The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Renegade7]

You mean like Beal? Our second best player on the team?

Adding more veterans to this team will not help' date=' and is not possible because we already have too much money tied to our current stellar cast of veterans. Our only option is to either get lucky in the FA (Webster), or have a good draft.[/quote']

As much as i like Beal, he needs to show he can stay healthy before i trust him to be that guy (come back to me 2-3 years from now). And even with him and wall being hits, look how many misses we have with all our lotto picks the last couple years. Pro-basketball reference shows okafor with a team option and ariza with a player option. we should be able to get both those contracts nixed and brought into a reasonable terriroty. webster was great this season, but had stretches where he dissapeared (injury or not). he'll get paid, but hes not getting maxed out. With all this young talent, i really hope they get some veteran leadership or role players. this team needs more arizas and okafors, not more singletons and seraphins.

[ixcuincle]

Thunder were able to improve. Simple answer is when you keep losing and don't improve, you need to change up the front office. The Wizards wasted multiple draft picks on Euros

Who will the Wizards draft this year

[Rocky21]

Well that's over. Looks like we are picking 7th or 8th with Detroit.

[SuperBash]

In terms of trading Nene, who the hell would want a guy with a huge contract, just considered retirement, and who's body seems to be braking down? If we did trade him, it would be for just about as much salary with MAYBE a year less on the deals. We won't just be able to get out of this contract, especially when his value is at an all time low.

[StillUnknown]

Thunder were able to improve. Simple answer is when you keep losing and don't improve, you need to change up the front office. The Wizards wasted multiple draft picks on Euros

Who will the Wizards draft this year

Rudy Gobert or Dario Sakic

my ultimate fear is we're about to see Foye/Miller pt.2

[Kotemah]

The backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal is keeping me excited.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Kotemah

[Samuels]

Rudy Gobert or Dario Sakic

my ultimate fear is we're about to see Foye/Miller pt.2

I fear a awful trade as well especially listening to Wall and Beal. The company line seems to be a stretch 4 and a scorer off the bench preferably a Vet. No chance I trade this pick unless its involved in a blockbuster for a legit player.

Noel

McLemore

Porter

Bennett

Muhammed

Zeller

Len

Oladipo

Burke

I will take any of them over a BS trade.

[Going Commando]

Wittman's fault. He worked on his shot all summer and early in the year everytime he took it and missed he was immediately benched. There isn't a young player on the planet that would gain confidence like that. He's not good but the way Wittmans chosen to develop him has made him worse. He was better last season.

Yeah, he regressed. So did Seraphin and probably Singleton too.

Okafor, Webster, and Ariza all had good years, much better than their previous seasons with other teams. I'm guessing Wittman's coaching style and his system aren't kind to young players. Beal is the only young player who thrived and he's got the IQ and maturity of a veteran.

[StillUnknown]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2013/04/19/jan-vesely-hates-free-throws/

One of the recurring questions during Thursday’s exit interviews with the Wizards was about Jan Vesely’s lack of confidence. A.J. Price gave some insight into what exactly is freaking Vesely out.

“I’ve heard it out of his own mouth,” Price explained. “He doesn’t like to go to the free-throw line, because everybody’s watching. It’s a confidence thing, so you know exactly what the issue is with him. It’s up to him to find that piece, or that confidence. However he’s going to find it, it’s up to him to find it.”

[Skin'emAlive]

Beidrins never recovered from that. Vesely is dead in the water.

[Going Commando]

We lost the coin flip with the Pistons. We're slotted 8th in the lottery. We've got the same odds for the lottery that the Pistons do. Our slotting just means we'll pick 8th if we don't win the lottery and no one behind us wins it. Kind of sucks.

[Samuels]

We lost the coin flip with the Pistons. We're slotted 8th in the lottery. We've got the same odds for the lottery that the Pistons do. Our slotting just means we'll pick 8th if we don't win the lottery and no one behind us wins it. Kind of sucks.

I think its a 9 player draft in my opinion after that its a drop off. I even like Robinson III as a 10th player but the top 9 have alot of upside/potential.

[Destino]

Wizards players and coach have apparently communicated the opinion that they'd prefer to trade the pick and add veterans. I'm not surprised. The NBA caliber players on this team are not going to want the team to get younger because this team has too many developing players and not enough players that are good right now, today. Plus this team is already developing Vesely, Beal, and Singleton.

I don't see it happening though because they'd need to trade a lot of salary in order to add much of anything. They'll likely have to draft someone to stay under the tax.

