Nick Young traded to Clippers/McGee to Denver/Nene to DC

[queridiculo]

Nene brings legit defense, good court awareness, average rebounding and a so-so offensive game.

Below-average rebounding. He's been extremely efficient around the basket.

I don't mind trading McGee and Young. But I didn't want to get back a guy who's getting a buttload of money for less than a buttload of production.

Agreed, I would have preferred to simply let McGee walk than take on that contract. There was absolutely no reason for the Wizards to make that move imho.

If Blatche had somehow been involved it would have been a no-brainer, but as it stands, I don't see the point.

Any word yet on the pick btw?

[Spence]

I love this deal for the Wizards. The team had to get rid of McGee and dropping Turiaf on someone else is just gravy. I like Nene. Yes, he's older, but he's been mostly healthy since 2008. He's a solid passer and scorer. He's not having his best year, but that could turn around. Javale McGee is a knucklehead and everyone knows it. The fact that everyone knows it means there was no way we were going to get some young, exciting developmental player for him. McGee is a huge risk going into a contract year and liable to demand and get $10+ million a year for five years in the summer. No freaking way.

The only bad thing about this deal is that it doesn't include Andray Blatche. Not that I'm surprised. Know anyone that would take Andray Blatche? If so, call the Wizards front office. No? Nobody? Yeah, that's what I thought.

[keynote]

Momma Bear made it clear earlier this year. McGee was *not* going to give DC any kind of preference during free agency. If anything, the Wizards would've had to overpay to keep him from signing the QO. Or, they would've had to match another team's nefariously-constructed poison pill contract.

The McGee era was over.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Meh, not sure if I like this move. Not that I don't care for what Nene brings, but more so because I'm not sure he brings nearly enough for $13 million a year.

Nene brings legit defense, good court awareness, average rebounding and a so-so offensive game.

CCJ, concerning his PER I'm not overly worried about his production primarily because I don't think scoring matters as much anymore at that position with the way the game has changed.

This is what I'm worried about:

http://www.nerdnumbers.com/splits?team= ... F14%2F2012

Nene has been highly ineffective this season. Assuming this is temporary, and he's just hurt this season, I don't like that a player with his injury history will be 30 and this is the production we traded for.

A dominant post player can work wonders for your offense, but for all his improvement, I don't ever see McGee becoming that guy. Heck, there aren't even a handful of those guys left in the league anyway.

$13 million is a steep prize to pay, but I take solid production on defense at that position over what McGee has shown us so far.

McGee has tremendous potential and if he can ever scratch the surface he'll be a handful.

Not me. I'll wait and see what the actual amount is I have to pony up for McGee. I'll try and bid for another FA. I believe Seraphin would be a fine defender at C. Since Nene also plays PF, this makes me feel better. However, the Wizards are so dumb, this probably means Seraphin will never play again.

That said, it was time for the Wizards to move on and for McGee to experience a new environment. I think George Karl is a great fit and if anybody can get through to him it may just be him.

As frustrating as McGee was to watch on defense, I still like the kid and I'll be watching a lot of late games from now on, but if we look back at this trade a few years from now, count me in the camp of naysayers.

I think his deficiencies on defense are beyond fixing.

I don't know, but I do believe McGee has the right PF next to him now. Kenneth Faried passing to McGee is going to make Javale look much improved.

Don't be shocked if McGee does great things in the playoffs--I guarantee you're going to see the Nuggets there. They won't miss this guy the Wizards had to have at all.

[Mmat11]

What were the options? Be still. Sometimes the best move is to not make one. I think this is one the Wiz will regret down the road. By the end of this contract, they're likely to be looking for way to dump it on someone.

Yep. Agreed 100%.

Anyone who believes this is a good trade is being emotional and not rational.

[Benjammin]

I would have probably preferred seeing what McGee would do with yet another coach, but I realize that would likely have the same result as Kwame and Dray showed. I don't like the trade particularly, but once the decision was made that McGee would not be back it doesn't surprise me. If Nene is healthy and regains his previous production (as others have said) and the Wizards are able to draft either Anthony Davis or Thomas Robinson, then I think the move will be a positive one. Obviously, Dray needs to be amnestied in the off-season and Shard bought out. They would still have a hole at the 2 and 3 that would need to be addressed.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Oh, by the way, the Nuggets were so desperate to get rid of Nene they tried to trade for DeMarcus Cousins, but the Kings refused.

The Kings reportedly declined a trade offer from the Nuggets of Nene for DeMarcus Cousins, according to a source.

Denver traded Nene on Thursday to Washington in a three-team deal.

The pursuit of a trade by the Nuggets came more than a month ago, shortly following Nene's $67 million extension.

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/21 ... z1pDj4ePKT

[Rafael122]

Cousins is more talented than McGee. Sacramento would have been idiots to do that trade. Cousins has so much more potential and is more of a true center than McGee would ever be.

