The 'What do we do now?' Thread (merged)

[spaceman_E]

Ok, I'm ready to focus on next season.


To do list:
Bring in Leonsis.
Fire Flip and Ernie.
Hire a young, up and coming GM and an ambitious, newbie coach.
Flip Gil for a couple contracts and a future 1st.
Ship Jamison out for an expiring and 2 future 2nds.
Be patient with the free agent dollars. I'd inquire on Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay, David Lee or any young PG but only if the price is right.
Bring back Foye at the 1yr tender and one of Miller/J Howard at a reduced price.
Draft as many of these guys as possible: Wall, Turner, Aldrich, Patterson, Davis, Lawal, James Anderson, Matt Bouldin.
Tank for a top pick in the next draft as well.
Next offseason with max cap space chase after Horford, Melo, Durant, and Tony Parker.


What other plans do you guys have?

[nate33]

I don't think we have to fire Flip. He is a proven coach, even if he didn't do so well this year. I'm not opposed to replacing Flip if a better candidate comes along, but I don't think it's a top priority. EG needs to go though.

As far as our plan for the future, I'd like to see Jamison dumped for cap space, and for us to use our cap space to buy picks and young players from other teams. I'd like to see Arenas traded for 2011 contracts. I'd be patient this offseason and only pull the trigger on major bargain free agents. Otherwise, I'm content to tank for the full 2010/11 season while developing our draft picks and other young players. I'd be eyeing Summer 2011 to make a big splash with a major free agent acquisition.

If all goes well, we will go into the 2011/12 season with:
Blatche
McGee
Foye
2010 top 3 pick
2010 midround pick (bought with cap space)
2011 top 3 pick
2011 late round pick (bought with cash)
a top-notch free agent from the 2011 free agent class
a handful of serviceable rotation players found in the 2nd round
a couple of competent, cheap veterans obtained in free agency (Matt Barnes types of players)

[DonPatelli]

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/washington.htm
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... ents-10-11

- Lure in Mcgrady by pairing him with his good old friend Mike Miller for a 4 year $30 million dollar contract with a team option on the 4th year. He has already made the money and has stated its not about that anymore. Appeal to let him know we want to build around him, still believe in him, and want him as our go to guy. He isn't that old, turning 31 in late May. I say he still has some years left on him. Especially if he is overlooked by a competent medical staff.
- Sign David Lee to a deal of similar value but longer
- Scola is an unrestricted free agent after this year. He is getting paid 3.375m in the final year of his contract, put a bid in for him. 4 years 14m.
- J. Howard still has fuel left in the tank. Don't exercise the option on the final year of this deal worth 11.8m. Instead restructure his contract and give him a deal similar to Mcgrady but half the money. Though he has said some real stupid stuff and I want character guys on the team, dude can play ball and we can leverage his worth. This is the ideal time to resign him because his value is at an all time low 4.5mle sounds about right for him. No more then 6.5m. Remember this guy was an all star in 2007.
- Resign Mike Miller to a similar deal, mle $4.5 no more then $5.5.
- Perhaps, take a shot at restricted J.J. Redick 5 year 25 million. I don't see Orlando matching that
- As great as Jamison has been and as much as he has done for the community he is getting old and his contract needs to go. 28 million over the next two years and he will be 35 when the contract expires. Package him and bringing in some expirings, draft picks. Yes, even if that means trading him to rival Cleveland.
- Paul David is a tough player, who look the long road to get here, we need guys like him on your team. He can be scored for pennies on the dollar. Must resign him.
- Acquire Brandon Bass from Orlando somehow, he is locked into a very favorable contract but the Magic have no room for him. Trade Blatch for him maybe. I want character guys on this team.
- We need a center Aaron Gray is restricted this offseason. He might prove to be decent. At the best offer him back up money. He is getting a mil in his final season. Offer him no more then $1.5m to $2m on a 2 year deal team option on third.
- Make a bid for Hilton Armstrong of the Kings, who is going to be a restricted free agent. 3.8 qualifying offer we will see what the Kings do. I say 3 years at $3.3 a season team option on 2 years after that if he proves his worth options goes for $5m for 2 more years.
- Find a team oriented point guard who puts distribution over scoring
- Hmm. I'm kind of stuck in the middle on this point but come on now I guess we got to see Arenas go because he is the one who created this whole mess to some degree. Though everyone is accountable. So trade him for some expirings and a first round pick. We can't expect to get to much in return though; I don't see us getting fair value or any real talent back. As long as we don't have to take on any crazy contracts I would fine with easing him out of DC.
- If that doesn't work out we will have to go with a buyout.
- Or trade him to Portland for Andre Miller (7.3)m and Joel Przybilla (7.4m) Arenas is due 17.3m nxt season so this could be worked out if Portland was interested.
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/portland.htm
- Getting unrestricted Steve Blake back into town.


