Bullets Forever

Learning More About Your Potential Wizards

2009-07-06T16:19:00Z

Learning More About Your Potential Wizards

Did you know that Channing Frye once scored a career high 30 points (one of three such 30 pt. occasions), in a win against the Wizards when he was with the Knicks? And that this happened to occur on Gilbert Arenas' birthday?

Target Practice: Rasho, Channing, Jason and Jamaal

2009-07-06T02:34:02Z

Target Practice: Rasho, Channing, Jason and Jamaal

Mike Jones of the WaTimes is reporting that, according to league sources, Nesterovic, Frye, Collins and Magloire are on the Wizards' target list.

Personally, I've come around on Rasho. Collins is a decent body, but statistics indicate he's just as bad of a rebounder as Darius Songaila, while a MUCH worse passer and offensive player.

Magloire? Yuck. He makes Andray Blatche's hustle and motivation look like Matt Harping's.

And Frye? He's an absolutely terrible defender ... yet a decent offensive option.

But I'm curious as to what you guys think, chop away ...

Flexibility for later

2009-07-06T01:49:05Z

There are few buzzwords that annoy me more in sports than "flexibility." Taken literally, it means providing yourselves, as a sports team, the chance to improve your roster later on even while following the parameters of the salary cap. Taken figuratively, it can be a cynic's way of attacking a team. Having lots of flexibility could be another way of saying a team never takes a chance to improve its roster. Having no flexibility could be another way of saying a team is stuck being mediocre with no prospect of improving.

We've heard the latter criticism with the Wizards since the day Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison re-signed. We're now hearing a lot about how the Wizards have "created" flexibility by trading some deadweight, along with the fifth pick, for Randy Foye and Mike Miller. It's enough to make me be the first kind of cynic even though I've spent the past year shooting down the second kind of cynics. The fair question to ask here is, what does the "flexibility" gained from the Foye/Miller trade (as well as selling the second-round pick for 2.5 million) actually do to help us long-term? It's true, we now have more money to re-sign Brendan Haywood, but that just keeps the status quo when we should get better.

However, there's one angle that hasn't been considered, one that doclinkin hinted at a bit in the last thread but never came out and said.

What if the Wizards really can't pay a large luxury tax bill this year, but will be more capable next year? Doesn't that flexibility in the form of better expiring contracts and incremental talent improvement make a major difference if that is the case?

What am I trying to say here? Let's be honest, last year was not a very good year for the Wizards' bottom line. For the third straight year, the Wizards' average home attendance dropped. The Wizards drew just 16,612 fans per game last year, good for 21st in the league. That's over 2,000 fans lower than the Wizards had two years ago, when Gilbert Arenas was last healthy. Those numbers are also just the number of tickets that were sold, and doesn't include the myriad tickets that were bought even though the buyer never showed up to the game. I think it's also pretty safe to say that endorsement sales were way down last year. In addition, while Abe Pollin reportedly didn't lose too much from the economy tanking, it's a pretty good guess that Abe's personal wealth has been in better shape before.

In light of all that, it may not be the best time for the Wizards to charge zillions of dollars over the luxury tax. However, a new year, hopefully with a new clean bill of health, brings a lot of money in. Attendance will go up. Endorsement sales will go back to their normal levels, particularly if when Gilbert Arenas returns to take the NBA by storm. Home playoff games, hopefully for more than just one round, will result. More money will come in. More windfall for making the big move to go over the tax will result.

The great news there is that, with our recent moves, we're pretty well-positioned to take on more salary when we can. Our recent trade for Randy Foye and Mike Miller brought in two expiring contracts with much more value than the ones that were swapped out. We're still possessing some very promising youngsters, only now it's with more expiring deals with better players attached to them. Then, in the offseason, perhaps the organization will pay whatever necessary to keep Brendan Haywood and whoever remains of Foye/Miller, even if it means going way over the tax to do it.

It's a silver lining of sorts. The Wizards still missed an opportunity to make a major move for long-term salary when several players were available for peanuts on draft day. They still need to make a move to unbalance their roster, and they still made a terribly stupid decision to sell a pick that could have been DeJuan Blair.

But at the very least, they have some roster and payroll "flexibility" that actually means something.

