Anyone Want Hughes?

[penbeast0]

I have no problem with Hughes going elsewhere, I was thrilled that he did. Looking at his career, he had always been a truly terrible gunner -- high volume, low efficiency. I remember when he had bounced around and first landed with us and I said we were getting the single worst player in the NBA (Allen Iverson light).

He did play better than I thought he would here, particularly defensively where he had never shown consistent effort when I watched him in Golden State, but he was and is still a flashy physical talent who can't shoot but thinks he's a star. Not a guy you want on your team even for $2-3 million.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Why the venom toward Hughes? If someone came along and offered me a HUGE contract and the chance to work with one of the top talents in my field, I'd jump on it too. It didn't turn out well for Hughes's individual performance, but (assuming any kind of reasonable money management) he's set his family up for life.

Hard to see that as "NBA, rock bottom."

Agreed. I always liked Hughes. He played hard, played good D, and seemed to work hard in the film room to understand his opponents' tendencies (I'll overlook the 1 on 3 fast breaks and the glass skeletal structure). I agreed with EG's decision to let Hughes walk, but I bear no animosity towards Hughes.

If we still ran the Princeton, I'd be happy to have him back on a 1-year deal for $2-3M or so.

Kinda funny -- I never liked Hughes as a player. I was happy he played well that season for the Wizards, but I never liked his game much. I always thought he should have been a lot better than he was based on the tools he had. I thought he failed to use his athletic ability to make the game easier -- instead he made decisions that required him to make difficult athletic plays. Maybe that's part of the reason he got hurt so much.

Larry the person was very likeable. I just didn't like how he played.

[Spence]

Larry's older than his years, fragile and not suitable for what the Wizards want to do.

[pancakes3]

If someone came along and offered me a HUGE contract and the chance to work with one of the top talents in my field, I'd jump on it too. It didn't turn out well for Hughes's individual performance, but (assuming any kind of reasonable money management) he's set his family up for life.

plus didn't his kid brother need the dough for surgery, chemo, or something to that effect? i'd rather have him at the vet min than mike james at 6 mil.

[montestewart]

Larry the person was very likeable. I just didn't like how he played

Feel the same, and don't blame him for taking the money and running. Couldn't believe he made all-defense (was that 1st team?) based mostly on his league-leading steals, when he was actually often pretty careless on his man, and frequnetly Arenas (!) looked like the better defender, which is saying something, though I thought Arenas was a better defender his first couple of years. Many of Hughes' shots were as cringe-worthy as some of Butler's this year.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Larry the person was very likeable. I just didn't like how he played

Feel the same, and don't blame him for taking the money and running. Couldn't believe he made all-defense (was that 1st team?) based mostly on his league-leading steals, when he was actually often pretty careless on his man, and frequnetly Arenas (!) looked like the better defender, which is saying something, though I thought Arenas was a better defender his first couple of years. Many of Hughes' shots were as cringe-worthy as some of Butler's this year.

Pretty good observations. The 2nd half of that season was when I started tracking the Wizards' individual defense. Hughes and Arenas came out surprisingly similar when I crunched the numbers. Opposing offensive players actually shot the ball slightly better when Hughes was involved in defending than they did against Arenas. Non-steal forced turnovers were nearly identical. Hughes still came out as the better defender overall because he got an additional 1.5 steals per 48 minutes and because he got an additional 2.4 defensive rebounds per 48. Those rebounds were critical to a weak rebounding team.

[montestewart]

^
Hughes was fast and a good leaper with long arms. He was pretty thin, but he was a good rebounder for sure.

[cdouglas]

He was a BETTER partner for Gil than he was for Lebron. I guess everytime Gil finds a good teammate, Lebron will take him away from the team.

[AceDegenerate]

It would appear there are no lingering hard feelings toward MJ from Hughes as he appears on the verge of signing with Charlotte.