Wizards 2019 Offseason Thread

[gravytrain24]

We need a guard, perhaps a veteran. Bring back Garrett Temple.

[Illmatic12]

Good call on Ilyasova trade, that's definitely a great option and a player who can help. Although our frontcourt is getting kind of crowded

I don't think it's crowded at all, specifically referring to the PF and C positions.

Who is in our front court? I count 3 players: Hachimura, Bryant and Wagner. Dwight and Mahinmi are on the team, but probably won't play. I'm assuming Dwight isn't playing another minute in a Wizards uniform, either due to injury or trade. And Mahinmi won't play more than 200 minutes.

Yeah I factored in Dwight likely being bought out.
But I was counting the (other) German guy they're supposedly signing

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1860483

^He seems redundant with Wagner but I don't 100% know the guy's game. I also think Hachimura will see some time at the 5 as well

[Ruzious]

Yes, I understand trends with young players. I just don't see a "trend" in this case. Zach Lavine, yes, there is something of a trend. I didn't say he was "awful." I said I didn't want to trade Beal for him (I think that was the context -- correct me if I'm wrong).

Still, I agree with you 100% that "...we need to improve our talent level..." If we had a ton of cap room, & it wasn't a question of Mudiay instead of Sato (i.e. if we kept Sato), I could imagine taking a flyer on him at the right price -- but, that's what it would be: a flyer. & I think there might be some other "young talented players" higher on my list.

Since you requested it, here are 2 of your posts on Lavine:

But, I don't like Zach Lavine much. I'd be much happier to take Parker instead -- & let his option go this off-season. But, that's an unlikely move for Chicago, as they'd have both Lavine & Beal on their roster. Hutchison doesn't do much for me either. I'd probably prefer to have their R2 pick instead (or maybe 2 R2 picks...?).

Zach hasn't had a genuinely good season overall in his career yet. Plus they've been inconsistent -- up & down in various categories. Yet, because he scores a lot of points, he is already making almost $20m/year guaranteed through '21-22.

Yes, he's "high usage," so lets look at everything besides scoring. To make a long story short, overall he's way below average for a wing in that stuff. Pretty far below.

Ruz.... Lets give it a rest, ok? Obviously, I didn't say he was awful. I said I didn't like him much. I questioned whether he was really good. That's totally different. Plus, as I pointed out, this was in the context of trading Beal for him (him +, obviously), & I didn't like the trade. I doubt you'd still want to make that trade.

Plus, what does this have to do with Emmanuel Mudiay. I may not like Lavine much, but Emmanuel Mudiay definitely has been awful. You could say that he escaped "awful" this year -- but not that he was good!

Lol, you requested I give you the posts, I do it, and then you chastise me for doing it. You say give it a rest, and then proceed to NOT give it a rest. Not only that, you highlight/enlarge the parts you like instead of the parts you bash him. This is the kind of crap that makes it frustrating to discuss anything with you. There's no doubt in my mind that you'll deny being negative about Mudiay if I bring up your posts here next year. You're Fredo, Pif - I'm done with you. Now... we can put it to rest.

[Ruzious]

Tommy has even more up his sleeve .. check this out :

Read on Twitter

?s=21



Instead of waiving Simmons, the Wizards will try to trade him .. could they possibly finesse another 2nd round pick?

This is really encouraging.

There's really only 1 reason to do this. It's to trade Simmons to a team in exchange for an equivalent $5.7M dollar contract. The other team will take Simmons and then waive him and save $4.7M because only $1M of his contract is guaranteed. Basically, we save them $4.7. They incentivize us by giving us a pick. Or at the very least, they incentivize us by giving back a player more useful than Simmons.

What's interesting to me is that we don't really need to use Simmons in this manner because we have the Markieff TPE lying around that can accomplish the same thing. The fact that they altered Simmons contract to make this type of move must be because they are already planning to use that TPE to make even MORE moves to buy bad contracts in exchange for picks.

It really looks like the team is going all in on sucking this year. They're not going to bother even trying to win games by adding vets, they're just going to develop talent for the future while accumulating assets.

Simmons straight up for Ilyasova makes sense. Milwaukee saves critical luxtax room to resign their primary free agents. We get a very capable PF - a position of need. And because Milwaukee is over a barrel, we may also get them to include a pick - at least a 2nd rounder. That's not a bad use of Simmons as an asset. Turn him into Ilyasova and a pick!

Simmons to OKC for Patrick Patterson and a pick could also make sense.

