Wizards Interested in DeJuan Blair!

[penbeast0]

Sorry CCJ. He was wooed by the prospect of staying in beautiful Texas where he pays no income tax and can scream "remember the Alamo!!" during sex and no one cares.

Shame there's not a team in Kansas so he could scream "Remember Dorothy!" (and no, I'm not the one that painted it on the bridge)

[miller31time]

Damn, I was really hoping we'd get him. Wonder what the fall-out was due to.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Four years ago, while needing some interior toughness and a rebounder, Ernie sold the round two pick and passed up the opportunity to draft Blair.

The Spurs drafted him and he started 166 games over the next four seasons. By his second season, he started 65 games for a 60-win team.

Four years later, after overbidding to retain Webster and needlessly paying Maynor, with Blair wanting to be a Wizard, they had nothing but the minimum offer. At the same time, they rush to award Wall an $80 M contract.

Blair is perhaps better than Okafor, who will make $14M. He is very likely better than Maynor. I think he's as much of an impact player as Webster or Ariza. I doubt very seriously that Otto Porter will have as much impact as a first or second year NBA player as Blair did his first two seasons.

The thing that frustrates me is the opportunities Ernie Grunfield prevents time and again. Blair is going to do quite well in Dallas, the team who faced him and the Spurs as much as any other. Their management and talent evaluators are much better than the Wizards.

Things like this make me want to temper all my enthusiasm for this franchise.
It was exceptionally stupid to extend Wall right after his first knee injury. It also seems wrong to manage assets in a way they have nothing but the minimum to offer an obvious talent like Blair.

The Mavericks will get more from Brandan Wright, Bernard James, Dejuan Blair, and Samuel Dalembert at a fraction of what Nene, Okafor, and Vesely earn combined.

[AFM]

Blair is better than Okafor?

[closg00]

Four years ago, while needing some interior toughness and a rebounder, Ernie sold the round two pick and passed up the opportunity to draft Blair.

The Spurs drafted him and he started 166 games over the next four seasons. By his second season, he started 65 games for a 60-win team.

Four years later, after overbidding to retain Webster and needlessly paying Maynor, with Blair wanting to be a Wizard, they had nothing but the minimum offer. At the same time, they rush to award Wall an &80 M contract.

Blair is perhaps better than Okafor, who will make $14M. He is very likely better thatn Maynor. I think he's as much of an impact player than Webster or Ariza. I doubt very seriously that Otto Porter will have as much impact as a first or second year NBA player as Blair did his first two seasons.

The thing that frustrates me is the opportunities Ernie Grunfield prevents time and again. Blair is going to do quite well in Dallas, the team who faced him and the Spurs as much as any other. Their management and talent evaluators are much better than the Wizards.

Things like this make me want to temper all my enthusiasm for this franchise.
It was exceptionally stupid to extend Wall right after his first knee injury. It also seems wrong to manage assets in a way they have nothing but the minimum to offer an obvious talent like Blair.

The Mavericks will get more from Brandan Wright, Bernard James, Dejuan Blair, and Samuel Dalembert at a fraction of what Nene, Okafor, and Vesely earn combined.

Ouchie, that about sums it up right there.

[Kanyewest]

Four years ago, while needing some interior toughness and a rebounder, Ernie sold the round two pick and passed up the opportunity to draft Blair.

The Spurs drafted him and he started 166 games over the next four seasons. By his second season, he started 65 games for a 60-win team.

Four years later, after overbidding to retain Webster and needlessly paying Maynor, with Blair wanting to be a Wizard, they had nothing but the minimum offer. At the same time, they rush to award Wall an $80 M contract.

Blair is perhaps better than Okafor, who will make $14M. He is very likely better than Maynor. I think he's as much of an impact player as Webster or Ariza. I doubt very seriously that Otto Porter will have as much impact as a first or second year NBA player as Blair did his first two seasons.

The thing that frustrates me is the opportunities Ernie Grunfield prevents time and again. Blair is going to do quite well in Dallas, the team who faced him and the Spurs as much as any other. Their management and talent evaluators are much better than the Wizards.

