Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:Wolters is a much better player than Rice. I am convinced of this.
All the grief I've gotten the past 36 hours for criticizing the trade is going to make for a great, "I told you so" later.
Four years of data vs six games of D-League, plus a whole lot of streaky play and baggage. Rice did prove to be the third most proficient in WS/48 in the D-League. He was nothing less than spectacular in the playoffs. He's got the physical profile to make it in the NBA like Alonzo Gee, Garrett Temple, and many others. (Like Morris Almond).
But this kid Wolters is special. EG don't recognize special.
This is going to be almost as bad as passing on Curry/Rubio to take a flier of a year on Foye and Miller.
Well I never gave you grief CCJ. Wolters would have been my choice, sold as I was by the assessments and statistical analyses of you, payitforward, and a number of others. I do recall someone (maybe nate33?) mentioning that despite his obvious talent, he might not have fit into the Wizards system as well as other systems, and the change of pace from Wall might have decreased his value to the team, but all that's over my head. As a 2nd round pick, a back up, a potential 3rd guard of the future, a person who could put points up and hit the 3 pretty well all through school, a person who might have very well fit a specific need, he seemed the right choice.
I don't know much about Rice, but I'm not all that worried just yet about his so-called character issues. I take to payitforward's point that Rice had a potentially very humbling experience, getting bounced out of school and playing in the D-League to prove his worth. He seems to have proven his worth somewhat, and also shown somewhat that he might have gotten a little scared straight. We'll see if that's the case, but like every other player that I didn't really want (Nene, Okafor, Ariza, Miller, Foye, Vesely--I'll stop there, it could be a long list) I'll hope that he exceeds my expectations, as sometimes happens.
Getting Porter and Rice may eventually allow the Wizards to get a little of that Spurs mojo, with so many players (Beal, Porter, Rice, Ariza, and Webster, Price and Martin if they stick around) that can hit the long ball that it's not hard to have 2 or 3 on the floor at any given time. That would be a nice change from the "Give Wall some targets" mantra of recent years. I'm just going to mesmerize myself into thinking that Rice is a feel good story in the making.