Celtics @ Wizards - 11/3/12

[payitforward]

Okafor
Seraphin
Webster
Crawford
Pargo

Probably the best option the team has until it gets healthier.

Cut one of Pargo and Price and bring back Shelvin Mack.

Start Mack. He was the best facilitator/pure passer among the three PGs. He doesn't have to shoot, either, to be effective.

+1

While we're at it, fire Ernie Grunfield.

[payitforward]

CCJ, Mack needed to get in better shape. He was FAT in the summer league. Pargo has hit big shots in both games.

There are no big shots in losses. Pargo is a 32 year old who has proven he's not an NBA-level player over a solid 10 years. *Anyone* young (i.e. who still has a chance to prove the opposite) would be better.

[payitforward]

Huh, malware reported on this site.

Not malware -- that's Ernie.

[hands11]

Of a couple teams I follow, Grunfeld and the football coach of the University of Hawaii, Norm Chow, both seem to be most inflexible, most conservative, most predictable, least creative, and least proficient at what they do.

You said he must feel like a complete idiot, Mr. Grundle, but I don't get that from EG or Coach Chow (Hawaii football has been torpedoed by this coach, absolutely). I think EG and Chow are alike, bull headed, set in their ways, above it all and very smug. They can lose, lose, lose, but will stay the course doing the same thing.

The reason I doubt Grunfeld feels like an idiot is historically he shifts blame on young players and fires coaches but no blame sticks to Ernie.

Ernie did the same damn thing with Okafor and Ariza that he did with Foye and Miller. You cannot tell the guy a thing and Ted the Enabler bought into the idiocy. Calling the move to swap their deals for Lewis cap neutral was pure lunacy. Not even trying to pursue FAs and saying no FA would want to play in DC was a losing, defeatist mentality. Grunfeld doesn't even have any idea how much better off he would be with a Ryan Anderson on this team. He can't feel like an idiot because I doubt he has those critical thinking skills. He and Ted are running it like a business, banking on the ignorance of the average fan.

I see them as different moves. We gave up what.. a 5th pick.. in the Foye/Miller trade. And that move was motivated/directed by an owner who believed Gil could take them to a title and wanted to see that happen before he died. That move was a cash in the on the future to win now move.

The Trevor A/Okafor move was different. It was a move to avoid spending 12-14M of dead money while they were spending 7M of dead money on Dray in an attempt to mitigate Gils crappy 20-24M/year long term contract and clean up the locker room(Dray). It was breaking one crap contract into two smaller ones while adding some vets to help develop younger talent for the future. They can still buy out Trevor A next year for 7M max and all they added was over paying Okafor for an extra year at 14M (Gil would be 24M dead weight that year) which might end up being a nice expiring contract in a multi-player trade for a stud. They only gave up a late 2nd round pick to do this. Not a 5th.

I know this trade looks like crap now, but you can only fully evaluate it down the road when we see what they got in total assets and production vs the paying Gil 42M of dead money for two more years. This is still all connected to that Gil deal.

[payitforward]

Quality veteran leadership on display, from Beal's postgame :

On what he's been told: "Trevor [Booker or Ariza, not sure which] pulled me aside and said to me, 'This might not be your year. You never know.

I can't see that being Booker somehow....

Hopefully he listens to what Crawford has to say, because he's 100% right.

On what he'd tell Bradley Beal: "You've got to be aggressive. It's not in his game to force it. He likes to let the game come to him. [But] as a two guard in this league, you've got to be aggressive, bring some of that attention to you and open it up for other players."

You want him to take counsel on how to be a good NBA 2 guard from Jordan Crawford? One of the worst 2 guards in the NBA? You're sure about that?

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... My argument was who would come here, ...?

I've never understood that argument. These guys are professionals; they play for money. This is not the schoolyard or college rah rah. It's a business.

For that matter the best "not to come here" would be that exact attitude on the part of management, not to mention a demonstrated record of aiming happily at mediocrity....

[payitforward]

Of a couple teams I follow, Grunfeld and the football coach of the University of Hawaii, Norm Chow, both seem to be most inflexible, most conservative, most predictable, least creative, and least proficient at what they do.

