The Great Divide

Each of us now has the answer to the question we hope our grandchildren will ask decades from now: “Where were you when the Wizards drafted John Wall, the greatest point guard who ever lived?”  (I was at home recovering from a summer cold, but thankfully I’ve got time to make up a better story.)  Not surprisingly, though, John Wall is about the only thing that many Wizards fans can agree on the day after the 2010 NBA Draft.  Folks I’ve talked to fall squarely into two camps on opposite sides of a chasm - those who like what the Wizards did and those who hate everything that happened after they picked John Wall.  Let’s look at what the Wizards did yesterday and see what all the fuss is about.

Move 1: Drafting John Wall - This is what has everybody excited, but even his presence creates controversy.  Can he and Gilbert Arenas coexist?  In my last post, I made the case for wanting to give it a try, but there is a valid case to be made for breaking them up.  If you consider Gil to be a point guard that needs the ball in his hands to be effective, then having him share the ball handling duties could stunt Wall’s growth.  And then there is the nearly $80M left on Gil’s deal that could be a proverbial millstone around the team’s neck under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.  As exciting as a Wall/Arenas backcourt would be, if the Wizards are able to move Gil’s contract, they almost have to from a business perspective.  I think I would be fine either way, but there are definitely strong feelings on both sides of this issue.

Move 2: Taking on Kirk Hinrich’s contract to acquire the #17 pick (becomes official on July 8th) - I think this was a solid move by Ernie Grunfeld.  He gets a guy in Kirk Hinrich that has a great motor, likes to play defense, and can make the outside shot.  If you watched the pre-draft coverage on NBATV last night, you heard David Aldridge and Kenny Smith talking about how much Hinrich helped Derrick Rose in Chicago.  If he can mentor John Wall in the same way, the deal goes from good to great for Washington and the 17th pick is just icing on the cake.  Very sweet icing since it was used on a young big man with tremendous upside (Kevin Seraphin).  But there are those that look at the $17M owed to Kirk Hinrich over the next two seasons and ask why did we pay so much when Oklahoma City was able to get the 18th pick from Miami while only taking back the little over $2M left on Dequan Cook’s contract.  My response is that maybe the Wizards tried to do a similar deal and Miami just chose OKC because they didn’t want to help a team in their own division.  We don’t know what goes on in these negotiations so I have to assume that this was the best deal available, and I really like it.

Move 3: Trading for the rights to Trevor Booker - I don’t know much about Booker, but what I’ve seen/read since last night tells me that he’s a very athletic guy that hustles his you-know-what off.  He’s also a senior so he’s got maturity going for him as well.  Some will say that the Wizards could have still gotten him if they hadn’t traded up (the Wizards had the 30th pick and Booker was picked 23rd by Minnesota), but you never know what will happen on draft night.  I like that the Wizards saw a guy they wanted and were aggressive in going after him.

What do all of these moves have in common?  The Wizards have acquired young, athletic players who are scrappy defenders.  They got pushed around so much the last few years because they focused too much on players with great skills (which they had to have in order to play Eddie Jordan’s complex Princeton style offense).  Now they are going after tough guys with motors that don’t stop when they get a boo-boo or a call doesn’t go their way (yeah Jamison, I’m talking to you).  Last night was all about a culture change and I’m really excited about the direction the team is going. 

What’s next?  There were some rumors from the European media that the Wizards might go after Josh Childress (drafted by the Atlanta Hawks and most recently played in Greece) but I haven’t seen anything concrete.  That can’t happen until July 8th anyway, so I’m sure we’ll hear more about it if there is any fire to that smoke.  One thing that I fully expect to happen is that the Wizards will decline their option on forward Josh Howard’s contract and then try to re-sign him for a lower amount.  He’d fit in perfectly at small forward with the team’s new look and attitude.

And then we come back to Gilbert Arenas.  With the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls clearing more cap space in their quest for multiple superstar free agents, it’s becoming more and more likely that the New York Knicks come away empty handed in next month’s free agent bonanza.  That could make a guy like Gilbert Arenas very attractive to them from the standpoint of doing something to pacify their fan base.  Michael Wilbon said as much in his column today, but for those of you that have been following my blog, you’ll notice that he’s a few months late (I posted exactly that in my February post and was throwing the idea out on message boards months before that).  If the Wizards can get the expiring contract of Eddy Curry and a prospect like Toney Douglas from the Knicks in return for them taking Gil’s contract, I think they have to do it.  But a lot of dominos have to fall before we can even start to seriously entertain that.

So which side are you on?  Either way, I’m sure you join me and all Wizards fans in our excitement about the beginning of the Ted Leonsis era and the potential of the rookie PG who is the first building block to this franchise’s future success.  It’s funny - who would have thought that the one thing that could bridge the divide between Wizards fans would be a Wall?

And now for some observations on the rest of the league:

- If the Miami Heat are able to dump Michael Beasley on somebody, they will only have one player under contract and will have enough cap room to sign three maximum salary players.  That’s right - THREE maximum salary players.  Can you imagine Wade, LeBron, and Bosh on the same team?!?!

Draft Winners

- Oklahoma City:   They were able to come away with a legit big man in Cole Aldrich.  He won’t be a great player, but everybody out West is trying to stockpile size to compete with the Lakers.  Aldrich is a smart player who plays good defense and should give them quality minutes as their backup center.  Also, keep your eye on the Euro big man they picked in the second round, Tibor Pliess.  He won’t play for them right away, but he’s another big body that will help them compete in the years to come.

- Toronto Raptors:  The impending departure of Chris Bosh leaves a gaping hole in their frontcourt.  They were able to start filling that hole by drafting PF Ed Davis and C Solomon Alabi.  I actually had Alabi pegged as a first round talent but he fell to the second round and they were to acquire him cheaply.  Huge steal for them.

- Greivis Vasquez:  I don’t think anybody expected Vasquez to go in the first round, especially on a night where seniors were avoided like the plague.  But congrats to him for earning himself a guaranteed contract.  And don’t knock his going to Memphis.  They aren’t a great team but Mike Conley has been a disappointment so far in the NBA, so Vasquez could see some point guard minutes quickly if he shows that he can run that team.

Draft Losers

- Indiana Pacers:  I thought Indy had a chance to have a good draft when Utah saved them from falling back into Larry Bird’s classic BWGA strategy (Best White Guy Available) by picking the vastly overrated Gordon Hayward one spot earlier.  But they still stumbled, in my opinion, by drafting small forward Paul George.  They already have an All Star at that position in Danny Granger, a highly paid backup in Mike Dunleavy, and a young prospect in Brandon Rush.  While it’s true that Rush has underwhelmed and Dunleavy is in the last year of his contract, at best George will still be a backup to Granger.  They did this a couple years ago when they drafted Shawne Williams, a good athlete with potential but who played the same position as their best player.  That didn’t work out well and I don’t think this will either.

- New York Knicks:  It’s almost laughable but the Knicks blew it once again.  They didn’t have a first round pick (conveyed to Utah from the Marbury trade a few years ago) but using their second round picks on swingmen like Andy Rautins and Landry Fields made zero sense to me.  They are looking at potentially losing David Lee this summer and should have gone for size with both their second rounders.  The aforementioned Alabi would have been a great pick for them.  But this is what happens when you commit to a guy like D’Antoni that plays a purely offensive system - you are forced to pick guys that are small and soft because they are the only ones with the skills to run your system (the same problem I mentioned above with Washington).