Al Harrington signs With the Wizards

[truwizfan4evr]

Al Harrington is moving toward signing a deal with the Washington Wizards.

Harrington was recently waived by the Orlando Magic.

Harrington played just 10 games last season, but has been training this summer with Joe Abunassar. Harrington has lost 27 pounds since the end of the season.

Via Marc Stein/ESPN

[dlts20]

Ever since he's been released Ive been thinking non stop that he is probably the best stretch 4 we could get when you factor in money, trades, etc.....

Its clear we need to find someone who is good but cheap. When you are doing that its going to be a very high risk/high reward type of thing. He could be the perfect guy to put us back over the top or the perfect guy to derail us back to the Blatche, McGee, NY days. I think its worth the risk

[truwizfan4evr]

When he was waived by Orlando i knew we would sign him. What an lazy move from Ernie.

[BrooklynBulls]

When he was waived by Orlando i knew we would sign him. What an lazy move from Ernie.

How is this lazy? IMO he's the by a fair amount the best stretch 4 on the market. It's a minimum deal. It doesn't prevent you going and getting another, better stretch 4 in trade.

[doclinkin]

Another Dan Fegan client. Brought in on a minimum deal to rehab his career playing next to John Wall (who resuscitates 3FG percentages) and former Nuggs teammate Nene. If healthy again he's a significant short term upgrade on our other options in long range Bigs.

[Slackstring701]

Sick pick up ....

Is it not kinda weird that this is breaking this late on Sunday night though haha.

[TheBabyMaker]

Good deal hes better than anyone not named Nene or Okafor on the big side. We lack big positions so this is just a temp fix.

[dangermouse]

All joking aside, nice signing. Hope he has a healthy year with us.

[TheBabyMaker]

Another Dan Fegan client. Brought in on a minimum deal to rehab his career playing next to John Wall (who resuscitates 3FG percentages) and former Nuggs teammate Nene. If healthy again he's a significant short term upgrade on our other options in long range Bigs.

strategy perhaps. did not think wizards had one????

[WizardsWorld]

So is it a 1 year minimum deal or something in that range ? If that's all it is I'm cool with it. I just hope they didn't give him a long term deal. Something short and cheap though I'm down with.

[doclinkin]

Another Dan Fegan client. Brought in on a minimum deal to rehab his career playing next to John Wall (who resuscitates 3FG percentages) and former Nuggs teammate Nene. If healthy again he's a significant short term upgrade on our other options in long range Bigs.

strategy perhaps. did not think wizards had one????

John Wall, Nene, Martell Webster, earlier rumors pointed DJ Blair to us, now Al Harrington. I suspect Fegan would like to send Big Cousins bad attitude our way to play next to Johnny Ballgame since he's perpetually unhappy where he is and we look to end up with max contract room if things fall out that way.

[TheBabyMaker]

Another Dan Fegan client. Brought in on a minimum deal to rehab his career playing next to John Wall (who resuscitates 3FG percentages) and former Nuggs teammate Nene. If healthy again he's a significant short term upgrade on our other options in long range Bigs.

strategy perhaps. did not think wizards had one????

John Wall, Nene, Martell Webster, earlier rumors pointed DJ Blair to us, now Al Harrington. I suspect Fegan would like to send Big Cousins bad attitude our way to play next to Johnny Ballgame since he's perpetually unhappy where he is and we look to end up with max contract room if things fall out that way.

Sorry about the earlier post my bad. I think we are on the same page. Still Al is a good sighn up.

[AFM]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poWDJdcAbX4[/youtube]

[closg00]

So this puts the roster at 15 correct? If Temple's deal is non-guaranteed, I would look for him to be waived soon keeping that slot open. Now we have to turn Booker/Singleton into another Center for the bench.

[Ruzious]

I'm fine with the move as long as the Wiz don't try to sell it as anything more than it is - a stop-gap bench player who's likely over-the-hil.

[fishercob]

I have no quarrel with this move. In fact, I like it.

This follows a bit of a pattern of acquiring guys with a certain amount of pedigree whose careers had been derailed by injury. If Al is indeed healthy, I think he'll out-earn his veteran's minimum deal.

