Grade the Wizard's Draft

[LyricalRico]

I think EG's strategic decisions on draft night were excellent.

John Wall is an A. It was hard to screw up, but at least he didn't screw it up.

I like the Hinrich trade. I like it much more now that it's apparent that OKC really wanted Seraphin at #18 and San Antonio was rumored to want him at #20. There's no way to know if Seraphin is worth it, but we at least know that many of the best talent evaluators in the game like him. I grade that move an A because EG appears to have outfoxed some pretty savvy GMs.

I'm agnostic on the Booker pick. I acknowledge that Booker was apparently in demand in that range, so EG at least had some company. I'm just not so sure it was wise to grab Booker when we could have had Pondexter instead. I don't get the sense that he stole Booker out from under the noses of great talent evaluators, so there's no reason to give EG particularly high marks for gamesmanship. There's no reason to give him a low mark either. For now, I give it an entirely arbitrary grade of C.

I have no opinion whatsoever on Ndaye.

Overall, EG gets an A-. Bravo!

Great post!

[willbcocks]

I'm keeping my grade at a C, though improving it to C from C-.

In my mind, we came into the draft with a lot of assets. We had 3 picks, lots of cap space, positions of need everywhere, and an owner willing to spend and use the draft. These are ideal conditions for a gm.

For EG to get an A under these conditions, he would have had to move up into the top 14 to get another core player or really make magic later in the draft. He did neither.

Based on the talent he got with the assets he had, I give him a B. But then he paid too much for that talent, so dropping EG's overall grade down to a C.

I think the paying too much will ultimately hurt no one, as we still have plenty of room for BOYD's and the odds of acquiring Melo using a huge chunk of cap space are shrinking by the day. I think that if we ultimately get him, it will be through a S&T of blatche, and in that case Heinrich will neither hurt nor help our chances.

[yungal07]

I can't say until I've seen Seraphin play. I already know Booker is a baller, but I would have liked Pondexter or Anderson in a Wiz uni.

[dcballer]

I give it an A just because of Wall. I don't care about the rest. When we won the 1st pick, I was worried we would do an another Kwame.

[80sballboy]

You have to look at the whole picture and not just grade on an emotional outburst. I would have graded them a D during the draft, until I read more about Seraphin and watched highlights afterwards. He's exactly what we need (he'll be similar to Nene) and this draft was dreadful, especially after 15. The Booker thing I don't get. He's a poor man's Maxiell. That's why I grade it a B. The 56th pick is like throwing darts. I guess if you hate getting Hinrich, I understand but it's window dressing-a mentor to Wall.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

I grade it a B

Wall- 100%
Seraphin- 77%
Booker T -86%

Booker + Wall looks NICE!

[BruceO]

Although I had said I'd like to make moves to get cousins, I also say that in General I don't think Ernie Grunfeld is as an incompetent GM as some think he is. I have loved his picks in the last few years. I loved Blatche and Javale McGee especially when others reactions were he'll suck. The common thread in all the recent picks is this. After being mediocre with Jamison and Caron, and them coincidentally being mediocre athletes, never expect Grunfeld to pick mediocre athletes with mediocre length. Expect the players to be athletic and expect them to be long. Expect them to have huge upside.
I am convinced Leonsis will develop our players now better than they have in the past. We have good staff at all levels. I expect the medical staff to be re evaluated. I expect us to move in the proper directions as far as sales for the team and wins. I expect us to be patient and not try to put all our eggs in one basket.

EG was sent into this draft to try and get atleast three good players. The rest will come. Before the draft we only had two players between the PF and C position. Now we have five. We had 3 guards ( Ross included), now we have five. The players we got are all capable of playing defense, they are all tough and they are all strong. Infact outside of Favors and Aldrich we probably got the big most capable of playing defense, Aldrich though is not as athletic as Seraphin. So that was a good pick. Even when you consider that OKC was definately trying to get him. They had been to his workouts, they moved down to the 18 spot to pick him. We complained that other teams were making moves and we weren't. The Management did a smart thing. They waited for OKC to commit to a spot, then came in under them to snatch the player. OKC had to move that pick right after we picked Seraphin. So that move like that was subtle but it's an A. They have a good eye for talent as evidenced y recent picks so I have no doubt kid will be a player.
When it comes to Booker T, he's fast and he's tough and he's a player. Evidenced by the people who watched him. He came at the 23rd pick. Dude to get a player that good at the 23rd pick is a steal. Nick was gotten at the 16th or 17th. We were nt going to get quality players that fit the tough, atheltic, fast mold they waned at the 35 and 30 position. So we moved down and moved the other pick back to get the 23rd and 56th pick. That's also a subtle but great move because in the end we did get the players we wanted. That deserves an A.

