Nene

[dangermouse]

I dont even know why hes playing right now. Just rest him god damnit. Early off season.

Booker was balling against the Sixers and we were up to ~10 points. Whitman after a timeout puts Nene in and sits Booker. Wall was still on the bench. I was like wtf Whitman? I would have put Wall back in and left Booker.

[Hawaii]

Nene's looking good out there, but I agree - very limited minutes these last few games. Don't get rid of him, he's a positive on this team.

[hands11]

I dont even know why hes playing right now. Just rest him god damnit. Early off season.

Booker was balling against the Sixers and we were up to ~10 points. Whitman after a timeout puts Nene in and sits Booker. Wall was still on the bench. I was like wtf Whitman? I would have put Wall back in and left Booker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wi ... story.html

[nate33]

I dont even know why hes playing right now. Just rest him god damnit. Early off season.

Booker was balling against the Sixers and we were up to ~10 points. Whitman after a timeout puts Nene in and sits Booker. Wall was still on the bench. I was like wtf Whitman? I would have put Wall back in and left Booker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wi ... story.html

Interesting quote from the article here:

“How tough? Tough enough to think about the end of my career? Yeah, that’s how tough it was,” he said. “It was so hard to play the way I did it. I thought to end my career because it’s so painful, my body can’t support. I’m glad I finished the season, but the way I suffer, I hope, never again.”

Would Nene consider retiring if the injuries mount up again next year? Obviously, I'd prefer that he get healthy, but it's kind of good to hear that he might be the type of guy who would rather retire than play out the remaining years of his contract on one leg.

I still can't figure out why he didn't shut it down the day we were eliminated from playoff contention. If he was hurting this bad, I'd much rather that he start healing for next season right now.

[TGW]

They need to get rid of Nene sooner rather than later. His body is breaking down. He's going to be a "game-time decision" every game from here on out, like Dat2u said in another thread.

If the Wizards think Nene is going to get healthier and better from this point out, they're being delusional. I have no faith in him being able to survive an 82 game season+playoffs.

[nate33]

They need to get rid of Nene sooner rather than later. His body is breaking down. He's going to be a "game-time decision" every game from here on out, like Dat2u said in another thread.

If the Wizards think Nene is going to get healthier and better from this point out, they're being delusional. I have no faith in him being able to survive an 82 game season+playoffs.

While I can definitely buy the argument that we need to get rid of Nene before injuries become too great of a concern, I disagree with the statement that we need to get rid of him "sooner rather than later". Getting rid of him sooner rather than later would mean getting rid of him this summer when his trade value is down.

Nene has hurt at the end of last year and didn't even get much rest in the offseason, but was able to play very well for his first two months or so before the injuries started to hurt his game. I see no reason not to expect the same pattern this offseason, only he is likely to be even healthier at the start of the season because he won't be playing in the Olympics. With that in mind, I think the wise course is to stand pat for now, and then shop him in December after he has played well for a couple of months.

It's easy to forget how good Nene was when healthy. Let's remind everyone before shopping him.

[pcbothwel]

We should all step back and realize this is a good thing. If nene made statements about his foot/knee feeling fine then I would be worried. That would mean age is simply catching him and his explosiveness is gone. Basketball is a very demanding sport with regard to cumulative fatigue. It is quite common for players to go through times where around 29-32 they look like they have lost it and then get a career second wind. Feel free to search through all the "Is LeBron in decline?" threads from 1-2 years ago, or the "Is Kobe done?" Threads from 3-4 years ago. Tim Duncan was looking shaky 2 years ago as was Tyson Chandler.

Now I know that NeNe is not either of them with regard to athleticism/work ethic, but the NBA season can be long and playing for your national team in the summer doesn't help. Remember how Okafor looked when his nee was bothering him last year, now he is an asset. I think the best plan would be to bring NeNe back next year and hope he can simply match his effectiveness from last year(very possible, even probable) and then re-evaluate him based on being a 31 y/o top 15 PF with great defense and efficiency on a 2 yr/26M contract. Just a thought

[Jay81]

If nene retires which he might do LOL....does that help our cap situation or now? Wow..what a gift that would be.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/4/15 ... n-surprise

[nate33]

If nene retires which he might do LOL....does that help our cap situation or now? Wow..what a gift that would be.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/4/15 ... n-surprise

At any time, Nene can simply retire and voluntarily choose not to take any more salary. In that case, he would be off our cap and off our books. It's tough to imagine him walking away from $39M like that, but I guess anything possible.

