Jason Smith, 3 yr/$16M deal

[verbal8]

This is a 30 year old guy, drafted in 2007. The Wizards are his 6th team. Among guys who played 500+ minutes last year, he is one of the 20 worst players in the league. This is as brain dead a move as I've ever seen, even from Ernie. This was a roster spot for developing a young player.

Or two flyers on players with some upside.

[AFM]

Well we have absolutely no chance of winning a championship in the next 5 years or so, after KD2GS. Even if Ernie had a perfect offseason. Might as well sit back, relax, and laugh at this awful franchise.

[tontoz]

Does this mean that Ernie will skip watching our SL team? What about Aaron White, Daniel Ochefu & Kaleb Tarczewski? What about Shawn Dawson, will he get a real shot becoming a back-up SG?

Oh-well, this is how Ernie gathers bodies without really taking the time to see if somebody new out-there might be worth keeping around.

Edit: A 3-Year deal? Why lock JS up?

He wants to get everything done quickly so he can spend the next few months on vacation.

[nate33]

I'm at a loss...

Words can't begin to describe EG's ineptitude. I guess he is absolutely all-in in making sure that there is absolutely no salary cap flexibility for the next 3 years. He somehow believes that this crap roster we have now is a legit contender and there's no reason to have future flexibility to address the holes on the roster.

It's stupid to commit a long term contract to a 5th big, particularly one on the downside of his career. These types of guys are a dime-a-dozen. A competent GM gets them off the waivers scrap heap and signs them to 1-year deals so they have some flexibility to make trades or free agency acquisitions in the future.

[nuposse04]

I'm at a loss...

Words can't begin to describe EG's ineptitude. I guess he is absolutely all-in in making sure that there is absolutely no salary cap flexibility for the next 3 years. He somehow believes that this crap roster we have now is a legit contender and there's no reason to have future flexibility to address the holes on the roster.

It's stupid to commit a long term contract to a 5th big, particularly one on the downside of his career. These types of guys are a dime-a-dozen. A competent GM gets them off the waivers scrap heap and signs them to 1-year deals so they have some flexibility to make trades or free agency acquisitions in the future.

They were better off signing Ochefu to a 2 year min deal and see if he was worth a damn. I don't think Jason Smith is an abomination of a player... but he wasn't necessary and it seems like dead money locked in for "just a guy"

How does Leonsis turn a blind eye to this?

[Dat2U]

Another one of Ernie's "we've had our eye on him for a while" types. They almost drafted him coming out of college. Fits the ...Kris Humphries profile.

This guy makes Humphries look like Blake Griffin.

Humphries is no where near the player you make him out to be. I know you don't follow the idea of empty numbers but not many players bring less to the table despite putting up ok counting stats than Hump. Teams don't respect his shot despite him shooting it relatively well, making everyone's job tougher offensively because he's basically ignored offensively and he's a sub par defender which you never really address other than pointing to his defensive rebounds.

[Jay81]

this is the worst signing ever unless we are trading Gortat.

[verbal8]

this is the worst signing ever

I will agree if you say most pointless. Let's take our remaining cap space and blow it on a below average player who will likely decline during the contract. It however isn't even the worst contract that EG handed out this offseason.

unless we are trading Gortat.

That is how EG could turn this move into one that it is the running for worst move ever.

[Dat2U]

I'm at a loss...

Words can't begin to describe EG's ineptitude. I guess he is absolutely all-in in making sure that there is absolutely no salary cap flexibility for the next 3 years. He somehow believes that this crap roster we have now is a legit contender and there's no reason to have future flexibility to address the holes on the roster.

It's stupid to commit a long term contract to a 5th big, particularly one on the downside of his career. These types of guys are a dime-a-dozen. A competent GM gets them off the waivers scrap heap and signs them to 1-year deals so they have some flexibility to make trades or free agency acquisitions in the future.

Yep, locking up 3rd string vets on multi-year deals is just bad arithmetic. There's no long term benefit in this signing. Like you said, we can find borderline/marginal NBA players anywhere without having to pay them $15 mil.

[LyricalRico]

I'm at a loss...

Words can't begin to describe EG's ineptitude. I guess he is absolutely all-in in making sure that there is absolutely no salary cap flexibility for the next 3 years. He somehow believes that this crap roster we have now is a legit contender and there's no reason to have future flexibility to address the holes on the roster.

It's stupid to commit a long term contract to a 5th big, particularly one on the downside of his career. These types of guys are a dime-a-dozen. A competent GM gets them off the waivers scrap heap and signs them to 1-year deals so they have some flexibility to make trades or free agency acquisitions in the future.

Yep, locking up 3rd string vets on multi-year deals is just bad arithmetic. There's no long term benefit in this signing. Like you said, we can find borderline/marginal NBA players anywhere without having to pay them $15 mil.

Unless they see him as more than a 3rd string big? Maybe Mahinmi+Smith really does mean Gortat is on the move? Not sure what they'd be getting for him at this stage in the offseason, though.