So overall I voted A for all moves. Didn't like the expense of Hinrich but the numbers show he didn't cost as much as we think. He also is going to be needed to play alongside Gil. When he's expiring he will also be valuable.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

What mattered the most to me happened. I am a big time believer in utilizing all picks after the blue chip area on potential guys. The bulk of the players drafted after the blue chip zone tend to fall into one of three labels: Role player w/limited talent, Bust, Raw player w/potential who could become a stud but probably won't. I hate drafting the first two kinds of players because they tend to come under the same umbrella, w/very little in the way of upside. Id much rather take the slightly longer odds guy w/raw potential potential, but less chance of necessairly easily becoming a role player, than trying to fit a role player into the system from the draft when the talent/upside is less. You get a lower ceiling of talent, and only a slightly higher floor in terms of actual ability to contribute. It's not worth it, to me, to lower the risk for so little payoff.

So for me, taking Seraphim was genius. He is EXACTLY the kind of guy i like to take in that zone. you're swinging for the fences, and if you miss, well, he's got such athleticism, and such a body, that he probably could actually fit a role maybe, but the upside is just huge. That kind of pick i like much much more than the booker reach, which was infuriating to me.

I will say one thing about the Booker reach though, he's got energy, desire and motivation from what i've heard, and if a play is hungry enough, it can camouflage a lot of flaws. If a player doesn't have that hunger, well, you know what you get, a lot of our old school players that have been such frustrating figures in our basketball fandom. He's got that hunger and desire so he probably has a good chance of being a serviceable role player. Lastly, to get a guy who plays some really good defense that late in the draft? Not bad. It's not what I like, but what percentage of guys ever accomplish anything taken in the 50something area? Not many. So we pulled the trigger on a player that could very easily be a valuable defensive sub as needed, and a genuine role player who contributes. As was joked at one sight, we basically drafted Thabeet part II, just w/far less upside.

So overall, i really thought it was a nice blueprint of what is wanted by Leonsis and the staff. They want a hungrier tougher team and they made it happen. They wanted to rebuild from scratch and they are. They wanted to build from youth and thats whats happening. They appear to want to make Wall the leader of a young and hungry team, and they are doing that. They also appear to be on a 2-3 year rebuild plan, and they've built in such a way that we probably should be adding a young and talented prospect next year too. I imagine we'll probably have a top 5-10 pick next year.

I didnt like the Booker trade up either. I feel like we not only drafted the wrong guy, we got rid of the opportunity of getting two young guys w/upside, and got one young role player w/very little upside instead. I didn't like that at all. However, we landed Wall, a prospect w/huge long term upside in Seraphim, are adhering to a pretty smart plan, and got two hungry role players who probably have the mentality to stick in this league. There's a lot to like, and its probably nitpicking to bitch, particularly about a pick in a region of the draft where traditionally 70-85% of the players are either flat out busts, or virtual non-entity, 12th man off the bench types, and should we really complain about that?

Consiglieri, this is HOF thread-worthy, IMO.

Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld achieved what they wanted to do in getting a tougher, more athletic team. The Wizards really did draft with the 2-3 year window. Seraphim makes sense with the long haul in mind, but I'm just not as patient as you with that kind of pick.

I have a bit of a philosophical difference on role player guys. My philosophy is that great role players can get it done in the right system. In one the books he authored, (title escapes me right now), Bill Russell explained the secret of the great Celtic teams of the past was that everybody had a role and they were each great at it. He protected the paint, intimidated, grabbed the rebounds, blocked the shots. Cousy was ball handler and distributor. KC Jones was a defender. Sam Jones a scorer. Same with Heinsohn, Nelson, Havlicek. They knew their roles and everybody stayed within his area of expertise. Even in the current NBA, I see two are three studs surrounded by a bunch of good role players. I'd rather have seen the Wizards draft a skilled shooter like James Anderson next to John Wall than to wait on Seraphim. I like the here and now. Admittedly, the ceiling might be low and I might be settling for some level of mediocrity athletically. Regardless, I see players like Rip Hamilton have rings, so I think Anderson might be that kind of guy down the line. Time will tell. SA is gonna be tough if they get Splitter to come over.

