Wizards to sign Will Bynum

[hands11]

One of the strange things about the 2011 draft was that most people thought it was going to be a very weak draft. There was a threat that the coming season would be cancelled altogether (and in fact, obviously, it was shortened by the strike), and a significant number of college players dropped out of the draft to avoid being caught in that storm (i.e. not get paid).

But, in fact it's turned out, overall, to be a terrific draft. Some of the best young players in the league -- some of them from deep in R2 -- are out of that draft. I think there might be 10 guys from R2 that year pretty well established in the league.

Yes. It was a deep draft. And I know you don't want to hear it but.. while lots were saying it was going to suck....there were some of us... that went against the board consensus saying the opposite.

I really liked that draft after the top. I wanted as many bits at the apple as possible. 10 though the first round was littered with solid contributing players. Even into the 2nd round. Granted, I still would have missed on some of the 2nds but the approach was a good one. The 2013 draft was the same way.

What I don't know is this. What could actually get done. Trade downs. Buying picks. I don't know. I'm not a GM.

The 2011 draft was a GM killer. I was drafted way out of order. 2 though 10 .. yikes.

#2 Derrick Williams
#3 Enes Kanter
#4 Tristan Thompson
#5 Jonas Valanciunas
#6 Jan Vesely
#7 Bismack Biyombo
#8 Brandon Knight
#9 Kemba Walker
#10 Jimmer Fredette

Even the ok prospects were mostly taken to high. It was a GM killer of a draft. The 2013 draft was kind of the same but 2013 I think will be redeemable at the top sooner. Except Bennett at #1.

The combo on DW, Ves and Fredette going top 10 was brutal give what was available later. And the nail in the coffin was everyone missing Isaiah Thomas. And drafted by the Bull and given to SAC to make it even worse.

Now all these years later. Derrick Williams might be a nice piece for a team. Kanter as well. Tristan is playing a solid role in CLE. Jonas is alright. Kight is good. Walker might not make it as a legit starting PG on a good team but he is a solid piece.

That leaves just names. Ves..who was wowfully mismanaged and the true bust of that draft... Jimmer Fredette

I personally did not even have Jan in my top 20. I just could not justify it with the stats he put up over seas and with every thing he was lacking. But I do wonder what kind of player he would be if he was managed correctly. Sure he should have never been the pick. But, it's not like we can place all the blame on Jan for being a bad player. We screwed the pooch pretty bad, not getting the right staff around him, not teaching him the right things, not giving him playing time, not sending him to the D-league. I would have been ok with it if they took someone else at 6 then took Jan with the second first rounder. I would have still hated the Jan pick, But hell he would have at least be able to develop under no pressure and would have probably benefited from it. I would have been shocked if someone else took him in the top 20.

Yeah, lots went wrong there starting with drafting him. But once they did, they total failed. And consider just how bad Randy's offense is. They rarely ran the one play that he was actually good at which was him cutting to the rim for an alley oop. Bad pick at #6 but him flaming out like that was a failure of the franchise/Randy. He played pretty well his first year. He was after that it all went wrong. But I saw Ves trying. He even brought and paid for his personal trainer to stay in the US all session that last year.

But Randy is a kill joy. They did non of the plays Ves was good at and why we thought they brought him here to do...run with Wall..but turned him into a PF..Then a center. And even after he would have good games he would then sit games after game.

But we see a pattern. Randy has sucked with all the draft picks. Now he is doing it to Otto.

Here is something I read that I agree with. You draft a player for what they do and you let them do it. Not what you want them to become. You can work on that. But you don't count on that. And take advantage of what they actually came do.

It one reason I thought Glen was a bad pick. The thing he could do. The team doesn't run that kind of offense. Not even the 2nd unit. Not with Randy here. There was no role for Glen to be the #1 scorer jacking up shot whenever he wanted. Not on this team. Specially not a rookie. Just another example of drafting a player and then trying to change them right away without even taking advantage of their #1 skill. That a sure way to was a pick and get a player in a funk. Its like. Hey X player that fell in love with basketball, playing black top. Your are one of the best and a viable NBA player. You have developed your game to take advantage of your size, speed etc or lack there us. Your a shooter. Your a dunker. Whatever. OK. Don't shoot. We want you to be a passer instead. Its just STUPID.

