Jump to content

NBA Playoffs 2020: Mamba Out


Rhom

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

@Maithanet@Jaime L, thoughts on Wall just being traded for Westbrook? You also have to give up a first rounder, but I'm not seeing the year and how protected it is. 

I'm in favor. Feel like since the Wall injury, the Wiz had two options - 1) Blow it up, trade Beal and get a megahaul 2) figure out how to build a playoff team around Beal. Except the last two years they did neither and were in the worst place you can be in the NBA , the 30-35 win, completely capped out, pick 9th every year in the draft, limbo. 

At least they finally made a decision and it being the Wizards they picked option 2, which is the option they always take. This team only dreams as far as the second round of the playoffs, never anything more. Trying to think of other teams who have as consistent mediocre ambitions as the Wizards, but you know what? I'll still take it. We're never luring a great star to DC and we're not close to drafting one. And I had a really good time during the Wall-Beal era ngl, even if they only maxed out as a 2nd round team in the awful east. Actually missing getting to watch them in the playoffs these last couple years. 

Westbrook looks to be clearly post-prime at this point but like Maith says, is probably still good enough with Beal to make the playoffs in the East the next couple years. Hoping he's still athletic enough to re-create the athletic PG-knock down shooter SG dynamic they had during the Wall-Beal prime. And based on the tweet DMC shared, sounds like they're only giving up a pretty well protected 1st rounder to upgrade from a likely never-gonna-be-the-same Wall to a guy who is post prime now but has been a rich man's version of Wall his whole career. And if he puts up anything close to the 27/8/7 he put up last year I'll be over the moon. DC's gonna have totally different expectations for him than Houston. 

I dunno, when you reach rock bottom like the Wiz had, the chance to add even a fading star feels like a bit of hope.  I know Westbrook is gonna age poorly so just want 2 years of fun basketball and for Bradley Beal's prime not to be completely wasted. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Jaime L said:

I'm in favor. Feel like since the Wall injury, the Wiz had two options - 1) Blow it up, trade Beal and get a megahaul 2) figure out how to build a playoff team around Beal. Except the last two years they did neither and were in the worst place you can be in the NBA , the 30-35 win, completely capped out, pick 9th every year in the draft, limbo. 

At least they finally made a decision and it being the Wizards they picked option 2, which is the option they always take. This team only dreams as far as the second round of the playoffs, never anything more. Trying to think of other teams who have as consistent mediocre ambitions as the Wizards, but you know what? I'll still take it. We're never luring a great star to DC and we're not close to drafting one. And I had a really good time during the Wall-Beal era ngl, even if they only maxed out as a 2nd round team in the awful east. Actually missing getting to watch them in the playoffs these last couple years.

The Wizards always want to be the 10th best team in the league, and nobody knows why they do this.  This seems like an ideal "if this works out, we'll be a contender...for a second round exit" kinda move.  Which is indeed watchable, and I'm not going to complain about.  The Wiz gave up very little and got the best player in the deal.  The only way you criticize this move is if you say  "they should have picked option #1 and blown it all up", in which case this move does indeed set that back a bit (but not that much, with all the protections on that 1st rounder). 

I also want to point out that this is a disasterous end for the Morey era in Houston.  They traded Chris Paul and 2 first rounders last year for Westbrook.  His fit was bad on the Harden/Capela Rockets, so they traded Capela and went all-in on smallball.  This worked ok in the regular season, but in the playoffs Westbrook was ineffective and the Lakers superior size gave them a versatility that the Rockets couldn't match.  Thus, Morey is gone, Westbrook is gone, Harden's fit with Wall is poor even assuming Wall is healthy (unlikely).  I'm really not sure what Houston is thinking, other than adding a single heavily protected first round pick.  Maybe that really is the best they can do.  If so, the Rockets are in for a long, long rebuild because they have traded away a lot of draft capital, and at the moment they have James Harden and not much else. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Maithanet said:

I have always enjoyed watching Westbrook. He plays with an intensity that all professional athletes should aspire to.  He's totally reliant on elite athleticism, which is fading, but I'm still looking forward to seeing the wizards this year.  Probably going to be a 5-6 seed in the east if Westbrook and break stay healthy, but that is fun enough.

I mean I like this trade but the Wiz are not a 5-6 seed in the East barring catastrophic injuries to better teams. Milwaukee, Boston, Toronto, Philly, Indiana, Brooklyn.

