Arenas Traded for Rashard Lewis

[nate33]

Thought we can use a separate thread for this.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/ ... -turkoglu/

The Orlando Magic have traded Vince Carter, Mikael Pietrus, and Marcin Gortat to the Phoenix Suns for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark. The Magic have also traded Rashard Lewis to the Washington Wizards for Gilbert Arenas.

[fishercob]

WHAT?!?

[MJG]

I'll move my thoughts from the trade thread to here then ...

I'll be in the tiny minority and say I'm fine with the deal. Assuming Arenas wasn't going to give us the same choice to convert his player option to a team option he's rumored to be giving to Orlando, we effectively turned a 3 year, $63~ million contract into a 2 year, $45~ million contract, which is a nice financial plus. Lewis is worse than Arenas on the court, but neither is an all-star any more, and we're not on the verge of contending for anything in the next year or two anyways. I think there's an emotional component of this for many, but for me, it's been four years since the guy has done anything positive for the franchise, so I've long since stopped caring about him on that level.

So all in all, I'm in favor of the trade. Granted, I'd say this is just about the worst possible Arenas trade that I'd still be in favor of, but still, I'm in favor.

[AceDegenerate]

More confirmation.

http://twitter.com/#!/JoshuaBRobbins/st ... 7704009728

The #Magic have finalized their deal with the #Wizards to acquire Gilbert Arenas for Rashard Lewis

[LyricalRico]

Had to happen and I'm glad it did.

Blatche/McGee
Lewis/Booker
Howard/Thornton
Young/Hinrich
Wall/Hinrich

That's what I would go with for the rest of the season. Flip probably won't, but that's for another thread.

Go Wiz!

[Wizards2Lottery]

This trade sucks and Rashard Lewis blows. Ernie gets to blow up his own monster and create another one. This makes no sense.

[nate33]

I'm not thrilled about the deal but I cede that we just weren't going to get anything more for Arenas. Arenas has either lost all athleticism, or he is deliberately tanking because he no longer wants to be here. Either way, the end result is that we had to get rid of him for whatever cap relief we can get. I actually think that the team with Lewis won't be any worse than the team with Arenas, assuming Wall gets healthy. Lewis isn't as bad as people are making him out to be. I'm not saying he's good; and in no way is he worth his contract, but he's a legit starter on a contending team.

[Halcyon]

This is a sad day. Arenas made it fun to watch the Wizards again those first few years. Logically speaking he had to be traded, but still...I remember the days when we discussed trading him for Kobe...and now he's been reduced to a Rashard Lewis.

Basically, **** you Gerald Wallace. You ruined something great.

[AceDegenerate]

I agree with everyone who says Arenas needed to be moved. I think how the Wizards got to that point is the real problem, and reason why they ended up getting nothing in return.

There is no reason the Wizards shouldn't have gotten real value in return for Arenas, however situations were handled as they were and it is what it is.

Rashard Lewis is not a good player though, and I'll continue to laugh at any of you who try to pass him off as one.

[mhd]

I'm not thrilled about the deal but I cede that we just weren't going to get anything more for Arenas. Arenas has either lost all athleticism, or he is deliberately tanking because he no longer wants to be here. Either way, the end result is that we had to get rid of him for whatever cap relief we can get. I actually think that the team with Lewis won't be any worse than the team with Arenas, assuming Wall gets healthy. Lewis isn't as bad as people are making him out to be. I'm not saying he's good; and in no way is he worth his contract, but he's a legit starter on a contending team.

I disagree Nate. Lewis worked well with orlando because of Howard. Put him on a team where he needs to defend and do things winning SFs have to do, and he sucks. Josh Howard is a better player than he is. I'd rather Booker get everyone of Lewis's minutes. Booker at least plays with fire and passion. Booker will at least board. Rashard Lewis is 6'10, and Booker is 6'7, and Booker will outrebound, outwork, outdefend, and set better screens than Lewis will.

[Kanyewest]

Rashard_Lewis via twitter:

Yo boy off to DC it was fun playing in Orlando had a great time trying to win it all got close but not close enough but it's been real.

