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

[Pitbull]

Nene *not* playing still has a more positive impact than JaVale in the lineup.

[montestewart]

Just checking some box scores, McGee played only 11 minutes in tonight's game against the Magic.

He was 1/3 from the field with 2 points, 7 rebounds and a staggering 5 turnovers, 2 fouls and a -19 for the game.

Howard didn't even play.

Great players need to play great players to have great games. Think of Chamberlain-Russell. McGee needed his Katie Couric.

[Jay81]

I thought for once McGee would have a good game against Orlando especially with Howard out. McGee's play in Denver might make it affordable for us to resign him lol

[hands11]

Can we stop with all the hate? EG isn't incompetent, at least not when he has the proper strategic vision from his owner. He may deserve to be fired for the Mike Miller trade, but since then, he has done pretty well. I agree that he's more of a technician rather than a guy with a strategic vision, but so far under Ted vision, Ernie's technical abilities have panned out pretty well.

He did a masterful job in blowing up the overpaid roster, saving a ridiculous amount of money on Arenas and Jamison, while also getting a pick.

He had a monster draft in 2010. He turned our #30 pick plus our #33 pick and $5M in cap space into Booker, Seraphin and Hinrich. He later traded Hinrich for cap relief and Crawford.

His 2011 draft doesn't look so good, but it may be too early to judge. Vesely certainly isn't a finished product, and Singleton was a guy we all were happy about given where he was drafted.

He made a solid move with the McGee trade that appears to be panning out well, and he made the right call with banishing Blatche to the weight room.

Good post.

Worth noting that it looks like the Seraphin pick is going to turn out to be a huge win for Grunfeld. Had we merely taken someone like Leonard instead of either Vesely or Singleton, we'd be feeling pretty good right now with a draft pick and free agent coming next year. The rebuild is actually much farther along than we thought recently.

You really can't judge it like that until next year. Look how wrong so many here were about KS. But KS know what he was and be practiced on his craft. I remember the first practice video I saw of him, he was working on though bady hooks. They were solid moves and he worked on them over and over. That is when I know he would work out. They were solid NBA moves. And he always tried to set picks. He was just getting there a little late so he was getting called for fouls so he couldnt stay on the floor to gain experience. And he was going off a knee so he missed preseason.

Well Ves game to camp with a hip injury and missed what little practice there was. Singleton is going against the best SF in the league in his rookie year. Give them at least one normal preseason. I think both will play better next year. They seems like humble hard working kids.

[Dark Faze]

Not concerned about Nene taking it easy. Better for him to be healthy for next year and for us to keep our current rating in the lottery.

[dobrojim]

I'll even give EG a pass on Leonard (though I won't on Faried). Nostradamus couldn't have predicted Leonard would be a good 3 point shooter in the NBA. He made less than 30% of his college 3's, and he wasn't even that good on 2's - making under 48%. That's why I'm still skeptical he can keep this up. I still say he picked Singleton mainly to pander to local fans.

How would Ernie be pandering to local fans by selecting Singleton?

Re: Leonard, the Spurs correctly anticipated that Leonard would be solid player and they made-sure that they got him. However, he is probably exceeding even their expectations.

By accepting the commonly held and mostly correct view that we needed
to get better defensively and more tough minded.

I don't have a strong position in either direction on EG (post-Abe) and accept
that both sides have good arguments.

The whole Hinrich thing though remains a true gem. We gave up the rights
to VV, a second rnd pick from several years ago who will probably never play
in the NBA. For that we had to pay Hinrich for 2/3rds of a season when he
played reasonably well, we also got CHI's pick which turned out to be Seraphin
who the Spurs supposedly (I actually tend to discount these kinds of 'reports')
wanted. But he also managed to get Evans (meh), Jordan Crawford (jury's out)
and the pick that netted Singleton (jury's out on him too) from ATL when ATL
was desperate to get a better vet G for their playoff run. He also sacrificed
Hylton Armstrong to ATL (oh no!). All because: 1. CHI was desperate to sign LeTrav
or someone, who ended up being Boozer (yawn, I think Taj Gibson is possibly as
good and certainly way cheaper). 2. ATL wanted Hinrich.

The whole Miller-Foye for #5 thing was clearly a clstrfck for us, one that EG should
have seen coming. But the worst thing about that trade was that once it was clear
that it hadn't worked, we lost both serviceable players after one year. The 2 of them
are not bad players, but would have cost us WAY too much to keep under the circumstances.

