2016 Offseason Thread -- Not (just) #KD2DC

[WallToWall]

Mahinmi as a backup C is an average pick up for a team that needs a backup C. Nene may be gone, so we need a backup C. Also, Gortat is 32 years old. We have been lucky that he's been pretty healthy, and hopefully the laws of averages work/stay in our favor. But we cant count on that. Having a reasonable backup, who has done OK as a starter, is a good thing. Mahinmi will give us some good rebounding which we lacked last season, especially from our bench. No way Mahinmi starts over Gortat till a time when age plays a role with Gortat's play.
Mahinmi is not Horford or KD. He's not that big splash we need and were gunning for. But he is a reasonable backup C at a currently reasonable contract. Underwhelming pickup, but we are starting to fill out the bench. Lets see where this goes.
Now, had we kept our picks, we may have been able to draft a C. Just sayin'...

[payitforward]

Yeah, it came down to who had the better organization - Boston by a landslide - plain and simple. Got to tip the fedora to Boston.

You two are disagreeing. Steve is saying he chose Boston for non-basketball reasons; based only on basketball, he's saying Horford would have been better off choosing the Wizards.

Ruzious is saying Boston has the better organization -- that's a basketball organization. And that's what it came down to.

Ruzious is right; they do have a better organization. One way their better organization shows is that they have a better roster than we do. A much much better roster. Also younger. And also cheaper. With more development in its players' future.

Oh, and they are a much better team than the Wizards. In Ernie Grunfeld's entire 13 year tenure, the Wizards have never won 48 games.

No, we both agreed that Horford was a better fit for personnel reasons with the Wizards; not with the Celtics. Horford will have to play primarily center for the Celtics, while he would have been able to switch to his better position - PF - with the Wiz - and likely extended his career. But he chose the Celtics because they have a better organization.

Ah -- in that case, sorry; didn't mean to misrepresent you.

OTOH, I think you may well be wrong. First off, lets see if he really has to play primarily Center. After all, the subject might have come up in conversation there, right? And there may be more still to come in their off season. We can look back on this during the season and see.

Secondly, the Wizards had only 6 players. He couldn't know with any confidence how the team would fill out. Hence, he couldn't be sure what his role would be. Though of course I grant you that in principle we would have wanted to start Gortat at the 5 and Al at the 4 (moving Markieff "the Jolt" Morris to the bench).

Now... I am sure you are right that our lousy FO vs. Boston would have played a role in his choice! But our incompetence might also have affected where he wound up playing for us.

[keynote]

If this is true, I'm surprised we got this far.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AdamHimmelsbach/status/749428620825886720[/tweet]

[80sballboy]

Ok move for Mahimini, though I would rather have taken a shot on Dedmon for less money. Now you have two starting centers. At least our D will be improved.

Cole Aldrich would have been a much better signing than Mahinmi, and he's still there -- meaning our reigning idiot didn't have him on his radar.

Biyombo is obviously preferable to Mahinmi, and he went to Orlando for just a little bit more.

Jon Leuer would have made more sense, and went to Detroit for less than Mahinmi.

Teletovic would have been preferable -- for a lot less!

My guy Quincy Acy is still out there -- we still have time to miss on him the way we did on Aldrich, Leuer, Biyombo, Teletovic and the rest of the guys I'm not going to bother listing.

Aldrich is not going to accept being a backup to Gortat. He's going to get nearly what Mahinmi got to start so essentially we would have had the same conundrum. A younger, less experienced guy who signs for starter's money. Biyombo makes Mahimni look like Hakeem or Kareem on offense, He can at least play some 4 and 5 but you are paying huge money for one good playoff series. Who knows if they had any interest as they were just waiting for the Horford saga to end when Biyombo was signed. We needed a big that could defend and rebound and Mahinmi along with Biyombo and Aldrich were all needs. I like Ian but he doesn't fit as well with Gortat. If they move Gortat for another power forward and/or backup wing and then sign a Dedmon or Powell as a backup big I'll be ok. Maybe Sullinger is still in play though we need another wing and backup point guard (Jack?) more.

[Ruzious]

You two are disagreeing. Steve is saying he chose Boston for non-basketball reasons; based only on basketball, he's saying Horford would have been better off choosing the Wizards.

