LeTravel and the Crab dribble Thread - Wadette Girliman

[sfam]

As much as I love Gilbert's letter, I don't see Cleveland winning a championship for another 10 years at least. If that means LeBron doesn't win in that time either, that's even better.

[verbal8]

I'm seriously depressed about this, the worst of all possible outcomes. Even Blatche might be too old to be on a contending Wizards team after this.

Voltron has been formed at our very doorstep.

I bet they all have opt-outs after 3 years or so. Honestly, I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them disband after 3 years or so. Maybe that's LeBron's redemption plan - go back to Cleveland in later years to try to win a championship after the team clears out all their bad contracts.

If he had done things the right way that would have been an option.

Another "have you cake and eat it too" option for him would have been to sign a 2 year deal with Cleveland and tell them I really want to win a championship in Cleveland and then I want to go to a bigger market.

[doclinkin]

I'm generally pretty optimistic, but I don't see how anyone can see this as being anything other than a total disaster.

Sure, something could go wrong for them, but we're hoping for cheap outs based on peripheral issues. Those guys are just going to crush on the court for five years or so unless someone blows their ACL. As a general rule, when you're considering injuries as a possible trump card, its not a good sign. Sorry, but this is horrible news.

As to "really" rebuilding, yes, I'm leaning towards bottoming out completely now as we can't kid ourselves about the long term impact here. Almost any other result would have been acceptable, but this is just too much. 2 top five players and a top 3 PF on one team? Wade is simply a sick closer as well, being just about the best in the world.

Waah waah waah. Jeez, no pamper wetting, steel yourself a little bit. Are you a Bullets fan or a frontrunning LA fan. Why act like you never met adversity before. That's what we do. We're the underdog. So? What else is new.

As of right now Miami will have to play their starters for 45 minutes every game. You're scared of Mike Miller? He's their entire bench right now (won't start of course, behind Bron or Wade) and it's not like he's proven to be durable. Ditto Wade, in some measure. Not banking on injuries but any team that has to grind out their starters for long minutes 82 games plus the post season (plus Olympics duties) will tend to see their players wear down. We've seen it here, and our guys only played at one end of the floor (...) Who's their starting center right now? Udonis Haslem?

Stylistically, while all three are great, and Wade the unquestioned leader since he's the only cat who actually steps up his game at the clutchest of clutch moments, still I'm not sure I see the terrifying synergy between them all. LeBJ and Wade both do best dribbling the ball and controlling the action. Each is excellent, neither will suppress the others' game, but it's not like they are additive properties: they will be splitting points and assists, in part. You can't simply take their current stats and tote them up.

And Bosh's role is much reduced, he's a jumpshooting forward with a face-up game, but on a DWade team I'm not certain he's all that much of an upgrade over Udonis Haslem. It's not like he's a powerful finisher underneath. He's a stretch forward who doesn't really take the outside shot, a decent but non-dominant rebounder. There's a little bit of a spacing problem in as much as their perimeter SF and SG are their best interior finishers. Granted, any team with DWade tends not to have too many spacing problems since he finds the seam wherever it is, but the point is while all three have talent and a team game, I don't see the instant synergy that equates to dominance.

And quite frankly I don't know why a wiz fan would allow themselves the luxury of panic. Somewhat absurd. 'OMG! How will we defeat Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol!??? They will be totes dominant for years to come 11!!' Steady there partner, who told you we were in contention for anything? We've had two straight seasons begging for losses to collect better lotto tix. And we're talking playoffs? Playoffs!? Kidding me? Playoffs? Playoffs?

Consider this though, as big of an assbag as MeBRon has made himself, I think we may see teams angling for a CBA that screws over a topheavy team like MeAmi. We're young, undercapped, exciting, fast, athletic, with untapped potential. Who gives a rip whether another team may have improved, the question is if OUR squad has a chance to improve or if we're headed in the opposite direction. Personally I'm good with sticking with the plan: reload, stockpile talent, stay young scrappy and hungry while we build a deep cheap and developing team that grows together and complements each other.

