Tracking Former Wizards 3.0

[verbal8]

i suppose it's a little surprising that a franchise looking to save every dollar like memphis would be willing to sign a vet for $1m instead of someone younger for half the price

I am pretty sure the team only pays the minimum an NBA escrow account kicks in the rest for experienced vets.

[closg00]

Look who leads the Euros in RPG.

Olexei PECHEROV
UKR
(212-C-85)
Avg: 9.7
1. Pecherov, UKR 9.7
2. Lorant, HUN 8.2
3. Kangur, EST 7.6
4. Hervelle, BEL 7.4
5. Bader, HUN 7.3
6. Andrade, POR 6.7
7. Talts, EST 6.4
8. Turiaf, FRA 6.0
9. Benda, CZE 5.9
10. Lishchuk, U. 5.9

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Songaila to the Hornets for AD .... http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... th_wolves/

The Hornets add depth, while Minnesota has to get even more PGs, it seems.

[miller31time]

Songaila to the Hornets for AD .... http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... th_wolves/

The Hornets add depth, while Minnesota has to get even more PGs, it seems.

Teammates a year ago...now traded for each other. Crazy world the NBA is.

[LyricalRico]

Interesting. I expect Minny to now waive Atkins and take the cap savings, while sliding AD into the role of mentor for Sessions/Flynn.

From NOH's perspective, Songaila gives them a solid backup for West for the first time since...ever. They are still an undersized frontcourt but he should definitely help them. Maybe they follow up with Peja+Wright for Michael Redd? Milwaukee does it to save money in 2010.

Okafor/Armstrong
West/Songaila
Posey/D.Brown or FA
Redd/MoPete
Paul/Collison

[nate33]

Wow. Songaila was worth an expiring contract.

It's a shame we weren't able to unload Stevenson in the Foye/Miller trade. We then could have made the same deal ourselves (and then cut Daniels). It would have saved Abe $10M next year.

If Songaila is worth an expiring contract, I wonder if we'll be able to trade Stevenson for an expiring contract down the road. I figure a healthy Stevenson is worth about as much as Songaila.

[LyricalRico]

If Songaila is worth an expiring contract, I wonder if we'll be able to trade Stevenson for an expiring contract down the road. I figure a healthy Stevenson is worth about as much as Songaila.

Exactly what I was thinking. It may not be a bad idea to give DeBrick some minutes early in the season so that teams can see that he's healthy again.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Interesting. I expect Minny to now waive Atkins and take the cap savings, while sliding AD into the role of mentor for Sessions/Flynn.

From NOH's perspective, Songaila gives them a solid backup for West for the first time since...ever. They are still an undersized frontcourt but he should definitely help them. Maybe they follow up with Peja+Wright for Michael Redd? Milwaukee does it to save money in 2010.

Okafor/Armstrong
West/Songaila
Posey/D.Brown or FA
Redd/MoPete
Paul/Collison

Count me as considering Okafor an unskilled PF.

NOH would do well to trade West for somebody like Bogut.

West is overrated IMO.

[LyricalRico]

Interesting. I expect Minny to now waive Atkins and take the cap savings, while sliding AD into the role of mentor for Sessions/Flynn.

From NOH's perspective, Songaila gives them a solid backup for West for the first time since...ever. They are still an undersized frontcourt but he should definitely help them. Maybe they follow up with Peja+Wright for Michael Redd? Milwaukee does it to save money in 2010.

Okafor/Armstrong
West/Songaila
Posey/D.Brown or FA
Redd/MoPete
Paul/Collison

Count me as considering Okafor an unskilled PF.

NOH would do well to trade West for somebody like Bogut.

West is overrated IMO.

Hey, I agree that West isn't as good as his All-Star appearances might suggest. But IMO it's tough to be "overrated" when you're putting up solid numbers at under $10M per year. West for Bogut would probably be the only deal that would make sense, but I don't see Milwaukee going for it. It would be tough anyway because Bogut is BYC this year.

[og15]

Interesting. I expect Minny to now waive Atkins and take the cap savings, while sliding AD into the role of mentor for Sessions/Flynn.

From NOH's perspective, Songaila gives them a solid backup for West for the first time since...ever. They are still an undersized frontcourt but he should definitely help them. Maybe they follow up with Peja+Wright for Michael Redd? Milwaukee does it to save money in 2010.

