Drew Gooden Appreciation Thread

[benb331]

So I google-foo'd a Drew Gooden Appreciate Thread from site:realgm.com and almost replied to it, since one existed. But then I realized it was a Bucks' forum post from 2012, and the first reply was a curt "Good lord" from their mod!

From the time we signed him up until today, he's been a bit of an unsung hero. Developing that stretch-4 game was critical not only for his own viability as an NBA player but also for the Wizards' recent success. We've all been clamoring for spreading the court and giving our young guards room to operate. Drew Gooden has provided that opportunity. At times, his defense was questioned, but during the TOR series, he consistently applied pressure and slapped the ball away on several key blocks. With his outside touch and dogged offensive rebounding, the guy has been a net positive from day one. I appreciate what Drew Gooden has done, and it's about time we started a thread for the man.

I'm always feeding NBA trivia to my newly minted NBA fan wife, e.g. "We used to have a player - I'm not ****'in you - called God Shammgod." My trivia tonight was, "You thought Martell Webster's early season hair style was atrocious? Check out the Drew Gooden Patch!"

[montestewart]

Don't forget this:



Give Gooden credit for becoming a stretch 4. He didn't have a history of consistency from the three point line, didn't take the shot too much, and he was essentially unemployed before the Wizards acquired him. With the shot added to his rebounding, he's likely extended his career a few years, especially with the showcase he's now getting in the playoffs.

If Humphries and/or Nene (both of whom can hit long twos) can find a reasonably consistent three-point shot, they can do likewise.

[J-Ves]

Don't forget this:
If Humphries and/or Nene (both of whom can hit long twos) can find a reasonably consistent three-point shot, they can do likewise.

I could see KS adding a 3pt shot as well. He will need to add something to his game to crack a rotation next year and beyond, and 3pt shooting seems like an easy thing to add for a guy who is money from long 2. He shot 46% on shots between 16 feet and inside the 3pt line this season.

[dckingsfan]

Nene and Seraphin doubtful - Humphries if he works on it, probable.
IMO

[nate33]

I used to hate Drew Gooden when he played on other teams. He just seemed like an empty-stat, selfish player. Now I really like the guy. Maybe I'm just a homer, but I really think that his game has matured. His decision to become a stretch four was really smart and I'm sure it required a lot of work. It'll really prolong his career. But what I like is that, unlike a lot of bigs who fall in love with the jumper, Gooden will still be physical on the boards and take charges. He hasn't become soft.

I selfishly hope that nobody else decides to sign him to a big contract. It would be such a steal to keep him on our roster at a vet-minimum price.

[jmrosenth]

I want a full statistical nerd breakdown of how improbable Gooden's stretch-4/three-point shooting emergence is? He had 81 regular season 3's in his CAREER, spanning 760 games. over 20% of them came this year, at the age of 33, and he hit 7 in the first round. And he was out of the league last season playing pickup ball against my fellow MoTs at the local JCC.

[Higga]

How the hell has he become such a good 3 point shooter? He's like damn near automatic from 3. I could see some team overpaying big time for him in hopes he'll keep it up but it just seems like fool's gold and the magic will wear out soon.

[gambitx777]

I mean he said I still want to play, he looked at the game and how it was going, and he said I need to become a shooter. He worked hard and it payed off for him. I would maybe keep him around but only for the playoff's ! At this point he probably won't be a regular season, every day contributor. We should definitely look for a younger stretch 4! But keep Gooden around. I am happy to say I was wrong about him! I wanted to cut him, Good for Gooden!

It's easy to say that someone might over pay to get him, but at the same time, he might just want to stay in DC. DC believed in him, gave him a chance and even when younger better options were out there, we kept him on the team, we stayed loyal to him. He might think of DC as home, he could stay regardless.

[hands11]

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1335638#start_here

He has had several small threads for him and he gets mentioned a lot ( at least by a small group of us ) but I don't think we have done an appreciation thread.

Gooden should have been playing S4 all year. Him and the Gortat issue are tied at the hips. Gooden was the story behind the story in why the Wizards played so well against TOR. It wasn't just PP at the S4. It was Gooden getting minutes there as well.

What they chose to do instead during the season was try to develop Kevin S more. Which I can understand them wanting to do. But before the season started, I was projecting for them to actually try Gooden as a starter with Gortat where they had Nene backing up at PF and C. That's what I though would have been a better way to do it.

Gooden and Gortat should have been utilized more together all year.