What I do most blame on Jan though it is horrible free throw shooting. There is no excuse for that.

[gambitx777]

Yeah, lots went wrong there starting with drafting him. But once they did, they total failed. And consider just how bad Randy's offense is. They rarely ran the one play that he was actually good at which was him cutting to the rim for an alley oop. Bad pick at #6 but him flaming out like that was a failure of the franchise/Randy. What I do most blame on Jan though it is horrible free through shooting. There is no excuse for that.

Yeah, If you are a pro player, you sit in the gym till you fix your FT% You find what works, you just practice till you make it. But you park at that line until you find what works!

[Kanyewest]

One of the strange things about the 2011 draft was that most people thought it was going to be a very weak draft. There was a threat that the coming season would be cancelled altogether (and in fact, obviously, it was shortened by the strike), and a significant number of college players dropped out of the draft to avoid being caught in that storm (i.e. not get paid).

But, in fact it's turned out, overall, to be a terrific draft. Some of the best young players in the league -- some of them from deep in R2 -- are out of that draft. I think there might be 10 guys from R2 that year pretty well established in the league.

I think there were a lot of people who said it was a deep draft but it was just going to be hard to determine who was the right player to select. Guys like Gobert and Giannis look great but while there were a few voices that I heard tout them, the majority had them outside of the top 10.

[DCZards]

Yeah, lots went wrong there starting with drafting him. But once they did, they total failed. And consider just how bad Randy's offense is. They rarely ran the one play that he was actually good at which was him cutting to the rim for an alley oop. Bad pick at #6 but him flaming out like that was a failure of the franchise/Randy. What I do most blame on Jan though it is horrible free through shooting. There is no excuse for that.

Yeah, If you are a pro player, you sit in the gym till you fix your FT% You find what works, you just practice till you make it. But you park at that line until you find what works!

IIRC, word was that Jan didn't work on improving ANY aspect of his game. While it was certainly the FO's mistake for drafting Ves, apparently it was Jan's failure to work on his game that really doomed his NBA career.

[payitforward]

I still think OkaRiza helped us but it's tough to argue with that scenario of what could have happened since, especially since they haven't bothered to develop Porter.

I went back to that thread and from the very beginning you were not only for the trade, you advocated for it.

It was a different path and its all you can reasonable debate tweaks on at this point.

Even having made that move, there were viable other tweaks. But its not a dead end. We are still watching it play out. And their target is still two years off. And even with what might have been better tweaks, they should have been better last year and this year if not for Randy.

That's what I'm saying. I was absolutely in favor of the move and I think it helped overall. It's what happened after (see nate's post) that hasn't worked out as well as it could have.

But but but... how could it have helped overall when we got next to nothing out of it? Okafor gave us 2000 solid minutes in his 1 season -- but... what was our record? It was awful. For that we paid him $14m. And we also paid another $14m for the following season: i.e. we paid Gortat's $7+m contract, and we ate/waived another @ $7m of bad contracts (plus losing a #1pick) just because we had no backup plan to Okafor.

Had we not made the trade for Okafor we'd have been able to have at least one, probably more than one, young big w/ potential on our roster -- and *still* traded for Gortat, whom the Suns wanted to move. No doubt we'd have made a trade matching his salary -- not one where we were holding our socks for them.

For that matter, I supposed we could still have traded for Ariza -- despite the "Okariza" moniker, those guys weren't joined at the hip!

Sorry, it was a *horrible* trade, and it was one of the main factors leading to the troubles that "happened after."

[payitforward]

One of the strange things about the 2011 draft was that most people thought it was going to be a very weak draft. There was a threat that the coming season would be cancelled altogether (and in fact, obviously, it was shortened by the strike), and a significant number of college players dropped out of the draft to avoid being caught in that storm (i.e. not get paid).

But, in fact it's turned out, overall, to be a terrific draft. Some of the best young players in the league -- some of them from deep in R2 -- are out of that draft. I think there might be 10 guys from R2 that year pretty well established in the league.

