Lather me with blather -- DRAFT thread 4

[Ruzious]

Finishing at 74% at the rim is pretty beast.

If we are able to trade up for Kanter, how would you guys split our frontcourt minutes between Kanter, Blatche, McGee, Booker, and Seraphin. I imagine that Kanter would get a significant number of minutes both at C and at PF, but that is a lot of players for not as many minutes.

I'd absolutely love to have that "problem". Seraphin would spend probably half the season in the D-League. There will be injuries, so it's not even a concern. Booker is the 1 guy out of luck when all of Blatche, McGee, and Kanter are healthy. I have no problem with that. Kanter and McGee should be the best combo. Like I've said a couple of times, simply have McGee play the quicker big, and Kanter play the more physical big.

[mhd]

I'd do the Kanter trade in a nano-second.

Moreover, its very easy to trade back into the late 1st, provided you want to buy a pick. Heck, a team may not even want the garunteed money and would swap down to 34 plus a future 2nd rounder.

[nate33]

If we drafted Kanter, I would be in no hurry to dump Blatche. One of our biggest problems last year was our utter lack of big men with any offensive skills whatsoever (with the exception of Blatche). The acquisition of Kanter would FINALLY give us the flexibility to play two offensively capable bigs together. It would also end the embarrassing scoring droughts when our starters sit. Keep Blatche. Work out a rotation so that one of Kanter or Blatche are on the floor at all times. If Booker or Mcgee ever develop offensively, THEN dump Blatch.

[jivelikenice]

Worse than the embarrassing scoring droughts is the embarrassment that Blatche is to the team in terms of BBIQ, conditioning, soft play, & professionalism.

[Illuminaire]

^ +1 (to Nate)

That's a solid plan. We also get to see how good Kanter really is before making a move we might regret.

[mhd]

If we drafted Kanter, I would be in no hurry to dump Blatche. One of our biggest problems last year was our utter lack of big men with any offensive skills whatsoever (with the exception of Blatche). The acquisition of Kanter would FINALLY give us the flexibility to play two offensively capable bigs together. It would also end the embarrassing scoring droughts when our starters sit. Keep Blatche. Work out a rotation so that one of Kanter or Blatche are on the floor at all times. If Booker or Mcgee ever develop offensively, THEN dump Blatch.

Blatche makes peanuts compared to most, and he's still young. We are not ready to contend now, so why not play him?

Booker showed a ton last year, and he's the exact type of energy, hustling, athletic, leaper we've not seen here since big men. Nate, didn't your numbers show Booker having better stats than Milsapp in his rookie year?

McGee, as much as I've bashed him for his putrid b-ball IQ and defense, is an athletic freak. Maybe he grows up one day?

Kanter, will be on a cheap rookie deal, so that is an ideal frontcourt.


I'd try and trade Seraphin+#34 to get back into the 1st if we did the Kanter deal. We have 4 bigs ahead of Seraphin, so there is no point in letting him wallow away as the 5th big. Better to have a good vet like Hilton Armstrong/James Singleton as the 5th big who won't complain about the lack of PT and will help the youngsters.


What about Seraphin to

[mhd]

Finishing at 74% at the rim is pretty beast.

If we are able to trade up for Kanter, how would you guys split our frontcourt minutes between Kanter, Blatche, McGee, Booker, and Seraphin. I imagine that Kanter would get a significant number of minutes both at C and at PF, but that is a lot of players for not as many minutes.

I'd absolutely love to have that "problem". Seraphin would spend probably half the season in the D-League. There will be injuries, so it's not even a concern. Booker is the 1 guy out of luck when all of Blatche, McGee, and Kanter are healthy. I have no problem with that. Kanter and McGee should be the best combo. Like I've said a couple of times, simply have McGee play the quicker big, and Kanter play the more physical big.

Booker was playing like a monster before his injury. Unlike McGee, he was playing TOUGH and PHYSICAL. I LOVED his energy. Loved his play against Toronto. Booker SHOULD get PT b/c of his toughness, energy, athleticism, and hops. He's a finisher.

