Middleton/Johnson to Wash for Kuzma/Baldwin

[German Athens]

Honestly, I don't think Butler would of accepted a trade here. Yes I know he went to Marquette but I think he likes the warm climate bigger cities. He turned down a trade to Memphis despite them being the 2 seed at the time. To go to Warriors who where struggling to reach the play in. His talk of wanting to go a contender seemed hollow in hind sight.

It didn’t matter what he would accept. He didn’t have a no-trade clause. So, he decided to use the “I won’t sign an extension” posturing to get where he wanted. That’s what he said about Memphis and GS. He wanted Phoenix.

He was then traded to GS and promptly signed an extension, anyway. I’d say that was the hollow part in hindsight.

[emunney]

Can we get a poll going on whether the best ability for a basketball player is "availability" or "ability to play the sport of basketball"

[drew881]

Can we get a poll going on whether the best ability for a basketball player is "availability" or "ability to play the sport of basketball"

If we had injured unavailable Middleton would Doc play more GTJ/Green or 40 minutes of Prince?

[msiris]

Wish this thread would die. What's done is done.

[Dick Tate]

I'm not going to bother looking back to see if I wrote anything self-incriminating.

[theFireBlanket]

Wish this thread would die. What's done is done.

Hardly done. Khris can still comeback next year & make this look all the more stupid. I've been ready for just that without Kuzma even being this terrible.

[theFireBlanket]

Its hard for me to see it being Giannis or Doc, I highly doubt Giannis is into the weeds on draft prospects. With Doc, I'm guessing he'd have preferred Terrence Shannon or Kyle Filipowski or Tyler Kolek, someone who was a high level college player that there was a not outlandish expectation that you could get an immediate contribution from (although none of those 3 did that). Maybe ownership made the decision, that I could imagine. I could also see it being a Horst decision and he for whatever reason soured on him over the next 8 months.

i think there is a good chance that AJ was selected to be a trade asset from the get go. That would suggest that they looked at the more nba ready players and didn't really love what they saw.

It's likely Horst never had a plan.

Or our rich owners are beginning to cheap out, hedging.

Wiz demanded AJ. A Khris trade was mandated by Edens/Haslem. And Doc apparently has a thing for Kuzma. Thus it was somehow worth the price to include him.

[msiris]

Wish this thread would die. What's done is done.

Hardly done. Khris can still comeback next year & make this look all the more stupid. I've been ready for just that without Kuzma even being this terrible.

Then start a Mids fan club on the Wizards rgm site. Lol

[Serge28]

Middleton averaged 25/9/5 in 6 playoff games against the Pacers last season. Kuzma put up 0/0/0 in Game 1. I just can't get over this.

[Prez]

Wish this thread would die. What's done is done.

Hardly done. Khris can still comeback next year & make this look all the more stupid. I've been ready for just that without Kuzma even being this terrible.

Then start a Mids fan club on the Wizards rgm site. Lol

I mean you don't have to participate in the thread if it bothers you, you're not being forced to open the thread and read the responses. Whether you like it or not this was a hugely important/consequential move in the Giannis era and people are going to want to talk about it and how things play out as a result of it.

Anyways even if this thread gets locked people are going to want to talk about it and it'll just get brought up in the general trades/transactions thread instead. You'd only be moving the discussion elsewhere.

[bucksfansince88]

Middleton averaged 25/9/5 in 6 playoff games against the Pacers last season. Kuzma put up 0/0/0 in Game 1. I just can't get over this.

While being injured too! Doc carries a bad basketball omen every where he goes

[emunney]

Wish this thread would die. What's done is done.

Hardly done. Khris can still comeback next year & make this look all the more stupid. I've been ready for just that without Kuzma even being this terrible.

Then start a Mids fan club on the Wizards rgm site. Lol

In my experience the best way to kill a thread is to argue in it

[ShootingtheJ]

i think there is a good chance that AJ was selected to be a trade asset from the get go. That would suggest that they looked at the more nba ready players and didn't really love what they saw.

It's likely Horst never had a plan.

