The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Fight4RGIII]

Hard to believe we would bring in Gay, but not bring in Harden.

That's true. If we didn't move Beal for Harden before we knew what Beal is turning into, there is no way we'd move him now for Gay

[nuposse87]

I don't hate Gay as a player....but his contract is just awful. Unless the offer is built with something around Nene (cause we actually medically fear our investment) it doesn't make any sense on our part. Wall and Beal are untouchable in any potential Rudy Gay trade. Our best hope is that someone out-retards Ernie and outbids him.

[stevemcqueen1]

Hard to believe we would bring in Gay, but not bring in Harden.

Absolutely. Especially if you think money was the main reason we didn't bring in Harden.

My take on Gay is that he's a decent vet starting SF that might still have a little bit of upside left. But his career best PER is 17.8 and his career average is around 16, he's got an awful deal, and he's got a bad injury in his history. He's a pretty good player in a vacuum, but his contract is crippling and makes him pretty undesirable. Less desirable than Okafor IMO.

Trading for him would cap off our ability to improve for years. Make it harder to add another star to truly take us to contention. Make it much harder to rebuild if we have to hit the reset button and dump the Wall era (should a new FO get hired).

It would be a really bad move.

[RonArtest15]

Here's another thing to consider. John Hollinger (when he worked for ESPN) ALWAYS crapped on the Wizards. He knows how poorly run this franchise is. Well, now he's an employee of the Grizzlies and I think he would try his hardest to sell us a lemon. He knows EG is stupid. It's just up to our FO to NOT do anything foolish. FWIW, I am absolutely not in favor of this trade. As it stands, I think we're going to end up with another top-3 pick. I'd much rather get a wing in the 2013 draft than to take a flyer on a horribly overpaid Rudy Gay.

[StillUnknown]

Tonight is the first time I've been genuinely excited to watch the Wizards this season.

[Destino]

Gay is an inefficient huge contract. I'd like to know what Bucher defines as, "Good offer." It better not be something like Beal and an unprotected first. If so, I'm a truly done with this franchise.

Offering Beal at all would be too much.

[StillUnknown]

Wall coming off the bench tonight.

[Samuels]

I was told that the deal offered was Okafor,Webster,Singleton and our 2014 1st top 3 protected. In 2015 it would be unprotected. All second hand info.

[StillUnknown]

I was told that the deal offered was Okafor,Webster,Singleton and our 2014 1st top 3 protected. In 2015 it would be unprotected. All second hand info.

I would rather keep the draft picks to be honest.

[Destino]

I was told that the deal offered was Okafor,Webster,Singleton and our 2014 1st top 3 protected. In 2015 it would be unprotected. All second hand info.

I would rather keep the draft picks to be honest.

It's not perfect but I'd take that deal.

Wall
Beal / Crawford
Gay / Ariza
Booker
Nene / Seraphin

Gay isn't great but closer to a primary scorer than this team has any easy means of getting. His contract is too big but this team has to make a move to win games. They **** the bed with Harden and a deal that good is once in a decade or more so they can't wait for that.

[stevemcqueen1]

Beal is showing out this quarter.

Too many turnovers. This could have been a really big quarter if not for all these bad turnovers.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 07:46 PM ----------

Gay is a less desirable contract than Okafor IMO.

He's a better player, but not by a ton, and Okafor is cheaper, is a big man, and his contract expires next year. Gay makes it difficult and expensive for us to keep our own talent--he's got two years left on his deal after this one: ~18 million next year and ~19 million the year after that. That's a whole year after the crucial summer of 2014 when we need to negotiate with our class of 2010 talent plus

Trading for him would also basically ensure we can make no moves in that great 2014 FA class, including making a big bid for Boogie Cousins.

I think trading for Gay would be horrible personally. I would absolutely rather keep the draft pick than use it on him. If it's top three you can get a better vet than Gay later IMO. Or just spend it on someone like Shabazz, who I think will be a much better player than Gay outright. Or use it on a high upside big man, who would be more valuable outright, nevermind the efficiency of the contract.