Our team could potentially look something like this next year:

1 A. Miller/Blake/Foye/1st pick in the draft... fingers crossed
2. Howard/Redrick/N. Young
3. Mcgrady/M. Miller/P. David
4. Lee/Scola/Mcguire/
5. Pryzbilla/Armstrong/Gray/Mcgee

This team isn't even over the Luxury Tax. We would still have cap space to make a run at a big time free agent in 2011-2012. Pryzbilla is off the books after 10/11 as is A. Miller. Marc Gasol is due $3.48 next year for Memphis and then he is off the books at age 26. I would love to get that guy on our team. Obviously I wouldn't max the guy, but 7 years 65 – 72 million I could deal with under current CBA. We all know that's going to change so we could adjust accordingly.

This is all circumstantial, but I believe this would work under the potential new CBA. The beauty of this is that this actually feasible and I feel the players would commit even with the current CBA standing as it is.

We have all angels covered; ball handlers, passers, shooters, slashers, defensive players, post players, length, high IQ players, marketable guys, toughness, unselfishness, good average age, just a pretty good all around team. I believe this team could contend in the East. Even if Mcgrady went down they could still compete for a playoff spot. Also Mcgrady has had quite a bit of time to recover, his body is in great condition. As long as we get a good medical staff we should be good to go.

We must clear out our current medical staff. At this point everyone is aware of this. We need to do our due of diligence, take tips from the Suns and other great staffs. Look at the durability and recovery late of their players. Even OKC has a team chef monitoring players diets and what not. We must make sure are players are eating healthy, raw natural organic food, clean energized water, etc. We are in new era of modern medicine, there are many alternative treatments, which get you to to A-Z a lot quicker then what our current staff is using. I'm not going to go into this to much because the conscious Wizards fans are already more then aware of this well documented situation and why it is as it is. Now that Polin is gone (R.I.P Abe) a new owner will be more lenient to clear out Polin's old boy connects.

As Spaceman mentioned, have Leonis acquire the team, bring in a new young ambitious GM. Flip was def overpaid I'm willing to give him another year to prove his worth though. As for EG he has to go.

As bad as the season has went it could be worse. We don't have that many bad contracts on the books. Teams are showing interest in Jamison. Arenas displayed he can still play this season so he still has trade value to some degree. Also we are in position to get a draft player in the upcoming draft.

[Hoopalotta]

Wes? Wes, is that you?

[montestewart]

Our team could potentially look something like this next year:

1 A. Miller/Blake/Foye/1st pick in the draft... fingers crossed
2. Howard/Redrick/N. Young
3. Mcgrady/M. Miller/P. David
4. Lee/Scola/Mcguire/
5. Pryzbilla/Armstrong/Gray/Mcgee

Using actual 2010-11 salaries and your estimates for new contracts, I came up with over $80 million in salary for next year, before figuring in McGuire, Davis, Blake, and any draft picks, or accounting for Quinton Ross' salary.

[mohammed10]

Some random thoughts...

Nate- If GMEG goes, that means bringing in a new GM, who undoubtably will want to hire his own coach.

We currently have the 4th worst record in the league, so we have to do even more tanking to move up in the draft (which will likely be taken from us by David Stern).

DonPatelli- You want to bring in a 31-year old TMac and sign him to a 4 year, 30M deal (with team option for 4th year), but dump Jamison for the same reason? Am I missing something here?

My plan (abridged version) -

1. Fire EG. This has to be first priority. He has been getting fleeced in last few deals, not just this recent robbery with Dallas. Hire young, upstart and aggressive GM (Presti type) who is not afraid to be daring.

2. Pray that Teddy Ballgame still wants to own this flaming pile of shyt. New ownership is needed, and Ted would/should invigorate the fan base (lower ticket prices immediately...for obvious reasons, better ticket packages, etc.).

3. Hire a real medical staff...make it a top flight medical crew who actually knows what it is doing.

4. Build infrastructure - Hire more scouts, real strength and conditioning team, etc.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I don't think we have to fire Flip. He is a proven coach, even if he didn't do so well this year. I'm not opposed to replacing Flip if a better candidate comes along, but I don't think it's a top priority. EG needs to go though.

