The 'What do we do now?' Thread (merged)

[Tyrone Messby]

Oh God. Dude, you suspended for the rest of the season. I don't the owner, GM or coach wants you txting their star player right before a game.

Who pooped in your shoe?

[pancakes3]

it's a good thing. gil's not pouting over his suspension. that's a sign of maturity.

[AceDegenerate]

Gil may not have wanted to bark orders @ Jamison / Caron (something not even Flip seemed able to do himself).. but he has always shown great leadership with all of our young players. He is the one working out with them in the summer, not AJ or Caron. He is the one who reached out to Blatche the night he was drafted. Had he played the past 3 seasons I have no doubt he'd have matured into a leader role on this team, however be it as it may his progress was stunted severely by all that's gone on. I just don't see how people want him off this team as constructed, what harm could he possibly do here? Do you all believe the person the media has painted him to be? I just don't get it.

[montestewart]

Gil may not have wanted to bark orders @ Jamison / Caron (something not even Flip seemed able to do himself).. but he has always shown great leadership with all of our young players. He is the one working out with them in the summer, not AJ or Caron. He is the one who reached out to Blatche the night he was drafted. Had he played the past 3 seasons I have no doubt he'd have matured into a leader role on this team, however be it as it may his progress was stunted severely by all that's gone on. I just don't see how people want him off this team as constructed, what harm could he possibly do here? Do you all believe the person the media has painted him to be? I just don't get it.

Why do you keep asking why everyone on this board other than you shares an identical view on this subject that is exactly opposite to your own view? I just don't get it.

[Hoopalotta]

My main concerns would be be contract, ball movement, defense and Murphy's law.

With any extremely highly paid player, their is also some worry about an injury that clogs up the cap (like Milwaukee with Redd). You spend that money when you're ready to compete for something, but objectively, we have to admit those deals are dangerous to a franchise, as a rule.

I'm not on a jihad and I like Gil's contract a heck of a lot better than what STAT and Boozer are going to get this summer (Gil for 4 years @ $80 million is better than those guys for five years @ $75).

As to the ball movement, despite all the obvious limitations with the current team, they're actually moving the ball better than I've seen here for ages. Gil could potentially get on board with that still, but there's work to do. The three pointers off the dribble with 18 seconds on the shot clock just deflates the team energy.

The defense, I mean, Synergy Sports had him rated as the worst perimeter defender in the NBA. The worst. I would remind everyone that the NBA is the same league that Jose Calderon plays in, unless he somehow doesn't qualify as a 'defender'. Possibly, Gil could improve here a bit, but it's not exactly the kind of identity that the they should be trying to build.

The Murphy's Law aspect is just that things have had a habit of going poorly with him here and there's a lot of baggage. If it ain't one thing......you know how it goes. This is an obvious pattern from the whole "rehabbing my way" to, the more recent "incident".

Obviously there are positive points to counter balance all that, but those are legitimate concerns.

I have to admit though, I'd be pretty worried as to what the team would do with the eventual cap space if they moved Gil. It sounds kind of dangerous, actually.

[hands11]

Hey, check out this Dray Blatche radio interview, right at the end Dray says that Gil texts him before every game and they go over assorted things.

http://1067thefandc.radio.com/2010/02/2 ... um=twitter

That's interesting.

Oh God. Dude, you suspended for the rest of the season. I don't the owner, GM or coach wants you txting their star player right before a game.

Dude, seriously, get a grip. Andray & Gil have been good friends and a suspension shouldn't change that.

I could care less if they are friends. They can txt after the game. God I can't wait till shoe poop is gone. He is worse then a neurotic girlfriend.

Dude,

Your are not an active player
Your are not a team leader
Your are not a coach

[AceDegenerate]

Gil may not have wanted to bark orders @ Jamison / Caron (something not even Flip seemed able to do himself).. but he has always shown great leadership with all of our young players. He is the one working out with them in the summer, not AJ or Caron. He is the one who reached out to Blatche the night he was drafted. Had he played the past 3 seasons I have no doubt he'd have matured into a leader role on this team, however be it as it may his progress was stunted severely by all that's gone on. I just don't see how people want him off this team as constructed, what harm could he possibly do here? Do you all believe the person the media has painted him to be? I just don't get it.

