Poole & Bey to Pels for McCollum and Wizard-Killer

[payitforward]

I'm not worried about either of these guys making us better!

[Tyrone Messby]

Pelicans had a better draft than us

[lastemp3ror]

If you listen to Will Dawkins press conference from last night. I think David Aldridge asks (around minute 9) if there are other moves that are made that can’t be discussed until July 6th and Will confirms that there are things he cannot discuss now. I think this most likely confirms McCollum is on the move.

[One_and_Done]

So it is time to spend next summer on legit free agents? Will they come here? I guess we'll have plenty of money to spend for the first time in a while.

I think this may be the most slept on aspect on the new Wizards front office. They are starting to make it a place that players want to play. This is the second year in a row that a lotto prospect has tried to force his way to Washington. People have forgotten because the Wizards have been irrelevant for over 50 years, but Washington should be an attractive destination. It's a pretty big market city, by the water, with a diverse multicultural population. It's also got lots of nice tourist attractions, and famous people for you to meet.

Obviously Sarr and Ace were thinking about role too, but who knows. Maybe they'll get some nice players with their cap space after all.

[nate33]

The Poole for McCollum trade makes even more sense after the draft.

Poole is a 26-year-old SG with 2 years on his deal. McCollum is a 33-year-old PG/SG with 1 year on his deal. It looks like they were clearing the log jam at SG in expectation of landing a SG. Did they think Tre Johnson was a likelihood the whole time?

I'm guessing they ultimately wanted Bailey more than Johnson, but not THAT much more. Not enough to trade major assets to move up.

[nate33]

One other thought about this trade:

For the last two years, the team has tried to trade cap flexibility for picks. Basically, we have traded expiring contracts for longer term contracts of overpaid players (Bagley, Smart) or we have tried to sign overlooked free agents to cap friendly deals in the hopes of trading them later (Bey, Valanciunas).

The problem is, this hasn't been all that effecting in extracting big time value. Most teams aren't willing to pay major assets to avert a salary cap disaster that's not going to happen for another 6-12 months away. Their thinking is that if they're patient, they can sooner or later find a way to trade a long bad contract for a short bad contract at a low cost of a SRP or two.

Where the big leverage is, is if you have the ability to give a team IMMEDIATE cap relief. Most teams can't do this because of the salary cap minimum. Teams aren't sitting around with $30M in cap room ready to absorb an overpaid player. I think maybe the Wizards are going to try to be that team next year. Instead of having only expiring contracts to offer, they will have raw cap room to offer instant savings. As the only team with that capability, we are likely to have more leverage and may be able to extra real FRP's from teams for the service.

The only downside is that if there aren't any teams that want to sell picks for cap room, we will be stuck with a bunch of cap room and nobody to spend it on. I guess if that scenario comes to pass, we will have to try and sign youngish free agents. The restricted free agents are the draft class of 2022 which includes: Banchero, Chet, Jabari, Murray, Mathurin, Sharpe, Daniels and Eason. The ones like Banchero and Chet who are clearly worth the max will be extended and will never hit the market. But guys like Jabari and Eason should be available. UFA's include: Fox, Randle, Ayton, Simons.

It might be interesting to sign a guy like Jabari Smith to a frontloaded deal that declines over time. Houston would have a tough time matching it, but it would become affordable by the time we needed to resign our guys.

Ideally, we work both sides of the cap room flexibility equation. Maybe we sign Jabari to a 4 year descending deal starting at $30M and declining, while also buying out a guy like Lillard, Beal or Paul George in exchange for a good future FRP.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

So it is time to spend next summer on legit free agents? Will they come here? I guess we'll have plenty of money to spend for the first time in a while.

I think this may be the most slept on aspect on the new Wizards front office. They are starting to make it a place that players want to play. This is the second year in a row that a lotto prospect has tried to force his way to Washington. People have forgotten because the Wizards have been irrelevant for over 50 years, but Washington should be an attractive destination. It's a pretty big market city, by the water, with a diverse multicultural population. It's also got lots of nice tourist attractions, and famous people for you to meet.

Obviously Sarr and Ace were thinking about role too, but who knows. Maybe they'll get some nice players with their cap space after all.

Good point.

The Wizards do right by their player acquisitions. Porzingis has a championship ring. Daniel Gafford played well in the NBA Finals with Dallas and just re-signed for 3 years, $60M. Kuzma got his numbers and got the deal to a contender of his choice. Beal hot just t what he asked fot. Jared Butler is a great Karma story. Same with Juatin Champagnie.

The veterans on expiring contracts know they're in the spotlight for mid-season deals. They get to mentor. The Wizards have enthusiastic young guys eager to prove themselves.

Will Dawkins and company have done exceptional work changing the culture.

[9 and 20]

Colin Sexton and a second round pick were just traded for Josef Nurkic.

Looks like we did well with Poole and his two years left to get McCollum.

Seems like the league views these types of players as negative value - the undersized gunner at shooting guard.

[badinage]

Right now, the league seems to view no one but stars and just-below-that’s as having any value.

No one’s giving up draft picks to get a good guy.

No GM wants to be posterized by shipping out a pick and having that draftee turn into some stud.

Which is funny, because most first-round draft picks don’t hit. Or if they do hit, the hit is not so significant.

CJ McCollum should be worth something good. He can help a good team. But watch.

[Zonkerbl]

Poole is like a poor man's Halliburton. Takes shots outside of the context of the offence but makes some of them, and if you catch him on a day where he's making even more shots like that than average he can win a game for you, and he's good at making passes off the gravity he creates. But he doesn't run the offense. I feel like McCollum is virtually the same statistically but his job is to run the offense first and produce points and assists second, so in that sense just the way that he plays is a better fit. I don't know how they compare defensively.