The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

i know thats what i mean. institute a hard cap, franchise tag and things like that

I prefer a soft cap with a franchise tag as well as revenue sharing.

[Destino]

What is with this soft cap support? What is it people like about soft cap?

Hard caps are superior at creating parity within the league and controlling costs.

Edited October 2, 2011 by Destino

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Dude, i just wanna see this new team on the court...I've been optimistic about the Wizards since we whooped Dallas opening night a couple of years ago

[StillUnknown]

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

good god....those dunks must have been what KD was referring to in one of his tweets about seeing some of the best dunks he's ever seen tonight from Wall and Lebron

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

I keep telling people, as soon as they start playing basketball again, Wall is gonna be the star of DC. He's the real deal.

Edited October 2, 2011 by G.A.C.O.L.B.

[Gator Bait]

I keep telling people, as soon as they start playing basketball again, Wall is gonna be the star of DC. He's the real deal.

you think he will surpass Rex Grossman?

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

you think he will surpass Rex Grossman?

And Ovechkin.

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

you think he will surpass Rex Grossman?

I dont know what the equivalent of going deep in basketball is, but I think McGee is our Grossman:

[No Excuses]

McGee's best video is his epic fail against Sacramento last year where in a blowout he tried to dunk from the free throw line and failed badly.

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

McGee's best video is his epic fail against Sacramento last year where in a blowout he tried to dunk from the free throw line and failed badly.

so my interpretation of McGee = Grossman is correct. Thanks.

[Gator Bait]

McGee's best video is his epic fail against Sacramento last year where in a blowout he tried to dunk from the free throw line and failed badly.

seems to me he tried to do that in multiple games last year...including a game at home against the heat.

[Sticksboi05]

Revenue means nothing if players are bolting for sunny skies every time they hit FA. They need to give small market teams the ability to hold onto to super stars and restrict the ability of teams with high pay rolls to sign help (role players) with the aid of the luxary tax.

Bingo. You get it. Why do we want to continue with a league that has 4-6 relevant teams and literally a bunch of filler?

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-Kobe-Bryant-tells-a-ridiculous-Kwame-Brow?urn=nba-wp9177

For a bust of a first-overall pick, journeyman center Kwame Brown(notes) has had a fairly lengthy NBA career. While Brown has never sniffed the stardom the Wizards expected from him in 2001, he's still spent an uninterrupted decade in the league as a post defender.

Nevertheless, Kwame remains a source of ridicule, and not without reason. No matter what he does, Brown always seems to be holding something back, whether in terms of not playing his hardest or simply not having the capacity for professional-level effort. Sometimes it seems like he'd rather not even get the ball when he's on the court.

Oddly enough, that has been the case at least once in his career. At a recent press conference at UC Santa Barbara, Kwame's former Laker teammate Kobe Bryant(notes) told a bizarre story about Brown's fear of failure. You can watch the video above (via TBJ), which Michael Lee transcribed for his blog at The Washington Post:

"But like, the game before we traded for Pau, were playing Detroit and I had like 40 points towards the end of the game. This is back when Detroit had Rasheed [Wallace], Chauncey [billups] and those guys, so we had no business being in the game. So down the stretch of the game, they put in a box and one. So I'm surrounded by these players, Detroit players, and Kwame is under the basket, all by himself. Literally, like all by himself. So I pass him the ball, he bobbled it and it goes out of bounds.

"So we go back to the timeout and I'm [upset], right? He goes, 'I was wide open.' 'Yeah, I know.' This is how I'm talking to him, like, during the game. I said, 'You're going to be open again, Kwame, because Rasheed is just totally ignoring you.' He said, 'Well, if I'm open don't throw it to me.' I was like, 'Huh?' He said, 'Don't throw it to me.' I said, 'Why not?' He said, well, 'I'm nervous. If I catch it and they foul me, I won't make the free throws.' I said, 'Hell no!'

"I go to Phil [Jackson], I say, 'Hey Phil, take him out of the game.' He's like, 'Nah, let him figure it out.' So, we lose the game, I go the locker room, I'm steaming. Steaming. I'm furious. Then, finally I get a call, they said, 'You know what, we got something that's happening with Pau.' I was like, 'Alright. Cool.'…That's what I had to deal with the whole year."

There you have it folks, it's more fun to play with Pau Gasol(notes) than with Kwame Brown. This is definitely Friday's top story.

While it may not be much of a shock, this tale boils down Kwame to his essence about as well as possible. In a close game, against a good team, he not only doesn't want the ball, but actively argues that he should not get it. If that's not the mark of a bust, I don't know what is.

:rotflmao:

[StillUnknown]

You could always see the nervousness in his game. I swear I've never seen a 7ft dude miss so many point blank range shots in my life.

[endzone_dave]

The Wiz are a hard team to like. You have possibly the dumbest player in the league in McGee and the laziest player in the league in Blatche. Wathcing Yi play is just painful and Crawford is an out-of-control ball hog. If this team doesn't add some decent players, Wall will get out of DC as fast as possible.

