The Official Washington Wizards Thread

Wall had some great and some horrible plays in that 4th. I'm glad he hit that big shot, like steve said I prefer him taking that confidently. 6 turnovers sours an otherwise nice night for him. He's had way too many turnovers since his minutes went up.

Beal played aggressively today and you have to love that. When his handles improve this kid is going really good.

I loved Okafor's game. That guy has turned into a absolute warrior.

Webster continues to earn a pay raise. I hope we find a way to keep him and don't lose him because of Ariza's contract.

So OKC decided to show up our 95 points in 3 quarters. They went out and scored 100. Westbrook is having an incredible night. I stand by it, he's better than Kyrie.

---------- Post added February-22nd-2013 at 10:11 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Destino

Wall had some great and some horrible plays in that 4th. I'm glad he hit that big shot, like steve said I prefer him taking that confidently. 6 turnovers sours an otherwise nice night for him. He's had way too many turnovers since his minutes went up.

Beal played aggressively today and you have to love that. When his handles improve this kid is going really good.

I loved Okafor's game. That guy has turned into a absolute warrior.

Webster continues to earn a pay raise. I hope we find a way to keep him and don't lose him because of Ariza's contract.

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I agree about Wall's turnovers. What's frustrating is he's leaving his feet with no plan. He gambles too much and a lot of the time it's him just throwing the ball away because he thought his teammate knew what he wanted them to do and they don't.

It goes back to what Martell said earlier in the year that Wall is a PG who tries to lead you into what he wants with body language and subtle cues and then the other type is like Rubio where he watches you and reacts to what you do then gets you the ball. I'm not saying one way is better than the other, but to me that means you have to put smarter players around Wall and build a lot of familiarity and continuity in the lineups so they can tell what he wants to do.

Yeah Beal was very physical, had 12 boards and stuffed every stat category. Great night for him all around but that fall was scary. I like that he gets up and blocks shots and goes hard to the basket but it scares me too. His hero growing up was Iverson and it shows. Can't play scared though, and that reckless abandon and toughness were things that made AI so remarkable.

And I'm with you, Okafor was outstanding. He is a tremendous rebounder, can do a little ISO back to basket scoring, can knock down short and mid range jumpers, runs the floor well, plays defense. Really everything you could want out of a center. He's a cerebral guy and a glue man. He and Webster and Beal are so smart. Tonight it really struck me how much better he is than Javale was. I hope he carries this season's momentum into next season. I think we are pretty much going to have to trade him at the deadline or let him expire to use the savings. You're dead on, we are going to have to plan for a good replacement or we will see a big drop in the level of our play. Nene can slide into the middle to play the 5, but then you've got just as big a hole to fill at the 4.

I think we've really got to get lucky and hope that Zeller or Noel is there for us in the draft. And then I think you need to go out and get a half decent vet true big man on a short term deal. Failing that, maybe you take a run at someone like Nikola Pekovic? Marcin Gortat? They aren't world beaters but they are good players and tough guys like Okafor.

Though I doubt we'll have the money for Pekovic this offseason. He's played himself into a pretty good deal.

Re: Martel, I hope we can bring him back. I'd prefer him over Ariza too, but best case scenario would be to keep them both for another year. I like Ariza in this sixth man role he seems to have embraced.

Vesely would be a nice fit for Golden State. Bet they could get him from us for a song too.

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Originally Posted by stevemcqueen1

Vesely would be a nice fit for Golden State. Bet they could get him from us for a song too.

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Two things about that.
1- I'd like those tshirt unis better if they didn't burn my eyes.
2 - they can have Jan and Nene for David Lee.

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Originally Posted by Destino

Two things about that.
1- I'd like those tshirt unis better if they did burn my eyes.
2 - they can have Jan and Nene for David Lee.

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Hmm, that's actually a brilliant trade idea. At least on the surface. Just from the perspective of what each team gets in players, it benefits both:

GS gets a Nene and all that he brings, which is probably more than Lee does TBH. Better defender, bigger, versatile and highly efficient offensive game, ability to pass out of post and hit shooters and cutters for easy buckets. Then they get Ves to groom, they don't have a lot of highly drafted young projects to work on, Thompson and Barnes are already starting. Ves as a lengthy defender, rebounder, facilitator from the top of the key at the 4 spot makes sense for them. Bogut/Nene is a nasty defensive tandem and they've got great size, GS would actually be able to play some defense and Ves gives them the kind of long term athletic defender with size they really don't have. Nene is a bit cheaper over the long term than Lee is too.