Something I read on Bullets Forever:

$13 million for an $11 million player trumps $14 million for a $3 million player

McGee wouldn't have been worth his QO.

BTW, McGee and Karl need their own reality show: http://dc.sbnation.com/washington-wizar ... p-saunders

[queridiculo]

I don't know, but I do believe McGee has the right PF next to him now. Kenneth Faried passing to McGee is going to make Javale look much improved.

Don't be shocked if McGee does great things in the playoffs--I guarantee you're going to see the Nuggets there. They won't miss this guy the Wizards had to have at all.

I've always wondered how McGee would look next to a competent defensive PF, but in all honesty, good defense requires 5 players to work together in unison and you can't simply hide somebody with instincts as poor as McGee's.

McGee has a long road ahead of him, and I have a feeling you'll be sorely disappointed should the Nuggets make it to the playoffs.

[fugop]

I give this trade an A+ -- it's far better than anything I thought possible. With one move, we've gone from having the worst collective IQ in the league to above average.

People are reacting to this as though it's a bad move based on Nene's fit with the future roster, his age etc. From my perspective, that's an irrelevant consideration; we're just starting the rebuild, and this is the final clearing-house move. The players we drafted with longshot hopes that they would realize athletic potential after seasoning on a veteran Arenas-Butler-Jamison team are finally gone (except Blatche, unfortunately).

Provided that Nene is ok with the trade -- that he doesn't want to play for a contender, etc. -- we've acquired a guy who works hard, plays solid fundamental basketball, and plays an extremely valuable position. He's not going to wow you like McGee, but he's got an awfully low WTF rate, and I'm comfortable with a low OMG-WTF ratio guy like Nene. 2 points is 2 points.

The ultimate impact is going to be in the influence Nene exercises over Booker, Seraphin, even Vesely to a degree. I feel really good about a Booker/Nene starting lineup for the rest of the season, and I'm looking forward to seeing Nene's presence in practice etc. influence Seraphin. We probably won't see much until next season (no practice this season, after all), but I'm far more optimistic than I was three hours ago.

Nene is probably going to feel betrayed, and the only question I have with the trade is his emotional reaction. If he comes out with a bit of a mean-vengeance driven streak, we are in good shape; if he sulks, we're in trouble:

Nene, the 6-foot-11 Brazilian forward who led the league in field-goal percentage last season at 61.5, chose to remain in Denver after drawing interest from such teams as the New Jersey Nets, Houston Rockets and Indiana Pacers.

But an emotional Nene said his heart was always in Denver, where he has spent the last nine years. He fought back from a serious knee injury in 2005 and overcame a bout of testicular cancer in 2007-08. He also got married here and his wife and young son were in attendance at the news conference.

Nene said his strong relationship with Kroenke and Ujiri, the presence of his family and friends in Denver and the chance to help take the Nuggets to new heights all figured prominently in his decision.

"I understood it's a business but friends, family, trust, care, you're not going to find in another place," Nene said. "Josh and Masai, they told me you're very important and they showed me. I sat down with my family, with my friends and we made the smart decision.

"I feel good here. I love Denver. I've said in the past I wanted to be here and here I am. I feel like a rookie right now and it's exciting to think about reaching another big goal and bringing the Denver Nuggets to the top."

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/73537 ... -back-fold

[JAR69]

I'm reasonably happy with the trade. My guess is that there was no way Pam was letting Javale resign with the Wizards. The $14 million "demand" seemed like a PR move to get the Wiz to get serious about trading him. I wouldn't have minded letting him and Nick go for nothing, but even if we got cap room from those moves and Lewis/Blatche amnesty/buyout, who were we going to get? The big names weren't coming here, so we were looking at overpaying for average players or big question marks. Go back and look at the lists of 2012 free agents (http://www.hoopsworld.com/ranking-the-2 ... ree-agents). Pay Gordon the max? Batum is going back to Portland. Ryan Anderson isn't likely to come here. Omer Asik (who I happen to like)?

Nene is a known quantity, assuming he goes back to his career norms. With him and his skill set in place, we can focus on the other things we need - outside shooting, rebounding and defense from the PF (which is quite available in this year's draft).

My only fear - and it's a fairly serious one - is that he gets injured and we are on the hook for his contract with no ability to amnesty.

[Dat2U]

I don't like this trade.

I don't understand why Ernie still has this job.

This.

[tontoz]

I have mixed feelings. My big reservation is the size of that contract. Ugh. I am not as concerned about his injury history although i don't know what this years injury was. I am not too concerned about his age either since his game isn't based on his athleticism. It is based on strength, skill and IQ.

His rebounding has always been pretty weak too. Someone needs to really step up their rebounding.

Defensively he is a light year better than Mcgee. I think people will start to realize just how bad McGee's defense was after watching Nene for awhile.

