Washington Wizards Fanatics

Since they don't list this in the new format, It's easy to forget the Fanatics groups for each team...Show your support, for no reason, but to do it, and say Lets go Wizards.

Category: NBA

Hey Wiz fans! How are you feeling about the upcoming season?

See you at Midnight Madness tonight, doin my John Wall Dance.

-Shake

Category: NBA

Point Guard - D - John Wall              $3.9 (5 year)
                       *Shaun Livingston   $2.0 (2 year)
                       *Cedrick Jackson     $0.8 (3 year)
                  
Shooting Guard - Gilbert Arenas       $17.7
                         Nick Young            $2.6
                         Quintin Ross          $1.2
                       *Cartier Martin         $0.8 (2 year)

Small Forward -  Al Thornton             $2.8
                      *James Singleton     $1.7 (3 year)
                      
Power Forward - Andray Blatche       $3.2
                  D- Ganai Lawal             $1.2 (4 year)
                    * Josh Powell             $1.1  (4 year)
                           
Center -        *Shaquille Oneal         $18.0 (1 year)
                            JaVale McGee           $1.6
                 D- Dexter Pittman         $0.8 (4 year)

John Wall we lock down for as long as possible.
Shaun Livingston will be  solid glue for both our SG's and Pg's
Cedrick Jackson - Great depth.
Gilbert Arenas - Accepts his new role as SG and returns to success
Nick Young - Cant wait for his contract to be up. Trade ASAP (for picks)
Quintin Ross - Could stay as our #2 SG after this season for a few years.
Cartier Martin - Great swingman with explosive talent.
Al Thornton - Great player that will be given the chance to shine next season.
James Singleton - great speller for both SF's and PF's potential 6 man
Andray Blatche - please trade him...for a mid 1st or early 1st....please.
Ganai Lawal - Our late first round pick.
Josh Powell - Good raw size with great length. Focused on Defense.
Shaquille Oneal - Worth the money for this season for ticket sales, exposure, but most of all Shaqs first "Player/Coach" experience in developing Dexter Pittman more so than Javale McGee
Javale Mcgee - Swingman between Center and PF, will start when shaq needs a rest.
Dexter Pittman - Biggest man in the draft, great defense, needs some good coaching from Shaq.

With Shaq under a one year contract, it gets us to our Cap space just fine (a bit over) but it will help us in the long run, for 2011/12 his contract will be dumped and make room for Mr.Baltimore Thug Carmelo Anthony!!!!!! Al Thornton may want to stay to become 6th man of the year playing behind Anthony.
 
2011/2012 World Champion Roster

Wall/Livingston - PG
Arenas/Ross - SG
Carmelo/Thornton - SF
Blatche/Powell - PF 
Javale/Pittman - C 

I'd love to have Blatche if traded for a pick replaced with Larry Sanders from VCU or better Greg Monroe from Georgetown.                


Category: NBA

This is a cut and paste from our team message board that has gotten some feedback. Always looking for more. Some is edited, but not all.

 wanted to begin discussion on possible moves this offseason in free agency adn the draft.

Let's assume the Wizards will not go over the Cap of 57.7 (if that's what it is still)

This is also assuming Ted Leonsis might step in and buy the team. (fingers crossed, he's a miracle worker)

We will drop all players with team options (Josh Howard - $11.8 million)

This will leave our current salary for 2010-11 just under $28 million.

With the CBA and owners in heated discussions and debate about the new contract deals, Washington will more than likely suck it up and avoid fighting to void the rest of Gilbert Arenas' contract. (which sucks, not because I dont like him anymore for his stupidity, but because the economy sucks and he hasn't shown to be a good leader and guiding light to the playoffs.) So that means we have him through 2014 eating up around $20 million dollars each year.

Here's my thoughts on our team currently. It's time to trust Andray Blatche. It's time to allow JaVale McGee to stay on the court and gain experience to learn what he needs to work on himself, rather than telling him how to. Al Thornton is a more than decent addition and we have him for the next two years at under $4mil a pop. Randy Foye will probably meet his qualifying offer (i have NO IDEA what it is) so he'll eat up $5 million next year, but perhaps build some chemistry that may be enough to convince him to stay after next year for less. If his qualifying offer doesnt stand, he's not worth the money to us. (Sorry Randy, just not sold on you.) I can't wait for Nick Young to get off our team. He is the laziest defender on our team, and isn't much of a team offensive player. Sure, he can create his own shot well, but his Basketball IQ over all shows to be low. Quintin Ross, enjoy your check, show us you're better than Dominic McGuire this year, or we're resigning him and you'll just keep bouncing around.

Who should we target hard this summer?
Forget Lebron, forget Wade, forget Bosh. A Max contract is not going to be good for us depending on a duo of gilbert arenas + "insert Ego #2"

First lets talk about resignings.

