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Off-Topic: The Washington Wizards Thread


turtle28

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Kispert seems game/NBA ready right away. Just a lot of experience. He’s going to be a bench player as a rookie but you have to believe that his experience will help. He seems wise beyond his years and mature.

Reports are they see KCP as the starting SF/wing - which is understandable - but I expect Kispert to play a pretty big role for us as a rookie.

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I think I’m more bullish on the Dinwiddie trade than most seem to be, at least here — seems like it got a pretty positive reaction across the blogosphere. 

Would I have traded Beal and burnt the whole thing down to the ground? Yes, I would have. But that never seemed to be on the table for them. Given that, this offseason has been pretty much a master stroke so far by Sheppard. 

In a matter of a couple weeks — and bigger picture, a year or so — they went from having arguably the least flexibility of any roster in the entire NBA to a position where they genuinely have options coming out their ears. A year ago, they had Wall on the supermax, Beal in limbo, almost no depth, and a conundrum where they had no choice but to drastically overpay Bertans so they didn’t lose him for nothing. Then they trade for Westbrook and find themselves with even fewer options, down a protected 1st round pick as a potentially valuable trade chip. 

To go from that, to where they are now, is pretty remarkable. They’re not a contender, maybe not for anything but the play-in games again. But what they have now, that they didn’t before, are some options. 


Things go well and you want to take a shot at forming a big 3? Maybe Rui, Deni, Kispert, Gafford, Kuzma, KCP, etc. show enough that you could put together a package for an All-Star like KAT or Spicy P to try to elevate the roster and compete with the better teams in the East. 

Things go terribly (or Beal decides he wants out)? You could easily get some valuable assets to supplement a Beal haul by trading off guys like Dinwiddie and KCP/Kuzma/Harrell, especially if you were willing to take back some bad money in the process. 

Or you can just stand pat and see if any of these guys really takes some steps forward to stardom, while remaining reasonably competitive in the meantime. The point is that now they have a lot more flexibility and can move forward in various ways depending on how things unfold. That’s a pretty damned impressive change from where things were. 

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@e16bball who’s Spicy P?

And I agree with your take. While I’m in the same boat as you in that I’d rather jus blow the whole thing up at this point, it’s true that Beal didn’t want out at this point and so it wasn’t an option unless they traded him w/o him demanding it which doesn’t seem like a smart move for Ted.

I wanted others besides Dinwiddie as our PG but we can certainly do worse. He is a Wallish PG which worked well with Beal back when Wall was healthy. We added shooters around Beal & Dinwiddie and added a big man in Harrell off the bench or even as a starter who will give us what we need out of the position along w/ Gafford and then we’ll see what happens when Bryant comes back.

They definitely have a lot of depth, improved defensive players and options should an opportunity arise around the All-Star break/trade deadline to add another Super Star to go with Beal. I doubt that happens, but anything is possible.

As it sits right now we need the young guys on the bench to develop/continue to develop & Rui to take the next step to becoming a Robin to Beal’s Batman. If Rui can become Beal’s Robin and Dinwiddie can  be similar to John Wall for us then, either this year or next we could find ourselves as a top 4 seed again.

Really, a lot of that depends on the development of the youth we already had - Rui, Deni, Bryant & Gafford - and the youth we acquired - Holiday, Kispert & Kuzma - though. Just like in years past, Beal & Dinwiddie aren’t going to be able to make us a contender alone, we need the young guys to develop and hopefully Wes & his coaching staff are able to do that.

Edited by turtle28
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One pick that felt (and feels) like a mistake to me, though, was Isaiah Todd with pick 31. Don’t really get that pick. 

Maybe sometime down the road, he’ll develop into a major contributor and I’ll look silly for saying this. But I just don’t think it fits with anything else they’ve done. They’re clearly trying to build a deep, versatile roster with the intention of staying in the playoff mix. Todd might be a high-upside long-term gamble, but guys like Miles McBride and Jared Butler would have been plug and play rotation members right now.

Watching McBride light it up in the summer league is a little frustrating when we know full well that we could desperately use a bench guard to play that kind of defense and knock down 3s. Hopefully they get some payoff from the dice roll on Todd. 

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6 hours ago, e16bball said:

One pick that felt (and feels) like a mistake to me, though, was Isaiah Todd with pick 31. Don’t really get that pick. 

Maybe sometime down the road, he’ll develop into a major contributor and I’ll look silly for saying this. But I just don’t think it fits with anything else they’ve done. They’re clearly trying to build a deep, versatile roster with the intention of staying in the playoff mix. Todd might be a high-upside long-term gamble, but guys like Miles McBride and Jared Butler would have been plug and play rotation members right now.

Watching McBride light it up in the summer league is a little frustrating when we know full well that we could desperately use a bench guard to play that kind of defense and knock down 3s. Hopefully they get some payoff from the dice roll on Todd. 