As far as our plan for the future, I'd like to see Jamison dumped for cap space, and for us to use our cap space to buy picks and young players from other teams. I'd like to see Arenas traded for 2011 contracts. I'd be patient this offseason and only pull the trigger on major bargain free agents. Otherwise, I'm content to tank for the full 2010/11 season while developing our draft picks and other young players. I'd be eyeing Summer 2011 to make a big splash with a major free agent acquisition.

If all goes well, we will go into the 2011/12 season with:
Blatche
McGee
Foye
2010 top 3 pick
2010 midround pick (bought with cap space)
2011 top 3 pick
2011 late round pick (bought with cash)
a top-notch free agent from the 2011 free agent class
a handful of serviceable rotation players found in the 2nd round
a couple of competent, cheap veterans obtained in free agency (Matt Barnes types of players)

I strongly disagree, nate.

Now that Ernie's jacked things up about as much as he can, I'm thinking the biggest thing wrong with this team is Flip Saunders. Far as I'm concerned Flip's offense is the reason the Wizards record has been so bad. Flip did so much less with more than EJ ever had that I can only give him a D or D- as a coach.

I think the C+ that someone gave him was damned generous. Flip has flat out STUNK this season. I've seen him play Jamison and Butler top-10 minutes. He's played veterans. He's cooled Blatche when Blatche was playing well by benching him. He's played Stevenson over Young. Flip's most egregious errors were huge minutes to an injured Gil early, when Gil couldn't carry a team. Flip lost the same way over and over and over and over again. He kept going with something that wasn't working. Flip played contracts and didn't exhaust combinations. He used a short bench and lost. Occasionally used 10 guys and won but wouldn't do that again and again. Flip to me is more of the same old lack of creativity . A big money coach who does things the way the NBA does things.

I HATE the way Flip has coach almost as much as I hate what Grunfeld's done to the team.

Flip is not a rebuilding coach. He's accustomed to having a Garnett or a championship-level Pistons, and winning around 50 games. The dude coached like ass this season and IMO is the main reason that Ernie Grunfeld just gave away Butler and Haywood.

I think Flip is no good and I've been saying it since November.

I fully expect he'll play Gooden and Ross and Boykins over the youth of the team.

I want another coach, but know it won't happen that way because the Wizards organization really, really stinks.

[P'Oed]

you guys wanna pull our money and just buy the team?

[nate33]

I strongly disagree, nate.

Now that Ernie's jacked things up about as much as he can, I'm thinking the biggest thing wrong with this team is Flip Saunders. Far as I'm concerned Flip's offense is the reason the Wizards record has been so bad. Flip did so much less with more than EJ ever had that I can only give him a D or D- as a coach.

I think the C+ that someone gave him was damned generous. Flip has flat out STUNK this season. I've seen him play Jamison and Butler top-10 minutes. He's played veterans. He's cooled Blatche when Blatche was playing well by benching him. He's played Stevenson over Young. Flip's most egregious errors were huge minutes to an injured Gil early, when Gil couldn't carry a team. Flip lost the same way over and over and over and over again. He kept going with something that wasn't working. Flip played contracts and didn't exhaust combinations. He used a short bench and lost. Occasionally used 10 guys and won but wouldn't do that again and again. Flip to me is more of the same old lack of creativity . A big money coach who does things the way the NBA does things.

I HATE the way Flip has coach almost as much as I hate what Grunfeld's done to the team.

Flip is not a rebuilding coach. He's accustomed to having a Garnett or a championship-level Pistons, and winning around 50 games. The dude coached like ass this season and IMO is the main reason that Ernie Grunfeld just gave away Butler and Haywood.

I think Flip is no good and I've been saying it since November.

I fully expect he'll play Gooden and Ross and Boykins over the youth of the team.

I want another coach, but know it won't happen that way because the Wizards organization really, really stinks.

I think Flip has done pretty well with Blatche and Young. There was a stretch where he underutilized Blatche in favor of Oberto, but that was short-lived. Over the past 30 games, Blatche has pretty much gotten all the backup minutes available behind Haywood and Jamison.

He had a quick hook with Young for a while, but again, Young responded fairly well and has slowly developed more of an all-around game. I think Young is a better player now than he was prior to Flip. Young defends now, and he's even starting to rebound a bit. (Still can't pass though.)

When you boil it down, your biggest gripe with Flip is his treatment of McGee. You believe that if he simply forcefed McGee more minutes and played him at PF some more, McGee would have exploded and become some kind of stud player. I think that's a delusional fantasy. McGee has been buried on the bench by two coaches now. His on/off differentials have been horrendous for his entire career. Clearly, McGee doesn't know what the hell he is doing and he refuses to listen to the coaches. The problem with McGee is McGee, not Flip.

