A couple of ideas from the Wiz board

[GopherIt!]

I found a couple of ideas from the Wiz board that might be kinda interesting.

Post by LyricalRico:

I already posted my idea to use the pick to dump all our contracts on OKC for Wilkins and a first (either this year or next year). Minnesota could give up Mike Miller and the #18 to get another lottery pick. Detroit may be willing to take a couple contracts and give up the #16 to get Thabeet. Just a couple ideas off the top of my head.

Post by nate33
If we don't land the #1 pick, then I'd be open to trading down from #3 or so to #8 or so while picking up a decent player in the process. If we traded Etan and the #3 for Mike Miller and the #7; and then drafted Curry, we'd be loaded next year:

Depending on whether guys like Rubio and Holiday come out (and assuming we get a chance to draft them) a deal like one of above could be very helpful. The first one is better but the basic idea of both of them is appealing.

[shrink]

Both are great posters.

Mike Miller for Etan actually adds $2.6 mil salary to them, which would double. Perhaps a better idea for them (since they wish to compete next year), is to use Miller and Craig Smith. With $12,180,937 outgoing, we could take back $15,326,171.

Etan's already $7,354,500, and he has a trade kicker (let's say, "10%") so he'd be very unappealing to most other teams. Add in Mike James $6,466,600 (who we might have to shuffle off elsewhere for a different unwanted expiring), and the pick, and WAS saves about $4 mil .. doubled to $8 mil for the lux. WAS would have to decide if the pick is worth $8 mil and the Miller + Smith upgrades, which may be fair in next season's tight economy. If we need to add incentive, we could include the UTA pick (probably no 2009 salary) or our cap space to take back Opec or/and Crittendon.

Mike Miller (exp) + Craig Smith (exp) for Etan Thomas (exp) + Mike James (exp) + WAS 1st.

[shrink]

Hollinger suspects the Wizards might use the pick as well, but I think its more likely they try to get under the lux in a big trade. For example, a deal like:

Etan (exp) + Mike James (exp) + Butler or Jamison for ____________________ + $6 mil TPE .

.. is sufficiently large enough that they could salary match, and still take back so much less salary that they could slide under the lux. Getting the TPE is worth $15 mil to them, so they'd have the motivation. They'd need to find a team with a star, and some salary room next season, but that's an OK package for a team trying to move a great, but a little over-prices star. Philadelphia looks like a good match.

[C.lupus]

Both are great posters.

Mike Miller for Etan actually adds $2.6 mil salary to them, which would double. Perhaps a better idea for them (since they wish to compete next year), is to use Miller and Craig Smith. With $12,180,937 outgoing, we could take back $15,326,171.

Etan's already $7,354,500, and he has a trade kicker (let's say, "10%") so he'd be very unappealing to most other teams. Add in Mike James $6,466,600 (who we might have to shuffle off elsewhere for a different unwanted expiring), and the pick, and WAS saves about $4 mil .. doubled to $8 mil for the lux. WAS would have to decide if the pick is worth $8 mil and the Miller + Smith upgrades, which may be fair in next season's tight economy. If we need to add incentive, we could include the UTA pick (probably no 2009 salary) or our cap space to take back Opec or/and Crittendon.

Mike Miller (exp) + Craig Smith (exp) for Etan Thomas (exp) + Mike James (exp) + WAS 1st.

I'd probably do that one if we keep our pick. I would not use MM just to move up 4 spots in the draft, though.

[revprodeji]

Yea, using him to move up 4 spots makes no sense. Moving up from 18th to a top-5 makes sense, but not 8th to 3rd.

[skorff26]

I think if it's a top 5 pick; they would ask us to take back Stevenson or Songalia

I could see a trade of Mike Miller, 2 less favorable picks from Miami (the ones from Chalmers trade)
for
Stevenson, Thomas, James, 3 million cash, Wsh 1st

Why for us? We add a top 5 pick; the 3 million cash will be used to buyout James (I think we could buy him out for around 4 million or even less since I don't think he would want to come back here either). Also, I think we could package Stevenson with one of our minor assets and pick up a 2010 expiring, and if not I think that we could probably buy him out as well and pay him the full amount in 2009 and a little bit in 2010. Thomas would be a big body that we could play next to Jefferson and Love. The 2 2nd rounders aren't going to much use to us if we have our 1st, wsh 1st, mia 1st, and bos 1st.