Ellison's Double-Double Helps Bullets Win Decisive Game 7

2009-07-05T10:00:29Z

Former first round draft pick Ellison dominated Kwame Brown, another former first round pick, all series long.

View full size photo uploaded July 4, 2009

[Note: This is the sixth in a series of simulated playoff series to determine the worst team in franchise history in the Bullets Forever Epic Failoff. In our first match-up, the 5th seeded 93 Bullets lost to the 95 Bullets, sending them to the 2nd round and the 1967 Baltimore Bullets who advanced after losing in 7 games to the 1994 Bullets. In the third match-up, the 2004 Wizards advanced to the second round after losing to the 2001 Wizards in 5 games. The last quarterfinal featured the top seeded 2009 Wizards beating the 1992 Bullets in 5 games.

In the first semifinal match-up the 1993 Washington Bullets fell in 7 games, sending them to the finals where they'll face the loser of today's match-up between the 2004 Wizards and the 1992 Bullets. -Jake]

WASHINGTON - "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison certainly lived up to his nickname tonight.

It seems only fitting that in a year where he finally lived up to the expectations that came with being the first overall draft pick, that he also display the cool that helped him earn his nickname while at Louisville. With pressure mounting from all sides, Ellison put together a dominant performance, scoring 23 points on 11-16 shooting and grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds while holding his counterpart, Kwame Brown, to 10 points and 5 rebounds.

"This has just been such a great year for me," said Ellison after the game. "It's been such a fight since I came into the NBA, but it's nice to see that all of my efforts are starting to pay off. I can't wait to see my game improve and the team get better next year."

Ellison's performance will be the one that's most remembered from tonight, but he didn't do it by himself. Tom Hammonds led all scorers with 24 points and Michael Adams scored 14 points and came through with 10 rebounds. "I'm really proud of our team's performance tonight," said Bullets coach Wes Unseld after the game, "we'll be celebrating this one for a while."

Bullets guard Ledell Eackles said after the game that he planned on hosting a party at his house, complete with "cake, ice cream and roman candles."

There certainly won't be any celebrating in the Wizards' locker room, as they prepare to face the 1993 Bullets in the Epic Failoff FInals. Like Tom Gugliotta of the opposing team, Gilbert Arenas also vowed that they would not go down as the loser in the finals. "I will break my back to make sure that doesn't happen," said a perturbed Arenas after the game.

Washington favorites for Marbury?

2009-07-04T16:39:20Z

Washington favorites for Marbury?

I'm still trying to figure out why this would make sense for the Wizards.

Is there a plan?

2009-07-04T04:08:23Z

Am I being too pessimistic?

I loved the trade for Foye and Miller. I thought it was a good start to the off-season. Ernie addressed several weaknesses; specifically backup PG, and 3-point shooting. In Miller and Foye, he added a couple of really good catch-and-shoot guys - perfect for the Flip Saunders style Offense - and a perfect fit for the driving Arenas. Miller can play multiple positions, is an excellent rebounder and a very good passer. Foye has been mis-used most of his career. He's very good playing off the ball, but can create shots for himself and teammates as well. A true combo-guard. Both Miller and Foye will benefit by playing in Flip Saunder's match-up zone defense; where their weaknesses as individual defenders can be alleviated by the scheme.

Getting rid of Etan Thomas and Oleksiy Pecherov cleared the roster of dead weight. Although losing Songaila was a difficult pill to swallow ; in every trade you have to give up something of value. The 5th pick and D-Song for Miller and Foye seems like a steal to me.

Then Ricky Rubio fell to the 5th spot - and at first, after I could breathe again, I thought Ernie made a mistake trading the 5th pick so early. Why didn't he wait until draft night to see who would be available? I mean, Rubio is the second best player in the draft.... by a wide margin, right? That's what everyone said. I went through draft night with several different emotions having a tug-of-war with my fan-spirit. I've come to a realization of sorts about Rubio. Yeah, that kid is going to be great in my opinion. Five years from now, Wizards fans will be looking back on this draft and saying "boy, if only Ernie had kept that 5th pick and drafted Rubio". Similar to what some Wizards fans are saying about Devin Harris now. But five years is a long time to wait - Abe probably doesn't have that long. The roster that's been assembled doesn't have that long. Waiting for Rubio to develop is the wrong approach. The Wizards need to "win now".

