failed at it.

 

I actually think finding a capable five man should be one of the easiest things to achieve for a team picking in the mid to late first round.  These guys often are available later than the good guards and wings because they don't need to have skills and usually don't.  Last year, Bam Adebayo was the 14th pick.  John Collins went 19th.  The Nets took Jarrett Allen with our pick at 22 (that one hurts).  The year before that, Skal Labissiere went 28th and Ivica Zubac went 32nd.  In 2015 Bobby Portis went 22nd, Kevon Looney went 30th, Montrezl Harrell went 32nd, Willy Hernangomez went 35th, Richaun Holmes went 37th.  In 2014 Jusuf Nurkic went 16th, Clint Capela went 25th, Nikola Jokic went 41st.

 

So on and so forth.  You need young legs and NBA size at the position.  That's how you get somebody with the vigor to rebound and protect the rim.  Bigs get slow and soft and stop jumping as they age.  You have to keep the pipeline of young big man talent full so you can cycle them out when they get too old and expensive and the quality of their defense and rebounding drops.

 

Our problem is that we're on the wrong end of this cycle.  We're overpaying for bigs on the declining end.  We're committing way too much to the position and getting really crappy production.  No team needs more than two centers on their roster, and one of those guys should be a dirt cheap back up on a rookie deal.  We've got three, all of them over 30, none of them any good.  It's killing us.  The resource allocation at PF is better, but Keef is a lousy small ball five and Mike Scott can't play small ball five against any opponent whatsoever.  He doesn't rebound or defend.  The fact that we can't get help at the 5 spot from our 4s exacerbates our weakness there.

 

Keef needs a slight paycut.  Gortat and Mahinmi and Smith all need to go.  We need to draft a guy like Collins/Adebayo/Allen.  We need a cheap PF who can play defense and play some 5 like a David West.  And we need a min or rookie contract back up 5 who can play 500 minutes a season without crapping his pants.  That's how the good teams are doing it.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

 

[Warhead36]

All these big name FAs and not one are linked to the Wizards. The Clippers, the mother effing Clippers, have more pull than we do. This organization is a joke.

[Destino]

2 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

All these big name FAs and not one are linked to the Wizards. The Clippers, the mother effing Clippers, have more pull than we do. This organization is a joke.

No cap space.  In fact that doesn't even cover it, the Wizards are desperate to shed salary. 

[StillUnknown]

 

The man's vision is limitless. Proud that he's still driving the ship. All must hail

[Kosher Ham]

11 hours ago, Destino said:

No cap space.  In fact that doesn't even cover it, the Wizards are desperate to shed salary. 

 

I tried to convey that message before Beal and that other guy not named Wall. 

You can't trade those guys at this time of year for their contracts. 

 

I actually think that I stated that Wall was in a same type of situation as Gil when he got re-signed. 

Nope. 

[Going Commando]

4 hours ago, StillUnknown said:

The man's vision is limitless. Proud that he's still driving the ship. All must hail

 

All he had to friggin say: "front court."

 

Wonder if the media asked him why the team keeps extending his contract in secret?

[StillUnknown]

2 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

All he had to friggin say: "front court."

 

Wonder if the media asked him why the team keeps extending his contract in secret?

 

the media really likes him, he's a swell guy apparently

[justice98]

I will say, they still are a pretty young team.  I think we do kinda forget that cuz they've been together a while.  This will be 6 years of them being together, so the window is now or never.  But the first few were them just going through growing pains as young players.  But Otto just turned 25, Beal turns 25 next week, Wall is 28 in Sept, Sato's 26, Oubre's 22.  Of key contributors likely to be on the team, Keef is a senior citizen at 29.

 

But you see Boston out here with literal kids going to the ECF, it ratchets up the pressure.

 

[RonArtest15]

3 minutes ago, justice98 said:

I will say, they still are a pretty young team.  I think we do kinda forget that cuz they've been together a while.  This will be 6 years of them being together, so the window is now or never.  But the first few were them just going through growing pains as young players.  But Otto just turned 25, Beal turns 25 next week, Wall is 28 in Sept, Sato's 26, Oubre's 22.  Of key contributors likely to be on the team, Keef is a senior citizen at 29.

 

But you see Boston out here with literal kids going to the ECF, it ratchets up the pressure.

 

 

A big part of the problem is the coaching.  Stevens gets the most out of EVERYONE on the roster.  Brooks yo-yo'd Sato until his hand was forced.  THen it was back to the yo-yo act.  And guess what the Wizards do....draft a guy who plays just like Sato in Brown.  SMH. 

 

I still maintain that this team needs to figure out a way to land a true STAR player to put alongside of Wall/Beal.  Can't go into next season with the same starters and expect things to be different.  We're already looking up at a grip of teams and that gap will get wider unless something drastic is done. 

[justice98]

9 minutes ago, RonArtest15 said:

I still maintain that this team needs to figure out a way to land a true STAR player to put alongside of Wall/Beal.  Can't go into next season with the same starters and expect things to be different.  We're already looking up at a grip of teams and that gap will get wider unless something drastic is done. 

 

The alpha on the team probably shouldn't be Wall.  

[RonArtest15]

14 minutes ago, justice98 said:

 

The alpha on the team probably shouldn't be Wall.  

 

Might not be....also, look in to this however you want, but Brown said the only player to reach out to him following the draft was Beal.  I thought that was interesting...