Official 2023 Wizards OFFSEASON Thread

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

I assume we will trade one of Morris/Wright for a bad contract and a future pick - probably Morris.

So our lineup will be:
PG: Jones/Wright
SG: Poole/Shamet
SF: Kispert/Bilal
PF: Avdija/Gallinari
C: Gafford/Muscala

We will see if they manage to find minutes for Davis, Ryan, Baldwin, Cooks, Vukcevic, and Gill, but I doubt they will be part of the regular rotation on Day 1, except perhaps Davis who could conceivably beat out Bilal or Shamet.

I actually like Wright, Gallo and Muscala as veteran mentors who can provide good minutes, but also sit out when appropriate to develop the youngsters.

Looks like it might be an 18-win season.

Man IDK, this team beats out the 17 win Pistons. I say a floor of 25 wins.

Unless Bilal is good immediately or Deni makes a huge leap (like a Markannen level leap), this is a 35 win team that replaced 2 fringe All-Star level guys with 2 replacement level guys. We'll lose 60 games in style though. Lots of 124-107 and 130-111 losses.

Might be in the minority here, but I have a good feeling about the Deni Leap this year. He'll get 30+ minutes a night, be able to play through his rough games and learn, and won't feel the need to differ to a bunch of overrated veterans. He's our longest tenured player too at the ripe age of 22.

With that said, there's basically no excuses for him this season. Make or break season for him, both as a Wizard and for his career, but I think he's up to the task.

[dckingsfan]

It will be between Barnes and Kuzma. If Barnes wants to be there, Kuzma is out in the cold on that one.

Locked on Kings Matt George just got through talking about Kuzma as a fit and looking for 30 million and that the Kings cleared cap space getting rid of Richaun Holmes .

1 Rockets: $60.9M
2 Jazz: $47.2M
3 Spurs: $38.6M
4 Kings: $35.6M
5 Pacers: $32.2M
6 Pistons: $30.0M
7 Magic: $23.9M

That's per Keith Smith from Spotrac. Kings make the most sense here. Rockets seemed to be focus on Harden, Brooks, Lopez. Kuzma's not going to Utah or Detroit

I would be shocked if he goes to the Kings. Shocked and disappointed. What the Kings need most is FC help, specifically a backup C or a PF that can rim protect.

[payitforward]

...Deni ...our longest tenured player ...at the ripe age of 22....

Wow!!
LOL!!

[gambitx777]

I like having Gallo here he's everything we always wanted Deni to be.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

[doclinkin]

Kuzma's not going to Utah or Detroit

Dunno. Of the non big-market franchises these are two places where Kuz has ties, however tenuous.

He went to school in Utah, returned there last year for a Pro-Am game and was well received.

Also, he is from Michigan, his mom & family still live there.

But otherwise I agree.

[doclinkin]

Right now we're one player over the roster limit. I assume Huff and Jackson will be our two-way guys but even without them, we're at 16.

The best way I can see us proceeding is to trade one of Morris/Tyus to a team with cap space in exchange for draft capital, and trade the other one to a contender for bad salary. That way we hit the 90% threshold and get down to 15 players.

Any chance Muscala, Gallo, or Shamat get bought out? In a contract year, I'd assume all of them want playing time in order to audition for their next contract. Gallo might have some value at the trade deadline if he plays well, but I don't think whatever minimal returns we could get for him would be worth giving him 20+ mpg for the first half of the season when those minutes could be going to young guys. Coffee I'd assume will play sparingly.

This FO isn't yet done. We haven't hit free agency yet. I don't think the Wiz will be big players in it, but there will be teams that chase after this-or-that player to fill a role for them, but come up short. Once the dust settles we may be able to swap a surplus PG out, for a bad contract and future picks. We only need +$10m in salary.

I'd love to get Nico Batum from LAC as a mentor for Coulibaly. He's an $11m contract, and they'd love a Delon Wright type who can play without the ball and defend. They don't care about the lux tax, so won't send picks, but WInger has a relationship so it's not unlikely. Still a one for one swap only nets us +$3m and does not shed the extra player.

[9 and 20]

Right now we're one player over the roster limit. I assume Huff and Jackson will be our two-way guys but even without them, we're at 16.

The best way I can see us proceeding is to trade one of Morris/Tyus to a team with cap space in exchange for draft capital, and trade the other one to a contender for bad salary. That way we hit the 90% threshold and get down to 15 players.

Any chance Muscala, Gallo, or Shamat get bought out? In a contract year, I'd assume all of them want playing time in order to audition for their next contract. Gallo might have some value at the trade deadline if he plays well, but I don't think whatever minimal returns we could get for him would be worth giving him 20+ mpg for the first half of the season when those minutes could be going to young guys. Coffee I'd assume will play sparingly.

This FO isn't yet done. We haven't hit free agency yet. I don't think the Wiz will be big players in it, but there will be teams that chase after this-or-that player to fill a role for them, but come up short. Once the dust settles we may be able to swap a surplus PG out, for a bad contract and future picks. We only need +$10m in salary.

