General (Non-Wiz) Draft Discussion

[nate33]

Check out that headline on the wiretap, exactly what I said a couple of days ago.

Better start thinking about what veterans we'd trade for instead of your top 10 players.

Yeah, that was to be expected. That pretty much removes from consideration any chance that we take a raw, undeveloped player like DeRozan, Evans or Thabeet.

However, the problem with trading for a vet is that vets cost more money. The easiest way to acquire a smart basketball player while also trimming payroll may be to trade down and draft a more seasoned rookie. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of picking up one of the more experienced and savvy rookies like Harden or Curry.

[nate33]

Frankly, I'm kind of suprised that managment leaked that kind of information to the Times. Telegraphing our desire to trade the #3 pick is only going to reduce its value. Flip Saunders may need to attend one of EG's seminars on speaking to the media.

[pancakes3]

ruuuudy ruuuudy ruuuudy ruuuuudy

[BigA]

Frankly, I'm kind of suprised that managment leaked that kind of information to the Times. Telegraphing our desire to trade the #3 pick is only going to reduce its value. Flip Saunders may need to attend one of EG's seminars on speaking to the media.

Flip took the Danny/Vinnie seminar instead.

Next headline on Wiretap: "Wizards will do anything to trade up for Matt Sanchez."

[fishercob]

Frankly, I'm kind of suprised that managment leaked that kind of information to the Times. Telegraphing our desire to trade the #3 pick is only going to reduce its value. Flip Saunders may need to attend one of EG's seminars on speaking to the media.

I disagree. What's going to determine the pick's value is how many other teams want it, not whether the Wizards want to move it. Ernie could send out a memo that Mike James is untouchable, but that's not going to up his value any.

[LyricalRico]

Frankly, I'm kind of suprised that managment leaked that kind of information to the Times. Telegraphing our desire to trade the #3 pick is only going to reduce its value. Flip Saunders may need to attend one of EG's seminars on speaking to the media.

I disagree. What's going to determine the pick's value is how many other teams want it, not whether the Wizards want to move it. Ernie could send out a memo that Mike James is untouchable, but that's not going to up his value any.

Exactly. I would think that telegraphing the move now (which many people had already assumed was the case anyway) will start trade talks earlier and with more teams. That gives EG more time to work out deals and also more time for competing offers to drive the price up.

If the Wiz don't end up first or second in the lottery, I fully expect a deal involving our pick to be agreed to prior to draft night.

[nate33]

Frankly, I'm kind of suprised that managment leaked that kind of information to the Times. Telegraphing our desire to trade the #3 pick is only going to reduce its value. Flip Saunders may need to attend one of EG's seminars on speaking to the media.

I disagree. What's going to determine the pick's value is how many other teams want it, not whether the Wizards want to move it. Ernie could send out a memo that Mike James is untouchable, but that's not going to up his value any.

Let's say you are Memphis' GM and you have the #6 pick. The two guys you want are Thabeet and Hill. Washington is on the clock, drafting 4th. Griffin, Rubio and Jennings are off the board.

You get a call from EG offering the #4 pick for the #6 pick, provided Memphis absorbs Stevenson's contract.

Before these comments were made, EG might be able to credibly threaten that he'll draft Thabeet or HIll. Now, his credibility is weakened a bit. Memphis knows that we have little interest in some project. As Memphis' GM, you can be pretty sure that Washington will take the most NBA ready guy left at the top of the board: Harden. You tell EG to buzz off, because you know you're going to get Thabeet or Hill anyhow.

[nate33]

If the Wiz don't end up first or second in the lottery, I fully expect a deal involving our pick to be agreed to prior to draft night.

I suppose you have a point there. Everybody knows who is going to be picked in the top 2 slots, so we'll know what our choices will be at the #3 spot. We can start the negotiating process much sooner.

If we end up 4th or 5th though, I imagine the trade will take place on draft day.

[closg00]

If the Wiz don't end up first or second in the lottery, I fully expect a deal involving our pick to be agreed to prior to draft night.

I suppose you have a point there. Everybody knows who is going to be picked in the top 2 slots, so we'll know what our choices will be at the #3 spot. We can start the negotiating process much sooner.

If we end up 4th or 5th though, I imagine the trade will take place on draft day.

If that happens, I hope that we don't give the pick away for next to nothing. I know that goes w/o saying. Were it not for the Lux-tax position that Ernie put us in, we probably would be keeping our pick w/o question.

[nate33]

If I were EG, my disinformation campaign would be to pump up Thabeet. I would say things about being intrigued with Thabeet's game-changing size and our concern that we lack any bulk up front behind Haywood (who happens to be a free agent in a year).

There are a lot of under-the-cap teams in need of a center (Toronto, OKC, Atlanta). We want them to believe that we'll draft Thabeet. That way, they'll want our pick and might be willing to absorb our bad contracts in the process.

[Tiago]

My question about picking Rubio is: Are the Wizards available to pay the Ricky Rubio's 6 million $ buyout?

[fishercob]

Frankly, I'm kind of suprised that managment leaked that kind of information to the Times. Telegraphing our desire to trade the #3 pick is only going to reduce its value. Flip Saunders may need to attend one of EG's seminars on speaking to the media.

I disagree. What's going to determine the pick's value is how many other teams want it, not whether the Wizards want to move it. Ernie could send out a memo that Mike James is untouchable, but that's not going to up his value any.

Let's say you are Memphis' GM and you have the #6 pick. The two guys you want are Thabeet and Hill. Washington is on the clock, drafting 4th. Griffin, Rubio and Jennings are off the board.

You get a call from EG offering the #4 pick for the #6 pick, provided Memphis absorbs Stevenson's contract.