You said he must feel like a complete idiot, Mr. Grundle, but I don't get that from EG or Coach Chow (Hawaii football has been torpedoed by this coach, absolutely). I think EG and Chow are alike, bull headed, set in their ways, above it all and very smug. They can lose, lose, lose, but will stay the course doing the same thing.

The reason I doubt Grunfeld feels like an idiot is historically he shifts blame on young players and fires coaches but no blame sticks to Ernie.

Ernie did the same damn thing with Okafor and Ariza that he did with Foye and Miller. You cannot tell the guy a thing and Ted the Enabler bought into the idiocy. Calling the move to swap their deals for Lewis cap neutral was pure lunacy. Not even trying to pursue FAs and saying no FA would want to play in DC was a losing, defeatist mentality. Grunfeld doesn't even have any idea how much better off he would be with a Ryan Anderson on this team. He can't feel like an idiot because I doubt he has those critical thinking skills. He and Ted are running it like a business, banking on the ignorance of the average fan.

+1

...except for the last sentence. The Wizards *is* a business, and this is not how you run one. You think Ted Leonsis is ok w/ his other businesses putting out a sub-par product? That's how he became a multi-billionaire? I don't think so.

[closg00]

To me, the only real debate is.. who better could they have gotten for the Lewis contract at the time ? Thats where you can judge EG. As for approach. That was on Ted. Its his money.

He could have chosen among FAs Omer Asik, Danny Green, Lou Williams, Ryan Anderson, Ersan Ilyasova, and Gerald Green.

He could have acquired an amnestied player like Elton Brand.

Or, he could have simply saved his money and allowed the dreams of James Singleton, Morris Almond, and Shelvin Mack to come true and given them multiyear-guaranteed deals at minimum salary. And to stay cheap he could have signed good players like Damion James and Joshua Akognon.

We have mentioned all these things in a forum accessible to the Wizards for free. Grunfeld and Leonsis think they know better but for all their resources we are better than they are in deciding quality basketball moves. Big money, pride, and positional authority allow them to be perceived as competent. It is only fitting that they are attracted to overpaid, underachieving veterans.

Thank! You! CCJ, Ernie had numerous choices, and he made a horrible one. It is Ernie's job to come-up with options and scenarios for his owner. Ted ultimately bought what Ernie selling so now they both have to love with the results.

[payitforward]

Of a couple teams I follow, Grunfeld and the football coach of the University of Hawaii, Norm Chow, both seem to be most inflexible, most conservative, most predictable, least creative, and least proficient at what they do.

You said he must feel like a complete idiot, Mr. Grundle, but I don't get that from EG or Coach Chow (Hawaii football has been torpedoed by this coach, absolutely). I think EG and Chow are alike, bull headed, set in their ways, above it all and very smug. They can lose, lose, lose, but will stay the course doing the same thing.

The reason I doubt Grunfeld feels like an idiot is historically he shifts blame on young players and fires coaches but no blame sticks to Ernie.

Ernie did the same damn thing with Okafor and Ariza that he did with Foye and Miller. You cannot tell the guy a thing and Ted the Enabler bought into the idiocy. Calling the move to swap their deals for Lewis cap neutral was pure lunacy. Not even trying to pursue FAs and saying no FA would want to play in DC was a losing, defeatist mentality. Grunfeld doesn't even have any idea how much better off he would be with a Ryan Anderson on this team. He can't feel like an idiot because I doubt he has those critical thinking skills. He and Ted are running it like a business, banking on the ignorance of the average fan.

I see them as different moves. We gave up what.. a 5th pick.. in the Foye/Miller trade. And that move was motivated/directed by an owner who believed Gil could take them to a title and wanted to see that happen before he died. That move was a cash in the on the future to win now move.