I'd love to get Nico Batum from LAC as a mentor for Coulibaly. He's an $11m contract, and they'd love a Delon Wright type who can play without the ball and defend. They don't care about the lux tax, so won't send picks, but WInger has a relationship so it's not unlikely. Still a one for one swap only nets us +$3m and does not shed the extra player.

I'm keeping an eye on the Clippers and the Hawks with both Winger and Schlenk's connections. Hawks have some salary dump options if they attach enough other stuff, and I trust Schlenk would know if the value of the salary dump dude can be rehabbed.

Also, some team will be left out after the point guard musical chairs shuffle in free agency.

This is all refreshing after the last few offseasons, where everyone knew that they would throw the max at Beal, drop 100 mil on Kuzma, immediately go out and sign/trade for Ariza, or whatever other garbage move we've made recently.

[closg00]

Yeah!! It's official, let the tanking years begin.

30. Washington Wizards

The Wizards made a trade to select Bilal Coulibaly, a teammate of Victor Wembanyama in France, with the No. 7 pick. He has been a fast riser on draft boards, but the Wizards took a risk drafting him that high. This is going to be a long rebuild for the Wizards who have traded Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Chris Paul in the past week.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2023/06/23/nba-post-draft-power-rankings-see-which-teams-improved-their-chances/70349203007/

[payitforward]

Right now we're one player over the roster limit. I assume Huff and Jackson will be our two-way guys but even without them, we're at 16.

The best way I can see us proceeding is to trade one of Morris/Tyus to a team with cap space in exchange for draft capital, and trade the other one to a contender for bad salary. That way we hit the 90% threshold and get down to 15 players.

Any chance Muscala, Gallo, or Shamat get bought out? In a contract year, I'd assume all of them want playing time in order to audition for their next contract. Gallo might have some value at the trade deadline if he plays well, but I don't think whatever minimal returns we could get for him would be worth giving him 20+ mpg for the first half of the season when those minutes could be going to young guys. Coffee I'd assume will play sparingly.

Actually, make that 17: Poole, Jones, Gafford, Shamet, Morris, Wright, Gallinari, Avdija, Davis, Kispert, Muscala, Baldwin, Gill, Cooks, & Rollins add up to 15. Plus Coulabily & Vutkevic.

Edit -- but, as doc points out, there are likely to be a number of moves still to come. I will not be surprised to see either or both of Muscala & Gallinari go, & it seems almost certain that one of Morris or Wright will also be dealt -- maybe even both of them!

[The Consiglieri]

Yeah!! It's official, let the tanking years begin.

30. Washington Wizards

The Wizards made a trade to select Bilal Coulibaly, a teammate of Victor Wembanyama in France, with the No. 7 pick. He has been a fast riser on draft boards, but the Wizards took a risk drafting him that high. This is going to be a long rebuild for the Wizards who have traded Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Chris Paul in the past week.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2023/06/23/nba-post-draft-power-rankings-see-which-teams-improved-their-chances/70349203007/

It's gonna be a long road back. There are some hopeful posters on here, and Simmons said the same on his podcast but I don't see it, and I sure as hell hope they aren't good. I'd project 17-24 wins right now, but that's just an impulse. I cannot see them hitting 30.

[WallToWall]

I think winning 30 games is a possibility. Poole is capable of 30 point games, and given the green light, he could go for 40. He has done so in the past. This team has other players capable of putting up 15-20 ppg. Blind squirrel luck and stars aligning can get them to 30 wins.

[nate33]

There isn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell that this team wins 30 games. It’s totally impossible. I’d put the over/under at 19 wins, and that’s only because the NBA these days has higher variation due to the 3-ball. It’s harder to win more than 60 or lose more than 60.

Do we have a single two-way player on the roster? Everyone except maybe Tyus Jones is either a liability on offense or a liability on defense.

I’m not hating. This is what you are supposed to do when rebuilding.

[nate33]

Right now we're one player over the roster limit. I assume Huff and Jackson will be our two-way guys but even without them, we're at 16.

The best way I can see us proceeding is to trade one of Morris/Tyus to a team with cap space in exchange for draft capital, and trade the other one to a contender for bad salary. That way we hit the 90% threshold and get down to 15 players.

Any chance Muscala, Gallo, or Shamat get bought out? In a contract year, I'd assume all of them want playing time in order to audition for their next contract. Gallo might have some value at the trade deadline if he plays well, but I don't think whatever minimal returns we could get for him would be worth giving him 20+ mpg for the first half of the season when those minutes could be going to young guys. Coffee I'd assume will play sparingly.

Actually, make that 17: Poole, Jones, Gafford, Shamet, Morris, Wright, Gallinari, Avdija, Davis, Kispert, Muscala, Baldwin, Gill, Cooks, & Rollins add up to 15. Plus Coulabily & Vutkevic.