[nate33]

I'm not thrilled about the deal but I cede that we just weren't going to get anything more for Arenas. Arenas has either lost all athleticism, or he is deliberately tanking because he no longer wants to be here. Either way, the end result is that we had to get rid of him for whatever cap relief we can get. I actually think that the team with Lewis won't be any worse than the team with Arenas, assuming Wall gets healthy. Lewis isn't as bad as people are making him out to be. I'm not saying he's good; and in no way is he worth his contract, but he's a legit starter on a contending team.

I disagree Nate. Lewis worked well with orlando because of Howard. Put him on a team where he needs to defend and do things winning SFs have to do, and he sucks. Josh Howard is a better player than he is. I'd rather Booker get everyone of Lewis's minutes. Booker at least plays with fire and passion. Booker will at least board. Rashard Lewis is 6'10, and Booker is 6'7, and Booker will outrebound, outwork, outdefend, and set better screens than Lewis will.

Fair points. Howard might be better than Shart at SF. And I definitely don't want to see Shart play too much PF here because we don't have a behemoth like Howard to make up for his lack of rebounding. But I do think Shart is an upgrade over Thornton and a much better fit.

I'm curious as to what happened to Shart this year. If we got the Shart who played last year (PER of 14, TS% of .573, 3P% of .397) it would help this roster. Unfortunately, Shart is posting a PER of just 11.4 and a TS% of .524. Is there something fundamentally wrong with Shart this year? Or is he simply in a shooting slump?

[Jazzfan12]

Shard has a PER of 5 at wing positions this year. He's played miserable basketball at the wing this year and can only produce now at PF.

[mhd]

I think a Lewis+Hinrich deal to the Bucks is worth exploring. Hinrich has a decreasing salary, so he only makes 8 next year. Maggette+Dooling+Redd for Hinrich+Lewis works in the Trade checker. Lewis' last year of only 10 million garunteed matches up with Maggette's last year.

In essence, the Bucks will be paying 18 million over the next 2+ years for that trade. Is that enough for them to do it?

[WizarDynasty]

shard is a huge upgrade over thornton. Wall is basically a younger gilbert arenas. I would have really loved if grunfeld could have pulled earl clark out of the deal. We would have been grooming our small forward of the future. But overall, arenas three ball was his primary asset and we don't lose that with rashard. at least we won't get abused in the post by small forward anymore and he will make people pay for doubling in the post which is what we were looking for with mike miller. It would have been nice to get a young prospect to groom in the mold of rashard since rashard is pretty old 30. earl clark has pretty much the same game ..and if he studied behind lewis it would have boosted EG and fit with leonsis longterm plans.

[nate33]

From the trade thread:

Rashard's biggest strength is if he plays SF he a very good post player. Him in Washington he might actually become a top post option again. Was never going to happen with the Magic.

Interesting thought. The Wizards have the personnel to make that work because Blatche can space the floor from the PF spot so Shart can post up SF's.

Another thought is that we can put Booker alongside Shart and have Booker guard the better offensive player, whether it's a SF or a PF.

[closg00]

Oh-well, Gil had to be shipped-out, not sure how this swap works financially since Lewis is actually paid more. I imagine that we'll have to cut Hamady and pick-up another guard given Wall's injury.
We're in for Kirk 42 minutes a night fellas, yippie!

[mhd]

shard is a huge upgrade over thornton. Wall is basically a younger gilbert arenas. I would have really loved if grunfeld could have pulled earl clark out of the deal. We would have been grooming our small forward of the future. But overall, arenas three ball was his primary asset and we don't lose that with rashard. at least we won't get abused in the post by small forward anymore and he will make people pay for doubling in the post which is what we were looking for with mike miller. It would have been nice to get a young prospect to groom in the mold of rashard since rashard is pretty old 30. earl clark has pretty much the same game ..and if he studied behind lewis it would have boosted EG and fit with leonsis longterm plans.

Earl Clark sucks. If he didn't, then Phoenix would have picked up his rookie option. He couldn't crack their rotation. If he didn't suck, then Phoenix would not have signed Childress, extended Dudley, and traded for Hedo. He's filler and will likely be out of the league after this year (his last because the Suns didn't pick up his option).

[closg00]

...and you will certainly see a different version of Gilbert once he hits Orlando, he was holding-back.

[Relentless88]

Terrible deal for the Wizards.