Why do you keep asking why everyone on this board other than you shares an identical view on this subject that is exactly opposite to your own view? I just don't get it.

Why do you care when I pose a question that is opposite to your own view? Why question the status quo right? Because the (10-15) people on this board are so smart and well versed in the NBA that they would have won this team a championship a long time ago. Riiiiiight.

I ask the question because you are WRONG.

[AceDegenerate]

I could care less if they are friends. They can txt after the game. God I can't wait till shoe poop is gone. He is worse then a neurotic girlfriend.

Dude,

Your not an active player
Your not a team leader
Your not a coach

DUDE!

You'RE getting a DELL! (w/ grammar correction!!)

Andray won't be here much longer if the organization decides to kick his friend to the curb.

[Kanyewest]

Gil may not have wanted to bark orders @ Jamison / Caron (something not even Flip seemed able to do himself).. but he has always shown great leadership with all of our young players. He is the one working out with them in the summer, not AJ or Caron. He is the one who reached out to Blatche the night he was drafted. Had he played the past 3 seasons I have no doubt he'd have matured into a leader role on this team, however be it as it may his progress was stunted severely by all that's gone on. I just don't see how people want him off this team as constructed, what harm could he possibly do here? Do you all believe the person the media has painted him to be? I just don't get it.

Why do you keep asking why everyone on this board other than you shares an identical view on this subject that is exactly opposite to your own view? I just don't get it.

He's saying it because the everyday fan or even experts from other teams just don't get. Granted, there aren't any Wiz fans here that would assert this, but there is generally a large belief in the NBA that Gilbert Arenas is a player that you couldn't lead a team anywhere with even before the knee surgery because he was a scoring point guard that didn't play much defense. But in the NBA you need talented pieces to win.

[hands11]

Oh God. Dude, you suspended for the rest of the season. I don't the owner, GM or coach wants you txting their star player right before a game.

Who pooped in your shoe?

Since the Gil incident, I keep my shoes locked up so they are poop free. I'm not taking any chances. Gil may be reading my posts and have me on the shoe poop hit list. Agent Brown has time on his hands.

Shoe Poopers are getting organized. You have to be careful.
http://www.poopinashoe.com/news.php

See, what some here sadly seem to be missing ( and man that really is concerning ) is that a prank is this .. http://www.prankplace.com/product.aspx? ... 22505&c=51

What Agent Brown did is just vile. From a college kid I would be concerned. From a near max NBA star ? I'm kind of concerned more people don't get this.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

Glad to see 7DD and Gil are txt'ing and keeping an open line of communication. Hopefully they get a chance to do some things together next season. That duo is going to be very very nice, just add in some D specialists and we're better than the "big 3" ever was.

[daSwami]

I'd like to see the Wiz take a radical approach next season, especially if we don't land a marquee free agent and/or John Wall. By radical I mean either 1) bring in a guy like Paul Westhead as an asst coach and try out a run-and-gun style offense, ala the Denver Nuggets back in the day. If we're going to lose, lets at least be exciting about it. We have the young legs for it. Or 2) take the opposite approach and play a full-press style defense like Jim O'brien's Celtics used to. Again, it might not produce a lot of wins, but it would make for an interesting product.

[verbal8]

2) take the opposite approach and play a full-press style defense like Jim O'brien's Celtics used to. Again, it might not produce a lot of wins, but it would make for an interesting product.

Generally NBA players can pass out of a double team which makes it very easy to break a press. I think trying to use pressing to overcome a lack of talent is a good way to get blown out. There are situations where pressing can be useful, but as a basic strategy it is flawed.

[nate33]

The consensus plan seems to be for us to leverage our cap space for picks and young players while avoiding signing any established vets this summer. The logic is to suck for one more year in order to build up a stronger talent base for the next decade. It's a good plan that made sense when we dumped Jamison, Butler and Haywood.

