How do you fix this team?

[closg00]

I mentioned this in another thread that we've got a lot of solid, young players but we've got no identity. We have a little bit of everything.

I'm fine with Lewis as a starter by the way. We need outside shooting and he provides just that, we just took two dudes with questionable shooting.

PG - Wall
SG - Young
SF - Lewis
PF -Blatche
C - McGee

Bench:
PG - Crawford
SG - ?
SF - Singleton
PF - Vesely
C - Seraphin

Booker is the hybrid, will probably play the 3 or 4 depending on the matchup situation. The bench lacks scoring options and I hope they realize this, Crawford's the only legit scoring threat off the bench.

After reviewing our moves and looking at our roster, the only thing that makes sense or what looks to be the strategy, is that we have formed a core of mostly defensive non-shooting bench players:

Booker
Singleton
Seraphin
Hamady
Vesely

At some point we will have to add go-to scorers/shooters and rebounder/post players.. next draft?

[nate33]

After reviewing our moves and looking at our roster, the only thing that makes sense or what looks to be the strategy, is that we have formed a core of mostly defensive non-shooting bench players:

Booker
Singleton
Seraphin
Hamady
Vesely

At some point we will have to add go-to scorers/shooters and rebounder/post players.. next draft?

The short term solution would be to bring Blatche in with the second unit. Start Booker or Vesely at PF and bring Blatche in early in a Jason Terry type of role. So something like this:

PG Wall/Mack
SG Young/Crawford
SF Lewis/Singleton
PF Booker/Blatche
C McGee/Seraphin

It looks like one of Lewis, Booker, Singleton or Vesely is going to get squeezed. Either that, or Blatche gets most of his minutes at backup center and Seraphin rides the pine.

[keynote]

I mentioned this in another thread that we've got a lot of solid, young players but we've got no identity. We have a little bit of everything.

I'm fine with Lewis as a starter by the way. We need outside shooting and he provides just that, we just took two dudes with questionable shooting.

PG - Wall
SG - Young
SF - Lewis
PF -Blatche
C - McGee

Bench:
PG - Crawford
SG - ?
SF - Singleton
PF - Vesely
C - Seraphin

Booker is the hybrid, will probably play the 3 or 4 depending on the matchup situation. The bench lacks scoring options and I hope they realize this, Crawford's the only legit scoring threat off the bench.

Actually, I like Shard coming off the bench. We need bench scoring, as you said; meanwhile, we can rely on Wall/Young/Blatche to drive the offense. Crawford and Shard can handle the scoring off the bench (with Vesley filling the lanes and getting energy points).

[Ruzious]

Agreed, closg. The only 2 players on the roster that can stretch defenses are Young (a free agent to be) and Lewis (who they'd like to get rid of). This isn't a team that has just a small weakness in shooting. It could be an epically poor shooting team. And contrary to what some have said, it's not a good rebounding team. And it's not necessarily going to be a good defensive team. They're going to lose a lot of games next season. Anyone expecting a big jump in wins is going to be disappointed. The season will be about improving play and keeping a positive attitude; not winning.

But they will be athletic.

[keynote]

After reviewing our moves and looking at our roster, the only thing that makes sense or what looks to be the strategy, is that we have formed a core of mostly defensive non-shooting bench players:

Booker
Singleton
Seraphin
Hamady
Vesely

At some point we will have to add go-to scorers/shooters and rebounder/post players.. next draft?

The short term solution would be to bring Blatche in with the second unit. Start Booker or Vesely at PF and bring Blatche in early in a Jason Terry type of role. So something like this:

PG Wall/Mack
SG Young/Crawford
SF Lewis/Singleton
PF Booker/Blatche
C McGee/Seraphin

It looks like one of Lewis, Booker, Singleton or Vesely is going to get squeezed. Either that, or Blatche gets most of his minutes at backup center and Seraphin rides the pine.

