Another hurdle on the way to MKG removed!!

#1
Marc Stein ‏@ESPNSteinLine
Confirming what @DraftExpress just tweeted: Wiz have agreed to trade Rashard Lewis and 2012 second-rounder for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza
After this move the Wizards are absolutely gonna pick Bradley Beal, when they got Ariza at SF for the next 2 years and a desperate need for a 2 guard who can stretch the floor.

Our only hope now is that the Bobcats do take Thomas Robinson, followed by Cavs taking Barnes - and we're good to go baby!

Either way, we're now set to have 1 of MKG, Robinson or Barnes - with the first 2 alot more likely then Barnes, who by all indication would be picked up by Cavs at 4th and is favored over MKG by them.

If the Bobcats take MKG 2nd, it'll be Robinson who drops.

If the Bobcats take Robinson 2nd, it'll be MKG who drops.
 
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#4
What a strange deal for NO. Ariza and Okafor, while overpaid, are both solid role players. Lewis isn't even that anymore and he still has a few years left on his contract. Meanwhile, I like what Washington is doing:

Wall
Beal?
Ariza
Nene
Okafor

looks like a solid playoff team to me in the East
 
#5
What a strange deal for NO. Ariza and Okafor, while overpaid, are both solid role players. Lewis isn't even that anymore and he still has a few years left on his contract. Meanwhile, I like what Washington is doing:

Wall
Beal?
Ariza
Nene
Okafor

looks like a solid playoff team to me in the East
Actually I think NO are the winners here.

They get rid of 30 milion dollars in cap (They have an option to waive Lewis for 13mil in July - Okafor and Ariza are owed 43 mil) - Lose 2 bloated deals of players who are NOT part of their long-term future, that would prevent them from fully moving forward with Gordon(Who would get extended, maybe max) and Davis, practically for nothing - when all reports before were saying they'll need to add their pick or give incentives to other teams to take them.
 
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#6
Now the Bobcats can really stick it to the Wiz and take Beal with the #2. Meaning that the Wiz will have to deal to swap picks. I would do that if I were Jordan. Get your guy and pay less in salary and get a bonus player and/or pick from the Wiz.
 

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#7
With a potential lineup of

Wall
Beal
Ariza
Nene
Okafor

it would appear another young, rebuilding team which was behind us has now passed us. That's a damn good defensive lineup, especially at the 3, 4 and 5, has offense surrounded by defensive role players, and considerably more balance than us.

Remember when this rebuild started we were surrounded by team such as LAC, Mem, Minn, GS, Tor and Wash? Well, seems everyone aside from Tor has passed us and as things stand will be better than us next year. That's not to say we don't have a piece or two which is just as good or better than anything those teams have, namely Cuz, but the way in which they've surrounded their best players and balanced the starting 5 with defensive role players and size shows our FO is seriously lagging in terms of how the F to balance a team during a rebuild. Bogut/Lee/Thompson/Curry + draft pick for GS who are also rumored to be very aggressively going after a SF like Gay will imo finish ahead of us next year.

Would have liked to get in on that NO deal for us as adding Okafor and Ariza fills our two greatest needs and appears it wouldn't have taken much at all, and while there are better options than Ariza out there he'd be a more than adequate SF for our needs. Well, we'll know about a month from now how our team will look and whether or not more lottery teams have passed us as most moves will be around draft day and the first three weeks on July.
 
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rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#8
And we have these tweets for this morning:

Joe Maloof: Over the past few weeks, we've had the opportunity to bring in some terrific prospects for our draft pick. Twitter

Joe Maloof: This year we have the 5th pick & we will definitely get a great player. Twitter

Aside from Drummond, we haven't brought in a single player who should be taken at 5. Don't know what the hell he's talking about.
 
#9
Those tweets are very strange, although it's obvious the Maloofs know very little about evaluating or identifying talent, so ignorance is bliss for them.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#10
I thought the same thing when I read this, but Ariza only has 2 years left on his contract so I wouldn't necessarily rule out them drafting a SF. On the other hand, they now have Ariza, Vesely, and Singleton at SF already so common sense suggests they must be targeting Beal. The domino effect here is that Cleveland is likely taking Robinson or Barnes according to reports. That just leaves the question mark at what Charlotte does, if they keep the pick. So (fingers crossed) this is good news for us.
 
#11
im impressed by the wizards front office being so agressive in trying to turn things around, i guess thats made possible when the ownership is willing to take on big contracts

wall and nene play well together, after the trade for nene the wizards played a whole lot better in general. they will definately compete for a playoff spot next year........wish i could say the same for us.
 