Consiglieri, I also thought trading up to get Booker at 23 was just not a solid move at all. However, Booker did some really nice work for four years at Clemson. He actually does fit the role of intimidator, energy player, athlete fairly well. I am really looking forward to him and Wall on the fastbreak.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbmLWziysI&feature=related[/youtube]

[hands11]

What mattered the most to me happened. I am a big time believer in utilizing all picks after the blue chip area on potential guys. The bulk of the players drafted after the blue chip zone tend to fall into one of three labels: Role player w/limited talent, Bust, Raw player w/potential who could become a stud but probably won't. I hate drafting the first two kinds of players because they tend to come under the same umbrella, w/very little in the way of upside. Id much rather take the slightly longer odds guy w/raw potential potential, but less chance of necessairly easily becoming a role player, than trying to fit a role player into the system from the draft when the talent/upside is less. You get a lower ceiling of talent, and only a slightly higher floor in terms of actual ability to contribute. It's not worth it, to me, to lower the risk for so little payoff.

So for me, taking Seraphim was genius. He is EXACTLY the kind of guy i like to take in that zone. you're swinging for the fences, and if you miss, well, he's got such athleticism, and such a body, that he probably could actually fit a role maybe, but the upside is just huge. That kind of pick i like much much more than the booker reach, which was infuriating to me.

I will say one thing about the Booker reach though, he's got energy, desire and motivation from what i've heard, and if a play is hungry enough, it can camouflage a lot of flaws. If a player doesn't have that hunger, well, you know what you get, a lot of our old school players that have been such frustrating figures in our basketball fandom. He's got that hunger and desire so he probably has a good chance of being a serviceable role player. Lastly, to get a guy who plays some really good defense that late in the draft? Not bad. It's not what I like, but what percentage of guys ever accomplish anything taken in the 50something area? Not many. So we pulled the trigger on a player that could very easily be a valuable defensive sub as needed, and a genuine role player who contributes. As was joked at one sight, we basically drafted Thabeet part II, just w/far less upside.

So overall, i really thought it was a nice blueprint of what is wanted by Leonsis and the staff. They want a hungrier tougher team and they made it happen. They wanted to rebuild from scratch and they are. They wanted to build from youth and thats whats happening. They appear to want to make Wall the leader of a young and hungry team, and they are doing that. They also appear to be on a 2-3 year rebuild plan, and they've built in such a way that we probably should be adding a young and talented prospect next year too. I imagine we'll probably have a top 5-10 pick next year.

I didnt like the Booker trade up either. I feel like we not only drafted the wrong guy, we got rid of the opportunity of getting two young guys w/upside, and got one young role player w/very little upside instead. I didn't like that at all. However, we landed Wall, a prospect w/huge long term upside in Seraphim, are adhering to a pretty smart plan, and got two hungry role players who probably have the mentality to stick in this league. There's a lot to like, and its probably nitpicking to bitch, particularly about a pick in a region of the draft where traditionally 70-85% of the players are either flat out busts, or virtual non-entity, 12th man off the bench types, and should we really complain about that?

Consiglieri, this is HOF thread-worthy, IMO.

Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld achieved what they wanted to do in getting a tougher, more athletic team. The Wizards really did draft with the 2-3 year window. Seraphim makes sense with the long haul in mind, but I'm just not as patient as you with that kind of pick.

I have a bit of a philosophical difference on role player guys. My philosophy is that great role players can get it done in the right system. In one the books he authored, (title escapes me right now), Bill Russell explained the secret of the great Celtic teams of the past was that everybody had a role and they were each great at it. He protected the paint, intimidated, grabbed the rebounds, blocked the shots. Cousy was ball handler and distributor. KC Jones was a defender. Sam Jones a scorer. Same with Heinsohn, Nelson, Havlicek. They knew their roles and everybody stayed within his area of expertise. Even in the current NBA, I see two are three studs surrounded by a bunch of good role players. I'd rather have seen the Wizards draft a skilled shooter like James Anderson next to John Wall than to wait on Seraphim. I like the here and now. Admittedly, the ceiling might be low and I might be settling for some level of mediocrity athletically. Regardless, I see players like Rip Hamilton have rings, so I think Anderson might be that kind of guy down the line. Time will tell. SA is gonna be tough if they get Splitter to come over.

