The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[pjfootballer]

Funny that the NBA has the lottery to "disuade teams from throwing games," but a team can dump an entire roster (Mia) and sign 3 max deals and a bunch of scrubs.

[Fight4RGIII]

I read Hakeem is working with McGee this summer. I had no idea he was a special education teacher.

[stevemcqueen1]

I differ from you in that I hate the NBA's salary situations. Teams like the Miami Heat offend my sense of competition and any agreement that allows them to exist is a complete failure.

Having said that I don't see why the tax line isn't simply the same as the cap line. Makes nose sense to pronounce something a salary cap but have the penalty exist one star player salary higher.

Miami doesn't bother me. They're likely the only team we'll ever see come together like that again and Miami got the best player in the league ahead of his prime and they're still extremely beatable.

The point in setting the cap lower than the tax line is to force teams to use the exceptions to structure their deals after a certain point they reach with their spending.

Call the luxury tax line the actual cap line if you want, but that 12-14 million dollars in difference is intended so that teams can only spend that money in specific, more fiscally responsible ways.

[nuposse87]

The NBA would be wise to ban S&Ts when the next CBA is up. Or at least alter it in some fashion so superstars can't completely **** things up.

Back to us... Regarding Lee, if we're ready to throw out the full MLE for him, why not go for a guy like Rush? At least he can play some SF as well. Would give wall the option of Beal and Rush at the wing positions.

[stevemcqueen1]

The NBA would be wise to ban S&Ts when the next CBA is up. Or at least alter it in some fashion so superstars can't completely **** things up.

Back to us... Regarding Lee, if we're ready to throw out the full MLE for him, why not go for a guy like Rush? At least he can play some SF as well. Would give wall the option of Beal and Rush at the wing positions.

Is Rush an RFA or a UFA?

Rush is a really good catch and shoot option. It's all he really does but last season he was one of the best in the NBA at it. Basketball-wise, the move makes sense.

Ultimately I probably wouldn't go MLE for him. He's not changing our fortunes significantly IMO and I don't want to get stuck with him for four years.

---------- Post added July-5th-2012 at 05:56 PM ----------

The Clippers are quietly putting together a strong offseason full of clever acquisitions. They'll contend next season.

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

I can't believe the Summer League starts in a week. I can't wait to see Beal. And I wonder who else will be on our Summer League roster. Have they released anything on that? I'm assuming Vesely will be there, but maybe he has home country commitments with the Olympics coming up?

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

I can't believe the Summer League starts in a week. I can't wait to see Beal. And I wonder who else will be on our Summer League roster. Have they released anything on that? I'm assuming Vesely will be there, but maybe he has home country commitments with the Olympics coming up?

Vesley's not participating in the Olympics. He said that his commitment is to the Wizards.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

Big market doesn't mean "where players want to play". It means a large media (TV in particular) market. Miami has not traditionally been a place "players want to play" either. Lebron and Bosh are there because of Riley and Wade not because of the city of Miami.

in NBA terms, it absolutely does.

If the Wizards and Hawks ever got their front offices together, those would become destination cities too. NBA players want to play in a big city and/or if the weather is nice and/or there are a lot beautiful wimmenz. Miami is a destination city (which is probably the term I should have used, in fairness).

Minnesota has the same size market (thanks GACOLB) but like you said isn't considered a prime destination for players. The number of households with TVs isn't what makes a franchise great.

I never said that.

I dont consider the Knicks to be a great franchise, but when they finally got cap room players wanted to play there.

As for your earlier statements surrounding JLin... you really think that story doesn't get covered in Milwaukee? I think an over night sensation that takes his team from out of the playoff hunt and puts them right back into it is a major news story no matter what city he plays for. He averaged 20.9pts and 8.4assists in January Could you kindly point out the last time the NBA has seen a complete after thought of a player popped up and put up those numbers?

well I never said he wouldnt get covered, I said he wouldnt become a huge star. Flip Murray had a similar run in Seattle in 2003 (or 2004, I cant remember, tbf) and it barely got national coverage. When Lin had that run and I had to remind people that Flip Murray blacked out just like that at the start of that season when Ray Allen was injured, people looked at me like I was speaking Spanish, lol. Jeremy Lin would not have been as big of a star were it not for the NYC media. The fact that such an average player is even thought of in that capacity shows the power of that media.

The fact that he was Asian (China is a big media market) made an already incredible situation that much more news worthy. He would have been a news story in any city that had a team battling for a playoff spot.

you have changed my words. I never said Lin would not have been a story, I said he wouldnt be a star player like he is now in Milwaukee.

[nuposse87]

Is Rush an RFA or a UFA?

Rush is a really good catch and shoot option. It's all he really does but last season he was one of the best in the NBA at it. Basketball-wise, the move makes sense.

Ultimately I probably wouldn't go MLE for him. He's not changing our fortunes significantly IMO and I don't want to get stuck with him for four years.

