How do you fix this team?

[DaRealHibachi]

What about the OKC model machine that took Harden over Tyreke Evans?

I think it worked out for the best; Evans being ball-dominant will not fit next to Westbrook... Harden doesn't need the ball to be effective...

[nate33]

I'm not saying I doubt that it's possible. I'm just struggling to find where it's explicitly stated that teams can do what OKC apparently did with Collison.

The Thunder -- as a team slightly more than $6.5 million under the salary cap before re-signing Collison -- took advantage of that below-the-cap status to unexpectedly award Collison all of their space as a signing bonus that takes his 2010-11 compensation to a whopping $13.3 million.

Signing bonuses in extensions are usually pro-rated through the life of the contract. Teams under the cap, though, can apply the entire signing bonus at the time the extension is signed, as long as the bonus doesn't exceed the available cap space.

link

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Glad to hear it didn't hit HI like it hit Japan

Funny, CCJ was the first thing that popped in my head when they said he was heading to HI.

Thanks, hands. I appreciate the concern.

Hands, you pop in my mind times when my criticisms of Flip are unbalanced and negative. Of all the posters here, your patience and optimism and ability to see the good impresses me the most. You rise above and that is a quality I am learning more to try and emulate.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Bulls model probably makes a lot more sense specifically to the Wizards franchise as Rose and Noah are two similar young cornerstones (or were) to Wall and McGee.

Back to the 2-guard point. Does Dunleavy JR get a long contract from somewhere else? If so, it may just make sense to trade for that stop gap 2 if it means getting a nice asset (pick etc) to go along with it. The question is what teams have 2-guards with semi lenghthy deals that would give the Wizards any incentives to take on those contracts. Here is my list (not my suggestions) of those teams that currently employ such 2-guards or wings, that they may be willing to trade them along with a pick just to clear out their cap perhaps, and/or have other players needing those minutes etc.

Detroit - Richard Hamilton
Indiana - Dahntay Jones
Lakers - Luke Walton
New Jersey - Travis Outlaw
Phoenix - Josh Childress

eitanr, the two things I don't like about Dunleavy are his Injury history and him being on losing teams. Otherwise, I think he might be a good fit for reasons you covered.

Funny you listed Childress. I saw Phoenix on the nationally-televised game yesterday. Jeff Van Gundy was commenting on how many team's wanted Childress when he returned from Greece, but how things have not worked out with Phoenix. He said Phoenix was just loaded at SF with Hill, Dudley (who already had the spot), Warrick, etc. I think Josh is still the same player he was at ATL.

Childress has holes in his game but is a tremendous finisher and a great rebounder at SG. Very unselfish, his numbers at ATL were high on Win Score and PER. IiRC he was a league leader in true shooting. His deal matches Blatche's.

I wonder if Phoenix wants to dump him badly enough to swap Childress and their first for Blatche and Wizard second? To me, If the Wizards draft a stud PF, Andray either goes to C or sixth man. He won't be effective defensively at C and he doesn't want to come off the bench. With another first, Washington can grab Faried or Benson or JaJuan Joseph or Jordan Williams--each decent prospects.

I would take Chidress and Faried for Blatche.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

What about the OKC model machine that took Harden over Tyreke Evans?

I think it worked out for the best; Evans being ball-dominant will not fit next to Westbrook... Harden doesn't need the ball to be effective...

I remember being wrong about Evans. At the time I also thought, like OKC, that Harden was the superior player.

Passing Evans for Harden reminds me of the Timberwolves drafting but trading (healthy) Brandon Roy to Portland for Randy Foye. Oops, TWolves! But again, Foye was a guy I also was wrong about. Loved him in the draft. Now, I think it's obvious Foye was good but so was his Nova teammate Lowry.

DRH, I agree with you that for OKC Harden is the better guy to play next to Westbrook, and not Evans.

[LyricalRico]

^^^Thanks, nate.

[JonathanJoseph]

One other thought about the OKC model: it allowed them to negotiate that Nick Collison contract. We could employ the same tactic over and over again. When Nick is a free agent this summer, front load his salary so he is paid $12M, $3M, $3M, $3M. Next year, when McGee is a free agent (assuming he turns the corner and is worth $7M a year) front load his salary too: $15M, $5M, $5M, $5M, $5M). The idea is to get all these borderline starting-caliber players locked up at a backup's salary. That way, we don't have to let guys like Booker and Seraphin walk when they're free agents. Also, the guys we have locked up at below-market salary will become good trading pieces down the road.

Yes. And this is very much what I was hoping they were going to do with the Blatche extension.

[Hoopalotta]

The problem with going full OKC on the Blatche extension was that we'd already blown all our cap space on a few pieces of questionable worth in the $6-7 million range by way of they who shall not be named.

