The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Destino]

So reminds me of the Nene trade. Same response.

Main difference being that Nene was accepted as being a good player. Okafor and Ariza achieved "dump salary" on the worst team in the NBA.

---------- Post added June-20th-2012 at 03:23 PM ----------

Listen, why is this a bad trade?

We traded a dead, useless Gilbert Arenas to acquire Rashard Lewis. Trash was traded for more Trash. So Lewis was just trash sitting on the roster.

Now we get a serviceable big man who can maybe contribute off the bench and compete with Seraphin for minutes. These young guys should not be handed anything to them as they were last season. They should earn their spots. Let Kevin Seraphin beat Okafor out for the starting job, and then we have a good bench player in Emeka.

Both players only have two years on the contracts, so we are not tied up long term, we can make a big play in FA in two years.

People complain about everything on here, typically Washingtonian fans who think they know more than they do. I don't think we got worse than better.

That makes sense if you think that expiring deals in the NBA aren't valuable assets. Such thinking is very obviously wrong.

[lovetoaster]

Seconded. I don't what to think. Okafor and Ariza should be better than what Lewis and a 2nd round pick would give us next year, but I just don't know. :whoknows:

That's my issue though. This trade does make us better next year, but hurts us long term. This is a trade that a team makes that is looking to fortify a playoff roster, maybe to go from a six seed to a three seed. This trade might help us contend for the 8 seed next year, but there is very little room for improvement in year two and three. We are not in a position to only look at next year, we need to improve the team with moves that benefit us looking beyond one season and this does not do it, IMO.

[Mr Awesome]

I'm not impressed with Ariza at all...the only redeemable quality about this trade is Okafor. I dont see him as declining, he has just had some bad luck (which when you think about it, isnt a good thing when looking at the luck of the Wizards). I see him as a 15/10 guy every night, providing good defense and 'smart' basketball as well.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Listen, why is this a bad trade?

We traded a dead, useless Gilbert Arenas to acquire Rashard Lewis. Trash was traded for more Trash. So Lewis was just trash sitting on the roster.

Now we get a serviceable big man who can maybe contribute off the bench and compete with Seraphin for minutes. These young guys should not be handed anything to them as they were last season. They should earn their spots. Let Kevin Seraphin beat Okafor out for the starting job, and then we have a good bench player in Emeka.

Both players only have two years on the contracts, so we are not tied up long term, we can make a big play in FA in two years.

People complain about everything on here, typically Washingtonian fans who think they know more than they do. I don't think we got worse than better.

Not to mention that, as Mr. Awesome pointed out, Okafor is an extremely high-character guy. After the Gilbert/Blatche/McGee/NY years, we can't get enough of those. With such a young roster, STILL, we can't get enough veterans like that.

[No Excuses]

My main issue with Nene was the injury history and I didn't like that we gave up on McGee and tied up space.

Now we ruined our last bit of financial maneuverability for players who are really really not that good.

Some of you, please go look at how Ariza has played since leaving LA. Then look at how Okafor is declining for the last few years + battling injury. NOTHING justifies tying up 21M in cap space on these two. We cannot make any moves with this trade besides signing vet minimum players. The entire cap flexibility, for future trades or FA signings is destroyed.

We'll be signing D-league players the rest of the way.

[SuperBash]

We're gonna make the playoffs not once, not twice, not three times, but OkaFOR times!

Edited June 20, 2012 by SuperBash

[DallasBlowsBig]

Well here is the positive news. After next season, Okafor AND Ariza will be our "valuable" expiring contracts lol

[No Excuses]

I see him as a 15/10 guy every night, providing good defense and 'smart' basketball as well.

The last time he averaged 15/10 was his rookie season. He's averaged 10/9 the last three years.

[Destino]

Okafor and Ariza are going to lead this team out of the wilderness. Never did I think I'd hear such a thing. Perhaps Ernie is contagious.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

As I said when we drafted Wall, we're going to try to emulate the Bad Boy Pistons, i.e. the last team to win a ring with a PG as THE guy. Get a good scorer/shooter at the two (Beal) and a bunch of rouge, defensive-minded bigs down low. And whad'ya know....

