Wizards 2019 Offseason Thread

[nate33]

A couple of things about the roster thus-far. While I am encouraged by Tommy's moves, we lack a rim-running paint protector, lock-down defender, and spark plug scorer. We did get some shooters though.

We lack lots of things, but it really appears that they're punting on this season and focusing on the following year when Wall gets back and Bryant, Brown, Hachimura, Wagner and Schofield have another year of experience under their belts.

In the short term, Bryant is certainly a rim-runner on offense. As a rim protector, he needs work but he has the tools. He has a solid base, a 7-6 wingspan, and a great work ethic. I'm totally fine with trying to develop him.

I think Jordan McRae is the best option as a spark plug scorer. He looked real good down the stretch last year, but teams hadn't really scouted him that much. He may not look so good this year. It'll be interesting to see if we use the MLE on a scorer or resign Parker - or maybe we sign a vet PF to start and use Hachimura as a scorer for the 2nd unit.

Lock down defenders aren't easy to find - particularly ones that can also shoot. Brown has some promise as a perimeter defender, as does Schofield, but both aren't experienced enough to know all the tricks. We'll probably just have to live with sucking at defense.

[payitforward]

Maybe Sheppard knows Howard is a cancer in the locker room and doesn't want him anywhere near the young players. I bet that's the reason why Howard is about to get bought out.

How do you know that Howard's a cancer in the locker room? Have you ever been in the locker room with him?

Someone who has been the locker room with Dwight, former teammate Kemba Walker, doesn't think he was a cancer.

https://clutchpoints.com/hornets-news-kemba-walker-says-dwight-howard-not-locker-room-cancer/

Right...four teams in four different years and it's about to be five. Yea, I'm sure he's a real positive in the LR.

To me, at least, this is entirely irrelevant.

Obviously, a decision has been made to reboot the Washington Wizards. We have so many kids now that I keep losing count of them!

Dwight is on the roster & guaranteed, but this is not the right kind of team for a guy like him. He is a HOF-career player who continues to have at least one bankable skill that would be useful to a team with hopes to go far in the playoffs this season. If we can trade him to a team like that, sure, lets do it; we'll get another asset -- future assets benefit us more in our current state than Dwight can. He'll get a shot to play deep into the playoffs & maybe contend for a ring.

If we can't trade him, then the only reason I can see to buy him out is that we will need the roster spot. & if we do buy him out, he is absolutely certain to land somewhere else -- a team of the kind I just mentioned. All he would cost is a veteran minimum paycheck.

If he remains a Wizard this season, then as Zards says he will help our rebounding. But... he's not going to help enough to take us into the playoffs. Surely not. &, tbh, we don't want to be in the playoffs this year -- tho of course it would be amazing if these kids came out, all played great right away, & we did get there! But, given how utterly unlikely that is, it would seem that Tommy has projected us to have a high pick next year, giving us another jump in rebuilding quickly.

Hmmm, perhaps this can give Zards a reason to think again about Howard? We are rebuilding around Brad. Which, it seems to me, puts a premium on the speed with which we add & use future assets. I.e. to this end, we would seem to have a bigger need for draft picks & draft position than we do for rebounding this year.

Does that make sense to you, Zards?

[NatP4]

I don’t wanna see them sign a “microwave scorer” or even see them give Jordan McRae minutes. There is nothing more annoying in the NBA than “microwave scorer” “6th man” “instant offense” label. Manu Ginobili was that for years but he was never labeled as such because he played defense and contributed in other ways.

Look at the raptors championship team, off the bench they had Van Fleet, a great defender, Siakam, another great defender, Ibaka, another good defender. Norm Powell was a complete afterthought.

You don’t have to have a useless inefficient no defense playing chucker backup shooting guard. No more Jodie Meeks, Marcus Thornton, Gary Neal, Austin Rivers, whoever the **** else I forgot.

