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Illmatic12 wrote:Assuming Wall is physically cleared to play soon , I only see one downside of him playing - Washington cannot collect on the insurance policy for Wall’s ‘19-20 salary unless he misses 41 or more games. If that wasn’t a factor I bet they would have announced his return date already.

Bingo! We have a winner.

Wall will sit out 41 games minimum. Which means he'll probably back near the end of January.

Now THAT makes plenty of sense to me, even if Wall is sort of ready to play right now. It will ensure the tank. It will save Ted $20M, and it gives Wall a few extra months to heal just to be sure that there are no issues.

nate33 wrote:

Illmatic12 wrote:Assuming Wall is physically cleared to play soon , I only see one downside of him playing - Washington cannot collect on the insurance policy for Wall’s ‘19-20 salary unless he misses 41 or more games. If that wasn’t a factor I bet they would have announced his return date already.

Bingo! We have a winner.

Wall will sit out 41 games minimum. Which means he'll probably back near the end of January.

Now THAT makes plenty of sense to me, even if Wall is sort of ready to play right now. It will ensure the tank. It will save Ted $20M, and it gives Wall a few extra months to heal just to be sure that there are no issues.

Yep.

And I assume the team will continue to be purposely obtuse about his recovery status until the insurance policy cashes, because they probably don’t want to make it too obvious that there’s a financial motive at play.

Not that I blame Ted (that’s a lot of frickin money!) but it’s not good PR to openly say we’re holding our franchise player out to save $$$

nate33 wrote:

Illmatic12 wrote:Assuming Wall is physically cleared to play soon , I only see one downside of him playing - Washington cannot collect on the insurance policy for Wall’s ‘19-20 salary unless he misses 41 or more games. If that wasn’t a factor I bet they would have announced his return date already.

Bingo! We have a winner.

Wall will sit out 41 games minimum. Which means he'll probably back near the end of January.

Now THAT makes plenty of sense to me, even if Wall is sort of ready to play right now. It will ensure the tank. It will save Ted $20M, and it gives Wall a few extra months to heal just to be sure that there are no issues.

Trade Deadline is 2/7... Game 50 for us. Seems about right.

pcbothwel wrote:

nate33 wrote:

Illmatic12 wrote:Assuming Wall is physically cleared to play soon , I only see one downside of him playing - Washington cannot collect on the insurance policy for Wall’s ‘19-20 salary unless he misses 41 or more games. If that wasn’t a factor I bet they would have announced his return date already.

Bingo! We have a winner.

Wall will sit out 41 games minimum. Which means he'll probably back near the end of January.

Now THAT makes plenty of sense to me, even if Wall is sort of ready to play right now. It will ensure the tank. It will save Ted $20M, and it gives Wall a few extra months to heal just to be sure that there are no issues.

Trade Deadline is 2/7... Game 50 for us. Seems about right.

Seems like Ted ought to share some of that windfall with John, who is definitely getting short of $$$.

payitforward wrote:

pcbothwel wrote:

nate33 wrote:Bingo! We have a winner.

Wall will sit out 41 games minimum. Which means he'll probably back near the end of January.

Now THAT makes plenty of sense to me, even if Wall is sort of ready to play right now. It will ensure the tank. It will save Ted $20M, and it gives Wall a few extra months to heal just to be sure that there are no issues.

Trade Deadline is 2/7... Game 50 for us. Seems about right.

Seems like Ted ought to share some of that windfall with John, who is definitely getting short of $$$.

I'm thinking it'll go towards brand new urinal cakes

I'd say definitely play this season. Starting game 42 or whatever. Strict minutes limit. I'd honestly top it at 24 a night and no back to backs period.

In fact, for the rest of his time in DC, I'd have his minutes capped around 32 a night and have him avoid playing back to backs to avoid additional wear and tear and hopefully get max effort out of those 32 minutes.

Of course Brooks, when he gets the first opportunity will play him 42 minutes!

Taking a deeper look at all the teams in the East for the first time, this actually may be a year to get Wall back and make a push for the playoffs. It really just hit me how weak the East is this year. If you need to, you could move some of these young guys for a 3rd star.

That would be the absolute worst thing to do.

likwitdesi wrote:Taking a deeper look at all the teams in the East for the first time, this actually may be a year to get Wall back and make a push for the playoffs. It really just hit me how weak the East is this year. If you need to, you could move some of these young guys for a 3rd star.

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gambitx777 wrote:That would be the absolute worst thing to do.

likwitdesi wrote:Taking a deeper look at all the teams in the East for the first time, this actually may be a year to get Wall back and make a push for the playoffs. It really just hit me how weak the East is this year. If you need to, you could move some of these young guys for a 3rd star.