Before these comments were made, EG might be able to credibly threaten that he'll draft Thabeet or HIll. Now, his credibility is weakened a bit. Memphis knows that we have little interest in some project. As Memphis' GM, you can be pretty sure that Washington will take the most NBA ready guy left at the top of the board: Harden. You tell EG to buzz off, because you know you're going to get Thabeet or Hill anyhow.

I don't think it would take a genius to figure this out anyway, nate. The Wiz have 6 guys under 23 and four very good veteran starters. Other GM's know that if they're not trading their vets, they're probably not looking to add another project. I really don't hitnk Ernie has weakened his position one bit. If the pick we end up with isn't very valuable, it will be becuase of the players available there.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

If I'm EG and I've got the #3 pick I just say, "I'm drafting Thabeet and trading him to the highest bidder." EG's need for a big man then has nothing to do with it -- you have to worry about the 28 other teams that need a big man.

Nothing wrong with sticking a big "for sale" sign on the pick and letting the bidding start early.

[Notorious_1]

My question about picking Rubio is: Are the Wizards available to pay the Ricky Rubio's 6 million $ buyout?

I think we're only allowed to contribute half a million towards the buyout...Rubio has to negotiate a way to handle the rest of it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[nate33]

My question about picking Rubio is: Are the Wizards available to pay the Ricky Rubio's 6 million $ buyout?

I think we're only allowed to contribute half a million towards the buyout...Rubio has to negotiate a way to handle the rest of it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct. We can only contribute half a million. I've heard rumors that Rubio is trying to negotiate it so that his team gets a percentage stake in Rubio's next contract. That might turn out to be a great investment.

[sfam]

Not to upset the "Curry is great" applecart or anything, but if we're stuck at #3, I think we take Thabeet and stay happy about it. I can't tell the future all that well, and its not clear to me that Haywood stays with the Wizards. Does anyone have a sense of what his FA value in will be and whether or not the Wizards will pay it? Even if we can keep Haywood, I would love dumping Thomas to a team looking for cap space for 2010. In this case, Thabeet could be a fine backup.

I'm also sold on Rubio - we don't even know how healthy Arenas ends up being. This seems like a no-brainer to me. Only if we end up with #4 or #5 should we be left with the "do we package and trade or keep" decision.

For the record, I am not suggesting we pick Curry at #3. I'm saying that I think Curry might be a better fit for this team (over the short and intermediate term) than anybody else in this draft besides Griffin. Most of the other interesting prospects (Thabeet, Derozan, HIll, Evans, etc.) are a few years away from being contributers.

If my choice was to draft Thabeet/Harden/Hill/Evans/Derozan at #3 or trade down to #8 and draft Curry, I'd prefer the Curry scenario - particularly if it meant we unloaded Stevenson's contract. The tradedown scenario gets us a guy that will fit very well on Day 1, and it also saves Abe about $20M while significantly increasing the likelihood that we retain Haywood and DMac next summer.

We have enough freak athletes with "potential" on this team. Heck, we have an entire 5-man lineup of freakishly long and athletic players in Crittenton, Young, McGuire, Blatche and McGee. Unfortunately, none of them have the necessary combination of basketball skills, basketball IQ and work ethic necessary to be a consistently good player. Maybe it's time we add a few actual ballers to our collection of freak athletes.

I would be happy trading back to #8 if we got decent value for doing so, such as unloading cap space (and yeah, I agree curry is a real baller). And I certainly like McGee, but I think he's someone that's more likely to give Kevin Garnet type players trouble on defense vice your Dwight Howards. Thabeet seems like a big that could learn to play decent half-court ball, and score inside. I wouldn't at all be opposed to the scenario you lay out though. But that's not always a possibility. Far worse would be to trade down to say, #13 or something where there really isn't any impact potential left. So if we can't trade back 5 spots or so and are stuck at #3, all I'm saying is there's worse players to be stuck with than Thabeet.

Said another way, if you were stuck at #3 and we were going to keep the pick, who you got?

[sfam]

If I'm EG and I've got the #3 pick I just say, "I'm drafting Thabeet and trading him to the highest bidder." EG's need for a big man then has nothing to do with it -- you have to worry about the 28 other teams that need a big man.

Nothing wrong with sticking a big "for sale" sign on the pick and letting the bidding start early.

The only issue here would be if you get no takers, or no real trades you would be willing to accept. Than your stuck with a player you've told you don't want.

Again I'm still wondering if anyone has a sense of what Haywood will be commanding in terms of salary. I love the idea of reducing cap space, but again, are we sure we'll be able to afford it? If not, it is not unreasonable to mitigate risk by having another big on the roster (assuming we are stuck with the #3 and don't like any of the deals offered).

[Dat2U]

^-----------I get that. I just think he'd be a little more low key in his "Gilbert is my point guard" proclamation if he and Ernie had plans to draft Rubio if he was there.

And it goes along with Abe's failing health and his stated goal to win a ring ASAP. As much potential as Rubio has, I think the organization is ready to sacrifice some potential down the road to up their chances to win now. I think they're taking Griffin or trading down/out of the draft.

Not to nitpick but the Spanish ACB league Rubio plays arguably offers the highest level of competition outside of the NBA. Rubio is playing with and against grown men and a number of guys that played in the NBA. It's definitely superior than playing in the NCAA. I think Rubio is one of the few guys that could step in and contribute immediately atlthough he's only 18. He's been playing profeissional ball since he was 14.

[fishercob]

You're right Dat. I think they keep Rubio if they can draft him -- and he'll help a lot right away.

[pancakes3]

all this talk reminds me of that bobby knight anecdote where the Blazers GM asked him who he should take #2. Knight said to take jordan. The GM said, but we really need a center and we've already got clyde. Knight said, well then, play jordan at center, this kid is can't miss.

not to say that rubio is jordan...