GT #25: Hornets @ Wizards 7pm 12/19

[penbeast0]

Whoops! My fault, I looked for him off the bench.

[doclinkin]

Finals week over, can get back to watching games possibly. Box score says everyone played well except Bub and Kyshawn, Butler and Champagnie didn't get off the bench but somehow we won anyway.

Bub didn’t score well but outrebounded everybody on both teams. (Tied Sarr with 9 boards). That’s your point guard digging it out. Sometimes the shot doesn’t fall. But he made up for it with effort.

I like seeing those assist totals spread throughout the team though. Three players with five or better, multiple players with four. The ball is moving around.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

-The Wizards should stop tanking.

-Move Kuzma even second round picks.

-Keep Brogdon and Champagnie to play in rotation with Poole and Carrington.

-Jonas Valanciunas should be traded to the highest bidder, hopefully for a first round pick.

Looking at tonight's box score, I see everything favorable.

Coulibaly and Sarr are freakish athletes at both ends. Pool is that good player Golden State ran off. Kispert did what he was drafted to do. Carrington is possibly a young Clyde Frazier, big on the boards and assists, and doesn't have to score. Kyshawn knows how to play the right way and can be brought along slowly.

I like Brogdon a lot. I said, "Keep him," but of course, don't refuse a great offer. He has to want to play for a contender after being so close to winning at Boston.

Tonight was very encouraging. If they stay healthy, they won't lose by 15 to 20 nightly.

[dobrojim]

Part of me wants to And1 your post Ken. But another part of me wants to be the worst team,
or at least in the bottom 3. Play well, lose and learn. We have some promising prospects
but there are still no guarantees. I want our FO to have the best possible choice in June.
I like Brogdon a lot. He could be the vet to provide the example of how to play to the kids.
If all we got for him in trade were 2nd rnd picks, I might want to keep him.
Poole is a knucklehead at times but has talent. He is frustrating at
times and entertaining at times and SMH at times.

The perfect year this year might be to win exactly one less game than the next worse team
and then have at least a little luck in the lotto.

I agree with you on Bilal and Sarr. They each have a great deal of potential but
don't lose sight of how much they have yet to learn and develop to reach their potential.
All our kids. Heck most NBA players generally speaking. The great variable is how
effectively they work at getting better (says Capt Obvious).

[Benjammin]

-The Wizards should stop tanking.

-Move Kuzma even second round picks.

-Keep Brogdon and Champagnie to play in rotation with Poole and Carrington.

-Jonas Valanciunas should be traded to the highest bidder, hopefully for a first round pick.

Looking at tonight's box score, I see everything favorable.

Coulibaly and Sarr are freakish athletes at both ends. Pool is that good player Golden State ran off. Kispert did what he was drafted to do. Carrington is possibly a young Clyde Frazier, big on the boards and assists, and doesn't have to score. Kyshawn knows how to play the right way and can be brought along slowly.

I like Brogdon a lot. I said, "Keep him," but of course, don't refuse a great offer. He has to want to play for a contender after being so close to winning at Boston.

Tonight was very encouraging. If they stay healthy, they won't lose by 15 to 20 nightly.

I appreciate the sentiment, but no. They definitely need a Dylan Harper/Cooper Flagg or someone like that as at least another piece. I can particularly see a lineup of Bub, Harper, Bilal, Sarr, and a 5 currently not on the roster who is a beast on the boards, a defensive presence protecting the rim and can guard on pick and rolls as well.

[dobrojim]

They definitely need at least one more uber talent, a guy with the clear potential
to be the alpha dog and a possible future HoF player. If Sarr/Bilal continue to develop, they
could be outstanding as the #2 and #2b players. Maybe more but I'm being greedy and
want someone minimally like Gilbert but with some defensive chops as our alpha dog.
Maybe that could be either Bilal or Alex. Maybe. They're only 19/20.

Or it could be the next guy we draft, who will likely also be very young and a couple/few years
away from anything like their full potential. If things go right...

[dobrojim]

-The Wizards should stop tanking.

-Move Kuzma even second round picks.

-Keep Brogdon and Champagnie to play in rotation with Poole and Carrington.

-Jonas Valanciunas should be traded to the highest bidder, hopefully for a first round pick.

Looking at tonight's box score, I see everything favorable.

Coulibaly and Sarr are freakish athletes at both ends. Pool is that good player Golden State ran off. Kispert did what he was drafted to do. Carrington is possibly a young Clyde Frazier, big on the boards and assists, and doesn't have to score. Kyshawn knows how to play the right way and can be brought along slowly.

I like Brogdon a lot. I said, "Keep him," but of course, don't refuse a great offer. He has to want to play for a contender after being so close to winning at Boston.

Tonight was very encouraging. If they stay healthy, they won't lose by 15 to 20 nightly.

