Wiz trade Shard and 2nd rounder for Okafor and Ariza

[TGW]

Yeah, our rebuilding effort mimicking that of the bucks a few years back was my worst nightmare. It was like so much promise was just swept up and thrown away. And sadly we're moving in that direction. The only difference is that Nene still has positive value at his contract and Okafor/Ariza are only signed for two years.

If ever there were a time to simply be patient, this summer was it for Washington. Clearly, Rashard and Andray needed to go. Buy one out. Exercise the amnesty clause on the other. Draft wisely and be patient while the young players improve.

Washington could have drafted Beal and signed one free agent guard. That would have been so easy to do. Heck, they could had given Ray Allen money to mentor Beal.

I dunno ...

Ray Allen wasn't coming here. Give us a realistic FA that we could have signed that we now have no shot at?

Also didn't you suggest trading down to #10 just to get rid of Dray's deal? Now you say we should amnesty him and should have bought out Lewis...

I will repeat it.

BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.
BOYD.

Sorry for spamming, but people are flat-out ignoring this aspect of having capspace. We cannot do BOYD deals anymore.

[Ruzious]

I'm here guys. Your friend from Milwaukee.

I just wanted to congratulate Ernie on his 9-year anniversary as Wizards GM coming up next week. Hard to believe it was June 25, 2003 when the Bucks released him so he could pursue his dreams as Wizards GM. Where does time go.

I feel for you guys. You were totally on the right rebuilding track. The track we have tried to get our inept owner Herb Kohl to take for years now.

But Ernie and Ted just had to spend $100 million plus on Nene, Ariza and Okafor to try and steal that 8th seed from my Bucks next year.

You guys are ahead of us though since you've got that 3rd pick, which could net an all-star. Just remember though that if we can't sign Chris Kaman to a $50 million dollar deal to compete with you guys, we may pack it in and trade Monta Ellis to you for the 3rd pick and Blatche.

Lol, classic post. It'd be nice if the Wiz and Bucks had long-term plans higher than competing for the 8th seed, but I don't see that happening in Washington until Ted sells the team to Vince McMahon and Vince has Ernie come into the ring so he can tell him those 2 magic words.

[Illuminaire]

And for this we actually gave them our 46th pick aand no future pick in-return. Amazing!!!

The guys who hate this trade the most seem to be the ones who thought we could get a starter with the 46th pick. I realize that this is a deep draft, but c'mon, I'm willing to bet that nobody picked 46th or later is ever going to be an all-star.

Strawman much?

I've yet to see ONE person here focus their ire on the second round pick we gave up. That was just salt in the wound.

We're angry because several assets that could have been used to actually improve the team were used to gather extraordinarily expensive, entirely redundant parts that may not even be better than what we already have.

We're bitter because almost all of our flexibility to improve is gone in one idiotic stroke, and the roster we're left with is an unbalanced mess.

But please, do try to pin our "hate" on the 46th pick in the draft. I'm sure if you say it enough it will even sound halfway credible.

[vabigpoppa]

people act like free agency is so easy and matter of fact. "yeah we couldve just signed james harden or eric gordon", "yeah we couldve had danny green", "yeah lets just throw some money at ray allen he should be grateful we offer him a contract to come play w/ a non-playoff team". being at the top of the lottery every year isnt very attractive to top free agents.

im on the "i like this trade" bandwagon, we can terminate okafors contract after next year so hes here for a 1 year prove it season pretty much....i feel like the wizard still have flexibility to go after free agents in 2013 & definitely 2014. if we at least show we are a playoff worth team in the next year or so free agents may actually want to come here.

[jivelikenice]

We were never going to have 3 rooks this yr. We were going to use maybe 2 and either sell the 3rd or draft a guy to stay overseas. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't watched the mess having all these guys on rookie deals has created and ignored everything Ted/ Ernie/ and Randy said since the Nene deal about bringing in more vets.

[7-Day Dray]

And for this we actually gave them our 46th pick aand no future pick in-return. Amazing!!!

The guys who hate this trade the most seem to be the ones who thought we could get a starter with the 46th pick. I realize that this is a deep draft, but c'mon, I'm willing to bet that nobody picked 46th or later is ever going to be an all-star.

Who the hell ever said that we would get an All-Star w/ the 46th pick? I'm only seeing a few people saying that we shouldn't have had to include it in the deal because we had already given NOLA enough of a favor. Personally, I would've used that 46th pick to trade up into the 1st round, but no matter how worthless that pick was, we shouldn't have had to include it in the deal. We could've gotten a good shooter at that pick at the least.

