Summer 2012 Free Agents Thread - Part II

[hands11]

So when people complained when EG traded for emeka and okafor tht he was showing his hand early and the money should have been spent on free agents. When they see we did indeed get beal and free agents are really expensive this offseason, do they now agree he was right or do we have qualms?

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. He would need to walk on water before some will give him any credit. And even then some will have wanted him fly instead.

[thinker07]

After FA is done, I'll be surprised to see more than a couple of free agents who this board would have wanted at the contract they signed with someone else.

Seeing the deals discussed for Batum, OJ Mayo, Ray Allen, Hibbert, even Omer Asik -- it makes the Lewis contract dump/trade look not as awful.

[hands11]

I'm fine with EG dumping "the contract" for Ariza & Okafor. Solid vets to make the young guys battle for starting/playing time. Enough GIVING away starting jobs to guys who have yet to earn the minutes. I prefer Booker or Singleton to become outside shooting threats and claim the starting SF position (yes guys - practice those jumpers and you WILL make it in this league!).
Adding Beal, Ariza, Okafor, without giving up anything but empty cap space for an extra year was a hell of a nice offseason.
Make a run at the playoffs this coming season, and next offseason we can dump contracts and throw in a young developing player (Book/Singleton/Crawford/Vesely) and maybe our pick next year to add an all-star calibre SF or Center.
I still have a VERY crooked eye on DeMarcus Cousins, !st chance we get, Wiz should throw the house at Sactown to try and add Cousins to the young nucleus of Wall/Beal/Seraphin, and whoever wins the SF position.

Wall
Beal
Booker
Cousins
Nene/Seraphin

They won't have to throw anything a SAC town. Cousins and Wall are probably already planning on a reunion. All Cousins has to do is not sign a long term deal with SAC. In three years he will be a unrestricted FA so he can go wherever he wants.

By then he will have matured some but still only 25 years old. He and wall would be ready to go on a nice run together.

Wall/Vet PG back up
Beal
Booker/C Singleton
Cousins/Ves
Nene/Seraphin

Who knows if KS will be a center or PF and same with Ves. That will get worked out. And we will have to see what happens with Booker. This next year should tell us what they have planned for him. Maybe Ariza sticks around for SF depth. He should be a full fledged Wizard after two years so they might want to keep him.

Its good to be a Wizards fan again. We have the inside track on Cousins because of Wall. That would be the team that start to challenge for a title.

[nate33]

I'm fine with EG dumping "the contract" for Ariza & Okafor. Solid vets to make the young guys battle for starting/playing time. Enough GIVING away starting jobs to guys who have yet to earn the minutes. I prefer Booker or Singleton to become outside shooting threats and claim the starting SF position (yes guys - practice those jumpers and you WILL make it in this league!).
Adding Beal, Ariza, Okafor, without giving up anything but empty cap space for an extra year was a hell of a nice offseason.
Make a run at the playoffs this coming season, and next offseason we can dump contracts and throw in a young developing player (Book/Singleton/Crawford/Vesely) and maybe our pick next year to add an all-star calibre SF or Center.
I still have a VERY crooked eye on DeMarcus Cousins, !st chance we get, Wiz should throw the house at Sactown to try and add Cousins to the young nucleus of Wall/Beal/Seraphin, and whoever wins the SF position.

Wall
Beal
Booker
Cousins
Nene/Seraphin

They won't have to throw anything a SAC town. Cousins and Wall are probably already planning on a reunion. All Cousins has to do is not sign a long term deal with SAC. In two years he will be a unrestricted FA so he can go wherever he wants.

We won't have the money to throw at Cousins. We will never have max or near-max cap room again unless we dump Nene early. If we want Cousins, we would have to trade for him. If he is as good as Terpman thinks he will be, Sacramento won't trade him.

And hands11 is incorrect. Cousins will be restricted free agent in 2 years. To become an unrestricted free agent, he will have to first turn down what is likely to be a 4-year max contract (roughly 4 years, $58M) and instead accept the qualifying offer of 1-year $6.5M. That's not going to happen.

This is a pipe dream. You can't acquire a high quality young center unless you were the one that drafted him. It never happens. (Note, I'm not convinced that Cousins will be all that great. I'm just saying that if he does indeed pan out to be a franchise center, then we have no shot at acquiring him.)

[payitforward]

So when people complained when EG traded for emeka and okafor tht he was showing his hand early and the money should have been spent on free agents. When they see we did indeed get beal and free agents are really expensive this offseason, do they now agree he was right or do we have qualms?