The Trevor A/Okafor move was different. It was a move to avoid spending 12-14M of dead money while they were spending 7M of dead money on Dray in an attempt to mitigate Gils crappy 20-24M/year long term contract and clean up the locker room(Dray). It was breaking one crap contract into two smaller ones while adding some vets to help develop younger talent for the future. They can still buy out Trevor A next year for 7M max and all they added was over paying Okafor for an extra year at 14M (Gil would be 24M dead weight that year) which might end up being a nice expiring contract in a multi-player trade for a stud. They only gave up a late 2nd round pick to do this. Not a 5th.

I know this trade looks like crap now, but you can only fully evaluate it down the road when we see what they got in total assets and production vs the paying Gil 42M of dead money for two more years. This is still all connected to that Gil deal.

Gil was gone, Hands. Gone. Ernie made a clever deal to shorten the big forward-season salary commitments on a team that was starting over from scratch, and he found someone foolish enough to take the deal. Do you think the intention was ever to pay Lewis all the way through? Hardly. Part of the attraction of the deal was a last-season 1/2 price buy-out. With the Okariza trade, Ernie undid that good work!

Leaving aside how bad those guys look so far, there would have been no problem getting guys at these two's career production levels in the FA market. You'd have to pay a little more this year because of eating Lewis's contract, but you could get a temporary guy (Brand, for example, though I cd name you a half dozen others) as a big and a young wing player with upside -- we've talked a bunch of them to death here already (Rush, dGreen, gGreen, Fields, etc. etc. etc.) -- signed for a few years at a reasonable price.

We didn't trade for Okariza because we had to. It's a volunteer world -- we did it because Ernie Grunfield wanted to. These are the guys he wanted, not a pair he got stuck with.

Post-hoc casuistry and rationalizations don't change mistakes. And if you make them over and over, you ought to be held accountable. In Ernie's case that accounting is long overdue. And once he's gone from here, he'll never get another NBA job. Indeed, it's for that reason that all his effort goes to managing his relationship w/ the owner. Once he's gone, he's retired, and he's adding feathers to the nest right now not building us a good team.

[hands11]

The Okafor/Ariza trade and cutting Shelvin Mack are the ONLY things I am mad about. Nene trade was IMO a mistake (too injured), but had they stopped at that, the Wizards had just acquired a guy the young dudes respected and a guy who CAN play.

If not for the dumb trade and the acquisition of one veteran PG too many, a lot of positives would be apparent.
--Chris Singleton got better and more confident. (OkAriza is keeping him on the bench)
--Vesely also improved.
--Crawford has played much more under control and taken relatively fewer bad shots. He can pass well, too.
--Seraphin is the low post scoring beast who can defend well that he started to show last season.
--Nice, cheap, veteran pickup at SF Martell Webster can help.
--Who needs Okafor when Earl MF'n Barron can give us almost as much.

There are good things going on, but the Wizards IMO have a bit of an unbalanced roster due to those two things I'm mad about.

I EVEN THINK RANDY CAN COACH! Wittman is a whole lot better winner of a coach with less than Saunders was. Unfortunately, Randy creates whipping boys. I don't know if he's just trying to motivate the guy or if he's just HAM on certain players. I don't like that part of his coaching because this team is not good enough to deride any player.

I suggest you stick to focusing on this part. The positives. Because this is the most important part. Until I see the actual long term effects from the Areza/Okafor trade, its just speculative complaining. Yes, Randy did start the first two games with both starting. But without Wall, Nene or even Kevin S, even the better line ups he could have done would have still been bad. Just a little less bad.

This team has needed two good PGs forever. They finally found one is Wall and for now, he is injured. They needed a better primary back up then Mack and they went hunting for one. But its not like if they went into the year with Mack and one of Price and Pargo, that things would be looking good either. So far, it doesn't look like they have one capable of stepping in as a starter. They doesn't mean they haven't found one who may end up being a better back up. And it doesn't mean they are even done looking. Livingston wasn't available. Now he is. Maybe they go get him. But we are missing Wall. Our #1 pick who happens to be a PG and who is a super star level talent.

Judging the moves so harshly after two games without even having Nene or Kevin to me would be judging way to early. They gave up no major long term talent or picks. And they aren't stuck with anything they can get out of.