[nate33]

I'm at a loss...

Words can't begin to describe EG's ineptitude. I guess he is absolutely all-in in making sure that there is absolutely no salary cap flexibility for the next 3 years. He somehow believes that this crap roster we have now is a legit contender and there's no reason to have future flexibility to address the holes on the roster.

It's stupid to commit a long term contract to a 5th big, particularly one on the downside of his career. These types of guys are a dime-a-dozen. A competent GM gets them off the waivers scrap heap and signs them to 1-year deals so they have some flexibility to make trades or free agency acquisitions in the future.

Yep, locking up 3rd string vets on multi-year deals is just bad arithmetic. There's no long term benefit in this signing. Like you said, we can find borderline/marginal NBA players anywhere without having to pay them $15 mil.

Unless they see him as more than a 3rd string big? Maybe Mahinmi+Smith really does mean Gortat is on the move? Not sure what they'd be getting for him at this stage in the offseason, though.

If the plan is to trade Gortat, then this is a reload season and it makes no sense at all to sign any of these long term deals except Mahinmi's.

I'd actually respect EG if the plan was to sign Mahinmi and trade Gortat for picks/prospects. At least that's forward thinking for a window of opportunity 2 years down the road after this free agency madness settles. But if that were the plan, then we should have signed all the rest of our bench to 2-year deals.

[queridiculo]

I guess one way to look at this is that none of the deals that were signed outside of Mahinmi's are going to be particularly hard to move, and with quality bigs generally being hard to find a case can be made that Grunfeld struck a balance between filling positions, addressing depth and remaining somewhat flexible from a cap perspective.

Even Mahinmi's deal isn't awful when looking at the going rate for starting caliber bigs, so between him and Gortat one of them can be moved to make salary cap space.

I'd call that the silver lining, beyond that, not much positive to take away from it.

It's amazing how every year Grunfeld manages to unbalance the roster by going all in on certain positions.

For the longest time it's been small forwards, now he seems to be infatuated with adding as many backup bigs as possible.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

I hope we go back to the lottery this year

Very likely! Just hope Pringles & Terd don't trade it again.

[pcbothwel]

Yep, locking up 3rd string vets on multi-year deals is just bad arithmetic. There's no long term benefit in this signing. Like you said, we can find borderline/marginal NBA players anywhere without having to pay them $15 mil.

Unless they see him as more than a 3rd string big? Maybe Mahinmi+Smith really does mean Gortat is on the move? Not sure what they'd be getting for him at this stage in the offseason, though.

If the plan is to trade Gortat, then this is a reload season and it makes no sense at all to sign any of these long term deals except Mahinmi's.

I'd actually respect EG if the plan was to sign Mahinmi and trade Gortat for picks/prospects. At least that's forward thinking for a window of opportunity 2 years down the road after this free agency madness settles. But if that were the plan, then we should have signed all the rest of our bench to 2-year deals.

I agree about the "Signing mid level talent to 3+ year deals" mind set. But that really only applies when the strategy is to get Cap space. The problem is that there is no way for us to do that with this core. As I've previously said, the only way to get a star to pair with our Core is a S&T for a UFA that wants to leave his current team, but the team wants to at least get something back.

Horford and Atlanta was a perfect example of this as Horford was leaving, but Atlanta wasnt aiming for capspace (They signed Dwight) so a Kanter for Horford trade become possible, but the KD situation squashed that.

I would assume the trade includes Gortat, 1 of Otto/Oubre/Sato, another cheap contract (Morris, Smith Nicholson), and maybe a pick. Gallinari, Ibaka and Blake Griffin come to mind next summer.

We could also make the trade for someone on an expiring contract, though they would require more in a trade than a UFA. Cousins and Favors would be my targets.

If either scenario occurs, we'll still be above the cap, so we need even more depth to compensate for the loss of 2-3 rotational players.

[tontoz]

A normal person would have learned from the Maynor fiasco not to give multiyear deals to nobodies. But obviously EG isn't normal. He is special.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

I'd absolutely have taken a flyer on Smith.... Five years ago. By now, he is what he is- a career 12-14th man.

Ted must have made a deal with the devil. How can he let his franchise be so directionless?

[AFM]

Could it be, that Ted doesn't care so much about the Wizards as he does having a monopoly on the Verizon center for Monumental Sports?

No, that can't be it. I'll keep thinking.

[closg00]

Over at Bulletsforever, this is hottest thread ever with more than 1000 comments.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

Awful, pointless signing. Pringles' obsession with underachieving vets continues. When was the last time Ernie signed a young player that hasn't gotten a chance/was undervalued to a multi-year deal, just to show that he has confidence in his talent evaluation/scouting team? NEVER!!!
Ernie and Terd can f*%$ right off. I haven't been to the Verizon center in over 2 years and it won't be changing anytime soon.

[verbal8]

Mo' Buckets signed with the Clipper for the vet minimum. It was probably a contender discount to some degree, but his numbers look like a better version of Jason Smith.

http://bkref.com/tiny/llquC