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IF the Wiz could add one player in the league AND be healthy for the playoffs, who would be the best guy to add and how far do you think it would take them (ignoring money and future years as well as health)?

Superstar: Giannis
Non Superstar: Mikal Bridges
Rookie Contract: Evan Mobley

Spencer Dinwiddie or Doncic.

Menace2Sobriety wrote:Superstar: Giannis
Non Superstar: Mikal Bridges
Rookie Contract: Evan Mobley

Hard to do better than that. Still... how about a couple of tries

Superstar: Luka
Not a superstar: Brandon Clarke
Rookie Contract: Tyrese Haliburton

Superstar: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Not a superstar: Lauri Markkannen
Rookie Contract: Walker Kessler

Superstar: Jokic
Not a superstar: Larry Nance, Jr.
Rookie Contract: Desmond Bane

Haliburton

Brandon Clarke, obviously, so we would never have to hear again about how we should've taken him.

But if he's not available, fine. There's the usual murderer's row: Jokic, Embiid, Stef, LeBj, Giannis, Kawhi even. Harden. Adding any of these guys improves a team and makes them a contender.

If it's me I'd replace the inefficient 'playmaking' of Kuzma with a highly efficient player at the same spot. If health were no issue I'd take either KD or Zion. We need big game clutch finishing, either of these two can hit the outside shot, are willing passers, can exploit their physical mismatches. We have high usage players in Beal and KP, but both are better when they are auxiliary scorers.

Zion would be fun to watch. We could win a couple series ducking through the holes he blows in defenses. But KD has been there before. Local hero, would energize the fanbase and bring out the DMV pride. EC finals are a possibility with any team he's carrying.

If you gave me a 2nd player though I'd take Bam Adebayo. Defense, passing, finishing, game smarts, hits his FT's. A multi-skilled upgrade from Gafford. It's either him, Draymond, or you know, Jokic. But that sounds like cheating, to pick 2 MVPs to add. And I can't stomach the idea of adding LeBJ. Just won't do it.

Wembayama?

payitforward wrote:

Menace2Sobriety wrote:Superstar: Giannis
Non Superstar: Mikal Bridges
Rookie Contract: Evan Mobley

Hard to do better than that. Still... how about a couple of tries

Superstar: Luka
Not a superstar: Brandon Clarke
Rookie Contract: Tyrese Haliburton

Superstar: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Not a superstar: Lauri Markkannen
Rookie Contract: Walker Kessler

Superstar: Jokic
Not a superstar: Larry Nance, Jr.
Rookie Contract: Desmond Bane

Also a great list. Haliburton and Markkannen are good shouts.

I figured we’ve seen the Luka/Krispy experiment already.

I think we're really just one stud PG away from being competitive. Anyone from Jamal Murray on up works: Fox, Haliburton, Garland, SGA, Dame, Ja, Kyrie.

We might have even been able to make it work with brogdon this past off-season.

2 swaps gets us to be actual contenders, if we could get that PG and upgrade Kuzma to a Markkannen, Luka, Tatum, Butler level SF. Drafting Cam Thomas instead of Kispert would have had us there.

A variant on this game would be to ask: name a player who, practically speaking, we actually could have acquired at the deadline (i.e. not a fantasy of landing a superstar; not breaking up the whole team in a speculative trade... not like that) who would have (or at least might have) made the most positive difference?

Seems like the right guy would be a highly efficient role player, a guy who plays the game well across the board & has shown some ability to score.

Doc's fave Brandon Clarke would be an example, but Memphis just locked him up for a bunch of years, which probably means he's not on the "we actually could have acquired" list.

Ditto my fave Xavier Tillman. Yet, presumably, he wouldn't likely be available either. A player on a rookie contract who is performing well...? Those guys are bargains; teams don't like to trade them.

One guy who jumps to mind for me is Larry Nance, Jr. -- extremely productive & w/ an inexpensive contract that's guaranteed the next couple years. Hmmm... come to think of it why would anyone trade that kind of player?

Oh well....

Well, if we had Luca at PG, I'd say our ceiling would be much higher. We'd probably compete with the big 4 in the East.

Beal/Kuzma/Porzingis/Gafford next to Luca (+Deni/Kispert/Wright off the bench) is arguably a better supporting cast than what Luca has currently in Dallas.

Now, how did Dallas get Luca in the first place? In the draft after tanking...But Terd shall never tank...the clown that he is.

pancakes3 wrote:I think we're really just one stud PG away from being competitive. Anyone from Jamal Murray on up works: Fox, Haliburton, Garland, SGA, Dame, Ja, Kyrie....

Add a better player, & you're a better team.
But... that's true for any team. It doesn't say anything particular about this particular team.
Not to mention that our biggest problems are NOT at PG. That's a myth.

pancakes3 wrote:2 swaps gets us to be actual contenders... upgrade Kuzma to a Markkannen, Luka, Tatum, Butler level SF....

Oh?
You think Luka instead of Kuzma makes us better...? Let me think about that....
Yeah! You're right!

payitforward wrote:

pancakes3 wrote:I think we're really just one stud PG away from being competitive. Anyone from Jamal Murray on up works: Fox, Haliburton, Garland, SGA, Dame, Ja, Kyrie....

