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Guessing it's just for a phantom second rounder. Backup vet big with a good attitude who speaks French. Better than Hilton Armstrong. Expiring, I believe.

Turiaf is a teammate of Kevin's on the French National team IIRC. Filler, another bench big, and most importantly, another French-speaking buddy for Kevin. I just hope we don't cut Hamady yet.

We literally gave up nothing. It looks like the Knicks might be sending cash for his salary. Shrewd.

Hmmm, interesting. We actually get a respectable veteran big who isn't a total embarrassment (i.e. Yi, Hilton Armstrong).

This goes against the tank. Not sure how I feel about it but in honestly its a sound basketball move with little risk.

From bulletsforever.com:

The Washington Wizards appear to be on the verge of acquiring big man Ronny Turiaf from the New York Knicks. Marc Berman of the New York Post is reporting that Turiaf is on his way to D.C. in a Knicks salary dump. According to Berman, the Wizards won't be giving anything back and will actually also receive $3 million in cash.

Technically, the Wizards have to give something, but that something will not need to be of much value at all. They are under the cap and the Knicks need to dump salary in order to fit in Tyson Chandler.

Turiaf, averaged 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in just over 17 minutes for the Knicks last season. He's essentially an energy player that can give you a spark and provide some toughness, but probably is exposed playing much more than that. He has just one year and $4.36 million left on his contract.

So, essentially, the Wizards help give the Knicks perhaps the best front court in basketball and get absolutely nothing in return, Turiaf is a terrible rebounder and is an offensive liability. He tries on defense, but he's very limited there. Maybe EG felt he owed the Knicks for giving him a job back in the day. If I was running a contending team in the East, I'd be absolutely livid at the Wizards.

Turiaf will provide good influence for Blatche & McGee too and they've really needed it. This move is about year too late.

Ruzious wrote:From bulletsforever.com:

The Washington Wizards appear to be on the verge of acquiring big man Ronny Turiaf from the New York Knicks. Marc Berman of the New York Post is reporting that Turiaf is on his way to D.C. in a Knicks salary dump. According to Berman, the Wizards won't be giving anything back and will actually also receive $3 million in cash.

Technically, the Wizards have to give something, but that something will not need to be of much value at all. They are under the cap and the Knicks need to dump salary in order to fit in Tyson Chandler.

Turiaf, averaged 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in just over 17 minutes for the Knicks last season. He's essentially an energy player that can give you a spark and provide some toughness, but probably is exposed playing much more than that. He has just one year and $4.36 million left on his contract.

So, essentially, the Wizards help give the Knicks perhaps the best front court in basketball and get absolutely nothing in return, Turiaf is a terrible rebounder and is an offensive liability. He tries on defense, but he's very limited there. Maybe EG felt he owed the Knicks for giving him a job back in the day. If I was running a contending team in the East, I'd be absolutely livid at the Wizards.

With the compressed schedule, injury histories to Amare and Tyson, and the utter lack of depth on the Knicks, I don't see much in them. How many easy buckets did Kidd give Chandler last year? NY has no PG who can do that now. They are signing Bibby . He's been done for 2 years.

Ruzious wrote:From bulletsforever.com:

The Washington Wizards appear to be on the verge of acquiring big man Ronny Turiaf from the New York Knicks. Marc Berman of the New York Post is reporting that Turiaf is on his way to D.C. in a Knicks salary dump. According to Berman, the Wizards won't be giving anything back and will actually also receive $3 million in cash.

Technically, the Wizards have to give something, but that something will not need to be of much value at all. They are under the cap and the Knicks need to dump salary in order to fit in Tyson Chandler.

Turiaf, averaged 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in just over 17 minutes for the Knicks last season. He's essentially an energy player that can give you a spark and provide some toughness, but probably is exposed playing much more than that. He has just one year and $4.36 million left on his contract.

So, essentially, the Wizards help give the Knicks perhaps the best front court in basketball and get absolutely nothing in return, Turiaf is a terrible rebounder and is an offensive liability. He tries on defense, but he's very limited there. Maybe EG felt he owed the Knicks for giving him a job back in the day. If I was running a contending team in the East, I'd be absolutely livid at the Wizards.