[Going Commando]

I think its a 9 player draft in my opinion after that its a drop off. I even like Robinson III as a 10th player but the top 9 have alot of upside/potential.

Robinson said he's going back to school. Who do you have as the top 9?

---------- Post added April-19th-2013 at 10:45 PM ----------

Wizards players and coach have apparently communicated the opinion that they'd prefer to trade the pick and add veterans. I'm not surprised. The NBA caliber players on this team are not going to want the team to get younger because this team has too many developing players and not enough players that are good right now, today. Plus this team is already developing Vesely, Beal, and Singleton.

I don't see it happening though because they'd need to trade a lot of salary in order to add much of anything. They'll likely have to draft someone to stay under the tax.

Not doing much to develop Vesely and Singleton. Right now they're a waste of cap space, we could find cheaper players than them to play 500 minutes a season--poorly.

We don't need to be pulling a Miller-Foye trade anyway. Everyone thinks this class sucks. Nobody is going to give up anything good for the 8th pick. We should just pick one guy out of this class we think we can make something out of. We're in a worsening situation with Nene. Okafor and Ariza are gone after this year. Booker and Martell get injured every year. Seraphin is regressing. The rest of our bench is D League caliber.

Trading long term upside for a minimal immediate return would just be dumb. What a Wizards move.

[757SeanTaylor21]

I wouldn't be surprised to see the wiz to go for cousins real hard...but i could definitely see them drafting seller (quivers)

[nuposse87]

Wizards players and coach have apparently communicated the opinion that they'd prefer to trade the pick and add veterans. I'm not surprised. The NBA caliber players on this team are not going to want the team to get younger because this team has too many developing players and not enough players that are good right now, today. Plus this team is already developing Vesely, Beal, and Singleton.

I don't see it happening though because they'd need to trade a lot of salary in order to add much of anything. They'll likely have to draft someone to stay under the tax.

Outside of Wall and Beal none of them really have an opinion that should matter THAT much. Okafor/Nene/Seraphin aren't long term solutions, Adding a young big with potential isn't a bad thing since the young bigs we have haven't really shown anything worth a damn. Nene/Okafor have their own faults as well. I'm all for listening to players and coaches, provided that they are worth listening to.

[Skin'emAlive]

I wouldn't be surprised to see the wiz to go for cousins real hard...but i could definitely see them drafting seller (quivers)

At this point with our position in the draft, i would be perfectly ok with us trading for Cousins. In fact, i might consider that a successful offseason should we be able to also secure a backup guard or stretch-4 as well.

[StillUnknown]

Outside of Wall and Beal none of them really have an opinion that should matter THAT much. Okafor/Nene/Seraphin aren't long term solutions, Adding a young big with potential isn't a bad thing since the young bigs we have haven't really shown anything worth a damn. Nene/Okafor have their own faults as well. I'm all for listening to players and coaches, provided that they are worth listening to.

listening to the players got us stuck with Wittman

[The Sisko]

Speaking of the draft. I've been working on a 2k13 draft class on and off for the past two months and I can't get the thing to work right. I've gotten all of the ratings and player info pretty good. I've tested it out several times and the players max out about where they should.

But I can not get the game to draft the players in a realistic order or properly value draft picks. The teams draft for need and make huge scouting errors. Basically, regardless of draft position, runs on one or two positions will happen and teams will take second rounders in the lottery. If a PG or SF get's taken first or second, 5 or 6 of the next 8 picks will be a PG or SF as teams just pick all of the draftable prospects at that position in order. Then PFs or Cs will go next, all in a bloc, so on and so forth. Anyone know how to fix this problem in the drafting AI?

But the upside of this problem is that you get ridiculous value picks at almost any point in the first 40 selections. I got Nerlens Noel at the 8th pick when I drafted for the Wizards. I then traded Vesely, Singleton, and Seraphin for another late lotto pick and drafted Otto Porter. Then with the 37th pick I got Victor Oladipo. You can end up with some nasty draft classes like that but it makes the game feel broken.

You should have checked the developer more carefully. Buying a game developed by Ernie Grunfeld was bound to work out that way.

[Going Commando]

Getting Cousins would be a hugely successful offseason in and of itself. It'd be a legit second star to pair with Wall who has the exact same career window as him. With those two and Beal, we'd be dominant in three years.

He's not going to be cheap or easy to get though. He's the centerpiece for Sacramento's team. They went and traded TRob for Patrick Patterson to get him a friend on the team and make him happy and stabilize his behavior. I don't think they're looking to trade him right now. The only hope is that new ownership takes over and wants to start over from scratch and doesn't want to deal with Cousins's personality.

