Welcome, What is up, I'm looking at the front page of espn.com and the rumor mill link is titled "How Amare Might become a Wizard".  Would anyone with Insider mind sharing with us whatever info is there?  I have to admit, when I saw that header my heart jumped higher than Shawn Kemp trying to get a 40 off of the top shelf.  The thought of Amare and Gil has me salivating.

Go Wizards !

This trade proposal is just something to think about, its far from the answer to all the wizards problems, but it would/could certainly upgrade our talent level without sacrificing much.  This trade is assuming jamison and arenas resign and their salaries flip flop and the wizards cap number stays about the same.  And also, its not contingent upon that fact.

(i would do this trade before i did the eddy curry trade i earlier proposed)

Wizards Trade

Etan Thomas

DeShawn Stevenson

Darius Songaila

to the Chicago Bulls for

Larry Hughes

Aaron Gray

It works in the espn trade machine.

Why the Bulls do it?

They have a loaded backcourt and need to move at least 1, probably 2, from the hinrich, gordon, hughes situation.  Hughes has a large contract they dont want and this trade breaks that down into more manageable pieces for any continued dealing they do.  Thomas and stevenson's contracts run just as long as hughes' and songaila's runs for just one more year. 

Stevenson clears the point guard spot while bringing to the bulls the same things he brought to the wizards last year: defense, shooting, and some leadership.  He is a good piece for that young team as they try to learn how to win. 

(btw, if im a championship  contender trying to find my own james posey, stevenson is that type of player)

Thomas and songaila are both good players for the bulls to have on their roster.  I expect them to make several moves this offseason and they are just more quality chips to potentially move this offseason or to replace other players they might lose.  This trade is not gonna fix all the bulls' problems, but it will make their situation easier while getting some players that are better fits for how the team should be constructed.

They do lose aaron gray, but i dont see him ever being more than a backup and with all the frontcourt players they drafted, they should be willing to move aaron gray. 

Why the wizards do it?

Etan thomas is a luxury because he didnt play at all last year and the team was fine without him.  Its not that i dont think he can play, its just that the wizards moved past him and there is no role for him on the team.  His contract is almost terrible and the here is a chance to move it.

Deshawn stevenson is a valuable player and i think stats undervalue just how important he was to the wizards this past year.  But hes just not that great of a player and the shooting guard position can be improved upon.

Songaila is a nice little player and a contributor, but my hope and expectations for this year is that blatche steps up and takes all of songailas minutes.  Songaila is a stop gap player until you can get someone better.

Larry hughes is a huge talent upgrade for the wizards.  Hes had 2 bad years but i believe he was in systems ill suited for his game and he was forced to change his game, and it just didnt work.  The cavaliers style is terribly suited for larry hughes.  Hes not a good spot shooter so playing with lebron is tough and he is an uptempo player, ill suited for the slow-it-down way the cavaliers play.  This should have been obvious to the cavaliers when they signed him, but nba teams often arent smart.  

Hes proven that he is suited for the wizards style of play.  While the "Suns of the East Coast" title was always farrrr from accurate of the way the wizards play, we do play much faster than the cavaliers do.  There is more cutting, more plays, more creativity, and more independence allowed to the players, which is the type of system that a multi faceted player like hughes is good for.  I think he would thrive in any system similar to the wizards, but certainly not the cavalier's.  Im not all too familiar with how the bulls played last year, but i dont think he was put in a position to exceed and how he played for them does not change my thoughts of him as a player.   

The potential for ego/sharing the ball problems would certainly be there but i dont see that being an issue.  Arenas, jamison, and hughes are already friends and have chemistry and i would LOVE for caron butler to take more shots and demand the ball.  I dont see there being any problem there, and it could help arenas become more of a distributor and defender by taking less pressure off of him and putting him amongst equals like the celtics, pistons, and spursis have been able to do with their team mentalities.

This trade would bring the wizards a boost in talent that would make up difficult for any team to stop.  Our offense would be very scary.  We could have problems defensively and stevenson was our best perimeter defender, but its not like hughes, arenas, and butler dont have the potential to be good defenders.  This trade takes a lot of offensive responsibility off their shoulders and should allow them to concentrate more on defense.  Also, even if they werent the best on-ball defenders in the world, they would cause so much havoc for other teams with their theft ability.  

Im sick of typing and i think ive explained a lot of my reasoning behind something like this.  Let me know how you feel about a movement in this direction.

Heres an interesting off season scenario the wizards could pull off.  It'd shake the makeup of the team but add some talent.  Tell me who would say no to these trades.

First thing,

Send Etan Thomas, Nick Young, and the 18th pick to New York for Eddy Curry, and Mardy Collins/Wilson Chandler/Renaldo Balkman (whichever the knicks will give up, all their salaries work just the same)

Then, send Haywood and Dominic Mcguire to Seattle for Nick Collison

That leaves a line up of

Curry, Blatche, Collison, Songaila, Pecherov,

Jamison, Butler, Balkman/Chandler/Collins

Arenas, Daniels, Stevenson, 

Plus our second round pick and possibly our midlevel or the other exception we have (biannual?)