Things like this make me want to temper all my enthusiasm for this franchise.
It was exceptionally stupid to extend Wall right after his first knee injury. It also seems wrong to manage assets in a way they have nothing but the minimum to offer an obvious talent like Blair.

The Mavericks will get more from Brandan Wright, Bernard James, Dejuan Blair, and Samuel Dalembert at a fraction of what Nene, Okafor, and Vesely earn combined.

Blair is not better than Okafor at this point. Yes, $14 million is a lot of money but at least I would figure that Okafor would be a regular rotation player if he was with the Spurs in the playoffs.

You mention Blair's second year impact which was really good where he performed at career levels. Then again, he essentially became invisible in the playoffs against Memphis as the Spurs were eliminated from the playoffs. Blair has been a player on the downward trend since then. Maybe a change of scenery with the Mavs can help.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Blair is better than Okafor?

I qualified my statement. Perhaps better is what I said.

Regular season
Player A: 14.0 points, 11.3 rebounds per 36
Player B: 14.9 points, 11.1 rebounds per 36

Player A: 17.0 PER, .512 eFG, 106 ORtg, 103 DRtg, .114 WS/48
Player B: 17.0 PER, .528 eFG, 107 ORtg, 101 DRtg, .138 WS/48

Playoffs
Player A: 8.0 points, 6.3 rebounds per 36 (6 games)
Player B: 17.0 points, 12.2 rebounds per 36 (36 games)

Player A: 9.2 PER, .645 eFG, 100 ORtg, 113 DRtg, .016 WS/48
Player B: 23.1 PER, .535 eFG, 120 ORtg, 101 DRtg, .220 WS/48

Player A: http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... oem01.html
Player B: http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rde01.html

Okafor starts, is big enough to avoid fouls, and is a good defender. Blair has been a sometimes starter who is foul prone. Blair has had a couple games of over 20 points and 20 rebounds. Okafor has done it as well 4 or 5 times over his career.

Blair's production, in albeit limited minutes, is actually really high in the playoffs.

I won't argue because I'm sure 95% would disagree with my statement.

That's all.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Blair is not better than Okafor at this point. Yes, $14 million is a lot of money but at least I would figure that Okafor would be a regular rotation player if he was with the Spurs in the playoffs.

You mention Blair's second year impact which was really good where he performed at career levels. Then again, he essentially became invisible in the playoffs against Memphis as the Spurs were eliminated from the playoffs. Blair has been a player on the downward trend since then. Maybe a change of scenery with the Mavs can help.

KW, you mention Blair's downward trend. With the decline in rebounding his assists and points per minute went up. If you look at PER, WS/48, ORtg, DRtg, eFG, I say you cannot say anything declined. (EDITED: PER did this past season).

Above, I posted Blair's playoff stats. I don't see a sharp decline in anything but minutes. That's on Coach Popovich, who BTW lost the finals to the Heat. He had a bad series and he's an all-time, HOF coach. The same guy who started Blair many games, even as a rookie. Splitter beat Blair out and was much preferred by Popovich. He was much more effective in their lineup than Blair this past season. Maybe, Emeka Ofafor would be, too. Obviously, the taller guys can defend players who Blair cannot. Thus less minutes for Blair.

However, if you want to use Blair getting outplayed badly by Gasol and Randolph, please look at Okafor's six career playoff games over his 11 years in the league. Same time frame as Blair vs Memphis. How did Okafor do?

Kanyewest, where we agree is that a change of scenery will do Blair good.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Blair is an odd size but he is leaps and bounds better than Jan freaking Vesely. (Vesely leaps and bounds better than Blair but he can't play basketball nearly as well. )

I could well be wrong but the comparison I made above to Blair is with Okafor, who went #2 overall.

The big picture is a team like the Wizards had no more than the minimum for Blair but they can award more than twice that much to Eric Maynor. Washington has the dumbest front office in the world.

[Ruzious]

I heard Blair signed for the veteran minimum, so ya gotta figure that if the Wiz had offered the 4 mil over 2 years deal they gave Maynor, they would have had a good chance to get him. Rushing to do the Maynor deal continues to be really hard to understand.

Interesting that I wanted either Brandan Wright or Blair to sign with the Wiz, and they both signed with Dallas.