The counter argument would perhaps be that maybe Turiaf will help Seraphin develop and realistically some team would be willing to facilitate the deal in getting Turiaf for one year at a net of just over a million dollars. I would at least want a second round pick from the Knicks for my trouble though. The Wizards technically have to give something up so a conditional second round pick that has conditions that would never be met would suffice.

Turiaf is better than the scrubs we've been putting out at backup C the last few years. He's a solid defender, and he speaks french, so that gives him bonus points for mentoring our crew.

Plus he might help us get to the minimum salary floor. And he prevents us from signing someone else with more money (now I'm only worried about us signing Nick).

Good, solid move.

I'll add that the Knicks are not a threat to us, as we will never be on the same time frame to compete with that team, so I don't care if we help them or not.

Ruz, I'm actually not worried about the Knicks. They've got the worst backcourt in the NBA to go along with that frontcourt. I'm no EG apologist but this isn't a terrible deal but I don't sense any real plan coming from Ernie. That's my bigger problem with him.

I'm honestly holding my breath on potentially overpaying Nick. That's what I'm saving my wrath for, lol.

mhd wrote:

Ruzious wrote:From bulletsforever.com:

The Washington Wizards appear to be on the verge of acquiring big man Ronny Turiaf from the New York Knicks. Marc Berman of the New York Post is reporting that Turiaf is on his way to D.C. in a Knicks salary dump. According to Berman, the Wizards won't be giving anything back and will actually also receive $3 million in cash.

Technically, the Wizards have to give something, but that something will not need to be of much value at all. They are under the cap and the Knicks need to dump salary in order to fit in Tyson Chandler.

Turiaf, averaged 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in just over 17 minutes for the Knicks last season. He's essentially an energy player that can give you a spark and provide some toughness, but probably is exposed playing much more than that. He has just one year and $4.36 million left on his contract.

So, essentially, the Wizards help give the Knicks perhaps the best front court in basketball and get absolutely nothing in return, Turiaf is a terrible rebounder and is an offensive liability. He tries on defense, but he's very limited there. Maybe EG felt he owed the Knicks for giving him a job back in the day. If I was running a contending team in the East, I'd be absolutely livid at the Wizards.

With the compressed schedule, injury histories to Amare and Tyson, and the utter lack of depth on the Knicks, I don't see much in them. How many easy buckets did Kidd give Chandler last year? NY has no PG who can do that now. They are signing Bibby . He's been done for 2 years.

Chandler doesn't have to score a point to make that front court great. He's playing with maybe the 2 highest scoring forwards in the NBA. He's there for defense and rebounding - where he's great - and to let Amare play forward. The question is the backcourt. They've serious issues there, but guards that you can plug in aren't that hard to find when you have a front court like that.

Dat2U wrote:Ruz, I'm actually not worried about the Knicks. They've got the worst backcourt in the NBA to go along with that frontcourt. I'm no EG apologist but this isn't a terrible deal but I don't sense any real plan coming from Ernie. That's my bigger problem with him.

I'm honestly holding my breath on potentially overpaying Nick. That's what I'm saving my wrath for, lol.

In the grand scheme of things, you're right - this is a minor move, but... it really rubs me the wrong way - that he's helping out a team that he used to work for - a lot more than he's helping the Wiz - in this trade.

Dat2U wrote:Ruz, I'm actually not worried about the Knicks. They've got the worst backcourt in the NBA to go along with that frontcourt. I'm no EG apologist but this isn't a terrible deal but I don't sense any real plan coming from Ernie. That's my bigger problem with him.

I'm honestly holding my breath on potentially overpaying Nick. That's what I'm saving my wrath for, lol.

I think the plan is clear here: Give our knucklehead Bigs a role model who they at least have the chance to listen to or observe. That plus the French speaking to Seraphin essentially makes Turiaf an assistant coach. The larger plan is to not blow any of our cap room until next year, and to give our children time on the floor to develop. So yeah, a few low priced veterans thrown into the mix makes all the sense in the world here.