Those are good calls that have a good shot of happening, but what's the end game for Washington? Are they just trying to move up from a 32 win team to a 35 win team? I guess one positive could be moving Ilyasova at the trade deadline to a playoff team for a pick.

[Illmatic12]

This is really encouraging.

There's really only 1 reason to do this. It's to trade Simmons to a team in exchange for an equivalent $5.7M dollar contract. The other team will take Simmons and then waive him and save $4.7M because only $1M of his contract is guaranteed. Basically, we save them $4.7. They incentivize us by giving us a pick. Or at the very least, they incentivize us by giving back a player more useful than Simmons.

What's interesting to me is that we don't really need to use Simmons in this manner because we have the Markieff TPE lying around that can accomplish the same thing. The fact that they altered Simmons contract to make this type of move must be because they are already planning to use that TPE to make even MORE moves to buy bad contracts in exchange for picks.

It really looks like the team is going all in on sucking this year. They're not going to bother even trying to win games by adding vets, they're just going to develop talent for the future while accumulating assets.

Simmons straight up for Ilyasova makes sense. Milwaukee saves critical luxtax room to resign their primary free agents. We get a very capable PF - a position of need. And because Milwaukee is over a barrel, we may also get them to include a pick - at least a 2nd rounder. That's not a bad use of Simmons as an asset. Turn him into Ilyasova and a pick!

Simmons to OKC for Patrick Patterson and a pick could also make sense.

Those are good calls that have a good shot of happening, but what's the end game for Washington? Are they just trying to move up from a 32 win team to a 35 win team? I guess one positive could be moving Ilyasova at the trade deadline to a playoff team for a pick.

Washington would get a second round pick from the Bucks (or whoever) for helping them get under the luxury tax.

And as you stated , they could also possibly get another small asset by flipping that player at the deadline.

[nate33]

Those are good calls that have a good shot of happening, but what's the end game for Washington? Are they just trying to move up from a 32 win team to a 35 win team? I guess one positive could be moving Ilyasova at the trade deadline to a playoff team for a pick.

I think there's some value in being a halfway competitive 35-win team rather than a hopeless 25-win team with all games being meaningless. It helps the youngsters develop. Also, Hachimura could probably use an old vet like Ilyasova to show him all the dirty tricks. I'd be even more interested in trading for a worse player and a higher pick, but looking around, there aren't THAT many suitable players that are roughly the size of Simmons' contract.

But, yes, that last sentence is a really good point. It would be awesome if Milwaukee gave us a 2nd round pick to take Ilyasova off their hands, and then at the Trade Deadline some other contender gave us ANOTHER 2nd round pick to swap Ilyasova for a crappy filler contract. We'd get the benefit of Ilyasova mentoring Hachimura a bit, we'd get a few more moral victories, and still maximize the assets received.

It's all about asset accumulation. Any chance you get, get an asset. And then try and flip it for an even better asset. It's the Danny Ainge method.

[nate33]

Good call on Ilyasova trade, that's definitely a great option and a player who can help. Although our frontcourt is getting kind of crowded

I don't think it's crowded at all, specifically referring to the PF and C positions.

Who is in our front court? I count 3 players: Hachimura, Bryant and Wagner. Dwight and Mahinmi are on the team, but probably won't play. I'm assuming Dwight isn't playing another minute in a Wizards uniform, either due to injury or trade. And Mahinmi won't play more than 200 minutes.

Yeah I factored in Dwight likely being bought out.
But I was counting the (other) German guy they're supposedly signing

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1860483

^He seems redundant with Wagner but I don't 100% know the guy's game. I also think Hachimura will see some time at the 5 as well

I figure John Voight is now out of consideration. Either we won't want him, or he won't want to join a team where he's redundant.

[Ruzious]

Simmons straight up for Ilyasova makes sense. Milwaukee saves critical luxtax room to resign their primary free agents. We get a very capable PF - a position of need. And because Milwaukee is over a barrel, we may also get them to include a pick - at least a 2nd rounder. That's not a bad use of Simmons as an asset. Turn him into Ilyasova and a pick!

Simmons to OKC for Patrick Patterson and a pick could also make sense.

Those are good calls that have a good shot of happening, but what's the end game for Washington? Are they just trying to move up from a 32 win team to a 35 win team? I guess one positive could be moving Ilyasova at the trade deadline to a playoff team for a pick.

Washington would get a second round pick from the Bucks (or whoever) for helping them get under the luxury tax.

And as you stated , they could also possibly get another small asset by flipping that player at the deadline.

Bucks have fewer 2nds than the Wiz. They traded a whole slew of them to get Mirotic.

