The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Fight4RGIII]

Well, Beal chipped his two front teeth in practice today. Now at least he'll start looking more like James Harden. The transformation is in progress...

[stevemcqueen1]

By the way, Stevemcqueen is completely off the deep end with his views on Harden. Harden is already one of the 15 best players in the league. Maybe one of the ten. He can play either guard position. He can score 40 against pretty much anyone. He plays hard on D. And he seems to be a really good teammate.

Of course, until about four months ago, Steve was still trying to sell us all on Vesely who could still magically grow into a good player while Harden is apparently stuck as who he is forever.

I think it's entirely possible that Houston will be the second best team in the West within the next three years, depending on how the young players develop and whether they can bring in one more star. I see no reason why a team with Harden as their best player can't make the Finals. There is not a player in Houston's core older than 26 and they've had a relatively chaotic season. (Massive trade before the season, Lin's injury, Kevin McHale's daughter's death, the Royce White saga). Give that team a year to grow together and they could be a terrifying playoff matchup in 2014. Frankly, they are the kind of team that can give San Antonio trouble in Round One this year.

Harden is good, has gotten better steadily this season, but he's not one of the ten best players in the league. I'd say top 15 is reasonable though. LeBron, CP3, Durant, Melo, Kobe, Rose, Dwight, Wade, Rondo, Parker, Duncan, Westbrook, all better, all have proven you can build a contender around them. Harden is in that class with Love, Aldridge, and Griffin of guys who are really really good at a couple of things but haven't really proven you can build a winner around them.

Harden is a top 5 fantasy player this year. He's a top ten offensive player easily. But he's not a good defender and Houston's whole team is lousy on defense. They're a collection of 3 jump shooters that plays like a college team. And Asik isn't anything special, mid level guys like Nikola Pekovic and Marcin Gortat are way better than him. TRob has been pretty bad this season but I still like his potential. Parsons is pretty good. Len is kind of meh but he can flip the switch and fill it up from time to time. Delfino is pretty meh. They're still a big piece away from really being something.

And Houston isn't going to do anything but get their asses pounded by a team like SA in the playoffs. If they make it. They, like Golden State, are a dumb team and SA is a very smart team. They can get a lot better for sure because they've got room for a max contract this summer. But they also have to deal with the impending poison pill year from Asik and Lin. And if they go out and get Dwight Howard this summer, Dwight would be the man on that team, not Harden. It wouldn't be a contender built around Harden as the leader and the guy. It'd probably be a contender though.

And the Ves thing is unrelated but you're trying to make it seem like I know nothing about basketball by being a dick and I'm sure if I really gave a crap I could search your post history for something you predicted that you ended up being wrong about.

[pjfootballer]

I don't think you have had anything resembling parity since the 70's in the post Russell era when the league was going through a lot of changes. Even still, those title teams were still mostly driven by somewhat lesser HoFers and multi AS appearance guys like Dave Cowens and Tommy Heinsohn, Unseld and Hayes, Gus Williams and Jack Sikma, Rick Barry, Frazier and Reed, Walton, etc. But at least back then you didn't have to have a future All Time Great to get a ring. You could have only one guy with a 20+ PER and still do it.

Lack of parity is the single biggest problem the NBA faces going forward. Hopefully the new CBA taxes will address that but it's going to take deep changes to the structure of the NBA game to give the league legit parity.

Good post. And I'm anxiuos to see what the luxury tax will do. Hopefully it will break up teams like Miami and make the league stronger as a whole. I'm also curious to see what will happen once Der Fuhrer Stern is retired and all the nonsense of wanting NY, LA, Boston, Chicago and Miami in the finals every year will go away.

I'm seeing some cracks in the foundations in the LAL, Boston and Miami. I still don't know how SA does it with a lineup of 35 year olds. I'd just love to see a new generation of teams that will compete for the title instead of the same old same old.

[MLSKINS]

Well, Beal chipped his two front teeth in practice today. Now at least he'll start looking more like James Harden. The transformation is in progress...

I can dig it....

---------- Post added February-21st-2013 at 12:48 PM ----------

Harden is in that class with Love, Aldridge, and Griffin of guys who are really really good at a couple of things but haven't really proven you can build a winner around them.

No.

Griffin does not belong in the same sentence as Love and Aldridge. You put either one of them on the Clippers instead of Griffin and you can pretty much hand them the title. I agree that they probably won't win being the guy, but I would feel better building team around them then I would Griffin.

[Skins199021]

Steve I am taking Harden over Rondo and Westbrook for sure, moving forward over Duncan, Wade, and Kobe as well but those 3 would be moving forward.

Westbrook is such a detriment to the Thunder in the sense that he creates less opportunities for Durant with his stupid ass shots, and he isn't really efficient.

Say they traded Perkins and Westbrook to us for Wall and Nene. And had Kept Harden.

The Thunder would be unbeatable and Wall would have like 15 assists, because Wall isn't efficient but he isn't selfish at all.

[stevemcqueen1]

Steve I am taking Harden over Rondo and Westbrook for sure, moving forward over Duncan, Wade, and Kobe as well but those 3 would be moving forward.

Westbrook is such a detriment to the Thunder in the sense that he creates less opportunities for Durant with his stupid ass shots, and he isn't really efficient.

Say they traded Perkins and Westbrook to us for Wall and Nene. And had Kept Harden.

The Thunder would be unbeatable and Wall would have like 15 assists, because Wall isn't efficient but he isn't selfish at all.

Harden played on the same team as Westbrook last year and wasn't better than him.

Westbrook absolutely makes the Thunder better. Without him, the Thunder aren't a contender.

