Draft Thread Continued. 2011 part two...

[GhostsOfGil]

Dat wouldn't touch that kid with a 10-foot pole, and you know why...

[sfam]

If the Wizards resign Nick, they'll have 8 players under contract -- 7 of them aged 25 or under. We've got three picks in the top 35. I'm just not sure it wise to have 10 of our 12 active players be kids. Maybe I'm wrong in that regard, especially with Wall running the show and leading this group, but that just strikes me as a bit too young.

So to me, there's some benefit in owning a player's rights while letting him develop elsewhere. I wouldn't expect anyone to every "magically" get better. I expect guys to get better as their bodies mature, they gain experience, and they work their asses off. Happens all the time. So if there's an opportunity to draft someone and let him develop on someone else's dime, not take up cap room, I'd certainly look at it. It would *not* be the guiding force behind my drafting someone, but it could be a benefit nonetheless.

Also, the only reason I'd want to stash someone is if their buyout situation made it such that teams were staying away and they were dropping in the draft to the point of them being a great value. And the more I think about it, it would have to be with the 18 or 35, not the lotto pick -- even if it drops to 7. At 18 or 35, you can afford to stash a guy -- if the value is right. I'm not advocating "taking a flier" on a Pecherov type. But if you've got Mirotic or Vanaciunus as 10th on your board or something, and they're their, I'm fine with taking them and waiting a year or two to get them over here.

I get your reasoning, but I see no history of us showing any ability to pick Eurostash players. To me, this seems more likely a wasted pick. I get that we should probably change our name to the Washington Toddlers, but I'd rather go for a non-freshman pick that can show up with the 18th and 35th.

[nate33]

Guys, FORGET about this year's draft. Or next year's, or the year after that. My new fave Wiz strategy? Tank for as long as it takes to draft THIS kid! He's not only a deadly shooter, but he knows the importance of stopping for snacks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kx6MjyBE00[/youtube]

OMG! This kid if frickin' INCREDIBLE!

I can't believe the form on his jumper, with the high release and the power coming from the forearms. I've never seen a toddler with that kind of coordination. My five year old can't shoot like that and this kid is probably just two.

[sfam]

Guys, FORGET about this year's draft. Or next year's, or the year after that. My new fave Wiz strategy? Tank for as long as it takes to draft THIS kid! He's not only a deadly shooter, but he knows the importance of stopping for snacks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kx6MjyBE00[/youtube]

OMG! This kid if frickin' INCREDIBLE!

I can't believe the form on his jumper, with the high release and the power coming from the forearms. I've never seen a toddler with that kind of coordination. My five year old can't shoot like that and this kid is probably just two.

He's actually probably closer to 7 years old, and will only make it to 4'11"

[no D in Hibachi]

Serge Ibaka worked for OKC, but you're right not a big history of draft and stash guys.

[Nivek]

Kid needs to work on that 2-hand release. Not good form. Nothing that can't be fixed with a few hours of work per day in the gym.

I'm a little concerned with his athleticism. Balance was meh. Didn't get much elevation on his jumper. And where's motor going after loose balls and rebounds?

[fishercob]

If the Wizards resign Nick, they'll have 8 players under contract -- 7 of them aged 25 or under. We've got three picks in the top 35. I'm just not sure it wise to have 10 of our 12 active players be kids. Maybe I'm wrong in that regard, especially with Wall running the show and leading this group, but that just strikes me as a bit too young.

So to me, there's some benefit in owning a player's rights while letting him develop elsewhere. I wouldn't expect anyone to every "magically" get better. I expect guys to get better as their bodies mature, they gain experience, and they work their asses off. Happens all the time. So if there's an opportunity to draft someone and let him develop on someone else's dime, not take up cap room, I'd certainly look at it. It would *not* be the guiding force behind my drafting someone, but it could be a benefit nonetheless.

