CntOutSmrtCrazy wrote:The Consiglieri wrote:CntOutSmrtCrazy wrote:
Landing the first or second pick this year has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not this was a good trade, period. This zombie logic has got to die. You could have still tanked with Deni on the roster. Would they have maybe had to get a bit more creative, sit him out for some games, etc.? Sure. But if you can't figure that piece of the puzzle out, while still holding onto a major young talent, you don't deserve to be running an NBA franchise.
It's not gonna die. If Deni is on the roster, the team is going to be more efficient, period, if he's this good, approaching all star level good, is he going to flip a game or two or three in a scenario where we are fighting tooth and nail with the Jazz and Charlotte and even New Orleans for positioning this year, and next. YES. It does, and when I talk top 2, that's half the payoff, the other half, is the band between 1-5.
No reason why we couldn't have Lauri Markkanen'd with Deni on the roster, Jazz have the worst record in the league. Again if a front office can't engineer some creative tanking while keeping a young players with great upside, that's a organizational problem. Cardinal rule you don't jettison young talent to help tank. Old talent sure, not young talent.
There are potentially 2 big reasons why we couldn't. And their names are: Ted Leonsis. And Adam Silver.
We are already reading articles about how the competition committee is going to look at new ways to combat tanking. Clowns like Bill SImmons are openly advocating that Cooper Flagg return to school so as not to reward the Wiz and Utah. Despite our front office making it clear before the season we are in a developmental year for young players, the team gets held up as a laughingstock in national media as a fundamentally unserious franchise. Fans of other franchises and the talking heads want to punish the Wizards further simply for losing. But for most of the season we were not strictly tanking. Just playing out the strategy of fielding young players.
This is not Utah, we loaded up on youth yes, but we started the year playing heavy minutes with veterans Kuzma and Valanciunas. Kuzma was fundamental in our early loss record. We landed Brogdon and started him when he was healthy. Until we traded Kuzma we earned all our losses honestly. Actually trying to win most games, just overmatched. A large part of that was the fact that we played heavy minutes for 3 rookies and Bilal. If we kept Deni, we can't rely on Kuzma's bloated starter spot in the rotation. We don't have Carrington playing more minutes than any other rookie. Kyshawn and Bilal are taking a seat behind Deni since they all play the same role. We don't have Brogdon and his injury excuse for losing. Coach Keefe has not asked his players to do anything but try to win.
Then we shipped Kuzma and quickly saw a surge of energy and youth energy that actually won us a few games. Meanwhile Utah was openly nakedly flouting the league and bottoming out. Which forced our hand to promote GoGo players and back of bench players as starters. And to rest players who were earning wins for us.
The league is embarrassed though. It's all fine and good when a respected team like the Spurs successfully tanks their way to a savior. But it would be shameful if a perpetual loser of a franchise manages to dumpster dive its way to a franchise player. They're talking of any number of ways to 'fix' the lottery. Like: the 4th-7th worst teams get the top 4 picks. To encourage even the worst of the worst to try to fight it out at the end of the year. Who knows how they rig the game, but expect that in 2026 its going to be an even rougher road to the top of the lottery heap.
We have cover for whatever is next because we are playing young cats and they are trying hard. Just not experienced and skilled enough. Keeping Deni out of the line-up when he is playing well would be the exact sort of thing that provokes the league to drastic measures. This year would be bad enough. But if we somehow landed a top pick anyway, Deni + Cooper is enough to win games by accident. Add in development by youth and we are as likely to land 9-14 in the lottery as Top 8. Bye bye draft pick. It would be criminally irresponsible for a rebuilding team to lose an asset that critical. That's the franchise right there. Deni's career would have to be better than everybody drafted 1-8 in 2026 for it to be worth it.
And speaking of embarrassed. I alluded to it in the Beal thread but: How patient do you think Ted is going to be with the strategy of designed losses? This front office group has been transparent about intentionally playing heavy minutes for rookies and 2nd year players. We shipped crowd favorites Gafford and Deni expressly to be able to load up on the youth movement. We have been losing and the gate revenue has taken a hit. Meanwhile Ted took a high profile PR loss in trying to slip downriver to re-start the franchise in Virginia. He's been pretty quiet since then. Not smugly strutting in public media. Meanwhile his team is losing by bucketloads. And we are being clowned in the media, see above. Have to figure he'll hear about it in Governor's meetings, where he has often been loudly active. If he gets on the nerves of his hometown fans, you don't think his fellow governors would like to stick it to him? Pass rules that punish his team. And benefit themselves.
Keeping Deni means playing Deni. But Winger and Dawkins may not have unlimited leash. I think shipping Deni may have incidentally been something of a power play. Not intentional but significant. Tommy was jettisoned in part for his malpractice in dealing with the Rui/Deni situation. We lost our Japanese market because he couldn't find a way to play them both, so shipped Rui for pennies on the dollar. WInger and Dawkins were told he would be hands off and they could do whatever they wanted. So they promptly booted his 2nd son Beal. Then homegrown boychik Deni. Nothing else says 'new regime' like this. In the past we held onto our homegrown talent for far too long, hoping that we'd be given hometown discounts or be respected by free agents for our loyalty. This was not that. Give them credit for going against Ted's prior history at least.
Whatever the long term benefits, losing like this can't be a good look for Ted. He's bleeding money and marketing opportunities. It has to steam him. Its been his whole marketing strategy. No other team in the league has such high profile (and cringeworthy) international ethnicity nights. Polish Heritage when we had Gortat. Lithuanian night for Valanciunas. Etc. Hell they even sold tickets for Deni's return as Jewish heritage night. If we had Deni and he was playing well, if he broke out and outshined the rookie movement, that is what Ted would be trying to sell. He's already trying to raise ticket prices in hopes of a bump from whomever we land in the lotto.
If we got any of the top 3, and had Deni on the roster, that is all she wrote for the rebuild. Israel's golden boy and the American Flagg. That's what you get. There's your whole core. Ted is selling everything on that.
Personally I want more. I want two franchise players. Maybe Deni is that. Maybe he is what Cooper Flagg hopes to be. It's a gamble. But we shipped him though to ensure top picks two years in a row. Because keeping one really good player is partly what has kept us on the treadmill, and one of the few real ways to win in this league is to suck to get lucky at just the right time. So they are taking no chances with half measures.
If you are all in on the strategy, commit to it and stick to it through the pain. There are any number of ways it can fall short. One of the ways is to give up on it too early to salvage the pride of a thin skinned team owner who was publicly spanked by his fanbase and the City he works in.
Me I say we get the American Flagg. Then draft a redemption story in Alijah Arenas. Build around DMV pride with Bub and Georgetown's Thomas Sorber. (or fine Derik Queen with a late 1st if he falls). And okay sure, we can do the french heritage thing as necessary. Until or unless they are traded in roster balancing moves and upgrades. Let's see how it plays out.