With this lineup, we'd need to add a 4th guard and a probably a wingman, depending on who the knicks send over and if they develop.  If they would send balkman or chandler, both of those have the potential to be the defensive guy we need on the wing.

Offensively, i dont know if anyone could stop arenas, stevenson, butler, jamison, and curry with collison and an improved blatche coming off the bench along with AD.  Thats a really talented 8 deep, not including anyone we sign and songaila, who played major minutes for us this year

Bringing in curry obviously downgrades our defense, as haywood was one of the bright spots.  Theres nothing to refute that and at times our defense will be atrocious.

 But when our defense is at its worst means curry is in and our offense is at its best.  Hes struggled in the past but i feel too many expectations have been heaped on him.  Hes probably never gonna start rebounding or playing defense like he should

But, here hed only be the 4th option and could be used primarily for scoring.  The presence of blatche and collison behind him taking off a lot of the pressure and he could just focus on scoring.  Would he be able to give us 14 pts in only 25 minutes?  He almost did this year on that dysfunctional team.

This trade shakes things up a lot while still retaining our core.  Acquiring eddy curry is always debatable because of how bad he is at defense and rebounding, but i think in the right scenario his flaws could be minimalized and his skills utilized.  

All these trades should work out, ,i checked them on the espn trade machine (substitute pecherov for our pick this year, its the same cap hold), the collison trade i couldnt do because this year he is a base year compensation player, but i believe he should be done with that this offseason and it would work.

[editor's note, by Pradamaster]Since Wooz got the ball rolling, consider this your official trade deadline thread.

I'm about 99.9 percent sure the Wizards aren't doing anything today, seeing as how they have no assets to trade and their own GM says nothing is happening, so it's probably going to be a quiet day on the homefront.  So consider this a thread for other team's moves, as well as a space for you to comment on the Shaq, Gasol, and Kidd trades that have already occurred.

San Antonio's already acquired Kurt Thomas, and it appears the Hornets are about to acquire Bonzi Wells and Mike James from the Rockets.

This page will keep updating as the action continues. -PM

UPDATE 1: The big one so far is Ben Wallace, Wally Sczerbiak, Joe Smith, and Delonte West headed to Cleveland in a three way deal. I mention the Cleveland's side since their side has the most relevance to us since we play them tomorrow. In other news Gerald Green is headed to Houston and Juan Dixon is off to Detroit.

TRADE 6B: The Clippers trade Sam Cassell, Corey Maggette, Aaron Williams, their 2008 No. 1 (unprotected) and the rights to Minnesota's No. 1 in 2008 or 2009 to Washington for Gilbert Arenas, Etan Thomas and Washington's 2008 No. 1 (lottery-protected).

Why Washington does it: For four completely logical reasons. First, the Wizards don't have to spend max money on Gilbert when it's unclear if he's a franchise guy for anything other than a fantasy team. Second, when you factor in Gilbert's new contract with the $13 million they'd save by dumping Etan Thomas, they'd save something like $44 million in 2009 and 2010 combined because Cassell, Williams and Maggette are all expiring deals. (Heading into this summer after this deal, when you include Antwan Jamison's impending free agency, the Wizards would have a paltry $38 million committed to their 2008-09 payroll. ... That's right, more than enough money to sign a name free agent to replace Gilbert.) Third, those are two fantastic No. 1s they're getting back -- a lottery pick in 2008 and a probable high lottery pick from Minnesota -- and they have an All-Star to replace Arenas on and off the court (Caron Butler). And fourth, as crazy as this sounds, they'd actually improve their playoff chances this season by getting Cassell and Maggette since it's doubtful that Arenas comes back, anyway.

I guess it all depends on what you think of Gilbert. My buddy House (a Wiz fan) argues that Gilbert is far too popular in D.C. to ever get traded, but he uttered a terse "no comment" for my question, "Yeah, that's fine and all, but would you have fun playing with him?"

Why the Clips do it: Because of the improbable resurgence of Kobe and the Lakers, the poor Clips have been blown off the map locally. They're an afterthought. They don't matter. In other words, it's just like every other season. If they don't swing for the fences with the Cassell/Maggette contracts and their picks and try to acquire a star player, they will continue not to matter. (Put it this way: As a season-ticket holder, I'm not coming back next year unless they make a big move. I can't stomach another lousy season. And I'm not alone.) This trade gives them a foundation of Arenas, Elton Brand, Chris Kaman, Al Thornton and Shaun Livingston that's legitimately exciting on paper (at least until you remember that three of those guys suffered season-ending injuries), as well as an exciting franchise guy (and a local product) who would generate a ton of interest in Los Angeles on and off the court. Let's face it -- Gilbert was born to play in Hollywood. Literally. It's the perfect place for him.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20080220

Is it up to Gilbert to follow through on his word and opt out at the end of the season, or has he already signed the papers and is opted out of his contract next season?  