Now I'd say the consensus on the BB is that we need shooting and defensive rebounding.
But now the bonehead(s) is/are gone, we're actually a reasonably decent defensive team
if you believe in small sample sizes. We're also a WAY smarter team which was also
a major weakness with McGee and Nick. Hard to fix everything at once and the
future will depend on how our young players develop, an open question we've a thread
dedicated to, as well as how lucky we get on lotto day. Davis would most help in the
areas we've already made the biggest strides in but you still have to take him if given
the chance.

It wasn't that long ago we were an old defensively poor team with
a payroll that wasn't close to matching the performance on the court. This could
be laid at the feet of EG (and Abe). Now we're a relatively young team with a payroll
that should provide us with opportunities to get better. This is also the
fault/responsibility of EG and now Ted.

Some of us better than others, myself in the latter category, understood
that this would be a bad year. Maybe, just maybe, it's starting to get light out.

I hope Book and Nene get plenty of rest for the rest of this lost year.
Hail the tank.

[Nivek]

I still don't think the Wizards are in a position to draft in terms of specific needs. They need the best all-around talent they can find. It'd be great if that talent was at SF or SG, but they could still use improving at PF and C. They don't have an elite talent at either spot. Wall has elite potential at PG, but that's it in terms of what's on the roster.

[nate33]

The whole Hinrich thing though remains a true gem. We gave up the rights
to VV, a second rnd pick from several years ago who will probably never play
in the NBA. For that we had to pay Hinrich for 2/3rds of a season when he
played reasonably well, we also got CHI's pick which turned out to be Seraphin
who the Spurs supposedly (I actually tend to discount these kinds of 'reports')
wanted. But he also managed to get Evans (meh), Jordan Crawford (jury's out)
and the pick that netted Singleton (jury's out on him too) from ATL when ATL
was desperate to get a better vet G for their playoff run.

I forgot about getting Singleton. So, for the cost of 2/3rd of one season of Hinrich's salary (plus a $1M buyout of Bibby), EG managed to acquire 4 months of Hinrich, plus Seraphin, Singleton and Crawford (3/5ths of last night's starting lineup, incidentally).

[Nivek]

Think about how much better that trade would have looked if Ernie had drafted Faried.

[dobrojim]

think about how happy CCJ would be right now if we had drafted Faried!

[closg00]

http://www.hoopsworld.com/mcgee-didnt-s ... ade-coming

[Ruzious]

http://www.hoopsworld.com/mcgee-didnt-see-nuggets-trade-coming

I gotta laugh - He said he was shocked that he was traded. Yet, I've heard/read a couple interviews from Zards who said all the players knew he was going to be traded - and it was the trade of Turiaf that caught them off-guard. God love him.

[montestewart]

http://www.hoopsworld.com/mcgee-didnt-see-nuggets-trade-coming

I gotta laugh - He said he was shocked that he was traded. Yet, I've heard/read a couple interviews from Zards who said all the players knew he was going to be traded - and it was the trade of Turiaf that caught them off-guard. God love him.

What caught McGee off guard is a that a team had enough assets to land him.

He should start calling himself The Mile High Center

[miller31time]

Watching the Lakers/Clippers game, Marc Jones (ESPN broadcaster) said Nick Young was quoted as saying he was happy to be traded out of Washington because he was sick of being on the ESPN "Not Top-10" plays week after week.

Uhh....Nick does know that those plays were individual plays and have nothing to do with the team, right? I mean, the Wizards didn't airball a point-blank wide open layup and send the ball soaring 15 feet into the air. Nick Young did.

[Jay81]

Nice game Javale...14 minutes?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

think about how happy CCJ would be right now if we had drafted Faried!

In all seriousness, Faried with Seraphin would make me totally reevaluate Ernie as a GM.

[montestewart]

And it isn't just passing on Faried. Rebounding has been an issue for some time.

[hands11]

Nice game Javale...14 minutes?

Beat the 11 he played the game before.

Nick lighting it up again the LAL

11 minutes 2-9 0-3 from 3 1 rebound 4 pts in the 3rd quarter.

There is still time I guess.

[BruceO]

If we had done the unconventional or taken the risk we'd have drafted cousins and faried. Our big man rotation would be Cousins, Nene, Seraphin and Faried with a chance to get davis with blatche, vesely and rashard who i'd soon flip. Then hit free agency looking for deron williams, Nash or another pg who doesn't turn the ball over and can shoot it for spacing. Who in the east let alone the league can beat that big man rotation. PG's are a dime a dozen

[BruceO]

If we had done the unconventional or taken the risk we'd have drafted cousins and faried. Our big man rotation would be Cousins, Nene, Seraphin and Faried with a chance to get davis with blatche, vesely and rashard who i'd soon flip. Then hit free agency looking for deron williams, Nash or another pg who doesn't turn the ball over and can shoot it for spacing. Who in the east let alone the league can beat that big man rotation. PG's are a dime a dozen