[Kanyewest]

Blair is not better than Okafor at this point. Yes, $14 million is a lot of money but at least I would figure that Okafor would be a regular rotation player if he was with the Spurs in the playoffs.

You mention Blair's second year impact which was really good where he performed at career levels. Then again, he essentially became invisible in the playoffs against Memphis as the Spurs were eliminated from the playoffs. Blair has been a player on the downward trend since then. Maybe a change of scenery with the Mavs can help.

KW, you mention Blair's downward trend. With the decline in rebounding his assists and points per minute went up. If you look at PER, WS/48, ORtg, DRtg, eFG, I say you cannot say anything declined. (EDITED: PER did this past season).

Above, I posted Blair's playoff stats. I don't see a sharp decline in anything but minutes. That's on Coach Popovich, who BTW lost the finals to the Heat. He had a bad series and he's an all-time, HOF coach. The same guy who started Blair many games, even as a rookie. Splitter beat Blair out and was much preferred by Popovich. He was much more effective in their lineup than Blair this past season. Maybe, Emeka Ofafor would be, too. Obviously, the taller guys can defend players who Blair cannot. Thus less minutes for Blair.

However, if you want to use Blair getting outplayed badly by Gasol and Randolph, please look at Okafor's six career playoff games over his 11 years in the league. Same time frame as Blair vs Memphis. How did Okafor do?

Kanyewest, where we agree is that a change of scenery will do Blair good.

I think Blair is slightly worse rebounder per 36 minutes since his first couple of seasons. Then again, you are right in saying that Pop hasn't really given Blair enough playing time as of late. Still, the Spurs overall philosophy of playing small ball helped take them from a team that couldn't get out of the first round to the finals. Getting more playing time could boost his confidence.

Okafor's playoff numbers are not great either. But Okafor also had his hands full with David West out for the season and guarding Bynum/Gasol. Okafor did shoot above 60% from the field but only 34% from the free throw line. Looks like Okafor had trouble creating his own offense against Bynum/Gasol and being the one who was double teamed (the other bigs on the team were Aaron Gray and Carl Landry). I agree that Blair had a bad matchup going against Gasol/Randolph and maybe he can turn it around.

Thinking about this more, disregarding salary, I would rather have Okafor then Blair for the Wizards simply because of his ability to play center and that the Wizards already have Nene. But I would have liked to have gotten Blair to come off the bench since the Wizards didn't find a stretch 4.

[pineappleheadindc]

Necro-bump to discuss Blair's play of recent days. Gortat's recent knee injuries (and minutes to Blair) shows that he still has game -- even if he has sat so much, getting rust. He has a nice little mid-range J that he can hit about the foul line extended.

Maybe, depending on opponent's lineup, he can play a little 4 next to Gortat or Nene.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Calling CCJ.

Pine just called for Blair at the 4.

[closg00]

You can't have the Dough Boy playing 40+ minutes on a b2b, that's just insane. Blair has proven that he can get in a groove and contribute if he can get some minutes. With Hump, Gooden, & Nene hobbled, We shouldn't be seeing DNP's next to Blair's name.

[nate33]

Necro-bump to discuss Blair's play of recent days. Gortat's recent knee injuries (and minutes to Blair) shows that he still has game -- even if he has sat so much, getting rust. He has a nice little mid-range J that he can hit about the foul line extended.

Maybe, depending on opponent's lineup, he can play a little 4 next to Gortat or Nene.

Blair can work against some matchups on some nights, but not as an everyday player. He was okay against Indy because they don't have a center who can post him up.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

His most effective play was as a PF. Just because the trend is for stretch fours doesn't mean he and Quincy Acy, and Tristan Thompson, and Jonas Jerebko, and David Lee, and Kenneth Faried, and others like them cannot play PF effectively.

[dckingsfan]

His most effective play was as a PF. Just because the trend is for stretch fours doesn't mean he and Quincy Acy, and Tristan Thompson, and Jonas Jerebko, and David Lee, and Kenneth Faried, and others like them cannot play PF effectively.

Agreed, it just depends on the style of the play and if it fits the player...