They're going "all in" for the next couple of seasons to see if this core can compete. Ok, I get it. So that's why they didn't take a flier on DeJuan Blair. Even though Blair seemingly has some tools the Wizards need, and even though the trade made the Wizards roster unbalanced - and the roster is now light on big men (or rather, they have a few light big men). Drafting Blair and hoping he could develop quickly and contribute right away was probably a pipe dream. So I soothed my ruffled fan feelings by telling myself that by selling the pick for $2.5 Million dollars, Grunfeld has set himself up to spend a little more on the Free Agent market. That $2.5 Million can offset some of the Luxury Tax that the Wizards will have to pay when they acquire that quality big man with the MLE. Right?

I had dreams of getting guys like Marcin Gortat, Zaza Pachulia, or Drew Gooden. Any of those guys would improve the Wizard's talent level and depth. There were other names like Antonio McDyess - a defensive and rebounding specialist with a sweet 15-foot shot. Or Shelden Williams - a solid, strong physical defender that is an excellent rebounder and can block some shots. They're not in the Ron Artest, David Lee or Paul Millsap range of talent - but still good enough to raise the team's talent; Push guys like Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee back a bit in the rotation. Provide some veteran leadership and poise. Perhaps even enough of a talent influx to push the Wizards past Boston or maybe even past Orlando.

Now we hear that the Wizards will be playing it cool during this Free Agent signing period. Probably waiting until late summer to look at the remainining "talent". Talent that 30 other teams have passed over to this point; looking for someone to accept a veteran minimum contract for one year. Ernie did say he's looking for "someone that could come in occasionally and give us six to eight minutes." (Pecherov played 8.7 minutes in 35 games - is that what he's talking about?). That certainly doesn't sound like an "upgrade" to me, but rather more like a "scrub". A mop up guy. An injury insurance guy. I guess that also means that Grunfeld likes the depth that Blatche and McGee bring to the backup Center and PF positions.... and that there's not an upgrade out there that he likes better.

There's always the possibility of a trade involving Mike James' expiring contract and a combination of other "assets" (Stevenson, Nick Young, Critt); but considering the fact that they'll need to re-sign Haywood and either Miller or Foye next year, Ernie may want to keep that expiring contract to help with Cap and Tax issues.

Total committed salaries for next season are $56.6 Million for 9 players; that's assuming they tender a qualifying offer to Dominic McGuire and exercise team options on Javaris Crittenton and JaVale McGee (those are good assumptions). Brendan Haywood will probably require $9-10 Million to re-sign. That puts them at about $65.6 Million for 10 players - and they will need to sign at least three more to get to the League mandated 13 roster slots. If they sign two draft picks, or two vet minimum contracts, it would add about $2.5 Million. That puts their 2010-2011 salaries at about $68.1 Million. Even if we assume the Luxury Tax will increase to $73-$74 Million (from $71.15 Million in 2008-09), that still does not leave a lot of room to re-sign Foye or Miller.... So, unless there's some move to shed salary, it appears to me that the Wizards will be a Tax payer in 2010-11 as well.

So now I'm confused. Even with Foye and Miller, I don't think the Wizards have improved enough to contend for the Eastern Conference Title, much less contend for a Championship. As Brendan Haywood said, they're probably 4th best in the Conference. Ernie Grunfeld is NOT spending any of the MLE to improve the talent level on the team. Is he just waiting to see how this team develops and plays together? Will Ernie ever go "all in"? Are we waiting for something to happen next year? Are we trying to hover just under the Tax level and still hoping to compete?

Help me out everyone. Where are we headed?

Poll

Is Ernie's plan a good one?

So much for McDyess - Mikki Moore here we come. Yippee!

2009-07-03T20:49:01Z

From Mike Jones and the Outlet

The Wizards were listed among possible suitors for Antonio McDyess, but sources with knowledge of the situation said although Washington would love to have McDyess on their roster, they know can't offer anything close to what other teams will offer him. The Wizards don't want to use the mid-level exception, because even if a player agreed to that ball-park figure of $5 million, Washington would be taxed equal that number and end up paying $10 million total. McDyess is a solid vet, but not worth $10 million as a 10-minute-a-game backup, which is what the Wizards are looking for.

