Nene

[FAH1223]

Wittman says no minutes restriction yet Nene wants one:

"No, no no no," Nene said quickly to CSN Washington, though with a smile, about playing more Saturday when the Wizards face the Chicago Bulls in Rio de Janeiro. "I don't worry about minutes even in Brazil because I'm a pro. I don't want to get sore, get hurt. I still have a couple of issues. Just because I feel better, they think I feel great but they're wrong. We need to reduce (it) a couple minutes.

"My knee is still sore. My foot still hurts a little bit. Just trying to push (through)," said Nene, who didn't play basketball during the off-season and opted for rehabilitation. "The therapy is making me feel better."

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/10/9 ... estriction

We need to trade him.

[Dat2U]

Wittman says no minutes restriction yet Nene wants one:

"No, no no no," Nene said quickly to CSN Washington, though with a smile, about playing more Saturday when the Wizards face the Chicago Bulls in Rio de Janeiro. "I don't worry about minutes even in Brazil because I'm a pro. I don't want to get sore, get hurt. I still have a couple of issues. Just because I feel better, they think I feel great but they're wrong. We need to reduce (it) a couple minutes.

"My knee is still sore. My foot still hurts a little bit. Just trying to push (through)," said Nene, who didn't play basketball during the off-season and opted for rehabilitation. "The therapy is making me feel better."

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/10/9 ... estriction

We need to trade him.

Yeah, this is going to end well. I'd rather be paying Javale McGee $10-11 mil to be typical Javale for 24 minutes a night for 82 games than pay this broken down chump.

[payitforward]

A bit of an overreaction maybe? He doesn't need to play more minutes in pre-season. And who ever thought he was going to be more than a 25 minute a game player anyway? I sure didn't.

[rockymac52]

I don't think the issue is that Nene didn't play as many minutes as he could in the preseason opener. I think the more alarming issue stems from Nene's comments about his current health, his aversion to playing center, and the possible difference in opinion or miscommunication between Nene, the medical staff, and the coaching staff.

Nene apparently had a very restful summer, with his main focus being on getting healthy, which I think was the right approach. However, if after 5 months of rest and non-basketball activities, Nene is still feeling some lingering pain and soreness, then the sad reality is that he's never going to get back to the level of health that he once was at.

If that means we have a not as good, but still pretty good, version of Nene, then it's not the end of the world - we all know he's still a very solid player even when he's banged up, even if it's not quite worth $13 million a year. The key is whether Nene's current health subjects him to an increased risk of future injury.

All in all, his recent comments have made me very concerned and skeptical about his effectiveness going forward. There might be a little bit of a language barrier, or at least a cultural barrier, with Nene being so honest and open in his comments (whereas most other players would probably lie or hide their true feelings on the matter), but it doesn't change the fact that he's still not healthy.

I'm very concerned about this team's potential for success in the immediate future (this season) after Okafor's injury, and Nene's comments have only made me worry that much more. If Nene is out for an extended period of time, or even on a smaller day-to-day type scale, and Okafor doesn't miraculously return fully healed in a month or two, then our season is over, no question. Obviously we'd like to make the playoffs this year, but let's be honest, we're not title contenders yet, and this season is going to end without a championship for the Wizards, so the amount of wins we get only effects the position of our draft pick and whether or not the fans and public have a better perception of our squad, confirming that we're growing and heading in the right direction.

What do we do if Nene suffers an injury early on this year? So many different directions we could go, and it's probably going to be critical which one we choose.

[The Rebel]

One thing about Nene is that Nene has never liked to play if he was not 100% healthy, that is just the way he has always been. That is one of the reasons many of us Nuggets fans always wondered just how much he really liked playing basketball, which is sad because before the injuries Nene was a beast.

[manifested]

Wittman says no minutes restriction yet Nene wants one:

"No, no no no," Nene said quickly to CSN Washington, though with a smile, about playing more Saturday when the Wizards face the Chicago Bulls in Rio de Janeiro. "I don't worry about minutes even in Brazil because I'm a pro. I don't want to get sore, get hurt. I still have a couple of issues. Just because I feel better, they think I feel great but they're wrong. We need to reduce (it) a couple minutes.

"My knee is still sore. My foot still hurts a little bit. Just trying to push (through)," said Nene, who didn't play basketball during the off-season and opted for rehabilitation. "The therapy is making me feel better."

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/10/9 ... estriction

We need to trade him.

The biggest problem with trading Nene is that the team would be looking for a big man in return. What team is going to trade a healthy post player for a broken down post player with similar production? The contract makes it even worse. You'd have to throw in something else (likely a draft pick) to get anyone to bite.

This is where the lack of development from Seraphin, Vesely, and Singleton really hurts. If one of those players had emerged as a solid option, dumping Nene's salary for lesser talents might be an option to get his salary off the books. But the Wizards are in the odd situation of both needing to improve their post play for a current season playoff push and get out of his salary which will get increasingly worse as Nene's health deteriorates. Unless, they can swing a separate deal to get a big man using Okafor/Ariza's expirings + picks, I get the feeling the Wizards are going to live and die by Nene's health at least for this year, and possibly next.

[closg00]

Nene out tonight, another night to try small-ball.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wiz ... -new-york/

[GhostsOfGil]

Sheesh. Any word on Porter?

[closg00]

Sheesh. Any word on Porter?

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball ... ers-injury

[GhostsOfGil]

Sheesh. Any word on Porter?