Consiglieri, I also thought trading up to get Booker at 23 was just not a solid move at all. However, Booker did some really nice work for four years at Clemson. He actually does fit the role of intimidator, energy player, athlete fairly well. I am really looking forward to him and Wall on the fastbreak.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbmLWziysI&feature=related[/youtube]

Did I see a little Etan dunk twist there

I'm still taking it all in so not posting a grade just yet. I was getting excited that Alubi was still there when we had the pick to take him. We will have to see about him. Dude really dropped hard in the draft.

Did we get the best players for what we needed ? Only time will tell. But what we did seem to get are players who can play defense and that is something many have wanted for a while.

Book seems to have some really long arms and he is a lefty which should be a plus for blocking right handed shooters. Etan used to have good results using his left hand to block people. But Book has longer arms. So he can put that barrel chest right in your grill and stay in front of you with good position until its time to go for the block.

A role player for sure. High energy and tough. Just what you need off the bench. Is here still room for Singleton on this team. He is another high energy tough guy. I would like for us to keep him if we can.

[W. Unseld]

I was frustrated with the 30/35 pick swap for 23/56 (but oddly when I look at it in a sentance it doesn't look that bad). I think the Wolves actually drafted the guy for themselves from what I gather, which makes sense as a replacement for Gomes. Some of Booker's measurements aren't great but his combine exercise results were all pretty impressive, he was top 3 in strenght, top 2 in 3/4 sprint and very high among big men in the agility drill to go along w/a pretty decent vert. I'm not thrilled by him and I don't think his length is that great but I'm excited by some of what I see and one thing they don't measure is how wide a guy is and that makes a huge difference and he looks pretty wide, yet in shape.

Don't know jumping jack squat about the Frenchman or his upside but from what I've seen his downside isn't that low. He looks like he could get rotation minutes now.

As for Limerick, I don't think Lebron, Wade, Bosh or Joe Johnson were coming here this year and next year Limey is an expiring which has value even if you argue he has no value as a player, which I would disagree with.

***Don't forget the draft hype effect, every year we all fall in love with guys that 4 years later aren't doing squat if they're even in the league. It's hilarious reading some of the mainstream writers draft grades, you would think that nearly every team just dramatically improved but past draft history proves that's not the case.

[VictorPage44]

Now that the dust has settled, I'm not disappointed with this draft. I think Wall was the best player in the draft - some may say Cousins, but I dont see it.

Now that we have an idea that OKC and San Antonio may have been after Seraphin the pick looks a lot smarter than if it were just another Ernie Grunfeld reach. I've watched what little video they have on youtube of him, and he has size and he's definitely an athlete. Sometimes that's enough.

Initially, I didnt like the Booker pick. He's really undersized, so I think defensively he'll have a lot of problems - you cant really use your vertical when you're getting posted up. Still, given who was on the board at that point, I dont think it was a horrible pick. Booker seems like a tough guy who could find a role on this team. But who knows, that's what they said about Demarre Carrol and Renaldo Balkman and they've barely been on the court. Either way, Booker may have been the safest pick at 23 (or 30/35) so that series of moves wasnt awful. Also, we didnt have room for Crawford/Vasquez/Jones and I was never a Pondexter fan. He was a pretty average wing in a terrible Pac-10 conference. At least it wasnt Lazar Hayward.

I really hope Seraphin comes over this season. That would make the draft a lot more satisfactory. If I were to grade this draft, an 'A' would have been given if they moved into the top 15 and got one of those second tier bigs (Udoh/Patterson/Sanders/Davis/Monroe). With all the moves they made before and during the draft, I dont think that wouldve been an impossible task. So this draft looks to me like a 'B' if Seraphin comes over and a 'C' if he doesnt. Not bad.

[Kanyewest]

I was never a Pondexter fan. He was a pretty average wing in a terrible Pac-10 conference.

I thought Pondexter played really well in the NCAA tournament which allowed Washington to get to the sweet 16. IMO, Washington ended up being a respectable enough team. Of course West Virginia exposed Pondexter but Pondexter had solid performances in the tournament against Marquette and New Mexico.

[Rafael122]

A little late with this seeing as how I was in Vegas, but the Wall pick was a no brainer. Personally, I didn't hate the Hinrich trade as much as everyone else did. We're not getting Carmelo and no one will be willing to sign here as a free agent, so this is our best bet. I'm a fan of Seraphin. I've never seen the kid play, but reading about him has me intrigued.

