The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[RichmondRedskin88]

Here comes a dumb pick I'm sure.

 

nvm- we jus

Edited June 28, 2013 by RichmondRedskin88

[Going Commando]

Wonder if we're going to bring Webster back then?

Wonder what we're going to do with Ariza?

[RemoveSnyder]

I guess un-scratch Rice Jr. 

 

[Destino]

Can Rice play SG?  We seem to have a lot of SFs all of the sudden.  I think it's pretty clear that Webster is gone now.  

[Going Commando]

I liked Wolters, probably over Glenn Rice Jr but I don't really care. I can finally turn this thing off.

[RemoveSnyder]

Well now I guess it's about whichever shooter makes it to the undrafted range for a sign op. 

But I'll say this, Doug Anderson should be drafted. I want him. I can't think of another guy which resembles the modern day run and leap style of the NBA, like Anderson. And DA can leap, big time. 

 

Hope he makes it to undrafted, he and Curry. 

Edited June 28, 2013 by Monk4thaHALL

[SuperBash]

If they don't bring back Webster, maybe they use their MLE on a solid big man

[killerbee99]

Break down of our draft picks by draft express

 

 

Glenn Rice Jr

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5E_IpKjowQ&feature=player_embedded

Otto Porter Jr

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdMAPF0rvvU&feature=player_embedded

Edited June 28, 2013 by killerbee99

[Skin'emAlive]

Im saying now... Killer draft.

 

Now lets just see what we will do with Webster/Ariza and the Free Agency regarding upgrading the 4 or 5 or backup pg

Edited June 28, 2013 by Skin'emAlive

[Fergasun]

I would've preferred to see the Wizards draft Noel; but Porter isn't bad for #3....

[Hersh]

I honestly don't get idea behind drafting two small forwards unless they think Otto can play PF if the wiz can occasionally go small. Now they better not resign Webster and not sure what they do with ariza. I would have preferred depth at PG with a lorenz brown or depth with a big man like Withey. Seems like SF is the one place we had depth for next season. Doesn't seem well thought out.

[ixcuincle]

Len is overrated, and I follow the MD team closely. Don't see how he was top 5 or even #1 pick. He's okay, but nothing sensational. 

[Thinking Skins]

Is Glen Rice more of a 2 or a 3? The way I was thinking about him, I figured he could be a nice reserve 2/3 and provide some firepower for the second unit which at this point isn't too good. I do wonder if he'd do well in that role though cause I have memories of how Jordan Crawford couldn't handle it. And I hope he's not a guy who just jacks up shots like Crawford did.

[The Sisko]

The shot jacking/low BB IQ thing seem to be the major knocks against him. Well, that and his potential to be Agent Zero part deux. If this is EG's draft screw up that gets him fired then we get the best of both worlds, Porter and the end of the EG era. The alternative is that Rice Jr. works out which is a good outcome as well.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Yusuf06

[Going Commando]

I honestly don't get idea behind drafting two small forwards unless they think Otto can play PF if the wiz can occasionally go small. Now they better not resign Webster and not sure what they do with ariza. I would have preferred depth at PG with a lorenz brown or depth with a big man like Withey. Seems like SF is the one place we had depth for next season. Doesn't seem well thought out.

GRJr shouldn't be a factor in any decision with Porter, Webster, or Ariza. He's a second rounder. All you're looking for out of a second rounder is actual NBA ability. That's the thinking behind the pick. You've got like a 6% chance of finding someone who will ever play notable minutes in the NBA with a second rounder. GRJr probably has NBA ability so that's why we picked him. He'll probably spend some time in the D League again, but mainly, he'll be an end of the bench guy early in his career until he earns his way onto the court. If he makes the team that is.

Webster and Ariza have proven they're capable NBA players who can each be effective starters in a potent line up. Both are also capable sixth men.

I would try and extend Webster with the intent he'll be my sixth man. He'll be the leader of my second line, the best shooter in that unit, and he'll also snag a lot of time with the first unit because he can play SG and Porter can play PF.

I would deal Ariza before the season if there was something attractive out there. I think he would prefer to go back to the West Coast and have a chance at a starting role. Webster wants to be here, so it gives him the edge since most other factors are equal between them.

