Official 2013 Draft Thread - Part I

[wall-ace]

Is it possible to get Shabazz and Cauley-Stein in the Draft. Is there a Team that want some Player (like Vesely, Booker, Seraphin) to get a mid-round Pick to take Cauley-Stein. This guy is fast 7 footer with tremendous phisycal attributs and a high upside. If there is no way to get Cousins i would want such a project for the next 2-3 years with Nene as a mentor.

[Nivek]

I don't care what anyone says, my George Foreman grill STAYS.

[The Consiglieri]

Forget team needs, i know we're all world horrible in scoring, but at the end of the day the pick should be a no brainer like last year's and '11's, take the best damn guy on the board, most upside, most talent, most difference making potential. We need talent, and we have very little of it, you can worry about technical details later, but right now, when your team is easily the worst in the league, you just need the best prospect, period. At season's end, whomever is the best prospect, needs to be the pick, period. I don't care about how good they are right now, i care about the consensus considered who should be the best in 3 years time because this brand of suck were executing is a long term fix, not a short one, and when you blow the '09 and '11 blue chip picks, you can't pretend you're three or four years into a rebuild.

[Nivek]

I know folks like to talk about "fit" and "needs," but Mr. Hagen is correct -- the Wizards need everything. First order of business is finding good players. Not good shooters or good ball handlers or good defenders or good rebounders or good pick setters or guys who are good in pick-and-pop or "veterans" or "leaders" or good guys. Good PLAYERS. Or, at very least, guys who are likely to become good PLAYERS.

Get a few of those guys, and then worry about "fit" and filling team needs. There's no need for the Wizards to get clever -- just find ballers. Guys who can play both ends of the floor well. Then get a coach who can cobble them together into a cohesive unit. Stir in role players and specialists as needed. But, first order of business is getting PLAYERS.

[The Consiglieri]

This is why being 4-25 doesn't bother me at all and is actually a good thing. I, like a good 80% of the board hated the okariza trade, and like about 50% of the board didn't like the nene trade as I felt it came from a place in which a GM was trying to save his own arse, and giving the idiot owner a bill of goods about veteran leadership changing everything. This team needed to see it's self-perceived genius obliterated with the vicious bludgeoning that only a serving of harsh, bare knuckled reality could provide. Think Zhukov's armoured corps rolling over the broken remains of the Wehrmacht after Kursk.

Now the team has completely imploded, the full scale hideousness rivals that of the Nuggets circa 1999 (whatever year it was they almost set the record for losses), and if nothing were to change, it's unlikely the wiz could top 15 wins this year. This is good medicine that would necessitate a blow up of the failed rebuild #3 of EG's term, the firing of EG, and provide a legit player from a draft that is largely manure. If we'd been as expected, we might not have gotten squat out of this draft, as it is we seem likely to have a quality shot at at least a good starter, which would give us at least 4 good young players if Wall can stay healthy.

I'll take every loss happily to ensure my goals of the dead weight contracts being moved for young players/picks, the firing of the F.O. and coaching staff, a mea culpa from the lead idiot in charge, and the selection of one of the few players in the '13 draft that has a strong chance of being a good or very good player in the NBA.

[nate33]

This is why being 4-25 doesn't bother me at all and is actually a good thing. I, like a good 80% of the board hated the okariza trade, and like about 50% of the board didn't like the nene trade as I felt it came from a place in which a GM was trying to save his own arse, and giving the idiot owner a bill of goods about veteran leadership changing everything. This team needed to see it's self-perceived genius obliterated with the vicious bludgeoning that only a serving of harsh, bare knuckled reality could provide. Think Zhukov's armoured corps rolling over the broken remains of the Wehrmacht after Kursk.

Now the team has completely imploded, the full scale hideousness rivals that of the Nuggets circa 1999 (whatever year it was they almost set the record for losses), and if nothing were to change, it's unlikely the wiz could top 15 wins this year. This is good medicine that would necessitate a blow up of the failed rebuild #3 of EG's term, the firing of EG, and provide a legit player from a draft that is largely manure. If we'd been as expected, we might not have gotten squat out of this draft, as it is we seem likely to have a quality shot at at least a good starter, which would give us at least 4 good young players if Wall can stay healthy.

I'll take every loss happily to ensure my goals of the dead weight contracts being moved for young players/picks, the firing of the F.O. and coaching staff, a mea culpa from the lead idiot in charge, and the selection of one of the few players in the '13 draft that has a strong chance of being a good or very good player in the NBA.

We need Wall back to take away EG's final excuse, though. We need Wall back and for the team to play pretty badly afterwards. I don't know if I can stomach a 4-25 win pace with Wall in the lineup, but if they can go something like 15-30 over the last 45 games with Wall playing, I think the point will be made.

[Nivek]

4-25 does bother me, and here's why: It wasn't necessary. There were moves available to them that would have brought in young, productive, improving players. This offseason, they had the resources to come away with James Harden and Ryan Anderson, for example. Instead of "taking a chance" on acquiring young players likely to improve, they CHOSE to burn one of their more valuable assets (cap space) on older, middling players with little chance of improving -- or of even being around after their contracts expire. They specifically passed on opportunities to acquire young players because they had "enough" youth.

And remember -- while they were detonating opportunities that could have helped the team contend within the next 2-3 years, the owner was busily reminding fans of how clever they were being.