Another possibility would be for Nene to announce his retirement due to a career ending injury. In that case, if he did so before playing 10 games next year, his salary would come off the books by Summer 2014. He would get paid, but it wouldn't hurt the team's cap. If he did this after playing more than 10 games next year, his salary wouldn't come off the cap until the 1-year anniversary of his last game (which means it would help our cap situation in the 2014 offseason). League-appointed doctors would have to agree that Nene's injury was indeed career ending.

I think the second option above is extremely unlikely given that he managed to play this season with these injuries, so we're really only talking about the 1st option being viable. Nene would have to decide that he just doesn't want to play basketball anymore and be willing to leave a lot of money on the table.

[verbal8]

If nene retires which he might do LOL....does that help our cap situation or now? Wow..what a gift that would be.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/4/15 ... n-surprise

At any time, Nene can simply retire and voluntarily choose not to take any more salary. In that case, he would be off our cap and off our books. It's tough to imagine him walking away from $39M like that, but I guess anything possible.

What about a buy-out? Does the "stretch provision" cover the cap hit, or just the payments from the team to the player?

If it applies to cap space and if the Wizards and Nene agreed to a 50% buyout, it looks like the Wizards would free up over $10 million in cap space for 2014-15 and 2015-2016. It would cost $2.6 million in cap space for the 3 years after that.

[nate33]

The stretch provision counts against the cap. If you buyout a player who is owned $10M a year for 2-years, you can either take that cap hit as is, or you can make it a $5M a year cap hit over 4 years.

I don't see how the stretch provision helps us. It only makes sense to use it if there is an urgent need to get under the luxtax (where there would be multiplier effects to the money saved). In our situation, if we bought Nene out, I would expect that we would just accept his cap hit normally, rather than trying to prolong the agony. I wouldn't want half of his buyout salary still counting against our cap in freaking 2017.

I don't really see a buyout as an option either, at least not right now. I'm sure the Wizards currently believe that Nene is medically capable of playing (or at least he will be next year). Nene requesting a buyout would be the equivalent to him just quitting. Why would the Wizards pay him to quit? Clearly he is still capable of playing, albeit at a reduced effectiveness. He is still better than Seraphin.

For a buyout to make sense from ownership's perspective, Nene would have to come back next year and suck so bad and be such a locker room cancer that we become desperate just to make him go away. Nene doesn't seem like that kind of guy.

[padovani31]

The best scenario is Nene Walk away from its looser minded Wizards.

if we compare the money that Nene makes he delivers much more than javale are doing for Denver, for instance.

The wiazards Defense came to another level this years and the numbers proven that Nene was a big part of that.

[Dark Faze]

I'm glad that Nene seems like he'll be a much better player once he gets back from these injuries, but to say that he was ready to retire over it is kind of crazy and scary.

[dandridge 10]

I'm glad that Nene seems like he'll be a much better player once he gets back from these injuries, but to say that he was ready to retire over it is kind of crazy and scary.

I think we are seeing a little bit of the personality from Nene that probably grated on Denver, and in fact, kind of irritates me too. Nene seems to be a bit of a prima donna to me. I have no doubt that Nene played with some pain this year. However, I'm a bit skeptical when he talks of "suffering", "crying" and considering retirement. If he was truly in that much pain that he was crying and suffering, I think it would have been more evident on the court. Sure, he did not play with as much explosion at the end of the year and the quality of his play declined, but I rarely saw him grimacing with pain on the court, limping, or favoring his shoulder during games. Other than his quality of his play, you would not even know that he was playing injured. He is either a professional at masking his pain or he is exaggerating quite a bit. I think its that latter.

Its no surprise the Nene often plays like a prima donna too. Opposing players can't even touch him without him glaring at an official or complaining about a foul.

