Wiz trade Shard and 2nd rounder for Okafor and Ariza

[Jay81]

I actually blame Ted more for this than Ernie.

"ernie...im not paying Lewis to do nothing...bring in some guys that will actually play for the money I am paying out"

sounds like

"Wes...trade Webber to the first team that gives you something decent"

"How about 33 year old Mitch Richmond.?

[jivelikenice]

its only 2 years of paying Okafor and Ariza.....maybe when we finally clear these guys.. a real player who is a free agent would be ready to take us seriously. And more importantly, we will have a real GM who really knows how to use cap space.

In the meantime, pray that Okafor fails his physical.

hese contracts expire right when Wall's draft class become RFAs...If we're a decent team at that point we'll get a look at a guy like Cousins....

[dobrojim]

I totally agree with fugop.

Opportunity is all people have a right to ask for. There are 48 minutes in an NBA game. Opportunity at PF and C comes down to 96 minutes. You can only slice a pie up so many ways before someone is not happy with their share. It works the same with minutes. Also, if you've ever been in the military or management you know organizational charts are structured with span of control in mind. Just like there is only one non-commissioned officer in charge (NCOIC) or one officer in charge (OIC) in military groups it is for a reason. It works best that way. You can't have too many chiefs or leaders barking instructions. Likewise, you can't have too many methodologies or too much advice coming from too many places.

Worse, have you ever been a teacher and had to team teach? Have you ever had to share a presentation with someone of your same status, but maybe someone you didn't know too well? Okafor and Nene are now the team leaders. If one brings passion, energy, and dynamism the other is going to have to bring something just to get respect. Otherwise, he becomes another Rashard Lewis. An old guy who can't play who is just taking up space on the roster.

Those young guys had reason for optimism before this deal. Now, they have reason to look over their shoulders. Things probably won't be "happy happy", "joy joy" for the Wizards this year. This was a chemistry-killer IF Okafor and Ariza don't come in and earn immediate respect. Guys like Cartier Martin and James Singleton bring hunger and effort. Guys like Ariza and Okafor have only professional pride to play for.

jim, this deal has the potential to get Wittman fired, and another coach brought in who can grab mediocrity. EG will keep his job. Ted Leonsis will see to it.

Like I said some 30 pages ago, count me as a fair-weather fan. If this backfires I am going to have to do my BEST to drop this team.

All our players will have opportunities. The ones that play best will
play the most. Wittman is all about meritocracy and accountability.
I seriously doubt Wittman gets fired this year.

[Illuminaire]

Just for fun....

FG%: .533 vs .531
FTM: 1.8 vs 1.4
ORB: 3.2 vs 3.2
DRB: 6.6 vs 5.4
AST: 1.1 vs 1.0
STL: .7 vs .6
BLK: 1.2 vs 2.3
TOV: 1.7 vs 2.0
PTS: 12 vs 13.9

We killed our cap flexibility and jammed our frontcourt rotation for that "upgrade."

[tontoz]

A lot of folks here want to win, but their suggestions seem to revolve around a never ending rebuild. We didn't lose any young assets; we gained veteran depth at positions of need; and we kept still have our #3 overall pick and a high 2nd roudn selection, yet people are upset really because Ernie did the trade.

No, people are upset because the path to success does not include grossly overpaying for mediocre talent, especially when that talent doesn't even address the biggest weakness on the team.

So what would have been your suggestion?

And in regards to overpaying, FA is designed for just that. Did you really think we'd get a bargain in a market where Alonzo Gee is rumored to be getting a 4 yr/ $16 MM deal?

Buy out Lewis if there are no good deals to be had. Don't make a deal just to make one. Garbage deals don't lead to winning. I would rather buy out Lewis and sign Cartier to a small deal rather than do this traveshamockery of a deal.

If we had said back in Feb that we should trade for Nene guys like you and Spence would have brushed it off as nonsense. Not possible. No way is Denver going to trade Nene right after they signed him. But that is exactly what happened.

The opportunities to land quality players aren't going to come around all the time so when they do you need to be able to take advantage of them.

[jivelikenice]

CCJ, I don't think we had the 18th pick the yr of the Miller/Foye trade. I believe Lawson pulled out of the draft that yr and re-entered the following yr. The 18th pick was used on Javale.

Yeah it was more like a situation now with the 10th pick. People thought
EG didn't bargain hard enough.

