Wiz trade Shard and 2nd rounder for Okafor and Ariza

[nate33]

One other explanation:

The NBA owns the Hornets. Maybe there's a nod-nod wink-wink deal for us to land a top 3 pick next year.

[GUYANNAGRIZZLI]

I'm going to laugh so hard when we draft MKG. We will have the worst shooting starting lineup in NBA history with Wall, Ariza and MKG on the perimeter.

In theory, we'd be holding teams to around 80 points per game. Talk about some exciting basketball....

If you aquire Ariza, it's because you will draft a Sg

If Beal is picked by Charlotte it would be a disgrace to take Mkg
At least you take Barnes who is good shooter

[VictorPage44]

My thoughts:

This trade potentially makes the Wizards a very deep defensive team, which is what we've wanted here all along. And all you guys whining about cap flexibility are only upset because it spoils the dream scenario you had layed out in your mind. As has been said already, it's a two year plan max, so calm down. I dont think they'll have a problem trading either okafor or ariza as exprings next offseason if it doesnt work out, so essentially we're better next year, and we have trade assets next offseason we otherwise wouldnt have had.

The people saying this is shortsighted are the ones being shortsighted.

If the draft Beal, they dont need to make another trade. If they take MKG, I'd move Booker and Singleton for another guard/or pick to take a guard. I'll add that I dont think this should determine what they do with the pick. If you take MKG, you can put Wall/Ariza/MKG/Okafor/Nene on the floor and lock the other team down. That lineup would be like Indiana defensively, and with Beal they're more balanced offensively. If Wall can keep people honest with his jumper, Wall is the playmaker/scorer for a monster defensive lineup.

[nate33]

Please trade Okafor for Kevin Martin. Please Please Please. Then it will all make sense.

[jivelikenice]

Wasn't there a rumor about 2 weeks ago that New Orleans was willing to use their pick to dump either Okafor OR Ariza?

No, the word was they would not give up #10 in a salary dump. I love these "Why didn't we just Rudy Gay instead" or "Why didn't we get the 10th pick" posts. The answer is simple. They weren't available! Memphis either rejected or asked for the 2nd pick for Gay. NO said they would not give up the 10th pick in a salary dump yet we act like Ernie chose the worst deal on purpose.

Quick question and I'm sure its been posted. Assuming we amnesty Blatche, what's our cap sitatuation now? Can we afford an MLE type?

[Severn Hoos]

Rocket fan here. Do you guys think the Wizards have any interest in Kevin Martin? Brings shooting and scoring, not much else but it seems you guys need that more than anything and have post defenders to cover his defensive liabilities.

His contract is expiring and could probably be acquired for a starting quality Center. No interest in Blatche...

We'll give you Okafor for Kevin Martin. If that were to happen, I would take back all of my criticisms. That would actually make a lot of sense.

Well, Okafor IS from Houston.....

But I do like the top 3 for next year scenario.

[Wizards2Lottery]

We somehow got worse on offense.

Amazing.

[KevinFCheng]

How soon before we can trade Okafor and Ariza?

[nate33]

My thoughts:

This trade potentially makes the Wizards a very deep defensive team, which is what we've wanted here all along. And all you guys whining about cap flexibility are only upset because it spoils the dream scenario you had layed out in your mind. As has been said already, it's a two year plan max, so calm down. I dont think they'll have a problem trading either okafor or ariza as exprings next offseason if it doesnt work out, so essentially we're better next year, and we have trade assets next offseason we otherwise wouldnt have had.

The people saying this is shortsighted are the ones being shortsighted.

We were already a deep defensive team. Nene, Seraphin, Vesely and Booker were locking it down over the second half of the season. In 24 games following the Nene trade, we had the league's 7th best defense. When Nene actually played, we were the best defense. I repeat: the BEST defense in the league! We didn't need to add $30M in salary to bolster the defense. We need shooters and we need a star caliber player. This trade does neither.

