payitforward wrote:As to being "disagreeable," doc -- what I am is frustrated. I'm a Wizards fan, & I'm tired of the decades & decades of overall dismal performance, broken occasionally by an unexpected surge all the way up to meh.
We just traded away a Round 1 pick. When's the last time that turned out to be a good idea? There must be a case or two out there.... But, I'd a whole lot rather have one of Isaiah Jackson, Usman Garuba, Bones Hyland, Quentin Grimes or Jaden Springer than I would Holiday plus Isaiah Todd.
Now... had we done something sensible with that #31 pick, something we could easily have done as we both know, & so wound up with, say, Miles McBride & Neemias Queta, that would be different.
When was the last time that trading a 1st round pick was a good idea? One could argue: last year when we swapped Wall +1 for Westbrook.
So basically the quibble is only if the upside of Isaiah Todd proves better than the production of McBride and Queta. Because regarding the rest:
We traded away a late first round pick to provide leverage and flexibility for the Dinwiddie sign and trade. I would trade away a #22 pick for the 1st pick in the 2nd round to get Holiday, Dinwiddie, Kuzma, KCP, Harrell and a better chance at Beal, basically.
Though yeah I have mixed feelings about re-signing Beal at the price he will command. Still, if Westbrook didn't want to be here, what better deal could we pull? If the mandate from Ted is keep Beal in the fold, what better winner could we assemble that will time to peak along with his career years.
I am with you on the 'meh' but the team currently assembled at least has a CHANCE to improve. We have depth in decent players. We have young players with upside, some entering their likely prime or what is commonly a young player's breakout years; we have tradeable contracts, a few developing assets; yes we lost a 1st round pick in the Westbrook trade, and traded back in this years draft, but we mostly shuffled a few 2nd round picks, and KCP, Harrell, even Kuzma are players who will give production equivalent to a late first. We even get a TPE from the Hutchison trade. Tommy has worked magic in the past with nothing in his pocket but TPE's and good will.
Personally, while I don't think this team as it is right now has championship potential, I am still astounded by the cojones and savvy Tommy has shown in making bold moves to improve the roster. A total tear-down. Yeah maybe his draft scouting acumen is still in doubt. We are waiting on Rui, Deni, Todd to show us. But everything else he has done outside of the draft is fairly radical, creative, smart. So I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on, for instance, Aaron Holiday. Even if he was just a placeholder to give us some negotiating power in the Dinwiddie swap.
We will see, but I am excited to watch this team. I can see line-ups and chemistry that could work. Health allowing. Wes seems an ideal coach to tinker with the possibilities. We might mess around and win a bunch of games. And if it doesn't quite work there are still opportunities to get better. For better or for worse, this is finally entirely Tommy's team. He is a gunslinger when it comes to trade moves, and the players he picked up look like a full belt of bullets to me.