I appreciate the sentiment, but no. They definitely need a Dylan Harper/Cooper Flagg or someone like that as at least another piece. I can particularly see a lineup of Bub, Harper, Bilal, Sarr, and a 5 currently not on the roster who is a beast on the boards, a defensive presence protecting the rim and can guard on pick and rolls as well.

Getting a 1st rnd pick for JV is probably expecting too much.
He's (nearly?) as good as I remember from back the last time we played
TOR in the playoff and they beat us badly. That TOR team had deRozen,
JV and Lowry. Pretty good team. One trade away from getting Kawhi and a chip.
My point though is old school bigs like JV are not as valuable as they used to be.

[Zonkerbl]

We did this exercise a few seasons ago - if you look only at winning games, every team in the league looks like a champion. When you play well, you win. The difference between the wizards and the Celtics is that the Wizards put together that kind of effort a dozen or so times a season and the Celtics do it 60 times.

Starting to see what Sarr is bringing to the table. Just has to get stronger. Bubbington is - well, I just wanted to say "Bubbington." Bilal needs to work on becoming just deadly with that three pointer. He has the physical ability and now he just needs that killer instinct. He has all the other tools. Maybe not all star material but he'd be a solid two in a playoff team's one-two punch.

[doclinkin]

They definitely need at least one more uber talent, a guy with the clear potential
to be the alpha dog and a possible future HoF player. If Sarr/Bilal continue to develop, they
could be outstanding as the #2 and #2b players. Maybe more but I'm being greedy and
want someone minimally like Gilbert but with some defensive chops as our alpha dog.
Maybe that could be either Bilal or Alex. Maybe. They're only 19/20.

Or it could be the next guy we draft, who will likely also be very young and a couple/few years
away from anything like their full potential. If things go right...

I think Bilal has potential to be nasty once he puts it all together. I see things we were not seeing last year in terms of his skill, athleticism and growth. As he gets stronger and more confident he is going to be a problem for opponents. I get the feeling as he adds muscle he will enjoy being able to bully his match-ups.

But yeah if we replaced Kuzma's minutes with a two-way star we'd have an exciting young solid team. I like Cooper Flagg's statline-packing box scores even if he is not incinerating teams with his scoring. He's got a nice enough handle and defense that I think you can play him as a big 2/3 wing next to Bub & Bilal. Add an intimidating rebounder up front then season for a couple years. I think our Defense in particular gets nasty. In a good way this time.

The draft after that looks sweet as well. Boozer. AJ Dybantsa. Alijah Arenas. et al. We are potentially positioned to come through this rough patch with a bank vault full of talent.

I don't mind having Brogdon/JV as mentors, but I expect we get better return on investment from a trade. For Brogdon in particular. If we part on good terms maybe we can re-sign him at a discount price in the offseason.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

-The Wizards should stop tanking.

-Move Kuzma even second round picks.

-Keep Brogdon and Champagnie to play in rotation with Poole and Carrington.

-Jonas Valanciunas should be traded to the highest bidder, hopefully for a first round pick.

Looking at tonight's box score, I see everything favorable.

Coulibaly and Sarr are freakish athletes at both ends. Pool is that good player Golden State ran off. Kispert did what he was drafted to do. Carrington is possibly a young Clyde Frazier, big on the boards and assists, and doesn't have to score. Kyshawn knows how to play the right way and can be brought along slowly.

I like Brogdon a lot. I said, "Keep him," but of course, don't refuse a great offer. He has to want to play for a contender after being so close to winning at Boston.

Tonight was very encouraging. If they stay healthy, they won't lose by 15 to 20 nightly.

I appreciate the sentiment, but no. They definitely need a Dylan Harper/Cooper Flagg or someone like that as at least another piece. I can particularly see a lineup of Bub, Harper, Bilal, Sarr, and a 5 currently not on the roster who is a beast on the boards, a defensive presence protecting the rim and can guard on pick and rolls as well.

Fair enough, but Champagnie is a better player than Bub and arguably Coulibaly.

This team is going to keep losing with 19-year old, and by the time an Uber talent matures the team will be broken up..

[payitforward]

I don't think so, Ken -- at least not if they stick to plan.

Certainly they'd be wise to ink Champagnie to a long-term contract pronto! I'd love to see Champagnie spend the rest of his career as a Wizard, why not?

But the big point is that accumulating current talent at a bargain doesn't get in the way of rebuilding! It gives you player capital. No team roster has 15 guys the team drafted!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

My resolve vasillates. I'm sure I have Wizard fan PTSD.

The big picture then is to accumulate assets by any means. Trade anyone if it's beneficial overall. Lose games for the tank. The top-2 or 3 players are generational. Certainlythe top-5 should yield an all star player with any luck and some wisdom.

I think this will be like the 1984 draft.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1984.html