Wiz trade Shard and 2nd rounder for Okafor and Ariza

[Rafael122]

Ernie Grunfeld was able to trade Arenas when no one thought it was possible. He traded Rashard Lewis, I'm sure he can find someone willing to take on a $14 million expiring next season. And we're talking as if Ariza is a 35 year old on the end of his rope, he turns 27 in 10 days.

[80sballboy]

At least we have our top second-round pick. (Trying to look at the bright side).

Hoping that Ariza, Okafor or both will get dealt again next year.

[nate33]

Wasn't there a rumor about 2 weeks ago that New Orleans was willing to use their pick to dump either Okafor OR Ariza?

[Severn Hoos]

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.

Hmm, interesting theory. From Luke 16:

16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

6 “‘Nine hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied.

“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

[dobrojim]

I think I would have been happier with Kev's plan. Do nothing (like this).

I agree this is not the OKC model.

We better get Beal.

the only silver lining I see is that both these acquisitions are at worst
here for 2 years. And there is nothing saying it couldn't end up being
shorter than that. But I don't like that you either are going to be
paying big money to have players sit on the bench or you're not
going to be giving your recent draftees a chance to show what they
can do and learn from it.

[tontoz]

I am at a complete loss for words. W T F

[DCZards]

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.

Everyone talks about the "OKC model." What's that? Get lucky and draft what turns out to be the league's leading scorer with the second pick one year; draft a stud PG with the 4th pick the next year and get the league's top shotblocker with a late first round pick that same year; and draft what turns out to be the sixth man of the year with the 3rd pick the following year. That "model" is pretty hard to duplicate.

[FAH1223]

Ariza is the only player on our roster with a ring now, I guess. He was pretty clutch in 2009.

[WizarDynasty]

egGet use to mediocrity. We have no hope for ever getting a superstar in DC. Wall is a out of control slasher that throws up circus shots.
Nene is broken down low usage defensive powerforward that can't protect the rim or defensive rebound.
Seraphin is a powerforward that lacks ball handling skills on the perimeter.
Vesely is a glue guy that can't shoot off the dribble.
Beal is a undersized shooting guard with poor handles, poor length, that has to be wide open in order to be effective.
Ariza--nice defender---but is kills his team offensively because his shooting is always below .40 percent most nights which equals a loss.

Both Okafor and Ariza are horrible passers which demonstrates a very low BBIQ. So again, EG feels the roster with low BBIQ players or players with low BBIQ and serious physical flaws. Wall low BBIQ but athletic. Vesely..high BBIQ but can't shoot. Can for once EG get a complete player. a player who has exception size agility, not a tweener, is above average offensively and defensively and actually forces
(((At the bare minimum has the physical tools to force a team to double him)) we need a GM that can recognize a player who has superstar physical traits...teams to double him. That's what a superstar player does. All deep playoffs teams have players on their roster that you must double. Ernie doesn't have a talent for grabbing these type of players before they blow up. Beal and MKG are never ever going to force a team to

double them at any point in the playoffs because neither player is dominant physically from an offensive stand point.

[dobrojim]

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

but Seraphin might be better right now and probably will be better in another year.
Heck, what am I saying? He's better now (posted without bothering to look up
any particular stats that might prove that point). Make me liar!

[JonathanJoseph]

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.

Good post.

[GUYANNAGRIZZLI]

A starting five with Nene in 4 and Okafor in 5 would be stupid.
Those guys are 30 years old and experienced but I think it would be smart to rarely put them together on the court :
-Because they are more fragil now and if one of them is injured, you'll still have an experienced center available.
-Because Seraphin is a great potential who has shawn he can be an above average post up player and good defender. This guy must be starter.

[Rafael122]

Wasn't there a rumor about 2 weeks ago that New Orleans was willing to use their pick to dump either Okafor OR Ariza?

And then it comes out that they are leaning towards keeping the pick. This isn't NBA 2K12. Yeah, we did them a favor getting back two of their bad contracts, but the 10th pick was probably never in play to begin with.

People fall in love with the unknown. The only guy I would have gone after in free agency was James HArden. That's it. So you either get him, awesome. And if you don't, you're stuck with all those cap space and spend it on who exactly? YYou then risk overpaying for middle tier guys.

[nate33]

I'm going to laugh so hard when we draft MKG. We will have the worst shooting starting lineup in NBA history with Wall, Ariza and MKG on the perimeter.

[Halcyon]

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.

Rudy Gay would have been nice, but why would Memphis trade him to us? They don't exactly have a replacement for him. And Joe Johnson? He's more of an albatross since his contract will be completely immovable by that time, since there will be less than a couple of contracts like that left in the league.

I see it as a 1 year rental of two decent players (who are both better than the players we have RIGHT NOW at those positions) with more manageable expiring deals. And you have to think of it from the perspective of Wall, why would you want to stay with a team that is ok with sucking ass for 3+ years? He's our only hope right now for attracting other players and to become great (since we lost the lotto), making a move to get better in the short term will help getting wins.

[Severn Hoos]

I'm going to laugh so hard when we draft MKG. We will have the worst shooting starting lineup in NBA history with Wall, Ariza and MKG on the perimeter.

In theory, we'd be holding teams to around 80 points per game. Talk about some exciting basketball....

[dobrojim]

I would have been more disgusted with Rudy Gay given he just signed
a HUGE deal. Same (almost) with Joe Johnson.

[Floater]

This will give Wall a lot more confidence playing with smarter players with experience, by the time 2014 rolls around, he'll be more motivated to resign with us. Plus we'll have the money to get him other toys or resign or extend what we already have if some player progress nicely like Ves and Seraphin.

Cap room is like hoarding to some fans. It's a dream to have it and it's amazing when you get it. You fall deeply in love with it. Someone suggests you get rid of it to better yourself and you freak the **** out. People can't stand losing it but I think it's overrated unless you think we were really going to sign Gordon, Batum, Illyasova, Jeff Green, etc.

[Jay81]

know we should just draft drummond to complete the last piece of stupidity. Seriously...where is our 1st round pick? If Ernie wasnt our GM, i would say that there "must be another move" in the works.

But he is
and there isnt

[Dr Positivity]

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."

Seriously though, this is always a smoking gun for bad management. GMs like Isiah, Colangelo, etc. just love throwing in a completely unnecessary future 1st or 2nd into a deal just to get the guy they want.