So much for the ideal plan of making the basketball team better this year..... I guess it makes sense from a fiscal standpoint; but if the Wizards are going to wait until late Summer to add a big man, they'll be scraping the dregs from the bottom of the barrell.

Can you tell I'm psyched?

Fun Facts About the Summer League Roster

2009-07-03T16:18:34Z

He's baaaaaaaaaaack.

View full size photo uploaded July 2, 2009

UPDATE: Jon L has his breakdown of the Summer League team up.

As you saw a couple of days ago, the Wizards have their roster in place for this year's summer league in Vegas. The Summer League gives diehard fans a chance to see the development of some of the younger players on the squad and what unsigned players might have a shot at cracking the roster. We're less than two weeks away from seeing this crew in action so there's no time to waste in learning about what the team.

The Guys With Contracts

Javaris Crittenton: Has a Twitter.
JaVale McGee: Has a workout video.
Dominic McGuire: Has a cool nickname (TASER!) that no one outside of this website knows how to use.
Nick Young: Has a documentary.

The Guy Who Has Played With the Wizards Before But Doesn't Have A Contract

James Lang: Lang played 55 minutes over 11 games with the Wizards in the 2006-07 season, scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in his short time in D.C. After his release, Lang joined on with the Utah Flash of the D-League, where he's played the last two seasons, along with a stint in China. His per 36 numbers are decent, but there's nothing there that's going to blow you away.

The New Guys

Alade Aminu: The Georgia Tech forward started a foundation called Brotherhood of the World which started a basketball camp for underprivileged children in the Atlanta area.

Ryan Ayers: Ryan (#42 in the picture) is the son of former assistant coach Randy Ayers. He shot 42.9% from downtown last season with the Fighting Irish.

Jimmy Baron: The Rhode Island guard is probably most remembered for his performance against Duke last season where he hit eight three pointers as he nearly led the Rams to an upset at Cameron Indoor Stadium. This fact along should be enough to make him a fan favorite for the squad.

John Edwards: Edwards spent two years in the NBA with the Pacers and Hawks, putting up some rather modest numbers. His biggest claim to fame might be that he was the only bench player the Pacers had available in their first game after the infamous brawl in Detroit.

Josh Heytvelt: Everything you need to know is over here.

Tywain McKee: The Coppin State product owes a lot of his success in college to coaching legend John Chaney. He's an explosive scorer that dropped 31 on Syracuse last season.

Tyrese Rice: Those of you who watch ACC basketball are already very familiar with Rice from his days at Boston College. He scored 46 points in a loss to North Carolina two years ago, and then helped lead the Eagles to an upset of the top ranked Heels last season.

Jason Rich: Like Rice, Rich is another ACC product, and also a guard. He graduated from FSU in 2008 and spent last year in Italy playing for Pallancetro Cantu along with former Georgia Bulldog Sundiata Gaines.

Alex Ruoff: Ruoff has a pretty balanced all around game. Last year, in addition to his 15.7 points per game, he also chipped in 3.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds. He also chipped in 1.7 steals on the defensive end.

Diamon Simpson: Patty Mills received most of the attention over the last few years at St. Mary's, but Sampson has some game too. He was the WCC's Defensive Player of the Year last season, averaging a double-double and adding in 1.6 steals and 1.7 blocks per game for the Gaels. Looking at the stats, it's hard not to compare him to another player from a small Western college.

Kyle Spain: Nearly half of Spain's field goal attempts were three pointers in his senior year, which would explain why his FG% (.409) was so close to his 3P% (.390).

Brandon Wallace: Wallace was actually a part of the Celtics roster last year, but only played in D-League while a member of the team and was cut in mid-December. Since then, Wallace has spent time in the D-League and over in Turkey.