He's made enough money in his career -- yes, Al Harrington has grossed over $80,000,000 in NBA earnings -- that he's not so much playing for a contract as he is playing to stay in the league. He wants to re-establish his value so he can play a few more years. Interesting stuff from the Marc Stein piece:

Dealt from Denver to Orlando in August 2012 as part of the four-team Dwight Howard blockbuster deal, Harrington was limited to just 10 games with the Magic last season after ranking as one of the league's top sixth men with the Nuggets in 2011-12.

"I had to use a PICC line [used for intravenous therapy] to give myself medicine twice a day, and stuff like that," Harrington recently told USA Today Sports in an interview reflecting on the infection. "It was a tough time. Probably the first week of it was the toughest, just not knowing really how sick you are and at that point you're not worried about your knee. You're worried about your life."

Since the regular season ended, Harrington has been working all summer in Las Vegas with noted NBA trainer Joe Abunassar at the Impact Academy and reportedly attracted interest from multiple teams -- including Chicago and the Los Angeles Clippers -- before zeroing in on Washington.

"It's been hard work," Harrington told USA Today. "I started on April 26. That's the day I got in the gym and I've been in here ever since. I really had no time off, just been grinding and trying to lose the weight. I feel like the lighter I am the more pressure I take off my knee, you know what I mean? So that was the focus behind losing the weight, and then just being strong.

"I've lost 27 pounds. I'm on my way down. I had to do it and I'm focused. I've got a lot left in the tank. I'm only 33 years old and people act like I'm 40. I'm just excited about getting back out there on the court and showing everybody. For me, this year I'm going to have a chip on my shoulder, so if I play like that I'm going to be tough to deal with."

He's completely viable as the "pick and pop bigman" that Wall has publicly coveted and depending on how well he plays, could end up being our first big off the bench. That's the major plus of Nene being a "true" PF/C. We easily have 48 C minutes covered with Okafor, Nene, and Seraphin, and should be good at PF between Nene, Harrington, Ariza, Booker. He has shot a respectable 35% from 3 for his career. If he benefits from the "Wall effect" we're going to crush people from the outside.

I would not be surprised if at some point -- be it before the season, or during the season to facilitate a trade or injury pickup -- if Singleton is simply waived. Once his option doesn't get picked up, there's really no point in keeping him on the roster.

Good job.

[Upper Decker]

I like the signing as well. If healthy he has potential to be a solid stopgap that doesn't impede on future plans. I've watched a lot of Nuggets basketball over the past few years and Harrington was really productive. Two years ago he averaged 14 and 6 as a bench player. Let's say he comes back and his averages dip to 10 & 5. That's still the second best reserve on the team. His defense stinks, but he'll most likely be in a reserve role, so that shouldn't be a huge detriment.

As for EG being lazy, this isn't his lazy signing. Eric Maynor was a thoughtless lazy signing. One that will ultimately hurt the team. Nate Robinson was interested in joining the Wizards. Presumably if they still had the LLE he would have signed with Washington. I feel a whole lot better with a second unit of Robinson, Temple, Ariza, Harrington, Seraphin, than with Maynor.

[keynote]

Low risk, medium-to-high reward (for the buck). Fills a need. Good pick up.

[Dat2U]

I'd advise Chris Singleton to look into subleasing his condo.

[hands11]

Interesting signing. Seems like a good move. Adds another vet to replace the experience they lost by not resigning Jason.

So it looks like they might go into the season with 15. For me, Singleton is the remaining player on the bubble. So would it cost Ted 1.7M to cut him ?

Not sure who starts between Trevor A and Webster yet but Webster started last year.

So with another PF, this just makes it even more likely they have Nene more at center which goes in line with the lineups I posted previously where we have Nene and Okafor covering the center position. If that's the case, all the sudden, we are a lot deeper at center then we had been. Should be interesting to see what they do moving forward with Okafor.

They still have work to do forming this team longer term. We have Wall and Beal starting. This is a interesting interim addition. But things are still wide open for what this team become next year.

Would have been fine with me if they didn't add him and left more room for Ves and Kevin. This raises the bar a little more. Guess if either of them wants it, they are going to have to really step it up.

Since Al is 33 and signed to the vet min, I don't think they will fell forced to play him over other players if they show they can get it done. But he does give them more depth which at a min is insurance.