Ruzious is saying Boston has the better organization -- that's a basketball organization. And that's what it came down to.

Ruzious is right; they do have a better organization. One way their better organization shows is that they have a better roster than we do. A much much better roster. Also younger. And also cheaper. With more development in its players' future.

Oh, and they are a much better team than the Wizards. In Ernie Grunfeld's entire 13 year tenure, the Wizards have never won 48 games.

No, we both agreed that Horford was a better fit for personnel reasons with the Wizards; not with the Celtics. Horford will have to play primarily center for the Celtics, while he would have been able to switch to his better position - PF - with the Wiz - and likely extended his career. But he chose the Celtics because they have a better organization.

Ah -- in that case, sorry; didn't mean to misrepresent you.

OTOH, I think you may well be wrong. First off, lets see if he really has to play primarily Center. After all, the subject might have come up in conversation there, right? And there may be more still to come in their off season. We can look back on this during the season and see.

Secondly, the Wizards had only 6 players. He couldn't know with any confidence how the team would fill out. Hence, he couldn't be sure what his role would be. Though of course I grant you that in principle we would have wanted to start Gortat at the 5 and Al at the 4 (moving Markieff "the Jolt" Morris to the bench).

Now... I am sure you are right that our lousy FO vs. Boston would have played a role in his choice! But our incompetence might also have affected where he wound up playing for us.

PIF, it's pretty simple. We have Gortat here. He's a pure center - period. Horford would be the starting PF - where he'd take less pounding. Boston doesn't have a Gortat. They have Amir Johnson - who's fine but he's under-sized and gets beaten up and really can't take the pounding for a full year. And Olynyk is a highly mediocre defender. The defensive burden will fall on Horford.

[80sballboy]

If this is true, I'm surprised we got this far.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AdamHimmelsbach/status/749428620825886720[/tweet]

Good quote. We can't compete with that. Atlanta is a sh-tty pro sports town. Pretty much always has been. D.C. is now about Skins and Caps. "Rock the Red" can do no wrong as long as Caps are good and enjoyable to watch for hockey fans.

[nate33]

I really can't believe the stunning incompetence of management. Teams don't even need backup centers these days because most second units play smallball. You definitely don't pay $16M a year for a backup center. WTF?

Why not sign Sullinger or Acy? Or trade for Davis or Brandon Wright? If you're paying that much for a guy, you have to have more than 18 minutes a night available. If felt we truly needed another body at backup center, just pay Hickson $4M, or a guy like Tyler Zeller $6M. This is just malpractice.

[AFM]

I really can't believe the stunning incompetence of management. Teams don't even need backup centers these days because most second units play smallball. You definitely don't pay $16M a year for a backup center. WTF?

Why not sign Sullinger or Acy? Or trade for Davis or Brandon Wright? If you're paying that much for a guy, you have to have more than 18 minutes a night available. If felt we truly needed another body at backup center, just pay Hickson $4M, or a guy like Tyler Zeller $6M. This is just malpractice.

Phuhck. I was hoping you, or PIF, or TSW, would pull some CBA magic PPA PER WP/48 out of your ass to explain this.

[80sballboy]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BenStandig/status/749438912838324224[/tweet]

[montestewart]

Set-aside the homerism, Ted has built nothing attractive- enough to tempt the better FA's of this league, we are a joke.

Absolutely correct

And that's the issue from the booming "Representing the most powerful city in the world" PA announcement, then trotting out garbage teams for 25 years.....they're a joke.

Leonsis needs to drop some money to bribe DC to remove the embarrassing Chinese translations over the **** franchise stores surrounding the Verizon center. Would be a good first step, 10 years later during my infrequent visits they always solicit pathetic laughs from whomever I am with....Trust me that doesn't help with well traveled foreigners. It's absolutely ridiculous, and screams ignorance.

We walked through "China"town tonight, and observed this as well. Speaking for those born in DC, it screams ignorance to us too. How do they know how to spell Fuddruckers in Chinese?

[montestewart]

Gortat HAS to be on the move.

That's the only way this remotely makes sense.

Cue up the obligatory Gortat + Porter + ? for Cousins chatter.

Mahinmi will be paid more than Cousins

[AFM]

Absolutely correct

And that's the issue from the booming "Representing the most powerful city in the world" PA announcement, then trotting out garbage teams for 25 years.....they're a joke.

