Arenas Traded for Rashard Lewis

[keynote]

Here's Ted's take on the subject:
http://www.tedstake.com/2010/12/19/the-trade/

I have always been a supporter of Gilbert Arenas. As a fan and now as an owner.

My responsibility is to help craft a team that is a winner and is built to last.

We have to make an environment that is great for our fans and for our players and for our partners.

I was always hopeful that Gilbert would help our team in its rebuild process.

I have been unabashed in noting that we have to rebuild around our core of young players. We will suffer though a lot of pain but we will be stronger for it. The rebuild will take along time for us to get to where we want to be - an elite team. Building a truly special team has lots of risk - in any fashion imaginable - as noted in this New York Times article.

The facts are the facts with Gilbert playing huge minutes for us. We were in basically last place in the East.

He has intimated that he would feel more comfortable playing for a contender and not playing as a mentor to young players. He needed a fresh start and I wish him well in this next phase of his career.

The trade helps us to accelerate our rebuild.

Our young players will now get more minutes in the back court. They will be the focus of our attention. And development. It will be apparent to all what we are trying to do with our team.

With the trade we add a two time All-Star front court player. He is long and skilled. And has played on a winner.

From a financial standpoint, we actually pick up salary short term but in the long term, we save cap space. We save significant dollars and we add flexibility in a time frame where we will know how our rebuild is progressing. And what we need to improve.

As you saw last night at the game against Miami, the team responded well to the trade. We played with enthusiasm; with grit; and with an all-for-one and one-for-all attitude.

I wish Gilbert Arenas well. I honestly do. I thank him for all his good work in our community and for his contributions on the court for our franchise.

I warmly welcome Rashard Lewis to our city and to our team. I know he will help us in many ways.

I thank the team for playing so hard last night and I was so sad to see us lose such a close game to the Heat. We deserved a better fate last night.

[20MexicanosIn1Van]

This is got to be the funniest thing I've seen. It looks like Rashard is about to cry that he has to wear a Wizards jersey.

[keynote]

A funny image, agreed.

But you realize that the Wizards jersey was merely photoshopped onto Shard's official media head shot, right? So, Shard had that expression back when he was w/ the Magic.

On a side note, he doesn't look particularly sad to me - he looks stoned.

[AceDegenerate]

On a side note, he doesn't look particularly sad to me - he looks stoned.

Shart use illegal drugs? Never.

He's here to play defense & rebound remember?

[nate33]

I wonder if buying out Shart is a realistic possibility. He is owed $19.5M, $21.1M and allegedly about $10M in the next three years respectively. That $21.1M is likely to be a lockout shortened season. So let's assume that he'll get paid half of that.

So in reality, he is due a guaranteed $40M over the next three years. Would it be reasonable to offer him a $30M buyout? He could go sign for the MLE somewhere and make another $17M over 3 years (though he's lose about $3M of that in the lockout). He ends up with nearly all of his money and he gets to play for a team that actually wants him. We prorate his buyout against our cap over the next three years at roughly $10M a year to free up $10M a year in cap room.

We could also try to work out a deal in the summer. By this summer, he will have $30M in guaranteed money on his contract, $10M of which is likely to be lost in the lockout, leaving $20M. We buy him out for, say, $14M and let him go sign somewhere for the MLE. He makes up that lost money with his new contract and breaks even financially, while playing for a team that wants him. We only get charged $7M a year against the cap in 2011 and 2012 (instead of $21M and $10M respectively).

The point is, with his last year only partially guaranteed, and with a lockout looming, there are various win-win scenarios that can be worked out where Lewis gets most or all of his money and we free up a significant amount of cap space.

[Benjammin]

^^^^^^
Yeah, I just checked their website. He really does look like he's ready to start bawling.

[fugop]

I guess this counts as closure. Good luck, Gilbert.

[Benjammin]

I wonder if buying out Shart is a realistic possibility. He is owed $19.5M, $21.1M and allegedly about $10M in the next three years respectively. That $21.1M is likely to be a lockout shortened season. So let's assume that he'll get paid half of that.

So in reality, he is due a guaranteed $40M over the next three years. Would it be reasonable to offer him a $30M buyout? He could go sign for the MLE somewhere and make another $17M over 3 years (though he's lose about $3M of that in the lockout). He ends up with nearly all of his money and he gets to play for a team that actually wants him. We prorate his buyout against our cap over the next three years at roughly $10M a year to free up $10M a year in cap room.

