Who Stays and Who Goes?

[JWaLL]

We have a lot of free agents this summer, and a lot of fans would say that most of them are part of the "components" we already have to be a contending team and that we should bring most of them back. For me, I say we rebuild around our few contributers. Here are Washington's free agents for this upcoming offseason:

 

RESTRICTED

Randy Foye

Dominic McGuire

 

UNRESTRICTED

Earl Boykins

Javaris Crittenton

Brendan Haywood

Mike James

Mike Miller

Fabricio Oberto

Deshawn Stevenson

 

Out of that whole group, I say we only bring back Haywood, Miller, McGuire, and Boykins.

 

Foye could potentially be asking for more than we are willing to offer and he isn't an absolutely necessary addition to our team for the role we would offer him. Crittenton is a claimed "point guard" with all athleticism, no court awareness and bad shooting range. Definitely not what we need. Mike James is just a guard looking to get his deep shot off. He's a decent guard, but not worth bringing back. Oberto and Deshawn don't even need explanations.

 

Haywood is possibly the most contributing player on our squad this season so far, and is our only true defensive presence. Miller's basketball IQ, leadership, and deadly long range shooting is definitely a must-have. McGuire is a young athletic player who truly puts 100% on defense every time he's on the floor, and with time he has the potential to be an elite defender as well as a great rebounder and shot blocker. Boykins is a great backup point guard. He has excellent court vision, finds his open man, knocks down the mid range jumper with ease, and converts on his free throws (an area where our team lacks).

 

Thoughts?

[Celtics3420]

IMO, all out rebuilding. Try and see if they can get rid of arenas for some expirings and maybe some young talent or pick(s). If you're able to, do it, just rebuild.

[JWaLL]

IMO, all out rebuilding. Try and see if they can get rid of arenas for some expirings and maybe some young talent or pick(s). If you're able to, do it, just rebuild.

Yup. A lot of other diehard fans are in denial about our need to rebuild, claiming that we still have the pieces to be a contender. Even if every single player on our current roster was healthy, I don't see us getting passed the second round in the playoffs. We need to rebuild, we haven't had a decent year in a long time.

[Dash]

I would keep Foye, you guys did trade the 5th pick (Rubio) for him. Best to resign as reasonable a contract as you can. Back in Minny, he should some potential to be a go-to scorer. I think he's just struggling with the system and adjusting to Arenas right now.

 

Just keep him, one of your very few assets. If he doesn't show improvement next season, trade him...I'm sure some team is willing to take a chance on him.

[Check my Stats]

I still refuse to believe they couldn't have gotten better value for that top 5 pick than 2 role players. Absolutely pathetic move my the front office when we see guys like Richard Jefferson and VC going for nothing, I refuse to believe they couldn't have added a franchise changing impact player.

 

I just can't believe a team with Jamison at PF is going to be successful, you need a banger down there, not a SF. It is a shame because they might have been able to get Amare for that pick + more maybe.

[JWaLL]

I still refuse to believe they couldn't have gotten better value for that top 5 pick than 2 role players. Absolutely pathetic move my the front office when we see guys like Richard Jefferson and VC going for nothing, I refuse to believe they couldn't have added a franchise changing impact player.

 

I just can't believe a team with Jamison at PF is going to be successful, you need a banger down there, not a SF. It is a shame because they might have been able to get Amare for that pick + more maybe.

Mike Miller is definitely more than a role player. He's definitely a huge impact to our roster, and we better resign him if we hope to have success.

 

As for the trade, our front office is retarded. The Suns offered Amare for Caron Butler + 5th pick and we said no... how the hell could we pass up that offer? That would put Jamison at the SF and Amare at the PF. That would have been a beastly front court. Instead, we hung on to the "all-star" who is clearly not working in our system.

[Erick Blasco]

We have a lot of free agents this summer, and a lot of fans would say that most of them are part of the "components" we already have to be a contending team and that we should bring most of them back. For me, I say we rebuild around our few contributers. Here are Washington's free agents for this upcoming offseason:

 

RESTRICTED

Randy Foye

Dominic McGuire

 

UNRESTRICTED

Earl Boykins

Javaris Crittenton

Brendan Haywood

Mike James

Mike Miller

Fabricio Oberto

Deshawn Stevenson

 

Out of that whole group, I say we only bring back Haywood, Miller, McGuire, and Boykins.

 

Foye could potentially be asking for more than we are willing to offer and he isn't an absolutely necessary addition to our team for the role we would offer him. Crittenton is a claimed "point guard" with all athleticism, no court awareness and bad shooting range. Definitely not what we need. Mike James is just a guard looking to get his deep shot off. He's a decent guard, but not worth bringing back. Oberto and Deshawn don't even need explanations.

