[Draft Express] Okafor/Ariza to Wizards for Lewis/#46

Definitely possible, but so what? Point guards don't win you championships and very rarely make you even contenders. Look at Deron Williams now and Chris Paul when he was in New Orleans. Nash was the exception for a few years but even he couldn't get to the Finals.

Just saying, if you're relying on a PG to carry your team the odds are against you. You better have 1 to 2 other very good to all-star level players to contend (see Celtics & OKC).

Wall could become the best point guard in the league, but he's not getting past the 2nd round with Ariza, Okafor, and Nene...even if Beal turns out to be a stud.

 

Glad you chimed in. This is a grand slam trade for the Hornets by any measurement because of the salary dump. I wouldn't call Ariza and Okafor high-quality at all, but together they should be better than Rashard Lewis.

Any thought on what happens with Blatche? What's your opinion on bringing Wittman back?

 

Deron Williams on the Nets doesn't count as the rest of that team is comprised of dog ****. Deron Williams as a Jazz always carried them to the playoffs and kept them in contention.

Chris Paul also single handedly more so than Dwill carried his Hornets to at least the playoffs without a true 2nd star.

Also, I think you forgot to mention Derrick Rose. He doesn't really have a true 2nd star on his team but he carried the Bulls to the conference finals last year.

I'm not arguing that you need at least 2 All-Stars to contend but if your PG is a superstar and you have good surrounding players you'll always be in the playoff hunt at least.

Just making the playoffs would be a huge step for the Wizards. Making it out of the 1st round would be unbelievable for them.

 

Maybe your interpretation of "high quality player" is grander than mine.

With Okafor it's mainly an issue with health. Don't think there's much question he puts up productive numbers. Ariza...yeah, not so much. But I guess overall they should be a better defensive and rebounding team.

My biggest issue with the trade is how it might affect their draft selection. If they skip on MKG simply because they need better shooters, that would be pretty short-sighted. If there's other reasons...then so be it. But yeah, I'm leaning/hoping for MKG at the moment if you can't tell.

They will have had the #1, #6, and #3 picks in the last three drafts. If you plan on keeping all these picks as part of your core moving forward, at some point you need to start building a basketball team, and give the young guys a chance to succeed (btw, not impressed with Vesely so far). Maybe they should have just waited one more season and taken a hail mary on free agency, but I think that's about as long as they could "tank" without just deciding to scrap the John Wall project and start over.

As for Whitman, I really don't have much opinion on him. Definitely holds players more accountable than Saunders, but I didn't really see any results out of it. The change really only occurred when Young and McGee left. Not sure how much of that had to with Nene's presence or knuckleheads' absence...probably a combination. Still the team performed well enough down the stretch that I think he at least deserved a chance.

As for Blatche, I don't see him playing for the Wizards next year. Too much of a distraction. Guy gets booed by Wizards fans the moment he sets foot on court and every time he touches the ball.

 

Fixed, in my estimation, he wasn't a bad player, but I thought it was silly that people (even Morey himself) believed or hyped his ability to become a go-to player. Feel the same way about Morris, Motiejunas, Lowry (to a point), and even an incoming Gasol. Saying a player is decent or has decent potential is one thing, comparing him to an active superstar or a player in the hall of fame is where the ridiculous stuff comes.

Posters on this board tend to over react to alot of things.

 

Ariza doesn't make anyone expendable. Nene doubles as Oak's backup, and neither are anything close to 35 mpg guys anymore.

Surprised no one's brought up Okafor's left knee, which is supposedly in need of microfracture surgery.

 

That would be a huge step, and perhaps their goal is just to get better and sell more tickets right now, but as a fan (especially with a star-studded finals going on right now), I think in terms of the big picture and if there's not a decent shot at a championship with the guys I'm building around then I don't see the point.

Ergo if I'm a Wizards fan and we're bringing in expensive veteran role players as if Wall alone is going to take us anywhere, I'm a little disappointed (even though they're adding a good player at #3 too). But I imagine most Wizards fan will be happy with a playoff birth at this point.

Re: Rose -- don't want to argue over semantics, but Rose IMO is not a traditional point guard is the sense that CP3, D-Will, or Wall are. Those guys are distributors first and foremost whereas Rose is the go-to scorer, more like a wing, and can score at will much better than those guys. Not to discredit any of them as they are all great players, I just see Rose as a much different type of player. If you look through modern history of NBA champions, having a great PG is much less important than having a dominant wing and/or dominant big man.

 

Wiz just need to get rid of Blatche and Crawford. They will be fine.

Hornets are goin places.