[FAH1223]

Worse than the embarrassing scoring droughts is the embarrassment that Blatche is to the team in terms of BBIQ, conditioning, soft play, & professionalism.

but he still can score the basketball and we need scorers

blatche's inefficiency can be fixed by shot selection and his position on the court (i.e. no 3 point line dribble faceup)

we can trade him later when his value is higher

[jivelikenice]

In 14 games as a starter Booker averaged 10 ppg/ and 7+ boards in slightly less than 30 minutes on 56% shooting. I would be fine with him and Kanter splitting 48 minutes at the PF position....If Kanter is slated to play some center too we still have Rashard Lewis on the roster who is more than capable of giving us some points and 15 minutes a game at PF.

During the 10 game stretch of games that Blatche missed in March, Booker started 8 games and averaged 11.3 ppg/ 7.6 rpg

[Dat2U]

If we drafted Kanter, I would be in no hurry to dump Blatche. One of our biggest problems last year was our utter lack of big men with any offensive skills whatsoever (with the exception of Blatche). The acquisition of Kanter would FINALLY give us the flexibility to play two offensively capable bigs together. It would also end the embarrassing scoring droughts when our starters sit. Keep Blatche. Work out a rotation so that one of Kanter or Blatche are on the floor at all times. If Booker or Mcgee ever develop offensively, THEN dump Blatch.

QFT

[jivelikenice]

Worse than the embarrassing scoring droughts is the embarrassment that Blatche is to the team in terms of BBIQ, conditioning, soft play, & professionalism.

but he still can score the basketball and we need scorers

blatche's inefficiency can be fixed by shot selection and his position on the court (i.e. no 3 point line dribble faceup)

we can trade him later when his value is higher

The Wiz averaged 97.3 ppg last year. We averaged 96.3 in the game Blatche did not play. For all of his "scoring" we only managed to average 1 more ppg with him in the lineup. I'm pretty confident that difference can be made up through maturation of McGee, Booker, and Seraphin and that's before you even add in Kanter....

[Dat2U]

In 14 games as a starter Booker averaged 10 ppg/ and 7+ boards in slightly less than 30 minutes on 56% shooting. I would be fine with him and Kanter splitting 48 minutes at the PF position....If Kanter is slated to play some center too we still have Rashard Lewis on the roster who is more than capable of giving us some points and 15 minutes a game at PF.

During the 10 game stretch of games that Blatche missed in March, Booker started 8 games and averaged 11.3 ppg/ 7.6 rpg

I wonder what our record was in those games?

W/O Blatche in the lineup, the inability to score was more than apparent. Booker thrives in an uptempo attack and finishing around the rim but he's not a go to guy in a half court scenario. Neither is McGee. We hope Kanter will be, but that's yet to be seen.

We aren't trying to win a ring next year so I definitely don't see the big rush to dump Blatche right now. I'd rather let time sort everything out. Again, I'm certainly not against dealing Blatche but lets not act like he's concentrated evil that we must get rid of for the betterment of the franchise, because he's not.

[pancakes3]

EG's personal statement regarding the draft: http://www.nba.com/wizards/news/grunfel ... 62111.html ... considered yourselves lathered.

[jivelikenice]

If we drafted Kanter, I would be in no hurry to dump Blatche. One of our biggest problems last year was our utter lack of big men with any offensive skills whatsoever (with the exception of Blatche). The acquisition of Kanter would FINALLY give us the flexibility to play two offensively capable bigs together. It would also end the embarrassing scoring droughts when our starters sit. Keep Blatche. Work out a rotation so that one of Kanter or Blatche are on the floor at all times. If Booker or Mcgee ever develop offensively, THEN dump Blatch.

Blatche makes peanuts compared to most, and he's still young. We are not ready to contend now, so why not play him?

Booker showed a ton last year, and he's the exact type of energy, hustling, athletic, leaper we've not seen here since big men. Nate, didn't your numbers show Booker having better stats than Milsapp in his rookie year?