Also poor Knicks fans, they finally have at least a somewhat-not-a-disaster of an offseason and they get to look forward to having 4 of the best 6 teams in the conference share their division and wipe the floor with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

I mean I like this trade but the Wiz are not a 5-6 seed in the East barring catastrophic injuries to better teams. Milwaukee, Boston, Toronto, Philly, Indiana, Brooklyn.

Also poor Knicks fans, they finally have at least a somewhat-not-a-disaster of an offseason and they get to look forward to having 4 of the best 6 teams in the conference share their division and wipe the floor with them.

You forgot Miami :)

Toronto is still up in the air whether they lost some talent or a lot of talent, but either way, I think getting ahead of them is realistic.  The other 6 are better on paper, but injuries or poor chemistry or whatever could easily sabotage one or two of them, that happens every year to a couple teams.  Finishing 5th is like a best case scenario, but it doesn't seem outlandish. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

You forgot Miami :)

Toronto is still up in the air whether they lost some talent or a lot of talent, but either way, I think getting ahead of them is realistic.  The other 6 are better on paper, but injuries or poor chemistry or whatever could easily sabotage one or two of them, that happens every year to a couple teams.  Finishing 5th is like a best case scenario, but it doesn't seem outlandish. 

Toronto still has the engine that has run them for the last 7 years and he played as good last year as he has in his career so I don't see him falling off quite yet, and they have the best coach in the league.  I'd put the Wiz's chances of getting ahead of the Raptors without injury being at 0%.  Literally 0.

I did forget Miami though somehow.  So that's 7 teams ahead of the Wiz.  You excited to maybe get a chance to have a one game playoff to get killed in the first round?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/3/2020 at 7:00 AM, Maithanet said:

The Wizards always want to be the 10th best team in the league, and nobody knows why they do this.  This seems like an ideal "if this works out, we'll be a contender...for a second round exit" kinda move.  Which is indeed watchable, and I'm not going to complain about.  The Wiz gave up very little and got the best player in the deal.  The only way you criticize this move is if you say  "they should have picked option #1 and blown it all up", in which case this move does indeed set that back a bit (but not that much, with all the protections on that 1st rounder). 

I know, it's hilarious. Just an epic inferiority complex and even as a fan I approach them with the soft bigotry of low expectations. If your kid is a C-student, you're ecstatic when they get a B. At least it's not like the other kid who is on meth and torturing animals. 

We're up to 25 years of "win now" moves for a team that still hasn't reached 50 wins in our lifetimes. Just off the top of my head, can think of the Rod Strickland, Mitch Richmond, Ike Austin, Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Marcin Gortat, Nene, Trevor Ariza acquisitions where they've traded draft picks/young guys to add a veteran. They weren't all bad moves, some were shrewd, but the dynamic always always is young for old. Most teams wait until they're actually good before they go into full "we need to max out this year" mode. 

Remember when they traded Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond? Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland? Rip Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse? This is the first big name for big name deal since those monstrosities. At least this time the younger guy they traded is broken down and the pick is protected. Progress! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Jaime L said:

Rod Strickland, Mitch Richmond, Ike Austin, Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Marcin Gortat, Nene, Trevor Ariza

This recitation, along with the Wallace mention later, suggests perhaps they should steer clear of UNC products.  Hell, with Rip, Butler and Okafor (who came with Ariza the first time) add UCONN too. 

As a Magic fan, curious how y'all would characterize the Lewis/Arenas trade?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, DMC said:

As a Magic fan, curious how y'all would characterize the Lewis/Arenas trade?

I just remember that one as a bloated contract exchange. Wiz had to get rid of Arenas after the whole pulling guns in the lockerroom incident and I guess the Magic were willing to take a chance he'd get back to his old form? Least from the Wizards' side was more about subtraction than addition. And thought everyone involved was gone in a couple years. How do you remember it? 

16 hours ago, Rhom said:

As we near the inevitable closure of this thread; let me repeat again that I’m still bummed Triskele is gone. :(

What happened to Frisky? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

I just remember that one as a bloated contract exchange. Wiz had to get rid of Arenas after the whole pulling guns in the lockerroom incident and I guess the Magic were willing to take a chance he'd get back to his old form? Least from the Wizards' side was more about subtraction than addition. And thought everyone involved was gone in a couple years. How do you remember it? 

Yep pretty much.  Arenas was the first player used under the new amnesty clause about a year after the trade.  I never followed what happened to Lewis afterwards, but looking it up wikipedia says the Wizards traded him for Ariza and (Emeka) Okafor.  Seems weird, dunno why the Wizards didn't just amnesty him as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...