I could make the case that theoretically we could even match and surpass MEami --is Bosh that much better than Dray? Might John Wall's upside approach the talent of a DWade, if not his accomplishments? As much of a punk as LeBron is, can't we simply load up on interior thugs and keep him on the outside looking for teammates to blame for his (admittedly few) shortcomings? -- but I won't bother going into it. Suffice to say, we're Wiz/Bullets fans, we can't afford the luxury of terror that another team in the league may become pretty decent. So what? So they're good. Maybe. Makes it that much more satisfying when, eventually, we beat them.

F_ Miami. It would have been worse to spread our nemeses to multiple teams, I'd be more scared of a Chicago Wade squad than this experiment in bloviation and auto-fellatio. Miami? Really? Makes it clear to me MeBron is more about hiding behind a group of his pals than in winning in particular. At least in Miami no one can blame him alone for his inevitable shortfalls. Just injuries, or beach parties, or referees, etc. Fine with me if we consolidate all our villains on one Legion of Doom. Makes it easier to keep track of them 4 games a year instead of 8. Plus the playoffs.

Playoffs!

[montestewart]

^
Yay!

[willbcocks]

Playoffs nooo! Rebuild! Rebuild!


Seriously, F Miami. Chicago was the scary team, as they got a legit defensive big and a 21 year old star point guard. What's Miami got? 3 players that been in the league for 7 years already. Our best player has been in the league for 0 years. We are not one of the teams that should be worried, cause our windows are not on the same floor as the heat's windows.

This is good news for us. Cleveland has been vanquished. Delusional NY is still delusional. The Chicago squad is going to be good, but not invincible. Lebron exposed to the whole world as a massive dick (mea cupla here, I only came around to his being a dick a couple months ago, and even then underestimated just how dickly he is).

And this puts a lot of pressure on others. When your competition is under pressure and you're level headed and patient, you can take the advantage. I see our odds of dumping Gil as having increased. Our odds of other trades have probably gone up as well.

And as Doc said before he lost it and started talking about the playoffs, we will be a young, scrappy defensive oriented team with upside. I don't know about y'all (actually I do and it kinda scares me cause a lot of you are talking crazy talk like Doc about play!offs), but that's my favorite squad to cheer for. Nothing to lose, everything to gain, busting their asses on the floor. The best feeling comes not from winning a lot of games but from working hard and exceeding expectations, and hopefully we'll see some of that next year.

[pancakes3]

after sleeping on it, i'm leaning with doc in thinking that this team has a real chance of folding like a house of cards on themselves. a rough, defensive team could definitely rattle Bosh, and Lebron to a certain extent. a real center like Gasol, Howard, Yao, or one of the new guys (lopez, bogut, horford) could do some real damage also. chalmers is a decent defender but not so good that he could lock up paul, williams, nash, or even john wall. with such disparity in talent at key defensive positions (pg and c) team defense will be crucial. certainly wade/lebron/bosh are capable of playing selfless, rotating defense but the question is will they? or will their unbearing "humility" come back to bite them on the butt as a scrappy 8th seed team outhustles them to an 1st round win?

i'm not saying they'll suck. in all likelihood they'll win 65+ games. i'm just saying, they're not a juggernaut. the talent is there, but as a TEAM i wouldn't pick them over say... 03 spurs, 04 pistons, 01 lakers, 9X bulls, 08 celtics, etc.