[Mr Awesome]

I dont think this is that bad....:whoknows:

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG

2004–05 Charlotte 73 73 35.6 .447 .000 .609 10.9 .9 .9 1.7 15.1

2005–06 Charlotte 26 25 33.6 .415 .000 .656 10.0 1.2 .9 1.9 13.2

2006–07 Charlotte 67 65 34.8 .532 .000 .593 11.3 1.2 .9 2.6 14.4

2007–08 Charlotte 82 82 33.1 .535 .000 .570 10.7 .9 .8 1.7 13.8

2008–09 Charlotte 82 81 32.8 .561 .000 .593 10.1 .6 .6 1.7 13.2

2009–10 New Orleans 82 82 28.9 .530 .000 .562 9.0 .7 .7 1.6 10.4

2010–11 New Orleans 72 72 31.8 .573 .000 .562 9.5 .6 .6 1.8 10.3

2011–12 New Orleans 27 27 28.9 .533 .000 .514 7.9 .9 .6 1.0 9.9

[No Excuses]

Anyways I'm done in here. I'm going to steal one more post from another Wizards forum, from a guy who has worked very closely with this team for years:

Terrible trade. The Wizards have now taken enough cap space for two maximum contracts and transmogrified it into Nene, Okafor and Ariza.

I'm disgusted.

Horrible trade.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

I'm pretty sure Blatche gets amnestied now.

[Destino]

I'm not impressed with Ariza at all...the only redeemable quality about this trade is Okafor. I dont see him as declining, he has just had some bad luck (which when you think about it, isnt a good thing when looking at the luck of the Wizards). I see him as a 15/10 guy every night, providing good defense and 'smart' basketball as well.

What you are seeing is 2004. It's 2012 and 15-10 from Okafor would be surprising, especially being that he's likely to split minutes.

also, love that free throw %.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Destino

[Mr Awesome]

The last time he averaged 15/10 was his rookie season. He's averaged 10/9 the last three years.

Did he have Wall feeding him the ball? :pfft:

[Destino]

Did he have Wall feeding him the ball? :pfft:

No but his back and knee were still functional.

[No Excuses]

Did he have Wall feeding him the ball? :pfft:

He's had someone better. Chris Paul.

Was still mediocre.

[DallasBlowsBig]

I thought the reason we got Ariza is because he is a good defender. Oh yeah I forgot, people here don't care about defense , just shooting

Edited June 20, 2012 by DallasBlowsBig

[StillUnknown]

Well lets consider a genius option: Let Kevin earn his minutes!! If he is that good, which I think he can be, let him earn it and beat out Okafor. Or we can go by last year's rules and just hand out jobs on a silver platter with no competition. Poor Kevin Seraphin, little baby might actually have to earn his job now. Poor thing.

And consider this, IF Seraphin can't beat out Okafor for a starting job and minutes, he probably ain't got a great future in the NBA anyways!!

He earned his minutes last season by showing his development over the course of the 2nd half of the season. I have no doubts in my mind he can beat out Okafor, but decisions are not always made on talent alone. The size of Okafor's contract could get him minutes he hasn't earned.

There is also a certain segment of players that just perform better as starters as opposed to coming off the bench.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

And you know what, we gave up ****ing Rashard ****ing Lewis for them. Don't you need to give up something of value for it to be a bad trade? And spare me the expiring contract ****. They've become less valuable over the last few years. And we only got an extra year on that expiring deal anyway.

[DallasBlowsBig]

He earned his minutes last season by showing his development over the course of the 2nd half of the season. I have no doubts in my mind he can beat out Okafor, but decisions are not always made on talent alone. The size of Okafor's contract could get him minutes he hasn't earned.

There is also a certain segment of players that just perform better as starters as opposed to coming off the bench.

So Kevin Seraphin earned his minutes by beating out no one else worthy on the roster? lol, if that's earning minutes wow

[SuperBash]

He's had someone better. Chris Paul.

Was still mediocre.

He played a season in a half with Paul

[WALL-LE]

i think a lot of people here act like the NBA is the NFL and team building is the same.. its not.

We need to not suck next year so Walls confidence isn't completely shot and so he develops into a FRANCHISE player we want him to be..

This deal makes the team on walls shoulders to take us to the playoffs. This is his team and in 2 years we can be rid of these contracts and make a splash in FA possibly.

But right now we need to get better and this trade certainly did. We will be very good on D next year. Im starting to see us looking like the bulls

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Ernie Derangement Syndrome

[No Excuses]

So Kevin Seraphin earned his minutes by beating out no one else worthy on the roster? lol, if that's earning minutes wow

He played really well and was perhaps the most consistent player on the team. Post All-Star break he averaged 11 and 6. In the month of April to finish the season, he averaged 15 and 7. Does that count?