We've got good options with Ariza. If we start the season off on an absolute tear and are in contention for a top three seed and Ariza is a key part of that, then we can just keep him and use the 7+ million in cap savings for ourselves.

If we're not in that situation, then we have until the trade deadline to make a decision. Next year will be an ideal time to trade for quality players because:

1.) Lux tax penalties are kicking in that summer and most teams with pricey rosters are going to be desperate to shed salary.

2.) The 2014 class is so strong, there will be a lot of teams tanking, looking to drop quality players and shed salary for expirings.

If we could find a credible long term replacement for Okafor at C by dealing him and Ariza and whatever, then we'll be very well positioned to contend long term.

[RonArtest15]

Of all the madness from last night, who would have thought that EG had some of the most logical picks?  I give the Wizards draft a flat out "A."  They addressed needs and came away with players who will see major minutes next year. 

 

Porter, IMO, will be starting from day 1.  This was such a good pick. 

 

GRJr., is a guy who can play both the 2/3 and is NBA ready.  If there weren't so many red-flags with him while in college, he would have been a sure-bet 1st round pick.  After watching the draft interview he did with Jalen Rose and Bill Simmons, he at least SEEMS like he's humbled himself and matured in his time out of school.  We have strong enough character in our locker room (strange to say, but it's true) to help keep him in check and on the straight and narrow.  Wizards actually exude professionalism.  EG did his due diligence and this pick could turn out to be one of the steals in the 2nd round. 

 

Expectations next year SHOULD be playoffs.  If this team can stay healthy, I don't see why it's out of the question. 

 

The pieces are finally in place to make a sizeable jump in the standings and help get DC basketball back to a state or relevance. 

[Going Commando]

Somehow, some way, Ernie Grunfeld has blundered our way into an incredible position. There is so much we did wrong:

- Gilbert Arenas extension.

- Mike Miller & Randy Foye

- We whiffed on the entire 2011 class.

- We royally screwed up extending Blatche and had to use our amnesty on him. Still paying him for a while too.

- We ended up with a situation where we had to play JaVale McGee and Nick Young big minutes, making us effectively the dumbest team in the NBA. The Shaqtin' A Fool Dynasty.

- There was a point when Jordan Big Balls Crawford, who once claimed he could be at least as good as MJ, was our team MVP and only credible scorer. In the midst of a 4-28 stretch.

--------------

And then there is so much that just kind of fell into place for us:

- We got our young superstar by getting majorly lucky in the lottery. In a year where there was a transcendent talent at PG.

- We got the platonic ideal of runningmates for him in Beal and Porter soon after. You literally could not have drafted a SG and SF better suited to playing with Wall.

And there isn't a chance in hell that could have happened without lottery luck. One pick later in 2012 and Beal would be a Cleveland Cavalier and we'd have been screwed. This year, if we'd been stuck at 8, we would have missed out on Bennett, Porter, Noel, Len, Zeller, Dipo, and McLemore! That was every non PG in the top tier! We'd have been totally screwed and would have had to take CJ McCollum or something--not a bad player, but a career reserve for us. The basketball gods smiled on us lottery night in three out of four consecutive years. The improbability of that blows my mind. We're the Wizards!

- We traded Gil and his impossible contract and somehow ended up with a decent starting C and a pretty good rotational SF with deals that expire at just the right time. We lucked into a situation where a GM in the division was desperately trying to make it work with Dwight and he had a suitable contract to make a one for one trade. Fastforward to today, Gil is off doing God knows what, out of the league and just got arrested. Our young franchise PG is emerging as a star. And the GM that traded for Gil has long since been fired and his team has been burnt to the ground and is in the middle of a total rebuild. We dodged a nuclear bomb. Again, we're the Wizards. That just doesn't happen to us.

- We took advantage of Denver's unusual buyer's remorse to upgrade from JaVale Pierre McGee to Nene. That Nene was available in and of itself was such an unlikely turn of events. He had a career year where he lead the NBA in FG%, got hurt in the offseason, and came into the year slowed. Which scared Denver just months after they signed him to a big long term extension. It was a bizarre sequence of events and it bailed us out of a bad situation at C. And before anyone starts whining about Nene's contract because of his injuries, consider the alternatives. We could be paying JaVale McGee 11 million a year for the next three years instead. Or worse, we could have no credible 7 footer at all and be forced to lean on Kevin Seraphin.