That may make more sense offensively than my plan to bench Shard. Shard's shooting might provide better spacing for Wall than Blatche's long twos. However, Singleton is probably better equipped to start as a defensive stopper at the 3 right away than Vesley is to be an energy guy at the 4.

Booker is the odd man out. I don't see him starting over Blatche *and* Vesley. I think he knows this, too; hence his "confused face" tweet after the Wizards' selection of Singleton.

[Severn Hoos]

Presumably we're committed to (stuck with?) re-signing Young this summer - or whenever the league reopens its doors for business. We have absolutely no one other than Crawford who can even conceivably play SG. I really hope this doesn't affect the Young situation, either by his agent holding out for more b/c he knows the Wiz have to sign him, or from other teams trying to take advantage of the situation (all dependent on the new CBA, of course).

So pencil in Young at SG and we really do need more scoring/shooting. Ironically, Rashard Lewis would be a great addition, a guy who has legit range, can play both forward spots, and has been around long enough - and getting enough coin - that he shouldn't get hung up over starting or PT. I'm expecting some sort of Amnesty/buyout deal going down, but if it doesn't, that wouldn't be the worst hting i nthe world.

New best-case scenario for the long term: In a shortened season with so many new/young players, Wiz struggle as those new guys learn the NBA and how to play together. WIz get a medium-high pick. Take Sullinger. Trade Blatche for a vet SG. (Sign Jason Richardson? Maybe even see if Michael Redd has anything left?) Sign a vet big man in the McDyess/K. Thomas mold.

Wall/Crawford/Mack
Young/Vet
Singleton/Vesely
Sullinger/Booker/Vesely
McGee/Vet/Seraphin

Probably does need a consolidation trade down the road, but I like the looks of that team. Yes, it may top out as a Conference Finals type of team, but who knows - no one expected the Mavs to win it all this year. I'd rather be in the dance and see what happens than in the offseason plotting how to "contend."

[JonathanJoseph]

Really? So 15 months into a rebuild we're already behind in consolidating talent?

Perspective, please. Hard not to like the talent haul over that time. Let's see what happens on the court before we start shipping players out.

[Illuminaire]

EG discussed consolidation right after the draft. The plan is simple and intelligent: find out which players can become star/core material, trade the ones who can't for established stars/core players.

It won't happen overnight. It probably won't happen until next offseason at the earliest. But it IS the plan, so just be patient and enjoy the show.

[Ruzious]

EG discussed consolidation right after the draft. The plan is simple and intelligent: find out which players can become star/core material, trade the ones who can't for established stars/core players.

It won't happen overnight. It probably won't happen until next offseason at the earliest. But it IS the plan, so just be patient and enjoy the show.

If that's the plan, we're in trouble. Other teams would likely have to be very foolish to give up established stars or core players for players that we don't want. Our trash is probably not other teams' gold. At some point next offseason, I think they have to strike gold in free agency. Otherwise, Wall may look to leave, and we hit rock bottom again.

[pancakes3]

If not consolidate, at least reshuffle the deck chairs on our sinking ship. if we can give up shard to MIL for someone like Michael Redd? locked up cap space is cap space and we'll unchain a good chunk of minutes to play our new pieces.

i think the step towards fixing our team is to figure out which of our young pieces are worth building around, and the only way to tell is to toss them into games and we're kind of handcuffed with 'Shard and Blatche (especially Shard) because they're eating away at minutes that we need.

[dobrojim]

the question and thread title - how do you fix this team

mgmt's answer is to go out and get highly motivated players
who will play hard and hopefully smart as well.

I think the addition of guys like Singleton and Vesely and Mack
will help bring about a change in culture. That's how you 'fix'
this team.

When AB has to bust his arse every day because if he doesn't,
he's going to either be embarrassed or sitting during games.

[Illuminaire]

EG discussed consolidation right after the draft. The plan is simple and intelligent: find out which players can become star/core material, trade the ones who can't for established stars/core players.

