The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

How is it tanking when you're going to have a potential starting lineup (Wall, Beal, Ariza, Nene, Okafor) that's 100000x better than what we've had since the big 3 were in their primes?

At this point, people are just conditioned to hate on anything Ernie does. Like I said, I'm not even arguing this ****. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm not going to sit here and debate with people that won't budge from their opinions one centimeter.

[No Excuses]

How is it tanking when you're going to have a potential starting lineup (Wall, Beal, Ariza, Nene, Okafor) that's 100000x better than what we've had since the big 3 were in their primes?

I don't think its tanking, as much as it is resigning yourself to mediocrity. Tying up cap space in a load of crap isn't ideal.

Emeka Okafor stopped being a useful player two seasons ago. Trevor Ariza has never been good besides one post season which netted him a contract he wasn't worthy of. He's been an enormous bust ever since.

Trevor Ariza shouldn't be starting for even an 8th seeded team. And Okafor is not useful to this team at the cap space he will use up.

[Fight4RGIII]

The one problem I have with the trade, if Beal is the obvious choice, why not wait until draft night? There is still an outside chance Beal goes to the Bobcats. I guess it really does mean we are happy with Beal/MKG. Hopefully, Beal is there at 2.

The solid core we would have with the new veterans could get us to an 8th or 7th seed, anything higher would be dependent upon the progress of our young guys.

[Destino]

How is it tanking when you're going to have a potential starting lineup (Wall, Beal, Ariza, Nene, Okafor) that's 100000x better than what we've had since the big 3 were in their primes?

Because Ariza and Okafor don't make this team better and taking it further, they stop this team from getting better. This deal is really easy to analyze:

New Orleans wanted to dump two salaries. This means that a team willing to take them is in position to ask for something of value in exchange for doing so or giving them something they need to be rid of. An expiring deal in the NBA is valuable because it's how teams trade cap space. We gave them something of value + a 2nd round pick (relatively worthless) in exchange for something they desperately wanted to be rid of. This is like offering more than the asking price at a car dealership. Ernie is a clown and this doesn't make the team better.

[No Excuses]

this doesn't make the team better.

People will not understand this. There seems to be a romanticized version of Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor. One was never a consistently good player, the other is old, injury riddled and declining.

[RonArtest15]

I don't think its tanking, as much as it is resigning yourself to mediocrity. Tying up cap space in a load of crap isn't ideal.

Emeka Okafor stopped being a useful player two seasons ago. Trevor Ariza has never been good besides one post season which netted him a contract he wasn't worthy of. He's been an enormous bust ever since.

We keep talking about cap space...first thing about having it is being enticing enough for a high-caliber player to sign. Who exactly was going to come here? On top of it all, both of these contracts are off the books in 2 seasons.

Like I said, I'm not in love w. the trade but I'm not going to sit here and say that things are status quo. We'll have a DRASTICALLY better team to start the year in 2012-13, and let's see what can happen. Didn't we all want this team to be better? Well, now we have a better team and we're still complaining?

Got a feeling many people wouldn't be happy unless EG pulled a rabbit outta his hat and laded KD via a trade. LOL

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

So reminds me of the Nene trade. Same response.

[StillUnknown]

I hope this deal doesn't eat into Seraphin's minutes, I would rather see him in the starting lineup than Okafor.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Got a feeling many people wouldn't be happy unless EG pulled a rabbit outta his hat and laded KD via a trade. LOL

Starting to remind me of the Dan Snyder haters.

[DallasBlowsBig]

Listen, why is this a bad trade?

We traded a dead, useless Gilbert Arenas to acquire Rashard Lewis. Trash was traded for more Trash. So Lewis was just trash sitting on the roster.

Now we get a serviceable big man who can maybe contribute off the bench and compete with Seraphin for minutes. These young guys should not be handed anything to them as they were last season. They should earn their spots. Let Kevin Seraphin beat Okafor out for the starting job, and then we have a good bench player in Emeka.

Both players only have two years on the contracts, so we are not tied up long term, we can make a big play in FA in two years.

People complain about everything on here, typically Washingtonian fans who think they know more than they do. I don't think we got worse than better.

[NO iD=A-Ok]

The one problem I have with the trade, if Beal is the obvious choice, why not wait until draft night? There is still an outside chance Beal goes to the Bobcats. I guess it really does mean we are happy with Beal/MKG. Hopefully, Beal is there at 2.

The solid core we would have with the new veterans could get us to an 8th or 7th seed, anything higher would be dependent upon the progress of our young guys.

I remember reading that the Wizards were a team that thought Harri Barnes could play the 2...maybe he's the choice if Beal is off the board.

Not a big fan of Barnes at the 2...

[DallasBlowsBig]

I hope this deal doesn't eat into Seraphin's minutes, I would rather see him in the starting lineup than Okafor.

Well lets consider a genius option: Let Kevin earn his minutes!! If he is that good, which I think he can be, let him earn it and beat out Okafor. Or we can go by last year's rules and just hand out jobs on a silver platter with no competition. Poor Kevin Seraphin, little baby might actually have to earn his job now. Poor thing.

And consider this, IF Seraphin can't beat out Okafor for a starting job and minutes, he probably ain't got a great future in the NBA anyways!!

[No Excuses]

We keep talking about cap space...first thing about having it is being enticing enough for a high-caliber player to sign. Who exactly was going to come here? On top of it all, both of these contracts are off the books in 2 seasons.

Like I said, I'm not in love w. the trade but I'm not going to sit here and say that things are status quo. We'll have a DRASTICALLY better team to start the year in 2012-13,

This is the part I don't get it. They will not be drastically better because Trevor Ariza kind of stinks and Okafor's production has been going down for quite some time now. There is a LOT that can be done by a competent GM with 21 million in cap space than a guy who sucks and a guy who is worth maybe 1/3rd of his current contract.

Not directed at you, but Okafor will be making 14 million for the next two seasons. That's a declining in skill big man who will eat up that much space. I remember when people were slamming the idea of Javale making that much money. How about a guy who is way past his prime?

[Destino]

So reminds me of the Nene trade. Same response.

Main difference being that Nene was accepted as being a good player. Okafor and Ariza achieved "dump salary" on the worst team in the NBA.

---------- Post added June-20th-2012 at 03:23 PM ----------

Listen, why is this a bad trade?

We traded a dead, useless Gilbert Arenas to acquire Rashard Lewis. Trash was traded for more Trash. So Lewis was just trash sitting on the roster.

Now we get a serviceable big man who can maybe contribute off the bench and compete with Seraphin for minutes. These young guys should not be handed anything to them as they were last season. They should earn their spots. Let Kevin Seraphin beat Okafor out for the starting job, and then we have a good bench player in Emeka.

Both players only have two years on the contracts, so we are not tied up long term, we can make a big play in FA in two years.

People complain about everything on here, typically Washingtonian fans who think they know more than they do. I don't think we got worse than better.

That makes sense if you think that expiring deals in the NBA aren't valuable assets. Such thinking is very obviously wrong.

[lovetoaster]

Seconded. I don't what to think. Okafor and Ariza should be better than what Lewis and a 2nd round pick would give us next year, but I just don't know.

That's my issue though. This trade does make us better next year, but hurts us long term. This is a trade that a team makes that is looking to fortify a playoff roster, maybe to go from a six seed to a three seed. This trade might help us contend for the 8 seed next year, but there is very little room for improvement in year two and three. We are not in a position to only look at next year, we need to improve the team with moves that benefit us looking beyond one season and this does not do it, IMO.