[W. Unseld]

I definitely see problems but silver linings:
1)Aren't we only hamstrung this year? Aren't these expiring deals after this season? If you can move Shard then Okafor can be moved when he's an expiring ditto Ariza.
2)I can't help but think there is another move coming b/c the Wiz would be over the cap next season according to this article and I don't think Ted would sign off on that and I do think Ernie would have to get permission to exceed the cap:
http://www.bulletsforever.com/2012/6/20 ... #storyjump
3)Are Okafor and Ariza really Blache/Rashard Lewis type bad? I find that hard to believe but I admit I haven't been watching them. I think the team gets better short term and has two expiring contracts for 2014.
**I totally agree it's a little too good of deal for the Hornets; I'm just not ready to jump off a cliff yet. Now if they draft MKG and we still have zero shooters then someone put me on suicide watch.

[dobrojim]

Rocket fan here. Do you guys think the Wizards have any interest in Kevin Martin? Brings shooting and scoring, not much else but it seems you guys need that more than anything and have post defenders to cover his defensive liabilities.

His contract is expiring and could probably be acquired for a starting quality Center. No interest in Blatche...

We'll give you Okafor for Kevin Martin. If that were to happen, I would take back all of my criticisms. That would actually make a lot of sense.

+1

[Rafael122]

Wasn't there a rumor about 2 weeks ago that New Orleans was willing to use their pick to dump either Okafor OR Ariza?

No, the word was they would not give up #10 in a salary dump. I love these "Why didn't we just Rudy Gay instead" or "Why didn't we get the 10th pick" posts. The answer is simple. They weren't available! Memphis either rejected or asked for the 2nd pick for Gay. NO said they would not give up the 10th pick in a salary dump yet we act like Ernie chose the worst deal on purpose.

Quick question and I'm sure its been posted. Assuming we amnesty Blatche, what's our cap sitatuation now? Can we afford an MLE type?

I think Nate said something around $54 million. It's a few pages back.

[MDStar]

I'm all over the place with this trade, so I have to let it digest first before I respond. However I got this text from a friend of mine, who doesn't post on here.

"They can at least contribute. What's the point of keep Rashard Lewis (looking more and more likely that Ted wasn't gonna pay him and Blatche to go away)? The more vets the better. Hey if Vesely or Booker want to start, now they have to earn it. That's how it should be! No guaranteed starters other than Wall. And in regards to the players, I feel they're both good defenders, who will compete. Even if they don't start, anything is better then getting absolutely nothing from Rashards corpse on the bench"

[tontoz]

I would have been more disgusted with Rudy Gay given he just signed
a HUGE deal. Same (almost) with Joe Johnson.

I would take Gay over this garbage easily. Gay only has one more year on his deal than Okafor.

Okafor isn't that good and will just take minutes from Seraphin. Ariza sucks.

Horrible trade

I thought Gay just signed last offseason for like 80-90 Million.

Someone show me why they think Okafor should start over Seraphin.

Gay signed 2 years ago.

http://thehoopdoctors.com/online2/2010/ ... 2-million/

They aren't going to pay Okafor and Nene all that money to sit on the bench.

[Dat2U]

Terrible trade. The Wizards have now taken enough cap space for two maximum contracts and transmogrified it into Nene, Okafor and Ariza.

I'm disgusted.

I don't get it, space means nothing if nobody is willing to come here. Hoping for a Boston or Miami situation isn't really realistic either...those situations were unique because they already had HOF players on those teams. We have Wall, and a half-decent player in Nene...and that's about it.

What would have been the right thing to do?

Wrong. You can do a lot with cap space more than just signing free agents. You can broker better trades than this crap. You've got flexibility to make moves. Ernie shows no ability whatsoever to think outside the box.

This is just beyond the scope of being bad.