It won't happen overnight. It probably won't happen until next offseason at the earliest. But it IS the plan, so just be patient and enjoy the show.

If that's the plan, we're in trouble. Other teams would likely have to be very foolish to give up established stars or core players for players that we don't want. Our trash is probably not other teams' gold. At some point next offseason, I think they have to strike gold in free agency. Otherwise, Wall may look to leave, and we hit rock bottom again.

Come on Ruz, don't be obtuse. I gave a two sentence description, not a detailed deposition. You know - or should know - that young pieces with upside are frequently the core components of trades made for veteran stars.

[Dat2U]

the question and thread title - how do you fix this team

mgmt's answer is to go out and get highly motivated players
who will play hard and hopefully smart as well.

I think the addition of guys like Singleton and Vesely and Mack
will help bring about a change in culture. That's how you 'fix'
this team.

When AB has to bust his arse every day because if he doesn't,
he's going to either be embarrassed or sitting during games.

Change in culture is a nice tag line used by the organization to represent a course of change but honestly in terms of building a title contender your not going to fix the team without stars. Changing the culture by adding role players that play the right way is a pretty band aid on a open wound of inferior talent. We might make marginal improvement in standings or even make the playoffs but to truly contend you need franchise talent. Top 50 all-time type talent. We can point to Detroit until were blue in the face but they were the exception to the rule and they were built on a solid rock of 5 all-star or near all-star quality players with an incredible balance of skilled offense and suffocating defense across the front line. And they managed to win only one title despite years of continuity and regular season success.

Presumably we have one real difference maker in Wall and frankly we need at least one and maybe two other legit stars to run with him. Otherwise were just a more inspired, younger version of the Milwaukee Bucks trying to piece meal marginal success into an unrealistic attempt at championship aspirations.

The only ways to achieve this is through free agency (unlikely), trade (consolidation of a quality young talent not our throwaways as Ruz noted) or the draft (luck & drafting skill). Maybe it makes sense to purposely construct a flawed roster again to ensure another opportunity next year in what we hope will be a much stronger draft. While I'm not a fan of Vesely, I do like the overall focus on defense and consequently were so limited offensively that we might be destined for another solid lottery pick without a major acquisition. It might even make sense to let Nick Young go and continue to preserve as much cap flexibility as possible. Unless Nick is coming back dirt cheap I'm not high on 1) Artificially inflating our win total with his presence 2) Tying up long term dollars in a guy I'm not certain is a key piece to a contender.

[Illuminaire]

The only ways to achieve this is through free agency (unlikely), trade (consolidation of a quality young talent not our throwaways as Ruz noted) or the draft (luck & drafting skill). Maybe it makes sense to purposely construct a flawed roster again to ensure another opportunity next year in what we hope will be a much stronger draft. While I'm not a fan of Vesely, I do like the overall focus on defense and consequently were so limited offensively that we might be destined for another solid lottery pick without a major acquisition.

I think that an ideal long-term contender has both the culture and the talent. Ted wants to build both, and hopefully we get there.

I think you are spot on here Dat, in terms of how we have to do it. Ruz has points too, though my last admittedly snarky post somewhat dismissed them.

A key to me is that a lot of times, young players can look better to other teams than they should. Kwame Brown is a prime example. Rudy Fernandez had a lot more value two years ago than today. Basically, any young guy who shows flashes and seems to possess upside will tend to have decent trade value.

So, yes, we should lose a lot of games next year due to scoring issues. We should have a lot of guys getting minutes, enough to draw flirtatious glances from other GMs. And we should get one more shot at some top-tier draft talent.

By then we should also have a good idea who we want to build around, and who we can shop to fill in our holes. In an ideal world we either grab a true superstar (Howard) in free agency, or a true #2 running mate in the draft, then trade our attractive spare parts (not trash =p) for a veteran #3 guy to put us into contender status.