[The Consiglieri]

4-25 does bother me, and here's why: It wasn't necessary. There were moves available to them that would have brought in young, productive, improving players. This offseason, they had the resources to come away with James Harden and Ryan Anderson, for example. Instead of "taking a chance" on acquiring young players likely to improve, they CHOSE to burn one of their more valuable assets (cap space) on older, middling players with little chance of improving -- or of even being around after their contracts expire. They specifically passed on opportunities to acquire young players because they had "enough" youth.

And remember -- while they were detonating opportunities that could have helped the team contend within the next 2-3 years, the owner was busily reminding fans of how clever they were being.

If the team had made those intelligent decisions we would have been stuck with ernie for the next decade. I was an ernie defender for years, than he did the '09 trade. It was worth it to suck this bad if it meant we were gonna unload this idiot.

[nate33]

4-25 does bother me, and here's why: It wasn't necessary. There were moves available to them that would have brought in young, productive, improving players. This offseason, they had the resources to come away with James Harden and Ryan Anderson, for example. Instead of "taking a chance" on acquiring young players likely to improve, they CHOSE to burn one of their more valuable assets (cap space) on older, middling players with little chance of improving -- or of even being around after their contracts expire. They specifically passed on opportunities to acquire young players because they had "enough" youth.

And remember -- while they were detonating opportunities that could have helped the team contend within the next 2-3 years, the owner was busily reminding fans of how clever they were being.

This looks like a good place to repost what I posted in the Dallas game thread. It took some time to look it all up so I wanted to make sure it stuck around in a more long term thread.

***

The Dallas Mavericks are Exhibit A on how you can build a respectable team with a few shrewd moves. They basically gutted the entire team that started the season last year and built a new one from scratch. The dumped Odom, Terry, Kidd and Haywood. They retained only Marion, Carter, Dirk, and Beaubois; and Dirk and Beaubois have missed most of the season due to injury.

They picked up Brandon Wright midseason last year for nothing
The traded a journeyman Ian Mahinmi for Darren Collison's bad contract and Dahntay Jones.
They signed O.J. Mayo for less than the MLE.
They signed Elton Brand for peanuts after he was amnestied.
They signed Chris Kaman
They drafted Jae Crowder.

So basically a team with Marion, a washed-up Carter and a bunch of guys they acquired for nothing in the offseason has managed to 12-14 in the West (a recent 5-game losing streak since Dirk's return has bumped them down to 12-19). Heck, a team composed out of just their offseason acquisitions would look like this:

PG Collison
SG Mayo/Jones
SF Crowder
PF Brand/Wright
C Kaman/Wright

That group is better than our entire team with everyone healthy except Wall. The total cost of that roster is just $20M, less than Okariza alone.

[Nivek]

Yep -- that's a great post, nate.

[montestewart]

nate33, you should try to post a version of that on Ted's misTake. There is too much evidence that choices made by Wizards ownership/management, whether big ones like Okariza or small ones like Pargo, are heavily rooted in wrong thinking. A healthy and enthused Nene joined by a healthy Wall (even if it produces a better win %) doesn't change that, nor does another high draft pick from another lost season.

[The Consiglieri]

That depresses me enormously. Honestly I felt the wiz did that in '10, than got cocky and ernie went back to being ernie, making stupid trades, and stupid picks based upon fixations he couldn't rid himself of.

[Nivek]

If the team had made those intelligent decisions we would have been stuck with ernie for the next decade. I was an ernie defender for years, than he did the '09 trade. It was worth it to suck this bad if it meant we were gonna unload this idiot.

Well, to split hairs for a sec, I really don't care WHO makes intelligent decisions. If, by some magical, miraculous intervention Ernie suddenly started making smart moves and the team became a contender -- keep him.

Back to reality: ain't gonna happen. There needs to be a complete franchise reboot that includes replacing the front office, the coaching staff, the video crew, the medical staff, the scouting department, and the players.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I don't care what anyone says, my George Foreman grill STAYS.

That grill is a single dad's best friend. It saves a lot of time in the kitchen.

[gambitx777]

Here is the thing, E.G ruined the season before the oakriza trade took place. once the wiz got some good young talent and stated to promising E.G. took a trip back to 2009. in 2011 He fell back in to his euro fetish. He took a second round talent at number 6. But, instead of sending this mistake to the D-league to maybe become less of a mistake, he keeps him on a roster, even as bad as it is, he can't get playing time even with all the injuries. Then he passed on some nice players to take tomas, we need to try and make the best of these guy and do what we can with them.

I agree with some of the posts above, if the injuries had not happened, we might be a .500 team and still have no chance at a title. We need to get ride of the mistakes and start making good basketball decisions. That starts with flipping NENE and okariza for any amount of cap room, young talent and picks that we can get. We need to consider moving wall, but its not a necessity.

Once we ditch E.G. we need to got and try to pick some good talent evaluation guys from the college ranks. It clear that we can not let E.G. any where near this years draft picks. This should be the last straw, E.G needs to go and should never be let back in the building.

[LyricalRico]

Yep -- that's a great post, nate.

Agreed, although I think it's worth mentioning that the current Dallas roster was not their first plan. Even Cuban himself has gone on record as saying that getting turned down by Deron Williams ended up being for the best.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

Wow Victor Oladipo out of Indiana is shooting 45% from 3 pt land and is being considered a late lottery pick. It's crazy, I've known him since he was a kid and we played at church cookouts...wish I hit a growth spurt too lol. He could be exactly what the Wiz need, if we manage to get another draft pick.

[AFM]

Is he European?

[dandrews]

I'm all aboard the Anthony Bennett train, especially if we can't land Shabazz.

[DANNYLANDOVER]

Is he European?

Unfortunately, no. Only teams like the Spurs draft good shooters, we have too many good young players.