We could also try to work out a deal in the summer. By this summer, he will have $30M in guaranteed money on his contract, $10M of which is likely to be lost in the lockout, leaving $20M. We buy him out for, say, $14M and let him go sign somewhere for the MLE. He makes up that lost money with his new contract and breaks even financially, while playing for a team that wants him. We only get charged $7M a year against the cap in 2011 and 2012 (instead of $21M and $10M respectively).

The point is, with his last year only partially guaranteed, and with a lockout looming, there are various win-win scenarios that can be worked out where Lewis gets most or all of his money and we free up a significant amount of cap space.

I like either of those scenarios. I don't know that Ted or EG is ready for the PR fallout since right now they're acting like they're happy to have Shart. Since I don't want to see him in a Wizards uniform, I would be on board for either of those buyout possibilities.

[bulletproof_32]

Gil seems very happy

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/o ... 7849.story

Nice interview. Gil's just an awesome person. I wish him nothing but the best.

I miss him already.

[Higga]

Love Gil, always have always will. He needed a change of scenery though and we needed a fresh start. Good luck to ya Gil, I am rooting for Orlando in the East now.

But I'm a bit peeved the best we could get is Rashard Lewis. I was hoping for Carter's expiring...

[Kanyewest]

Who knows; maybe we'll like Rashard Lewis- after all we do like Josh Howard now.

[LyricalRico]

And let's not forget Arenas' role in this. Covering things up and smoothing them over is a two-way street. At first, the organization was quiet on the incident, preferring to let legal authorities have their say before weighing in. Then Arenas had to do the classless "finger gun incident" on national TV. At that point, EG had no way to salvage the situation. Arenas left EG and Stern no other choice but to come down hard on him.

You people need to come to grips with the fact that Arenas played an active role in all of this. He isn't a victim here.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Who knows; maybe we'll like Rashard Lewis- after all we do like Josh Howard now.

True Shart came with the same reputation as Howard did, that of being an underachiever. But Howard was in a contract year last year and is again in a contract year this year. Howard has a reason to elevate his game where as Shart already has his money.

I have a hard time believing that he's going to elevate his game on a crappy team. If he mailed it in Orlando, he'll do it here as well.

[keynote]

Who knows; maybe we'll like Rashard Lewis- after all we do like Josh Howard now.

True Shart came with the same reputation as Howard did, that of being an underachiever. But Howard was in a contract year last year and is again in a contract year this year. Howard has a reason to elevate his game where as Shart already has his money.

I have a hard time believing that he's going to elevate his game on a crappy team. If he mailed it in Orlando, he'll do it here as well.

Eh, Josh Howard came with a rep of being an underachieving weed head (and, allegedly, militant anti-patriot), but he never had a label for being soft. He was known as a capable defender and a solid scorer who's performance and focus had dipped.

Shard, on the other hand, was known for being soft back in Seattle. He might have suffered from the additional weight of expectations associated with his bloated contract w/ ORL.

[The Consiglieri]

Ernie is a bad negotiator, period. He is poor with the draft (no credit for Wall, he was a no brainier). His trades have produced mixed results. Credit is due for the Caron / Kwame, but that could be negated by Foye, Miller / 5th pick.

Bottom line, a new GM is a must.

He has to go because of the horrible trades, and the horrible signings and resignings. The only thing to recommend him is that his drafting has actually been pretty good over the years. Considering where we've picked, when he's picked, we've consistently landed pretty good talent, often at a typically low rate of liklihood. Not bad.

But in every other way he's been awful. I hated the Antawn trade when it happened, and still do, i hated the #5 pick when it happened and said it, i hated the deals of our trash last year, as we definitely didn't get much back.

He has to go the only problem is that Leonsis based on the very limited evidence available, sticks w/GM's even when they deserved canning (GMGM should have been canned when Leonsis bought the Caps, he's since done a good job for the most part with trades, and a great job fo the most part with first rounders beyond the feel good disaster pick of the son of the 80's fan favorite who blows and is now quitting, though he's still failed to develop any talent outside round 1). Essentially, he should have fired GMGM when he took over, he did not, keeping him instead, he should have fired EG when he took over the Boulez, but again he did not, and he still has not. Leonsis appears to be unusually loyal to in place management when he takes over, so thoses who want EG gone may be unhappy. Maybe this small sampling is just that, a small sampling, but still, based on the minor evidence available, he may not fire EG which considering what EG's done in past rebuilds, could be a very bad thing. I could totally see him dealing our first rounder this year for some mediocre vet, the only saving grace, is that its pretty clear Leonsis won't tolerate short sighted moves like that. Hopefully that viewpoint continues.

[DallasShalDune]

I haven't had access to a computer; here is my 2 cents.