Unfortunately, there are no sure things in sports. We can't guarantee that we'll get a good draft pick, even if we finish with the worst record in the league. We can't make people sign here. We can't force trades to happen just because we like them.

I believe, though, that we are smartly positioning ourselves to have the most chances to execute in all of those areas. I don't see how anyone can expect anything more.

[dobrojim]

There weren't any stars to pick from in this draft. And FA is not
the plan that we have committed to. This will probably take time
but I think it is a smart approach. Now you have to be lucky
and maybe someone blows up and becomes the star that no one
in or outside the org thought they had any chance of becoming.

[Ruzious]

EG discussed consolidation right after the draft. The plan is simple and intelligent: find out which players can become star/core material, trade the ones who can't for established stars/core players.

It won't happen overnight. It probably won't happen until next offseason at the earliest. But it IS the plan, so just be patient and enjoy the show.

If that's the plan, we're in trouble. Other teams would likely have to be very foolish to give up established stars or core players for players that we don't want. Our trash is probably not other teams' gold. At some point next offseason, I think they have to strike gold in free agency. Otherwise, Wall may look to leave, and we hit rock bottom again.

Come on Ruz, don't be obtuse. I gave a two sentence description, not a detailed deposition. You know - or should know - that young pieces with upside are frequently the core components of trades made for veteran stars.

Snark.

Bottom line - the Wiz are treading water until they add outstanding players. The draft was an exercise in treading water. They need to try actual swimming. Otherwise, their arms get tired and they go blub blub blub. The "accumlating talent" line used for "the OKC model" sounds nice, but it doesn't really mean anything. Get a couple of outstanding players by any means necessary. The draft should have been an opportunity - it didn't turn out to be one.

[Ruzious]

There weren't any stars to pick from in this draft. And FA is not
the plan that we have committed to. This will probably take time
but I think it is a smart approach. Now you have to be lucky
and maybe someone blows up and becomes the star that no one
in or outside the org thought they had any chance of becoming.

Since Ted's talked several times about how the Wiz are in a great cap situation, I think FA is definitely part of the plan - probably not this offseason but definitely by next season.

[pancakes3]

i really don't think any of our forward prospects will even get a chance to blow up as long as we have shard (and to an extent blatche) on the roster. we saw flashes of booker last season, and jan/singleton have to gel as a forward combo along with wall for us to see if they're viable options. if that's what EG thinks the frontcourt of the future looks like, we HAVE to look to trade shard for an overpriced guard like redd. heck, i'd rather have arenas back.

[Illuminaire]

Without the pieces we're picking up while "treading water", there is no way to swim.

There are no magical methods of gaining instant talent. We have to use the cards we're dealt to get things done, and that starts by getting an actual hand to play with.

As Dobro just pointed out, there were no stars in this draft. No credible expert believes this draft has a sure thing superstar... no one. There are players with potential to reach that level, but also potential to fail. That's the reality of the situation.

I'd like to get some more outstanding players too, Ruz. Hopefully between the guys we've taken the last two years, a few will work out to be one of those. I just think you're a tad impatient on the acquisition of said outstanding players... if we went all-in after a Kanter or Williams, and ended up with only the next Marc Gasol or David West, we would have blown our wad to be a bottom-tier playoff team and a constant second round exit.

That's not worth going all-in for. We picked up more pieces. We'll look for a better chance to spend them.

[Illuminaire]

i really don't think any of our forward prospects will even get a chance to blow up as long as we have shard (and to an extent blatche) on the roster. we saw flashes of booker last season, and jan/singleton have to gel as a forward combo along with wall for us to see if they're viable options. if that's what EG thinks the frontcourt of the future looks like, we HAVE to look to trade shard for an overpriced guard like redd. heck, i'd rather have arenas back.

Or... we just play him limited minutes as a veteran backup.

Just because he makes a lot of money doesn't mean we have to play him.