[Illmatic12]

Those are good calls that have a good shot of happening, but what's the end game for Washington? Are they just trying to move up from a 32 win team to a 35 win team? I guess one positive could be moving Ilyasova at the trade deadline to a playoff team for a pick.

Washington would get a second round pick from the Bucks (or whoever) for helping them get under the luxury tax.

And as you stated , they could also possibly get another small asset by flipping that player at the deadline.

Bucks have fewer 2nds than the Wiz. They traded a whole slew of them to get Mirotic.

The picks they gave up for Mirotic were our 2nds that Ernie gave them

The Pelicans will receive second-round picks from the Bucks in 2019 (via Denver), 2020 (two, via Washington and Milwaukee) and 2021 (via Washington).

Milwaukee has all their own 2nds from 2022 on.. I’d ask for the 2022 in return (could be a nice pick esp if Giannis leaves them)

[doclinkin]

This is really encouraging.

There's really only 1 reason to do this. It's to trade Simmons to a team in exchange for an equivalent $5.7M dollar contract. The other team will take Simmons and then waive him and save $4.7M because only $1M of his contract is guaranteed. Basically, we save them $4.7. They incentivize us by giving us a pick. Or at the very least, they incentivize us by giving back a player more useful than Simmons.

What's interesting to me is that we don't really need to use Simmons in this manner because we have the Markieff TPE lying around that can accomplish the same thing. The fact that they altered Simmons contract to make this type of move must be because they are already planning to use that TPE to make even MORE moves to buy bad contracts in exchange for picks.

It really looks like the team is going all in on sucking this year. They're not going to bother even trying to win games by adding vets, they're just going to develop talent for the future while accumulating assets.

And they are taking full advantage of the free $30 million that insurance is paying for John’s contract. What other team is given a $30m coupon? Teams are required to pay a minimum contract figure. But we get a loophole on that. The empty hole of a vacant Supermax. Or at least 80% of it. It lets us spend a bit more freely to buy a bad contract as needed. With a few TPEs to leverage the deals.

[gambitx777]

Well, portis gets QO. Someone is probably just going to way over pay for him and I think we are just shooting in the dark just keep flexibility.
Johannes Voigtmann, is still totally possible for us, I really like this dude. Hes 26 but man he looks like he could be a good bargain. He moves well in space, he gets up and down the court well, he has some decent handles, is a good catch and shoot guy and he passes well for a big guy, hes not a terrible rebounder either. I think there is definitely a spot for him on the team. I would eat 15 million of dead cap for cut Ian to give him a spot.
right now we have 16 people on the team (i am including bryant and Sato) (I am not counting portis). simmons will not be on the team one way or the other by the end of july and I don't see McRae being on the team long either. Jones and philip could be cut to sign them to a 2 way or just sign them to the GOGO's. and it is very likely that cut or trade Howard and or Ian. Plenty of space for Voigtmann.

[Illmatic12]

I don't think it's crowded at all, specifically referring to the PF and C positions.

Who is in our front court? I count 3 players: Hachimura, Bryant and Wagner. Dwight and Mahinmi are on the team, but probably won't play. I'm assuming Dwight isn't playing another minute in a Wizards uniform, either due to injury or trade. And Mahinmi won't play more than 200 minutes.

Yeah I factored in Dwight likely being bought out.
But I was counting the (other) German guy they're supposedly signing

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1860483

^He seems redundant with Wagner but I don't 100% know the guy's game. I also think Hachimura will see some time at the 5 as well

I figure John Voight is now out of consideration. Either we won't want him, or he won't want to join a team where he's redundant.

Idk.. I still remain intrigued by him from the clips I saw posted.

I’m almost certain he’s a better basketball player than Wagner right now, at least in terms of functional strength and being able to get his shots off of movement .


Wagner is probably not ready to be an NBA rotation player. He seems like he’s at a major deficit in terms of strength/physicality that would make him a liability in a lot of situations . I get the theoretical idea of his game, but his body is at least another 1-2 years away (which is fine, his contract is guaranteed another 3 seasons)

Watch on YouTube

[nate33]

Yeah I factored in Dwight likely being bought out.
But I was counting the (other) German guy they're supposedly signing

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1860483

^He seems redundant with Wagner but I don't 100% know the guy's game. I also think Hachimura will see some time at the 5 as well

I figure John Voight is now out of consideration. Either we won't want him, or he won't want to join a team where he's redundant.

Idk.. I still remain intrigued by him from the clips I saw posted.