It has been reported that these are some of the reasons why Denver decided to move Nene. After a full year here, I can see how the Denver organization got fed up with it. I agree with Nate that we shouldn't just dump Nene as soon as possible. However, if he plays well at the beginning of next season and increases his value, I would attempt to trade him while we can. I just have a feeling that if we keep Nene, we will be seeing him in and out of line-ups and complaining about injuries the rest of his career.

[Nivek]

While processing Nene's comments, let's keep in mind that English is not his first language. His English is pretty good, but his reported quotes cannot be parsed word by word the way we might with a politician.

And, he's not retiring. He's been playing in pain, and his statement gives a sense that it was significant. But, he's not walking away from $39 million.

And...the factors of health, age and salary were BIG concerns for some of us when the Wizards traded for him. Well, now they have to deal with managing the health and production of a 30+ year old with a big salary over the next several years.

[hands11]

Sounds like he probably was in a good bit of pain and it was very frustrating. But, he chose to play in the Olympics and he paid the price. But he did stick it out. Have to at least give him credit for doing that.

I think this paragraph says it all...

...“Get healthy. That’s my priority right now. It’s been affected since I got traded. That thing got started when I was with the Nuggets,” said Nene, who averaged 14.2 points on 59.1 percent shooting over his previous four seasons in Denver. “It was an honor to represent my country and play for my country in the Olympics. I made sacrifice, you know. It was my decision on that one, but now I’m going to have a summer to recover to have my body straight, my strength straight.”

At least now we will finally get to see what the real deal is. He will get the rest he needs. Maybe Denver saw this coming and didn't want him to play in the Olympics and that was were the falling out happened.

Now, one of two things will happen.

He will stay floor bound and less effective or

He comes back with some McNasty edge with a axe to grind.

Nene, who is owed $39 million for the next three seasons, said conversations with his wife, Lauren, and business manager, Alex Santos, persuaded him to keep going.

Sounds like after talking to the wife she set him straight..

I said before the season started how pissed I was a Nene for not getting the rest he needed. But he wanted to play for his country. I get it. I just didn't agree. But we lived through it. We get another draft pick. Team was probably a little to thin with depth to do much in the playoffs this year anyway. That the focus for now. Building out the depth.

[Upper Decker]

Has anyone heard anything about Nene this off-season? Wiz last played 2 months ago, has his foot injury improved? Has his conditioning improved? Last off-season Duncan lost a ton of weight to improve his game. Nene must do the same thing. By the way things are shaping up this off-season, improving the front court depth appears unlikely. If that's the case, Nenes health, among everything else, will be the difference between the lotto and playoffs.

[dobrojim]

Has anyone heard anything about Nene this off-season? Wiz last played 2 months ago, has his foot injury improved? Has his conditioning improved? Last off-season Duncan lost a ton of weight to improve his game. Nene must do the same thing. By the way things are shaping up this off-season, improving the front court depth appears unlikely. If that's the case, Nenes health, among everything else, will be the difference between the lotto and playoffs.

1.there have been no reports that I have seen

2. his health improving is probably mutually exclusive to his conditioning
improving. From a purely outside view, I'd say he needs to rest and heal,
then work on getting in shape. There are probably some things he can do
without aggravating his foot issues and some things he can't. Aerobic
conditioning almost undoubtedly falls into the latter category.

[popper]

Has anyone heard anything about Nene this off-season? Wiz last played 2 months ago, has his foot injury improved? Has his conditioning improved? Last off-season Duncan lost a ton of weight to improve his game. Nene must do the same thing. By the way things are shaping up this off-season, improving the front court depth appears unlikely. If that's the case, Nenes health, among everything else, will be the difference between the lotto and playoffs.

1.there have been no reports that I have seen

2. his health improving is probably mutually exclusive to his conditioning
improving. From a purely outside view, I'd say he needs to rest and heal,
then work on getting in shape. There are probably some things he can do
without aggravating his foot issues and some things he can't. Aerobic
conditioning almost undoubtedly falls into the latter category.

water polo or synchronized swimming would work

[kirubel94]

I know this is highly unlikely, but if NeNe somehow returns to this form, the team would be pretty deadly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hosmjfDWCzQ[/youtube]