Also, the only reason I'd want to stash someone is if their buyout situation made it such that teams were staying away and they were dropping in the draft to the point of them being a great value. And the more I think about it, it would have to be with the 18 or 35, not the lotto pick -- even if it drops to 7. At 18 or 35, you can afford to stash a guy -- if the value is right. I'm not advocating "taking a flier" on a Pecherov type. But if you've got Mirotic or Vanaciunus as 10th on your board or something, and they're there, I'm fine with taking them and waiting a year or two to get them over here.

I get your reasoning, but I see no history of us showing any ability to pick Eurostash players. To me, this seems more likely a wasted pick. I get that we should probably change our name to the Washington Toddlers, but I'd rather go for a non-freshman pick that can show up with the 18th and 35th.

"No history" is a terrible reason not to do something in and of itself. Let's look forward, not backward. Until this past year, we had "no history" of being able to draft and develop the top overall pick. But so far so good, right? We've been a generally inept organization for most our existence, but it's a new day. Let's be bold if the situation calls for it.

[Severn Hoos]

Dat wouldn't touch that kid with a 10-foot pole, and you know why...

Maybe they could send him off to an orphanage in Serbia and change is name to Sergei Valencivesovic.

Doesn't matter anyway - it's probably all CGI...

[queridiculo]

After breaking down that video I'd have to say pass. We have enough jump shooters on this team, and I haven't seen anything to suggest that he can score in the paint. On close basket opportunities he looked eerily similar to Jarred Jeffries.

[verbal8]

Dat wouldn't touch that kid with a 10-foot pole, and you know why...

Maybe they could send him off to an orphanage in Serbia and change is name to Sergei Valencivesovic.

The kids has time to not repeat Jason Kapono's mistake.

At the time, in 2003, Kapono delivered a fabulous commentary on the increasing skepticism toward elder collegians. "I should have left UCLA after my freshman year, played in Croatia, grown a beard and changed my name to Vladimir Kaponovich," he said.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-kapono012407

[queridiculo]

Valanciunas looks like a stiff, I can't believe that he'll likely be a lottery pick.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

He's not only a deadly shooter, but he knows the importance of stopping for snacks.

I think a taste for the snacks as a toddler might indicate a taste for the night life as an NBA young star

Yep. Starts out with the kid nibbling on an animal cracker here and there but before you know it... he's in the NBA and a regular in the Champagne room. All the strippers know him because he keeps them all busy--at the same time! Today is cookies but tomorrow he's nibbling on heaven only knows what.

Strippers, cocaine, X, you name it. That kid's obviously a compulsive type.

I mean, he never stops shooting! Hopeless addictive type, that kid.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Dat wouldn't touch that kid with a 10-foot pole, and you know why...

Is he the type player that will keep this team mediocre? Seems like a jump shooter with no ups or elite level athleticism. All he does is shoot and shoot and shoot. I mean, yeah, he never seems to miss but when he faces NBA athletes he won't be wide open. Who's he gonna defend at that height? ...

[LyricalRico]

He's not only a deadly shooter, but he knows the importance of stopping for snacks.

I think a taste for the snacks as a toddler might indicate a taste for the night life as an NBA young star

Yep. Starts out with the kid nibbling on an animal cracker here and there but before you know it... he's in the NBA and a regular in the Champagne room. All the strippers know him because he keeps them all busy--at the same time! Today is cookies but tomorrow he's nibbling on heaven only knows what.

Strippers, cocaine, X, you name it. That kid's obviously a compulsive type.

I mean, he never stops shooting! Hopeless addictive type, that kid.

[doclinkin]

Watching the Olimpia/Partizan final on youtube, so far in the first half you'd think it was MD Terp James Gist that was the NBA prospect, not Jan Vesely:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXZy0vxQ0qc[/youtube]

Maryland may not get many NBA stars, but they produce talent that does quite well overseas.

[Dark Faze]

I still am surprised that the majority of Wiz nation is interested in just staying with whatever pick we get or looking to get picks for next year. We don't have the tools to get lottery picks for next year (nobody is going to give us a 2012 lottery pick for the #4 or #5 overall) and we aren't going to be terrible enough next year to get a top 5 pick either--lets also not forget a possible sophmore limit.