[Illuminaire]

im on the "i like this trade" bandwagon, we can terminate okafors contract after next year so hes here for a 1 year prove it season pretty much....i feel like the wizard still have flexibility to go after free agents in 2013 & definitely 2014.

Your feelings do not make this mathematically true. Please explain how we will terminate Okafor's contract when we can neither amnesty him nor do we have a team option on his contract.

[hands11]

Once again this is yet another example of Ernie going all in... for depth, lol.

First time it was Foye & Miller. Now it's Okafor & Ariza.

I don't think the man has a clue of what he's doing unless it's to cover his own ass or assign blame elsewhere for his mistakes.

I'm not thrilled with the trade either (although I will wait until the summer is over to pass any definitive judgment). However, this trade is nothing like Foye and Miller. This team is a lot younger than that team. Foye and Miller were brought in with the false illusion we could be a championship contender with them as the missing pieces. Okafor and Ariza are being brought here with not such illusions. The trade was made to make us more competitive while our young players develop. Totally different situation.

And add the all important, we didn't give up a #6 pick to get them.

[ChrisTheFuturePaul]

Hornets fan here:

I know you guys hate the deal but really; You're acquiring 2 starters for a guy who became a cancer on your team. Cap space might be nice in theory but if you have to overpay drasticly to get someone to sign here it ends up looking bad anyway. The Hornets are taking a gamble here too, they may possibly overpay Dragic or Batum for longer term deals that the Wizards are taking on. I think the value is reasonable. The wizards should be boarderline playoff team with Wall and possibly Beal not even in their primes.

[terperoni]

Get rid of draft bust Vesely now and were golden.

[miller31time]

Shocking that people on the internet are reacting to a so-so sports trade by pretending it's the worst disaster since the Great Flood. Some of you guys need to start collecting stamps or something, find SOME hobby that isn't gonna give you a stroke.

The reactions here aren't nearly as bad as you make them out to be. It's perfectly reasonable to hate this trade. It's perfectly reasonable to point out that you think we're giving up massive cap space (that could be used on a multitude of things, not just free agent signing) in order to acquire two redundant, overpriced role players. And it's perfectly reasonably to state that this is the kind of trade that can set a franchise back a few years.

What are your feelings on the deal?

[omegatronic3]

seems to me this trade says were probably not drafting Robinson. That would be a serious logjam of bigs with roughly the same skill set. Okafor, Nene, Seraphin, veseley, Booker, Blache.
You gotta think this is lining up for some trades. I actually think any way you can get rid of Lewis horrible contract you do it. Okafor and Ariza are solid rotation players. There's no way we can not trade some of those pieces for a 2 guard. EG is the king of mediocre trades though.

[Halcyon]

Well it is good that we've come around to the understanding that we're so terrible that we couldn't possibly persuade Danny Green to play for us for a few million dollars and that this is a perfectly normal and entirely correct situation and we should counter the perception that we're pitiful by doing nice things for other teams if they would please talk to us in public places.

Ugh. Danny Green is getting way overrated, I really don't understand the love for him. First of all, he played in a beautifully run offensive system with 3 great players, and a great coach. Secondly, he would cost multiple years at near MLE levels at least for a fringe starting SF.

[WallToWall]

I dont understand the overwhelming negative response. We got rid of Shard, a player who did nothing but warm the bench. Heck, he didnt even do that! He took Ted's money and ran. In return, we get two serviceable players. They may both be 2nd string players, but the point is they can play minutes and not suck as bad a Shard, who was a waste. Yes, it cost us cap room. But, dont you think the front office went around the league to find out what they could do with that cap room? EG weighed the pros and cons and this is the best he could do right now: 2 defensive players for our trash. We got rid of trash and got 2 defensive players. I repeat, we got rid of wastage on our bench and got 2 defensive players who can play and teach! This is a good trade. What do you think we're going to get for our cap room? Durant? Kobe?
I wouldnt be surprised if we're not done with the trades. Perhaps Blatche is going to get us a pick or a good offensive player.

[miller31time]

Same whining and complaining that happened when the wiz got nene happening now. Guys get over it and for the record these players don't suck and emeka isn't always injured. Last five years he has played 82 games about three times or twice and 72 games once. Last season I believe Nola shut him down to trade him.

Not remotely. I was one of the most fervent supporters of the Nene deal. These are two completely separate situations.