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

The Wiz are a hard team to like. You have possibly the dumbest player in the league in McGee and the laziest player in the league in Blatche. Wathcing Yi play is just painful and Crawford is an out-of-control ball hog. If this team doesn't add some decent players, Wall will get out of DC as fast as possible.

Speak for yourself. Save for Blatche (and possibly McGee), I'm extremely excited about the direction of this team. And Wall isn't going anywhere. Players are going to be coming here to play with him. Crawford has a ton of promise. They asked him to score and he did. He'll grow. And Yi is irrelevant. He's a free agent. Doubt he'll be back.

---------- Post added October-12th-2011 at 09:44 AM ----------

You could always see the nervousness in his game. I swear I've never seen a 7ft dude miss so many point blank range shots in my life.

Tiny hands (Jordan said he'll never draft a player with small hands again) and MJ mind ****ing him as an 18 year old straight out of high school doomed Kwame from the start. He didn't have a chance.

Edited October 12, 2011 by G.A.C.O.L.B.

[ixcuincle]

icmUF7rq2ds&feature=feedu

[nuposse87]

saw this posted on realgm, had to post it here. Apparently the Taiwanese are the greatest sports news casters ever, at least in regards to their lockout coverage.

lolololololololololol

[endzone_dave]

Speak for yourself. Save for Blatche (and possibly McGee), I'm extremely excited about the direction of this team. And Wall isn't going anywhere. Players are going to be coming here to play with him. Crawford has a ton of promise. They asked him to score and he did. He'll grow. And Yi is irrelevant. He's a free agent. Doubt he'll be back

Why would a great player leave LA, Chicago, NY, or Miami to play for a team with Wall, Nick Young, and a bunch of filler players? Hopefully the tall skinny Czech amounts to something but if he doesn't, the Wiz are in complete rebuild mode.

[No Excuses]

Why would a great player leave LA, Chicago, NY, or Miami to play for a team with Wall, Nick Young, and a bunch of filler players? Hopefully the tall skinny Czech amounts to something but if he doesn't, the Wiz are in complete rebuild mode.

No one would wanted to go play with Kobe post Shaq. Remember Smush Parker? Took a trade to get someone to play with Kobe.

Who was signing in New York before Amare? Who was signing with the Bulls when they were being led by Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng? Took Derrick Rose to come in to attract veterans like Boozer.

Miami is a unique case, something the league has rarely ever seen before. Even then, it was mostly because of Wade that everyone was attracted there.

Star power attracts free agents. Wall is going to be a superstar in this league and Leonsis is willing to spend the money. People will come here for the same reason they went to Chicago, New York etc. To play with the someone who will most likely be the best pure point guard within the next 1-2 seasons.

EDIT: even Boston is a good example. No one was flocking to go play there. Garnett even declined the trade initially and only accepted when Ray Allen was traded on draft night. There is no city allegiance. Whichever team has a superstar will attract free agents. The only place I can think of that's been largely unattractive even with a star was Cleveland. I think it's a fair assumption that DC is no where close to being as unattractive as Cleveland, Ohio.

Edited October 13, 2011 by No Excuses

[endzone_dave]

No one would wanted to go play with Kobe post Shaq. Remember Smush Parker? Took a trade to get someone to play with Kobe.

Who was signing in New York before Amare? Who was signing with the Bulls when they were being led by Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng? Took Derrick Rose to come in to attract veterans like Boozer.

Miami is a unique case, something the league has rarely ever seen before. Even then, it was mostly because of Wade that everyone was attracted there.

Star power attracts free agents. Wall is going to be a superstar in this league and Leonsis is willing to spend the money. People will come here for the same reason they went to Chicago, New York etc. To play with the someone who will most likely be the best pure point guard within the next 1-2 seasons.

EDIT: even Boston is a good example. No one was flocking to go play there. Garnett even declined the trade initially and only accepted when Ray Allen was traded on draft night. There is no city allegiance. Whichever team has a superstar will attract free agents. The only place I can think of that's been largely unattractive even with a star was Cleveland. I think it's a fair assumption that DC is no where close to being as unattractive as Cleveland, Ohio.

Who was willing to go to Denver and play with Carmelo? Who was willing to go to Cleveland and play with LeBron? Who was willing to go to Toronto to play with Chris Bosh? In today's NBA, what market you are in drives where the stars go. Washington isn't really a small market though. Ted needs to be able to convince people this can be a big market team.

[No Excuses]

Who was willing to go to Denver and play with Carmelo? Who was willing to go to Cleveland and play with LeBron? Who was willing to go to Toronto to play with Chris Bosh? In today's NBA, what market you are in drives where the stars go. Washington isn't really a small market though. Ted needs to be able to convince people this can be a big market team.

I'm not sure of the exact situation that took place in Denver. Maybe it was crappy management? They did bring in Allen Iverson who only gave them 1 moderately productive season.

Cleveland and Toronto, I think everyone can agree aren't attractive destinations.

DC isn't Miami but it has a good sized market. People will know the superstar of a Washington DC sports team.

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

DC isn't Miami but it has a good sized market. People will know the superstar of a Washington DC sports team.

