GT #8:Washington Wizards @ Philadelphia 76ers 1/6/2021 7:00PM

[Silvie Lysandra]

Defense, we don’t play it. It’s on Tommy. The most obvious culture change you can make is to play defense. That’s true from U8 rec league to the NBA. The Knicks are not playing good defense because of Julius Randle, it’s Thibs obviously who the new GM hired.


I don’t get it.

Because Ted Leonsis doesn't give a **** about basketball, so nobody will be held accountable for failure.

[Frichuela]

The Celtics look to be depleted tonite. Tristan Thompson, Rob Williams and Grant Williams out for tonite on quarantine.

[payitforward]

I just looked at Haliburton's overall numbers & compared them to Avdija's. The productivity per 40 minutes of the two players is virtually identical.

[NatP4]

I just looked at Haliburton's overall numbers & compared them to Avdija's. The productivity per 40 minutes of the two players is virtually identical.

It is similar, my original comments were like Nate posted above, about fit with our core moving forward. I really like Brown and Bonga and on draft night, I really wanted Haliburton. I still love the Deni pick and think he will be a great player, but the wizards need to find a young building block piece at guard.

2021 draft night be the place to take care of that though!

[payitforward]

Wait... I know... Bol Bol! No no no... that's the wrong year!

I know you liked Haliburton. I did too. But, I would never have picked him over Avdija -- & I still wouldn't.

That's fair and understandable. Still, I haven't changed even a little bit - I'd still take Haliburton.

I said on draft day that I would have taken Haliburton too, and I stand by it.

The clincher to me was that I think our positional need for Haliburton was greater. We had enough young forwards on the roster to develop, but we haven't had a decent 3rd guard on this team for as long as I can remember. I've always like the 2 starters and 1 good combo guard backup construct rather than 2 starters and 2 mediocre backups. Also, having a legit starting caliber combo guard as 6th man would make it easier to load manage Beal and Wall, and also opened up more trade possibilities with Wall.

Imagine having Haliburton replace all of the Ish/Neto/Robinson minutes. Meanwhile, the Avdija minutes would have been taken by Bonga and Brown, no huge loss (in the short term) there.

Well, up to now, a person could easily think that "if the 2 players are about equally productive, why would we not take the guy at a position of greater need?" It would make perfect sense. On top of that, if we are thinking we're maybe going to trade Brad, that is another reason to choose a guard (even though, obviously, Haliburton is a 1 not a 2).

But... we can't, or at least we shouldn't, conclude that the 2 players will be "about equally productive" on their careers -- & of course that's the basis of a draft choice. How good is this guy likely to be?

In that respect Deni was -- legitimately -- a significantly higher-rated player than Haliburton. He was expected to go in the top 5, Some people had him as the best player in the entire draft -- which doesn't mean he will be of course. But it signifies all the same.

Deni Avdija is also a year younger than Tyrese Haliburton. That outstanding game he had vs. the Bulls on 1/1... he was still 19 years old!

Now... there's another way to look at it, of course: if the Kings were all in on Haliburton, maybe we could have traded our #9 pick for their #12, #35 & #52. It's a reasonably fair exchange.

Maybe Deni would still have been there @#12... who knows? & given how deep R2 was, we get good players at #35, #37 & #52.

[nate33]

I just looked at Haliburton's overall numbers & compared them to Avdija's. The productivity per 40 minutes of the two players is virtually identical.

It is similar, my original comments were like Nate posted above, about fit with our core moving forward. I really like Brown and Bonga and on draft night, I really wanted Haliburton. I still love the Deni pick and think he will be a great player, but the wizards need to find a young building block piece at guard.

2021 draft night be the place to take care of that though!

Agreed.

For the record, I'm happy with the Avdija pick. He is a good player who may pan out to be a great player. Indeed, I think it's very much possible that he pans out to have a better career than Haliburton. I'm just saying that, at the time of the draft, I would have taken Haliburton. And, so far, nothing about the play of the two players to date has changed my mind. I still like them both. I just like Haliburton a bit more.

[DCZards]

Tyrese Maxey who was in the 21st pick will end up being one of the steals of the last draft.

He’s in a good place with Doc Rivers and Sam Cassell as his coaches...tho I know others here will disagree.

[Ruzious]

Tyrese Maxey who was in the 21st pick will end up being one of the steals of the last draft.

He’s in a good place with Doc Rivers and Sam Cassell as his coaches...tho I know others here will disagree.

He seems like a coach's dream - plays hard with lots of energy and showed no fear of big moments at KY. And a physically strong player for his size.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Wizards really lucking out so far... I think this is the 3rd team that's had to sit players for COVID the day after they played the Wizards.