I'm curious because we're all thinking under the obligation that Gilbert Arenas will opt out at the end of the season, but if it's still up to him I'm not positive he will actually go ahead and opt out.  

It's not totally to his benefit to opt out at the end of the season, since he is coming off serious knee surgery.  

He may want to grab one more big contract in case he never comes back to full strength, or maybe he wants one season to prove he's healthy.

At the end of this season, no teams will have significant cap room without letting some of their free agents leave, it's not a great year to be looking for a max deal.  

Is Gilbert Arenas, coming off missing big time in 2 consecutive seasons, really gonna get that much more than 12 million and be in a better situation?  I just dont think it's that kind of year.  

Gilbert Arenas might have just learned why it pays to have an agent and not talk so much.

Im not sure going to an 8 man rotation isnt the best thing to do, especially for bigger games.  As much as id like to see the young guys get pt and step up, the reality is that this season probaly wont be the one where they take the leap and become a contributor no matter how many times they get 10-15 minutes a game.  In my mind, theres the big 3, and then daniels, blatche, haywood, stevenson, and songaila and then a huge drop off after that.  The rest are too raw (young, mcguire, o-pec) or just largely ineffective (mason, and everyone else).  Butler could spend time at the 2 and be stronger than the man guarding him and gilbert could slide to the 2 when daniels came in to let gilbert score but not dominate the ball.  Stevenson is not a big time player but i think he can be a good role player, as long as hes not exposed too long, playing less minutes but using his energy and defense in spurts might hurt his numbers but help how effective he actually is.  Songaila, blatche, haywood, and jamison can handle the 4-5 spots fairly well.  Songaila and blatche would be hurting at C, but its not like most other teams are better off with whoever they have starting there as it is.  Just no songaila and jamison at the same time, jeff van gundy's head would explode if he was forced to watch that.  Butler, jamison, and even blatche and songaila could handle the work at the 3.  We'd be able to come with quality players all the time while also having the flexibility to go big or small.  We'd still be lacking a strong defensive player on the perimeter lots of the time, but with haywood and blatche blocking shots like they are, just playing with some discipline would go a long way.  Now, i wouldnt recommend doing this every game because jamison and arenas both need rest because of injury and wear issues, and i think itd gas everyong come playoff time, but in games against better teams i think this would be the way to go.  

The questin is whether we really want to try to win as many games as we can this year, or if the team is looking to the next year and wants to wet the toes of the young guys.  Personally, i feel you'll never be able to win a championship with gilbert arenas and/or with jamison (not nearly enough defense out of the both and arenas is not a "floor general" much less a leader), but you can win alot of games and have alot of fun.  Thatd be enough for me.  

*edit* shit i didnt read prada's last post before i wrote this, i said some of the same things he said. Great minds think alike or something.

Look, i love gilbert arenas.  He brought basetball back in D.C.  We were nothing until we got Gilbert Arenas.  I love how he's one of the most honest players in the game.  Gil is proving my theory that you can still succeed by being yourself.  

But, Kobe bryant is kobe bryant.  Kobe is one of the gods in the nba right now.  Its lebron, kobe, nash, jkidd, duncan, and everyone else in my mind at this moment, lotta guys right below them, and gilbert arenas is one of them, but im sorry, i would trade gilbert for kobe.  Theres only a select few of the guys in the league who id trade arenas for, and kobe is one of them.  Sorry gil, but its an honor to be traded for kobe bryant.

The brother Henry Abbott at Truehoop linked to this in one of his recent blog postings, it's a set of graphs a guy over at Ballhype compiled.  Real cool stuff to check out, gives another perspective on some teams and really shows how they play.  

http://ballhype.com/story/mapping_the_nba_4/

Err, theres a minimum amount of characters needed for a diary entry...Well according to one of these charts, the Wizards play with the 5th best pace and 3rd most efficient offense which is interesting.  I always thought the "SUNSOFTHEEAST" statements were way off because what the wizards often do is slow it down and then go one on one and either score or dish out for a spot up shot.  Which led me to believe(thoughts i believed were validated by something john hollinger wrote at some point) that an actual statistical analysis would leave them with a slightly better than average pace factor but nowhere near the suns and well short of the actual fastest teams in the league, the nuggets and warriors.   I'm guessing the numbers show what they show because even though the Wizards get into a half court set instead of going full court, they attack the basket fairly quickly and get their shots up without concern for the shotclock and thus they still manage to have a high pace factor despite not at all being a full court fastbreaking team.

I think thats enough, just look at the charts yourself.

ps. gilbert posted another blog the other day, i didn't see a link to it from here.