With the Nene trade, we acquired a player in a position of need who helped change the mentality of the team. We shipped out knuckleheads who were dragging the collective IQ of the team down and replaced them with someone capable of running an actual offense. And while Nene was expensive, he wasn't grossly overpaid. A top-5 center in this league is going to cost you a pretty penny. Nene has a past that included injury problems and he is around 30 so his actual value is probably closer to 10 or 11 million per year rather than the 13 he's currently being paid for the next few seasons. But there was no question he was going to make this team better.

There is, however, question that the players we acquired here are going to make this team better. Hell, there's question whether they're not going to make us worse! And to make matters even more unfortunate, the most expensive piece to the trade on our end (Okafor) will take away minutes from one or more of our young players who we were supposedly building around. The other player (Ariza) is an average small forward which is nice, but that's forgetting that he's paid above-average money. Now I'm realistic -- we're not nabbing an All-Star in free agency. But we would have been able to lure an average small forward; someone like Danny/Jeff/Gerald Green, Brandon Rush, etc. Instead, we overpay for one here and for our trouble take on Emeka's bloated contract.

The fact we had to throw in a draft pick to make it happen is absolutely sickening. Not because the pick is great. Not because we would have chosen a sure-fire star with it. But because of the principle of the matter. We had to throw in extra incentives to make a trade to a team that favored them heavily. If anything, they should have given us their 10th pick. That's fair market value for clearing all of the team's bad contracts off their books.

There was a lot to like about the Nene trade. Even the detractors admitted that Nene would make us better. They simply questioned "at what cost?" and "for how long?" There really isn't much to like about this trade.

[colts18]

Anyone with ESPN Insider want to post Hollinger's reaction to this trade? Based on the 1 paragraph, he really hated it.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs ... on-wizards

[Dat2U]

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/art ... cleid=2357

There's also the question of how Ariza and Okafor fit with the Wizards. Conventional wisdom has quickly imagined Okafor and Nenê playing together in the Washington frontcourt. Consider me skeptical. Neither player has defended power forwards on a regular basis in years, and neither really has the kind of midrange game required of modern fours. If Okafor and Nenê can only play the middle, suddenly the Wizards have sunk $27 million a year into the center position.

Ariza's inefficient scoring doesn't exactly solve Washington's offensive issues, especially because he's a relative non-shooter at small forward.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Yeah, our rebuilding effort mimicking that of the bucks a few years back was my worst nightmare. It was like so much promise was just swept up and thrown away. And sadly we're moving in that direction. The only difference is that Nene still has positive value at his contract and Okafor/Ariza are only signed for two years.

If ever there were a time to simply be patient, this summer was it for Washington. Clearly, Rashard and Andray needed to go. Buy one out. Exercise the amnesty clause on the other. Draft wisely and be patient while the young players improve.

Washington could have drafted Beal and signed one free agent guard. That would have been so easy to do. Heck, they could had given Ray Allen money to mentor Beal.

I dunno ...

Ray Allen wasn't coming here. Give us a realistic FA that we could have signed that we now have no shot at?

Also didn't you suggest trading down to #10 just to get rid of Dray's deal? Now you say we should amnesty him and should have bought out Lewis...

I advocated trade down scenarios involving Blatche and the #3 but I don't remember doing any involving the #10. Any trade down would have brought back a perimeter player like Lowry, as well as returning a later pick and keeping both second round picks. None of them would have tied up cap space ilke this deal did.

[truwizfan4evr]

I like getting Ariza in the deal and i think he will help us. Getting Okafor was horrible i rather Ariza and number 10 pick for Rashard deal. What's next? the wizards draft Drummond or Barnes with the third pick?

[dangermouse]

Dat2U, Okafor and Nene not being able to play together scares the hell out of me. That article is right, if thats the case, that is a boatload of cash locked in to the C position

From the same article:

Washington's desire to add veterans is an understandable response to the shenanigans of the Andray Blatche-JaVale McGee era, but the Wizards seem to have gone too far in the opposite direction, leaving little upside around the duo of Wall and the No.3 pick.

I couldnt agree more.

But, just like every EG trade, there are stages that every Wizard fan goes through after the deal is announced. Some have started already it seems:

First there is denial (No way!! We must be getting the 10th pick, something is wrong here)

Then there is anger (WHAT!! NO PICK?? FIRE EG!!!)

Then there is acceptance (it is what it is i guess, at least we have some good vets on the team)

Then there is hope (i hope this works out and we prove all our doubters wrong! Go Wiz!)

And lastly there is either resentment or praise depending on how it works out.