I know I sound like a broken record here--but it's easily Williams or bust. Easily.

Lets say we get Kanter and he is as good as expected. What is that exactly? 15 and 9 paired with McGee? We pick up Faried or Honeycutt for some bench depth. Next year we finish with 28 or 30 wins and even with no sophmore limit the best case scenario might be getting Barnes or Sully.

Wall, Young, Barnes, Kanter, McGee

Barnes is a roleplayer who doesn't look like he'll be as good as Luol Deng , Kanter is a good PF that isn't an allstar and Mcgee may never become what we want him to. This team doesn't attract free agents. We basically become the Pacers who take 5 years to build a team that gets swept in the playoffs.

Ideally I would like to trade our 2012 unprotected and our 18th and get the 2nd overall and keep our likely 4th or 5th pick this year to try and get Kanter. Thats Williams and Kanter. Build from there, try to attract D.Howard and build through experience and free agency.

I know people disagree...but Williams is a stud man. I've posted the stats that prove it. His offensive efficiency is better than almost any player you can mention, he's a winner, he's vocal, he's got extreme talent. Pair those two together and retain Young and I think that team can fight for the 8th seed. Do that and you can attract free agent talent.

I mean are we seriously going to sit here and argue about a bunch of euros who have a 70% chance of being average players that won't help our team hit our goal? If we keep drafting those type of players then Wall will leave by the time his contract is up.

Get TWO studs. Williams is one and we have Wall. Its easy to build from there. But if you want to just put a bunch of maybes around Wall then good luck ever doing anything with this club.

I'm glad that Leonsis had a message about us being about to put the build in rebuild. I think thats an acknowledgement that sitting around collecting late lottery picks is a thing of the past. I think he tells Ernie to get the best possible player in this draft so we can develop through experience and free agency. Pacers strategy is a terrible way to build a contender.

[Halcyon]

If Williams is that good, I don't see how we acquire the 2nd overall pick for our 2012 unprotected + 18. Seemingly this is a 2 player draft, and I don't see how somebody who is going to be projected as the #5-7 pick (which is probably what we'd land next year if our record improves even slightly) would be worth more than the #2 player in this draft.

[Dark Faze]

Depends on the team. Minnesota for example may like the idea of getting someone around that spot in next years draft (which looks to be significantly better if there is no sophmore limit) that has a better possibility of fitting their team since they have an abundance of SF's and a starting PF they are likely to lock in.

But you're right that it may require more assets.

[LyricalRico]

^ Maybe if we swap out McGee for the #18? McGee and our 2012 first for Williams is probably something that neither side would be happy with, which means it's probably pretty even. If we could then trade our pick to a team that wanted a guy like Vesely. Maybe the PHX deal that's been floated: a pick swap and a swap of Gortat and Blatche? We end up with the following:

2 - Williams
13 - Biyombo
18 - Honeycutt
34 - Nikola Mirotic (stays overseas)

Gortat/Seraphin/Biyombo (they battle it out for minutes)
Williams/Booker
Lewis/Honeycutt
Young/Crawford
Wall/Crawford

Solid young team with lots of room to grow. A little undersized at PF but I think we'll be fine. This is probably my fave non-Howard scenario so far.

[Ed Wood]

I'll pass, it's not one of the Bad Ones, but I think most of what the I like about it is moving Blatche, and it's nice to be able to add Williams but I don't have my heart set on the guy and for a bad bad team any unprotected first in a deal is a red alert and neigh deal breaking. Gortat is a good, solid player and probably more reliable than JaVale but wouldn't count that swap as much of an upgrade, so that's not a plus and moving up a couple of spots and moving Blatche just isn't worth that pick to me, and it's not really close.

I'd hope there are less painful ways to part with Blatche and if there aren't the treatment is worse than the condition, in this case.