[payitforward]

...I think Jordan McRae is the best option as a spark plug scorer. He looked real good down the stretch last year, but teams hadn't really scouted him that much. He may not look so good this year. It'll be interesting to see if we use the MLE on a scorer or resign Parker - or maybe we sign a vet PF to start and use Hachimura as a scorer for the 2nd unit.

Lock down defenders aren't easy to find - particularly ones that can also shoot. Brown has some promise as a perimeter defender, as does Schofield, but both aren't experienced enough to know all the tricks. We'll probably just have to live with sucking at defense.

Agree. But, surely, if he is nothing else, Jemerrio Jones is a lock-down defender! At least that's what Lou William says, tho not "one that can also shoot." But, he does have another terrific skill: rebounding. & offensive rebounding is a big plus for team scoring. Plus, defensive ability & offensive rebounding is a particularly unusual, potentially especially useful, combination.

I can't imagine not taking a $1.4m flyer on a guy like him. I'd keep him well before I kept Tariq Philip or Jordan McRae. He's potentially disruptive to the other team.

As to McRae -- he is someone I was tracking for a couple of years & hoping he might wind up with us. I have no doubt he can be an NBA journeyman for the next few years & make himself some money. He's streaky as a shooter, & neither for us last year nor overall in his 912 NBA minutes has he posted high shooting percentages. TS% = 55% for us & 54% on his career.

I would keep any of Robinson, Jones, Bonga & even Philip over the 28-year-old McRae. Reasonable minds can disagree, but at this early point in the rebuild I'd concentrate on amassing upside rather than filling roles.

I guess another way to say that is that all 3 of Robinson, Jones & Bonga have an importance in my mind way way beyond anything that could be demonstrated as true. That may turn out to be silly, ridiculously wrong, but I could not begin to see Jordan McRae as important enough to forego the possibility that I'm right.

[payitforward]

I don’t wanna see them sign a “microwave scorer” or even see them give Jordan McRae minutes. There is nothing more annoying in the NBA than “microwave scorer” “6th man” “instant offense” label. Manu Ginobili was that for years but he was never labeled as such because he played defense and contributed in other ways.

Look at the raptors championship team, off the bench they had Van Fleet, a great defender, Siakam, another great defender, Ibaka, another good defender. Norm Powell was a complete afterthought.

You don’t have to have a useless inefficient no defense playing chucker backup shooting guard. No more Jodie Meeks, Marcus Thornton, Gary Neal, Austin Rivers, whoever the **** else I forgot.

Way to go, Nat -- we need to create a Jemerrio Jones fan club & bug Tommy to keep him!

[mhd]

Bobby Marks just released an article projecting all salaries of FAs.

He has Sato at 8-10 Million as the 9th ranked PG in terms of salary.
Has has Bryant at 8-10 Million as the 7th ranked C in terms of salary.
Has has Portis as 10-12 Million as the 5th ranked PF in terms of salary.



Jabari isn't listed (has to be a mistake as he has every FA listed of all teams)

[payitforward]

Huh. I've been thinking $15m as a target combined cost for Sato/Bryant. If Marks is right, that was a little conservative/optimistic on my part.

Today is the deadline to pick up options or not on Sato, Bryant, Portis & Dekker. We've already picked up Sato's option. Bryant is a certainty.

I'm guessing no on Dekker whom they may feel they can retain for less if they want him. He had a good season, actually; it wouldn't surprise me to see him get an offer of @ $5m.

I am hoping for (but not sure I'm guessing) a no on Portis. I think Marks is being awfully optimistic at $10-12m. If that's realistic, i.e. if there's a strong market for Bobby, then a sign and trade would be great if it were possible -- & all the more if it brought back a R1 pick. But I'm probably dreaming....

Edit --- wait, they did give Bobby his qualifying offer. Did I miss notice of that here?

Edit again -- they declined to give Sam his option. Bye Sam! Good luck!