---------- Post added July-5th-2012 at 05:56 PM ----------

The Clippers are quietly putting together a strong offseason full of clever acquisitions. They'll contend next season.

He is a RFA, fortunately GS may be open to a Sign and trade regarding him, that is my hope at least. I think their rebuild will take a little longer than ours...I would do something like...JC+ '13 2nd round pick for him. Having a rookie on a cheaper contract could be a good incentive to them. They have max guys like Lee+Bogut with them and I imagine Curry will comand at least 10 million. Biedrins isn't about to use an ETO on his contract either (unless it is a team option). They also just drafted Barnes, and have Thompson... they are probably willing to part with him.

Now to whether or not he is worth a full MLE:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/.../rushbr01.html

dude is a solid shooter, and has solid size. He isn't much of a defender...but given his offensive abilities...I'd definitely give him a two year deal.

Wall
Beal
Rush
Nene
Seraphin

that is a very offensively competent squad. I don't think we'd lose much defensively either. The guy shot 45% from 3 point land, when there really wasn't anyone to draw attention from opposing defenses...I

[Skin'emAlive]

I read Hakeem is working with McGee this summer. I had no idea he was a special education teacher.

I dunno.. i see a guy who actively tries to get better at his craft.

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

Vesley's not participating in the Olympics. He said that his commitment is to the Wizards.

Very cool. Outside of Wall, Vesely might be my favorite player. I'm definitely a fan and a believer--hence my absolute disgust at clueless, ignorant sports-talk radio hacks for constantly mocking him. He just seems like a good kid who's living a dream. And he's gonna do everything he can to fulfill that dream.

[stevemcqueen1]

He is a RFA, fortunately GS may be open to a Sign and trade regarding him, that is my hope at least. I think their rebuild will take a little longer than ours...I would do something like...JC+ '13 2nd round pick for him. Having a rookie on a cheaper contract could be a good incentive to them. They have max guys like Lee+Bogut with them and I imagine Curry will comand at least 10 million. Biedrins isn't about to use an ETO on his contract either (unless it is a team option). They also just drafted Barnes, and have Thompson... they are probably willing to part with him.

Now to whether or not he is worth a full MLE:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/.../rushbr01.html

dude is a solid shooter, and has solid size. He isn't much of a defender...but given his offensive abilities...I'd definitely give him a two year deal.

Wall
Beal
Rush
Nene
Seraphin

that is a very offensively competent squad. I don't think we'd lose much defensively either. The guy shot 45% from 3 point land, when there really wasn't anyone to draw attention from opposing defenses...I

I think they'd be willing to part with him too. They have surplus shooters. They probably need more in the way of defenders and facilitators.

I like Rush's pure catch and shoot ability. He was one of the best catch and shooters in the league last season. Check this out: http://www.basketball-reference.com/...rder_by=fg_pct

He was 10th in the NBA in jump shot % among players who took at least 75 jumpers. He made 100 threes. But a high percentage of his makes were assisted buckets (.837). He's a pure catch and shooter. He'd be perfect for our offense.

I have no doubt he's worth the money he'd command with the MLE. ~5 million per year is a bargain for a shooter like that. Those guys have typically commanded about ~7 million per year (think J.J. Reddick).

It's the length that bothers me more. I don't know about making a four year commitment when we've got so much looming on our horizon in two years. We need to be very careful in taking on any deals longer than 2 years. 2014 is going to be a momentous summer for us.

---------- Post added July-5th-2012 at 09:15 PM ----------

Very cool. Outside of Wall, Vesely might be my favorite player. I'm definitely a fan and a believer--hence my absolute disgust at clueless, ignorant sports-talk radio hacks for constantly mocking him. He just seems like a good kid who's living a dream. And he's gonna do everything he can to fulfill that dream.

I'm a fan of his too. Vesely gets a lot of crap even though he actually looked good as a rookie. I don't get it at all.

I think Vesely is going to be a terrific player. He's our man for guarding stretch 4s. The value of those types of players is completely ignored despite the fact those are some of the most valuable defenders in the game.

I think people will open up their eyes to him this year in a similar way to Seraphin breaking out this past season.

[StillUnknown]

Reading around that Jeff Green might be getting 4yrs & 40mil?!?!?!

I do not understand the fascination with that guy.

Owners will never learn.

[Fight4RGIII]

Everyone is pretty much overpaying for everyone. At least most of the guys we would have targeted are getting overpaid. We got better as a team and didn't take on long term cap hits but 2 years of not much cap space really freaked some Wizards fans the F out! In 2 years, we'll be able to make a significant splash in the FA market or extend our guys if they work out and turn into gems. Plus, we'll have a better idea of what we actually need to push us into contention and we'll be much closer to contention than we are now. Could you imagine if we over paid for someone this year and it didn't work out? We'd be stuck in cap hell for a while.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Reading around that Jeff Green might be getting 4yrs & 40mil?!?!?!

I do not understand the fascination with that guy.

It's called "versatility".

Personally, I think thats about right for Jeff in today's NBA.