He possibly could have and at minimum I agree he should have pushed it or waited until draft day to do the deal. But that's some serious monday morning qb'ing to say not only that we should have squeezed the 18th pick out of Minnesota, but we also should have taken Lawson with that pick.

[The Consiglieri]

I will say this--I don't think our situation is so dire that a competent GM would be unable to fix it. If we don't make any more terrible moves this year, EG is canned next year, and we bring in someone like Pritchard, we could still have a really bright future based on the foundation we've made in this past 1.5 years.

As fans we should not give up hope. This should, however, be a final reminder to all that EG is EG even under Ted, and he HAS TO GO.

It isn't.

Push comes to shove the way to fix the mess is fire Ernie. Trade Wall with Okafor's expiring, next season. Acquire a game manager at PG and a shooter. Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry would at least give the team a competent-shooting backcourt. There is a way out of all of EG's missteps, but not as long as he is the GM.

You can't fire Leonsis which is a big part of the problem. It was him that was crying after his Glen (mad men) like son failed to land us Davis in the lottery, it was him saying he never wanted to be in the lottery again. This stupid move has a collaboration all over it, between an owner that has no idea what hes doing and a GM who doesnt care so long as he keeps his gig.

We need to fire the owner. I had hopes for Leonsis, but they are long since gone, should have known an AOL head honcho wouldn't exactly make sense. Its like being run by the producers of "Howard the Duck", following being run by the producers of "Small Wonder".

[Jay81]

its easy to say buy out Lewis unless you are the actual owner. How many of you guys would pay 14 million dollars and get nothing in return. Its a horrible trade but put yourself in the owners shoes. 14 million dollars!

[FAH1223]

I blame this on Kevin Seraphin

if he had not played so well, Ernie would have gotten fired

[Jay81]

I blame this on Kevin Seraphin

if he had not played so well, Ernie would have gotten fired

that 6 game winning streak killed us

[jivelikenice]

Buy out Lewis if there are no good deals to be had. Don't make a deal just to make one. Garbage deals don't lead to winning. I would rather buy out Lewis and sign Cartier to a small deal rather than do this traveshamockery of a deal.

If we had said back in Feb that we should trade for Nene guys like you and Spence would have brushed it off as nonsense. Not possible. No way is Denver going to trade Nene right after they signed him. But that is exactly what happened.

The opportunities to land quality players aren't going to come around all the time so when they do you need to be able to take advantage of them.

So buy out Lewis and re-sign Cartier would have been your alternative, correct?

1. I don't see why you still can't re-sign Cartier and I think its likely he comes back here.

2. So if that's you itch with the deal, really you're concern is with cap space we sacrificed in '13, right? Who did you want in '13?

[tontoz]

its easy to say buy out Lewis unless you are the actual owner. How many of you guys would pay 14 million dollars and get nothing in return. Its a horrible trade but put yourself in the owners shoes. 14 million dollars!

That money is a sunk cost. You can't make good decisions worrying about sunk costs.

[queridiculo]

its easy to say buy out Lewis unless you are the actual owner. How many of you guys would pay 14 million dollars and get nothing in return. Its a horrible trade but put yourself in the owners shoes. 14 million dollars!

Well, it's funny math if you ask me since you've essentially added a year to Lewis contract, or better yet, you might as well have kept Arenas.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

CCJ, I don't think we had the 18th pick the yr of the Miller/Foye trade. I believe Lawson pulled out of the draft that yr and re-entered the following yr. The 18th pick was used on Javale.

In my own mind I convoluted some things. The Minnesota 18 pick that went to Denver got Lawson in the 2009 draft.

That 18th pick and the 28th pick belonged to Minnesota and were kept in the deal where EG gave away the 5th for scrubs Foye and Miller. Now I have to go back and look at the link and figure out what is going on.

I remember thinking the Wizards should have at least gotten the 18th pick. Minnesota traded the rights to Lawson for a future pick IIRC.

[Dat2U]

A lot of folks here want to win, but their suggestions seem to revolve around a never ending rebuild. We didn't lose any young assets; we gained veteran depth at positions of need; and we kept still have our #3 overall pick and a high 2nd roudn selection, yet people are upset really because Ernie did the trade.

No, people are upset because the path to success does not include grossly overpaying for mediocre talent, especially when that talent doesn't even address the biggest weakness on the team.

So what would have been your suggestion?

