WOJ Bomb: Michael Winger becomes the Wizards President of Basketball Operations

[doclinkin]

For the record, outside of this move, I really like what the management is doing, and I think the future is bright. However, I stand by what I said weeks ago. This trade will go down as one of the worst in this franchise's history.

For what it’s worth. If I’m tracking it correctly, the assets from that trade so far have helped net us:

—Bub (14th pick)

—Will Riley + Jahmir Watkins
(Memphis pick, shipped one of the 2nds, trade back with Utah)

—30th pick in 2026 draft.
(Philly trade, the other 2nd, or the PHX 2nd whichever’s better).

—2030 first rounder.

— tanking to acquire Tre. (Injured Brogdan required we start a rookie PG; Kuzma as tank commander vs Deni as our vet is worth multiple wins in a tank year)

—hopefully: top 8 pick this draft vs losing our pick. (See above)

Detractors argue how we could have gotten that with different assets. Cool. We didn’t though. Just measuring what they actually did with those assets.

Which all goes to the point that we did ‘reset the roster’ with assets from this trade.

Are any of those players better than Deni? No.

Could they be? The strategy was to aim for a franchise player at the top of these two drafts. We missed out in last years lotto. Still have a chance with #1 or #2 this year. Scouts argue yes the top picks are potential game changers. If we hit on one then we have a star to build around.

Is Deni a franchise player? Are you a championship contender with him as your first option scorer. Would you trade him for 4 first rounders and a better chance at a franchise guy.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Let's turn this thread into the deepthroating Deni thread too. And also some other threads. I think you missed a few.

A lot of crying over someone who would make this a 30 win team?

It's also a clear case of, if they didn't draft you, they will get rid of you. That was the implication in 2023 when these guys came in and started talking deconstruction. They said it on camera we are taking out all the foundations and will start completely over.

What? This is maybe my favorite all time excuse for this trade because it is so acutely bad. The notion that a GM of a professional sports franchise would rid themselves of a great up and comer because he's not "their guy", that in itself screams incompetence and pettiness.

All reiterate Winger was part of the brain trust that traded SGA and the farm for Paul George. Shocking that's were the Wizards would go for help...

[lastemp3ror]

Can't wait to see the kool-aid drinking crew's latest mental gymnastics on this.

If you like seeing mental gymnastics, go to the Wizards sub on reddit and click on the post for this video. Literally everyone is slurping up everything this management team is doing.

For the record, outside of this move, I really like what the management is doing, and I think the future is bright. However, I stand by what I said weeks ago. This trade will go down as one of the worst in this franchise's history.

This trade isn't even the realm of the worst in franchise history because they got assets back.

I'd be pissed if this was Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond.

I said this trade will go down as "one of the worst" in franchise history. I didn't say the worst.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

If you like seeing mental gymnastics, go to the Wizards sub on reddit and click on the post for this video. Literally everyone is slurping up everything this management team is doing.

For the record, outside of this move, I really like what the management is doing, and I think the future is bright. However, I stand by what I said weeks ago. This trade will go down as one of the worst in this franchise's history.

This trade isn't even the realm of the worst in franchise history because they got assets back.

I'd be pissed if this was Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond.

I said this trade will go down as "one of the worst" in franchise history. I didn't say the worst.

It's semantics. Whatever worst, second worst, third worst, it's just deflecting blame away from the front office because the acolytes won't stand for a major, major blemish on its record.

[doclinkin]

Cnt:

Back to your kennel boy. Until you’re able to keep from cr@pping on everything.

Do you ever add anything positive to the conversation? You got one topic and bring it to every thread. Thats what got StilDropin20 banned. Mix it up.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Cnt:

Back to your kennel boy. Until you’re able to keep from cr@pping on everything.

Do you ever add anything positive to the conversation? You got one topic and bring it to every thread. Thats what got StilDropin20 banned. Mix it up.

Desperately trying to get moderators to intervene with locking threads and banning people is transparent, not coy. Just a heads up though, you do what you gotta do.

[doclinkin]

Cnt:

Back to your kennel boy. Until you’re able to keep from cr@pping on everything.

Do you ever add anything positive to the conversation? You got one topic and bring it to every thread. Thats what got StilDropin20 banned. Mix it up.

Desperately trying to get moderators to intervene with locking threads and banning people is transparent, not coy. Just a heads up though, you do what you gotta do.

Or bring it here where it’s relevant. Happy to tussle. But if all you got is antics and shenanigans bring it to the proper spot.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Cnt:

Back to your kennel boy. Until you’re able to keep from cr@pping on everything.

Do you ever add anything positive to the conversation? You got one topic and bring it to every thread. Thats what got StilDropin20 banned. Mix it up.

Desperately trying to get moderators to intervene with locking threads and banning people is transparent, not coy. Just a heads up though, you do what you gotta do.

Or bring it here where it’s relevant. Happy to tussle. But if all you got is antics and shenanigans bring it to the proper spot.

This is a Winger relevant discussion, he spoke to the trade so yeah there's overlap. What are you even complaining about? Do you need safe space threads now too along with the others you want locked?