Okafor/Armstrong
West/Songaila
Posey/D.Brown or FA
Redd/MoPete
Paul/Collison

Count me as considering Okafor an unskilled PF.

NOH would do well to trade West for somebody like Bogut.

West is overrated IMO.

If New Orleans trades West for Bogut who is their secondary scorer though? While West is not an amazing second option and is not a very efficient scorer for a PF, he is still a 19 PPG scorer in this league. Trading him and having two big men (Emeka and Bogut) who so far have at best produced 15 PPG for a season ( not the half season stretches of 17 PPG) could work, but again could hurt.

New Orleans got beat up by Denver partly because they didn't have players other than Paul to consitently create and their other guy (West) who could create shots for himself was easily single covered and shut down by Kenyon. Would it then be wise to make themselves even more deficient in terms of solid scoring options?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

og15, I was incorrect about West.

http://www.82games.com/0809/08NOH11.HTM

The Hornets were 8.5 points better per 100 possessions with him on the court. I don't like him a whole lot for some reason, but my opinion of his game doesn't bear up to the facts.

I don't see West as enough when the Hornets play the tough teams in the West that have more size at PF--very similarly to how I see Jamison not being enough at PF for the Wizards.

That said, West is NOT overrated (at least not on last season's numbers).

[dorianwrite]

I'd like to congratulate one former Wizard, Bryon Russell, for calling out another former Wizard, Michael Jordan. Jordan's induction speech was a petty mess, so here's Bryon's response:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=m ... &type=lgns

[ZonkertheBrainless]

I feel bad for Russel. MJ's up there gloating about how it's not about how you play the game but how famous you are... "I got that call because I'm up here today. Too bad for you you're not a hall of famer huh? Huh? Sucka!"

Sorry Doc, I understand where you're coming from, but the speech still reinforces that a lot of MJ's success, particularly later in his career, came from the whistles of the referees and not his (severely diminishing) ability to play basketball.

Well, and that MJ has no class. Show a little class in your HOF speech, is that asking too much?

[montestewart]

In Jordan's last year, he began the season coming off the bench, and he and Collins spent much of their seemingly endless interview time talking about this selfless sacrifice for the team, which was the plan for the season. After fifteen games, the Wizards were 6-9 (they were 5-10 the year before after fifteen games, with Jordan starting), and the two back pedaled on the plan. Jordan was scoring barely over 16ppg. The Wizards went on to finish 37-45 (again), going 31-38 with him in the starting lineup. Toward the end of the year, teammates weren't doing much to hide their frustration with Jordan ball hogging as if he were in his prime. He finished the year with EXACTLY 20 ppg. On most nights he was the best player on the team, but the arrogance that may well serve a superstar (Jordan, Shaq, Kobe, Lebron, etc.) can look pretty silly coming from a merely aging star.

[Kanyewest]

Just stop and think for a moment what it must feel like to be Jared Jeffries for a day. I mean, you literally have no talent, good height and decent athleticism and you just made 30 million dollars over 5 years.

Sure, you could win the lottery and *maybe* make more after taxes are taken into account but it couldn't feel nearly as good.

Let me just state for the record that I wanted no part of Jared Jeffries in Wizards uniform even in 2002 NBA Draft. However, Jeffries getting $30 million isn't THAT preposterous. He's a 6'11 forward with decent ball handling positions that plays and guards multiple positions. Probably worth in the neighborhood of $18 million over 5 years before he signed that contract.

I bet the Knicks were banking on the fact that Jeffries would develop an offensive game given that he was only 24 and believed he had uber potential. However, most Wizard fans realized that his offensive game if anything had regressed since he entered the NBA. And even though he could guard multipe position, at best he was only an above average defender at the small forward position; too slow for guards, and too small to guard most power forwards.

And who knows; Jeffries could be a good glue guy for a team with championship level talent. But Knicks certainly don't have it.

Yes, Jeffries is overpaid but not as much as guys like Kwame, Darko, Jerome James, and Larry Hughes.

[Dat2U]

Regarding Okafor, I view him strickly as an undersized center. PFs with any skill give him trouble defensively. Look at how Blatche has abused him in the past. He just doesn't function well outside the paint, on either side of the ball. The lateral movement and awareness just isn't there. That said, he's a solid and relatively productive C.

