Wizards sign Paul Pierce, 2 years @ MLE

[hands11]

I really don't think Harrington is coming back. What in the world do we need Harrington for when Pierce does everything he does, only better?

Agreed. He was borderline to return anyway.

Now with PP added. I think they have other needs for that slot.

I doubt they want to add another player AH's age up front.

I think it more likely they add someone like Birch and/or Orton

I think they might still sign Kevin S, but I think they might also trade him.

[FAH1223]

This should be the starting lineup or the lineup we use to close games/quarters:

Wall
Beal
Porter
Pierce
Gortat

With

Miller
Rice
Webster
Booker/Seraphin/Gooden
Nene

Off the bench

[hands11]

I would love to have Okafor back on this team.

I wonder what the real story is behind him keeping his name out of free agency.

I repeatedly search for any new on him, and I never find anything.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2014/7/13 ... rds-impact

Prada mentions Okafor as possible big man depth but notes Wiz can only offer a min deal.

That great. I have mentioned since about Feb. But us talking about him isn't the same as someone actually talking to him and someone reporting on that.

Back then you used to at least hear something from him. Someone reporting on his rehab, etc.

Now you hear nothing. Where is he ? Still in New York ?
How is he feeling ?
Does he want to play ?
Has anyone talked to his rep ?

Its just weird. Its 7/13/14 .. 13 days into FA and nothing from Okafor or his representatives. No one saying they have talked to them.

[truwizfan4evr]

Paul Pierce - G/F - Wizards

The Nets reportedly had the opportunity to match the Wizards' offer on Paul Pierce, but chose not to.
The Nets had Pierce's Bird Rights, and could have offered him more money than any other team, but they chose to let him walk. The Nets surrendered three future first round draft picks when they acquired Pierce and Kevin Garnett a year ago, and with Garnett's future in Brooklyn also cloudy, it doesn't look like they got much of a return on that investment.

[Slartibartfast]

Congrats on signing a legend - he'll rebound, stroke the 3 and the stepback J, throw down an old man stuff every once in a while, and even give you some point forward moments.

Drawbacks: he's slow as molasses now, so you really want him surrounded with defensively versatile athletes to keep your team speed from ending up in the tank. In Boston we used Jeff Green and Brandon Bass in his final year.

[Tyrone Messby]

Love this signing! EG's best move yet.

[Woody Ball]

How many of you were happy when we drafted Porter?

Personally, I was fine with it. I loved his game in college and didn't love the talent in that draft. In college, he WAS a very good defender with nice length. He HAD a really nice mid-range game. I thought he had a nice chance to become a very good NBA 3-point shooter.

Then last year happened. Am I supposed to think he just lost his mojo between leagues? That seems to be the conclusion that the league jumped to. Personally, I don't buy it. I think he needs minutes and, if given minutes, I think we have a nice wing compliment to Wall and Beal.

If I'm right, the Pierce signing is awesome. He'll play some three and he fits amazingly with Wall and Beal.

IF Wall's jumper continues to improve, Porter fills in and is league average or better by mid-season, and Beal does what we all think, this team could be really dangerous by March. We have to get better, but the path is there in front of them. They just have to step up and do what we all hope they can.

[LyricalRico]

The Nets reportedly had the opportunity to match the Wizards' offer on Paul Pierce, but chose not to.
The Nets had Pierce's Bird Rights, and could have offered him more money than any other team, but they chose to let him walk. The Nets surrendered three future first round draft picks when they acquired Pierce and Kevin Garnett a year ago, and with Garnett's future in Brooklyn also cloudy, it doesn't look like they got much of a return on that investment.

Most thought it was a good move at the time, and that the only downside was the prohibitive luxury tax bill. But then it completely blew up in their face and now they don't have Kidd, Pierce, or Terry. If Lopez is healthy, they could still be decent - but how realistic is that to expect? And now they've got a gaping hole at SF.