I'm not saying Flip doesn't have flaws. His tendency to play Stevenson over Young was truly baffling at times. And he has proven to be inflexible with his offense. Specifically, he never figured out how to take advantage of Butler's offensive strengths and instead tried to force a square peg into a round hole by making Butler a catch-and-shoot player.

I'm not opposed to firing Flip if we have a good coach lined up. If we hire a new GM and that new GM wants a new coach, so be it. But I also think we can make things work with Flip. And given that Flip has already signed a big contract, and that no good coach is going to want to come to Washington anytime soon, I say we stay with Flip for now.

[no D in Hibachi]

http://hoopshype.com/salaries/washington.htm
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... ents-10-11

- Lure in Mcgrady by pairing him with his good old friend Mike Miller for a 4 year $30 million dollar contract with a team option on the 4th year. He has already made the money and has stated its not about that anymore. Appeal to let him know we want to build around him, still believe in him, and want him as our go to guy. He isn't that old, turning 31 in late May. I say he still has some years left on him. Especially if he is overlooked by a competent medical staff.
- Sign David Lee to a deal of similar value but longer
- Scola is an unrestricted free agent after this year. He is getting paid 3.375m in the final year of his contract, put a bid in for him. 4 years 14m.
- J. Howard still has fuel left in the tank. Don't exercise the option on the final year of this deal worth 11.8m. Instead restructure his contract and give him a deal similar to Mcgrady but half the money. Though he has said some real stupid stuff and I want character guys on the team, dude can play ball and we can leverage his worth. This is the ideal time to resign him because his value is at an all time low 4.5mle sounds about right for him. No more then 6.5m. Remember this guy was an all star in 2007.
- Resign Mike Miller to a similar deal, mle $4.5 no more then $5.5.
- Perhaps, take a shot at restricted J.J. Redick 5 year 25 million. I don't see Orlando matching that
- As great as Jamison has been and as much as he has done for the community he is getting old and his contract needs to go. 28 million over the next two years and he will be 35 when the contract expires. Package him and bringing in some expirings, draft picks. Yes, even if that means trading him to rival Cleveland.
- Paul David is a tough player, who look the long road to get here, we need guys like him on your team. He can be scored for pennies on the dollar. Must resign him.
- Acquire Brandon Bass from Orlando somehow, he is locked into a very favorable contract but the Magic have no room for him. Trade Blatch for him maybe. I want character guys on this team.
- We need a center Aaron Gray is restricted this offseason. He might prove to be decent. At the best offer him back up money. He is getting a mil in his final season. Offer him no more then $1.5m to $2m on a 2 year deal team option on third.
- Make a bid for Hilton Armstrong of the Kings, who is going to be a restricted free agent. 3.8 qualifying offer we will see what the Kings do. I say 3 years at $3.3 a season team option on 2 years after that if he proves his worth options goes for $5m for 2 more years.
- Find a team oriented point guard who puts distribution over scoring
- Hmm. I'm kind of stuck in the middle on this point but come on now I guess we got to see Arenas go because he is the one who created this whole mess to some degree. Though everyone is accountable. So trade him for some expirings and a first round pick. We can't expect to get to much in return though; I don't see us getting fair value or any real talent back. As long as we don't have to take on any crazy contracts I would fine with easing him out of DC.
- If that doesn't work out we will have to go with a buyout.
- Or trade him to Portland for Andre Miller (7.3)m and Joel Przybilla (7.4m) Arenas is due 17.3m nxt season so this could be worked out if Portland was interested.
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/portland.htm
- Getting unrestricted Steve Blake back into town.


Our team could potentially look something like this next year:

1 A. Miller/Blake/Foye/1st pick in the draft... fingers crossed
2. Howard/Redrick/N. Young
3. Mcgrady/M. Miller/P. David
4. Lee/Scola/Mcguire/
5. Pryzbilla/Armstrong/Gray/Mcgee

This team isn't even over the Luxury Tax. We would still have cap space to make a run at a big time free agent in 2011-2012. Pryzbilla is off the books after 10/11 as is A. Miller. Marc Gasol is due $3.48 next year for Memphis and then he is off the books at age 26. I would love to get that guy on our team. Obviously I wouldn't max the guy, but 7 years 65 – 72 million I could deal with under current CBA. We all know that's going to change so we could adjust accordingly.

This is all circumstantial, but I believe this would work under the potential new CBA. The beauty of this is that this actually feasible and I feel the players would commit even with the current CBA standing as it is.