- We lucked into Martell, who signed for peanuts because Minny gave up on him because of health issues. He ends up being a big locker room guy and has a career year. When has a frequently injured free agent coming off a disappointing stint for two other teams ever blossomed as a Wizard?

- And then we made what, at the time, seemed a terrible trade for Okafor and Ariza. Only both improbably got better once they got here, which might be the first time in Wizards history that has ever happened. We actually bought low from another team.

The expirings are useful players in the meantime, guys you wouldn't mind seeing stick around at a reduced cost. And it postponed our massive amount of scheduled savings in expiring deals by one year to just the right summer. It's a good RFA market. And the confluence of a deep, potentially star studded UFA class, a very nice RFA class, a once in a decade draft class, and brand new, harsh luxury taxes have created a tremendous buyer's market for teams looking for vet players.

And at the same time, the Eastern Conference is in the midst of realigning itself:

- Boston just went into full on tank mode. Scratch them from the playoffs for a while.

- Orlando went into tank mode last season and should be there for a while.

- Philly went into tank mode and should be there for a while too.

- Atlanta went into tank mode, scratch them from the palyoffs too.

- Toronto is in the midst of an overhaul and has a mess of a roster.

- Detroit and Milwaukee are stuck in purgatory, without stars or any way to get one, on the fringes of the playoff picture for the forseeable future.

- Charlotte is Charlotte (although I think they get better eventually).

- Chicago and Indiana have probably reached their ceilings. They've got good but flawed teams that have scoring issues and no realistic way to fix those issues definitively. Chicago is over the tax and has two pretty bad contracts in Deng and Boozer. Indiana is going to lose whatever flexibility they gain from letting Granger walk when they immediately have to go and max out Paul George.

- The Knicks have a fundamentally flawed roster and zero flexibility.

- The Nets are a mess of an organization with no flexibility any more, a bizarre coaching hire, an aging roster with a tiny window to be a pretend contender.

- Miami is still Miami, and this is still their conference. But that big 3 construction has an expiration date on it, and you started to see cracks in the foundation this postseason. They might have to retool around LeBron as early as next summer.

There is going to be room for the Wizards to jump up into the upper echelon of the East.

Still have to see how Philly and Boston and Orlando and Charlotte come out of the 2014 draft. But as of today, the only Eastern teams that scare me long term are Miami, Chicago, and Cleveland. Each have legit superstars leading them, and though Brooklyn and New York do too, those rosters are a mess.

But I think we can be better than Chicago and Cleveland having the same superstar PG construction. I think that, though DRose is better than Wall, Beal and Porter will be better than Chicago's #2 and #3. And I think Wall is better than Kyrie, Beal is better than Waiters, and Porter will be at least as good as Bennett, if not better.

We just need to find a long term option at PF or C.

[RonArtest15]

Steve - do you think there is any correlation between the moves Ernie has made since Abe's passing and his horrible track record before?  Maaaaybe, we should give him some credit?  Or is it just luck?  A lot of questions, but I've always wondered how much he was handcuffed by Abe? 

 

Good post, man. 

[Destino]

So the roster could look like this:

Wall - Price - Temple

Beal - Rice - Martin

Porter - Webster - Ariza

Nene - Booker - Vesely - Singleton

Okafor - Seraphin

[Going Commando]

RonArtest15, on 28 Jun 2013 - 10:06, said:

Porter, IMO, will be starting from day 1. This was such a good pick.

It really was. Porter was our man this year. I'm glad Bennett went first so that I never have to feel buyer's remorse over Porter or wonder what might have been with Bennett. Porter was meant to be for us this year.

I am looking forward to watch smart, Spursian basketball be played in DC for the first time since, the 70's? The collective basketball IQ of this team is through the roof. These guys are going to win a ton of games.

I just want to hammer home how incredibly lucky we got in the lottery three of the past four years. We jumped up four spots in 2010 I believe, moved down just one spot to 3 even though we got leap frogged in 2012, and jumped up five spots in 2013.