[Samuels]

Robinson said he's going back to school. Who do you have as the top 9?

---------- Post added April-19th-2013 at 10:45 PM ----------

Not my top 10 in order but i'd be ok with any of the 9.

Tier 1

Noel

McLemore

After those 2 I think you could see any of the other 7 going 3rd.

Porter

Len- I think will go top 5 after workouts to much upside with his size and mobility being 19

Zeller

Burke

Bennett

Oladipo

Muhammed

I guess BPA in my opinion

Noel

McLemore

Porter

Burke

Bennett

Muhammed

Zeller

Len

Oladipo

For the Wizards

Noel

Porter

Bennett

Muhammed

Zeller

Len

Plus you will have a high riser might be Gobert and somebody else will drop. We will get a good prospect.

[Going Commando]

That's similar to how I have it ranked right now Samuels. Noel and McLemore are the tier one, then a whole bunch of guys about even for the second tier.

I'd probably go like this though:

3.) Bennett

4.) Zeller

5.) Porter

6.) Muhammad

7.) Burke

8.) Oladipo

9.) Len

I like Bennett because he can already score inside and out and he could be a deadly pick and roll weapon. He can pop out and score and he could be a beast of a finisher. He can shoot threes. Plus he can face up and create his own offense off the dribble, so he'd be a big threat to a spaced out defense from the perimeter. He's very passionate and aggressive like a star player. I think he's going to be a 20 PPG scorer in the NBA.

I like Zeller a lot more than most people too. To me, he's an extremely rare player as a 20 year old legit seven footer with great skills and an elite feel for the game. I hope he's the one that drops to us.

Everyone likes Porter, not a whole that needs to be said about him.

I'm pretty torn on Shabazz. I don't like all of the off court stuff surrounding him at all, plus he looks heavier and less explosive than he used to. And his ball handling isn't as good as I though it was. His off hand isn't very good and he's not a great passer. Lying about his age all this time is a big red flag for me. But I love his motor and aggressiveness and I love how versatile he is as a scorer. He can post up and score in the lane and he is a great finisher. And he showed he was a much better jump shooter from range than people thought. I think there is a lot of James Harden in him.

I like Burke, but not a whole lot for the Wizards. He's a great ball handler and shooter off the bounce. He's poised and he could come in and replace AJ Price as the back up point and the perimeter shooter in lineups with Wall. But he'll never be a starter for us. And he's kind of slow and he's short and he had a tendency to get very streaky with his shot and force the issue against defensive pressure.

I like Len some, but not nearly as much as Zeller. He's a great athlete and has a gigantic frame and he can already shoot from mid range. But he doesn't have strong hands and he had a hard time holding position against much smaller players like James McAdoo. He's pretty passive. He had a lot of games where he did nothing. I don't totally trust him.

I also want to say I'm not in love with either Noel or McLemore. I'm glad we probably won't be in a position to have to draft them. Noel is a great athlete who will be a great defender. He's got good looking handles and the ability to get around big men plus he's a good passer that sees the floor well. But he just doesn't have good shooting touch IMO. His finishes are pretty wild when he can't dunk it and he's a lousy shooter.

McLemore scares me because he's already 21 and didn't do anything at all before this year. I learned my lesson with TRob last year, and I think there are a lot of the same things going on. Like TRob, he's got one really elite skill (spot up shooting for McLemore, rebounding for TRob). I think that skill paired with freakish athleticism is what has gotten them overrated as prospects. McLemore isn't a very good ball handler and he isn't as good a finisher as you would think given how high flying he is. Too often he doesn't take the ball all of the way to the rim and get himself to the FT line, and instead he just settles for these floaters. He doesn't break guys down or consistently get himself space. And I don't like how passive he gets, especially when he's not shooting well. I think he'll be good, he's got a perfect looking shot and he's a freak athlete, but I don't think he's going to be a franchise player and I think he is going to disappoint the team that takes him second. I get an OJ Mayo vibe from him.

[StillUnknown]

I could see Bennett getting buried in Wittman's doghouse just as easily as I could see him succeeding.

[SuperBash]

If there is no one they love/great fit for the team at 8 or 9, just take CJ McCollum out of Lehigh. He would take care of our bench scoring guard need and would be for the next 5 years or so. He'd be a sure thing to help us, but he won't be a starter.

[Rocky21]

We lost the coin flip with the Pistons. We're slotted 8th in the lottery. We've got the same odds for the lottery that the Pistons do. Our slotting just means we'll pick 8th if we don't win the lottery and no one behind us wins it. Kind of sucks.

Curse of Les Boulez.