Leonsis needs to drop some money to bribe DC to remove the embarrassing Chinese translations over the **** franchise stores surrounding the Verizon center. Would be a good first step, 10 years later during my infrequent visits they always solicit pathetic laughs from whomever I am with....Trust me that doesn't help with well traveled foreigners. It's absolutely ridiculous, and screams ignorance.

We walked through "China"town tonight, and observed this as well. Speaking for those born in DC, it screams ignorance to us too. How do they know how to spell Fuddruckers in Chinese?

Do you remember when Chinatown had actual Chinese residents? Now it's a big sports bar.

[Ed Wood]

It also runs counter to what seemed to be the tacit design intent of the last year or so of pushing for a smaller, sleeker lineup that could surround Wall with quality outside shooting outlets. The team did take a defensive nosedive in the pursuit of that goal, but not really because of anything that could be very efficiently resolved by Mahinmi. Perhaps the team has decided to can its experiment with a modern NBA offense and we're dusting off our 15-20 footer offense for another go at not understanding math for a year.

[Induveca]

And that's the issue from the booming "Representing the most powerful city in the world" PA announcement, then trotting out garbage teams for 25 years.....they're a joke.

Leonsis needs to drop some money to bribe DC to remove the embarrassing Chinese translations over the **** franchise stores surrounding the Verizon center. Would be a good first step, 10 years later during my infrequent visits they always solicit pathetic laughs from whomever I am with....Trust me that doesn't help with well traveled foreigners. It's absolutely ridiculous, and screams ignorance.

We walked through "China"town tonight, and observed this as well. Speaking for those born in DC, it screams ignorance to us too. How do they know how to spell Fuddruckers in Chinese?

Do you remember when Chinatown had actual Chinese residents? Now it's a big sports bar.

**** I remember when I bought Kung Fu and Anime bootleg flicks and snaked my way back to the closest chain restaurant (at the time, sadly....TGI Friday's).

[payitforward]

No, we both agreed that Horford was a better fit for personnel reasons with the Wizards; not with the Celtics. Horford will have to play primarily center for the Celtics, while he would have been able to switch to his better position - PF - with the Wiz - and likely extended his career. But he chose the Celtics because they have a better organization.

Ah -- in that case, sorry; didn't mean to misrepresent you.

OTOH, I think you may well be wrong. First off, lets see if he really has to play primarily Center. After all, the subject might have come up in conversation there, right? And there may be more still to come in their off season. We can look back on this during the season and see.

Secondly, the Wizards had only 6 players. He couldn't know with any confidence how the team would fill out. Hence, he couldn't be sure what his role would be. Though of course I grant you that in principle we would have wanted to start Gortat at the 5 and Al at the 4 (moving Markieff "the Jolt" Morris to the bench).

Now... I am sure you are right that our lousy FO vs. Boston would have played a role in his choice! But our incompetence might also have affected where he wound up playing for us.

PIF, it's pretty simple. We have Gortat here. He's a pure center - period. Horford would be the starting PF - where he'd take less pounding. Boston doesn't have a Gortat. They have Amir Johnson - who's fine but he's under-sized and gets beaten up and really can't take the pounding for a full year. And Olynyk is a highly mediocre defender. The defensive burden will fall on Horford.

On that scenario, your point is obvious and correct. If that's how it works out in Boston, it will be best for him.

[Ruzious]

Ah -- in that case, sorry; didn't mean to misrepresent you.

OTOH, I think you may well be wrong. First off, lets see if he really has to play primarily Center. After all, the subject might have come up in conversation there, right? And there may be more still to come in their off season. We can look back on this during the season and see.

Secondly, the Wizards had only 6 players. He couldn't know with any confidence how the team would fill out. Hence, he couldn't be sure what his role would be. Though of course I grant you that in principle we would have wanted to start Gortat at the 5 and Al at the 4 (moving Markieff "the Jolt" Morris to the bench).

Now... I am sure you are right that our lousy FO vs. Boston would have played a role in his choice! But our incompetence might also have affected where he wound up playing for us.

