r/washingtonwizards

Feels like every other team dropped by now or is playing actual games.. anybody know anything?

Everyone by now has seen Darryn Petersons first game, it was amazing (despite the turnovers) please don’t be in panic mode or engage in arguments if Aj has a bad first game.

[Charania] Georgetown and New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing has agreed to become an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards and head coach Brian Keefe, sources tell ESPN. Ewing has been in an Ambassador role with the Knicks and now returns on the coaching sidelines in D.C.

It’s official now

Source: https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania

This all feels very similar. Snakes from the same city. Celtics put their chips behind the wrong horse in my opinion.

Bilal led France in scoring against Belgium. Looks noticeably bigger and the jumper was falling.

Last year he averaged almost a double double per game (10 pts 9.6 rebounds) per game. Only a +/- of -3.4, so he shouldn’t negatively impact us too much. Obviously there’s some negatives there, but, anticipating Anthony Davis will be out much of the season, Ayton played for almost 30 minutes a game so he could play more while Davis is out or to keep Davis and Sarr healthy.

At the bare minimum he’s a good vet presence.

I've always been a proponent of striking while the iron is hot and nabbing distressed assets while their value is at its lowest and they cost little to nothing to get. The Thunder used to do that before they built their current roster up and did amazingly well with it (grabbing players like CP3, Schroeder and Horford, letting them rehab their value, then moving them for significantly more than what they cost to get while also making sure they go to a situation they approve of afterwards). Its funny that Will Dawkins was working as Presti's right hand man throughout that whole period and now he's applying the same blueprint here.

Maintaining the low risk, medium to high reward mantra is imo the best way to set up building a team up during a teardown. Picking up CP3, Jordan Poole and CJ McCollum essentially for free one after the other was a masterclass in turning a paperclip into a car. Creating large scale value out of what essentially started off as BB's supermax, an extremely negative value asset. Thankfully we found a sucker in Phoenix to actually take that contract off our hands (and pay us handsomely for it as well lol). Mind you, all of these trades we made, we made sure the players went to situations they actually approved of, keeping our relationship with them intact and our image around the league prestine (hence Bagley coming back here twice after we traded him - another little rehab project that became a fan favorite. Love/miss you Bags <3)

What I didn't see coming though was Will Dawkins scaling up the operation to star level players like he ended up doing. This was something that never really happened in Will Dawkins time in OKC. My guess is it stems from 2 big reasons:

1- The opportunity never quite presented itself the way it did here

2- The SGA/PG trade made it unnecessary as they had the foundation they needed (although they did still grab a veteran CP3 at the time to help mentor and guide the young SGA in his twilight years - rehabbed his value and moved him afterwards too)

The type of distressed assets we seem to be grabbing now are insane value. We managed to grab Trae Young, Anthony Davis and DeAndre Ayton for what essentially amounts to 6 2nd round picks. Imagine saying that to someone just 3-5 years ago lol. That is some unbelievable asset management. And yes, all 3 players have glaring flaws but if they didn't we wouldn't be able to get them for so cheap.

As much as people like to clown the Trae contract, he's still one of the best playmakers in the league currently and probably one of the best in the league's history. The man averaged close to/over 10 assists for most seasons he's been in the league and he's only 28. Player's physical primes tend to go from age 26-32 so he's still got tons of gas left in the tank and we have him signed essentially for his whole prime now. Not to mention he's just a really fun player to watch and root for. Genuinely just a stand up guy and a showman. We have Travis Schlenk as a higher up in our front office and he's the guy who drafted Trae and saw everything there was to see with him during their time together in Atlanta, both the pros and the cons. If there's anybody that is familiar with what his value actually looks like, its him, and he chose to push for the trade and sign him along with the other brilliant minds in our FO. I trust they know exactly what they're doing.

Now as for AD, that one is just funny. 6 months after we get him essentially for free, his value around the league skyrockets because teams are actually motivated to trade for him now (thanks Bron!). Add to that his being the perfect fit for our roster, we now hold all the cards as to whether we trade him or play him. Literally a win win scenario. The only major downside of course is his injury history, but look at this way. The worst case scenario happens and he has a major injury before next season's trade deadline and his trade value is now nullified and he's not helping us win games. At that point, he probably picks up his final year player option and we thug it out with him for one year then move his expiring contract the following year for close to the same value we got him for anyway. Not bad at all.

Finally, Ayton. Lol. Yes, he's a diva. Yes, his motor and effort fluctuate faster than the weather does in the DMV. Yes, he's never played as a backup before and he'll probably be in his feelings about that. All that said, he's easily one of the best backup bigs in the league playing for a new contract right now and he's cheap, both in terms of what he cost to get and his actual compensation. And with all his flaws, he's actually a decently playable replacement for AD if he gets hurt or traded at any point next season. Is he perfect? Not even close. But is he perfect for what he need from him right now? Absolutely. Couldn't have asked for anyone better for the role.

Ok I'm gonna stop here cause this is a long ass post now but I had a lot to say and I hope at least a few people actually read through the whole thing and find it interesting lol.

TLDR:

Trust In Travis Schlenk And Dawkins/Winger

TITS And Dawnger