[truwizfan4evr]

What's the odds of Kevin ever being an all star for wizards?

[hands11]

This team is fine finding some offense when they're trailing...it's when the game tightens up and on the line when the boneheaded decisions come

This is going to look pretty good once Wall and Nene are back.

It's certainly going to look better! But I think that's way over-optimistic.

Beal is starting to worry me.

He certainly could look better! But I think that's way over-pessimistic!

How is saying when Wall and Nene return, this is going to look pretty good over optimistic ?
How is saying Beal is starting to worry me being way over pessimistic ?

I didn't say he was a bust and I didn't say they would be NBA camps when the other two return. I just said Beal is starting to worry me ( he is other as well ) and that I personal believe that Wall and Nene are legit talents that are the engine of this team along with Kevin that will make these pieces work "pretty good"

You might want to not over analyze my posts with such a fine toothed comb.

And if I post to much that is over optimistic, well.. this board could use a little of that. We already have a healthy heard of the sky is falling posters that jump off the bridge at the first sight of things not working.

So far, we were in both game down the stretch and we are playing without two of our best players. One being our only true PG that a #1 pick.

I'm going to remain optimistic. I hope that doesn't offend to many here.

[hands11]

To me, the only real debate is.. who better could they have gotten for the Lewis contract at the time ? Thats where you can judge EG. As for approach. That was on Ted. Its his money.

He could have chosen among FAs Omer Asik, Danny Green, Lou Williams, Ryan Anderson, Ersan Ilyasova, and Gerald Green.

He could have acquired an amnestied player like Elton Brand.

Or, he could have simply saved his money and allowed the dreams of James Singleton, Morris Almond, and Shelvin Mack to come true and given them multiyear-guaranteed deals at minimum salary. And to stay cheap he could have signed good players like Damion James and Joshua Akognon.

We have mentioned all these things in a forum accessible to the Wizards for free. Grunfeld and Leonsis think they know better but for all their resources we are better than they are in deciding quality basketball moves. Big money, pride, and positional authority allow them to be perceived as competent. It is only fitting that they are attracted to overpaid, underachieving veterans.

How could he have done those deal by trading the Lewis contract ?

[hands11]

To me, the only real debate is.. who better could they have gotten for the Lewis contract at the time ? Thats where you can judge EG. As for approach. That was on Ted. Its his money.

He could have chosen among FAs Omer Asik, Danny Green, Lou Williams, Ryan Anderson, Ersan Ilyasova, and Gerald Green.

He could have acquired an amnestied player like Elton Brand.

Or, he could have simply saved his money and allowed the dreams of James Singleton, Morris Almond, and Shelvin Mack to come true and given them multiyear-guaranteed deals at minimum salary. And to stay cheap he could have signed good players like Damion James and Joshua Akognon.

We have mentioned all these things in a forum accessible to the Wizards for free. Grunfeld and Leonsis think they know better but for all their resources we are better than they are in deciding quality basketball moves. Big money, pride, and positional authority allow them to be perceived as competent. It is only fitting that they are attracted to overpaid, underachieving veterans.

Thank! You! CCJ, Ernie had numerous choices, and he made a horrible one. It is Ernie's job to come-up with options and scenarios for his owner. Ted ultimately bought what Ernie selling so now they both have to love with the results.

And you know this how ? I find it way more probable that it was Ted that decided how he was going to spend his money.

It is kind of amazing how people here so early decide that someone should just toss 20M, 40M, 60M out the window for nothing. At least try to walk a mile in the mans shoes.

And I find it outright absurd to believe that this was EGs call. I bring lots of proposals to the owner of my company. Some involve spending lots of money to buy out companies or make long term investment to hiring people. Never once has be come to me after I presented the opportunities and risk and rewards of doing one over another and he said.... You know, I'm not sure what I want to do with my money. You tell me and I will do what you suggest. He is the owner. He always makes the final decision when it comes to his money and his company. Then I adapt to what he decides and try to make lemonade out of it.

[hands11]

Of a couple teams I follow, Grunfeld and the football coach of the University of Hawaii, Norm Chow, both seem to be most inflexible, most conservative, most predictable, least creative, and least proficient at what they do.