We have all angels covered; ball handlers, passers, shooters, slashers, defensive players, post players, length, high IQ players, marketable guys, toughness, unselfishness, good average age, just a pretty good all around team. I believe this team could contend in the East. Even if Mcgrady went down they could still compete for a playoff spot. Also Mcgrady has had quite a bit of time to recover, his body is in great condition. As long as we get a good medical staff we should be good to go.

We must clear out our current medical staff. At this point everyone is aware of this. We need to do our due of diligence, take tips from the Suns and other great staffs. Look at the durability and recovery late of their players. Even OKC has a team chef monitoring players diets and what not. We must make sure are players are eating healthy, raw natural organic food, clean energized water, etc. We are in new era of modern medicine, there are many alternative treatments, which get you to to A-Z a lot quicker then what our current staff is using. I'm not going to go into this to much because the conscious Wizards fans are already more then aware of this well documented situation and why it is as it is. Now that Polin is gone (R.I.P Abe) a new owner will be more lenient to clear out Polin's old boy connects.

As Spaceman mentioned, have Leonis acquire the team, bring in a new young ambitious GM. Flip was def overpaid I'm willing to give him another year to prove his worth though. As for EG he has to go.

As bad as the season has went it could be worse. We don't have that many bad contracts on the books. Teams are showing interest in Jamison. Arenas displayed he can still play this season so he still has trade value to some degree. Also we are in position to get a draft player in the upcoming draft.

OMG I just puked all over my computer. Are you serious?? McGrady? Miller? Resign Howard? Un effin believable!!! This is worse than what the Pistons did with all their cap money. This esentially guarantees the Wiz will suck indefinately and be capped out.

Also, what is with everyone having a hard on for David Lee? He's this year's Ben Gordon. He's never going to really be a main cog on a bona fide condentor. He's undersized and is a terrible defender. He puts up great stats, but so does Jamison. They are both losers. His restricted status isn't the only reason he didn't get a FA offer last year. It's because GM's know he's just not valuable to winning organizations. Millsap got a contract offer for 4/37 if Lee was worth anything he'd have received a similar offer, especially since most GM's knew the NYK's wouldn't match to preserve their precious 2010 cap space. The absolute last thing I want the Wizards to do is sign any meddling FA's. They've already wasted the last decade with the signings of meddling FA's along the lines of Leattner, Daniels, Thomas, Songaila, Stevenson, Jahadi White, etc.

[AceDegenerate]

Now? We watch as this whole thing burns to the ground.

[verbal8]

I saw on the ESPN Trade Machine that the trade created a $6.0 million TPE(traded player exception) from Haywood. Is that correct? And if so how was it created? I thought a team had to trade more salary to a team under the cap to created a TPE.

[DonPatelli]

Our team could potentially look something like this next year:

1 A. Miller/Blake/Foye/1st pick in the draft... fingers crossed
2. Howard/Redrick/N. Young
3. Mcgrady/M. Miller/P. David
4. Lee/Scola/Mcguire/
5. Pryzbilla/Armstrong/Gray/Mcgee

Using actual 2010-11 salaries and your estimates for new contracts, I came up with over $80 million in salary for next year, before figuring in McGuire, Davis, Blake, and any draft picks, or accounting for Quinton Ross' salary.

How about if you give me some price point breakdowns? btw I dont expect to have all the players listed. For instance its either Armstrong or Gray. Foye or Blake. Good bye Nicky Young, Blatche. etc. Who can take on salary I don't expect to get all that back on the books for Jamisons contract. Your estimate of "80m" is way off we have a ton of money coming off the books this year. You have to be creative and broad with your payments. Please elaborate.

P.S. -- For instance the last two years of a contract could be cash loaded opposed to the first two years being cash loaded etc

2010/2011

A. Miller - $7.27m (expiring)
J. Howard - $5m (1st year) (4 years 20m) team option on 4th year for 5m
Mcgrady - $7m (1st year) (4 years 30m) team option on 4th year for 8.5m
Lee $7.0m - (1st year) (6 years 48 million)
Pryzbilla – $7.4 (expiring)

1st round draft pick - 4m
Foye – $4.8m (expiring)
Redick – $5m (5 years 5m all guaranteed)
M. Miller – $4.5m (4 years 18m team option on 4th year for 4m)
Paul David – $1.1m (4 years 4.4m all guaranteed)
Nick Young – $2.63m (3.695m 2011/2012 qualifying offer then expires)
Mcgee – $1.6 (2.462m for 2011/2012 then team option which we will most likely exercise
Scola – $3.5m (4 years 14m all guaranteed)
Q Ross - $1.146 (expiring)
Blatche - $3.26 ($3.52 2011/2012)

= $65.206 salary for 2010/2011

including Jamison ($13.358m) we add up to $78.564 obviously that would put us over

- Jamison needs to get traded for an expiring contract for this to work. For instance, Big Z for Jamison, would allow this to happen as Big Z contract is expiring after this year.