I’m almost certain he’s a better basketball player than Wagner right now, at least in terms of functional strength and being able to get his shots off of movement .


Wagner is probably not ready to be an NBA rotation player. He seems like he’s at a major deficit in terms of strength/physicality that would make him a liability in a lot of situations . I get the theoretical idea of his game, but his body is at least another 1-2 years away (which is fine, his contract is guaranteed another 3 seasons)

Watch on YouTube

You may be right. It may be that Sheppard is focused on building an incredible G-League team and they'll just develop guys there rather than on the NBA roster. Put Wagner AND Voigtmann in the G-League if necessary. Why not?

[nate33]

This is really encouraging.

There's really only 1 reason to do this. It's to trade Simmons to a team in exchange for an equivalent $5.7M dollar contract. The other team will take Simmons and then waive him and save $4.7M because only $1M of his contract is guaranteed. Basically, we save them $4.7. They incentivize us by giving us a pick. Or at the very least, they incentivize us by giving back a player more useful than Simmons.

What's interesting to me is that we don't really need to use Simmons in this manner because we have the Markieff TPE lying around that can accomplish the same thing. The fact that they altered Simmons contract to make this type of move must be because they are already planning to use that TPE to make even MORE moves to buy bad contracts in exchange for picks.

It really looks like the team is going all in on sucking this year. They're not going to bother even trying to win games by adding vets, they're just going to develop talent for the future while accumulating assets.

And they are taking full advantage of the free $30 million that insurance is paying for John’s contract. What other team is given a $30m coupon? Teams are required to pay a minimum contract figure. But we get a loophole on that. The empty hole of a vacant Supermax. Or at least 80% of it. It lets us spend a bit more freely to buy a bad contract as needed. With a few TPEs to leverage the deals.

Indeed.

For those that don't follow, here is an article about it.

Basically, insurance is paying for 80% of Wall's salary for the games he misses. If he misses 60 games, the insurance company will hand Ted a check for $22M. If Wall misses the entire season, Ted gets $30M.

The only hiccup is that Wall's contract still counts toward the cap total and the luxtax total. As far as the luxtax calculation goes, Wall is being paid his full contract. So if the team has a payroll of $140M, Ted is effectively only paying $110M but the league thinks they're $8M above the $132M luxtax threshold and would charge them a tax on that $8M overage. That tax would amount to $11.25M. Given the savings of Wall's insurance, one would hope that Ted would willingly exceed the luxtax a bit, but one also understands that there are limits. A payroll of $147M ($15M over the tax threshold) would result in total taxes of $28.75M, totally offsetting the savings of Wall's insurance.

[pcbothwel]

This is really encouraging.

There's really only 1 reason to do this. It's to trade Simmons to a team in exchange for an equivalent $5.7M dollar contract. The other team will take Simmons and then waive him and save $4.7M because only $1M of his contract is guaranteed. Basically, we save them $4.7. They incentivize us by giving us a pick. Or at the very least, they incentivize us by giving back a player more useful than Simmons.

What's interesting to me is that we don't really need to use Simmons in this manner because we have the Markieff TPE lying around that can accomplish the same thing. The fact that they altered Simmons contract to make this type of move must be because they are already planning to use that TPE to make even MORE moves to buy bad contracts in exchange for picks.

It really looks like the team is going all in on sucking this year. They're not going to bother even trying to win games by adding vets, they're just going to develop talent for the future while accumulating assets.

And they are taking full advantage of the free $30 million that insurance is paying for John’s contract. What other team is given a $30m coupon? Teams are required to pay a minimum contract figure. But we get a loophole on that. The empty hole of a vacant Supermax. Or at least 80% of it. It lets us spend a bit more freely to buy a bad contract as needed. With a few TPEs to leverage the deals.

Indeed.

For those that don't follow, here is an article about it.

Basically, insurance is paying for 80% of Wall's salary for the games he misses. If he misses 60 games, the insurance company will hand Ted a check for $22M. If Wall misses the entire season, Ted gets $30M.

The only hiccup is that Wall's contract still counts toward the cap total and the luxtax total. As far as the luxtax calculation goes, Wall is being paid his full contract. So if the team has a payroll of $140M, Ted is effectively only paying $110M but the league thinks they're $8M above the $132M luxtax threshold and would charge them a tax on that $8M overage. That tax would amount to $11.25M. Given the savings of Wall's insurance, one would hope that Ted would willingly exceed the luxtax a bit, but one also understands that there are limits. A payroll of $147M ($15M over the tax threshold) would result in total taxes of $28.75M, totally offsetting the savings of Wall's insurance.