Lopez/Plumlee
Garnett/Teletovic/AK47
Bogdanovic/Karasev
Johnson/Jack
Williams/Jack/Teague

Maybe they should have let Jason Kidd run the team instead of Billy King after all. LOL

[jeffsays]

How many of you were happy when we drafted Porter?

Personally, I was fine with it. I loved his game in college and didn't love the talent in that draft. In college, he WAS a very good defender with nice length. He HAD a really nice mid-range game. I thought he had a nice chance to become a very good NBA 3-point shooter.

Then last year happened. Am I supposed to think he just lost his mojo between leagues? That seems to be the conclusion that the league jumped to. Personally, I don't buy it. I think he needs minutes and, if given minutes, I think we have a nice wing compliment to Wall and Beal.

If I'm right, the Pierce signing is awesome. He'll play some three and he fits amazingly with Wall and Beal.

IF Wall's jumper continues to improve, Porter fills in and is league average or better by mid-season, and Beal does what we all think, this team could be really dangerous by March. We have to get better, but the path is there in front of them. They just have to step up and do what we all hope they can.

I'll keep saying this, but Otto looked fantastic yesterday in the summer league game. He displayed that he can shoot the three and that his mid-range game is super efficient. I'm really excited to see what he can do tonight.

[Woody Ball]

I'll keep saying this, but Otto looked fantastic yesterday in the summer league game. He displayed that he can shoot the three and that his mid-range game is super efficient. I'm really excited to see what he can do tonight.

I'm pretty confident about Porter, but summer league performances are completely meaningless, IMO.

[nate33]

A couple of thoughts:

I don't think Porter is ready to be a stopper yet (though I think he'll have an impact offensively this year).

Second time Ive seen you mention Ottos defense. Are you suggesting you think Ottos offense is ahead of his defense? The only thing I thought Otto did well was play defense. Small sample size but last season Otto allowed .69 ppp as an overall defender. A ridiculously low number. Maybe not a stopper yet but surly no slouch.

Have I mentioned his defense elsewhere?

I don't think Otto is innately a bad defender or anything. I just think that rookies (and Otto is effectively a rookie) tend to be pretty bad at D in general. He's certainly going to be a substantial defensive downgrade over Ariza, who was arguably a top 10 defender leaguewide.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This should be the starting lineup or the lineup we use to close games/quarters:

Wall
Beal
Porter
Pierce
Gortat

With

Miller
Rice
Webster
Booker/Seraphin/Gooden
Nene

Off the bench

So, Nene goes to the bench is the impact of Pierce being signed?

Gooden returns to never play.

I think team chemistry is going to suck if Pierce can only effectively play PF.

And when did Paul Pierce become a power forward?

The only thing that makes sense is Pieece at small forward with Porter getting lots of minutes off the bench.

People are just making pierce displace the whole front court at 37 years of age

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[Wizardspride]

This should be the starting lineup or the lineup we use to close games/quarters:

Wall
Beal
Porter
Pierce
Gortat

With

Miller
Rice
Webster
Booker/Seraphin/Gooden
Nene

Off the bench

So, Nene goes to the bench is the impact of Pierce being signed?

Gooden returns to never play.

I think team chemistry is going to suck.

And sweet and did Paul Pierce become a power forward?

The only thing that makes sense is Pieece at small forward with Porter getting lots of minutes off the bench.

Or Porter starting with Paul getting minutes at SF.

Also, Pierce spent a large part of his minutes at the stretch 4 last season.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I can see Pierce 5 or 10 minutes at PF, but certainly not becoming the PF. Wittman will bring back Booker and Gooden to familiar roles.

Now if Nene is traded ...

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[The Consiglieri]

Yeah, I won't go so far as to call it a talent upgrade, either. Pierce can't defend wings the way Ariza can -- and he certainly can't bottle up PGs the way Ariza did for stretches last year. Unless Porter can really step up, we'll miss Ariza's versatility on defense.