- Mcquire off the books don't resign
- Package Mcquire and Blatche for Hilton Armstrong(3.8m) and 2011/2012 2nd round draft pick
This still leaves room for us to sign A. Gray at $1.5m to $2m. So at $65.206 add 1.9m for A. Gray and another $600,000 more than Blatche for H. Armstrong ($3.8m) we would still be under the cap at $67.906. We could add S. Blake for 4 year $12m for $2m his first year And then Foye expires so $4.8 opens up in 2011/2012.

- After 2011/2012 A. Miller, Pryzbilla, Q. Ross, Foye come off the books. That's $20.93 off the books. We could sign Marc Gasol and a few other role players.

We have to be able to deal Jamison and Arenas though, which is possible as long as we don't ask for to much in return. Apparently the Cavs are leaning towards Amare, who knows we will see what happens. It is all speculation right now.

[no D in Hibachi]

^
That team is horrible. It might have been good in 2004, but that was 6 years ago. All of the players you're so bent on getting are old, injured, cost too much, and have deminishing skills (if they still have anything left). The thing that baffles me is that all these players are clearly NBA deadbeats and you propose signing most of them to four year deals. This stand singularly as the worst proposed plan for the future in any capacity I've ever seen in any instance in my entire life; thumbs up.

[montestewart]

^
Admittedly, I took the average salary of the four year deals, and the average of your estimated resigning ranges, and I took all the names into account (I had no idea why our rotation had like 17-18 players). What I see there is a team that, under a best-case scenario, peaks about as the Wizards have the last 5-6 years, slightly above .500, with a first round exit. Again, a best-case scenario. What's scary is that it's a nice parody of what the Wizards/Bullets might have done on a number of occasions, taken to its absurd extremes. retooling for mediocrity on the fly while still exceeding the luxury tax (which this team likely would under the revised cap).

A team needs a true go-to player or two, and I see none on this team, only, possibly, decent 3rd, 4th, and 5th options, and bottom of the rotation players. Maybe the 1st round pick could become a go-to player, but why max out on salary while waiting for him to develop, and surround him with declining veterans full of entitlement and losing?

The redevelopment plan clearly involves cutting salary and trying to acquire young, low salary players, unknowns, and low-cost role players, not name players that may or may not have anything left in the tank (McGrady), or one dimensional, one-end-of-the-court players, with inflated stats (Lee), or overpaid bench players (Redick). I expect that the players that will bring a smile back to my face are ones I might not yet have seen play.

[hands11]

I don't think we have to fire Flip. He is a proven coach, even if he didn't do so well this year. I'm not opposed to replacing Flip if a better candidate comes along, but I don't think it's a top priority. EG needs to go though.

As far as our plan for the future, I'd like to see Jamison dumped for cap space, and for us to use our cap space to buy picks and young players from other teams. I'd like to see Arenas traded for 2011 contracts. I'd be patient this offseason and only pull the trigger on major bargain free agents. Otherwise, I'm content to tank for the full 2010/11 season while developing our draft picks and other young players. I'd be eyeing Summer 2011 to make a big splash with a major free agent acquisition.

If all goes well, we will go into the 2011/12 season with:
Blatche
McGee
Foye
2010 top 3 pick
2010 midround pick (bought with cap space)
2011 top 3 pick
2011 late round pick (bought with cash)
a top-notch free agent from the 2011 free agent class
a handful of serviceable rotation players found in the 2nd round
a couple of competent, cheap veterans obtained in free agency (Matt Barnes types of players)

I strongly disagree, nate.

Now that Ernie's jacked things up about as much as he can, I'm thinking the biggest thing wrong with this team is Flip Saunders. Far as I'm concerned Flip's offense is the reason the Wizards record has been so bad. Flip did so much less with more than EJ ever had that I can only give him a D or D- as a coach.

I think the C+ that someone gave him was damned generous. Flip has flat out STUNK this season. I've seen him play Jamison and Butler top-10 minutes. He's played veterans. He's cooled Blatche when Blatche was playing well by benching him. He's played Stevenson over Young. Flip's most egregious errors were huge minutes to an injured Gil early, when Gil couldn't carry a team. Flip lost the same way over and over and over and over again. He kept going with something that wasn't working. Flip played contracts and didn't exhaust combinations. He used a short bench and lost. Occasionally used 10 guys and won but wouldn't do that again and again. Flip to me is more of the same old lack of creativity . A big money coach who does things the way the NBA does things.

