Summer 2012 Free Agents Thread - Part II

[Kanyewest]

Could the Wizards have had max cap space next season if they did nothing? Perhaps the Wizards could throw a max offer at James Harden or a big enough offer at Serge Ibaka.

For now I think the Wizards are pursuing a plan mostly of growing within. Yes, they gave up a 2nd round pick in the Okafor/Ariza trade but they still have the young guys under contract for a few more years. Ultimately the Wizards will be judged on how they have drafted in the past few years.

[jivelikenice]

Sounds like we could have had space for Harden. All we needed to do was show some swagger in our recruitment and we could have had him or Ibaka....

[nate33]

My QUESTION was if we signed a max FA, we definitely would have had room to sign Wall to max deal, Seraphin to likely 10mm per, keep our next two firsts, and have cap holds on Booker and Crawford in '14 without being at the lux tax?

Almost. We definitely couldn't afford Crawford (but with Beal and a max free agent who is likely to be playing SG or SF, we wouldn't need him).

With Wall under a max deal, James Harden on a max deal, Nene, Vesely, Beal, 2013 pick and 2014 pick under contract, our payroll would be about $54M. Add $10M for Seraphin and we're up to $64M. Booker's cap hold of $5.8M would put us right on the edge of the luxtax threshold (about $70M give or take). Booker's actual contract might not cost that much though, so we would probably save some money when we signed him. We would also have the option of cutting Chris Singleton and thereby save $2.5M.

[nate33]

Could the Wizards have had max cap space next season if they did nothing? Perhaps the Wizards could throw a max offer at James Harden or a big enough offer at Serge Ibaka.

Yes. And they didn't have to do nothing. There was enough cap room to sign a $5M free agent this summer (say, Danny Green) and STILL have max cap room next year for Harden or Ibaka.

This is what is so frustrating to me. It looked to me like EG had laid everything out perfectly. He traded for one stud veteran big man in Nene to turn the franchise around and raise us to respectability, while maintaining enough youth and cap room to make a move down the road. We even had enough cap room to add one respectable veteran wing like Rush or Green to further solidify our young core. Take the team of the last 25 games last year, add Beal and Green and improvement from Wall, Vesely and Seraphin, and I think it's a 34-40 win team with a ton of flexibility. Instead, we're a 36-42 win team with no flexibility.

Next summer, with the cap room and youth at our disposal, we could have gone after Harden, and if that failed, we could have engineered a sign and trade for someone like Howard or Bynum by offering our cap room plus some combination of our surplus young bigs (Vesely, Booker, Seraphin). And even if none of that panned out, I still think we'd better by having Seraphin, Booker and Vesely get more minutes and experience rather than sitting behind Okafor.

[TGW]

Could the Wizards have had max cap space next season if they did nothing? Perhaps the Wizards could throw a max offer at James Harden or a big enough offer at Serge Ibaka.

Yes. And they didn't have to do nothing. There was enough cap room to sign a $5M free agent this summer (say, Danny Green) and STILL have max cap room next year for Harden or Ibaka.

This is what is so frustrating to me. It looked to me like EG had laid everything out perfectly. He traded for one stud veteran big man in Nene to turn the franchise around and raise us to respectability, while maintaining enough youth and cap room to make a move down the road. We even had enough cap room to add one respectable veteran wing like Rush or Green to further solidify our young core. Take the team of the last 25 games last year, add Beal and Green and improvement from Wall, Vesely and Seraphin, and I think it's a 34-40 win team with a ton of flexibility. Instead, we're a 36-42 win team with no flexibility.

Next summer, with the cap room and youth at our disposal, we could have gone after Harden, and if that failed, we could have engineered a sign and trade for someone like Howard or Bynum by offering our cap room plus some combination of our surplus young bigs (Vesely, Booker, Seraphin). And even if none of that panned out, I still think we'd better by having Seraphin, Booker and Vesely get more minutes and experience rather than sitting behind Okafor.

Amen brother. Amen. Doing nothing this summer but adding Beal and maybe our second rounders, and letting this core grow together >>>> adding two mediocre, overpaid vets who won't do anything but add a couple more W's in the win column.

What a terrible, short-sighted trade. Oh well--at least I'm over it...at this point, nothing this FO does surprises me anymore. Hopefully, when all these crappy moves bite us in the ass (yet again), then maybe we'll see a more aggressive FO. Right now, this whole "no one will sign with us" mentality is simply loser talk from a bunch of losers.