Abe ready to exceed cap?

[go'stags]

Please indulge us with whatever inside knoweldge you have that makes you so certain we will be like the Knicks. I fail to see how spending money equals being the Knicks. what about the Mavs?

Do you know that were going to trade for Al Harrington or something? Sign Trevor Ariza to the MLE this offeseason?

How is it all or nothing?

[BigA]

To be like the Knicks, wouldn't the Wizards have to trade the pick for Eddie Curry? Zeke is also available to coach.

Seriously though, the willingness to pay some tax in this sort of environment can be very helpful.

[Dat2U]

Yeah, I guess since lots of people here have been complaining about how cheap Abe is, this comes as great news. I still don't like it...and if being concerned about that makes me a jerk Bickerstaff, then consider me the Limbaugh of the Wizboard. I'm not here to win any popularity contest. I don't care how the Knicks went about it, the final result will be shockingly similar. Bunch of overpaid underachievers who'll be the laughing stock of the league. Furthermore, while I certainly don't consider Arenas to be anything close to Starbury...if this little all or nothing strategy fails. That's how it's gonna look. Get real.

That's a bad recipe to couple with one of the NBAs worst defenses in history. Abe is gonna take a chance at something that could be great or EPICALLY bad, and this season is one helluva a precursor. So forgive me if I don't seem overly optimistic.

I sorta of agree. Instead of arguing over whether Abe will allow the Wizards to exceed the tax threshold, we should talk about the man who got us to this point in the first place. Mr. Ernie Grunfeld:

> Paying Songaila & Stevenson all that money even when there was no market for them.
> Giving AD all those extra years on his deal
> Dealing a very tradeable AD and a future 1st rounder for untradeable dog poo in Mike James & a 12th man caliber bricklayer in Critt.
> Not unloading Jamison when he had to chance to do so.

Point is I don't really trust EG to have the ability to spend money. Sure, EG is no Isiah, Dunleavy or Unseld but that doesn't mean he's good as gold either. We've got a moderately competent GM. He make some great moves but its becoming obvious that building a team is not his strong point. Look at Milwaukee and look at us. Eventually Milwaukee had to cash in their chips b/c EG was handing out bad deals left and right (Tim Thomas & Jason Caffey come to mind). Two teams built along similar paths. A big 3, all offense, little D and fatally flawed come playoff time. This is what we are as long as EG is here.

[Brenice]

The reason Ol Abe is willing to exceed the cap is to sign the lottery pick without having to trade a player. The reason is not to become the Knicks or Yankees, pursueing free agents trying to buy a championship.

[fishercob]

I believe Abe's willingness to pay the lux tax was first reported by our own SecretKev some 3-4 years ago. Ernie hasn't gone into the luxury tax territory because there's no reason to do it for marginal players. This summer through next trade deadline, the Wiz will definitely have the opportunity to be "buyers" improve the roster and rotation if Abe pays the tax.

[doclinkin]

I sorta of agree. Instead of arguing over whether Abe will allow the Wizards to exceed the tax threshold, we should talk about the man who got us to this point in the first place. Mr. Ernie Grunfeld:

> Paying Songaila & Stevenson all that money even when there was no market for them.
> Giving AD all those extra years on his deal
> Dealing a very tradeable AD and a future 1st rounder for untradeable dog poo in Mike James & a 12th man caliber bricklayer in Critt.
> Not unloading Jamison when he had to chance to do so.

Point is I don't really trust EG to have the ability to spend money. Sure, EG is no Isiah, Dunleavy or Unseld but that doesn't mean he's good as gold either. We've got a moderately competent GM. He make some great moves but its becoming obvious that building a team is not his strong point. Look at Milwaukee and look at us. Eventually Milwaukee had to cash in their chips b/c EG was handing out bad deals left and right (Tim Thomas & Jason Caffey come to mind). Two teams built along similar paths. A big 3, all offense, little D and fatally flawed come playoff time. This is what we are as long as EG is here.

Agree and disagree. Here's the thing to understand about Ernie, he tries to build the team that his coach wants. He tries to patch the flaws in his Coaches' rosters, and follow the desires of his top employee. In Milwaukee he built the team George Karl asked for, trying to fill defensive holes by recruiting players like a past-his-prime Anthony Mason, who with the Knicks relished his reputation as 'Minister of Defense'. Here in DC when DWade torched us all year Ernie recruited the only free agent guard who had given him any difficulty, Daniels held Wade to two sub-par performances that year.

Thing is to recruit free agents to DC and Milwaukee you have to lay out more cash to sell the players on a place than if you were in New York. And if you don't want to immediately kill your cap, or you already have issues you can only offer an extra year to outbid your competition. If you're Antonio Daniels, all things being equal do you go to LA or DC? Okay, well what if DC offers an extra year? Ditto Darius who had already rejected us in favor of Chicago once (after we'd also been snubbed by jumpshooting forward Donyell Marshall, who went to Cleveland of all places).