PIF, it's pretty simple. We have Gortat here. He's a pure center - period. Horford would be the starting PF - where he'd take less pounding. Boston doesn't have a Gortat. They have Amir Johnson - who's fine but he's under-sized and gets beaten up and really can't take the pounding for a full year. And Olynyk is a highly mediocre defender. The defensive burden will fall on Horford.

On that scenario, your point is obvious and correct. If that's how it works out in Boston, it will be best for him.

No, our point is that it won't be better for him. Him taking that pounding is most likely going to shorten his career. He should have been moved to PF years ago.

[FAH1223]

I really can't believe the stunning incompetence of management. Teams don't even need backup centers these days because most second units play smallball. You definitely don't pay $16M a year for a backup center. WTF?

Why not sign Sullinger or Acy? Or trade for Davis or Brandon Wright? If you're paying that much for a guy, you have to have more than 18 minutes a night available. If felt we truly needed another body at backup center, just pay Hickson $4M, or a guy like Tyler Zeller $6M. This is just malpractice.

Phuhck. I was hoping you, or PIF, or TSW, would pull some CBA magic PPA PER WP/48 out of your ass to explain this.

If you look at Kev's blog, Mahinmi had a PPA that would have ranked 2nd on the Wiz behind Gortat!!!

[gambitx777]

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/washington-wizards/cap/
If my math is right, using beals cap hold till he signs, and mahimis projected first year money. We have somewhere around 19 mill left. did we have more cap room than reported or did I do the math wrong. I thought it would be less because I read some where our cap room was 30 mill and mahimis 14,988,290 would cut that in half at 15 mill in room. so let's say we have 15-19 mill in cap room left. We can still go out someone else, or a couple of someone elses to beef up our bench.

We also have our exceptions left, question? Can we use the room exception before we go over the cap and sign beal? like lets say we get close to the cap, like within a few thousand or 100 thousand or something like that, can we use that exception before we go over to sign beal and white? even so we still have our midlevel left probably going to be used for Tomas if he comes over depending on if that is enough moneyto get him over here or not, we might need to sign him with cap room and use our mid level on another player later. the rooms is 2.8 and the mid is 5.6.

Seth Curry would be a guy I am looking at pretty hard, Vasquez, Norris Cole, Langston galloway, david stockton and Tim frazier are guys im looking at for back up guards.

As for bigs, I would start looking at, Meyers Leonard, Donatas Motiejūnas, Jared Sullinger, Terrence Jones, Derrick Williams, Jordan Hill, and Andrew Nicholson. At this point I think its good to start looking at these guys who have some issues but could be worth it. Sully has weight and effort issues but is young and talented Jones has health and effort issues as well. But they can be fixed and I think those two might come somewhat cheap and could be solid pick ups.

[montestewart]

It also runs counter to what seemed to be the tacit design intent of the last year or so of pushing for a smaller, sleeker lineup that could surround Wall with quality outside shooting outlets. The team did take a defensive nosedive in the pursuit of that goal, but not really because of anything that could be very efficiently resolved by Mahinmi. Perhaps the team has decided to can its experiment with a modern NBA offense and we're dusting off our 15-20 footer offense for another go at not understanding math for a year.

But you know how EGg gets an idea into his head and goes all in? Like when he decided to use all available roster spots on wings? He watched what OKC did with bigs against the Warriors in the WCF. He watched Tristan Thompson bruising in the Finals. He said, "MUST HAVE BIGS!" Any 7 footers will do, the more the merrier. We could still see an Aldrich signing, because these guys will have a lot of trade value once the rest of the league catches up with EG.

Having a reasonable backup, who has done OK as a starter, is a good thing.

I believe that was the reasoning behind the Ben Wallace for Ike Austin trade.

[montestewart]

We walked through "China"town tonight, and observed this as well. Speaking for those born in DC, it screams ignorance to us too. How do they know how to spell Fuddruckers in Chinese?

Do you remember when Chinatown had actual Chinese residents? Now it's a big sports bar.

**** I remember when I bought Kung Fu and Anime bootleg flicks and snaked my way back to the closest chain restaurant (at the time, sadly....TGI Friday's).

That little store on 6th? I used to get kung fu there too. And there are still Chinese Americans in Chinatown. Older ones live in the Chinese assisted living community on 6th St, younger ones live in condos that are only coincidentally in "China"town. Probably crack up at the Chinese writing like everyone else does.