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Yup. You ain't going anywhere with a historically bad defense.

Wall should play for the simple fact he needs live game action to get his confidence back.

I think a February return date looks increasingly likely. Ted saves $20M on top of that.

likwitdesi wrote:Taking a deeper look at all the teams in the East for the first time, this actually may be a year to get Wall back and make a push for the playoffs. It really just hit me how weak the East is this year. If you need to, you could move some of these young guys for a 3rd star.

If they want to make a push for the playoffs by bringing Wall back, that's fine with me. But they should absolutely, under no circumstances, move a young guy for a 3rd star. Any "star" we could get with our young assets isn't going to be good enough to make this team a contender. It's short term thinking like that that explains why the team hasn't won 50 games in 40 years. They always try to make the "big move" too early and end up with a team that makes a 3-5 year run as a 45 win team before falling back to the lottery.

How many times to we need to make that mistake?

#6 pick for Mike Miller
#5 pick for Antawn Jamison
Ben Wallace for Ike Austin
Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond
Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland

nate33 wrote:

likwitdesi wrote:Taking a deeper look at all the teams in the East for the first time, this actually may be a year to get Wall back and make a push for the playoffs. It really just hit me how weak the East is this year. If you need to, you could move some of these young guys for a 3rd star.

If they want to make a push for the playoffs by bringing Wall back, that's fine with me. But they should absolutely, under no circumstances, move a young guy for a 3rd star. Any "star" we could get with our young assets isn't going to be good enough to make this team a contender. It's short term thinking like that that explains why the team hasn't won 50 games in 40 years. They always try to make the "big move" too early and end up with a team that makes a 3-5 year run as a 45 win team before falling back to the lottery.

How many times to we need to make that mistake?

#6 pick for Mike Miller
#5 pick for Antawn Jamison
Ben Wallace for Ike Austin
Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond
Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland

In complete agreement...EXCEPT for the #5 pick for Jamison.

I thought that was a very good trade at the time and I still think so.

Wizardspride wrote:

nate33 wrote:

likwitdesi wrote:Taking a deeper look at all the teams in the East for the first time, this actually may be a year to get Wall back and make a push for the playoffs. It really just hit me how weak the East is this year. If you need to, you could move some of these young guys for a 3rd star.

If they want to make a push for the playoffs by bringing Wall back, that's fine with me. But they should absolutely, under no circumstances, move a young guy for a 3rd star. Any "star" we could get with our young assets isn't going to be good enough to make this team a contender. It's short term thinking like that that explains why the team hasn't won 50 games in 40 years. They always try to make the "big move" too early and end up with a team that makes a 3-5 year run as a 45 win team before falling back to the lottery.

How many times to we need to make that mistake?

#6 pick for Mike Miller
#5 pick for Antawn Jamison
Ben Wallace for Ike Austin
Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond
Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland

In complete agreement...EXCEPT for the #5 pick for Jamison.

I thought that was a very good trade at the time and I still think so.

Ah, the year of ABC (Anybody but Childress). I wanted Iggy that year, and would have settled for Deng. Both would have been far better for the team instead of Jamison.

mhd wrote:

Wizardspride wrote:

nate33 wrote:If they want to make a push for the playoffs by bringing Wall back, that's fine with me. But they should absolutely, under no circumstances, move a young guy for a 3rd star. Any "star" we could get with our young assets isn't going to be good enough to make this team a contender. It's short term thinking like that that explains why the team hasn't won 50 games in 40 years. They always try to make the "big move" too early and end up with a team that makes a 3-5 year run as a 45 win team before falling back to the lottery.

How many times to we need to make that mistake?

#6 pick for Mike Miller
#5 pick for Antawn Jamison
Ben Wallace for Ike Austin
Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond
Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland

In complete agreement...EXCEPT for the #5 pick for Jamison.

I thought that was a very good trade at the time and I still think so.

Ah, the year of ABC (Anybody but Childress). I wanted Iggy that year, and would have settled for Deng. Both would have been far better for the team instead of Jamison.

I guess.


It was a pretty underwhelming draft.

The Washington Wizards have yet to make a decision on whether John Wall will miss the entire 19-20 season.

Wall is recovering from a torn Achilles suffered last January.

“It’s not like we’re shutting him down and focusing on the 20-21 season," said Scott Brooks.

"It’s going to happen organically. What I like is what he’s doing, he’s getting after every workout.”