Ernie Grunfeld's Interview with The Junkies

2009-07-03T15:17:34Z

Ernie Grunfeld's Interview with The Junkies

A lot of good stuff from the GM in this interview. My favorite parts:

1. He says there's no plans to move Gilbert to shooting guard. Excellent.
2. As of right now, the starting shooting guard position is still up for grabs and won't be decided until training camp. Given the uncertainty of how it's all going to pan out at this point, it's good that he's not locking himself into one player.
3. He is looking to add another backup big man. He said he's looking for "someone that could come in occasionally and give us six to eight minutes."

Rubio's playing the next two years in Spain

2009-07-02T21:43:34Z

Rubio's playing the next two years in Spain

Alright, alright, you guys win.

Six reasons why Nick Young's probably a goner

2009-07-02T20:30:02Z

More photos » by Lance Murphey - AP

Does Randy Foye's acquisition mean the end of Nick Young?

Browse more photos »

In continuing to work on my Randy Foye post (I'm sorry, lots of work this week, not much time), the major conclusion I'm starting to find is that Foye's presence seems to indicate the Wizards don't really have Nick Young in their long-term plans. Rather than dilute the post on Foye down with that conclusion, I figured I'd spell out a bit more clearly why Foye's presence is a real challenge to Nick Young's place on the team. Some points will probably overlap, but since we're getting too bogged down in free agent talk, I wanted to start another thread for those that are tired of it.

Keep in mind I don't necessarily endorse all these arguments, nor are they in any way a guarantee that Nick Young starts the 2009/10 season on another team.

1. Randy Foye is much better at shooting guard than point guard: Foye's numbers don't look too great this year on a whole -- 13.7 PER (below average), 46.3 FG%, 51.7 TS% (pretty cruddy). At the very least, they look pretty comparable to Nick's (13.1 PER, 48.1 eFG%, 53 TS%). But according to 82games.com, Foye's numbers at shooting guard are much more impressive (17 PER, 48.5 eFG%, 2.2 TO/48 compared to 3.9 at PG). This is consistent with Foye's last healthy season in 2006/07 (see here). It was Foye's ill-conceived tenure at point guard that dragged down his production. If we break down Foye into "Foye the PG" and "Foye the SG," "Foye the SG" is much better than Nick Young. If the Wizards realize this (which they should, since there are more minutes behind Mike Miller than behind Gilbert Arenas), Foye's going to get most of his time at shooting guard, where he'll cut deeply into whatever minutes Nick Young was going to get.

2. Randy Foye passes better: The big improvement of Young's season in 2008/09 was that he cut his turnover percentage down significantly. However, he did not improve his passing much, as his assist percentage barely improved (9% to 9.6%, both pathetic numbers for a shooting guard). Foye, on the other hand, has registered three straight seasons with an assist percentage over 20%, and cut his turnover percentage all the way down to 12% this year. Obviously, some of Foye's high assist numbers have to do with him playing point guard a bit, but that doesn't account for how Foye's assist percentage is twice that of Young's. As we've discussed before, passing skill is important for someone playing with Arenas, and Foye passes that test better.

3. Both players have similar usages: Both Foye and Young used over 20 percent of their team's possessions each year of their career. Foye's career usage is a bit below Young's (22.2% compared to 23.8%), but it's still pretty high. There's not much need for two reserve shooting guards who use a similar number of possessions.

4. Foye catches-and-shoots better than Young: Allow me to quote Stop-n-Pop of Canis Hoopus, who I e-mailed earlier this week with some questions about Foye for the Foye piece.

Foye is a fantastic catch-and-shoot player. Flip will find a good use for this guy.

(later in the e-mail, in response to a more specific question about his catch-and-shoot abilities)

As mentioned above, he's a fantastic catch-and-shoot player. There's not much to complain about the guy on this front. If he can embrace this role, he'll do very well in Flip's system.

Foye's assisted % hasn't historically been so high, but there's ample evidence to suggest that was a function of being the only decent guard in Minnesota for three years running. There's at least more hope that part of his game shines through than there is with Young.

5. Foye's less of a work in progress: The upside and downside to Foye is that he is what he is at this point. S&P expressed that to me multiple times in our conversations and I agree with him. Young, however, still has development to make, and for a team that's supposedly "winning now," there's less time for him to come around.