Well covered and what I've been saying all along... People are like "Ted is begging Wall not to come back so he gets a check". Dumb.
Wall could come back and play off an on for the last 20 games and Ted still gets that check for 22M. And assuming Wall looks healthy, then that piece of mind is well worth the 6-8M difference.

re Simmons: I dont understand the point...with the new CBA rules, he only counts for his guaranteed amount in any trade. So he would count 1M in any trade, not 5.7M.

[Rafael122]

....why not trade Simmons to Houston for a 2nd round pick and PJ Tucker? The difference in salary can be absorbed into what's remaining of the Smith TPE.

For Houston it clears cap space if they're trying to make a run at Butler. They could then probably trade Capela and Gordon to the Knicks.

[nate33]

re Simmons: I dont understand the point...with the new CBA rules, he only counts for his guaranteed amount in any trade. So he would count 1M in any trade, not 5.7M.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we still working with 2018-19 salaries? We don't use 2019-20 salary figures until July 1st, right? So if the trade was made before July 1st, we would use his full salary cap figure for 2018-19. Then, after July 1st, the team that received him could waive him and pay only the $1M guaranteed portion of his 2019-20 contract.

[nate33]

....why not trade Simmons to Houston for a 2nd round pick and PJ Tucker? The difference in salary can be absorbed into what's remaining of the Smith TPE.

For Houston it clears cap space if they're trying to make a run at Butler. They could then probably trade Capela and Gordon to the Knicks.

You can't combine TPE's with other salaries (or other TPE's).

We could trade for Tucker, but we would have to use our $8.6M Markieff TPE to absorb Tucker's $8.3M salary, not the Simmons contract. I'd certainly do it if Houston wasn't also insisting on receiving a pick in compensation. I'd then look to flip Tucker for a pick and a filler contract. But as I understand it, Houston is expecting people to take Gordon, Tucker and Capella off their hands AND give them a pick.

[Rafael122]

....why not trade Simmons to Houston for a 2nd round pick and PJ Tucker? The difference in salary can be absorbed into what's remaining of the Smith TPE.

For Houston it clears cap space if they're trying to make a run at Butler. They could then probably trade Capela and Gordon to the Knicks.

You can't combine TPE's with other salaries (or other TPE's).

We could trade for Tucker, but we would have to use our $8.6M Markieff TPE to absorb Tucker's $8.3M salary, not the Simmons contract. I'd certainly do it if Houston wasn't also insisting on receiving a pick in compensation. I'd then look to flip Tucker for a pick and a filler contract. But as I understand it, Houston is expecting people to take Gordon, Tucker and Capella off their hands AND give them a pick.

Yeah, I just did the math after I posted that...ugh. I really like Tucker's game, vet presence, can hit the corner 3. Maybe this weekend I'll have some time to look over players who could be traded using the Morris TPE. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head. Maybe Ersan, but do we really want to wait until 2022 for their 2nd round pick?

[payitforward]

Since you requested it, here are 2 of your posts on Lavine:

Ruz.... Lets give it a rest, ok? Obviously, I didn't say he was awful. I said I didn't like him much. I questioned whether he was really good. That's totally different. Plus, as I pointed out, this was in the context of trading Beal for him (him +, obviously), & I didn't like the trade. I doubt you'd still want to make that trade.

Plus, what does this have to do with Emmanuel Mudiay. I may not like Lavine much, but Emmanuel Mudiay definitely has been awful. You could say that he escaped "awful" this year -- but not that he was good!

Lol, you requested I give you the posts, I do it, and then you chastise me for doing it. You say give it a rest, and then proceed to NOT give it a rest. Not only that, you highlight/enlarge the parts you like instead of the parts you bash him. This is the kind of crap that makes it frustrating to discuss anything with you. There's no doubt in my mind that you'll deny being negative about Mudiay if I bring up your posts here next year. You're Fredo, Pif - I'm done with you. Now... we can put it to rest.

?? You claimed I called Lavine "awful" then to prove it you copied in posts where I said nothing of the kind: was I supposed to accept that? I enlarged what I actually said to make it obvious.

Mudiay, otoh, has definitely been awful. I doubt he'll continue to improve enough to be worth a second look. If he does, I'll be wrong -- but I won't deny having called him awful.

Anyway, the origin of this was you saying you thought Mudiay might be worth looking at to maybe acquire. All I did was express a different opinion -- is that not allowed? The rest of it is on you, & honestly I don't get the reason for it.

Above all, I'm pretty sure I've never called you a name of any kind, Ruz.