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. He would need to walk on water before some will give him any credit. And even then some will have wanted him fly instead.

Oh that's funny. Really funny. Why don't you tell me the 3 things you want to give him credit for? Drafting Beal is one, got that. Or perhaps you want to give him credit for making the Okafor-Ariza for Lewis trade? If that's a deal you like, just say so.

Oh, and if you think it was a bad deal for NO (who just bought out Lewis), tell us why?

As to Ernie, it'd be nice if he could swim in water -- no need to walk on it. No wait, I guess 9 successful years of building this franchise to a 20 win season is worth supporting?

[Severn Hoos]

Two interesting notes about Brandon Rush:

Lakers interested in Nick Young + Brandon Rush, The Times has learned. Young's too pricey for Lakers' $3 mill limit, but Rush = interesting

The Warriors plan to match anything Brandon Rush is offered "within reason" -- so his free agency is a pricing exercise...

The first implies that $3Mil might be enough to get Rush, but the second makes that look unlikely - and frankly, I have to agree. Still, I'd probably go around $4M up to the MLE to sign a sheet with Rush and call the Warriors' bluff. Even with Monta gone, they have Curry, Klay Thompson, Dorrell Wright, and now Harrison Barnes. Would they really pay $4M for a bench specialist?

Rush is listed as a SG, but he's 6'6, 225#, so he could definitely back up both SG & SF, and could even start at SF in a pinch. Not sure why he's not getting more love in FA, but time will tell. Would love him on the Wiz.

[montestewart]

So when people complained when EG traded for emeka and okafor tht he was showing his hand early and the money should have been spent on free agents. When they see we did indeed get beal and free agents are really expensive this offseason, do they now agree he was right or do we have qualms?

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. He would need to walk on water before some will give him any credit. And even then some will have wanted him fly instead.

I was thinking he'd have to knife somebody's momma on camera before some people would finally throw us a bone with a "Wellllll, maybe that wasn't the best choice, all things considered. But look at what other GMs are doing. Let's see how the season plays out."

[hands11]

You are correct Nate.

The site I was referencing updated and they removed the existing year column so I was counting the years in correctly because I was used to skipping that first column.

As for it being a pipe dream. Sure it was. As are most suggested plans posted on this board.

Maybe they could change the name of the board to RealPipeDreams.

Hmm, they might attract a different crowd though.

[VictorPage44]

Nate, Dwight Howard is about to be traded. He's not prime Shaq, but he's the best center in the game right now. Cousins doesnt strike me as the type to play his entire career in one place. He's gonna but heads with a coach, management, or another player and get himself traded at some point in his career. Cousins is no Timmy D or David Robinson.

This whole thing about Cousins (maybe it should be in the trade thread), reminds me of something that I just thought about in regards to the Okafor/Ariza trade. I was thinking about some of the discussion we were having about if Okafor/Ariza being overkill in terms of leadership. The more I think about it, the more I think that's ludicrous, here's why:

All the lockerrooms you think of as "veteran lockerrooms" --e.g. Billups' Pistons, Garnett's Celtics --- have multiple guys you can consider leaders. Even OKC has Durant (he's young, but mature) and Fisher. MJ needed to bring in a broken down Charles Oakley to help out. It cant just be on one guy to get the entire team in order. I think by having a strong lockerroom, you broaden the scope of players you can consider for aquisition. Now you can bring in troublemakers as long as they have the work ethic and talent, because there are plenty of guys to keep them in check. Detroit did it with Sheed, Boston does it with Rondo -- really volatile personality -- , OKC has the lockerroom to keep Russ Westbrook playing his best. If the Wizards can keep this veteran influence on the team, they will be able to consider talented players, such as a Cousins or Mike Beasley, that other teams cant because they dont have the veteran leadership to get the most out of these players.

What if we had a more mature lockerroom when we were bringing all the knuckleheads up? Would NY, McGee, or Blatche have turned out any differently if they were drafted by the Celtics?

Not saying this deal makes the Wizards equivalent to the great teams I mentioned above, but it is a step in the right direction.

The more I think about it, the less I like the "OKC Model" as it's being called. A bunch of young guys cant win unless they have, by far, the most talent in the league.

Edit: for reference on this "no good bigs are ever traded" claim:

Robert Parish
Kevin McHale
Kevin Garnett
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Pau Gasol
Jermaine O'Neal
Shaq
Chris Webber
Sheed

that enough for everyone, or should I keep going?