Will he stay ? That's not clear to me at all. I expected him to return this year. But next year. We might have a TA situation on our hands.

Since I just did another write up that included him in here, not going to retype it it.

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1279690&start=520

I'm going to just enjoy these playoffs for now but this off season, they are going to have to address this Gortat, Nene, Gooden, Hump, KLife and Blair thing. Right now it working because Hump and KLife are riding the bench and all the minutes are going to Gortat, Nene, Gooden and PP in the front court.

Hump needs to spend the offseason adding a 3. That would allow Gooden and Hump to play most the S4 minutes during the year with Nene backing up PF and Center. Then we can do this PP at S4 again next plays for his last year.

[hands11]

I want a full statistical nerd breakdown of how improbable Gooden's stretch-4/three-point shooting emergence is? He had 81 regular season 3's in his CAREER, spanning 760 games. over 20% of them came this year, at the age of 33, and he hit 7 in the first round. And he was out of the league last season playing pickup ball against my fellow MoTs at the local JCC.

He had never hit a 3 ball in the playoff before this year. He was 0-12 over 54 playoff games.

Another reason you can't use backward looking stats to project the future. He clearly added a 3 ball while he was out waiting to return to the league and we saw that almost right away when we added him.

He is a S4/S5. Something we really needed this year.

[hands11]

I mean he said I still want to play, he looked at the game and how it was going, and he said I need to become a shooter. He worked hard and it payed off for him. I would maybe keep him around but only for the playoff's ! At this point he probably won't be a regular season, every day contributor. We should definitely look for a younger stretch 4! But keep Gooden around. I am happy to say I was wrong about him! I wanted to cut him, Good for Gooden!

It's easy to say that someone might over pay to get him, but at the same time, he might just want to stay in DC. DC believed in him, gave him a chance and even when younger better options were out there, we kept him on the team, we stayed loyal to him. He might think of DC as home, he could stay regardless.

We got to sign him again this year because it didn't matter where he signed, he was still making $6,680,000 from MIL. Its a BRK Dray deal in reverse.

Since we gave him a chance and he liked the team, he stay. Next year when every dollar counts, he is going to weight all options. Money will play a big role in his decision.

[basketballbeans]

Don't forget this:



Give Gooden credit for becoming a stretch 4. He didn't have a history of consistency from the three point line, didn't take the shot too much, and he was essentially unemployed before the Wizards acquired him. With the shot added to his rebounding, he's likely extended his career a few years, especially with the showcase he's now getting in the playoffs.

If Humphries and/or Nene (both of whom can hit long twos) can find a reasonably consistent three-point shot, they can do likewise.

Awesome beard.. real talk to.


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[dobrojim]

I used to hate Drew Gooden when he played on other teams. He just seemed like an empty-stat, selfish player. Now I really like the guy. Maybe I'm just a homer, but I really think that his game has matured. His decision to become a stretch four was really smart and I'm sure it required a lot of work. It'll really prolong his career. But what I like is that, unlike a lot of bigs who fall in love with the jumper, Gooden will still be physical on the boards and take charges. He hasn't become soft.

I selfishly hope that nobody else decides to sign him to a big contract. It would be such a steal to keep him on our roster at a vet-minimum price.

+1

I was a little surprised to read in the piece this morning in the Post on Drew that he was originally
drafted as a 3. Say what? Maybe I should take that with a grain of salt.

It would be nice to keep him another year. Since he's still getting paid via being amnestied, does
that mean no one will offer him anything between the vet min and his MIL money? I was actually
a little surprised to read MIL is 'only' paying him something not much more than MLE money. I would
have thought he was getting at least $10M simply because he's a big that can board.

[Kanyewest]

I used to hate Drew Gooden when he played on other teams. He just seemed like an empty-stat, selfish player. Now I really like the guy. Maybe I'm just a homer, but I really think that his game has matured. His decision to become a stretch four was really smart and I'm sure it required a lot of work. It'll really prolong his career. But what I like is that, unlike a lot of bigs who fall in love with the jumper, Gooden will still be physical on the boards and take charges. He hasn't become soft.

I selfishly hope that nobody else decides to sign him to a big contract. It would be such a steal to keep him on our roster at a vet-minimum price.

+1

I was a little surprised to read in the piece this morning in the Post on Drew that he was originally
drafted as a 3. Say what? Maybe I should take that with a grain of salt.