You said he must feel like a complete idiot, Mr. Grundle, but I don't get that from EG or Coach Chow (Hawaii football has been torpedoed by this coach, absolutely). I think EG and Chow are alike, bull headed, set in their ways, above it all and very smug. They can lose, lose, lose, but will stay the course doing the same thing.

The reason I doubt Grunfeld feels like an idiot is historically he shifts blame on young players and fires coaches but no blame sticks to Ernie.

Ernie did the same damn thing with Okafor and Ariza that he did with Foye and Miller. You cannot tell the guy a thing and Ted the Enabler bought into the idiocy. Calling the move to swap their deals for Lewis cap neutral was pure lunacy. Not even trying to pursue FAs and saying no FA would want to play in DC was a losing, defeatist mentality. Grunfeld doesn't even have any idea how much better off he would be with a Ryan Anderson on this team. He can't feel like an idiot because I doubt he has those critical thinking skills. He and Ted are running it like a business, banking on the ignorance of the average fan.

I see them as different moves. We gave up what.. a 5th pick.. in the Foye/Miller trade. And that move was motivated/directed by an owner who believed Gil could take them to a title and wanted to see that happen before he died. That move was a cash in the on the future to win now move.

The Trevor A/Okafor move was different. It was a move to avoid spending 12-14M of dead money while they were spending 7M of dead money on Dray in an attempt to mitigate Gils crappy 20-24M/year long term contract and clean up the locker room(Dray). It was breaking one crap contract into two smaller ones while adding some vets to help develop younger talent for the future. They can still buy out Trevor A next year for 7M max and all they added was over paying Okafor for an extra year at 14M (Gil would be 24M dead weight that year) which might end up being a nice expiring contract in a multi-player trade for a stud. They only gave up a late 2nd round pick to do this. Not a 5th.

I know this trade looks like crap now, but you can only fully evaluate it down the road when we see what they got in total assets and production vs the paying Gil 42M of dead money for two more years. This is still all connected to that Gil deal.

Gil was gone, Hands. Gone. Ernie made a clever deal to shorten the big forward-season salary commitments on a team that was starting over from scratch, and he found someone foolish enough to take the deal. Do you think the intention was ever to pay Lewis all the way through? Hardly. Part of the attraction of the deal was a last-season 1/2 price buy-out. With the Okariza trade, Ernie undid that good work!

Leaving aside how bad those guys look so far, there would have been no problem getting guys at these two's career production levels in the FA market. You'd have to pay a little more this year because of eating Lewis's contract, but you could get a temporary guy (Brand, for example, though I cd name you a half dozen others) as a big and a young wing player with upside -- we've talked a bunch of them to death here already (Rush, dGreen, gGreen, Fields, etc. etc. etc.) -- signed for a few years at a reasonable price.

We didn't trade for Okariza because we had to. It's a volunteer world -- we did it because Ernie Grunfield wanted to. These are the guys he wanted, not a pair he got stuck with.

Post-hoc casuistry and rationalizations don't change mistakes. And if you make them over and over, you ought to be held accountable. In Ernie's case that accounting is long overdue. And once he's gone from here, he'll never get another NBA job. Indeed, it's for that reason that all his effort goes to managing his relationship w/ the owner. Once he's gone, he's retired, and he's adding feathers to the nest right now not building us a good team.

Gil was not gone when they did the Foye/Miller deal. If your talking about the second trade, I didn't say Gil was here them. Gil had been turned into the Lewis crappy but less long contract. It was still all based on mitigating Gils crappy contract though. Gil into Lewis into TrevorA/Okafor. Thats all based on the same contractually obligation to Gil who is still getting paid 20.8 this year and 22.3 next year by Orlando.

I laid it out but you keep changing the conditions so your missing what I strongly believe went down and assigning blame to where you want to assign it because you hate EG.

I tried to give you a different view of the situation. One that is based on facts and decisions and who likely made them and why.

I expect some of the more reasonable non overacting poster here follow it.