[doclinkin]

Just an observation, but it's really telling that the ardent "this trade denialist" camp on this board gets bent out of shape about me teasing with things like "rookie", "fan boy" or "Dawkintologist" (now "lappies", I kinda like that one, kind the double entendre thing going for it) but over here they are calling people c*nts, telling guys they live in their moms basements, talking about deep throating (I've lost count how many times), generating AI photos (multiple counts) and in the same breath calling acting as if others are unhinged and pathetic.

Come play. Talk about Winger in this thread. Troll posters in another. Keeps the board cleaner. It’s a heads up. No threat. I like fighting with you. I liked fighting with StillDroopy. Turned down being a moderator for this reason. I’d rather fight proper and fair.

[payitforward]

Now children!*

Hey cnt -- I'm still wondering whether you predict overall failure or success for this rebuild -- what's your best bet?


* I get to use the term b/c I'm 83.

[Rafael122]

Winger can't answer that question about Deni honestly, but I wouldn't be shocked if his true answer was "we should have kept him a year longer than we should have so we could have gotten 3 first round picks instead of 2." I think Deni was always destined to be traded but it wouldn't shock me if they wanted a take back just to get more picks.

[Silvie Lysandra]

Again, the Deni thing clearly is a sign of how much patience fans *actually* have for rebuilds. People basically are mad we didn't end the tank 2 years in, essentially, after having acquired a *single* high lottery pick. What's fascinating is that people are crashing out over the MacKenzie Gore trade for the same reasons in Nats-land. Just a complete inability to distinguish "This player is a good player" from "This player doesn't fit our strategy".

People really were just okay with a 45 win ceiling, not a title contender.

[FAH1223]

What? This is maybe my favorite all time excuse for this trade because it is so acutely bad. The notion that a GM of a professional sports franchise would rid themselves of a great up and comer because he's not "their guy", that in itself screams incompetence and pettiness.

All reiterate Winger was part of the brain trust that traded SGA and the farm for Paul George. Shocking that's were the Wizards would go for help...

Winger was part of that brain trust. And it obviously didn't work out for LAC.

But he also was in OKC for 7 years and was part of helping build a NBA Finals team and a team that went to multiple conference finals.

So, hey, much better than anything we've had since 1980.

[FAH1223]

Winger can't answer that question about Deni honestly, but I wouldn't be shocked if his true answer was "we should have kept him a year longer than we should have so we could have gotten 3 first round picks instead of 2." I think Deni was always destined to be traded but it wouldn't shock me if they wanted a take back just to get more picks.

Yep. It's also where I'm at.

I still say on paper, getting 2 first round picks and multiple 2nd round picks for Deni is not bad value. Not at all.

I'd be more pissed if we got absolutely positively nothing such as when Big Wes under Abe's pressure did the Webber-Richmond trade. Or Ernie's last act being the the Oubre for Ariza debacle.

[Kanyewest]

Winger can't answer that question about Deni honestly, but I wouldn't be shocked if his true answer was "we should have kept him a year longer than we should have so we could have gotten 3 first round picks instead of 2." I think Deni was always destined to be traded but it wouldn't shock me if they wanted a take back just to get more picks.

Yep. It's also where I'm at.

I still say on paper, getting 2 first round picks and multiple 2nd round picks for Deni is not bad value. Not at all.

I'd be more pissed if we got absolutely positively nothing such as when Big Wes under Abe's pressure did the Webber-Richmond trade. Or Ernie's last act being the the Oubre for Ariza debacle.

And Otis Thorpe!

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

What? This is maybe my favorite all time excuse for this trade because it is so acutely bad. The notion that a GM of a professional sports franchise would rid themselves of a great up and comer because he's not "their guy", that in itself screams incompetence and pettiness.

All reiterate Winger was part of the brain trust that traded SGA and the farm for Paul George. Shocking that's were the Wizards would go for help...

Winger was part of that brain trust. And it obviously didn't work out for LAC.

But he also was in OKC for 7 years and was part of helping build a NBA Finals team and a team that went to multiple conference finals.

So, hey, much better than anything we've had since 1980.

Didn't work out for LAC? That's putting it lightly.

In terms of OKC, that team already had Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka in place before Winger stepped a foot on that team.

Facts are stubborn things...

[Zonkerbl]

I really, really don't care about this discussion- it's all sunk cost at this point - but I think Sarr and Deni would have been a decent combo. The question is how would you have built all the other assets around him? Would the zards have lucked into a higher pick with a better record that year? Was the trade really Deni for Bub and Tre? What if they luck into a high pick they otherwise would not have gotten next season? Or perhaps management would have managed the tank w Deni on the roster and gotten the same assets? I dunno. I think there's a way the franchise ends up better off without Deni. Right now it looks like a loss but a less horrific one than it did earlier when Bub wasn't playing well. The intention was definitely to sacrifice production today for future flexibility and that they got.

[doclinkin]

The trade was to bottom out and build through the draft. They’ve made that clear in all of their language that their job was to tear down to the foundation and built it all the way back up with draft assets and positioning.

The fact that we might lose a first round pick to New York meant that they had to fully commit to it and not do a half ass job.

It’s not like they have lied about this. They’ve made it clear from day one that that was their mission. Try to build a championship team starting with lots of draft picks, and high draft picks in particular.

[tontoz]

[Rafael122]

Keep in mind folks, we're in this position because of the previous regime. Perhaps if the protections on our pick didn't go out as far as it did, the rebuilding phase would have looked completely different. Maybe Deni would have still been on the team. Who knows.