The emergence of Blatche may change everything.

Think about it. If this team can play .500 ball right now, it stand to reason that we can play .500 ball after adding Arenas and a pick - even if Foye and Miller are let go. If we avoid adding any talent, we're still not going to end up with a high lotto pick in the 2011 draft, so why bother?

I'm still game for the Bring Out Your Dead strategy, but I'm not wedded to it. If we get an opportunity to add a good, youngish free agent for a reasonable price, there's no reason that we shouldn't pull the trigger. I say we do what we can to obtain whatever good players we can get at a reasonable price. But we start THIS offseason, not next offseason.

Essentially, we have $19M in cap space to go with Arenas, Young, Thornton, Blatche, McGee, #7, #29, #37. What free agents should we add to fill out that roster?

[montestewart]

A positive aspect of the Bring Out Your Dead strategy is that the Wizards could end up with one or more picks tied to the fortunes of teams that are not only trying to dump salary but will be fielding bad teams, so the Wizards could improve on the court even as another team going in an opposite direction gets the Wizards a higher pick, not to mention more pieces for trading up in the draft.

[Hoopalotta]

My big question would be, how is the market going to stack up this summer? Will teams be afraid of free agent spending, or will they go all in?

The Bring Out Your Dead strategy will be more effective if it's just us and Minnesota doing it, but if Sacramento and New Jersey get on board too, there could be a glut of buyers and the 'bounty' that we'd be able to extract from our quarry would be more minimal. And a huge number of contracts expire in 2011, thus leaving the hard hit financial teams with an out. So the actual landscape is hard to gauge.

Before you get too far down the rod with free agents, we'd need to consider that there's no CBA in place and owners are pushing for a hard cap. We have Blatche n' Gee up for contract extensions after two more full seasons, so we need to be ready there.

For me, if we actually do go after a substantial free agent (which I still recommend against), I'd damn sure like to get someone who will actually be in their prime over the course of their contract and affords us a longer window. I am very strongly against the idea of even thinking about getting an absolute 'win-now' player like Joe Johnson or Boozer. Those guys were good free agent signings when they signed their first deal, but them lemons been squeezed a good bit already.

So basically, signing Rudy Gay is a bad idea and he plays too much iso ball outside of the team concept, but I will be less incredulous of the non-title-contending team that signs him than I will be of he one that inks Johnson, just because someone is paying Rudy for what they hope he can become rather than for what he was, and is for the next two seasons. (If Johnson signs with a team that can win the title now, that's not a bad signing, but I doubt it plays out that way).

Young-ish Free Agents:
Bron
Bosh
Gay
Lee
Lowry

I'm probably forgetting some guys. The only attainable difference maker there is Gay, and that's if you think he can make a jump like Joe Johnson did at that age. I'd be afraid of moving away from the ball movement we've built up, but he is he kind of guy who can create and make 'playoff basketball' type shots.

The uptown sister to the Bring Out Your Dead strategy is the 'Overpaid Stars for Cap Space' angle. Iggy, Jefferson, Ellis and so on would be available this summer, but I'm not ecstatic.

Finally, there well might be a super team built in the eastern conference if a pair of super stars come together, so under that scenario, we might not want to peak too soon.

All told, I'd rather do the Bring Out Your Dead strategy if it's there. I don't know if management/ownership will do it or not.

I do agre though that no matter what, we well might not be in position to get a high lottery pick next year.

[Hoopalotta]

Think about it. If this team can play .500 ball right now, it stand to reason that we can play .500 ball after adding Arenas and a pick - even if Foye and Miller are let go. If we avoid adding any talent, we're still not going to end up with a high lotto pick in the 2011 draft, so why bother?

The other point would be this: The Bring Out Your Dead plan isn't just so that we suck next year, but also so that we stock the roster with an assortment of 2011 or 2011 draft picks.

