Washington Wizards the winners at the trade deadline

HueBoND 2001, I’m not nearly as impressed with Ernie Grunfield and what he’s done as you are. It appears as if he was virtually giving away players in return for cap space which may or may not work out.

HueBoND 2001, I don’t think there’s any doubt as to which team was the big time winner at the Draft Deadline and that was Houston. Their GM Morey was able to convert a huge contract for a player possibly on his last legs [Tracy McGrady], an excellent 6th man [Carl Landry], and Joey Dorsey into:

A. Obtaining the Knicks 2009 number one draft choice, Jordan Hill
B. Exchanging number 1 Draft choices with NY in 2011
C. Receiving the Knick’s Number 1 Draft Choice in 2012
D. Acquiring an outstanding offensive talent in Kevin Martin
E. Getting an extra big man in Hilton Armstrong

Good points about Blatche and Thornton but we still disagree on the rest. Jordan Hill hasn’t been given an opportunity to play and many people still believe he can become good, maybe even good enough to cancel out the loss of Carl Landry as a 6th man. Obviously that remains to be seen.

And if the Knicks have another losing season next year, that 2011 draft switch can turn into a very valuable pick. As for 2012, that’s too far away to evaluate.

I personally think stockpiling number one draft choices is a better option that freeing cap space. With draft choices you know you’ll have an opportunity to get quality players. They also have a lot of value in future trades.

As for cap space, you have no idea as to who will or will not sign with your team. Cap space is good if it works out but there are a lot of unknowns.

If the Wizards had the best outdeal of the trade deadline, then the rest of the NBA must really suck. I mean seriously you have Big Z being bought out. (a very nice center, I might add, a point guard who cannot control his anger or his attitude, and they you have PF who should be small foward, and another small forward in Thornton. Yes, Thornton and Blatche will benefit, but it the end it will do little to help the team. They need some Whiteside or Cousins, maybe Turner. Then after they are developed(maybe a year or two) then we can talk playoffs. If anyteam did benefited the most from their trades, it is BY Far the ROCKETS. Cavs come in second.

dwilljazz8, I agree with your points above.

The other thing I wanted to say to HueBoND 2001 about cap space is how often that causes problems as much as solving them. How many times have you seen a team desperate to sign a free agent significantly over pay and then they’re stuck with a massive contract on a guy who doesn’t come close to providing the value paid? There are lots of guys around the NBA making millions of dollars they don’t deserve because foolish FA decisions.

I have to agree with the Rockets, they got a bunch of picks and jordan hill who might be something if developed. I’ve never been high on Martin but they got him to and all they had to do was take on jared jeffries when they weren’t even in the race for 2010. seems good to me.

I would say the Cavs are second because when Z comes back they will have given a 1st round pick and some european guy for jamison and telfair (who will probably be waived when Z comes back).

I agree Jordan Hill isn’t a lottery pick, he’s still not getting playing time in Houston even what does that tell you.
Washington did well shedding salary, more impressive would be moving Arenas contract as I think it won’t be voided.

NYK2010, you often make intelligent comments but I can’t believe what you said above about Jordan Hill. You wrote, “he’s still not getting playing time in Houston even what does that tell you.”

At this point in time it tells us absolutely nothing. How long has he been in Houston, all of one game? Come on, give the young man time to adjust and learn. After all, he’s still only slightly more than half way through his rookie season.

None of us know how it will turn out for him, but I still believe Jordan Hill has the potential to be an excellent 6th man some day. Maybe not as good as Landry was, but who knows?

I think Houston got the best end because of the the picks Kevin Martin and cap space. The have a lot of perimeter shooters to surround Yao Ming with The have a nice guard in Brooks and a nice bk up in Lowry
They are two deep at a lot of positions and they have money and picks. Jordan Hill will take a least 2 years to be the player that many think he can be and by then Knicks will have someone on his level and maybe get that person in the draft that is filled with power forwards. Washington is good though, they have a young front court and cap space. They play in the East. They still have a top point guard in Arenas when he comes back and really just need to sign a vet center and solid shooting guard along with bench help to make some noise.

Personally I don’t like it when teams do trades for the future. I can see that advantage of it if the team really sucks and needs some help come off season. But let’s take the wizards for example. They have a ton of cap space next year thanks to this trade. But who knows what they will do with it. They might sign lebron, dwade bosh, booz, or Amare, but quite frankly you have no idea. As a fan you can sit and pray and hope on bended knee that they will sign one of the above mentioned free agents with their extra cap space money, but you have no idea if this will happen or not. And then there’s the deal about GM’s signing free agents for much more then they are worth. This could happen if the decide to sign Amare, Bosh or Booz for what they earning now with their current teams. In the end they end up kicking themselves in the shins because they have little or no extra money to sign other quality players to be a supporting cast and help the wizards win a title. Or they could just rely on draft picks in 2010 and 2011, and trade the cap space to other teams for once again role players. Which quite frankly would suck, because you have idea if those draft picks will reach their potential or not. So basically what I am saying is that when a team trades for the future, it is a bad decision because ultimately we, as the fans of that team, have no idea what they will do with that extra cap space and if it will pay off or not. For all we know they might end up doing absolutely nothing.

If the details in rtbt’s post are tru, WOW, i knew about Hill and Martin…but the 2011 and 2012 NY #1 PICKS????

Those could turn out to be #1 picks. TYhe Knicks will still suck then, mark my words. Nobody wants to come to an empty roster.

But to be fair, the point of the original post was how well the Wiz did, he just exagerated a bit.

I went to the game on Friday and saw them beat the Nuggets. You can pencil Blatche in for 20 and 8 for the next few years. Thornton is a less polished version of Butler, and Josh Howard is a smaller version of Jamison. All those dudes did was score and still lose…those type players r a dime a dozen in the league so y pay them that much?

Good job by the Wiz; Usually when teams know youre getting rid of players u get shafted, but they got equal value for Jamison and Buler.