EDIT TO ADD:
i realize this is the letravel thread but i'm going to go ahead and defend Lebron on his decision to choose miami.

first off, cleveland simply wasn't an option. he's a grown man who wants to do grown man things like making it rain at nightclubs and pop champagne on yachts. can you blame him for wanting to leave ohio? i don't, and deep down, clevelanders knew that. all this talk of betrayal is... as ruz said - juvenile. is joe bumpkin a traitorous maggot for leaving pop's farm to go to a fancy big city college so he can one day be a fancy big city lawyer? i wouldn't say so.

second off, i can totally understand why miami and not NY, NJ, or the clips. he gets to play with his friends. as a billionaire hyperathlete, i'm sure friends are far and few in between. it's not like he's got his college roomates to go grab happy hour with, or can sign up for a local singles kickball league. all he's got as friends are a few guys he met in HS (who are now not just riding but driving a big fat gravy train) and the class of '03 guys who he's spent time in beijing with. if some of my buddies started a graphic T business in san diego and offered me a 20mil/year salary to drop what i'm doing and move on west, you bet i'd take that offer in a heartbeat over taking a 20mil/year job in brooklyn to ressurrect a defunct graphic t business with a crazy russian mobster as my boss.

third off, why not CHI? maybe because noah's on the team. i'm almost positive that's the ONLY reason lebron chose miami instead. he gets to play with talent, compete for rings, and he doesn't have to play with a guy that he hates.

so really i'm saying hate on him for the ESPN special, sure. don't hate him for signing elsewhere.

[doclinkin]

Playoffs nooo! Rebuild! Rebuild!

.....

And as Doc said before he lost it and started talking about the playoffs, we will be a young, scrappy defensive oriented team with upside. I don't know about y'all (actually I do and it kinda scares me cause a lot of you are talking crazy talk like Doc about play!offs), but that's my favorite squad to cheer for. Nothing to lose, everything to gain, busting their asses on the floor. The best feeling comes not from winning a lot of games but from working hard and exceeding expectations, and hopefully we'll see some of that next year.

Did I say playoffs?

I meant: Championship!

I meant: Dynasty!

I just didn't say when.

[verbal8]

And this puts a lot of pressure on others. When your competition is under pressure and you're level headed and patient, you can take the advantage. I see our odds of dumping Gil as having increased. Our odds of other trades have probably gone up as well.

I think this is creating fear in the league. As Warren Buffet says "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful". I think the Wizards were rightly afraid of the greediness of free agency. Now the teams are afraid of the "dynasty" in Miami. I think this will push up the value of the Wizards biggest trade assets(Hinrich and Arenas). Some team may lose their mind over Nick Young if he can continue to have defensive success against DWade.

It sucks for the short term being in the same division with Miami and Orlando. However it could help the development of the young Wizards players playing against such a high level of competition. The short term benefit to the Wizards is the lower play-off teams are much more vulnerable with the stars being concentrated in Miami.

[Ruzious]

I'm generally pretty optimistic, but I don't see how anyone can see this as being anything other than a total disaster.

Sure, something could go wrong for them, but we're hoping for cheap outs based on peripheral issues. Those guys are just going to crush on the court for five years or so unless someone blows their ACL. As a general rule, when you're considering injuries as a possible trump card, its not a good sign. Sorry, but this is horrible news.

As to "really" rebuilding, yes, I'm leaning towards bottoming out completely now as we can't kid ourselves about the long term impact here. Almost any other result would have been acceptable, but this is just too much. 2 top five players and a top 3 PF on one team? Wade is simply a sick closer as well, being just about the best in the world.

Waah waah waah. Jeez, no pamper wetting, steel yourself a little bit. Are you a Bullets fan or a frontrunning LA fan. Why act like you never met adversity before. That's what we do. We're the underdog. So? What else is new.

As of right now Miami will have to play their starters for 45 minutes every game. You're scared of Mike Miller? He's their entire bench right now (won't start of course, behind Bron or Wade) and it's not like he's proven to be durable. Ditto Wade, in some measure. Not banking on injuries but any team that has to grind out their starters for long minutes 82 games plus the post season (plus Olympics duties) will tend to see their players wear down. We've seen it here, and our guys only played at one end of the floor (...) Who's their starting center right now? Udonis Haslem?

