badinage wrote:The phrase was Winger’s.
And he didn’t mean a team that’s just good for a time.
Found it:
The goal is to pursue championships by any means necessary,” Winger said at his introductory news conference Thursday. “It will take time. It’s going to start on the ground floor. It’s not just players. It’s not just coaches. We’re going to do everything a little bit better tomorrow than it’s being done today … Eventually we’re going to hoist a trophy here in D.C. I can’t promise you when.”
…
“The Wizards have an extremely bright future, if appropriately managed,” Winger said. “The eventual expectation is that we’re going to build a generational contender. We’re going to eventually have a team that will contend for championships. I can’t promise when that will be.”
Okay. Absolutely. If we win a championship that counts as generational. Considering it hasn’t happened here in 2-3 generations.
But he damn sure didn’t promise it would happen in 3 years. Winger made it clear he expects the process to take a while. Teams like San Antonio shortened that time by dint of luck. They followed the same model as the Wiz, trading away good players in order to bottom out. Difference is they failed upwards in the lotto. The Wiz were one lucky bounce away from that same luck.
The Cavs got there with luck and a smart trade. Same as OKC in landing Chet but also an absolutely perfect trade of a fading star for a rising one plus a raft of draft capital. We didn’t have a star of that caliber but the Suns swaps still could pan out as something similar.
Much of this is luck. They’re doing everything they can to stack the luck in their favor. But it comes down to ping pong balls when you’re talking about landing Wemby and Harper, or Flagg for fxcks sake, sometimes the odds shine on someone else.
Until we are out from under the John Wall trade you can’t fault them for committing to as many years of “abysmal” basketball as necessary. Blame Sheppard for endangering that pick 4 years into the future. Because if we don’t lose then that New York team you’d emulate could be a ‘generational’ squad by adding a free top 10 lotto pick to a veteran winning team.
So yes. We have to eat the losses for one more year. Since we don’t even have the assets to trade to become a better squad. And nor do we have the advantage of a New York market. Nor the dad of an all star on staff (Brunson) to both land him cheap and help re sign him at a discount.
How sick would you feel if New York got our number nine pick but the Suns won a top 3 selection. In a potentially historic draft. There goes our pick swap. There goes 2 teams enriched at our expense.
I dunno. I too look forward to see how management builds and drafts when they are no longer under the threat of that lost pick. It will be good to see who we can be when we’re actually trying to win. But until then I have no problem with their tactic of drafting the youngest talents in the draft and hoping to build them to their top potential.
Tre Johnson won’t turn 20 til March. Remember how young and out of sorts Deni looked as a teenage NBA player? Tre is even younger. Deni is a January baby. And he already had pro experience. Struggled with inconsistency and hesitancy to shoot for his first 3 years. Got it together on his 2nd contract.
Will Riley and Tre Johnson reclassified to this draft class. They’re supposed to be in next years draft. Bub. Alex. Bilal. All were among the youngest in their draft class. All coming into a situation where they’re not surrounded by winners. Are thrown into a rip tide current to learn to swim. High school seniors or college freshmen battling NBA all stars on a nightly basis. When studies show players make their biggest leaps at age 22, 23, 24. In that order.
So yeah. I’m not going to be quick to judge a kid in his first few preseason games joining a team with a bunch of other college kids all trying to figure it out. One more year of losing. Looking for flashes of talent and having to be happy with that. One more draft and then we can try to build a roster with the best of that bunch.