Jerry West didn't suddenly become a terrible exec when he went to Memphis, he just had a smaller ticket base and a podunk metropolis and an ownership group without deep pockets to build the topnotch facilities, etc.

Understand a couple things though. Some part of Ernie's trouble was to reverse a public perception problem. It should say something that Cleveland looks like a better option than East Coast big city DC, with nightlife and a decent brown population and good local ball in the streets and colleges. Public perception. We're no LA, NY, or Miami, but Cleveland... come on now.

That's all reputation. DC could be a decent 2nd tier destination, if we were winning, even relevant. But 30 years of suck and O'Malley tactics ended with a brief glimpse of relevance, and a number one pick. Then Abe fires the G.O.A.T.-- rewarding a sudden turnaround of fortune with a boot to the backside.

Some part of Ernie's unspoken mandate was to evaporate the reputation that this franchise is cheap, and not dedicated to winning, simply content to sell tickets to the opposing teams fans. MJ gave a jumpstart and a boost of pride, Gilbert Arenas showed flashes of brilliance, Jamison added a level of public professionalism we lacked in previous eras (having suffered from boneheaded public embarassments from guys like CWebb and Strickland). Nice, but fragile. We were exciting, but not fundamentally sound. And worse: starcrossed with injury.

Suddenly we had a chance at relevance. But the system we had in place, while offensively surprisingly successful, required advanced skillsets and non-traditional players at their respective positions. Ernie tried to patch holes and upgrade where possible. The KFB was a chemistry wrecker, Hughes wanted too much cash for a guy proven to have a crystalline skeleton. So we swap out for undersized and underappreciated Caron Butler to take up the slack in Hughes scoring role. Too bad he can't initiate offense from end to end, but nice that the Coach finds a way to use sixfoottweleve Oface Jeffries in the role. Nice until the system earns Jeffries a bajillion dollars from Isaiah who sees him as a LeBron stopper (or LeBronflopper anyway). Cut your losses and look to replace on the cheap. He gets DSteve off the scrap heap for free.

Problem is: we ain't winning enough to be durably relevant. And we are built around a mercurial PG who --so his mythology goes-- picked the franchise with a coin-flip. And when DSteve does what we ask him to, sacrifice his 'game' while paid next to nothing, we reward him with a contract better than the market for two reasons: a) he's Gil's best friend on the team, and Gil's contract comes due in a minute; and b) the franchise has come under question on the loyalty issue, it makes us look good to keep our word that we'd take care of him. (Ironic, that. Since loyalty has often been Abe's downfall).

Then this year: Gil won't sign if Jamison walks. The owner loves Jamison more than any player since Wes, so we can't just drop him for cap space or swap his expiring for a Big Ticket (as it were). We have no way to replace either player if they walk, and the alternative is to suck with no future but the crapshoot of draftpicks. We resign Gil because when good he sells out the arena. You can't jsut pick up a number one option anywhere. And given that we resigned his buddies (and twice re-upped a coach with whom there's been disagreements but who has Gil's public loyalty) we asked for a hometown discount and got a ten million dollar 'savings' in a year when he was the top free agent on the market. And only then, prime assets locked in longterm, could the team fire the coach.

But understand Ernie has an eye for a bargain. He used the KFB/Brendan feud to resign 'Wood early and cheap. He got Caron for an asset we would have jettisoned for free. He got Jamison while dumping Stackhouse's shut down knee and contract. He held onto Haywood despite the fact that he didn't fit the system of the coach, and there was friction. Essentially he bounced the coach gambling that the player was a better bargain in wins per dollar.

Ernie recognizes the value of individual pieces. He loves a firesale, and undervalued player. He relies on his coach for the system, chemistry, and vision, tries to build a roster to suit the Coaches stated needs, then patch holes as needed. But he's learned not to piss off ownership.

I agree with Brenice, Ernie is allowed to exceed the lux to sign a top pick while keeping Jamison. He's allowed to pay the luxtax if there's an obvious upgrade and a clear route to the championship (without trading Jamsion, unless Jamison consents and desires it). But he's not given a blank check to try to buy the trophy. No need for chickenlittleism, 'at's all I'm saying.

The real question is what is the vision of our new coach coming in. 'Cause Ernie will try to build him exactly what he thinks he needs.

[doclinkin]

Here's a question, round these part we see pretty tortured trades and cerebral machinations trying to drop cap, swap players for luxtax room.

But taking Abe at his word, what reasonable moves could the team make if the luxtax were not the key consideration? No we won't get DWade or LeBron and all, but realistically what team would you build around Gil (or whatever) if money were not a lodestone.

Here's one part of the exercise, Abe loves Jamison, so you have to keep both Abe and Jams happy in this thought experiment. So:

Luxtax is no barrier (if not 'money is no object').
Keep Jamison or find a trade partner he'd be happy to go to.
Build your team with what we got (and a top 6 pick at worst).

Hmmn. Maybe I'll drop this in the trade thread.