Why for Wsh? First off they save
7.5 million (from contracts) x 2 for luxury tax = 15 million - 3 million cash + 3 million 1st rounder = 15 million in cash (will be more since they will now receive luxury tax payouts as well) for the 2009 season (and about 8 million in 2010 with 1st rounder and stevenson).
I left out Smith since I don't think they would be particularly interested in him since they have Jamison, Blatche, and Songalia at PF. We could give them Telfair instead and take back Pecherov if they want another PG for insurance for Arenas.
They also would get back Miller which would give them a solid team if everyone is healthy.
Arenas/Crit
Miller/Young
Butler/McGuire/Wsh 2nd rounder
Jamison/Blatche/Songalia
Haywood/Blatche/McGee/Pecherov
That's 12 players
Use Wsh 2nd rounder on a SF like Williams, Smith, Young, Summers, Casspi, Singler, James, Johnson, Henderson or a PG like Maynor, Flynn, Collision, lawson, mills, warren, curry (at least one of these players would be available)
And then either sign someone for vet min (Juan Dixon as 3rd PG?) or use one of the other 2nd rounders to get a player; also they could try to package their 3 2nd rounders and move up into the 1st round as well.

[younggunsmn]

we only lost 2 spots (from 3 to 5) in adding him, when he had more value, in a trade which was also a salary wash. why is 3 to 8 so out of line?

I would only do that if it landed us thabeet or rubio though.

[Rakocevicftw]

we only lost 2 spots (from 3 to 5) in adding him, when he had more value, in a trade which was also a salary wash. why is 3 to 8 so out of line?
.

Because this draft is much, much worse.

[younggunsmn]

Not if you're talking about the difference between drafting stephen curry or ricky rubio.
Overall depthwise it's worse but top 3-4 is potentially very solid with griffin, thabeet, harden and very possibly rubio. After that the dropoff is immense with a bunch of tweeners like curry, teague and holiday and projects like monroe, jennings, mullens, and hill. If trading mike miller is the difference between adding another corey brewer level talent and adding the next stud PG (Rubio) or stud shotblocker (Thabeet) we are getting off cheap. This is very similar to the oden draft where the top 3 were all very solid and it was a crapshoot after that.

Next time you call it a bad draft please elaborate. The dropoff between 3 and 10 last year was not very much, everyone with the exception of joe alexander and a very raw galinari drafted in that range is already contributing at an nba starter level.
larger dropoff = harder to trade up.

[Rakocevicftw]

Not if you're talking about the difference between drafting stephen curry or ricky rubio.
Overall depthwise it's worse but top 3-4 is potentially very solid with griffin, thabeet, harden and very possibly rubio. After that the dropoff is immense with a bunch of tweeners like curry, teague and holiday and projects like monroe, jennings, mullens, and hill. If trading mike miller is the difference between adding another corey brewer level talent and adding the next stud PG (Rubio) or stud shotblocker (Thabeet) we are getting off cheap. This is very similar to the oden draft where the top 3 were all very solid and it was a crapshoot after that.

Next time you call it a bad draft please elaborate. The dropoff between 3 and 10 last year was not very much, everyone with the exception of joe alexander and a very raw galinari drafted in that range is already contributing at an nba starter level.
larger dropoff = harder to trade up.

Ok, I'll elaborate.

This is a 2 man draft. Rubio and Griffin. Everyone else has role player written all over them, so trading up 5 spots to get a different role player is very different from trading up 2 spots to get a different star.

[shrink]

Just throwing it out there to people that are after the Wiz pick ..

A number of teams might be looking to get rid of their pick, and the guaranteed salary attached to it for 2009-10. Among those, the Wizards, Bucks, and Hornets look like good targets. Personally, I'd want a deal in place to combine picks amd move up before I'd do a deal like that.

[younggunsmn]

the problem with washington trading mike james and etan thomas is that james has a player option and thomas has an early termination option. My understanding is that washington cannot trade them from the trading deadline until the option is executed/not executed (which would not be until the first day players can sign as free agents), which would preclude them from making a draft-day trade because the draft is held earlier.
Correct me someone if my CBA knowledge is inaccurate.

This will make dealing them much trickier. I can't think why either would opt out, but you can't be 100% sure, which would make any draft-day trade to be executed later that much harder to sign off on.

If I were Washington I'd be more inclined to unload the comination of stevenson+songalia, who total 8.3 million in '09 salary and have 2010 player and early termination options.

[younggunsmn]

Not if you're talking about the difference between drafting stephen curry or ricky rubio.
Overall depthwise it's worse but top 3-4 is potentially very solid with griffin, thabeet, harden and very possibly rubio. After that the dropoff is immense with a bunch of tweeners like curry, teague and holiday and projects like monroe, jennings, mullens, and hill. If trading mike miller is the difference between adding another corey brewer level talent and adding the next stud PG (Rubio) or stud shotblocker (Thabeet) we are getting off cheap. This is very similar to the oden draft where the top 3 were all very solid and it was a crapshoot after that.

Next time you call it a bad draft please elaborate. The dropoff between 3 and 10 last year was not very much, everyone with the exception of joe alexander and a very raw galinari drafted in that range is already contributing at an nba starter level.
larger dropoff = harder to trade up.

Ok, I'll elaborate.

