The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

the 6th the 18th and Blache for the Second (Derrick Williams). I like it. Plus, we're dealing with David Kahn. He'll see Andray Blache 6'11, 260 lb 16.8 and 8.2. Bait Line and Sinker.

I'm not completely sold on Williams.

[StillUnknown]

wow. i would trade him for Williams and probably Kanter.

as would i

[ixcuincle]

Asked in the other thread but want to know here

What happened tot hat european the Wiz drafted a few years ago

Lol

Haven't heard from him since

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

Veremeenko's draft rights were included in the Hinrich trade with Chicago.

Pecherov went to Minny in the Foye/Miller deal and is out of the league now and in some Euro league.

There might be another Euro that I can't remember off the top of my head.

[Skins199021]

dream deal with the T wolves.....

Wizards get:
Kevin Love
2nd overall pick (pick Dwill)

Timberwolves get:
Blatche
# 6
#18
Seraphine

Dram job I know

Wall
Crawford
Williams
Love
Mcgee

That would be awesome to watch. Average age.... like what? 21.5? haha

[No Excuses]

Veremeenko's draft rights were included in the Hinrich trade with Chicago.

Pecherov went to Minny in the Foye/Miller deal and is out of the league now and in some Euro league.

There might be another Euro that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Navarro might be the other one you're thinking about.

He was traded to Memphis for a lottery protected first rounder.

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

No I remember Navarro. (Did we ever get **** for him btw?) Seems like there's someone else. Another forgotten 2nd rounder. Not the Pride of Puerto Rico, Peter John Ramos either. Maybe I'm just tripping and thinking of someone from like 20 years ago.

[Thinking Skins]

dream deal with the T wolves.....

Wizards get:
Kevin Love
2nd overall pick (pick Dwill)

Timberwolves get:
Blatche
# 6
#18
Seraphine

Dram job I know

Wall
Crawford
Williams
Love
Mcgee

That would be awesome to watch. Average age.... like what? 21.5? haha

Only on NBA Live.

[No Excuses]

We traded Navarro's protected first to Memphis for Crittenton. If we never made this trade, we would've had the Grizzlies first round pick this year.

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

Only on NBA Live.

I traded for Love on 2K11. Set a Wiz franchise single-game record for rebounds with 24 in his 1st game. He was beast in the high post with his J but he is just so damn slow he was ****ing up my fast break hard. I traded him back to Minny for Beasley who has a bit more athleticism. Not really feeling him though. I think he has the highest "potential" grade of any young PF who's a legitimate trade option but he really doesn't do any one thing great.

We traded Navarro's protected first to Memphis for Crittenton. If we never made this trade, we would've had the Grizzlies first round pick this year.

Beside the pick, if we don't get Crittenton the gun thing with Gilbert never happens.

[stevemcqueen1]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog?...aft&id=6619525

Is Marshon Brooks the next Kobe Bryant?

Sometimes a player in the draft just has that look. Not just a passing-the-eye-test look, but something bigger. Maybe he just has the perfect combination of size, length, speed, savvy and raw production, like Paul George did last year, despite playing on a less-than-great college team. Other times he has similar movements to an NBA great, teasing team decision-makers with the thought that perhaps he can evolve into his NBA look-alike.

No player in this draft is drawing more late-in-coming raves than Marshon Brooks from Providence, in part because he's physically similar to George. But to get this much buzz it takes more than a Paul George comparison, and Brooks can thank none other than Kobe Bryant for his rapid mock-draft ascension.

Does he really resemble Kobe, the iconic scoring guard? Yes, but not in most of the ways that matter most, and that is the problem.


Multiple men with trained eyes, including Bryant's current trainer, Tim Grover, and Chad Ford have seen "a little bit" of Kobe when they watch Brooks play. I also saw things that connected the two of them: big hands that palm the ball like it's a sponge and long arms that make it tough for a defender to get at the ball when Brooks is in motion or as he nears the rim for a layup. And some of his general movements as a player look strikingly similar to things we've seen from Kobe hundreds of times.

To be fair, Brooks has more in common with Kobe than just similar long limbs and movements. He's a scorer, pure and simple, and he's always in attack mode. Brooks had the ball in his hands more than almost any college player this season but averaged just 2.5 assists. I'm not convinced Brooks sees the game well, unlike Kobe, who chooses to shoot often but knows where to pass at all times.

Brooks does share something with Kobe as an offensive player that is not so good -- he takes bad shots. No player I've studied this season had worse shot selection than Brooks, who took 197 3-pointers, just 22 fewer than the number of free throws he earned. As a comparison, Kobe shot at least twice as many free throws as 3-pointers each season from his second NBA season to his eighth. For his college career, Brooks attempted 475 3s (and made 33 percent) and 402 free throws. Kobe, even after many seasons in which his somewhat worn-out legs forced him to take a lot more 3s, has still never even come close to taking as many 3s as he has free throws made in any season. For his career, he's made over 7,000 free throws and attempted 4,185 3s.

So what does Kobe have that Brooks doesn't that helps us understand why there is such a disparity? It's all about quickness with the ball. Kobe has it in tight spaces with great speed after two steps, and Brooks only has the speed part of the game down. Give him room, and he can get to a pace that some defenders cannot reach, and that allows him to get into the paint. But when crowded, he does not have the quicks to beat a decent defender to the rim. His amazing arm length suggests he'll be able to find ways to get the ball past a defender on drives and up toward the hole, which puts him in the company of someone such as Tyreke Evans, a crafty dribbler who uses his dimensions to make paint shots. But Brooks does not have the build to do so, at least not yet. If he can get much more powerful, his ability to score in the NBA goes way up. There are few men playing basketball today that have the kind of dribbling skill combined with a power forward's strength as Evans has.

Brooks has a strong handle and takes long steps when he drives, which allows him to get past slower defenders as he races to the rim. However, like Evans, he's not any kind of elite-level high jumper, another very obvious difference from Kobe.

Brooks can be a very good defender, wrapping up wings thanks to those arms, but we didn't see that in college. As an example, Evans had 77 steals as a freshman at Memphis. Brooks had just 48 as a senior in roughly the same number of minutes.

Yes, it is amazing to see Brooks play and literally see Kobe here and there. But as it relates to where he gets his points, quickness with the ball, star-level athleticism or playmaking on defense from, there simply is no comparison. Brooks is a hot name now and can certainly get drafted in Round 1, but in a stronger draft he'd be stuck as a second-round prospect who would not be assured of having an NBA career.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

chadfordinsider Chad Ford
If Brooks had "a lot" of Kobe in his game ... he'd be No. 1 on our Big Board, not 19. Promise.

[stevemcqueen1]

To be fair to Brooks, he's a bit leaper than Thorpe gives him credit for. He had a 38.5" max vertical at the combine and standing vertical of 34". That's not Kobe Bryant territory but it's got to be above average.

Derrick Williams and my boy Justin Harper measured the strongest players in the class with 19 reps of 185 putting them solidly in NFL kicker territory. GACOLB, your boy Tyler Honeycutt couldn't even lift the bar once. I'm not sure, but I think even I could manage to lift that once and I haven't benched since high school. Does that change your opinion of him at all? Three other players couldn't do it either: Jereme Richmond, E'Twuan Moore, and Dmetri McCamey.

Jordan Williams finished dead last in all of the agility drills. Apparently he looks really slow.

[pjfootballer]

I'd give them our #6, Blatche and a future first round pick. I wouldn't give up the 18th. I'd hang on to that.

[MLSKINS]

I saw on NBC that Austin Freeman was working out with the Wizards. Any chance that we draft him in the second round?