[queridiculo]

Dekker getting anywhere near $5 million would be an absolute shocker.

I'd be surprised if he gets any legit offers for the first two weeks of free agency.

Portis getting the QO is disappointing, I can't stomach the idea of seeing him back with the team.

Not married to Satoransky at all costs either. 3 years $24 million would be the max I'd be willing to match.

Sounds absurd, but I'd love to see the Wizards give Ed Davis a serious look. I could see Bryant and him platooning the position quite successfully assuming that Bryant is back with the team.

Thad Young is another guy I'd love to see the Wizards bring in. The right kind of utility guy to start at the four while Hachimura comes along.

[gambitx777]

Yes I mentioned it and it's probably only to see what we can get in a sign and trade. But I can't see any teams hard capping for Portis. But interesting note. Collision retired and mioritic just signed with a Spanish club. That could mean Portis value just went up with Niko off the market. so he might get more than that. Hopefully another point guard off the list doesn't mean more money for Sato

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using RealGM mobile app

[nate33]

Thad Young is another guy I'd love to see the Wizards bring in. The right kind of utility guy to start at the four while Hachimura comes along.

Good call. He would be a nice stopgap starting PF to take the pressure off of Hachimura, who would get to go up against backups. Young is a solid defender and an effective interior scorer.

How about the MLE for 2 years?

[nate33]

Read on Twitter

That's two respectable free agents that are suddenly off the market (the other being Darren Collison). The reduction in supply is going to drive up the cost of free agents a bit.

I'll bet Bobby Portis and Jabari Parker are happy to hear this news.

[prime1time]

I don't know if I can find it but I remember coming across a quote by Sheppard talking about going into the luxury tax. He said basically that he's not against it, but if he does you should be a legit competitor. With that in mind, what are legit expectations for the Wiz this year? I know it's early, but I'd be perfectly fine playing young guys and coming out of the season with a lottery pick. The changed lottery odds would give us a solid chance to get a high pick regardless of where we finished. At the same time, let's say the young guys show up and show out next year. And we squeak into the playoffs. There's no way this is a bad thing because now we have young players that are demonstrating that they can play. Wouldn't be surprised if in a couple years we end up flipping some of them for a star. IT's obvious that we are engaging in a soft rebuild, and I'm perfectly fine with it. In fact I'm pretty excited to see how all the young guys play.

[prime1time]

Also, when did the Wiz become such an international team? If we start winning games with these international players, I can see the Wiz becoming a very popular team around the world.

[nate33]

With the Celtics utilizing all their cap room to get Kemba, that takes one more potential Thomas Bryant suitor off the table.

[80sballboy]

Also, when did the Wiz become such an international team? If we start winning games with these international players, I can see the Wiz becoming a very popular team around the world.

What's interesting is that Grunfeld was born in Romania and never could get a grasp on finding a gem in Europe (closest so far is Sato). He struck out on so many though you wonder if Shep had anything to do with it. Apparently he was on Vesely. But he's added a guy from Japan (Rui), from London (Admiral), and two from Germany (Wagner, Bonga) in his very early interim tenure. You can't forget about the market. Not after the MVP of the league was from Greece.

[queridiculo]

Thad Young is another guy I'd love to see the Wizards bring in. The right kind of utility guy to start at the four while Hachimura comes along.

Good call. He would be a nice stopgap starting PF to take the pressure off of Hachimura, who would get to go up against backups. Young is a solid defender and an effective interior scorer.

How about the MLE for 2 years?

He's 31, so I wouldn't be surprised if his agent pushed either for more money over a short term deal, or 4 years at the full MLE.

3 years + a player option is probably reasonable, and while the length of the deal isn't perfect, that shouldn't be a hard contract to move at a later point.

[queridiculo]

I don't know if I can find it but I remember coming across a quote by Sheppard talking about going into the luxury tax. He said basically that he's not against it, but if he does you should be a legit competitor. With that in mind, what are legit expectations for the Wiz this year?