I didn't think we had to give up as much as we did to get Trevor Booker, but I liked the pick. In the end, this draft will be about John Wall. If the other two contribute then that's gravy.

[The Consiglieri]

W?

Consiglieri, this is HOF thread-worthy, IMO.

Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld achieved what they wanted to do in getting a tougher, more athletic team. The Wizards really did draft with the 2-3 year window. Seraphim makes sense with the long haul in mind, but I'm just not as patient as you with that kind of pick.

I have a bit of a philosophical difference on role player guys. My philosophy is that great role players can get it done in the right system. In one the books he authored, (title escapes me right now), Bill Russell explained the secret of the great Celtic teams of the past was that everybody had a role and they were each great at it. He protected the paint, intimidated, grabbed the rebounds, blocked the shots. Cousy was ball handler and distributor. KC Jones was a defender. Sam Jones a scorer. Same with Heinsohn, Nelson, Havlicek. They knew their roles and everybody stayed within his area of expertise. Even in the current NBA, I see two are three studs surrounded by a bunch of good role players. I'd rather have seen the Wizards draft a skilled shooter like James Anderson next to John Wall than to wait on Seraphim. I like the here and now. Admittedly, the ceiling might be low and I might be settling for some level of mediocrity athletically. Regardless, I see players like Rip Hamilton have rings, so I think Anderson might be that kind of guy down the line. Time will tell. SA is gonna be tough if they get Splitter to come over.

Consiglieri, I also thought trading up to get Booker at 23 was just not a solid move at all. However, Booker did some really nice work for four years at Clemson. He actually does fit the role of intimidator, energy player, athlete fairly well. I am really looking forward to him and Wall on the fastbreak.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbmLWziysI&feature=related[/youtube][/quote

Thank you for the kind thoughts CCJ. I disagree a bit about the value of going after role players. I do think it's a bit different if we're a legit contender, legit contenders tend to add lil pieces here and there to fill little roles, and smart teams, like the spurs, also add the high celing guys, like yours and everybodys favorite 2nd rounder last year that we were far too stupid to see the value in (granted the knees rightly scared people, but the risk of using a 2nd rounder on a guy with bad knees is zero. 2nd rounders flop 90+% of the time in terms of becoming starters in this league, so just simply landing anything resembling talent in the 2nd round should be the objective, and we passed 2 drafts in a row because we were satisfied w/having a team w/a ceiling of 40-45 wins).

However, when you stink, or are at best mediocre, the objective should be landing talent, pure and simple. When you try to force things, you end up w/busts. Draft after draft in all sports shows this. The biggest risk you can make in any draft in any sport is to pass on talent and upset to try to froce a need that fits a role. The objective should always be, add the talent, because talent ALWAYTS has value, and if it's duplicates value you have, when its ready to help you, you trade the talent for someone elses proven talent. This is what you do. If you force picks to fill needs, you amplify the risk potential of your pick enormously, and lower its ceiling as well. The chances of landing busts in these scenarios go up and up and up. Get the talent, because talent is ALWAYS an asset, role players who wont cut it for you, wont be wanted by anyone else either.

Granted this is a bit harder to do in the NBA where working trades and matching salary can be difficult, but teams will always want players who are good. If we have too many players who are good at a given position or role because we havent paid enough attention to roles, and needs, we'll still be able to do something about it, even if its hard, but if we land an outright crap bust (which happens far more often when you push the need angle instead of the value/talent angle), he'll be worthless to us and worthless to everyone else too.

That's my philosophy, and why i loved the Seraphin pick, hated the Booker trade/pick, and love that an owern that has a very similar philosophy is in charge. I feel your pain about waiting a long time. It sucks, especially considering we've been waiting for the Redskins to not suck for 18 years, the Nats to not suck their entire history in DC, the Boulez to accomplish something worthy of note since Carter was president, and the Caps to not choke for once the once in their history (record 8 playoff 2 game leads choked in a playoff history that only includes about 18 or so playoff appearances, an astonishing and infamous record of chokes and surrenders that the French would envy-incidentally the caps just had an absolutely awesome 1st round steal in their draft on friday)). It sucks to have to wait when your sports fill in this town (i'' grant its easier for me since i live outside in Lake Tahoe and so am distant from it) is an unholy triumvirate of failure, unwarranted hubris, and choking, but success in sports may have many different templates, but building genuine long term success will require one thing across all sports and templates. Patience. The Redskins failurs were a product of ownerships refusal to patientialy rebuild from scratch. The Caps failures will require a '04 Red Sox like juju/mojo like miracle, probably lead by a fearless Schilling type, or Ovy developing into that character, Nats ownership appears too cheap to build a winner, but the GM and scouting deparmtnet is building something, we'll see if the tune changes as the team grows into a .500 caliber team in '11, and beyond.

