Wiz trade Shard and 2nd rounder for Okafor and Ariza

[TGW]

I thought they were going to follow the OKC model. This is NOT the OKC model. Not once do I remember the Thunder wasting millions of dollars on mediocre vets with huge contracts. As a matter of fact, they did the opposite--they got rid of those types of players.

They could have at least traded for Rudy Gay....at least he's pretty good. Okafor and Ariza suck.

[queridiculo]

minor digression
Seraphin is a C. Nene is the one who is better suited to slide to PF.

I sure as hell hope that we do get that #10 pick.

They already have a statement from Grunfeld up at the Post, no mention of the 10th pick...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wiz ... #pagebreak

[Rafael122]

At the end of the day, I think this is Ted telling the fanbase that he would rather pay for Okafor and Arizoa than to buyout Lewis, amnesty Blatche (thus spending $20 mil on two players who won't even play for him).

[DCZards]

That's a lot of cap room taken up, and we still haven't improved a lick offensively.

Improve offensively? That's where Beal comes in. Meanwhile, we got a shotblocker, which the Zards sorely needed, and picked up one of the best defensive SFs in the game. We also get a vet big man who can help relieve some of the wear and tear on the oft-injured Nene. And, as another poster pointed out, we have two more adults on the Zards after having basically a Romper Room team the last couple of years. Not saying I love the trade but there is some upside.

[Severn Hoos]

So, looking for silver linings:

It looks like Ted is signalling he won't go cheap with the financial outlays. Hopefully that removes the financial resistance to amnestying Blatche.

In a convoluted way, it could be a statement of support for the young guys, by adding the player(s) that we hope they will one day become. So, if we want Seraphin to learn how to survive as an undersized C, using his strength and timing to be a somewhat effective defender, Okafor can show him in real time. (Of course, we used the same logic for Nene on the other end of the court.) Singleton's best case scenario is probably Ariza, so watching and practicing against him for a season or two might help him learn how to play to his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.

I thought I read that Nene prefers to play PF, which he will probably now do, with Okafor as the C.

Per the above point, it might extend Nene's effectiveness, both by spending less time in the paint on defense, and having more options - thus limiting the minutes that Witt feels he has to play Nene.



OK, that's all I got. It still stinks.

[JonathanJoseph]

My point is that Seraphin and Nene should be the starters, but you're not gonna roll them out and play them 48 minutes a game, tho right? Okafor and Booker are your back up 5s and 4 and Vesely is the odd man out. I actually have a bigger issue with Okafor being on this team than Ariza. Okafor is being paid $14 million next year, and he's coming off the bench.

But that's the point. Vesely cannot be the odd man out because he's a lottery pick investment AND he proved that he is a winning NBA player at the end of the season. We just took on a $14M/year contract for a mediocre player to take playing time away from one of our most promising prospects who needs playing time.

Both Booker and Vesely have shown promise and at least one or both are the odd men out. Bad GMing if the 10th pick isn't involved.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Okafor blocks less than 2 shots per game.

He is hardly a shot blocker.

I don't people realize just how mediocre Okafor is at this point his career. And Trevor Ariza is still living off of one post season.

[Ironpanthr]

I'm not an EG fan or supporter. But the people that say "but we could've just signed X, Y and Z" with that money recognize that players aren't indentured servants and would actually have to choose to come here, right? And if these players did choose to sign here, it'd probably be at a premium and 2-3 years from now people would be complaining how EG overpaid, saddled us with terrible contracts, and should be fired. Can't win for losing around here....

[Nivek]

To answer the question floating around, YES my opinion changes if the Wizards get the 10th pick. As reported, the Wizards have turned max cap room into players who aren't difference makers. Meanwhile, they've made the Hornets pay NOTHING of value in exchange for solving their cap issues and giving them the financial flexibility to re-sign Eric Gordon. And they've left New Orleans with the ability to get Davis plus another good player at 10.

Want to get a sense for how bad this trade is, look at it from New Orleans' end of things. They offload two contracts they don't want in exchange for financial flexibility to re-sign players, AND they don't have to give up a single asset for the future to do it. Plus, they pick up a 2nd round pick where they could get a solid role player if they choose wisely.

This trade sucks.

[JonathanJoseph]

To answer the question floating around, YES my opinion changes if the Wizards get the 10th pick. As reported, the Wizards have turned max cap room into players who aren't difference makers. Meanwhile, they've made the Hornets pay NOTHING of value in exchange for solving their cap issues and giving them the financial flexibility to re-sign Eric Gordon. And they've left New Orleans with the ability to get Davis plus another good player at 10.

Want to get a sense for how bad this trade is, look at it from New Orleans' end of things. They offload two contracts they don't want in exchange for financial flexibility to re-sign players, AND they don't have to give up a single asset for the future to do it. Plus, they pick up a 2nd round pick where they could get a solid role player if they choose wisely.

It's days like this that I wish I could bring myself to stop rooting for this team.

This is my read as well.