DC loses some size because Lee is not a good option at the 5 at all. They lose some defense because Lee is a somewhat poor defender. We also take on a bit more salary and Lee's contract is the same length as Nene's. But Lee is a year younger. And we get back a hustle guy and a true PF who is a bigger volume scorer than Nene at around the same efficiency rate and a more productive rebounder.

The salaries wouldn't have worked this year for that deal, but they probably work for next year when we'd be making the trade since Lee is scheduled for a 1.134 million dollar raise and Vesely is scheduled for about a 300K dollar raise and the difference in money that needed to be made up this year was about 600K.

A couple things to note, the Warriors are over the luxury tax this season and are scheduled to be over it next season and Vesely puts them just a little bit further over it. They are going to want to get under it, but their problem is they've got FOUR players with big player options, two of which are really bad for GS: Richard Jefferson has a whopping 11 million dollar option and Andris Biedrins has a 9 million dollar option. :puke:

I think everyone knows there is no way in hell Biedrins and Jefferson decline those options. No way in hell either could command anything even remotely close to that in a new contract.

The other two options are good ones for the team: Brandon Rush for 4 million and Carl Landry for 4 million. I'd imagine they hope both players pick them up.

So they don't have a ton of control in their financial future and would probably hesitate to make any deal that increases their tax hit. I'm thinking we would have to take back one of those turd contracts to make it work, which means we would probably have to put Ariza in the trade:

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine/?tradeId=b4kvu3o

That deal is on this year's salaries, which are meaningfully different than next year's. Lee is scheduled for a 1.1 million dollar raise and Jefferson has a 900K raise coming where Nene has no raise scheduled, Ves is only for 300k, and Ariza is scheduled for a 470K raise.

So GS would actually be cutting about 1.22 million in salary while gaining an extra contract, which might be enough to put them under the luxury tax by itself. They'd be replacing Jefferson with a guy who can actually play, getting bigger, and getting a young prospect with upside. Their team defense would massively improve and they'd actually have a chance to thrive in a slowed down half court style game in the postseason. The deal makes a lot of sense for GS, though something tells me they'd be stubbornly unwilling to part with Lee.

But it starts making less sense for us when you talk about losing Nene and Ariza and Ves plus take on an awful contract just to get back David Lee. We lose two of our top six players, potentially our starting SF if Martell doesn't stay.

Plus our team defense would take a huge hit from losing Nene and Ariza. Jefferson is a pretty poor stopgap at SF at this point in his career. You know he'd just pull a Rashard and fake an injury and collect a paycheck all year.

I think you have to get a draft pick back from GS or some sort of extra incentive.

Okafor's expiring deal also makes this tough to swallow because that means we'll be left without a 5.

I think the deal would be easier to make on our part if we get Noel in the draft.

Noel would be pretty ideal to pair with Lee to cover up some of his defensive problems. Lee could also be good to pair with Zeller because he rebounds so well, which is a bit of a weakness for Zeller. But that FC might be terrible on defense. Hmm. I don't know that this deal would make sense for us unless we got Noel in the draft.

I'll add that Bogut is always injured so Nene also provides them with a 5 option, even though he's better at the 4. Make it happen gator... you know the Wizards front office people, Steve and I authorize you to make the call.

Time for coffee.

Georgetown (Otto Porter) vs Syracuse is on CBS.

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Originally Posted by BRAVEONAWARPATH

Georgetown (Otto Porter) vs Syracuse is on CBS.

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He's having a great first half.

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Originally Posted by MonkFan8

He's having a great first half.

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Yep. He's just a stud.

I know i'm a G-TOWN homer but I love Otto Porter he will be such a complete glue type player alot like Loul Deng. He won't be a megastar but is gonna be a hellva team player and a great fit for the Wizards but i'm not sold he leaves early though.

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Originally Posted by Samuels

I know i'm a G-TOWN homer but I love Otto Porter he will be such a complete glue type player alot like Loul Deng. He won't be a megastar but is gonna be a hellva team player and a great fit for the Wizards but i'm not sold he leaves early.

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After a game like today, he is likely to leave. If he beasts out during the tournaments, he's really leaving.

He willed the Hoyas to victory today.

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Originally Posted by MLSKINS

After a game like today, he is likely to leave. If he beasts out during the tournaments, he's really leaving.

He willed the Hoyas to victory today.

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He's soooooo gone. And JT3 knows it too. His incoming recruits consists of SFs.

Did Otto Porter dunk the ball at any point during today's game? I've still not seen him dunk a basketball and I find that odd for a guy his size and length.

Rockets seem hell-bent on nailing threes tonight. Need to tighten up around the arc because I don't like our chances in a shootout.

Also Okafor's touch seems off right now, that certainly hurts us.

we are gonna win this game with defense.