Now the Boulez, well, they spent the last 30 years being run into the ground by an owner that rewarded and loved loyalty more than excellence, and was according to some, too cheap to ever truly be dedicated to build a winner here. Well, he's gone now, and the man in charge believes in funding scouting to build (he and GMGM spent oodles of cash rebuilding the caps scouting department after th Jagr Fiasco, to build from the bottom up and it paid off, the team still cant seem to draft outside of round 1, but their success rate w/first rounders, at any stage of the first round, has been New Jersey Like, landing stud after stud, contributor after contributor after an entire decade of busts (the whole 90's were a drafting disaster in round 1, particularly after the Scott Stevens trade that netted us 5 first round picks across five years, all busts). This will take time CCJ, but take heart. Just as GMGM and Leonsis won the Ovy lottery in the midsts of the begining of their total rebuild of the Caps, they've now won the Wall Lottery in year 1 of the massive rebuild of the Boulez. It could have been a total disaster and it probably should have been. We blew, and flushed the '09 draft for a playoff pipe dream , and after shipping out all of our supposed studs and starting the kids, the Boulez actually appeared to play better down the stretch (w/the exception of that disastrous stretch in march), screwed themselves in the lottery slotting, and nearly ended up landing their choice of Greg Monroe, Aminu or Hayward. Instead we get Wall, yes you're gonna have to wait a little, but we freaking got Wall, and even better, we're finally, actually rebuilding the right way. Instead of watching what you know will fail (Snyder, Pollin type enterprises), we can see that this team is dedicated to doing it the right way. This is the solace that we can have in all of this. The only cautionary note I'll add is that Leonsis was and is loyal to a GM in GMGM, that he probably shouldn't be this loyal too. GMGM's drafts have been uninspiring after ound 1 throughout his term w/the team. The team has also won little of note since they began working together. Should he still be in charge? Im not so sure. I will say that he rebuilt the team and its now a very, competitive team, and in terms of talent and expectations, one of the 4 best teams in the league w/a still deep farm system, and he's also won nearly every trade he's made, and he just had yet another great first round pick. Still. Should he be this loyal? Not so sure. So what does this mean about Grunfeld? Well based on evidence available (not enough to be predictive), Grunfeld might also be safe despite not deserving to be so safe. We'll just have to wait and see. The one solace i have in that, is that although i really really don't like what Grunfeld does in terms of contracts and free agents, I do like his drafting (except when he sells picks), so if he was kept to just run this draft, well, im fine w/this as he's one of the few GM's around that consistently lands some talent outside of the blue chip zone, and in drafting Seraphin, a guy who sounds like a great value pick, and a guy drooled at by some of the best GM's in the league. I just think he should be s-canned now for a GM who believes in the modern statitstical approaches to scouting and evaluation. I'm just not anticipating that happening unfortunately.

[hands11]

Now that the dust has settled, I'm not disappointed with this draft. I think Wall was the best player in the draft - some may say Cousins, but I dont see it.

Now that we have an idea that OKC and San Antonio may have been after Seraphin the pick looks a lot smarter than if it were just another Ernie Grunfeld reach. I've watched what little video they have on youtube of him, and he has size and he's definitely an athlete. Sometimes that's enough.

Initially, I didnt like the Booker pick. He's really undersized, so I think defensively he'll have a lot of problems - you cant really use your vertical when you're getting posted up. Still, given who was on the board at that point, I dont think it was a horrible pick. Booker seems like a tough guy who could find a role on this team. But who knows, that's what they said about Demarre Carrol and Renaldo Balkman and they've barely been on the court. Either way, Booker may have been the safest pick at 23 (or 30/35) so that series of moves wasnt awful. Also, we didnt have room for Crawford/Vasquez/Jones and I was never a Pondexter fan. He was a pretty average wing in a terrible Pac-10 conference. At least it wasnt Lazar Hayward.