Mike Miller - Please give him a long term contract. He's (to me) Shane Battier with 10x better shooting ability. lock him up for around 5 million next season, and give him 4 years to the contract.
Earl Boykins - Give this guy a two year contract worth a million a year (roughly.) He brings us some buzz, and is a great player offensively and as best a defender as his size allows. Great motivation a fan favorite.
Dominic McGuire - Sign McGuire to a three year deal starting at $1.2. Please, this guy has intensity and his ceiling is still not hit yet. This is a player we need to have faith in.

So right now we'd have Arenas at $17.7, Miller at $5.3, *Foye $4.9, Blatche $3.2, Thornton $2.8, Young $2.6, McGee $1.6, Ross $1.2, McGuire $1.2, and Boykins $1. That's $41.5 with Foye, $36.6 w/o for 10 players with need for a backup Center and PF, and a starting SG outside of Foye.

Draft 2010 - Let's assume we end up with a 6th or 7th pick, or at least trade down to it, because we can't hock-up too much money without an owner's decision. If our draft pick turns out to be the #1 overall, then yes, of course, we take John Wall and move gilbert to Shooting guard, where he belongs, and no need to sign an expensive player. But, that's only a dream.
Lottery Pick
Demarcus Cousins. 6-11" 280 Lb.s with a decent arm span, and great touch (%80 FT shooter for his size) This will give us the body we need against Dhoward, Shaq, Duncan, the Heavies. We'd need to feel out other teams close to us and see what they're dealing to trade down if Cousins looks to slip out of the top 5 picks. It would be a mistake to take the lithuanian guy. We need strength and toughness, not an ego built "im already good" mentality.
Cav's 1st round pick (received in Antawn jamison trade)
This is where I'd like to trade Randy Foye and the cavs pick we received to Chicago or Houston for their midround pick at 14 or 15. Here I'd like to pick up Larry Sanders out of VCU. Intensity, great defensive presance. Long wingspan like Javale.

And for our second round pick, I agree with the projected Jerome Jordan out of Tulsa.

-Shake

 Joe Johnson. We can't afford him along with Mike Miller. We might not even be able to afford Mike Miller. Hopefully Mike Miller will agree to the $7.0ish contract for a four year deal, and play him at SG next season, with Thornton at SF.  So then we can spend some of the money on acquiring a caliber player like Chris Wilcox, Fan Maryland Alumni interest. On top of that, lets go after Steve Blake also. I am no way a Maryland fan, but I remember the crowd reaction every time Juan Dixon got on the court (the first and second time he was on the Wiz.) Blake has gotten better and has proven he can start in the absense of Gilbert.

So our squad would look this way in 2010 if this would to be exactly right (possibility, 0.005333% chance)

Point Guard - Gilbert Arenas      $17.7
                   Steve Blake            $5.1
                   Earl Boykins          $1.0
                  
Shooting Guard - Mike Miller         $7.0
                         Nick Young      $2.6
                         Quintin Ross    $1.2

Small Forward - Al Thornton        $2.8
                      Dominic McGuire  $1.2  
                      
Power Forward - Andray Blatche  $3.2
                       Chris Wilcox        $3.5
                       Larry Sanders     $1.3
                                           
Center -        JaVale McGee        $1.6
                    Demarcus Cousins $2.8
                    Jerome Jordan      $0.6 

This would keep our Salary at around $53 million if they decide to sign an extra guard to cover the "Arenas Effect" which pretty much means either he's going to get injured, then two more guards will be injured on and off during his injury, until they get into a disagreement and pretend to shoot eachother with real un-loaded guns. 

Hopefully this would be a decently sized team to build from while holding our nucleus of whatever chemistry we have now , while still dealing with the aftermath of Arenas' bigheadedness stupidity and irresponsibility. I'm so disappointed in you, Gilbert. So instead of battling with this year's free agency, lock down the players we already have (Miller and McGuire) and see if you can pick up Chris Wilcox and give Maryland lovers another reason to come to the games, like Juan Dixon used to do. 

But, ruling out getting the first over-all pick in the draft and get John Wall, we need to go big and trade for the bigness. Sanders and Cousins next to Blatche and Mcgee....we can't go wrong with that rotation.

This all looks feasible and isn't "over the top" out of possibility. Joe Johnson was too much of a stretch. 

Pick it apart.

I'm still a Fan, Wizards.

-Shake

Howard is a no go. He's not worth his talent, in my eyes, which I see all the time if he can ever get to the court around injury and public non-patriotism and smoking pot. (I'm also a big Mavs fan, and the Wiz and Mavs always seem to do business together....I don't have anything to do with that ) He's too big of an expense, as well. We can do fine without him.

In regards to Foye, I dont know how the Qualifying Offer's work, if that's a "team decision" or an "if i perform this way, i automaticaly get to continue to play at this price." Sort of a player option. I hope it's something we can deal for that mid round pick for Larry Sanders. That would also sell tickets for the local crowd out of Richmond where he's a super star, also where we have preseason games.

We could get a cheap SG to use only in the event of injuries, or run with a 14 man roster in these bad economic times and waiver-wire for the just in case events.