The luxury tax threshold is at ~$132 million for the coming season, I really don't see how Washington could possibly be at risk of breaching that threshold if they use all of their exceptions and bring back Bryant and possibly Satoransky.

[80sballboy]

Read on Twitter

Now, Washington has approximately $90 million in guaranteed contracts (the projected luxury tax threshold is $132 million) with several non-guaranteed deals that can be waived at different points over the next several weeks. Since the team is not in the tax now, it can use the full nontax paying mid-level exception of $9.2 million — which can be broken up however the Wizards see fit — and the bi-annual exception of $3.6 million. With this, a player can sign a deal that does not exceed two years.

These tools can be small but also make a large impact as the Wizards will spend the bulk of the bank on keeping their in-house free agents.

[DCZards]

To me, at least, this is entirely irrelevant.

Obviously, a decision has been made to reboot the Washington Wizards. We have so many kids now that I keep losing count of them!

Dwight is on the roster & guaranteed, but this is not the right kind of team for a guy like him. He is a HOF-career player who continues to have at least one bankable skill that would be useful to a team with hopes to go far in the playoffs this season. If we can trade him to a team like that, sure, lets do it; we'll get another asset -- future assets benefit us more in our current state than Dwight can. He'll get a shot to play deep into the playoffs & maybe contend for a ring.

If we can't trade him, then the only reason I can see to buy him out is that we will need the roster spot. & if we do buy him out, he is absolutely certain to land somewhere else -- a team of the kind I just mentioned. All he would cost is a veteran minimum paycheck.

If he remains a Wizard this season, then as Zards says he will help our rebounding. But... he's not going to help enough to take us into the playoffs. Surely not. &, tbh, we don't want to be in the playoffs this year -- tho of course it would be amazing if these kids came out, all played great right away, & we did get there! But, given how utterly unlikely that is, it would seem that Tommy has projected us to have a high pick next year, giving us another jump in rebuilding quickly.

Hmmm, perhaps this can give Zards a reason to think again about Howard? We are rebuilding around Brad. Which, it seems to me, puts a premium on the speed with which we add & use future assets. I.e. to this end, we would seem to have a bigger need for draft picks & draft position than we do for rebounding this year.

Does that make sense to you, Zards?

Yes, it makes sense to want a high draft pick next year. But it also make sense to at least try to win games. And that will depend, in part, on how well the Zards rebound the ball. That's where Dwight comes in.

The Zards are probably only going to win 30-35 games next season regardless of whether or not Howard plays. But at the same time you want to try to develop a winning culture and not give your young players (and Beal) the impression that you're essentially throwing in the towel next season. That would be a mistake, imo.

If the Zards do trade or buy out Dwight they need to sign an Ed Davis or Vonleh to help out on the boards. Otherwise, the Zards will get crushed on the boards (like they did last season), which is demoralizing for the team's players and fans.

[payitforward]

Thad Young is another guy I'd love to see the Wizards bring in. The right kind of utility guy to start at the four while Hachimura comes along.

Good call. He would be a nice stopgap starting PF to take the pressure off of Hachimura, who would get to go up against backups. Young is a solid defender and an effective interior scorer.

How about the MLE for 2 years?

Thaddeus Young is a pretty good player -- sort of like Jeff Green but a whole lot better & not quite as old. But should not our primary targets be guys who are young & also productive, under-valued & with a chance to translate into the team we mean to build? Some examples, a number of whom we've already brought up here:

Noah Vonleh
Richaun Holmes
Kevon Looney
Christian Wood

But, if we are actually looking for "a stopgap," how about some less expensive possibilities:

Ed Davis
Al-Farouk Aminu
Jeff Green

Green would be a popular choice & cost literally a tenth of what Young is likely to command. For that matter, here are a couple of other cheap "stopgap" types.

Kenneth Faried
Omri Casspi