The ONLY other time our franchise has moved up in the lottery aside from 2010 and 2013 was the Kwame Brown year.

The ONLY times our franchise has picked at our "earned" slot was when we finished late in the lottery when there was like a < 1% chance of moving down.

Every other time we got leapfrogged by someone else and moved down. And we've picked in the lottery a ton since the year it was instituted.

And keep in mind, Cleveland was trying to trade up to draft Beal last year. If we had moved down even one more spot after we got leap frogged by New Orleans, Beal would be a Cavalier. Also, Cleveland won just one more game than us in 2011-2012.

So for the Basketball Gods to smile on us in three out of four consecutive draft lotteries... that just doesn't happen to us.

[Clutch03]

Very good post Steve. 

 

When I look at Wall, Beal and Porter I can think of a more hardworking, proffesional trio of young players.  All that want to win and play the game the right way.  All of them are unselfish and are willing teammates.  You combine that with the great locker room guys like Webster, Okafur and Nene you have a HUGE turnaround in culture from the Arenas, Blatche, Young and McGee days.  If this team makes the playoffs next year I guarantee a big free agent signing next offseason because players will WANT to play here in DC.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Love the Rice pick.

 

In addition to his 3pt shooting Rice brings something to the table that this team lacks (besides Wall), and that is the ability to beat his man off the dribble.

[No Excuses]

This is a flawed roster without any real depth for the big men, no scoring options off the bench, no back up PG and terrible head coach. Both starting big men have a history of injuries and one of them has been completely unreliable since he's been traded here (Nene).

 

Before we predict that this team is headed for the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference, let's wait until they manage to finish close to .500 first.

[Going Commando]

RonArtest15, on 28 Jun 2013 - 10:28, said:

Steve - do you think there is any correlation between the moves Ernie has made since Abe's passing and his horrible track record before? Maaaaybe, we should give him some credit? Or is it just luck? A lot of questions, but I've always wondered how much he was handcuffed by Abe?

Good post, man.

I think you need luck to build a true contender. Everyone does. When teams come close but fall short, it's often because they didn't have enough luck. Some player went just out of their range in the draft. Someone got injured and didn't pan out. Some FA chose to sign somewhere else after seriously considering them.

I do think Ernie deserves credit for this. I think he blundered his way into a lot fortunate situations and was lucky Ted is the most patient and conservative and thick skinned owner in the NBA.

But he made some tough decisions that have worked out. Trading JaVale was a tough call and it pissed a lot of people off.

Picking Wall over Evan Turner was a tougher decision than people seem to remember and that has majorly worked out. Remember, we had a supposed PG franchise player in Gil so you could talk yourself out of a PG in the draft. And a lot of people liked Turner over Wall outright. Turner was a stud in college.

Finding someone to take Gil off our hands couldn't have been easy. To this day, I'm still shocked we were able to deal him. It's like the Joe Johnson trade, only more stupendous. There are worse FOs out there than ours.

Beal was a great pick, not a no-brainer. There were people who liked Drummond, TRob, MKG, Barnes better. There were people who would rather have moved down and taken Rivers or Lamb. There were people who thought Waiters and Lamb were better than Beal after we made the pick, and were calling Beal a mistake/bust through summer league and into the beginning of the season.

And Porter was a tough call on the surface, Noel and Alex Len both in heavy consideration. I'd say that, on draft night, more people wanted Noel than Porter.

But I think Porter is going to end up being the right decision just like Beal was.

And trading Shard's deal AND a second rounder for Okafor and Ariza definitely was not an obvious trade. Most of us hated it at the time. So that's worked out.

I think Ernie grew and got better after Abe died. He's completely changed his team building philosophy. Truth About It wrote a long article about the change in organizational philosophy since Ted took control of the team. How we've started operating like a patient, small market power team focused on building through the draft and lower key trades for good players who are not stars. Focused on IQ and intangibles over athleticism and raw upside. A luxury we can afford because we got Wall to build around, who has everything. The Spurs method more or less.

[Clutch03]

This video game me a pretty good idea of Glen Rice Jr's game.  I'm liking the pick a whole lot better now.  He'll probably replace Cartier Martin on the roster.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5E_IpKjowQ

 

Whoops didn't see it already posted above.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Clutch03