I really hope Seraphin comes over this season. That would make the draft a lot more satisfactory. If I were to grade this draft, an 'A' would have been given if they moved into the top 15 and got one of those second tier bigs (Udoh/Patterson/Sanders/Davis/Monroe). With all the moves they made before and during the draft, I dont think that wouldve been an impossible task. So this draft looks to me like a 'B' if Seraphin comes over and a 'C' if he doesnt. Not bad.

Cousins should be a beast. You just had to be able to be a team willing to take the risk and deal with the immaturity while he gets there. We already had our fill of that with Gil and Dray and Nick and McGee and ... Did I leave anyone out ? But Cousins is a huge rebounder. Great place to start for a guy his size.

Wall should be a very good player but as much as you need a good to great PG on your team, you need a great big man and a great SG/SF more.

Gasol and Kobe
PP and KG
Timmy and Nanooo

Gasol is what fulled LA though.
Until KG started to show up, Boston wasn't rolling.
No Timmy, No SA rings.

Sure they had players like Rondo, Frenchie and Fish but you needed that post player and that all around slot player talent.

So right now we need Dray to be that beast talent in the post and we need to find our SG/SF or SF/SG. It that Howard ? Close enough for now. I doubt it is AT. So that is the next long term problem we need answered and that player will be a star.

When we find that player, this will not be John Walls team. I don't want to be the sixers with AI. This will be a team and our PF and SG/SF will be stars on it also.

Actually having Gil here with Wall showing up is a good thing. I don't want one player who thinks they are King before they have won anything. Even as much as Kobe has been that in LA, he needs to share the stage with Paul if he wants to win. Good thing is Paul is easy to share the stage with.

I hope Gil learns to share the stage with Wall. He should be able to. He already kind of did it with AJ and CB. That was just the wrong combination. I guess the bigger question for Gil is can he give up the idea that he needs to be a ball in hand player to be effective. Again, Kobe team does best when he isn't overdoing it all the time.

Wall, Gil and Dray. That would be our Rondo, Ray Allen and KG only a younger version. We just need out PP and a gritty center who can D. Right now that could be Kevin and Howard. Bring the Frenchman over right now.

[hands11]

Ok... Without actually seeing these guys ball Ill go with a B.

I am wondering what we may have looked like if we traded down to get Wesley.

Would have been a balls out move. Wall will no doubt be good but what could we have received for the trade down if it was at all possibility. But that would have meant gambling that Livingston would actually want to stay. But even if he didn't, we had Hinney

Liv/Hinney, Gil, Wesley, Dray, Kevin S

Plus whatever we gained in the trade down.

I'll be keeping an eye on Wesley.

In another note. I just read Booker was actually faster than Wall.

Booker recorded the fastest time in the three-quarter court sprint, measuring in at 3.10 seconds - or 0.04 seconds faster than Wall, Avery Bradley and Wesley Johnson. He's at least 30 pounds heavier than all of them. Booker's been compared to Paul Milsap, Carl Landry and Jason Maxiell, other undersized but gritty big men.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... the-w.html

[The Consiglieri]

Any thoughts on what the starting lineup, and backups are likely to be next year, pre-free agency?

PG: Wall
2G: Arenas
SF: Thornton
PF: Blatche
C: McGee?

[WizStorm]

Any thoughts on what the starting lineup, and backups are likely to be next year, pre-free agency?

PG: Wall
2G: Arenas
SF: Thornton
PF: Blatche
C: McGee?

Check out this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1024123

[Hoopalotta]

Hey, check this out, a forgotten tweet from draft night.....

WojYahooNBA The Hornets will break the Wizards hearts with the selection of Washington's Pondexter at No. 26. Wiz hoped he would drop to No. 30.

That explains a lot.

It would of course have been nice to pony up the $4 million and buy the Memphis pick if they felt that way.

[closg00]

Hey, check this out, a forgotten tweet from draft night.....

WojYahooNBA The Hornets will break the Wizards hearts with the selection of Washington's Pondexter at No. 26. Wiz hoped he would drop to No. 30.

That explains a lot.

It would of course have been nice to pony up the $4 million and buy the Memphis pick if they felt that way.

Yeah, I don't have the quote, but on draft night, Ernie did say that something to the effect that 2 of the 3 guys that they wanted were already taken (Booker & Pondexter), so that's when they made the Booker move.