I'm saddened not only by giving up Gilbert for one of the biggest bums in the league, but the fact that it truly is a necessary move for both Gil and the Wizards organization is the worst part. Gil might have worked out with Wall eventually, but as of now Wall seemed timid when teamed up with Gilbert. Gilbert was obviously giving Wall the secrets to success on the NBA level, jawing at him between every play they were on the court together. Gil was a good mentor, but he obviously didn't relish the role. He wanted a true fresh start, away from Washington, and we needed to start over and complete the overhaul of our original Big Three to look to the future, to Wall's future with the organization.

I hate it though. Gilbert Arenas was the most exciting thing to happen to this organization in 30 years and he ended it with both his own actions and through the complete intense scrutiny of the media. As much as he f*cked up, I loved having Gilbert Arenas on the team and I rooted for him to succeed more than any of our other players.

Gilbert's tenure as Washington Wizards star has ended; Walls' has officially begun.

Let's see how we roll now, fellas.

[WizarDynasty]

Good trade, Lewis/Howard far greater impact long term than Arenas pretending to be a point guard because he is undersized and slow laterally. We have to thank Arenas because he gave us his best physical years. Orlando is getting nothing but the shell of tweener arenas who has to adapt his game because of his deteriorated physical dominance.

[dandridge 10]

After a day of calming down, I have gone from being pissed about this trade to just being ambivalent. With regard to Arenas, there is no question he had to go. It was clear he didn't want to be here and I never really bought the notion that Wall and Arenas would work together. In addition, while I really liked Gil as a person and enjoyed a lot of his "assassin" moments over the years, Arenas was the kind of guy that I hated to love (if that makes any sense as the opposite of loved to hate). As much joy he brought me over the last couple years, he also irritated me to no end with his lack of defense, lack of leadership, and his immaturity. That is the reason why I thought the Wizards were crazy to give him the money that they did. Teams should pay that kind of money for players like Kobe, MJ, Garnett, Tim Duncan, etc, that play both ends of the court and make their teammates accountable on the floor. Gilbert was never that guy. Yes, he was exciting and fun to watch, but he was never a "winner" in my book. I wish him well in Orlando and hope he does well for them, but I won't necessarily miss him here.

The reason why I was so pissed about this trade was not because Arenas was traded, but because of what we got for him. Not only does Lewis have a crappy contract, but he's just not the kind of guy to mentor the young players we currently have. We have enough soft big men that are allergic to defense. We don't need another veteran that will just reinforce that style of play. With that said, I do realize that we probably didn't have a lot of teams banging on our door for Arenas given his contract AND THE WAY HE HAS BEEN PLAYING THIS SEASON. The rumors regarding Orlando and the Wiz doing a deal for Gil have been around for weeks. If there was another team that was interested in Gil, they probably would have already made an offer for him to preempt a trade to Orlando. My guess is that there were none. Given that no other teams were knocking on the Wiz door, and Gil wasn't exactly improving his trade value with his play, the Wizards probably figured that this was the best deal they would get and they took it. Personally, I would have waited longer, at least until Howard came back to give Arenas some more tools to work with. However, I also could understand now why the Wizards did what they did. I don't like it one bit, and I can't stand Lewis as a player, but I at least can UNDERSTAND some of the reasons for making the deal.

Anyway, the Wizards weren't really going anywhere the next few years with Arenas. They aint going anywhere for the next few years with Lewis. I'm resigned to the fact that we are going to suck for the next two years, but hopefully we will get some good draft picks along the way, groom some of our youngins, cut away some of our slackers, and have some money in 2012 to make a splash in the FA market.

[kavu]

Exactly!

We disbanded the old franchise (Jamison, Caron, Haywood, and Gil) and really didn't get a whole lot for it. Kind of shocking overall.

Hard to believe we couldn't work out a trade for Yao Ming. He fits with our team in so many ways...

I think there are legitimate questions about whether Yao will ever actually play again in the NBA.

[dangermouse]

Oh great, i go away for a couple of weeks, completely cut off from the world, and i come back to this. Honestly though, as soon as Gil was playing a sixth man role off the bench I knew he was on his way out, i just thought it would be for something better than this.

Lewis expires a year before Gil's contract does though, right? I guess it will be good for us in the long run, especially when we have Lewis' and the last year of his contract on our books. Thats a huge expiring that could swing a deal for a disgruntled all-star who wants to play with Wall.

But i hope to god that Grunfeld is out of here by the time Wall's up for a contract extension. I would like to keep Wall around long term, ideally, he does seem like he can do a few things out there on the court...

Seriously, Arenas for Lew straight up?? We couldnt get Orton in the deal? Not even a 2nd?