6. Young can be an asset in a trade to balance the roster: It's not like Young isn't talented, so whereas he might get lost in the minutes shuffle here, another team could see a lot of value to him. That might be big in a trade for one of two purposes: either as an incentive to trade away a decent third big man for Young and expirings, or as an incentive to take on a bad contract like DeShawn Stevenson so there's more room under the luxury tax in 2010 to sign Brendan Haywood and maybe Mike Miller.

Detroit, Washington, Houston, Cleveland, San Antonio and Boston are believed to be among McDyess'...

2009-07-02T15:59:48Z

Detroit, Washington, Houston, Cleveland, San Antonio and Boston are believed to be among McDyess' suitors. McDyess, 35, left $8 million on the table last year when he took a buyout from Denver to return to the Pistons. He would like to recoup most of that in a two-year deal, but he told Miller it was more important to be on a team with serious championship aspirations.

Detroit News. That makes me feel a little better about yesterday's Times article.

Wizards Summer League Team

2009-07-02T01:32:37Z

Editor's Note: Confirmed on the Wizards official blog. I guess this confirms it: James Lang is our fifth big man! </sarcasm> -Mike

I'm not sure if this has been officially-officially announced yet, but in tracking down Summer League info for RU I came across a full list of the players on the Wizards' Summer League team. Remember James Lang? Also, NY was listed as a G/F for some reason. Sadly (for me anyway), no D-Leaguers who could've actually helped the team.

Alade Aminu 6'10" F, Georgia Tech
Ryan Ayers, 6'7" G/F, Notre Dame
Jimmy Baron, 6'3" G, Rhode Island
Javaris Crittenton, 6'5" G, Georgia Tech
Jon Edwards, 7'0" C, Kent State
Josh Heytvelt, 6'11" F/C, Gonzaga
James Lang, 6'10" C, Central Park HS
Dominic McGuire, 6'9" G/F, Fresno State
JaVale McGee, 7'0" C, Nevada-Reno
Tywain McKie, 6'2" G, Coppin State
Tyrese Rice, 6'0" G, Boston College
Jason Rich, 6'3" G, Florida State
Alex Ruoff, 6'6" G, West Virginia
Diamon Simpson, 6'7" F, St. Mary's
Kyle Spain, 6'5" F, San Diego State
Brandon Wallace, 6'9" F South Carolina
Nick Young, 6'6" G, Southern California

I've also heard that the Wizards are going to have a "mini-camp" for these guys for a few days before heading to Vegas, but I'm working on confirming that.

Detroit blows its cap space on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva

2009-07-02T00:33:45Z

Detroit blows its cap space on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva

Agree 100% with KD here ... that's the best Detroit could do? Really?

So you basically just traded Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Flip Saunders for Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva and (most likely) Doug Collins. That's progress?

On the bright side, I don't think we have to worry about the Pistons too much as a competitor with the Wizards next year.

So much for putting that money acquired from selling the draft pick to good use...

2009-07-01T18:46:26Z

(Groan).

Wednesday signals the beginning of the NBA's free agency period, and although teams are free to begin courting and negotiating with players, don't expect the Washington Wizards to spring into action.

Instead, the Wizards are expected to wait, then comb the leftovers to add the final pieces to their roster.

(snip)

And while the team would like to add a veteran big man, it has no desire to go after a high-priced big name like Rasheed Wallace or Antonio McDyess or to use the mid-level exception (roughly $5 million) to try to sign a Chris Wilcox or Zaza Pachulia. Instead, the Wizards envision the final addition as a reliable spot-minute player who will come at a relatively low price.

So if we were just going after someone cheap, wouldn't it have made sense to, you know, draft the best rebounding big man in college basketball in the last 10 years and pay him $500,000 or so? Obviously we don't need DeJuan Blair when we can sign Mikki Moore to yell, scream and not rebound for five minutes a game.

Let's review our finances for a second. We were slated at a total team salary of about 75.5 million before the Randy Foye/Mike Miller trade. That number would have risen to 79 million after accounting for the salary of the fifth pick in the draft. Executing the Foye/Miller trade saved us nearly four million dollars off our 2009/10 payroll, dropping it closer to 74 million. We don't yet know what the luxury tax is, but it was around 71.15 million last year. The amount of cash aquired for the 32nd pick was 2.5 million, which nearly accounts for the difference between our current payroll and last year's luxury tax hit. Abe doesn't want to pay double? No problem, he has cash from selling away DeJuan Blair to help cover him. So much for using that cash to help alleviate the additional cost of a full MLE guy. Instead, it alleviates the cost of the Wizards' payroll as it currently stands. It alleviates a cost that already existed, not a future cost that could better improve the on-court product. Lovely.