 

Haywood is possibly the most contributing player on our squad this season so far, and is our only true defensive presence. Miller's basketball IQ, leadership, and deadly long range shooting is definitely a must-have. McGuire is a young athletic player who truly puts 100% on defense every time he's on the floor, and with time he has the potential to be an elite defender as well as a great rebounder and shot blocker. Boykins is a great backup point guard. He has excellent court vision, finds his open man, knocks down the mid range jumper with ease, and converts on his free throws (an area where our team lacks).

 

Thoughts?

 

The Wizards will have $53 million committed to their team next season. They'll need to shed salary. Miller won't be back, James is an obvious goner, and if Haywood asks for too much, he won't be back either. Oberto's also too old and won't return.

 

Stevenson's not a free agent and will be back.

 

Boykins might be back because he's cheap enough, or the Wizards can look to groom a backup in the draft. With Nick Young on board, Crittenton isn't necessary.

 

If a team makes an offer to Foye, he'd probably be let go too. Are you sure McGuire's a restricted free agent? I think he's unrestricted.

 

Basically, for better or worse, the Wizards are set with 10 people for next season unless they do something creative. They have Blatche, Jamison, Butler, Stevenson, and Arenas with McGee, Foye, Young and whatever two draft picks the Wizards pick up. They'd probably offer Haywood a contract too, but Washington won't have much flexibility next season.

[The Artesticle]

$53 million is a lot already.

 

How do you know the Wiz front office won't spend though? I'm just wondering... What has been their stance on luxury tax in the past? Because currently they are at 79 million. I guess it's not unfathomable that they'd want to shed some salary, but if they let Miller/Foye walk they basically just gave away the 5th pick of the draft.

[Erick Blasco]

$53 million is a lot already.

 

How do you know the Wiz front office won't spend though? I'm just wondering... What has been their stance on luxury tax in the past? Because currently they are at 79 million. I guess it's not unfathomable that they'd want to shed some salary, but if they let Miller/Foye walk they basically just gave away the 5th pick of the draft.

 

Because they keep proving that spending money brazenly hasn't been working. Plus none of the free agents are core guys except maybe Haywood. With all the shooting guards the Wizards have, why would they bring back Miller? And the other free agents aren't that good. They thought Miller and Foye would help them this year, but it hasn't worked out. They basically sold the fifth pick for cash flexibility.

[Check my Stats]

Mike Miller is definitely more than a role player. He's definitely a huge impact to our roster, and we better resign him if we hope to have success.

 

As for the trade, our front office is retarded. The Suns offered Amare for Caron Butler + 5th pick and we said no... how the hell could we pass up that offer? That would put Jamison at the SF and Amare at the PF. That would have been a beastly front court. Instead, we hung on to the "all-star" who is clearly not working in our system.

 

He isn't even in double figures lol, does he even start? If he doesn't start how is he not a role player? I am a fan of his but you don't trade a top 5 pick for Foye, who has been a disappointment in his career to me, and Miller, who is nice but just not the answer this team needed as they are already loaded on the wing.

 

Overall just a horrible decision by management to bring in wings when they already have 3 studs on the wing (this is me considering Jamison a wing btw) along with a solid bench of wing players.

 

Ray Allen was traded to the Celtics for the 5th pick a few years ago, the Wizards needed to go out and address their big man situation in a similar fashion, and instead they added more shooting wings. They wasted their pick which should have been used in a power deal to catapult this team to mid seed in the playoffs, but they failed.

 

The Caron+Pick for Amare is a nice deal but only if Amare is signing an extension with you, otherwise that is suspect because I can't disagree for passing on that to be honest. A top 5 pick alone SHOULD have been enough but I guess it wasn't.

 

Fortunately they have a lot of assets and could go a lot of different ways, this team doesn't necessarily need to rebuild IMO. Just shuffle some talent around, and I would start by shipping Arenas out.

[JWaLL]

None of the shooting guards who will definitely remain with our team next season are capable starters. We have Stevenson and Young. Young is a proven energy guy who will bring a great offense off of the bench, so we can always keep him as a backup. Stevenson shouldn't have a contract on any team and should not be associated with the NBA at all. We need Miller, he is the perfect starting shooting guard for our team. Letting him and Foye walk is just basically giving up the 5th pick from last season for nothing. It's possible Haywood may ask for more than we are willing to offer so he could potentially be gone. It's going to be a tough offseason for us.

 

Oh and ESPN.com says McGuire is restricted, but they could always be wrong.

[JWaLL]

He isn't even in double figures lol, does he even start? If he doesn't start how is he not a role player? I am a fan of his but you don't trade a top 5 pick for Foye, who has been a disappointment in his career to me, and Miller, who is nice but just not the answer this team needed as they are already loaded on the wing.

 

Overall just a horrible decision by management to bring in wings when they already have 3 studs on the wing (this is me considering Jamison a wing btw) along with a solid bench of wing players.