[nate33]

I definitely see problems but silver linings:
1)Aren't we only hamstrung this year? Aren't these expiring deals after this season? If you can move Shard then Okafor can be moved when he's an expiring ditto Ariza.
2)I can't help but think there is another move coming b/c the Wiz would be over the cap next season according to this article and I don't think Ted would sign off on that and I do think Ernie would have to get permission to exceed the cap:
http://www.bulletsforever.com/2012/6/20 ... #storyjump
3)Are Okafor and Ariza really Blache/Rashard Lewis type bad? I find that hard to believe but I admit I haven't been watching them. I think the team gets better short term and has two expiring contracts for 2014.
**I totally agree it's a little too good of deal for the Hornets; I'm just not ready to jump off a cliff yet. Now if they draft MKG and we still have zero shooters then someone put me on suicide watch.

1. No those contracts last 2 more years. They come off the books in Summer 2014.
2. I hope Okafor is moved for a guard.
3. It's not that Okafor and Ariza are bad. It's that they really don't provide much more than what we already have. Is Okafor any better than Seraphin? Is Ariza that much better than Singleton? And if they are, is the difference worth $30M over the next two years? To what end? We win an extra 2 or 3 games over the course of the season while hurting the development of Seraphin, Vesely, Booker, Singleton etc.

[mohammed10]

So, looking for silver linings:

It looks like Ted is signalling he won't go cheap with the financial outlays. Hopefully that removes the financial resistance to amnestying Blatche.

In a convoluted way, it could be a statement of support for the young guys, by adding the player(s) that we hope they will one day become. So, if we want Seraphin to learn how to survive as an undersized C, using his strength and timing to be a somewhat effective defender, Okafor can show him in real time. (Of course, we used the same logic for Nene on the other end of the court.) Singleton's best case scenario is probably Ariza, so watching and practicing against him for a season or two might help him learn how to play to his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.

I thought I read that Nene prefers to play PF, which he will probably now do, with Okafor as the C.

Per the above point, it might extend Nene's effectiveness, both by spending less time in the paint on defense, and having more options - thus limiting the minutes that Witt feels he has to play Nene.



OK, that's all I got. It still stinks.

You can't put but so much perfume on a pig, Hoos...

[Rafael122]

Terrible trade. The Wizards have now taken enough cap space for two maximum contracts and transmogrified it into Nene, Okafor and Ariza.

I'm disgusted.

I don't get it, space means nothing if nobody is willing to come here. Hoping for a Boston or Miami situation isn't really realistic either...those situations were unique because they already had HOF players on those teams. We have Wall, and a half-decent player in Nene...and that's about it.

What would have been the right thing to do?

Wrong. You can do a lot with cap space more than just signing free agents. You can broker better trades than this crap. You've got flexibility to make moves. Ernie shows no ability whatsoever to think outside the box.

This is just beyond the scope of being bad.

I'm going home tonight and I'm gonna look at every team's roster and develop a list of players the Wizards could have traded for, using Rashard Lewis' contract of course. I'm not a big Johnson or Gay fan, so I've ruled them out.

[dobrojim]

I'm all over the place with this trade, so I have to let it digest first before I respond. However I got this text from a friend of mine, who doesn't post on here.

"They can at least contribute. What's the point of keep Rashard Lewis (looking more and more likely that Ted wasn't gonna pay him and Blatche to go away)? The more vets the better. Hey if Vesely or Booker want to start, now they have to earn it. That's how it should be! No guaranteed starters other than Wall. And in regards to the players, I feel they're both good defenders, who will compete. Even if they don't start, anything is better then getting absolutely nothing from Rashards corpse on the bench"

problem with that is Wittman liked playing Nene and KSera together as it was.
Booker and Ves were not guaranteed anything beyond scraps.

[Severn Hoos]

I can't find the post now, but right after the combine numbers came out, I made the statement that I sure hope there's no more "news" until draft night. (as opposed to leaks, speculation, mocks, rumors, etc.) That nothing good could come out of a Wizards press conference, that if we did have any actual "news", it would be Foye & Miller redux.


Sometimes I just wish I wasn't right all the time.....