Rondo has his flaws as a jump shooter and FT shooter but he does everything else well and he's probably the best ball handler and facilitator in the game. And he's led his team deep into the playoffs as the best player on the team and he also does have a ring from earlier in his career.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Harden played on the same team as Westbrook last year and wasn't better than him.

Westbrook absolutely makes the Thunder better. Without him, the Thunder aren't a contender.

Rondo has his flaws as a jump shooter and FT shooter but he does everything else well and he's probably the best ball handler and facilitator in the game. And he's led his team deep into the playoffs as the best player on the team and he also does have a ring from earlier in his career.

He was the fourth best player on the team when it won a title. How does that help his argument against Harden?

[MLSKINS]

He was the fourth best player on the team when it won a title. How does that help his argument against Harden?

That's debatable, but I still don' think the C's win a title without Rondo at the 1.

[Gator Bait]

Steve I am taking Harden over Rondo and Westbrook for sure, moving forward over Duncan, Wade, and Kobe as well but those 3 would be moving forward.
.

I think Steve was talking about players right now....I'd still take Kobe over Harden....Wade is a bit of a toss up...I don't think he is the same player he was a few years ago. I'd definitely take Harden over Rondo and Westbrook. I'd also bump Love passed Duncan. I think my top 15 (not considering age) would be as follows:

LBJ, Durant, CP3, Kobe, D12, Parker, Harden, Melo, Love, Rondo, Westbrook, Irving, Griffin, Aldridge, Wade

The first four are the only ones on the list I think can win a championship (at this point in their careers) being the #1 guy on their team.

Harden may escalate on that list, but we haven't seen him in the playoffs yet as "the guy." Melo and Love have already proven they can't win one as the #1 guy...and I don't think either of them are going to get much better as players. Westbrook is too inefficient and selfish to ever win one by himself. Rondo can't score enough and relies on having other top notch players around him. Irving and Griffin will continue to improve...we haven't come close to seeing either of their ceilings yet.

If I was drafting with age and future in mind.....I'd go LBJ, Durant, Irving, Harden, Davis

---------- Post added February-21st-2013 at 01:20 PM ----------

Westbrook absolutely makes the Thunder better. Without him, the Thunder aren't a contender.

I'm not arguing that Westbrook makes the thunder better...he definitely does, but they could have a bunch of vet minimum guys and Durant....and they'd still make it to the second round...that is how great Durant is.

Rondo has his flaws as a jump shooter and FT shooter but he does everything else well and he's probably the best ball handler and facilitator in the game. And he's led his team deep into the playoffs as the best player on the team and he also does have a ring from earlier in his career.

he is also a very good defender...but has character issues and could prevent him from ever winning another ring. That Boston team was the perfect storm with Pierce, Allen, and Garnet still in the primes of their careers.

---------- Post added February-21st-2013 at 01:21 PM ----------

He was the fourth best player on the team when it won a title. How does that help his argument against Harden?

They wouldn't have won that championship without any of the big 4....they needed all 4 to get that done. They were also very even in terms of importance to their team.

[StillUnknown]

Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account
‏@WojYahooNBA
Celtics, Wizards discussing Fab Melo for Jordan Crawford, league sources tell Y! Sports.


Can't wait to see how Ted hypes up Fab Melo

[Gator Bait]

Fab Melo for Jordan Crawford.....I'm not too high on Fab (who couldn't get on the court for the C's) but if he succeeds anywhere...it would be here with Nene.

[stevemcqueen1]

No.

Griffin does not belong in the same sentence as Love and Aldridge. You put either one of them on the Clippers instead of Griffin and you can pretty much hand them the title. I agree that they probably won't win being the guy, but I would feel better building team around them then I would Griffin.

It kills me to admit it because I HATE the way he acts on the court, but Griffin is really good. He's got the face up game where he can drive the lane, he's a terrific passer out of the post and racks up assists. He's a very good finisher and he scores a ton. He's one of the best rebounders in the league. And suddenly this year he can actually play defense. He's become a pretty good low post defender all in all. Not great, but definitely very good. A much better defender than Love and Aldridge. I think he's as good as Love and Aldridge are. Even if the Clippers didn't have CP3, they wouldn't be a contender, but they'd still be winning a lot of games. Probably more than the Blazers are and the Wolves did with Love last year.

If Griffin actually gets to where he can shoot FTs and gets more consistent on that mid range jumper and if he refines his back to basket finishes to where he converts at a higher rate in traffic, and if he takes the next step and becomes a great low post defender--shows over. He'll be the best PF in the league. But that's pretty much all he has to work on, and most of that stuff is definitely doable. Chuck said he thinks Blake has the potential to be the GOAT PF. If he masters all those things, he would have a great chance of making that come true.

---------- Post added February-21st-2013 at 01:32 PM ----------

Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account
‏@WojYahooNBA
Celtics, Wizards discussing Fab Melo for Jordan Crawford, league sources tell Y! Sports.


Can't wait to see how Ted hypes up Fab Melo

The deal makes sense for both sides but it's just swapping one end of the roster player for another. Though at least Crawford might get some run on the Cs this year.

[StillUnknown]

David AldridgeVerified account
‏@daldridgetnt
Source: Wizards guard Jordan Crawford will be traded to the Celtics.

[Fight4RGIII]

We've got all these foriegn big men.

[RonArtest15]

James Harden is the best shooting guard in the league.

Fab Melo will be awful here in DC. He's a project. Do any of you really trust the Wizards to develop him properly? Dude is as raw as they come. I understand that Jordan Crawford fell out of favor with our coaching staff...but is this the best we can do via trade?

Jeez.

Also, I agree w/ LKB about Houston's prospects. They're going to be a real tough out in the West and they're building something VERY special down there in Texas. They might have one of those years very soon where they sneak in the NBA finals with a crazy run through the west.