Stylistically, while all three are great, and Wade the unquestioned leader since he's the only cat who actually steps up his game at the clutchest of clutch moments, still I'm not sure I see the terrifying synergy between them all. LeBJ and Wade both do best dribbling the ball and controlling the action. Each is excellent, neither will suppress the others' game, but it's not like they are additive properties: they will be splitting points and assists, in part. You can't simply take their current stats and tote them up.

And Bosh's role is much reduced, he's a jumpshooting forward with a face-up game, but on a DWade team I'm not certain he's all that much of an upgrade over Udonis Haslem. It's not like he's a powerful finisher underneath. He's a stretch forward who doesn't really take the outside shot, a decent but non-dominant rebounder. There's a little bit of a spacing problem in as much as their perimeter SF and SG are their best interior finishers. Granted, any team with DWade tends not to have too many spacing problems since he finds the seam wherever it is, but the point is while all three have talent and a team game, I don't see the instant synergy that equates to dominance.

And quite frankly I don't know why a wiz fan would allow themselves the luxury of panic. Somewhat absurd. 'OMG! How will we defeat Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol!??? They will be totes dominant for years to come 11!!' Steady there partner, who told you we were in contention for anything? We've had two straight seasons begging for losses to collect better lotto tix. And we're talking playoffs? Playoffs!? Kidding me? Playoffs? Playoffs?

Consider this though, as big of an assbag as MeBRon has made himself, I think we may see teams angling for a CBA that screws over a topheavy team like MeAmi. We're young, undercapped, exciting, fast, athletic, with untapped potential. Who gives a rip whether another team may have improved, the question is if OUR squad has a chance to improve or if we're headed in the opposite direction. Personally I'm good with sticking with the plan: reload, stockpile talent, stay young scrappy and hungry while we build a deep cheap and developing team that grows together and complements each other.

I could make the case that theoretically we could even match and surpass MEami --is Bosh that much better than Dray? Might John Wall's upside approach the talent of a DWade, if not his accomplishments? As much of a punk as LeBron is, can't we simply load up on interior thugs and keep him on the outside looking for teammates to blame for his (admittedly few) shortcomings? -- but I won't bother going into it. Suffice to say, we're Wiz/Bullets fans, we can't afford the luxury of terror that another team in the league may become pretty decent. So what? So they're good. Maybe. Makes it that much more satisfying when, eventually, we beat them.

F_ Miami. It would have been worse to spread our nemeses to multiple teams, I'd be more scared of a Chicago Wade squad than this experiment in bloviation and auto-fellatio. Miami? Really? Makes it clear to me MeBron is more about hiding behind a group of his pals than in winning in particular. At least in Miami no one can blame him alone for his inevitable shortfalls. Just injuries, or beach parties, or referees, etc. Fine with me if we consolidate all our villains on one Legion of Doom. Makes it easier to keep track of them 4 games a year instead of 8. Plus the playoffs.

Playoffs!

Doc, you've earned a lifetime supply of straws for that post. But they're just out of your reach. Keep trying.

[AceDegenerate]

Playoffs nooo! Rebuild! Rebuild!
I see our odds of dumping Gil as having increased.

Not if our owner is more transparent than LeBron. It's funny that an owner like Gilbert can freak out about LeBron leaving, but if I were to get angry about Ted jettisonning Arenas in a similar fashion everybody would chide me about how this is a business. It's a 2-Way Street.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

Playoffs nooo! Rebuild! Rebuild!
I see our odds of dumping Gil as having increased.

Not if our owner is more transparent than LeBron. It's funny that an owner like Gilbert can freak out about LeBron leaving, but if I were to get angry about Ted jettisonning Arenas in a similar fashion everybody would chide me about how this is a business. It's a 2-Way Street.

whoa whoa whoa..>WHAT?

[Rafael122]

The Cavs were valued at $367 million. Losing Lebron cuts them down to $117 million if the projections of $250 million in value are to be believed.

DAMN.

[doclinkin]

Doc, you've earned a lifetime supply of straws for that post. But they're just out of your reach. Keep trying.

No point, I never use straws: I never suck nor blow.