I HATE the way Flip has coach almost as much as I hate what Grunfeld's done to the team.

Flip is not a rebuilding coach. He's accustomed to having a Garnett or a championship-level Pistons, and winning around 50 games. The dude coached like ass this season and IMO is the main reason that Ernie Grunfeld just gave away Butler and Haywood.

I think Flip is no good and I've been saying it since November.

I fully expect he'll play Gooden and Ross and Boykins over the youth of the team.

I want another coach, but know it won't happen that way because the Wizards organization really, really stinks.

While I had a lot of hope for Flip, he has proven to be a vet hack in the mold of EFJ. Simply not a think outside the box guy which is what we needed.

I'm sure he Defensive idea are more sound then EFJ. And he did play Haywood a lot more. But after that, I didn't see where he helped the younger players develop or where he used the best line ups. No reason DSleezy should have been out there when you have DMAC who could do anything he as doing and was younger, better legs, better rebounding.

I'm just not sure how to make a good meal out of this anymore.

[hands11]

I strongly disagree, nate.

Now that Ernie's jacked things up about as much as he can, I'm thinking the biggest thing wrong with this team is Flip Saunders. Far as I'm concerned Flip's offense is the reason the Wizards record has been so bad. Flip did so much less with more than EJ ever had that I can only give him a D or D- as a coach.

I think the C+ that someone gave him was damned generous. Flip has flat out STUNK this season. I've seen him play Jamison and Butler top-10 minutes. He's played veterans. He's cooled Blatche when Blatche was playing well by benching him. He's played Stevenson over Young. Flip's most egregious errors were huge minutes to an injured Gil early, when Gil couldn't carry a team. Flip lost the same way over and over and over and over again. He kept going with something that wasn't working. Flip played contracts and didn't exhaust combinations. He used a short bench and lost. Occasionally used 10 guys and won but wouldn't do that again and again. Flip to me is more of the same old lack of creativity . A big money coach who does things the way the NBA does things.

I HATE the way Flip has coach almost as much as I hate what Grunfeld's done to the team.

Flip is not a rebuilding coach. He's accustomed to having a Garnett or a championship-level Pistons, and winning around 50 games. The dude coached like ass this season and IMO is the main reason that Ernie Grunfeld just gave away Butler and Haywood.

I think Flip is no good and I've been saying it since November.

I fully expect he'll play Gooden and Ross and Boykins over the youth of the team.

I want another coach, but know it won't happen that way because the Wizards organization really, really stinks.

I think Flip has done pretty well with Blatche and Young. There was a stretch where he underutilized Blatche in favor of Oberto, but that was short-lived. Over the past 30 games, Blatche has pretty much gotten all the backup minutes available behind Haywood and Jamison.

He had a quick hook with Young for a while, but again, Young responded fairly well and has slowly developed more of an all-around game. I think Young is a better player now than he was prior to Flip. Young defends now, and he's even starting to rebound a bit. (Still can't pass though.)

When you boil it down, your biggest gripe with Flip is his treatment of McGee. You believe that if he simply forcefed McGee more minutes and played him at PF some more, McGee would have exploded and become some kind of stud player. I think that's a delusional fantasy. McGee has been buried on the bench by two coaches now. His on/off differentials have been horrendous for his entire career. Clearly, McGee doesn't know what the hell he is doing and he refuses to listen to the coaches. The problem with McGee is McGee, not Flip.

I'm not saying Flip doesn't have flaws. His tendency to play Stevenson over Young was truly baffling at times. And he has proven to be inflexible with his offense. Specifically, he never figured out how to take advantage of Butler's offensive strengths and instead tried to force a square peg into a round hole by making Butler a catch-and-shoot player.

I'm not opposed to firing Flip if we have a good coach lined up. If we hire a new GM and that new GM wants a new coach, so be it. But I also think we can make things work with Flip. And given that Flip has already signed a big contract, and that no good coach is going to want to come to Washington anytime soon, I say we stay with Flip for now.

That is the bottom line now isn't it. A new coach should only come from a new GM and Flip is as good as this franchise is going to be able to get so we have to stay with him.

[DonPatelli]

^
That team is horrible. It might have been good in 2004, but that was 6 years ago. All of the players you're so bent on getting are old, injured, cost too much, and have deminishing skills (if they still have anything left). The thing that baffles me is that all these players are clearly NBA deadbeats and you propose signing most of them to four year deals. This stand singularly as the worst proposed plan for the future in any capacity I've ever seen in any instance in my entire life; thumbs up.