Yeah, I definitely wanted McBride or Butler with that pick as well, but I think they saw the pick as a long term developmental pick. With McBride or Butler they weren’t likely to see minutes this year either w/ Holiday & Neto there to back up Dinwiddie and they went with Todd who has the highest upside. There’s no doubt in my mind that Todd will be in the GLeague for this year and probably next year too developing. I hope it pays off as well, I have a feeling it will and at worst he’ll be a reserve big in 3 years.

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Cam Thomas making the Wizards look like idiots for passing on him. He dropped 31 points on them tonight, in his last game vs the Bucks he had 22 pts.

Homsley & Kispert struggled from 3 tonight, they need to improve their stroke - especially Kispert as that’s his calling card. He can’t be going 1-8 from 3. Homsley was only 1-5 from 3 and Isaiah Todd was a putrid 0-5 from 3.

The good news is the center they just picked up out of witchita state had Echenique had 17 pts, 4 rebs, 2 blocks & 3 steals. He could be a GLeague player for us if he continues to show well.

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I’ve watched a fair amount of the first two summer league games because I’ve been out sick from work. 

The Wizards team is just awful. Painful to watch at times, although they do play hard.

It’s not just that they’re bad players, though that’s probably part of it. It’s that they absolutely do not fit together. There is not a soul on the roster who can create good shots, whether for himself or (especially) for others. 

The most frustrating part is that it’s the worst possible situation for evaluating a guy like Kispert. These pickup game style affairs are always bad for guys like him, who tend to fit in better in structured, highly organized settings where it’s less one-on-one and more team concepts. But it’s especially painful when they’re looking to him to be a shot creator. He’s just not. He never has been, and he almost certainly never will be. He’s a dangerous weapon when the rest of your offense operates to get him the ball with space to unleash — but he’s never going to look good when you’re asking to him to drive, create, shoot on the move, etc. Just not his game. 

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18 hours ago, e16bball said:

I’ve watched a fair amount of the first two summer league games because I’ve been out sick from work. 

The Wizards team is just awful. Painful to watch at times, although they do play hard.

It’s not just that they’re bad players, though that’s probably part of it. It’s that they absolutely do not fit together. There is not a soul on the roster who can create good shots, whether for himself or (especially) for others. 

The most frustrating part is that it’s the worst possible situation for evaluating a guy like Kispert. These pickup game style affairs are always bad for guys like him, who tend to fit in better in structured, highly organized settings where it’s less one-on-one and more team concepts. But it’s especially painful when they’re looking to him to be a shot creator. He’s just not. He never has been, and he almost certainly never will be. He’s a dangerous weapon when the rest of your offense operates to get him the ball with space to unleash — but he’s never going to look good when you’re asking to him to drive, create, shoot on the move, etc. Just not his game. 

Didn’t they have a Covid issue with a lot of players who were supposed to play on the team the day before or two days before they were supposed to play their first game? And then that game got postponed?

Guys like Cassius Winston & others couldn’t play bc they got COVID. So they had to add guys at the last minute and it’s a hodgepodge group. Sucks for Kispert as you said, but there’s nothing they could do about it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsports.com/washington/wizards/cassius-winston-among-3-wizards-covid-19-protocols-summer-league%3famp

”The Wizards announced on Saturday night that Cassius Winston, Issuf Sanon and Isaiah Todd have all entered protocol. They were replaced on the roster by Cheick Diallo, Asante Gist and Derrick Walton Jr.

Winston, Sanon and Todd were all second-round picks by the Wizards. Winston was taken in 2020, while Todd was just selected last month No. 31 overall from the G-League Ignite. Winston was likely to be one of the team's best players.

Whether they can return or not is unclear at this point, but complicating matters is the Summer League is not long. The Wizards will play five games, the fifth which has not been determined yet. But their first four games fall within a seven-day span.

The Summer League's protocols state that unvaccinated players who come in close contact with a positive test must quarantine for seven days. If any of the affected Wizards players fall into that category it could affect their ability to play at all.

Diallo and Walton Jr. bring NBA experience to the Wizards' Summer League roster. Diallo is a forward and Walton Jr. is a guard. Gist, also a guard, recently graduated from Iona University. 

Winston will be tough to replace, in particular. With one NBA season under his belt, he figured to be one of the team's key players in Las Vegas.”

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Wizards get the first win of the preseason!

Kispert, Homesley, Echenique and Mason Jones played well.

Maybe Homesley makes the Wizards roster as the back up SG but I’m feeling all of these guys’ best shot is to be on the Wizards GLeague team including Isaiah Todd who has struggled shooting in the Summer League.

Kispert: 18pts (4/7 from 3), 3 rebs (I wish he’d do better there) and 2 blocks

Homesley: 15pts( needs to do better from 3, just 1/6) but 8 rebs, 5 asts & 2 blocks

Echenique: 13pts (1/1 from 3) in just 8 minutes played because he sprained his ankle, 3 rebs & 1 block 

Mason Jones: 14pts, 4 asts, 5 rebs, 3 steals

Isaiah Todd: 23 minutes, 8pts (just 2/6 from 3) 7 rebs, 2 blocks, 1 steal

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