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball ... ers-injury

#SoWizards

[hands11]

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball ... up-vs-heat

Nene recruited the Big Cheese

Since Cheese only cost 1.4M and he likely to contribute more like a 3M player, can we count that savings off Nene 13M this year

[montestewart]

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball-washington-wizards/talk/morning-tip-harrington-will-be-lineup-vs-heat

Nene recruited the Big Cheese

Since Cheese only cost 1.4M and he likely to contribute more like a 3M player, can we counted that savings off Nene 13M this year

Did you just make that nickname up?

[payitforward]

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball-washington-wizards/talk/morning-tip-harrington-will-be-lineup-vs-heat

Nene recruited the Big Cheese

Since Cheese only cost 1.4M and he likely to contribute more like a 3M player, can we counted that savings off Nene 13M this year

Good catch, Hands -- and, because the league pays part of veteran minimum salaries, we don't even shell out all the dollars!

[hands11]

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball-washington-wizards/talk/morning-tip-harrington-will-be-lineup-vs-heat

Nene recruited the Big Cheese

Since Cheese only cost 1.4M and he likely to contribute more like a 3M player, can we counted that savings off Nene 13M this year

Did you just make that nickname up?

I guess I did kind of. I knew his twitter had cheese in it and I heard him talk about it before so that was in the back of my head somewhere.. Its actually is Cheddacheese7. He has such a huge smile and always flashing it. So when I was typing, Big Cheese just came out..

Kind of fitting. Big Cheese or just Cheese for short. I think thats how I'm going to refer to him..

Cheese from 3.. Cheese coming into the game.

[hands11]

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball-washington-wizards/talk/morning-tip-harrington-will-be-lineup-vs-heat

Nene recruited the Big Cheese

Since Cheese only cost 1.4M and he likely to contribute more like a 3M player, can we counted that savings off Nene 13M this year

Good catch, Hands -- and, because the league pays part of veteran minimum salaries, we don't even shell out all the dollars!

Hadn't considered that second part. So what do you think would be a fair estimate on the total discount for him. Guess first we would have to get a good estimate on what would be a fair value contract for Al given estimated production and team impact. I just throw 3M out there. I have no idea is that was a good number.

[payitforward]

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball-washington-wizards/talk/morning-tip-harrington-will-be-lineup-vs-heat

Nene recruited the Big Cheese

Since Cheese only cost 1.4M and he likely to contribute more like a 3M player, can we counted that savings off Nene 13M this year

Good catch, Hands -- and, because the league pays part of veteran minimum salaries, we don't even shell out all the dollars!

Hadn't considered that second part. So what do you think would be a fair estimate on the total discount for him. Guess first we would have to get a good estimate on what would be a fair value contract for Al given estimated production and team impact. I just throw 3M out there. I have no idea is that was a good number.

We won't be able to know that until the end of the season. But, for sure his value was pushed down because he was coming off an injury-plagued season and he's in his 16th season.

In fact, the deal he made is by definition a fair value contract; otherwise he wouldn't have made it. Hard to imagine some other team was out there dangling 3 times as much money, but he came here instead because of a call from Nene (who's making $13m!! )

[hands11]

Sure you can make that argument, but that not really what I was asking.

I was looking for fair market for his estimated production.

Look at AK47. Players do go places for less then their value sometimes and sometimes they get more. Lewis for example was way overpaid for his production. That's why we talk about good and bad contracts.

I was looking for an estimate of dollars for production. You know, like when you look at a salaries chart and say, ya, that player is worth that. I think Niv has a formula for this in his bag of tricks.

1.4 M seems pretty cheap for what I expect from him so that's a value contract right there. Just like Webster was last year. Dudes making less then Chris Singleton who is making 1.7M this year.

Seems like Cheese is worth at last 3-4M which is a good number for a regular core bench player. But we got a discount because he wanted to play here and he was coming off injury. Works for him because he knows he had make a lot already and he can get a better contract next year.

[hands11]

Man, Nene really doesn't want to be play center. This never came up in the past because he was only here without Okafor at the end of his first year here.

http://www.monumentalnetwork.com/videos ... ec17ed0000

The team really feels like its very fragile right now regarding stability and a big part of that is Nene's attitude about playing center combined with Okafor being out.

I don't know. Cheese is coming off injury and he is smaller than Nene and he said he would play center if they needed him. Nene just seems so grumpy about the hole thing.

You think we could have freakn drafted a center. This draft had lots of them.

[Knighthonor]

Man, Nene really doesn't want to be play center. This never came up in the past because he was only here without Okafor at the end of his first year here.

http://www.monumentalnetwork.com/videos ... ec17ed0000

The team really feels like its very fragile right now regarding stability and a big part of that is Nene's attitude about playing center combined with Okafor being out.

I don't know. Cheese is coming off injury and he is smaller than Nene and he said he would play center if they needed him. Nene just seems so grumpy about the hole thing.

You think we could have freakn drafted a center. This draft had lots of them.

I dont even want to go there any more. its a dead argument. lets let this die and move on. only painful to think about.

I wonder how people feel about trading Nene.

[Ruzious]

Man, Nene really doesn't want to be play center. This never came up in the past because he was only here without Okafor at the end of his first year here.

http://www.monumentalnetwork.com/videos ... ec17ed0000

The team really feels like its very fragile right now regarding stability and a big part of that is Nene's attitude about playing center combined with Okafor being out.

I don't know. Cheese is coming off injury and he is smaller than Nene and he said he would play center if they needed him. Nene just seems so grumpy about the hole thing.

You think we could have freakn drafted a center. This draft had lots of them.

I get the impression that he's more unhappy about not having a competent physical player out there with him than he is about playing center. He basically said his role (having to play more physically) is the problem; not the position. And if I was him, I'd be frustrated. He wants to compete for more than the 8th seed - which is the stated goal of this team, and this team was built like a house of cards up front - and a key card in the middle has already fallen.