The RealGM Wizards Board Draft Thread 2008/2009

[AgentOvechkin08]

Griffin will be guarding teams no.2 post option on our team so what does man to man defense matter so much? He just needs to be able to gobble up defensive rebounds and score on the block. Just having the size he has will be an upgrade from Jamison.

Curry is a beast. Greivis could be decent. Austin Daye will be better than Earl Clark. Just say no to Jordan Hill.

I say say no to Greivis.

Remember alot of ppl on here said "PLEASE NO MCGEE"
Careful what you say.

[doclinkin]

Curry struggled again against Purdue. I think he smokes lesser teams and has trouble with actual top notch basketball programs. And when I saw him play, he doesn't pick his feet up as much. It's like they drag on the floor.

Someone drafting him in the lottery would be a mistake. I would not be surprised if Charlotte picks him.

Eh. Disagree. Curry saw a good deep team gameplanning to shut him down at the exclusion of anything else. They ran a full court press on him for 40 minutes rotating 3 guards to keep a fresh defender on him at all times one of whom was the Big 10 defensive player of the year. Defensively his counterparts went 3 for 11, 0 for 2 (in 21 minutes) and 1 for 2 (in 23 minutes). They weren't spending a ton of guard energy on scoring they were pouring in all their effort to jamming him up on screens and chasing him around the court. Not something he's likely to see on a team with a true primary or secondary scorer. Imagine Rip Hamilton without Billups/Iverson/Stuckey or Rasheed, with Rip bringing the ball up the floor.

What I'm more impressed with is that he had 8 boards in the game-- 7 defensive. More than all but one player on the floor for either team. Plus the usual 6 asts, 3 steals. Again what I'm struck with is that in the games where he's off, he tries everything else he can do to work for a win.

He'll see more all-game fullcourt pressure this year. He won't see it in the NBA.

[mhd]

Harden had a very good game for ASU. The good thing was he went to the line roughly 20 times. I think he's easily the 2nd best prospect in this draft.

[Rafael122]

Doc - I get that. I'm not crapping on the kid. I think he's an excellent scorer, but he's not a lottery pick, but he probably will be. He just doesn't offer much other than scoring and scoring is not an issue with the Wizards.

[pancakes3]

not just any scoring... he brings shooting which IS an issue with the wizards. plus, he'd be an upgrade at the position he plays. I don't think any other player, overhyped blake griffin over jamison included, will be an upgrade over the incumbent player for the next 3 years.

[Ruzious]

I still like Curry a lot - despite his horrible game against Purdue, but Harden is the guard I'd... uh, lust for. It'd be so nice to have a player who excells at every part of the game. In their 76-75 win Saturday, he went to the line for 21 foul shots, scored 30 points, 6 rebouds, 6 assists, 5 steals... sigh. So, even on the odd day that his 3 point shot wasn't falling, he still has a great game.

[WizarDynasty]

Our future MVP is on the way and his name is Earl ClarK--aka lebron stopper..and brother of super man.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

See, this is the nice thing about the draft. At the beginning of the year everyone says, "Oh, this year is a crappy draft. If we don't get the number one or two pick we're screwed." Then as the year goes along other choices emerge. There's no need to tank on purpose, we can still get the player we need in the top ten and win twenty of the next sixty games. I'd rather do that than accumulate a whole year's worth of frustration that kills our chemistry.

[Ruzious]

See, this is the nice thing about the draft. At the beginning of the year everyone says, "Oh, this year is a crappy draft. If we don't get the number one or two pick we're screwed." Then as the year goes along other choices emerge. There's no need to tank on purpose, we can still get the player we need in the top ten and win twenty of the next sixty games. I'd rather do that than accumulate a whole year's worth of frustration that kills our chemistry.

Winning 24 for the season could still get us a top 5 pick. Being the worst team only guarantees getting a top 4 pick. The 10th pick... I'd trade it and my first born for the 2nd pick.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Winning 24 for the season could still get us a top 5 pick. Being the worst team only guarantees getting a top 4 pick. The 10th pick... I'd trade it and my first born for the 2nd pick.

Yeah. The marginal benefit of getting 10 vs 24 wins is very small (in terms of the draft). The marginal cost in terms of bad chemistry is very high. I'd rather see us get those 24 wins.