[Benjammin]

They really got taken with this deal. Wait, that's what I usually say about most Ernie deals. Of course, it's never Ernie's fault, it's always the dastardly and devious fault of the owner. This means they don't have to worry about free agency for the next two seasons. It also means that Robinson is almost certainly no the pick and makes Beal seem more likely if he's there.

I don't like it, but after thirty years of not liking moves from this franchise, why start now?

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

The move addressed the need for additional veteran presence, depth, and playoff experience. Even with Nene, the emergence of Seraphin, Vesely, and Booker something was missing in between the PF and C position. I'm not going to get so caught up in the contracts--- I like the addition of Okafor. Ariza is playoff tested and still a very young athletic player so I like it. The team still needs to add another scorer outside of Beal if he is the pick. Hard to say this team doesn't make the playoffs with no major injuries occurring.

[FAH1223]

Depressing, just flat out depressing

[MJG]

That was a very questionable deal when we were talking about it including the #10 pick a week or two ago. Without it, this is just an embarrassingly bad trade for us.

I especially love us throwing in the #46 pick. It's like after they finished lubing up, we piped in with "Hey, I think you missed a spot."

[TGW]

To answer the question floating around, YES my opinion changes if the Wizards get the 10th pick. As reported, the Wizards have turned max cap room into players who aren't difference makers. Meanwhile, they've made the Hornets pay NOTHING of value in exchange for solving their cap issues and giving them the financial flexibility to re-sign Eric Gordon. And they've left New Orleans with the ability to get Davis plus another good player at 10.

Want to get a sense for how bad this trade is, look at it from New Orleans' end of things. They offload two contracts they don't want in exchange for financial flexibility to re-sign players, AND they don't have to give up a single asset for the future to do it. Plus, they pick up a 2nd round pick where they could get a solid role player if they choose wisely.

This trade sucks.

This is exactly why I feel Grunfeld is trying to set himself up for a job post-Wizards. He did a huge favor for the NBA by making this trade. It helps the Hornets significantly, and doesn't help the Wizards at all.

Grunfeld may not be a good GM, but he's a genious when it comes to finding ways to save his own ass.

[Doomsta]

you guys can move nene to the pf spot now and star okafor a C

[mohammed10]

Ernie Grunfeld should of been fired months ago but what Ted has done is continually allow him to destroy the franchise.

Ted is the worst owner in the NBA by far...he makes Donald Sterling look like Jack Kent Cooke.

And this band aid basketball is what we did in the 80's to help us go 43-39. The wizards will not win a title in our lifetime.

And if beal goes #2, say hello to Harrison Barnes

Ji - your legion of followers grows with each passing EG trade...

[miller31time]

To answer the question floating around, YES my opinion changes if the Wizards get the 10th pick. As reported, the Wizards have turned max cap room into players who aren't difference makers. Meanwhile, they've made the Hornets pay NOTHING of value in exchange for solving their cap issues and giving them the financial flexibility to re-sign Eric Gordon. And they've left New Orleans with the ability to get Davis plus another good player at 10.

Want to get a sense for how bad this trade is, look at it from New Orleans' end of things. They offload two contracts they don't want in exchange for financial flexibility to re-sign players, AND they don't have to give up a single asset for the future to do it. Plus, they pick up a 2nd round pick where they could get a solid role player if they choose wisely.

This trade sucks.

Absolutely.

I loved the Nene trade because, while we were overpaying for the big-man, he was a sorely needed presence and brought things to the table we couldn't find elsewhere. He changed the team's mentality, our philosophy and our talent level. He was a position of need and neither team did a favor to the other -- it was a balanced trade. And while we ate a lot of salary, we had a lot left on the table to use. We weren't going to use all of the cap space we acquired so trading for Nene made a lot of sense.

This deal, however, is just New Orleans doing everything they want without giving up anything they want. We're not adding pieces we couldn't find elsewhere and the pieces we ARE acquiring are expensive, overpaid and don't provide a lick of offensive infusion.

If the 10th pick is included (which is clearly is not), then the trade becomes a lot more fair and I could learn to love it with the right draft selection. But that's not the case.

[nate33]

Terrible trade. The Wizards have now taken enough cap space for two maximum contracts and transmogrified it into Nene, Okafor and Ariza.

I'm disgusted.

I don't get it, space means nothing if nobody is willing to come here. Hoping for a Boston or Miami situation isn't really realistic either...those situations were unique because they already had HOF players on those teams. We have Wall, and a half-decent player in Nene...and that's about it.

What would have been the right thing to do?

This line argument is BS. I get that we are not a prime destination, but that doesn't mean you add two expensive and utterly redundant players. At least use the cap space to acquire Rudy Gay or even Joe freaking Johnson who would at least help the team on the floor. I honestly don't see how Okafor and Ariza help us. All they do is take minutes from roughly equivalent players who happen to be younger with more upside.

This is even worse than the Mike Miller trade. At least Miller filled a needed niche while dumping Etan's contract.

[miller31time]

I especially love us throwing in the #46 pick. It's like after they finished lubing up, we piped in with "Hey, I think you missed a spot."

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....wait....