Ted decided he was not paying Lewis to walk. Any deal anyone here comes up with not based on that truth is pointless because it isn't based in the reality of the situation and how Ted decided he wanted to deal with a contractually obligation had to Lewis which was born of a contractual obligation to Gilbert that he inherited when he bought the team. Lewis and now Okafor/Trevor A are directly connected to mitigating the Gilbert contract obligation.

So I ask again, what better deal could they have hypothetically made for the Lewis contract that didn't involve buying out Lewis.

[Dat2U]

Ted decided he was not paying Lewis to walk. Any deal anyone here comes up with not based on that truth is pointless because it isn't based in the reality of the situation and how Ted decided he wanted to deal with a contractually obligation had to Lewis which was born of a contractual obligation to Gilbert that he inherited when he bought the team. Lewis and now Okafor/Trevor A are directly connected to mitigating the Gilbert contract obligation.

So I ask again, what better deal could they have hypothetically made for the Lewis contract that didn't involve buying out Lewis.

I won't get into the ridiculousness of that logic because they actually made an additional $22 million dollar commitment by making the Lewis deal so your theory of Teddy forcing a 'Shard trade so they could ADD long term salary obligations makes no sense whatsoever.

But it irritates me to no end when you lecture us about this organization's plans or vision in such absolutes as if any alternative suggestions to what the franchise has done isn't even worth discussing in your mind.

My question to you is what makes you such an expert? How in the hell would you ever even know what Leonsis is thinking? Do you have a direct line to the organization? Did Teddy explicitly tell you what your telling us? Or are you reading the tea leaves like the rest of us and forming your own opinions? If it's your opinion that's fine, everyone has one. But please, for the love of God, stop posting like your a f'ing know-it-all, because it's quite obvious you aren't!

[payitforward]

This is going to look pretty good once Wall and Nene are back.

It's certainly going to look better! But I think that's way over-optimistic.

Beal is starting to worry me.

He certainly could look better! But I think that's way over-pessimistic!

How is saying when Wall and Nene return, this is going to look pretty good over optimistic ?
How is saying Beal is starting to worry me being way over pessimistic ?

I didn't say he was a bust and I didn't say they would be NBA camps when the other two return. I just said Beal is starting to worry me ( he is other as well ) and that I personal believe that Wall and Nene are legit talents that are the engine of this team along with Kevin that will make these pieces work "pretty good"

You might want to not over analyze my posts with such a fine toothed comb.

And if I post to much that is over optimistic, well.. this board could use a little of that. We already have a healthy heard of the sky is falling posters that jump off the bridge at the first sight of things not working.

So far, we were in both game down the stretch and we are playing without two of our best players. One being our only true PG that a #1 pick.

I'm going to remain optimistic. I hope that doesn't offend to many here.

Ok ok no mas, basta... no more lame attempts at humor from me!

Not to mention... didn't I predict more wins than you?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

And you know this how ? I find it way more probable that it was Ted that decided how he was going to spend his money.

It is kind of amazing how people here so early decide that someone should just toss 20M, 40M, 60M out the window for nothing. At least try to walk a mile in the mans shoes.

And I find it outright absurd to believe that this was EGs call. I bring lots of proposals to the owner of my company. Some involve spending lots of money to buy out companies or make long term investment to hiring people. Never once has be come to me after I presented the opportunities and risk and rewards of doing one over another and he said.... You know, I'm not sure what I want to do with my money. You tell me and I will do what you suggest. He is the owner. He always makes the final decision when it comes to his money and his company. Then I adapt to what he decides and try to make lemonade out of it.

Ernie does please his owner. He read that statement during Gun Gate very well. Drove that bus right over Gilbert because the Pollin family abhors guns…

hands, let us assume Ted Leonsis wanted to get SOMETHING and not just buy out Lewis. I have no idea what Ernie's take was. If I were in EGs shoes, I would have made the most compelling presentation that trading for those underachieving players would be worse than buying out Lewis and buying cheap help who would outperform them. I would have put together several scenarios of which FAs the Wizards could acquire.