Edit -- but, as doc points out, there are likely to be a number of moves still to come. I will not be surprised to see either or both of Muscala & Gallinari go, & it seems almost certain that one of Morris or Wright will also be dealt -- maybe even both of them!

Getting under the roster limit is a non-issue. We will simply cut our worst players, even if their salary is guaranteed. We’ve got to spend the money anyhow.

[Jay81]

When do we start targeting the Zions and lukas of the world as our big splash. I think Luka would one day love to be here

Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk

[9 and 20]

Deni and Kispert and Gill are the only real forwards on the team right now, and Gafford is the only rotation quality C, and he's only good for 20 minutes a game. We're looking at Poole going 1 on 5 every night. I think we're going to be pretty bad.

Also, the roster will probably get even worse when we trade from the point guard surplus to get another pick in a salary dump.

[9 and 20]

When do we start targeting the Zions and lukas of the world as our big splash. I think Luka would one day love to be here

Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk

I think no earlier than a year or two from now, maybe later than that. We're definitely tanking for draft picks for a while. Maybe they do John Collins plus a pick in a salary dump that takes them from 20 to 23 wins.

[The Consiglieri]

There isn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell that this team wins 30 games. It’s totally impossible. I’d put the over/under at 19 wins, and that’s only because the NBA these days has higher variation due to the 3-ball. It’s harder to win more than 60 or lose more than 60.

Do we have a single two-way player on the roster? Everyone except maybe Tyus Jones is either a liability on offense or a liability on defense.

I’m not hating. This is what you are supposed to do when rebuilding.

I agree w/you in general, my only issue is that teams sometimes give their guys those rest days which they didn't used to do 15-20 years ago when we tanked back then and there's always the bull---- wins amassed in April when teams rest guys for playoffs if they can't maneuver in the standings during that final week or two.

But yeah, I think its' reasonable to expect us to sit above the record loss # because of those factors (I think its like 9) but probably no more wins than around 25. I expect about 14-25 wins, I think last night i said 17-24.

I don't think we're keeping these guys either. Why would the front office keep anyone who can leave as of '24 or '25? We just lost Beal, Porzingis, and Kuzma, we probably, if having traded them at the right time, could have collected as many as 4-6 firsts, and at least 1-2 blue chip firsts if we'd used those assets at deadlines (and during the summer w/Beal potentially) like a competently run franchise would have instead of our horse ---- one. Instead we got nothing but a bad contract, and a bunch of 2nds.

The new guys aren't going to make that mistake with the pile of point guards we have, Deni, Kispert (who I'm 100% sure will demand a trade by no later than the '24-'25 season) etc. They'll be looking to get as many assets of real tangible value as humanly possible for all of it. There is gonna be YEARS of suffering here, which is fine. Experience is a cruel teacher, and we are going to learn the hard way (the few that didn't get this before) how cruel w/how much and how long we suck going forward.

But yeah, I expect everything worth a damn to be sold off over the next 20 months or so, and us to build around the assets we collected this year.

A guy like Poole is probably going to be evaluated in two ways: #1 is he a building block and #2 lets try to ramp up his value as much as humanly possible for trade if he isn't (and he probably isn't since he'll be exiting his prime when we are competitive again).

[NatP4]

Tyus 28 Wright/Shamet 20
Poole 28 Davis 20
Kispert 28 Coulibaly 20
Avdija 28 Gallinari 12 Vukcevic 8
Gafford 24 Muscala 12 Vukcevic 12

Would assume Rollins and Baldwin Jr. start the year in the G-league. Hopefully we can move Shamet in a trade before the start of the season. Would be nice to get a young big(go get Okongwu).

Should be a pretty bad team, but it will be exciting to see the growth of Davis, Vukcevic, Kispert, Coulibaly, and Avdija.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Tyus 28 Wright/Shamet 20
Poole 28 Davis 20
Kispert 28 Coulibaly 20
Avdija 28 Gallinari 12 Vukcevic 8
Gafford 24 Muscala 12 Vukcevic 12

Would assume Rollins and Baldwin Jr. start the year in the G-league. Hopefully we can move Shamet in a trade before the start of the season. Would be nice to get a young big(go get Okongwu).

Should be a pretty bad team, but it will be exciting to see the growth of Davis, Vukcevic, Kispert, Coulibaly, and Avdija.

Another aspect of this rebuild is we're really going to find out what we have with Coach Wes. No more just rolling out the predetermined roles and lineups. He's really going to be coaching this year, developing players, making adjustments, building this team from scratch.

[payitforward]

Who cares how many games we win this year?

I care how well our FO plays its games! I want them to win. The more changes they make, the more future assets they collect, the better things look long term.

So far -- to me at least! -- they are playing at a very high level:

I didn't think there was a chance in h#ll they'd be able to move Bradley Beal; instead they made an outstanding trade.

I wasn't confident that they'd be bold enough to move KP instantly. He helped them (& us) out: I wish him well.

I'll breathe a sigh of relief when Kuz signs somewhere (tho it's obvious in any case that we won't bring him back).

Keep it going!