Add a better player, & you're a better team.
But... that's true for any team. It doesn't say anything particular about this particular team.
Not to mention that our biggest problems are NOT at PG. That's a myth.

pancakes3 wrote:2 swaps gets us to be actual contenders... upgrade Kuzma to a Markkannen, Luka, Tatum, Butler level SF....

Oh?
You think Luka instead of Kuzma makes us better...? Let me think about that....
Yeah! You're right!

you're a towel

payitforward wrote:

pancakes3 wrote:I think we're really just one stud PG away from being competitive. Anyone from Jamal Murray on up works: Fox, Haliburton, Garland, SGA, Dame, Ja, Kyrie....

Add a better player, & you're a better team.
But... that's true for any team. It doesn't say anything particular about this particular team.
Not to mention that our biggest problems are NOT at PG. That's a myth.

pancakes3 wrote:2 swaps gets us to be actual contenders... upgrade Kuzma to a Markkannen, Luka, Tatum, Butler level SF....

Oh?
You think Luka instead of Kuzma makes us better...? Let me think about that....
Yeah! You're right!

Was this post really necessary, PIF?

But this...

pancakes3 wrote:...Drafting Cam Thomas instead of Kispert would have had us there.

...makes no sense at all. Tho obviously Thomas had a great game against us last week.

For clarity, Cameron Thomas isn't having half as good a season as Corey Kispert. It's not even close. It's not even close to being close!

I presume you are thinking of his scoring when you compare them?

If you look at the rest of the numbers overall the two guys are reasonably close, but Kispert is pretty clearly better overall -- Thomas gets way more assists but turns the ball over way more as well.

As to scoring, Kispert has a far higher TS% than Thomas. Why is that?

1. Corey shoots a higher 3 pt % & he shoots more of them.
2. Corey's also better from the FT line (though both guys are truly excellent!). Yet, Thomas gets there much more often -- to his advantage.
3. The difference between them comes down to two-point shooting.

Every 36 minutes, Cam Thomas takes @9.2 more 2-pt FGAs than Corey Kispert. Unfortunately only 4 of them go in -- which is why his TS% is so much lower than Corey's.

To put it another way: to score 11 more points than Corey, Cam needs to use 11.5 more possessions.
That's not winning basketball, that's losing basketball.

It also explains why Kispert sports a .635 TS% as against Thomas at .586.

Now... Cam Thomas may turn out to be an outstanding NBA player. Corey may too. Or they both may end up as journeymen. Or wash out in a few years. No one knows.

But, so far, Corey Kispert is a far better NBA player than Cameron Thomas.

pancakes3 wrote:
you're a towel

Is this a legit trash talking term? One year before I started coaching, I was listening to the guys playing at lunch and one of them was like, "You're a toaster."

The next day I had a full period discussion in my English class on how to trash talk effectively.

penbeast0 wrote:

pancakes3 wrote:
you're a towel

Is this a legit trash talking term? One year before I started coaching, I was listening to the guys playing at lunch and one of them was like, "You're a toaster."

The next day I had a full period discussion in my English class on how to trash talk effectively.

trash talk has no rules, man.

towel is a south park reference, and i'm sure is not cool w the kids any more. toaster sounds like praise to me. i'm a toaster bc i'm toasting you fools. but also, i'm a bad toaster and i make burnt toast. bad wiring.

Thanks. Toaster was just the strangest one, I work with a lot of autistic and developmentally challenged kids and they were just throwing random words at each other it seemed.

I've also had a class on insulting people directly and not their mothers as well as a recent one on insults that carry racial or other components (monkey, moron, etc.) that can come across as much nastier than you actually meant.

payitforward wrote:A variant on this game would be to ask: name a player who, practically speaking, we actually could have acquired at the deadline (i.e. not a fantasy of landing a superstar; not breaking up the whole team in a speculative trade... not like that) who would have (or at least might have) made the most positive difference?.

...

One guy who jumps to mind for me is Larry Nance, Jr. -- extremely productive & w/ an inexpensive contract that's guaranteed the next couple years. Hmmm... come to think of it why would anyone trade that kind of player?

Oh well....

The game then changes to picking a Diamond in the Rough. (DITR)

The exercise is: what team has a bench player who is highly productive in the minutes they play, but who is starved for minutes behind a big name/better paid star, or who split minutes on a deep bench. Search for whatever criteria you like, restricted to players who currently earn 20 mins/game or less.

With this metric I'd be looking at:

Isaiah Joe SG -- OKC. Playing behind SGA, but posting 2FG/3FG of .531/.458 and per 36 minutes would be earning 20 pts, 5rb, 1.5 steals

Santi Aldama F --MEM. Behind JJJ. Splitting minutes with Brandon Clarke. Shooting .603/.367. With a Per36 of 16/8rb/1s/1b. Not strictly stunning numbers per 36 but he showed a big jump in efficiency from last year.

I want to see a Wizards team that actually has a shot at a title, something we haven't seen since the Wes/Elvin team of the 70s. My question was based on this. Would we have had enough to do it if we added Kevin Durant for redundant players and pick swaps?
Would we need more, a Luca or Jokic? Is there anyone we could add that would make us a legit title contender next year (assuming we resign Porzingis and Kuzma or replace them with someone of equivalent impact); realistic or no, or are is there no shot even adding a Kyrie Irving/Kevin Durant/Jayson Tatum, etc.