-Shake

Looking into the qualifying offer, it's a term for restricting the free agent status of the player by the team. I'm sure the Wizards will elect to allow Randy Foye to be unrestricted by the March 1st deadline due to the size of his contract. I don't see them having the need to keep him, no matter what happens.

-Shake

So in a last minute, we sent Dominic McGuire to Sacremento for some cash and this year's 2nd round draft pick. That will give us Four draft pick's this year. That also leave's us with 29.2 million in the books for next season, along with the expected roughly 5-6.5 million (*depending on top three pick or not) would bring us to a roster of Ten players at $35* million. 

I still believe that It needs to be John Wall or trade down for DeMarcus Cousins. No matter his rawness (he has skills anyway) his size will make him an instant impact off the bench. Look at Dujuan Blaire (Yes, we passed on him only because of our salary cap hit last year) Blaire's size gets him so many rebounds. We can't pass on the opportunity to have someone like him, but taller and more offensive minded with the defense intensity to go with it. Obviously, if we get number one, John Wall is the way to go. I doubt another team would go for a Gilbert Arenas trade for the number one pick, unless blatche or Mcgee was attached...but that would change our free agent market quite a bit. But it's not gonna happen, its a pure 'what if.'

We have a lot of room to mess with if we're not looking to sign Mike Miller, as you all have stated. I totally agree, there's nothing here drawing him to want to stay here. I mean, the poor guy has been stuck on bottom feeding teams his entire career. Vancouver/Memphis, Minnesota, and now the Wiz. I wouldn't be surprised if he became a Celtic in the absence of Paul Pierce's possible (35%) departure. He deserves it. I pick the Celtics because of his time spent with KG in the passed when they both went to the playoofs 1st Round, with Flip Saunders I might add.

So We are heading into next season, definetly, with Gilbert, Blatche, Thornton, Young, McGee, and Ross for 29.2$

Since the Wiz are starting from "scratch" in rebuilding this team, we need to go Big this year. It's a good class of big men this year. The later round PF/C's are spread evenly at a decent calibur. If we can't get John Wall, I strongly feel the Wizards will trade down and take DeMarcus Cousins. If Larry Sanders falls, take him with the Cavaliers pick, if not there are several good sized SF's and decent defensive PF's lined up towards the end of the first round.  Luke Babbitt, Ekpe Udoh, Trevor Booker, and Dwayne Collins are projected to be available end of first round. We then get to continue to clean up at the beginning of the second round with "projected" back to back picks. We may have some choice between Jerome Jordan, Dexter Pittman, and Radford's Art Parakhouski. Art would be another seller to the local crowd, because I know some consistant floor level season ticket holders that are also Radford Alumni. Of the Three Pittman would be good to have next to Cousins. Both are very big and tough defensively, something Washington has missed for over several, several years.

What is everyone's opinion on going big in the draft, building around them, and signing a few decent guards this offseason, for instance bringing back Roger Mason Jr, Steve Blake, and resigning Boykins? All three would cost probably around 13 million combined, bringing us to a salary cap of roughly $48 million, with another 1.5 million to cover desired remaining roster spots with some D-league type SF and PG. The owners might not want to flirt with any more than $50 million because of Arena's ever increasing anual costs, and be able to use the displacement of luxury funds after next season to compensate for those.

Arenas, Blake, Boykins
Mason Jr, Young, Ross
Thorton, Babbitt (<----hopeful)
Blatche, Cousins
McGee, Pittman, Parakhouski

-Shake

Curse O' Les Boulez. Of course Josh Howard, our highest paid acquired player in our beginning of rebuild mode. So, again, we have 30+ million dollars....SITTING ON THE BENCH, you know, as Stephon Marbury put it "Earning the paycheck, by you know, doin nothing."

I didn't have high hopes for Howard anyway, the guy hates America, thinks only for himself, and loves to smoke the sweet sweet Chiba. Also, he is injury prone, as he was before, and forever shall be. Welcome to Tracy McGrady's life, JH.

We would never have resigned a player like Howard, or even taken our Team Option of 11+ million on him for one season. He was value to us by filling a temporary spot and allowing us to get rid of salary, that's all. So, his season ending injury this season really does nothing to the team other than bring our active roster down to Ten.

General Management isn't going to last anyway, and for the team's sake of keeping interest in the city, I hope our next GM knows we need to resign Earl Boykins. He's a great player, under rated, and makes EVERYONE in the phone booth go nuts every time he does something great, which is often. He lifts the team up.

Al Thornton is someone we do want to hold on to however, but our future is going to be this year's draft, "nuff said"

Go big Future Wizards GM, Go big (or go Wall)

Category: NBA

The Wizards long time owner Abe Pollin past away today at the age of 85. He was great owner and will be missed. Loved by the fans and players. He will be remembered always in the hearts of all Washington area sports fans.


RIP
ABE POLLIN Dec. 3, 1923 to Nov. 24, 2009


Category: NBA