But Pierce is a better ball handler and a better mid-range scorer. And, he's bulky enough to play stretch 4 in a pinch. And he's cheaper. If Ariza had inked that 4 year deal, we'd be crossing our fingers that Webster came back quickly enough from his injury to get traded by the deadline. Signing Pierce to a short deal alleviates the pressure to move Webster, and allows us to keep our depth.

I have no issue with this either. There are things I'd certainly like better, but Pierce, if he doesn't hit the wall, can offer us another scoring option, which should free up more room for Beal and Gortat. Teams will have to honor that threat.

And the contract, I can't thank that contract enough. It negates the horror of being on the hook for 9 years worth of contracts to Gortat and Ariza when we're trying to build a side that can contend.

If the team had handled the draft intelligently, this is exactly the kind of move I'd never complain about, as it's a plug and play stop gap, and also a potential attractor for other future free agents. Yes he's an old man, but we just managed to retain Gortat, and pull in Pierce. Every little helps when it comes to marketing to free agents. Good words from Pierce and Gortat about playing with the wiz helps to slowly scrape off the grime of thirty years of incompetence. Still a long way to go, but this is actually an intelligent move. With little downside.

Shocking.

[dandridge 10]

Agreed. The Wizards weren't contenders with Ariza. I don't think that they are contenders with Pierce either, but this stopgap move should keep them from taking too much of step back while giving them the flexibility needed to make a major move in 2 years in order to become contenders. Great move and refreshing to see somewhat of a plan for once..

[Ruzious]

The move fits, but I think it's important to point out that signing Pierce is a patch job with a 36 year old who could lose it over-night. And henceforth, anyone who calls he Wizards a young team should smack themselves. Instead of using the MLE to get a talented young player, they used it for the short-term goal of trying to stay about as good as last season. And what we're seeing in this thread is - this is what the fan base wants.

Yeah, no what this fanbase wants is to land the Slim Reaper. And a move like this just keeps our name in the conversation as a relevant team, while keeping a slot open for 2016's cap space. Which young FA does that?

That's the problem - they backed themselves into a situation where there wasn't a better option. I call it a problem, but again - most fans don't consider it a problem - they're happy - which is fine. As far as 2016, it's still not at all clear that they'll have max cap room. Hopefully, they can dump Webster at some point to at least make it close. Lebron left Miami to go home. That could help plant a seed in the head of the NBA's #2 player, but there's work to be done.

[Ruzious]

A couple of thoughts:

I don't think Porter is ready to be a stopper yet (though I think he'll have an impact offensively this year).

Second time Ive seen you mention Ottos defense. Are you suggesting you think Ottos offense is ahead of his defense? The only thing I thought Otto did well was play defense. Small sample size but last season Otto allowed .69 ppp as an overall defender. A ridiculously low number. Maybe not a stopper yet but surly no slouch.

Have I mentioned his defense elsewhere?

I don't think Otto is innately a bad defender or anything. I just think that rookies (and Otto is effectively a rookie) tend to be pretty bad at D in general. He's certainly going to be a substantial defensive downgrade over Ariza, who was arguably a top 10 defender leaguewide.

I think Otto has a much better chance on defense than Rice does. Rice is a guy with questionable everything when it comes to intangibles and working hard - which is a must for playing defense. Porter's got the intangibles - not to mention the length. Rice is a guy who might help with scoring off the bench, but I don't see any other contribution likely for him.

As for Okafor, I'd pass on him even for the vet minimum. This team needs to find a couple of young bigs to develop.

[80sballboy]

Holy crap. Much better move than Caron Butler or any of the other players out there. Not quite as strong a 3 point shooter as Ariza but better overall scorer. Now we'll have a much stronger bench as well when Webby is healthy.

Agreed.

I think everyone is happy now!

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They still might bring back Caron. Adding PP doesn't stop that.

Didn't stop that? Who cares? I was talking about replacing Ariza with PP over Caron. Pretty easy decision.

[Darko Miliminutes]

I approve! Perfect player for Otto's development. Will not get heavy minutes, leaving plenty of PT for Porter. And just an ideal mentor for Otto...hell the other youngs as well. PP has a lot he can teach.