Might not have worked. I don't do a good job of telling people what they want to hear. Unlike EG, I can't keep my job if I am required to be disingenuous or duplicitous or a sycophant over long periods of time. I will be honest, I had a boss who disagreed with my methods and seemed to hate my guts. Like Abe Pollin getting money from MJ, this boss did get the rewards of my efforts after he ran me off, too.

hands, I think Ted wanted to get two guys who have won instead of nothing for Rashard Lewis. I think a competent NBA General Manager should have been in place to tell the owner he agreed with that premise, but not the price tag of Okafor and Ariza. The value of time being two years of them vs two years of young guys PLAYING and learning by trial and effort should have been part of the calculus presented to the billionaire owner.

If Ted just needs his ego stroked, then by all means, stick with a dude like EG.

As far as what Ariza and Okafor offer, they can become quality reserves if Nene gets healthy and if Webster clearly outperforms Trevor Ariza. Both guys have a bit of game and both have championship rings from other clubs they helped. Okafor is a genius by all accounts. Hard worker and quality human being from all reports. Trevor Ariza was on fire from three in the NBA Finals as a member of the Lakers. He is a terrific passer and he is long. He can finish and he can get a lot of steals. His shot is up and down, though. But he can be decent. Ariza did well the first game. It is too early to say they won't help.

That said, putting them on this roster and pushing minutes back for others, while still being at best mediocre--this is something the GM should have forecast if the owner was determined to make that deal. I would not be a yes man to my boss if I thought he was making a CRAP decision.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

mhd, I think Crawford and Booker do care and they do give 100%. I love Crawford's swagger. I like that he seems to be trying to lead by example for Beal, who at 19 is 5 years younger.

I don't think he's established or a good enough shooter to be a great leader for Beal; but I will be VERY happy if Crawford keeps playing well. Just because I haven't liked his game or his propensity for shot jacking in the past doesn't mean I won't welcome good play from Jordan Crawford in the future.

I won't give the Wizards a pass for having those two the only options at SG, however.

[hands11]

Ted decided he was not paying Lewis to walk. Any deal anyone here comes up with not based on that truth is pointless because it isn't based in the reality of the situation and how Ted decided he wanted to deal with a contractually obligation had to Lewis which was born of a contractual obligation to Gilbert that he inherited when he bought the team. Lewis and now Okafor/Trevor A are directly connected to mitigating the Gilbert contract obligation.

So I ask again, what better deal could they have hypothetically made for the Lewis contract that didn't involve buying out Lewis.

I won't get into the ridiculousness of that logic because they actually made an additional $22 million dollar commitment by making the Lewis deal so your theory of Teddy forcing a 'Shard trade so they could ADD long term salary obligations makes no sense whatsoever.

But it irritates me to no end when you lecture us about this organization's plans or vision in such absolutes as if any alternative suggestions to what the franchise has done isn't even worth discussing in your mind.

My question to you is what makes you such an expert? How in the hell would you ever even know what Leonsis is thinking? Do you have a direct line to the organization? Did Teddy explicitly tell you what your telling us? Or are you reading the tea leaves like the rest of us and forming your own opinions? If it's your opinion that's fine, everyone has one. But please, for the love of God, stop posting like your a f'ing know-it-all, because it's quite obvious you aren't!

I would suggest I know what he is thinking because I listened to what he said he was going to do and it is what he did. As for the logic you can't seem to follow and the facts that follow. I can't help that. It does all add up. He did make those decisions. Ted that is.

What's irritating is how belligerently people ignore what he said and what he did and how they make up these alternate universes about players EG could have found if we bought out Lewis. That means you. Get over yourself. That is not what Ted wanted to do. So hate Ted if you want. Or hate Abe for signing that stupid Gilbert contract. Or hate Gilbert for being an idiot and botching his recovery. Or EFJ for playing him so many minutes so soon after he returned.

Ted was not going to buy out Lewis and he didn't. That is a fact. So the only trade ideas EG had to pick from where with in that construct.

So I ask again, what better deal could they have hypothetically made for the Lewis contract that didn't involve buying out Lewis.