#12
Those tweets are very strange, although it's obvious the Maloofs know very little about evaluating or identifying talent, so ignorance is bliss for them.
I wish he would just keep his mouth shut. how the heck does he know if were going to get a great player or not? they havent played a single game in the nba yet! hey joe you want a great player? go out and buy one like you said you would and stop completely relying on the crapshoot that is the draft.
 
#13
And we have these tweets for this morning:

Joe Maloof: Over the past few weeks, we've had the opportunity to bring in some terrific prospects for our draft pick. Twitter

Joe Maloof: This year we have the 5th pick & we will definitely get a great player. Twitter

Aside from Drummond, we haven't brought in a single player who should be taken at 5. Don't know what the hell he's talking about.
More of the Maloofs stupid ideas about marketing and creating some buzz around the team. Strictly public relations rah,-rah. No matter how ridiculous it is. :p
 
#14
And we have these tweets for this morning:

Joe Maloof: Over the past few weeks, we've had the opportunity to bring in some terrific prospects for our draft pick. Twitter

Joe Maloof: This year we have the 5th pick & we will definitely get a great player. Twitter

Aside from Drummond, we haven't brought in a single player who should be taken at 5. Don't know what the hell he's talking about.

Dude, nit picking a bit here? It's twitter and you don't know which draft pick he is referring to. On getting a great player with the 5th pick, thats a separate line and I think we will get a great player.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#15
Well the only guy we've worked out who's projected close to the top 5 is Andre Drummond and the rumor is we don't want him at 5 so I'm not sure who Joe could possibly be talking about here.
 

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#16
Dude, nit picking a bit here? It's twitter and you don't know which draft pick he is referring to. On getting a great player with the 5th pick, thats a separate line and I think we will get a great player.
1) It's not nit picking when looking at his track record.

2) He specifically referred to the #5 pick. Think he's referring to getting a great player in the 2nd round? That's even worse.

3) We might get a great player at 5. Or not. At this point there's no evidence any potential top 5 pick aside from Drummond wants to play here.


@Kennadog, I'm just frustrated not only because of the perceived direction of our franchise but what also appears to be little acknowledgement/awareness of previous mistakes. Continuously over-hyping rookies as our only positive heading into a season is getting pretty tiring and hasn't gotten us anywhere. We're still a middling 20-something win team, and we shouldn't be after adding JT/Cuz/Reke/MT/IT, if they were just willing to spend a little and round out the roster with better role/defensive players, which they've repeatedly promised they would do.
 
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hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#17
I don't know the credibility of the source, but if Beal does go to Washington it's possible Cleveland doesn't pick Barnes:

Per sources Cleveland covets Michael Kidd-Gilchrist but seem less inclined to deal with Charlotte to acquire him. After Kidd-Gilchrist the Cavs brass appears to have it ranked Beal, Drummond, Barnes, and Robinson but that their final draft board will not be set until next week. The UCONN center arrives in Cleveland this week and it will be an interesting workout as Cleveland has been very hushed about their feelings on him.
(link)

Drummond hasn't worked out for Charlotte or Cleveland yet but he will this week so we'll see what the rumors are after that.
 
#18
I don't know the credibility of the source, but if Beal does go to Washington it's possible Cleveland doesn't pick Barnes:

(link)

Drummond hasn't worked out for Charlotte or Cleveland yet but he will this week so we'll see what the rumors are after that.
Article you quoted mentions Tyreke as possible trade bait.

According to one GM, "Keep an eye on Dwight Howard and Tyreke Evans. It's no surprise they have pinned their clubs into a corner." The source goes on to say that Evans' inability to make it work in Sacramento will scare some teams off but there is so much raw talent that somebody will fall in love.
 
#19
I know people are getting optimistic about MKG falling, but I still don't think it will happen (hope I'm wrong). I don't see him getting by both Charlotte and Cleveland.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#22
Article you quoted mentions Tyreke as possible trade bait.
Yeah I saw that but I'm not sure whether there's new information there or it's the persisting rumor that Tyreke is unhappy at SF and the Kings don't have him in their plans anywhere else. I'd be surprised if Petrie traded Tyreke this off-season without at least giving him another shot next season. The Jason Williams trade is a possible precedent though -- difference being in that case we had an established coach who wanted a steadier leader and Williams' trade value was peaking. Neither of those factors apply here.
 