And in regards to overpaying, FA is designed for just that. Did you really think we'd get a bargain in a market where Alonzo Gee is rumored to be getting a 4 yr/ $16 MM deal?

The Okafor/Ariza trade is for a pair of mismatched vets on hefty salaries and your arguing we couldn't do any better?

Nonsense.

Doing absolutely nothing would have been better.

[The Consiglieri]

Same whining and complaining that happened when the wiz got nene happening now. Guys get over it and for the record these players don't suck and emeka isn't always injured. Last five years he has played 82 games about three times or twice and 72 games once. Last season I believe Nola shut him down to trade him.

Ariza can play the sefolosha role as a 2 guard and we can still pick beal or mkg or Barnes. I'm sure he fo with their evaluations can figure out who will be available to them so this we showed our hand thing early is nonsense. Charlotte cannot bother to draft beal if he is the third best player on the board just to try retrade with us. We'll simply pick the second best player and call it a day.

Also another thing people are discounting is players perform well in good team situations where they can succeed and do badly in bad situations doing a role not suited for them. Trevor snt meant to be a primary scorer but gives a good amount of scoring for a defensive specialist and plays better uptempo. Emeka plays well with good pg play and good spacing. These guys will be put in ideal situations an nene can create mismatches at pf since he has a high ts percentage. I don't think they (nene and emeka) have ever played with an intelligent defensive big and now nene and emeka get to do so together.

I'm also sure the team being the ones in office have more information about the nba and possible trades and future signings than the speculators and spectators here and. Saw this as a great move. We weren't just going to give rashard 13m to go away, so we likely wouldn't have amnestied him or bought him out. The difference n salary isn't great this year and the larger contract of emekas expires soon.

We have a chance to become a good defensive team this coming season, i think the boards focus should be on how healthy they are and what's their current form. They are not old players and still have lot of basketball in them

The whining about the Nene deal was based on a reality that ins't set to hit until the '13-'14 season, namely, that he's old and injury prone and will only get more injury prone with greater age, the Nene trade was perceived as bad because of whaere it would leave us from '13-'15, not from the early returns.

The I told you so's on the Nene trade are unbelievably short sighted, analagous to fans supporting the Arenas resigning because he gave us a 18 million dollar discount from the max (not noticing that his discount was essentially what he normally would have paid an agent in fees if he'd had one). The Nene trade amy or may not work out, but the spring '12 returns have absolutely nothing to say about it, and at this point, if they have anything to say, its negative because it likely encouraged this moronic trade.

[Dat2U]

its easy to say buy out Lewis unless you are the actual owner. How many of you guys would pay 14 million dollars and get nothing in return. Its a horrible trade but put yourself in the owners shoes. 14 million dollars!

So because you don't want to pay $14 mil to make someone go away, you pay $42 mil instead over two years instead?

What kind of math is that?

[Induveca]

I'll just be happy to watch some competitive basketball next year.

Is it an ideal trade? No......but it is a good sign there is a real attempt once again to be competitive, no championship mind you...but be a real threat to win. The organization is so bad at trying, they are bound to make missteps.

If Grunfeld was axed, this likely wouldn't have happened.....but Ernie remains on his throne, so just be happy it isn't even worse. Okafor is a good guy, plays at a decent level. Same with Ariza. And they've both played for winners.

It's certainly an upgrade over Young, Blatche, McGee and Rashard Lewis.....and will keep Wall excited/learning.

Leonsis/EG have flipped:
Young (idiot)
McGee (talented idiot)
Rashard Lewis (useless)
(Blatche soon) (alcoholic)

For:
Nene
Okafor
Ariza
and an addition of MKG (I chalk this up to keeping all the idiots on the team last year)

Free agents weren't coming to DC. We're a joke.....everyone here knows it. This is decent for a squad in our position.

Did EG pay too much? No doubt. Just be happy he didn't take back Milicic and Beasley....it could have been much worse.

I would like to see another trade of Okafor/Crawford for Ben Gordon possibly.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

CCJ, I don't think we had the 18th pick the yr of the Miller/Foye trade. I believe Lawson pulled out of the draft that yr and re-entered the following yr. The 18th pick was used on Javale.

Yeah it was more like a situation now with the 10th pick. People thought
EG didn't bargain hard enough.

Correct. Maybe I should start running to improve my memory, jim. You're right that we thought EG should have bargained harder. A recurring theme.

[Dat2U]

that 6 game winning streak

May turn out to be worse thing that could have happened to this franchise.