[LyricalRico]

Playoffs nooo! Rebuild! Rebuild!
I see our odds of dumping Gil as having increased.

Not if our owner is more transparent than LeBron. It's funny that an owner like Gilbert can freak out about LeBron leaving, but if I were to get angry about Ted jettisonning Arenas in a similar fashion everybody would chide me about how this is a business. It's a 2-Way Street.

whoa whoa whoa..>WHAT?

Yeah, what are you talking about? I don't see many people saying that Dan Gilbert's rant was classy or good. Maybe some on this board liked it because it flames LeBron, but the people at my job and the tv/radio analysts I've listened to are all pretty much clowning the guy because he sounds like a schoolgirl that just got dumped and is blasting her ex on facebook.

[MJG]

I think I'm in the middle of general opinion on Miami. I certainly don't think it's a game over, hit the snooze button for five years type of situation in any way. But, I don't think the team is going to fall apart either. Assuming they add say one more solid role player (a la Mike Miller) and a grizzled vet or two, I figure they'll win in the low 60s and be one of two or three teams that are considered likely champions. Maybe even the favorites, but if so, not by much.

[doclinkin]

AND ANOTHER THONG:

I think this squad is poised well to become an antidote for the LeBJ Heat at least in the media. Granted Gilbert has taken some tarnish, but ultimately Wiz fans have been proven right for casting disdain on LeBj's analcephalic tendencies.

Since LeBron has stained his own image somewhat the league may look to promote rivalries and cast him as the villain more than the savior. We may see more marquee attention with our young charismatic uptempo team, lead by the phenom Wall. Whether or not we get our ass beat, we're likely to catch a few positive highlights and pick up anti-Bron fans. Ultimately the attention gets us noticed, up to the Team to maximize the opportunity in the spotlight, but that's a good thing. Only thing I dislike about it is the idea that Wall and Gil actually like this ass-clown instead of despising him as much as the fans. But I'm pretty sure we can gin up a pretty good rivalry. You got to know the BOOs will rain down here as hard or harder when he suits up for Miami. Bound to inspire better play and win-commitment even from his supposed 'friends' on our team.

I just wish we still had Haywood to lay a hard smack as needed. But maybe Booker-Seraphin -NDiaye can get the job done.

[willbcocks]

Doc, you've earned a lifetime supply of straws for that post. But they're just out of your reach. Keep trying.

No point, I never use straws: I never suck nor blow.

What about loopy straws for decoration?

[AceDegenerate]

Playoffs nooo! Rebuild! Rebuild!
I see our odds of dumping Gil as having increased.

Not if our owner is more transparent than LeBron. It's funny that an owner like Gilbert can freak out about LeBron leaving, but if I were to get angry about Ted jettisonning Arenas in a similar fashion everybody would chide me about how this is a business. It's a 2-Way Street.

whoa whoa whoa..>WHAT?

Just saying, people jump all over the fan who attaches to a player who is then traded by the TEAM OWNERSHIP, people say Screw the Player gotta root for the Team. Ownership turns their back on players (in this franchise history especially) well more often than players turn their back on the team.

Can't fault a player for treating the sport as a business when ownership/management is applauded for it.

[nate33]

I don't fault Lebron for leaving Cleveland. I fault him for the way he handled this whole free agency tour and with the pathetic cop out of landing on a team with other superstars to take the pressure off him. Lebron is afraid of failure because his ego can't take it.

If he had quietly elected to go to New York, New Jersey or Chicago, I wouldn't not have begrudged him for it.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

I don't fault Lebron for leaving Cleveland. I fault him for the way he handled this whole free agency tour and with the pathetic cop out of landing on a team with other superstars to take the pressure off him. Lebron is afraid of failure because his ego can't take it.

If he had quietly elected to go to New York, New Jersey or Chicago, I wouldn't not have begrudged him for it.

Agreed, this is where i'm at. I wouldnt stay in CLE either, but I wouldnt have handled it the way he did either.....you're breaking up with me over the phone