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/256531/Wizards-Have-Yet-To-Make-Decision-On-John-Wall-Returning-This-Season

Almost a year on from the injury (somehow it feels like it doesn't feel like that long ago to me) and the "Wall might play this year" talk has officially begun. Are we buying that Wall hasn't been shutdown until 2020-21? Or is this just something to try to keep folks interested?

LyricalRico wrote:

The Washington Wizards have yet to make a decision on whether John Wall will miss the entire 19-20 season.

Wall is recovering from a torn Achilles suffered last January.

“It’s not like we’re shutting him down and focusing on the 20-21 season," said Scott Brooks.

"It’s going to happen organically. What I like is what he’s doing, he’s getting after every workout.”

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/256531/Wizards-Have-Yet-To-Make-Decision-On-John-Wall-Returning-This-Season

Almost a year on from the injury (somehow it feels like it doesn't feel like that long ago to me) and the "Wall might play this year" talk has officially begun. Are we buying that Wall hasn't been shutdown until 2020-21? Or is this just something to try to keep folks interested?

I think the "he's not playing this season" talk was an effort to get the injury exception.

Now that we know he's not getting the injury exception, there's no reason to maintain the ruse that he can't play. I think they are sincere in letting Wall play this season if the medical staff gives the okay. I, for one, would like to see him play the last 15-20 games of the season if possible so that he can work off 18 months of rust and hopefully develop some chemistry with this roster.

EDIT:
He won't play until after the 41st game of the season though. He needs to sit out half a season for the insurance money to be released.

nate33 wrote:

LyricalRico wrote:

The Washington Wizards have yet to make a decision on whether John Wall will miss the entire 19-20 season.

Wall is recovering from a torn Achilles suffered last January.

“It’s not like we’re shutting him down and focusing on the 20-21 season," said Scott Brooks.

"It’s going to happen organically. What I like is what he’s doing, he’s getting after every workout.”

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/256531/Wizards-Have-Yet-To-Make-Decision-On-John-Wall-Returning-This-Season

Almost a year on from the injury (somehow it feels like it doesn't feel like that long ago to me) and the "Wall might play this year" talk has officially begun. Are we buying that Wall hasn't been shutdown until 2020-21? Or is this just something to try to keep folks interested?

I think the "he's not playing this season" talk was an effort to get the injury exception.

Now that we know he's not getting the injury exception, there's no reason to maintain the ruse that he can't play. I think they are sincere in letting Wall play this season if the medical staff gives the okay. I, for one, would like to see him play the last 15-20 games of the season if possible so that he can work off 18 months of rust and hopefully develop some chemistry with this roster.

And it'd be nice to see if he has his speed, quickness, agility, and explosiveness back - and how his 3 point shooting looks.

Not worried about the physical part...


I want him bullying his way to the rim like Beal is doing and hit open 3's. That, along with a little more effort on defense and he'll be fine.

Ruzious wrote:And it'd be nice to see if he has his speed, quickness, agility, and explosiveness back - and how his 3 point shooting looks.

Of course the alternative is that he shows that he doesn't have some or all of those things anymore, and we kill whatever trade market their might have been if we'd kept it a mystery. But I guess knowing is better than not knowing.

LOL no team would even consider trading for Wall regardless without first seeing him on the court . You can't just hide a guy for 18 months then try to trade him coming off of a serious injury.

I believe the team wants & needs to see Wall play this year, not so they can trade him but so they have enough information to map out their future. If he doesn't look good , maybe you consider taking a guard in the draft as insurance. If he looks strong & healthy then you feel more comfortable exploring other possibilities. Also if Wall shows positive flashes that can be used as a selling point to FAs (for instance Bertans agent brought up Wall's return as a reason why Davis was excited to stay in DC), as well as a selling point for season ticket holders = $$$

Anyways count me in the camp that thinks John will be mostly fine physically. Of course not like his peak years , when he was at his peak no one was faster than him. Now I'm sure younger guys like De'Aaron Fox, Morant etc have taken that mantle but Wall will still be one of the top explosive PGs especially combined with his size+strength+ballhandling.

I am more curious about what his offensive playstyle will be like. I think that instead of being a primary PnR ballhandler Wall will have to adjust as the secondary guy next to Beal, meaning he will wait on the weakside for Brad to swing it to him and then make a quick decision. He will need to hone his catch & shoot three from above the break.

Interestingly saw a recent video of him shooting and it looks like he has changed his jumpshot mechanics for the better. His shooting motion looks much more compact now , and it's an "elastic" motion that snaps off the wrist as opposed to in the past looking like he is pushing the ball and aiming it.