[Benjammin]

To paraphrase the immortal diderotn (sp?) "suck is suck". Arguing about the psyche of a team whether they win 10 games or 24 is a little silly. There will be a new coach next year. There will (hopefully) be a healthy roster for a change. Two years ago Boston won 24 games and the next year they won a championship. Last season Miami won 15 games and this season they're above .500 incorporating two rookies into their lineup.

[WizarDynasty]

as long as haywood and gil don't come and screw things up for us..and long as Grunfeld remember that this team needs its lebron stopper more than a michael beasley clone with no shot blocking. We will be fine.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Well, the boston team that won 24 games did not have two of their best players on it, the zards team that is threatening to go 10-72 has two of our best players on it.

I guess what I'm really saying is there's no reason not to give the young guys an opportunity to learn and keep trying to win with what you have. We're not risking a top five pick by playing N1 more, McGee more. We're not risking winning so many games that we don't get a good pick. There's no need to play your worst player 35 minutes (I'm not naming names or anything but his initials are DS). Give the youngsters some run and if they pick up some wins in the second half of the season it's not the end of the world, we've still earned a good pick with our lousy play in the first half of the season.

[spaceman_E]

Curry is a beast. Greivis could be decent. Austin Daye will be better than Earl Clark. Just say no to Jordan Hill.

Remember alot of ppl on here said "PLEASE NO MCGEE"
Careful what you say.

The difference being I've actually seen Jordan Hill play. I also predicted and advocated the Mcgee pick.

[spaceman_E]

Also, Zonk...
One could definitely argue that 2 of our top 3 players are not playing right now, just like Boston. Plus our draft pick and any free agent/future trade acquisitions. It might take them a month or so to learn how to play together but, we will be infinitely better next year.

[Ruzious]

Just wondering - who besides Pierce was Bahston without in 2006/2007? Fwiw, Pierce did play 47 games that season, and scored 25 PPG.

Clearly, all we need to do is add a KG and a Ray Allen, and we're set.

[nate33]

Why isn't Dejuan Blair getting any mention as a lotto pick?

The guy's numbers are off the charts. He's got a PER of 42 which leads the nation, by a lot. He averages 23.0 points, 20.3 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per 40 minutes. He's 6-7 but with a 7-3 wingspan (and that was last year when he was 18). He's only 19 years old and by all reports, he hasn't really mastered basketball fundamentals. It's amazing to me that a guy can put up numbers like that when he has so much to improve upon.

[fishercob]

Just wondering - who besides Pierce was Bahston without in 2006/2007? Fwiw, Pierce did play 47 games that season, and scored 25 PPG.

Clearly, all we need to do is add a KG and a Ray Allen, and we're set.

With the trade assets EG has accumulated, making a trade or two along similar lines is not out of the real of possibility.

Wiz fans need to root against the Suns, Raps and Mavs. If they lose, Amare, Bosh, and Dirk become more attainable.

[Ruzious]

Just wondering - who besides Pierce was Bahston without in 2006/2007? Fwiw, Pierce did play 47 games that season, and scored 25 PPG.

Clearly, all we need to do is add a KG and a Ray Allen, and we're set.

With the trade assets EG has accumulated, making a trade or two along similar lines is not out of the real of possibility.

Wiz fans need to root against the Suns, Raps and Mavs. If they lose, Amare, Bosh, and Dirk become more attainable.

Is that Michael Scott talking or fishercob? I admire your optimism - though I think it's overly optimistic. Still, you have become the voice of calm optimism here, and that's a good thing.

[Ruzious]

Why isn't Dejuan Blair getting any mention as a lotto pick?

The guy's numbers are off the charts. He's got a PER of 42 which leads the nation, by a lot. He averages 23.0 points, 20.3 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per 40 minutes. He's 6-7 but with a 7-3 wingspan (and that was last year when he was 18). He's only 19 years old and by all reports, he hasn't really mastered basketball fundamentals. It's amazing to me that a guy can put up numbers like that when he has so much to improve upon.

Rats, the Pitts game was on last weekend (yesterday?), and I missed it. I still haven't seen him play for more than a few minutes. But you know the answer - 6'7 PFs - that's why Millsap and others slipped. Pitt alsways seems to have some rugged short PFs - in the Sam Clancy mold. Speaking of which, Clancy is the prototype for these undersized PFs that get ignored by the NBA. Some of these guys would make real good tight ends.