#23
I don't see how Tyreke has pinned the Kings into a corner. And I hope we don't trade him.
He does in the sense that he completely controls the dynamic of our offense but he isn't good enough to actually do that yet, at least in the right areas of leading a team. Regardless of who we draft or how good Cousins' gets we know that the ball is going to be in Tyreke's hands most of the time. That could turn into a very good thing though if we get the right players to work with Reke but thats the problem.... its been difficult getting the right players. Not that our front office has really tried or anything.
 
#24
He does in the sense that he completely controls the dynamic of our offense but he isn't good enough to actually do that yet, at least in the right areas of leading a team. Regardless of who we draft or how good Cousins' gets we know that the ball is going to be in Tyreke's hands most of the time. That could turn into a very good thing though if we get the right players to work with Reke but thats the problem.... its been difficult getting the right players. Not that our front office has really tried or anything.
Personally, I don't think he's ever going to be good enough.
 
#25
Personally, I don't think he's ever going to be good enough.
He may or may not ever be but until we get someone else who can get to the rim like Tyreke he's absolutely not expendable imo. Doesn't look to be any of those types in the draft so we better just stick it out with Tyreke for now.
 
#27
@Kennadog, I'm just frustrated not only because of the perceived direction of our franchise but what also appears to be little acknowledgement/awareness of previous mistakes. Continuously over-hyping rookies as our only positive heading into a season is getting pretty tiring and hasn't gotten us anywhere. We're still a middling 20-something win team, and we shouldn't be after adding JT/Cuz/Reke/MT/IT, if they were just willing to spend a little and round out the roster with better role/defensive players, which they've repeatedly promised they would do.
Everybody's frustrated over everything about the Kings these days and I trace 99.9% of our problems to the Maloofs. All my comment was meant to indicate is that all the Maloofs seem to concentrate on is trying to hype everything, no matter how stupid it is. The IT ROY promotion was absolutely embarassing - bush league stuff. I'm considering offering the devil my soul, if he'll give the Kings rich, new owners who love Sac. ;)
 
#29
There's no question Tyreke has enough talent to be an important member of the team, but I agree with those who have stated that he might not be able to be a player who controls the whole offense successfully. That is where I find myself disagreeing with most others on this board, many see him as a player who controls the whole offense and you build everything around. I just don't see him that way. I see him as a very good piece on this team, but just not someone who is "above" the rest of the team in a sense. It would be silly to trade him for anything that isn't an all-star/likely future all-star though.
 
#30
With a potential lineup of

Wall
Beal
Ariza
Nene
Okafor

it would appear another young, rebuilding team which was behind us has now passed us. That's a damn good defensive lineup, especially at the 3, 4 and 5, has offense surrounded by defensive role players, and considerably more balance than us.

Remember when this rebuild started we were surrounded by team such as LAC, Mem, Minn, GS, Tor and Wash? Well, seems everyone aside from Tor has passed us and as things stand will be better than us next year. That's not to say we don't have a piece or two which is just as good or better than anything those teams have, namely Cuz, but the way in which they've surrounded their best players and balanced the starting 5 with defensive role players and size shows our FO is seriously lagging in terms of how the F to balance a team during a rebuild. Bogut/Lee/Thompson/Curry + draft pick for GS who are also rumored to be very aggressively going after a SF like Gay will imo finish ahead of us next year.

Would have liked to get in on that NO deal for us as adding Okafor and Ariza fills our two greatest needs and appears it wouldn't have taken much at all, and while there are better options than Ariza out there he'd be a more than adequate SF for our needs. Well, we'll know about a month from now how our team will look and whether or not more lottery teams have passed us as most moves will be around draft day and the first three weeks on July.
Really? You wanted in on that deal? A couple of weeks ago, NO was rumored to be dangling the 10 pick as a way to get EITHER Ariza or Okafar's albatross contracts off their hands. The Wizards stroll in and take BOTH contracts, don't get any picks, and even threw in their own second round pick to sweeten the deal. Not to mention that Lewis' contract was eligible to be waived this summer. Wizards blew a huge chunk of their cap space on two average players. None of whom can shoot.

You talk about a balanced roster, but I see exactly one shooter in that lineup for the Wiz. This trade was definitely a desperate win-now attempt, and I see a team that will be decent defensively and mediocre offensively. It's a borderline playoff team in a bad year at best, and they now have very little room to maneuver in free agency.

NO wins this trade several times over, as they've just cleared out a crapton of cap space, giving them room to throw a big contract at Gordon and then go after another big name to form a big three with Anthony Davis coming aboard. That's a team that will have surpassed us, not the Wiz. We'll be catching up to the Wiz even if our lineup stays exactly the same as it is now. I'm glad we stayed away from that deal, if that was the asking price.