I think there were a lot of people who said it was a deep draft but it was just going to be hard to determine who was the right player to select. Guys like Gobert and Giannis look great but while there were a few voices that I heard tout them, the majority had them outside of the top 10.

You're talking about '13 -- I was writing about 2011.

It's certainly true that players aren't exactly drafted in the order of how good they turn out in the NBA -- not in either of those years, not in any year!

Somehow you'd think that 1 -- 3 would at least be right most of the time. To be the best players and in the right order. At least some of the time!

But, in fact I can't think of a single draft in the last 20 where that's been the case!

[hands11]

Yeah, lots went wrong there starting with drafting him. But once they did, they total failed. And consider just how bad Randy's offense is. They rarely ran the one play that he was actually good at which was him cutting to the rim for an alley oop. Bad pick at #6 but him flaming out like that was a failure of the franchise/Randy. What I do most blame on Jan though it is horrible free through shooting. There is no excuse for that.

Yeah, If you are a pro player, you sit in the gym till you fix your FT% You find what works, you just practice till you make it. But you park at that line until you find what works!

IIRC, word was that Jan didn't work on improving ANY aspect of his game. While it was certainly the FO's mistake for drafting Ves, apparently it was Jan's failure to work on his game that really doomed his NBA career.

He paid to have his own personal trainer here the entire last year and used to get extra work in even during the season.

I think he might have had that rep early on of show up for the season not ready but seemed like he was adjusting. Kevin had the same problem early on. No doubt part of the adjustment period. Not sure what league he was in before getting drafted but the one he is in now, they only play once a week.

Ves had a lot of challenges. Culture. Language. Adjusting to the NBA game. Going from being a huge star over there and a starter his first year here to bench rider. His draft position. Dealing with Randy. Changing positions multiple times. Randy. Then there was Randy. oh and lets not forget Randy.

#6 was to high for him. But this team/Randy totally blow his development and sucked the joy of the game out of him.

[Kanyewest]

One of the strange things about the 2011 draft was that most people thought it was going to be a very weak draft. There was a threat that the coming season would be cancelled altogether (and in fact, obviously, it was shortened by the strike), and a significant number of college players dropped out of the draft to avoid being caught in that storm (i.e. not get paid).

But, in fact it's turned out, overall, to be a terrific draft. Some of the best young players in the league -- some of them from deep in R2 -- are out of that draft. I think there might be 10 guys from R2 that year pretty well established in the league.

I think there were a lot of people who said it was a deep draft but it was just going to be hard to determine who was the right player to select. Guys like Gobert and Giannis look great but while there were a few voices that I heard tout them, the majority had them outside of the top 10.

You're talking about '13 -- I was writing about 2011.

It's certainly true that players aren't exactly drafted in the order of how good they turn out in the NBA -- not in either of those years, not in any year!

Somehow you'd think that 1 -- 3 would at least be right most of the time. To be the best players and in the right order. At least some of the time!

But, in fact I can't think of a single draft in the last 20 where that's been the case!

Whoops my bad!

[hands11]

Looks like Will in not playing because its going to take some time for him to pick up the complexity of this offensive play book..LOL


That, and they haven't finished programing in the long 2..

[montestewart]

Looks like Will in not playing because its going to take some time for him to put up the complexity of this offensive play book..LOL


That, and they haven't finished programing in the long 2..

The play book simplified: "College 3s"

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/23 ... -Of-Season

The Portland Trail Blazers will sign Tim Frazier to a contract for the remainder of the season.

Frazier was just named D-League Player of the Week.

The Blazers need depth in the backcourt with Wesley Matthews out for the season.

I posted about Tim Frazier back in December or January.

I am glad he's signed with the Trailblazers.

The Wizards are not sharp enough to sign guys like Robert Covington (who may be better than Porter, but he is much older) and Tim Frazier (who I think can bring much more to the table at this point than Will Bynum).

I post because I KNOW someone very smart and very capable is reading. I don't need to go to a more prestigious website.

Don't need my own blog and my own Paypal stuff.

I think the Wizards are really getting what the deserve because they insist on not listening to timely, good, FREE, information that time and again proves reliable.