[Nivek]

Some undrafted rookies worth bringing in for a look:

- John Shurna, SF -- early 2nd round grade in YODA
- Ricardo Ratliffe, PF -- late 1st
- Devoe Joseph, SG -- early 2nd
- Drew Gordon, PF -- early 2nd
- Casper Ware, PG -- early 2nd
- Kevin Jones, PF -- late 1st

[nate33]

Edit: for reference on this "no good bigs are ever traded" claim:

Robert Parish
Kevin McHale
Kevin Garnett
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Pau Gasol
Jermaine O'Neal
Shaq
Chris Webber
Sheed

that enough for everyone, or should I keep going?

Sigh.

If you look at my post, I said no good young bigs are ever traded. You have to wait until their 7th year (at the earliest) because of the nature of the CBA and rookie contracts. Teams keep their good rookies for the 4-year duration of the rookie contract, and players always resign with their current team for at least 3-years because to do otherwise results in them leaving a lot of money on the table.

None of your examples apply because the rules of the CBA weren't in place at the time and/or those bigs were traded when they were no longer young.

[montestewart]

and McHale was drafted by Boston and played his entire career there

[Dat2U]

So when people complained when EG traded for emeka and okafor tht he was showing his hand early and the money should have been spent on free agents. When they see we did indeed get beal and free agents are really expensive this offseason, do they now agree he was right or do we have qualms?

Free agency was not the only way to improve the team, but I'm sure you'll continue to ignore that point. Secondly, I don't think anyone here was hoping we'd go after Omer Asik.

Your painting this as Okafor/Ariza vs. free agency and it's so much more than that, as if Okafor/Ariza was the only possible trade out there.

IMO, there was still no reason to make that trade 10 days before the draft and not squeeze a decent asset out of NO. Free agency doesn't change the fact that the trade was a poor allocation of resources and a poor fit for the roster.

[Rafael122]

According to Wizard Insider, we placed a call to Hinrich's reps as well as John Lucas' III reps.

[GhostsOfGil]

Yup just saw that on Bullets forever. Wiz reaching out to JL3 and Hinrich. Hinrich is apparently receiving intrest from a lot of other teams though.

[Dat2U]

According to Wizard Insider, we placed a call to Hinrich's reps as well as John Lucas' III reps.

Hinrich makes no sense. I know people here miss those Hinrich days (I'm not sure why?). I didn't think Hinrich & Wall had very good chemistry together and Hinrich continues to lose a step each year. I wouldn't even consider him a reliable backup at this point,

Plus we need scoring more than anything else and Hinrich is nothing more than a low usage streaky jump shooter.

Lucas makes more sense in terms of need. He's not terribly efficient but he's a willing scorer. I worry a bit about Lucas & Crawford together though. No one else would see the rock. The more I think about it the more I'd want Crawford off the team.

[closg00]

According to Wizard Insider, we placed a call to Hinrich's reps as well as John Lucas' III reps.

Bringing Machado in for a workout (although not-drafted), and calling JL III's rep, I am really getting my hopes up that Mgmt realizes that Mack is not an NBA PG. Wall needs the best candidate possible, someone that could actually challenge him for the position.

[Nivek]

Some undrafted rookies worth bringing in for a look:

- John Shurna, SF -- early 2nd round grade in YODA
- Ricardo Ratliffe, PF -- late 1st
- Devoe Joseph, SG -- early 2nd
- Drew Gordon, PF -- early 2nd
- Casper Ware, PG -- early 2nd
- Kevin Jones, PF -- late 1st

Also add in:

- Scott Machado, PG -- early 2nd
- Ken Horton, SF -- mid-2nd
- Jordan Taylor, PG -- early 2nd

[DCZards]

IMO, there was still no reason to make that trade 10 days before the draft and not squeeze a decent asset out of NO. Free agency doesn't change the fact that the trade was a poor allocation of resources and a poor fit for the roster.

Poor allocation of resources? You could make that argument. Poor fit for the roster? Totally disagree. Both Ariza and Okafor are going to contribute to the improvement of the Zards and the development of our youngins'. And Okafor gives the Zards the defensive rebounding that they sorely lacked.

[Rafael122]

According to Wizard Insider, we placed a call to Hinrich's reps as well as John Lucas' III reps.

Bringing Machado in for a workout (although not-drafted), and calling JL III's rep, I am really getting my hopes up that Mgmt realizes that Mack is not an NBA PG. Wall needs the best candidate possible, someone that could actually challenge him for the position.

It's Walls position. Whoever they bring in will get maybe 10-12 minutes of playing time. If that.