We therefore sacrificed a player who could fill a roster spot for about $500,000 to instead fill it with a guy who makes $1.3 million in order for Abe to help alleviate a long-standing cost that everyone knew about since the economy crashed. Even if the second-round pick wasn't the most productive rebounder in college basketball in the last decade, that's not great financial planning. In this climate, high second-round picks are great buys because you can get a first-round caliber talent without having to commit to a guaranteed contract. Even if you sign the guy, it's for half as much as even a late first-round pick. There were many things the Wizards could have done well before the draft to be able to use that asset effectively. They could have declined Oleksiy Pecherov's option, which made sense when you consider how little he actually played since being drafted. They didn't have to make the trade for Javaris Crittenton, who has been pushed even further down the depth chart with the trade for Foye and Miller. They could have dumped one of their young guys on a team for a non-guaranteed contract (e.g. James and Critt/Young for Stackhouse). All these could have helped alleviate the existing problem better than selling a high second-round pick for cash.

Now, the cost is losing Blair and missing a chance at adding an MLE free agent. The Wizards are saying publicly that they like their team as is and don't need another big man. Seriously, read down in Jones' article.

But whomever the Wizards sign, he isn't expected to log many minutes in their crowded rotation.

Jamison and Andray Blatche are at the top of the depth chart at power forward along with Dominic McGuire and, in a pinch, Miller. Haywood will start at center with second-year player JaVale McGee backing him up and Blatche seeing some minutes there.

That leaves few minutes for an incoming player.

Mike Miller and Dominic McGuire at power forward? Either Eddie Jordan is coaching again, or the Wizards are fooling themselves about their needs. How can there be no minutes in the frontcourt available when your only four frontcourt players are Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood (never a huge minute-guy before, maybe he will be now), inconsistent Andray Blatche and raw JaVale McGee? There are few minutes for an incoming player only because they can't afford an incoming player good enough to take those minutes. If Zaza Pachulia were on this team, a good coach could very easily find 25 minutes a game for him.

Seriously, the Wizards need another big body badly. I like Blatche and McGee and think they'll provide a lot more next year than people think, but doesn't it put a hit to the "win now' mentality to make two inconsistent young players your only legitimate backup bigs? What if someone gets hurt? What if you're not getting what you want from them in a critical situation? If you're building for the future slowly or not going anywhere (like last year), then I wouldn't care if we're a little thin up front like this and dolling out development minutes, but we're supposedly in win-now mode. To fully capatalize, we need an upgrade on Darius Songaila, no matter the cost.

Instead, we're stuck hoping Ernie can find another bargain player for 1.3 million. Maybe he can like he has before, maybe he can't, but either way, we've closed off the possiblitiy of paying whatever's necessary for a known upgrade to Songaila, like Zaza, Gortat or whoever. I don't think that's what we fans had in mind when we sold the Blair pick for cash.

Clearly, our recent moves are at least as much about money as they are about on-court play. It's becoming harder and harder to deny that at this point.

Two quick site announcements

2009-07-01T16:40:19Z

Lots of work to do, so I'm going to make this quick. I'm hoping to finish the Foye post tonight that I promised.

First, I just want to remind everyone that I am going to be live in Las Vegas to cover the entire Wizards summer league. I'm arriving on the 12th and leaving the 18th, so I'm actually going to miss the last game, but I'll be there for the other four games with a press pass for SB Nation. I've already thought of several stories and angles to pursue, but if there is anything in particular you are desperate to find out, pose me a list and I'll see what I can do.

Second, I want to announce that bwoodsxyz is joining us as a front-page author. Bwoodsxyz is going to publish one stat-oriented post a week about the Wizards, similar to the style he's been doing in the FanPosts. It's going to be published on a specific day in a specific time period, but we're still finalizing the details on that. Once we determine which day it'll come, I'll let you all know. You can then set your calendars and be sure to check out the site to read whatever he's got up his sleeve then.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled programming.