[Illuminaire]

What were the options? Be still. Sometimes the best move is to not make one. I think this is one the Wiz will regret down the road. By the end of this contract, they're likely to be looking for way to dump it on someone.

Yep. Agreed 100%.

Anyone who believes this is a good trade is being emotional and not rational.

Or not.

We had to pay someone to play center. No good centers go for less than 10 million a year. Our chances of getting a starting caliber center in the draft were very slim. So, it was either pay McGee too much, pay no one (and possibly never adequately fill the position), or do the Nene trade.

I don't think it's a home run. There are risks. But there were risks if we signed McGee. There were risks if we didn't trade OR sign McGee. Risks are an inherent part of sports.

The end result is that we have a solid two-way center who plays team basketball, at a slightly inflated price for production at his position. That's not great, but it's not bad either. If you don't think that assessment is rational, I'd say you're just being emotional about it.

[pcbothwel]

What is EG trying to build here? This move just seems really desperate with idea of keeping his job #1 priority. Why do this trade? JaVale isn’t great or anything, but he gave solid production, and was still improving. Nene is 29-turning-30 and has reached his ceiling, and while being healthy the last few years (excluding this year), I bet he has a bunch of wear-&-tear due to past injuries. And while he’s been a good player the last 3 years, he’s having a down year this year playing w/ injuries. And this move hamstrings our cap flexiblity for the next 4 years, and I don’t think Nene is worth his contract.

If we were going to abandon this rebuilding plan, I would’ve traded for a player like Dwight Howard (even though is wasn’t possible), or someone who’s worth all their contract. We traded young for old, and we’re far from ready to compete.

I understand the reservation you and CCJ have about this trade, but we have already covered the injury issues really comes down to one knee injury in 05-06 and his bout with cancer. Other than that, he split a lot of time for most of his career so I dont think the "wear and tear" are that bad. Hes played less than 18K minutes(including playoffs) by comparison Lebron and Pau are each over 30K, Dwight 24K, STAT 24K, and Tyson Chandler 21K.

Just saying we should keep this in perspective

[Mmat11]

Cousins is more talented than McGee. Sacramento would have been idiots to do that trade. Cousins has so much more potential and is more of a true center than McGee would ever be.

Something I read on Bullets Forever:

$13 million for an $11 million player trumps $14 million for a $3 million player

McGee wouldn't have been worth his QO.

BTW, McGee and Karl need their own reality show: http://dc.sbnation.com/washington-wizar ... p-saunders

Ummm you are making the assumption Wizards would have given McGee that much -- we would have not. Or that a 29 year old injury-prone Center on the decline is even worth $11 million.

We got jobbed. No way around it.

[Benjammin]

One other point to this would be that it should eliminate Sullinger as a possible pick because Nene and Sullinger are both floor bound guys who work well in the paint offensively so they don't mesh well together.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Raffy, Cousins is the guy I took so much crap for saying he'd be very good. Now you're saying he's more talented than Javale?

If you call playing intelligently and shoring up one's weaknesses talent, sure, Cousins is better than McGee. DeMarcus has skilled moves. He's improved his rebounding a lot. He's cut down his turnovers a lot. He's cut down his fouls some. He shoots FTs much better. But, he's a very limited player physically. He's a guy who needs a McGee next to him.

McGee is going to be like Cousins in one respect. The same people who are down him now (like they were Cousins this time last year) will come back and say Javale is much better than they thought.

McGee is going to have more impact on big games than Cousins in the very near future. Now that Javale plays with a leader, Lawson, and he plays with a tough PF who can rebound consistently, Faried; that guy is going to kill it.

McGee is a stud and people in Washington will get to watch him win just like they watched Rip, when he went to a decent organization.

All this crap about McGee being so dumb wasn't what people were saying as recently as January. Flip's team got off to a terrible start, especially John Wall, but McGee was the bright spot. People let approximately 7 weeks of ball color their perspective. They ignore metrics that show McGee's worth. They say he's NEVER going to get it????

Incredible. I think he just got his first good break. I am so happy for McGee.

[tontoz]

I can't help but wonder if the money would have been better spent upgrading the 2/3 spots and taking our chances with Seraphin at center for awhile. It isn't like they were going to be a contender next year anyway.

[Illuminaire]

Yes. We're saying that after four years and just as many coaches, McGee was not going to get it... in Washington. He clearly didn't care about his defensive deficiencies because he never showed any inclination to improve them.

You can say how you KNOW he's going to kill it and be awesome, CCJ, but that doesn't make it true. Stick to the current facts, please.

Edit: And as for people not saying Mcgee was dumb before January, that's a load of crap. People have been questioning Javale's intelligence and BBIQ since we drafted him. People had HOPE before this season, hope that he dashed by coming back exactly the same as the year before.