 

Ray Allen was traded to the Celtics for the 5th pick a few years ago, the Wizards needed to go out and address their big man situation in a similar fashion, and instead they added more shooting wings. They wasted their pick which should have been used in a power deal to catapult this team to mid seed in the playoffs, but they failed.

 

The Caron+Pick for Amare is a nice deal but only if Amare is signing an extension with you, otherwise that is suspect because I can't disagree for passing on that to be honest. A top 5 pick alone SHOULD have been enough but I guess it wasn't.

 

Fortunately they have a lot of assets and could go a lot of different ways, this team doesn't necessarily need to rebuild IMO. Just shuffle some talent around, and I would start by shipping Arenas out.

He isn't in double figures because he is the 4th option on offense for our team... He isn't going to be averaging much when he's taking shots behind Gilbert, Antawn, and Caron.

 

Our biggest problem currently is finding a way to get rid of Gilbert, and that doesn't sound like that's going to happen. I'm a huge fan of his, but he is definitely not what this team needs.

[Check my Stats]

This team needs someone who can lead this team and organize this offense. I don't watch them but I figure that there is no structure, who is supposed to be taking the shots etc. They need a floor general at the PG spot, I mean honestly Jose Calderon would be better than Arenas at running the offense.

 

I think they should package Gilbert+One of their wings like Miller or Caron for a competent PG and a good banger down low like Ben Wallace but better obviously. I don't know if such a deal is available, but they need to do something.

 

I just don't think you can win when your PG is always thinking shoot first, and is completely ignorant to his own contributions to the team, he thinks when he gets 6 assists he is being particularly unselfish, I could be off base due to my dislike for him but I just don't think any team with Arenas is going to be successful unless he is playing with a SG like Brandon Roy or someone who can handle the ball.

 

An Arenas-Jason Kidd backcourt would be awesome, Kidd could run the offense and defend the SG's, and Arenas could play SG on offense and defend the PG's. Get on the phone with the Mavs

Edited December 22, 2009 by travesy3

[Erick Blasco]

This team needs someone who can lead this team and organize this offense. I don't watch them but I figure that there is no structure, who is supposed to be taking the shots etc. They need a floor general at the PG spot, I mean honestly Jose Calderon would be better than Arenas at running the offense.

 

I think they should package Gilbert+One of their wings like Miller or Caron for a competent PG and a good banger down low like Ben Wallace but better obviously. I don't know if such a deal is available, but they need to do something.

 

I just don't think you can win when your PG is always thinking shoot first, and is completely ignorant to his own contributions to the team, he thinks when he gets 6 assists he is being particularly unselfish, I could be off base due to my dislike for him but I just don't think any team with Arenas is going to be successful unless he is playing with a SG like Brandon Roy or someone who can handle the ball.

 

An Arenas-Jason Kidd backcourt would be awesome, Kidd could run the offense and defend the SG's, and Arenas could play SG on offense and defend the PG's. Get on the phone with the Mavs

 

The sad part is that when they play with some discipline, they aren't half bad, at least on offense. They can score when they try to get good shots on offense. They have some tough players on their roster. But too often, they play a game of my shot, your shot. They don't even need too much besides a backup banger and a point guard. Their whole roster is set up so that they can run a set designed to lead to Arenas scoring as a first option off execution and Butler and Jamison as secondary options with Haywood screening. But instead of running a play, Arenas will come up the court and shoot, or pass it to somebody who'll stand in place and shoot.

 

They've always been like that, and thankfully, the NBA has caught up. The quality of teams is so much better today than it was even three years ago. But Washington is still Washington, and they're a losing team because they can't adapt.

[JWaLL]

The sad part is that when they play with some discipline, they aren't half bad, at least on offense. They can score when they try to get good shots on offense. They have some tough players on their roster. But too often, they play a game of my shot, your shot. They don't even need too much besides a backup banger and a point guard. Their whole roster is set up so that they can run a set designed to lead to Arenas scoring as a first option off execution and Butler and Jamison as secondary options with Haywood screening. But instead of running a play, Arenas will come up the court and shoot, or pass it to somebody who'll stand in place and shoot.

 

They've always been like that, and thankfully, the NBA has caught up. The quality of teams is so much better today than it was even three years ago. But Washington is still Washington, and they're a losing team because they can't adapt.

Exactly. We have become a predictable offensive squad, and that combined with a weak defense means a team that is no where near a contending state. We need a player to actually run the offense. Someone who brings the ball up and organizes the offense. Instead, we have a player who brings the ball up and is thinking "I must score."

 

Since we are stuck with Gilbert, we need to put a lot of focus on bringing in a true point guard who is looking to pass more than shoot, which as a result, can allow Gilbert to play more shooting guard.

 

Then we can work on shipping off Caron somewhere for a true power forward, which will allow Jamison to move down to the small forward position. We have the potential to be a great team, we just have to make some changes to the lineup and put our players in the positions they belong in.