Former Rhode Island guard Jimmy Baron to play on Wizards Summer League team

2009-07-01T15:18:44Z

Former Rhode Island guard Jimmy Baron to play on Wizards Summer League team

Baron is a bit of an interesting case because he'll be playing with Utah in the Orlando summer league and then playing for Washington in Vegas. If three point shooting is your thing, he'll provide it in spades. He shot 45.4% from deep last year.

(HT: WizStorm)

Truth About It: A Better Wizards Locker Room Without Etan Thomas

2009-06-30T18:08:36Z

Truth About It: A Better Wizards Locker Room Without Etan Thomas

I thought this was a tad harsh, but it's definitely clear that Etan Thomas was not bonding with the rest of the team. Then again, I tend to shy away from these "locker room" commentary pieces naturally (it's a bias!), and Rashad's comment in the last thread adds some credence to Truth's position.

Definitely an interesting issue to discuss, though.

Brendan Haywood talks to ESPN 980 about a lot of things

2009-06-30T16:05:17Z

Brendan Haywood talks to ESPN 980 about a lot of things

As transcribed by the venerable Dan Steinberg.

The Case for Rasho Nesterovic

2009-06-30T15:08:12Z

View full size photo uploaded June 29, 2009

If I've learned anything over the last few months, it's that a off-season rumor's sexiness is inversely proportional to its likelihood of actually happening. If you don't believe me, look no further than our most recent trade. Players like Amare Stoudemire, Manu Ginobili, and Jason Terry were all floated as players who could come to Washington in exchange for the #5 pick and other assets. Yet at the end of the day, we ended up with Randy Foye and Mike Miller. It's a trade that makes the team better, but it lacks the buzz that landing one of those players would have brought. But if we were truly honest with ourselves, I think that we would admit that those trades were more pipe dream than anything else.

We should look at this year's free agency crop the same way. We already know that the super pipe dreams (Paul Millsap, David Lee, Carlos Boozer, etc.) are out of the picture because they'll get much more than the mid-level exception on the open market. Keeping that in mind, the players that have been bounced around the most as potential targets in free-agency are Marcin Gortat and Zaza Pachulia. Again, both of those guys are nice players, but I think they both fall under the category of pipe dreams since Abe probably doesn't want to pony up most or all of the MLE on a backup big man.

Once you take those guys out of the equation, you're left with a smattering of veteran and D-League players who can come in and fill out the team's front court rotation. As you can tell from the title, there's one player that stands out to me more than anyone else: Rasho Nesterovic. Here's my reasoning:

He can defend other centers: Without Haywood in the lineup last year, centers pounded away last season. His return will help with that, but having another big who can slow the big guys down wouldn't hurt. At 7 ft. tall and 248 lbs., Rasho has a little more bulk than McGee and Blatche, which would come in handy when Brendan needs a breather and the Wizards are going up against the bigger centers in the league. Opposing centers has a PER of 16.5 against him last season, compared with 18.3 for Andray and 23.3 for JaVale McGee.
He can take on some of Darius Songaia's roles: Aside from his grit and Songaila was valuable because he was a big that could stretch the floor by knocking down open shots off the pick and pop and he was a solid passer. Rasho's jumper isn't quite as automatic as Songaila's, but it's good enough to make opposing teams respect it and he averaged more assists per 36 than Darius.
Familiarity with Flip Saunders: Rasho spent his first five seasons in the NBA in Minnesota with Flip Saunders where he became a very dependable sidekick alongside Kevin Garnett. As Flip begins his first season in Washington, it would probably be a good idea to have someone on the roster who already knows the system. Not only does that mean he'll have one less player to teach the system to, but it also in effect gives him another assistant who can teach guys like McGee and Blatche the little nuances of Flip's offensive and defensive sets.

Signing Rasho Nesterovic won't bring in the headlines that signing Paul Millsap or Marcin Gortat would, but he's a more realistic option who could help out for a decent price. It's not a sexy move, but he fits the team's needs and direction. Don't be shocked if you see him in Washington next season.