Even if we end up with the 11th pick next year, we're a lot more sustainable if we do so with a bunch of rookie deals on the roster or soon to be on the roster. If we draft well, those mid rounders with role players on the roster for 4 years @ 6.5 million will be pretty darn nice. In some cases, such as with four year college players taken later in the draft, these can be pretty safe bets and contribute immediately.

A solid three year influx of even mid round draft picks could save us from needing to sign all those MLE guys that killed our cap last time. It's a financially conservative strategy with a certain home run potential.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

Man, the way Howard was playing and the way this team is playing right now just gets my hopes up.......theres always that little bit of hope to ride on.

Just looking at this team, if Howard didn't get hurt, or comes back strong to a nice contract our team would be pretty badass.

Now is the time I want consistency, if everyone bought in (loooong shot) and re-upped on the cheap end.


Gil/Foye
MIller/Young/Draftee
Howard/Thornton
Blatche/Singleton
Mcgee/Draftee

[Ruzious]

The consensus plan seems to be for us to leverage our cap space for picks and young players while avoiding signing any established vets this summer. The logic is to suck for one more year in order to build up a stronger talent base for the next decade. It's a good plan that made sense when we dumped Jamison, Butler and Haywood.

The emergence of Blatche may change everything.

Think about it. If this team can play .500 ball right now, it stand to reason that we can play .500 ball after adding Arenas and a pick - even if Foye and Miller are let go. If we avoid adding any talent, we're still not going to end up with a high lotto pick in the 2011 draft, so why bother?

I'm still game for the Bring Out Your Dead strategy, but I'm not wedded to it. If we get an opportunity to add a good, youngish free agent for a reasonable price, there's no reason that we shouldn't pull the trigger. I say we do what we can to obtain whatever good players we can get at a reasonable price. But we start THIS offseason, not next offseason.

Essentially, we have $19M in cap space to go with Arenas, Young, Thornton, Blatche, McGee, #7, #29, #37. What free agents should we add to fill out that roster?

Yeah, this would actually be a good post to start a new thread - since Blatche and maybe Thornton seem to have changed the parameters for the plans most of us were going with. I think everyone wants Singleton re-signed. There's the BOYD and buying free agents, but the cap space also gives much more flex in regular trading - like if some team wants to get younger by trading a solid well-paid veteran for a guy like Young. As far as outside free agents, there's slim pickins - Lowry is about it - as far as players I'd be really interested in - and he's an RFA.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

The consensus plan seems to be for us to leverage our cap space for picks and young players while avoiding signing any established vets this summer. The logic is to suck for one more year in order to build up a stronger talent base for the next decade. It's a good plan that made sense when we dumped Jamison, Butler and Haywood.

The emergence of Blatche may change everything.

Think about it. If this team can play .500 ball right now, it stand to reason that we can play .500 ball after adding Arenas and a pick - even if Foye and Miller are let go. If we avoid adding any talent, we're still not going to end up with a high lotto pick in the 2011 draft, so why bother?

I'm still game for the Bring Out Your Dead strategy, but I'm not wedded to it. If we get an opportunity to add a good, youngish free agent for a reasonable price, there's no reason that we shouldn't pull the trigger. I say we do what we can to obtain whatever good players we can get at a reasonable price. But we start THIS offseason, not next offseason.

Essentially, we have $19M in cap space to go with Arenas, Young, Thornton, Blatche, McGee, #7, #29, #37. What free agents should we add to fill out that roster?

This is where I am.

I say open the wallet for Joe Johnson. Get Dan Snyder to lend his private jet. Arrange for a meeting with Obama. Ask Dray to open up his rolodex. Do all you can to recruit him this year.

Arenas/Vasquez
(Turner?)/(Anderson?)/Young
Johnson/Thornton
Blatche/Singleton
(Cousins?/Aldrich), McGee

If I'm the Knicks or the Lakers or even the Bulls, I'd have more stomach for patience. But history has shown that Washington is not an elite destination for FAs. I don't think this franchise can afford to suck for multiple years.