If nothing else, this gives us a semi-professional option to go to when Blatche and McGee have their tantrum sessions. We REALLY shouldn't be rewarding that stuff with time on the floor.

Good bench guy and great in the locker room

However:

You will hate his brittle body

What's not to like?

A mentor for Seraphin, a hard-nosed vet to demonstrate professionalism to Blatche and McGee, an expiring contract that wipes nearly 5 million bucks off the payroll next year, the FO gets three million in return to play with ... and it costs us nothing.

When GMs talk about wanting to be under the cap to have flexibility, this is the kind of deal they're often talking about. If we were a contender, it'd be fantastic to get a big body like this for free. As is, he is the frontcourt equivalent of Roger Mason -- but better, because our backcourt doesn't need to have proper behavior modeled.

As far as "not sensing" a plan from Ernie, Dat -- isn't it obvious what he's doing? Haven't things been pretty transparent since Ted took over? Commit totally to the draft, get way under the cap, groom a core group of young, cheap guys and then move on to the next phase of augmenting that core. A good, realistic core would be two studs (Wall and -----), two or three second-tier guys who can play at both ends and have focus and passion and know their roles. I figure (hope?) Stud 2 comes via the draft this year, and that Stud 3 is acquired down the line via free agency or trade. ... There was some bemoaning of the fact that we drafted two small forwards, but I think that's shortsighted. We're still in the Throwing Darts at the Board and Seeing What Sticks stage, not Assembling a Balanced Team stage. We're in the business of acquiring young, hungry talent -- guys who play the game with pride and passion and want to get better. Everybody now being brought in fits that profile.

Dat2U wrote:Hmmm, interesting. We actually get a respectable veteran big who isn't a total embarrassment (i.e. Yi, Hilton Armstrong).

This goes against the tank. Not sure how I feel about it but in honestly its a sound basketball move with little risk.

This is EGs last year of this contract. There will be no tank this year. I'm sorry.

Self preservation comes first.

Scouting report from a Knicks fan if you guys care at all about his game:

Strengths
- plays with a ton of energy and enthusiasm, maintains that energy even when he's on the bench
- great teammate, no ego issues or chemistry problems from him at all
- not as terrible on offense as you'd think, he's shown flashes where he's done more than get garbage buckets and is also above average passer at the high post
- will contest and try to block dunks, but average on defense as a whole, will hedge on screens though
- generally hilarious and awesome

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsU3sFEZn6s[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1hwOyPQZgk[/youtube]

Weaknesses
- inconsistent and basically unreliable in his team with us due to his knee issues
- usually has diminishing effectiveness on a game when he plays more than about 20-25 minutes
- doesn't have the size to be a real defensive game changer at the 5 spot

hands11 wrote:

Dat2U wrote:Hmmm, interesting. We actually get a respectable veteran big who isn't a total embarrassment (i.e. Yi, Hilton Armstrong).

This goes against the tank. Not sure how I feel about it but in honestly its a sound basketball move with little risk.

This is EGs last year of this contract. There will be no tank this year. I'm sorry.

Self preservation comes first.

Doesn't mean he's going to make win-now moves or go all-in this season. Ted laid out a philosophy for him to follow (year 2 of the rebuild), and EG has to follow it.

Turiaf is a great cheerleader, excitable, good natured. The team wants to add good attitude even in the scrubs. Turiaf doesn't detract from that. My only concern lies in giving Flip too many vets of any sort, since he will play them. But Turiaf has injury issues and no real set of skills to fit Flip's offense. Tanking with attitude is still doable.

That said with Hamady, Seraphin and Turiaf and you know, Pierre, the team plane and lockerroom will be chockfulla francophonic goofballs. We need a french speaking reporter to translate.

I dont like Turiaf much...

Hopefully he doesnt take away minutes from McGee and Seraphin, and actually helps mentor his countryman.

Weird trade since we didnt even get a 2nd...