Or our rich owners are beginning to cheap out, hedging.

Wiz demanded AJ. A Khris trade was mandated by Edens/Haslem. And Doc apparently has a thing for Kuzma. Thus it was somehow worth the price to include him.

If this was the case, Horst wouldn't have been so damn smug after the deal. Eric Nehm tried to suggest getting under the 2nd apron was a factor, and Horst repeatedly belittled him for the suggestion.

[emunney]

Can we get a poll going on whether the best ability for a basketball player is "availability" or "ability to play the sport of basketball"

If we had injured unavailable Middleton would Doc play more GTJ/Green or 40 minutes of Prince?

Fair but I think Prince's minutes have actually been higher post-trade. Probably because of Bobby's suspension.

[paulpressey25]

Kuzma is having some sort of mental issue. Guys who average back to back 21ppg seasons and looked extremely active and motivated his first two weeks here don’t just fall off the edge of a cliff. We’re in some sort of Ben Simmons situation here.

[raferfenix]

"It's hard to score when you don't touch the ball. Kuz can play but we gotta involve him and we gotta make sure we keep him involved."

Doc should be cautious to not break Kuzma like he did Ben Simmons if he's going through a confidence crisis.

But this is bullish*t. It'd be a dream if Kuz were just a PJ Tucker style defender/hustle guy who scored only from crashing the glass and hitting wide open shots.

And unless Middleton had a limb amputated I bet he'd be contributing somehow.

My hunch is Doc pushed for Kuzma more than Horst.

[theFireBlanket]

It's likely Horst never had a plan.

Or our rich owners are beginning to cheap out, hedging.

Wiz demanded AJ. A Khris trade was mandated by Edens/Haslem. And Doc apparently has a thing for Kuzma. Thus it was somehow worth the price to include him.

If this was the case, Horst wouldn't have been so damn smug after the deal. Eric Nehm tried to suggest getting under the 2nd apron was a factor, and Horst repeatedly belittled him for the suggestion.

Not necessarily. Why would Edens or Haslem want people knowing it's simply a cost cutting move?

[GoldenAntlers]

Or our rich owners are beginning to cheap out, hedging.

Wiz demanded AJ. A Khris trade was mandated by Edens/Haslem. And Doc apparently has a thing for Kuzma. Thus it was somehow worth the price to include him.

If this was the case, Horst wouldn't have been so damn smug after the deal. Eric Nehm tried to suggest getting under the 2nd apron was a factor, and Horst repeatedly belittled him for the suggestion.

Not necessarily. Why would Edens or Haslem want people knowing it's simply a cost cutting move?

Or Kuzma for that matter.

[msiris]

Hardly done. Khris can still comeback next year & make this look all the more stupid. I've been ready for just that without Kuzma even being this terrible.

Then start a Mids fan club on the Wizards rgm site. Lol

In my experience the best way to kill a thread is to argue in it

True Lol. The thing is I don't think you can find anyone who really liked the trade. In the beginning he played just fine and played some good basketball but some just said Kuzma still sucked because they lost their favorite player. No one said he is better than Mids and he will never will be. He should not be starting. Hoping he does better because than the Bucks would a better chance of winning. So everytime he does poorly this thread will pop up and people will say oh this trade really sucked. No kidding. Nobody really liked it in the first place. Sure I was hoping it worked ot since I am a Bucks fan. But now I am like we might have two more years of this. Oh boy. Could we have gotten KPJ without this trade?

[Profound23]

"It's hard to score when you don't touch the ball. Kuz can play but we gotta involve him and we gotta make sure we keep him involved."

Doc should be cautious to not break Kuzma like he did Ben Simmons if he's going through a confidence crisis.

But this is bullish*t. It'd be a dream of Kuz were just a PJ Tucker style defender/hustle guy who scored only from crashing the glass and hitting wide open shots.

And unless Middleton had a limb amputated I bet he'd be contributing somehow.

My hunch is Doc pushed for Kuzma more than Horst.

It's hard to touch the ball when you're so bad you trip over your own feet as they are inbounding the ball to you.