McGee, as much as I've bashed him for his putrid b-ball IQ and defense, is an athletic freak. Maybe he grows up one day?

Kanter, will be on a cheap rookie deal, so that is an ideal frontcourt.


I'd try and trade Seraphin+#34 to get back into the 1st if we did the Kanter deal. We have 4 bigs ahead of Seraphin, so there is no point in letting him wallow away as the 5th big. Better to have a good vet like Hilton Armstrong/James Singleton as the 5th big who won't complain about the lack of PT and will help the youngsters.


What about Seraphin to

So you're trade the cheaper player who actually has not had enough time to develop over the guys who's been here for 6 years now? If Blatche was such a bargain then why is there so little demand for him? Why are commentators like Greg Anthony saying on NBA TV that they're not very high on him? You don't keep him around because he's had 6 years. At this point he is what he is. He is skilled and long, but he's poorly conditioned, unathletic, has low bball IQ, unprofessional, and plays soft....You don't keep him around because he plays an inefficient game that requires a high volume of touches, shots, and dribbling for his position and a player with that type of profile will stunt the growth of our other young bigs....

[FAH1223]

^ And no one wants Blatche, either

we're gonna keep him until he proves his critics wrong and we can get something for him

teams don't want him cause they see what we see!

[eltacoman]

HA !!! Grown to Love this time of the year more than the season its self

I like the Idea of stocking up Big Men Prospects like Chicago for Example

LOVE this Site Yall !!!! Learnded alot from all you guys !!! i used to be lost with all the draft, Trades , rules, Deadlines. Per Spoting good n hyped players exc. LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU ALL and HOPE WE HAVE A GREAT DRAFT !!!

[fishercob]

As tired as I am of Blatche in many respects, nate makes a strong point. Plus, I was hoping that "being pushed" by hungry teammates was going to be a last resort to help Dray reach more of his potential -- and we were headed down that road until Booker got hurt. I wanted Dray to have to sit and watch Book hustle his ass off and see if that finally would get his ass in gear.

As for Seraphin, I like the kid more than most, but in no way will he be ready to be a full time 20 mpg back up center next year. He's still a project and that;s okay.

But the cool thing about Booker, McGee, Blatche and Kanter is that you can really play any two of them together. Which two would depend on matchups, but there's some versatility there and combos with nice mixes of skill, size, athleticism, toughness, etc.

So maybe having Kanter (as well as Booker) in the fold push Blatche to be the player that many of us once hoped he could be. And if it doesn't then we know he wasn't a keeper anyway. I'm all for letting these gus fight for minutes.

[hands11]

[quote="nate33"]If we drafted Kanter, I would be in no hurry to dump Blatche. One of our biggest problems last year was our utter lack of big men with any offensive skills whatsoever (with the exception of Blatche). The acquisition of Kanter would FINALLY give us the flexibility to play two offensively capable bigs together. It would also end the embarrassing scoring droughts when our starters sit. Keep Blatche. Work out a rotation so that one of Kanter or Blatche are on the floor at all times. If Booker or Mcgee ever develop offensively, THEN dump Blatch.[/quote]

Exactly.

And, for Booker, I still say he is getting minutes at SF like he did to finish the year. I expect he added a better mid range shot. He finished the year with some monster dunks and a nice little game around the rim.

Lewis may or may not be able to recover fully from that warn down knee so he could maybe only get roll minutes like 20 a game and they can comes at SF or PF. He is there so we have a seasoned vet.

So unless we get a top pick for SF, that slot is open to Booker and Lewis mainly as starters and roll minutes for a rookie late rounder.

[hands11]

Wow, this version of the thread was started 15 days ago and it is almost filled up.

Fish

That is the scenario that we discussed some pages back. Some competition and positive influence from other player more his age is his best chance to play his best.

[FAH1223]

BOOKER IS NOT A SF!!!! LOL!!!

The organization needs to quit trying to put him there, he doesn't have the skill set for it. He is a guy who loves to play in the post and get boards and putbacks.. he is useless on the perimeter... even if he improved his jumper this summer, he still would look awkard as hell out there on the wing