RealGM

(Mods: feel free to merge w/ offseason thread, if you deem appropriate)

I've been thinking about the odd/unnecessary Jason Smith signing. Upon further reflection, it looks as if Egg is trying to create a Bizarro version of last year's GSW roster.
Starters
Wall and Beal are our bootleg version of Curry and Thompson. Different strengths and greater weaknesses, of course, but they're the building blocks of the team by default.
Porter is our Barnes: solid glue role-playing wing can slide down to the 4 in a pinch. He can't post up like Barnes (yet), but he has enough length to shoot over smaller defenders.
Morris is (ugh) Egg's best attempt at replicating Green. He's not nearly the playmaker or defender Green is. But, he can at least stretch the floor a little bit, and he can defend both burly 3s and small ball 5s.
Gortat is our Bogut: better offensively (at this stage of their respective careers), not as good defensively.

Bench
Mahinmi fills the Ezeli role (above-average defense-minded backup C) -- perhaps better than Ezeli. I'm guessing Egg wants Smith to fit the Speights role: stretch 5 who can occasionally get hot and hit 5-6 Js in a row -- but who's just as likely to get a DNP-CD.

Sato is our Livingston-in-training: 6'7" playmaker who can play 3 positions. Burke is our broke man's Barbosa: pace-pushing, score-first backup PG who lacks court vision. Thorton is our Rush: emergency backup SG who should only get minutes when something's gone wrong (or in blowouts).

Here's where things go off the rails (naturally) -- at least as it relates to emulating GSW's roster balance: we don't have anyone nearly as good, versatile, or as reliable as Iguoudala. Oubre is on a trajectory to be a good 3-and-D wing -- eventually. But he's no Iguodala, and doesn't project to have those kind of playmaking instincts any time soon. And, instead of spending big $ on a veteran SF to take minutes away from Oubre, Egg (over)spent on Mahinmi and invested in a backup PF in Nicholson. I get it, on a micro-level: Oubre is young and talented, so we might as well invest in his development. Of course, had we drafted a young big last year instead of Oubre, we wouldn't be in the predicament of having to groom a SF project behind a still-developing young SF. In comparison, GSW invested heavily in versatile SFs, which allowed them to skimp on backup PFs* (McAdoo, Looney) since Barnes and Iguodala play the bulk of their backup PF minutes.

All this said: I also question the wisdom of emulating the GSW's center rotation of Bogut/Ezeli/Speights without having the versatile Fs to compliment them. A one-dimensional guy like Speights looks like a million bucks surrounded by playmaking shooters at every other position; Smith will not have that luxury. Like virtually everyone else on the board, I'd have rather Egg have given Smith's money to a veteran stopgap backup SF. If we need shooting from the 5 in a pinch, we could always put in Morris (or even Nicholson) instead. But the big issue is that while Egg had a Plan B to restock the front court once we whiffed on Horford, he clearly didn't have a Plan B for the SF position -- which is a problem of his own creation thanks to last year's odd draft choice.




* of course, you could argue that GSW's lack of a quality backup PF came back to bite them in the Finals.

I think this analogy is a bit strained.

I think you can just as easily apply this logic to argue that last year's Thunder, Magic, Pistons, Hawks, Spurs, Wizards, Blazers and Heat were all trying to be the Bizarro Warriors. (And I probably missed a few teams.) It might be easier to name teams that aren't trying to be the Warriors.

The Warriors are the Warriors because of Curry, and because they have strong, agile forwards (with 3 point range) and long guards so that they can switch on most screens. These days, I think just about everyone is looking for versatility in their forwards to enact the Warriors' defensive scheme while also stretching the floor with passable 3-point accuracy. Most teams also try to keep at least one burly center to absorb the pounding from the handful of heavyweight centers in the league.

One can argue that the Wizards are successfully deluding themselves into believing they're the Bizarro Warriors because they have two "All-Star caliber guards". In reality, Wall is a touch overrated (and is pretty much the opposite of Curry in playing style), and Beal isn't a star at all.

I'm not hating on the post topic though. We gotta talk about something during the slow summer months.

^^Truth, the John Wall that came back after his first injury was a legit superstar. I remember when we were doing 50pt watches. He modified his game somewhat for good and bad plus I don't know how much to attribute to his knees. I'm hoping to see that John Wall again under Brooks.

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We're bizarro world Warrioirs as much the Sixers are bizzaro world Spurs.

It seems like a real stretch. Wall and Curry are so different in everything, and when the best players on each team are that different, it skews away from the idea that Washington is trying to copy in any meaningful way.

Instead of building a bizzarro world Warriors, Grunfeld should have built the actual Warriors. He had an opportunity to draft every player on that team.

TGW wrote:Instead of building a bizzarro world Warriors, Grunfeld should have built the actual Warriors. He had an opportunity to draft every player on that team.

Well, not every player. But he was so sure Durant would marry him that he waited until everyone was watching on the jumbotron to propose

montestewart wrote:

TGW wrote:Instead of building a bizzarro world Warriors, Grunfeld should have built the actual Warriors. He had an opportunity to draft every player on that team.

Well, not every player. But he was so sure Durant would marry him that he waited until everyone was watching on the jumbotron to propose

Well, pretty much every player on that Warriors roster was available.

Curry was available with the pick we traded for Foye/Miller. We actually had him in for a workout.

Klay was drafted after Vesely (ugh).

Draymond was available when we picked Sato.

Barnes was also available (although we picked the better player in Beal).

That team could have been us, but Grunfeld just goofed completely after drafting Wall.

HINT/IDEA: Go after the kid Kevon Looney.

Free Gortat. Trade him to GS, he's way better than Pachulia IMO. Get Looney back. That guy's going to be really good if his hip checks out.