Pairing Okafor with Bogut would be a mistake IMO. They would get in each other's way. Neither has the ability to successfully guard skilled PFs. It's a slow, plodding front court IMO. West, although slightly undersized as well, is a much better fit in terms of athleticism and skillset. NO's goal IMO, should be to add a long, athletic 7-0 footer IMO off the bench to complement their frontline.

Onto Jeffries, I'd say he's one of the worst players in the entire NBA. I'd be willing to put money on the stats actually backing this up. And he has been awful since his DC days. His game never developed from his college, and his lack of confidence, skill, strength and athleticism has doomed him to be a 6-11 jack-of-no-trades. I'd say there's not anything that anyone can truly say he brings to the table other than his willingness to defer and be a role player. He's called a defender, b/c he's incapable of doing anything else. His reach and willingness to pester may annoy offensive players, but he's never actually stopped anyone from scoring.

Out of the players kanyewest mentioned, only Jerome James could be rated worst. Darko & Larry are on expiring contracts and Kwame makes about half with Jeffries is getting.

[Kanyewest]

Regarding Okafor, I view him strickly as an undersized center. PFs with any skill give him trouble defensively. Look at how Blatche has abused him in the past. He just doesn't function well outside the paint, on either side of the ball. The lateral movement and awareness just isn't there. That said, he's a solid and relatively productive C.

Pairing Okafor with Bogut would be a mistake IMO. They would get in each other's way. Neither has the ability to successfully guard skilled PFs. It's a slow, plodding front court IMO. West, although slightly undersized as well, is a much better fit in terms of athleticism and skillset. NO's goal IMO, should be to add a long, athletic 7-0 footer IMO off the bench to complement their frontline.

Onto Jeffries, I'd say he's one of the worst players in the entire NBA. I'd be willing to put money on the stats actually backing this up. And he has been awful since his DC days. His game never developed from his college, and his lack of confidence, skill, strength and athleticism has doomed him to be a 6-11 jack-of-no-trades. I'd say there's not anything that anyone can truly say he brings to the table other than his willingness to defer and be a role player. He's called a defender, b/c he's incapable of doing anything else. His reach and willingness to pester may annoy offensive players, but he's never actually stopped anyone from scoring.

Out of the players kanyewest mentioned, only Jerome James could be rated worst. Darko & Larry are on expiring contracts and Kwame makes about half with Jeffries is getting.

When I was referencing Miller's post, I wasn't talking about trade value; rather who has been more overpaid throughout their career.

True Kwame is more valuable right now because he's an expiring contract. But if we are looking at the totality of their careers and who has done the least, Kwame has been more overpaid than Jeffries. Kwame has made arround $46 million in his career up to this point, while Jeffries has made $23-24 million; granted Kwame has been in the league 1 year longer.

While Larry Hughes is a much better player than Jeffries, it's scary to think he will have made $60 million from 2005-2010. Is Hughes even twice the player than Jeffries; maybe in Washington but certainly not in Cleveland/Chicago/New York. Then again, Hughes probably earned his contract moreso than Jeffries with that great statistical 04-05 regular season.

Darko is another player that hit the lottery. People shouldn't be surprised with Joe Dumars mishpas given that he managed to pick Darko over the like Carmelo, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade. He's made $5 million more than Jeffries despite being in the league 2 years less. And who knows if some team will over pay for Darko because he's still a relatively young 7 footer (BTW I hope someone does so that it takes one suitor for Haywood off the table).

[closg00]

Portland signs Juan Howard, man that dudes got 9 lives.

[verbal8]

Portland signs Juan Howard, man that dudes got 9 lives.

Its funny that he was considered one of the least athletic of the fab 5.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Portland signs Juan Howard, man that dudes got 9 lives.

Its funny that he was considered one of the least athletic of the fab 5.

Juwan's not too far from entering into Jim Jackson, Chucky Brown type play-for-darn-near-everybody status.

I know this is only his fifth or sixth team, and those guys played on at least ten, but old Juwan's definitely been around. (Wizards, Dallas, Denver, Houston, back to Denver, Charlotte, and now Portland!)