Edit --> Of course it could be argued that Blatche isn't of the sort of temperament to where you want to front load things up like the Nick Collison deal. It sounds good in the abstract, but......

[eitanr]

The Bulls model probably makes a lot more sense specifically to the Wizards franchise as Rose and Noah are two similar young cornerstones (or were) to Wall and McGee.

Back to the 2-guard point. Does Dunleavy JR get a long contract from somewhere else? If so, it may just make sense to trade for that stop gap 2 if it means getting a nice asset (pick etc) to go along with it. The question is what teams have 2-guards with semi lenghthy deals that would give the Wizards any incentives to take on those contracts. Here is my list (not my suggestions) of those teams that currently employ such 2-guards or wings, that they may be willing to trade them along with a pick just to clear out their cap perhaps, and/or have other players needing those minutes etc.

Detroit - Richard Hamilton
Indiana - Dahntay Jones
Lakers - Luke Walton
New Jersey - Travis Outlaw
Phoenix - Josh Childress

eitanr, the two things I don't like about Dunleavy are his Injury history and him being on losing teams. Otherwise, I think he might be a good fit for reasons you covered.

Funny you listed Childress. I saw Phoenix on the nationally-televised game yesterday. Jeff Van Gundy was commenting on how many team's wanted Childress when he returned from Greece, but how things have not worked out with Phoenix. He said Phoenix was just loaded at SF with Hill, Dudley (who already had the spot), Warrick, etc. I think Josh is still the same player he was at ATL.

Childress has holes in his game but is a tremendous finisher and a great rebounder at SG. Very unselfish, his numbers at ATL were high on Win Score and PER. IiRC he was a league leader in true shooting. His deal matches Blatche's.

I wonder if Phoenix wants to dump him badly enough to swap Childress and their first for Blatche and Wizard second? To me, If the Wizards draft a stud PF, Andray either goes to C or sixth man. He won't be effective defensively at C and he doesn't want to come off the bench. With another first, Washington can grab Faried or Benson or JaJuan Joseph or Jordan Williams--each decent prospects.

I would take Chidress and Faried for Blatche.

I don't mind taking on Childress if it means swapping out of Blatche's deal and netting their pick as you have mentioned. The other hope is that a nice touted wing, namely one of the Jones', or Vesley could possibly fall to that pick. Does Phoenix do that though?

To me the most realistic option is trying to deal for that Indy pick if they miss the playoffs. I still feel a 3 way where at most Blatche and our 2nd rd pick (if not then our ATL pick in a worse case) go to Memphis, Mayo and Haddai go to Indiana...and D. Jones and Indy's pick come to Washington. I feel the Grizzlies would need that insurance before negotiating with Z-Bo and/or the depth at the 4/5. Indy has already seemed favorable to dealing for Mayo...getting them to unload Jones' deal could be a sweetner for them. I feel then one of the nicer SFs would fall to that Indy pick (i.e. Jones', Barnes, Vesley) and the Wizards could potentiall roll with the following:
PF J. Sullinger/ T. Booker
SF P. Jones/ R. Lewis
C J. McGee/ K. Seraphin/ H. N'Daye
SG D. Jones/ J. Crawford
PG J. Wall/ M. Shakur

[LyricalRico]

Edit --> Of course it could be argued that Blatche isn't of the sort of temperament to where you want to front load things up like the Nick Collison deal. It sounds good in the abstract, but......

Good point. I'm also questioning if guys like Young/McGee would really be good candidates for that type of contract.

[tontoz]

Childress would be a horrible fit here. The last thing this team needs is a wing player who can't score outside 5 feet or play defense, especially with that contract.

[nate33]

Childress would be a horrible fit here. The last thing this team needs is a wing player who can't score outside 5 feet or play defense, especially with that contract.

I agree completely. Childress makes no sense at all. The only motivation seems to be the desire to get Blatche out of here at all costs. I don't get it. Even if Blatche isn't a starting-caliber player, I'd rather have him as our backup big than Childress as our backup wing.

Besides, given Blatche's recent surge before the shoulder injury, it's looking more and more like Blatche's sub par performance was due to injury rather than a total regression in ability. If, when healthy, Blatche can get back to being an 18 and 9 type of player with mediocre efficiency, he should at least be movable again. We could trade him for a 2012 expiring and maybe even a pick.

I'm generally of the opinion that we'll never win with Blatche, but that doesn't mean we should dump him at all costs. We need to be patient. In the meantime, we're better off with him as our backup big or maybe our starting center.

[Nivek]

Blatche can't "get back" to mediocre efficiency since he's only flirted with it. He needs to at least have a serious dating relationship with mediocre efficiency before we can talk about him getting back together with it.