This is a 2 man draft. Rubio and Griffin. Everyone else has role player written all over them, so trading up 5 spots to get a different role player is very different from trading up 2 spots to get a different star.

Kevin Love is a star now? wow. I guess offensive rebounding brings in shoe contracts nowadays.
And getting swatted every other time you shoot inside 5 feet, that's a gatorade commercial.
Bargnani blowing by you time and time again? that gets you your own poster (Bargnani's on it too).
Tonight's loss showed that face-up players can exploit his lack of agility. Mayo, Westbrook, Gordon, Augustin, Lopez, they all have NBA positions and an NBA body for that position. Love is too short for C and too slow to be a "modern" PF.

Thabeet has the kind of physical skill set and shotblocking talent that comes along only once every few years. He will be a very coveted man on draft day, wait and see. His defensive game will be better in the NBA because the floor is spread more and his mobility will shine better. This guy has the potential to put up a triple-double in points, rebounds, and blocks every time out. The difference that bynum makes for the lakers, he can make for us.

The bucks and hornets picks don't entice me much shrink, and as I've said elsewhere the wizards will have better suitors who have the cap space to straight up eat a contract. I wouldn't be surprised at all if OKC ends up with their pick because they have a 2010 unprotected suns pick to offer as bait in addition to cap room.

I wouldn't be surprised if we could land a late-lottery - 20 pick for our 2010 utah pick though.
Outside of Rubio this draft is light on foreigners you could draft in the first round and stash overseas. I don't believe the cap hold on such players counts against the luxury tax either.

[Rakocevicftw]

Kevin Love is a star now? wow. I guess offensive rebounding brings in shoe contracts nowadays.
And getting swatted every other time you shoot inside 5 feet, that's a gatorade commercial.
Bargnani blowing by you time and time again? that gets you your own poster (Bargnani's on it too).
Tonight's loss showed that face-up players can exploit his lack of agility. Mayo, Westbrook, Gordon, Augustin, Lopez, they all have NBA positions and an NBA body for that position. Love is too short for C and too slow to be a "modern" PF.

Thabeet has the kind of physical skill set and shotblocking talent that comes along only once every few years. He will be a very coveted man on draft day, wait and see. His defensive game will be better in the NBA because the floor is spread more and his mobility will shine better. This guy has the potential to put up a triple-double in points, rebounds, and blocks every time out. The difference that bynum makes for the lakers, he can make for us.
.

I'm not interested in getting into a debate about how good Love is or isn't. The point is that the 2008 draft was loaded with studs, and this year's draft isn't. Guys like Harden would have been middle-round picks last year.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Kevin Love is a star now? wow. I guess offensive rebounding brings in shoe contracts nowadays.
And getting swatted every other time you shoot inside 5 feet, that's a gatorade commercial.
Bargnani blowing by you time and time again? that gets you your own poster (Bargnani's on it too).
Tonight's loss showed that face-up players can exploit his lack of agility. Mayo, Westbrook, Gordon, Augustin, Lopez, they all have NBA positions and an NBA body for that position. Love is too short for C and too slow to be a "modern" PF.

OJ Mayo last night - 7 pts 4 turnovers, 3 for 11 shooting. Maybe he sucks, or maybe rookies are just inconsistent.

And Bargnani has been kicking many a teams' asses lately, including a couple of solid defensive teams like the Spurs and Lakers, but I don't think anybody would say Lamar Odom is too slow to be a modern PF.

[younggunsmn]

Kevin Love is a star now? wow. I guess offensive rebounding brings in shoe contracts nowadays.
And getting swatted every other time you shoot inside 5 feet, that's a gatorade commercial.
Bargnani blowing by you time and time again? that gets you your own poster (Bargnani's on it too).
Tonight's loss showed that face-up players can exploit his lack of agility. Mayo, Westbrook, Gordon, Augustin, Lopez, they all have NBA positions and an NBA body for that position. Love is too short for C and too slow to be a "modern" PF.

OJ Mayo last night - 7 pts 4 turnovers, 3 for 11 shooting. Maybe he sucks, or maybe rookies are just inconsistent.

And Bargnani has been kicking many a teams' asses lately, including a couple of solid defensive teams like the Spurs and Lakers, but I don't think anybody would say Lamar Odom is too slow to be a modern PF.

Memphis really sucks right now. OJ doesn't have the green light like he should on such a bad team. Having absolutely no low post presence doesn't help. In the 14 games where he has 20+ FGA (his high is 23) he has averaged 26.5 points per game. That tells me if given the chance he can be a 25+ PPG scorer in this league.

Bargnani is shooting 43% on the year, yet went 10/15 against us, with most of those dunks, layups, or 5 foot turnaround j's. he shot 8/19 vs the lakers and odom and 8/21 vs the spurs so that argument holds no water. Once teams have scouted K-Love out they will realize he is easily exploited as a face-up defender because of his thick legs, short arms, and poor agility.