Exactly. It's insulting to put DC in the same breath as Cleveland. Or even Denver. DC is a top 10 market. #7 last I looked. Denver and Cleveland barely crack the top 20. And Canadian taxes kill Toronto. Hell, DC is a larger market than Miami (would be nice if we had the same beaches, but alas.)

I think a lot of people think Abe Pollin still owns the team and this is 1999. Times have changed. We live in a major market, we have superstar, top-ten player, we have a well-liked owner who's willing to spend money. There's absolutely no reason to think that what happened in the past is going to continue to happen. This is a whole new ballgame. We even got new uniforms to go with the new age of DC professional basketball. Things are bright. Enjoy it.

EDIT: Excuse me. According to the link below, Denver is 22 and Cleveland is 28th. A far cry from 7th. So yeah, DC ain't Cleveland.

---------- Post added October-13th-2011 at 10:22 AM ----------

Market rankings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas

1 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA 18,897,109

2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA MSA 12,828,837

3 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA 9,461,105

4 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA 6,371,773

5 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA 5,965,343

6 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA 5,946,800

7 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA 5,582,170

8 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA 5,564,635

9 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA MSA 5,268,860

10 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH MSA 4,552,402

Not to mention that this is the most-educated area of the country and one of the wealthiest.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/04/america-richest-counties-lifestyle-real-estate-wealthy-suburbs.html

Wealth Radiates from the Capital

It's not surprising that workers in Loudoun do well. The federal government generates a wealth of jobs, keeping unemployment in the D.C. metro area at a low 6.2% (the national average is still near 10%). The best-paid workers from D.C. take their money home to Loudoun, where jobs have grown 4% between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But a big chunk of that healthy income goes toward maintaining the good life. Loudoun homeowners pay a median $4,844 per year in property taxes. Tax burdens are similarly high in a lot of well-off counties.

Like Loudoun, a number of the country's wealthiest households are tightly concentrated in counties around the nation's capital. Six of the richest counties lie on the outskirts of Washington: Fairfax County, Va., Arlington County, Va., Stafford County, Va., Prince William County, Va., Charles County, Md., and Alexandria City, Va.

Not far from D.C. lies another cluster of wealthy counties. Howard County, Md., a suburb of Baltimore, has a standout school system with standardized test scores that consistently beat out the national average, and median household incomes of $101,710. In nearby Montgomery County, where 59% of residents over 25 have an advanced degree, households bring in a median $93,999. Historic Calvert County, Md., has profited from its roots as a tobacco-rich farmland as well as its proximity to Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and claims a median income of $89,049.

That story by Forbes isn't even about the DC area. It's about the wealthiest areas in the entire country: "America's 25 Richest Counties". The DMV steals the spotlight. It's opens up the piece and then proceeds to take up the first half of the entire article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR2006060800133.html

Washington area richest, most educated in US: report

Reuters

Thursday, June 8, 2006; 4:05 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington area has the wealthiest households and most educated work force of any metropolitan area in the United States, according to a report released on Thursday by a local business group.

The greater Washington area, including the District of Columbia, and neighboring areas of Maryland and Virginia, had the highest U.S. median household income, at nearly $72,800, ahead of the San Francisco area at $71,201 and Boston at $63,958, according to the report from the Greater Washington Initiative, which cites data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, market data firm Claritas Inc and other sources.

The report also found the Washington area, which has seen a major increase in defense-related technology employment in recent years, to have the largest science and engineering work force of any U.S. metropolitan area, at 324,530, ahead of the combined San Francisco and San Jose, California, work force of 214,500 and Chicago at 203,090.

The report said 42.5 percent of Washington-area residents have a bachelor's degree and 19 percent have a graduate degree, greater than San Francisco's bachelor's degree rate of 37.3 percent and graduate degree rate of 14.1 percent. Washington also claims the highest percentage of PhDs, at 2.5 percent of the population.

Housing costs in greater Washington were ranked 4th, with a 2005 median price of $424,700. San Francisco was highest at $715,700, followed by Los Angeles at $529,000 and New York at

$446,000.

But measuring total living costs among cities internationally, the report ranked Washington 78th, based on the W.M. Mercer Cost of Living Index for 2005. The most expensive city was Tokyo, while London was third and Paris 12th.

Greater Washington had the largest employment growth from 2000 to 2005 at 270,800 jobs, ahead of the Miami area at 208,400 and Atlanta at 47,900. However, Miami ranked tops in 2005 employment growth, at 90,300 versus 71,600 for Washington, 69,100 for Atlanta and 66,400 for Dallas.

You still want to put us up against Cleveland? There is absolutely no reason why free agents wouldn't want to sign here. No reason that we can't have a great pro basketball team. This is a great area. One of the greatest in the country. Huge population size, tons of money, and a highly educated populace.

Edited October 13, 2011 by G.A.C.O.L.B.

[pjfootballer]

I never like Toronto in the NBA. I never thought it was a good fit in the league. In fact, Canada is one of the worst places for basketball IMO. They like hockey first, then CFL 2nd. I'd love to see Seattle get the Sonics back in the form of the Raptors.

And I'm glad the season might be cancelled. This is the one league that it doesn't matter to me.