I also hate the idea of only top 3 protecting the pick, if that's true. That means the protection would probably be even worse for 2014. You can not have a chance of losing a top 5 minimum 2014 pick, maybe more. It's potentially a landscape altering class like 2003 was.

The only thing that could mitigate the damage from getting Gay would be if you think he's got a good deal of upside left. If you think he can become a consistent 20 PPG SF that rebounds and plays with a PER ~20 or so, then he's almost worth it. But after seven years, I don't see that kind up upside left. He had plenty of opportunities to take over and be the guy in Memphis. I think he is what he is.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 07:56 PM ----------

Second quarter has been about as bad as the first was good.

We're playing like crap. I think part of it is the newness of the lineups we're trying.

Feels like another game where we'll see all 12 or 13 guys get minutes. Back to square one trying to figure out our rotations.

Seraphin needs to get better at passing out of the post. He's hit a wall pretty hard. He will not get better until he starts thinking on his feet better and starts seeing the floor better. If you could take Vesely's ability to see the floor and pass and put it in Seraphin's body, with his strength, athleticism, touch, and coordination... you'd have a pretty decent big man. You'd have another Nene.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 07:57 PM ----------

Nene looks sluggish tonight. Slower to react then usual and he looks pretty immobile. He can't get off the ground.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 08:02 PM ----------

Price having a really nice night. He's a heads up player. Paces the offense well and picks his shots well.

Two And-1s from Martell so far tonight. He's been aggressive. I'm curious why Minny didn't keep him. It's not as if he was expensive. And it's not like they are loaded.

[StillUnknown]

When we're down 10+ points, we usually make a run to make it close.

When we're up 10+ points, we usually get extra sloppy and give it back.

[stevemcqueen1]

My hopes for the rest of the season:

- Wall works himself back into shape, no setbacks with the injury, and shows some new wrinkles in his game.

- Beal maintains this pace and level of aggressiveness for the rest of the season.

- Seraphin finds his stroke and his confidence again. Gets back into the swing of things.

- Nene approaches 70 games played and gets his foot injury dealt with in the offseason.

- Martell gets an extension.

- Ariza gets traded or opts out of his final year.

- Crawford keeps playing pretty well even after all of our injured players get back.

- Price and Temple finish the season well and at least one of them starts to take ownership of the backup PG spot. Ideally both prove worth holding onto.

- Singleton shows some sort of sign of life... his struggles to see the floor are depressing.

- Ves starts to come alive now that Wall is back, shows signs he can at least be a part of the regular rotation.

- Booker comes back, finds a spot in the rotation, rebounds, at least matches his level of play from last year.

- Okafor keeps playing well, we keep him around until the trade deadline next season if we don't get a big man in the draft.

I don't think any of those hopes are too wild. If a lot of them come true, I would be against blowing up this roster in the offseason even though the urge to do so is going to be very strong. I think you need to keep a core of the rotation intact for next season so there can be some chemistry carried over into next year and Wall and Beal can grow around teammates they actually know how to play with for a change.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 08:25 PM ----------

Nasty flush by Webster. He's gotten to the line so well tonight. Third And-1 that I've counted.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 08:30 PM ----------

Okafor and Nene look like they're developing solid chemistry.

---------- Post added January-12th-2013 at 08:33 PM ----------

Our scoring droughts can get really ugly. Can't make free throws to save our lives. This lead will evaporate if we don't pick it up.

[Thinking Skins]

What I love about this game is the 3 point attempts. We're 1/7. Thats a big stretch from attempting 30 something like we were doing earlier in the season.

[stevemcqueen1]

That is a beautiful thing--Wall drive and dish to Beal for the corner 3.

You forget just how much a difference Wall makes offensively when he's on the floor. Suddenly everyone has several feet of open space around them when Wall gives them the ball. He spaces the floor so well and is so good at timing his passes and putting them on the money. And his threat to drive the lane puts the fear in defenses.