Your right I shouldn't of gave M. Miller and Howard leverage on their 4 year deals. So they get three years and player options, which we obviously wouldn't exercise. And in their 3rd year they become valuable commodities as expiring contracts.

Mcgrady, J. Howard, M. Miller, Scola would all be 33 after the 3rd year of their contract.

Paul Pierce is older then Mcgrady.

Bostons Big 3 of Pierce was 31, Garnett 32, Ray Allen 33 was when Boston won their title. They are a lot older now and still doing ok.

I think it would be perfect opportunity for us to actually be a real contender for 3 years while building team chemistry. Age 33 is about the cutoff date after that they could really start dwindling. This gives us a chance to win now while at the time rebuilding. Imagine how good this team would be for 3 years if we landed J. Wall in the draft.

J. Wall/ A. Miller
J Howard/ Redick
Mcgrady/ Miller
Lee/Scola/P. Davis
Pryzbilla/Mcgee/ H. Armstrong

If we were able to do a sign and trade and use that Haywood trade kicker, draft picks etc to acquire M. Gasol in this offseason we would be golden.

If you want to think that's a bad team then that's your opinion. I believe its a good team with just enough of time to be a real contender.

PS -- for the record Mcgrady is far from washed up and he is going to come back with a vengeance next season. You heard it here.

Josh Howard isn't a dead beat neither is Scola. As for M. Miller injuries it was obvious the Wizards medical staff was doing a horrible job, which is why we need to get them out. Look at the suns they have aging players that can still play. Its a balanced team of veterans who haven't overaged yet in all honesty.

Obviously these guys are a little older but they still have prime basketball left in them. It's important for a new medical staff to come or this won't work whatsoever.

I mean what do you want to do tank for a few seasons get some draft picks and hope we can get a big time free agent to come to Washington. News flash Durant isn't leaving for Washington and I have trouble seeing any other free agent coming here in the new future unless we prove we can establish a winning culture. We got a huge mess to clean up in case you haven't noticed and the best to do it is start winning now not later. We need to prove we can be a winning organization first and this would allow us to do that while not being stuck in horrible contracts for years on end.

[Bickerstaff]

I think it's crazy scapegoating to blame the Dallas trade on Grunfeld. There weren't even rumors of better offers. Dallas might be the only team with the money to make a deal like that at this particular moment. Caron's value has plummeted, and to dump his contract and Deshawn's, they had to sacrifice Haywood, who a) wasn't going to stick around, b) is expiring, and c) is likely to go from underpaid to overpaid next year. Just because he's underrated doesn't mean he's great. If he were worth more, I think it's pretty likely the Wizards would have gotten more for him. He and Caron were clearly not hot commodities. Maybe Caron's value could have risen, but he was miserable here. There was no benefit to holding on to him, and certainly not Deshawn. I cannot stress this enough: THE WIZARDS WERE OPERATING FROM A POSITION OF ZERO NEGOTIATING STRENGTH. They were kind of fortunate Dallas was even interested.

And the Minnesota trade, while unfortunate in retrospect, hardly qualifies as a fleecing. The Wizards have stunk the last 2 years because of Arenas's injuries and his stupidity. This team wasn't going to win a championship, but they should have been good, and I think there was enough of a youth foundation to make things seem encouraging for the future. But then some bad stuff happened. Daryl Morey may be hot s***, but even he can't keep his stars healthy. And the gun thing was not the result of mismanagement. I just don't think it's fair or honest to say that Grunfeld has been a bad GM of the Wizards, and I think he'd do as well as anyone under whatever parameters the new owner (Leonsis, please) sets.

As for Flip... seriously, you're blaming Flip Saunders? The only reason to get rid of him would be out of kindness, to let him pursue his career somewhere better. He did not come to DC to teach Javale McGee how to give a s***, he came to lead a high-caliber playoff team. This is not what he signed up for.

[Shanghai Kid]

Perhaps nobody wants to hear this, but THE ONLY way the team will even sniff the playoffs over the next five years is to build a defensive team around Gilbert Arenas. I'm sorry, you cannot convince me that by any means the Wizards are going to find a better player than Gilbert Arenas through the draft or free agency. My belief is that no free agents are going to come to a team like this that has no real young prospects and now not even any real veteran talent.

Even if you got a superstar talent, the Wizards would STILL be nothing more than a playoff team. The only way the team would EVER become a contender is to pair Gilbert with a superstar big man. And thats' probably never going to happen.