It would be nice to keep him another year. Since he's still getting paid via being amnestied, does
that mean no one will offer him anything between the vet min and his MIL money? I was actually
a little surprised to read MIL is 'only' paying him something not much more than MLE money. I would
have thought he was getting at least $10M simply because he's a big that can board.

Yup, that was the good old Jared Jeffries draft where we were one pick away from getting Caron Butler and two from Amare.

Considering when Gooden got his contract, the time period when the Cavs dumped him to get Antawn Jamison, that contract signing made no sense. The Bucks also signed John Salmons to a big deal that they also immediately regretted. I believe the running joke was that the contract was so bad, that people were scoffing that they wanted to see him play out the contract. He did manage to get two triple doubles with the Bucks though- go figure.

[nate33]

We got to sign him again this year because it didn't matter where he signed, he was still making $6,680,000 from MIL. Its a BRK Dray deal in reverse.

Since we gave him a chance and he liked the team, he stay. Next year when every dollar counts, he is going to weight all options. Money will play a big role in his decision.

I forgot about the Milwaukee money. I didn't realize he was still getting it this year. I thought we signed him for the vet minimum mostly because everybody else believed his late-season run in 2013/14 was a fluke.

You are right that he will probably get some decent offers this offseason, certainly bigger than the vet minimum. I could see somebody offering 2-years $6M or something like that. The Wizards would probably be willing to pay him 3 or 4 million if it's a one-year deal, but they won't look to sign him for a 2-year deal or longer with KD2DC looming. There's a good chance Gooden moves on this offseason.

Humphries better start working on the corner 3.

[tontoz]

I haven't checked his stats but it seems like Gooden was always a competent midrange shooter. he just moved further out. It isn't like he had a bad jumper.

Even Trevor Booker shot 34.5% from 3 this season.

I just want to see Humphries start taking them. Seraphin is gone and I don't forsee Nene taking them very often.

[DCZards]

Humphries better start working on the corner 3.

I'm not all that confident that Hump can morph into a 3 pt shooter the way that Gooden has. But if Hump is going to start knocking down 3s they are likely to come from the top of three pt line, where most of Gooden's 3pters come from, rather than the corner. At this point, Hump is a much better midrange shooter from around the foul line than he is from the wing or the corner.

[nate33]

Humphries better start working on the corner 3.

I'm not all that confident that Hump can morph into a 3 pt shooter the way that Gooden has. But if Hump is going to start knocking down 3s they are likely to come from the top of three pt line, where most of Gooden's 3pters come from, rather than the corner. At this point, Hump is a much better midrange shooter from around the foul line than he is from the wing or the corner.

For the past 2 years, Humphries has been a very high percentage midrange shooter all they way out to 21 feet. I don't see why it would be so difficult to increase his range by 1 foot so that he can hit the 22-foot corner 3. Wittman can easily modify the offense so that Humphries camps out in the corner, leaving Porter or Beal to hit the 23'-9" shot from the wing or top of the key.

[tontoz]

On the season Humpries shot 44.3% from 18+ feet. He took 106 attempts from that range. It is pretty easy to visualize him becoming a competent 3 point shooter.

[Ruzious]

I used to hate Drew Gooden when he played on other teams. He just seemed like an empty-stat, selfish player. Now I really like the guy. Maybe I'm just a homer, but I really think that his game has matured. His decision to become a stretch four was really smart and I'm sure it required a lot of work. It'll really prolong his career. But what I like is that, unlike a lot of bigs who fall in love with the jumper, Gooden will still be physical on the boards and take charges. He hasn't become soft.

I selfishly hope that nobody else decides to sign him to a big contract. It would be such a steal to keep him on our roster at a vet-minimum price.

+1

I was a little surprised to read in the piece this morning in the Post on Drew that he was originally
drafted as a 3. Say what? Maybe I should take that with a grain of salt.

It would be nice to keep him another year. Since he's still getting paid via being amnestied, does
that mean no one will offer him anything between the vet min and his MIL money? I was actually
a little surprised to read MIL is 'only' paying him something not much more than MLE money. I would
have thought he was getting at least $10M simply because he's a big that can board.

I remember Maryland's NCAA Championship year playing that Kansas team in the tournament - with Gooden, Collison, and Hinrich, and fwiw I don't believe the claim that Gooden was going to be a 3. He and Collison were thumpers and big-time rebounders at Kansas. Rebounding was the NBA calling card for both of them. Btw, it's gotta be very unusual to have 3 college teammates as old as those 3 still playing in the NBA.