[nate33]

Okay. "Poor" efficiency if the term "mediocre" violates your sensibilities. My point is, the injury may explain why he dropped from last seasons poor efficiency to this year's outright abysmal efficiency. If Blatche can post a TS% around 51-52% again while scoring 18 points, other teams would be interested in him. Nobody wants him right now with his .487 TS%

[eitanr]

Edit --> Of course it could be argued that Blatche isn't of the sort of temperament to where you want to front load things up like the Nick Collison deal. It sounds good in the abstract, but......

Good point. I'm also questioning if guys like Young/McGee would really be good candidates for that type of contract.

I think if you're in a situation to offer that type of contract it is the ideal way to go. The player would then at least become tradeable after year 1 of the deal if he doesn't pan out. I'd give a deal like that to McGee for that reason as his size could lend him to more future injuries and if Seraphin pans out, he may be tradeable later down the line.

[eitanr]

Childress would be a horrible fit here. The last thing this team needs is a wing player who can't score outside 5 feet or play defense, especially with that contract.

I agree completely. Childress makes no sense at all. The only motivation seems to be the desire to get Blatche out of here at all costs. I don't get it. Even if Blatche isn't a starting-caliber player, I'd rather have him as our backup big than Childress as our backup wing.

Besides, given Blatche's recent surge before the shoulder injury, it's looking more and more like Blatche's sub par performance was due to injury rather than a total regression in ability. If, when healthy, Blatche can get back to being an 18 and 9 type of player with mediocre efficiency, he should at least be movable again. We could trade him for a 2012 expiring and maybe even a pick.

I'm generally of the opinion that we'll never win with Blatche, but that doesn't mean we should dump him at all costs. We need to be patient. In the meantime, we're better off with him as our backup big or maybe our starting center.

I don't disagree. I'd only move Blatche in a deal that could net the Wiz a pick in the 8-12 range somehow, but I would be willing to take on a lengthy type deal to make that happen. If such a deal can not be done, then I do agree it is best to just keep Blatche and hope he plays better next season and regains some value around the league.

[Nivek]

Okay. "Poor" efficiency if the term "mediocre" violates your sensibilities. My point is, the injury may explain why he dropped from last seasons poor efficiency to this year's outright abysmal efficiency. If Blatche can post a TS% around 51-52% again while scoring 18 points, other teams would be interested in him. Nobody wants him right now with his .487 TS%

Much better.

[J-Blaze]

all we gotta do is draft kanter, williams, jones, barnes. and add a bunch of shooters to his squad for wall to kick it out too then we should be good. resign nick. get a coach to get on mcgees a** and make him a top 5 center in this league. blatche is stillr real good to me hes just injured. let kevin and booker continue to grow into good role players. and am i the only one that thinks Jordan Crawford can become the next Gilbert Arenas on this team? i mean he can score at will and also makes great passes. or am i just tripping?

[eitanr]

all we gotta do is draft kanter, williams, jones, barnes. and add a bunch of shooters to his squad for wall to kick it out too then we should be good. resign nick. get a coach to get on mcgees a** and make him a top 5 center in this league. blatche is stillr real good to me hes just injured. let kevin and booker continue to grow into good role players. and am i the only one that thinks Jordan Crawford can become the next Gilbert Arenas on this team? i mean he can score at will and also makes great passes. or am i just tripping?

I would agree that the Wiz could probably use one of Sullinger or D. Williams with their 1st pick. I do believe the team should try and net one of Terrence Jones, Perry Jones, Harrison Barnes by trying to trade up using their Atlanta pick and absorbing more cap space. The truth is though, what teams would be okay with such a deal.

My candidates would be as follows:
Charlotte - Matt Carroll
Indiana: Dahntay Jones
Milwuakee: Drew Gooden
Phoenix: Josh Childress
Philly: Andres Noccioni (use two picks to move up in 8-10 range)

Of the above I think everyone except Carrol would at least crack the Wiz rotation and be of some use as a player. Still, it would depend on how the slots fill out and which team is more desperate to unload salary than others. I still feel Charlotte could be open, but is it worth for a completley useless Carroll.

[montestewart]

Okay. "Poor" efficiency if the term "mediocre" violates your sensibilities. My point is, the injury may explain why he dropped from last seasons poor efficiency to this year's outright abysmal efficiency. If Blatche can post a TS% around 51-52% again while scoring 18 points, other teams would be interested in him. Nobody wants him right now with his .487 TS%

Much better.

What's the break out of his efficiency at C vs. PF? My eyes and memory tell me he's closer to par as a C, staying closer to the basket, taking fewer long fadeaways, putting the ball on the floor less, and his footwork close in gives him better matchup opportunities. But then, the numbers might show that it's an illusion of my selective memory.