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So much for McDyess - Mikki Moore here we come. Yippee!
by Rook6980
on Jul 3, 2009 4:49 PM EDT
23 comments
From Mike Jones and the Outlet
The Wizards were listed among possible suitors for Antonio McDyess, but sources with knowledge of the situation said although Washington would love to have McDyess on their roster, they know can't offer anything close to what other teams will offer him. The Wizards don't want to use the mid-level exception, because even if a player agreed to that ball-park figure of $5 million, Washington would be taxed equal that number and end up paying $10 million total. McDyess is a solid vet, but not worth $10 million as a 10-minute-a-game backup, which is what the Wizards are looking for.
23 comments | 0 recs
Fun Facts About the Summer League Roster
by JakeTheSnake
on Jul 3, 2009 12:18 PM EDT
in Team Analysis
3 comments
UPDATE: Jon L has his breakdown of the Summer League team up.
As you saw a couple of days ago, the Wizards have their roster in place for this year's summer league in Vegas. The Summer League gives diehard fans a chance to see the development of some of the younger players on the squad and what unsigned players might have a shot at cracking the roster. We're less than two weeks away from seeing this crew in action so there's no time to waste in learning about what the team.
The Guys With Contracts
- Javaris Crittenton: Has a Twitter.
- JaVale McGee: Has a workout video.
- Dominic McGuire: Has a cool nickname (TASER!) that no one outside of this website knows how to use.
- Nick Young: Has a documentary.
The Guy Who Has Played With the Wizards Before But Doesn't Have A Contract
- James Lang: Lang played 55 minutes over 11 games with the Wizards in the 2006-07 season, scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in his short time in D.C. After his release, Lang joined on with the Utah Flash of the D-League, where he's played the last two seasons, along with a stint in China. His per 36 numbers are decent, but there's nothing there that's going to blow you away.
The New Guys
Alade Aminu: The Georgia Tech forward started a foundation called Brotherhood of the World which started a basketball camp for underprivileged children in the Atlanta area.
3 comments | 0 recs
Ernie Grunfeld's Interview with The Junkies
A lot of good stuff from the GM in this interview. My favorite parts:
1. He says there's no plans to move Gilbert to shooting guard. Excellent.
2. As of right now, the starting shooting guard position is still up for grabs and won't be decided until training camp. Given the uncertainty of how it's all going to pan out at this point, it's good that he's not locking himself into one player.
3. He is looking to add another backup big man. He said he's looking for "someone that could come in occasionally and give us six to eight minutes."
Rubio's playing the next two years in Spain
Alright, alright, you guys win.
1 day ago
Mike Prada
17 comments
0 recs
Six reasons why Nick Young's probably a goner
by Mike Prada
on Jul 2, 2009 4:30 PM EDT
in Player Analysis
63 comments
In continuing to work on my Randy Foye post (I'm sorry, lots of work this week, not much time), the major conclusion I'm starting to find is that Foye's presence seems to indicate the Wizards don't really have Nick Young in their long-term plans. Rather than dilute the post on Foye down with that conclusion, I figured I'd spell out a bit more clearly why Foye's presence is a real challenge to Nick Young's place on the team. Some points will probably overlap, but since we're getting too bogged down in free agent talk, I wanted to start another thread for those that are tired of it.
Keep in mind I don't necessarily endorse all these arguments, nor are they in any way a guarantee that Nick Young starts the 2009/10 season on another team.
1. Randy Foye is much better at shooting guard than point guard: Foye's numbers don't look too great this year on a whole -- 13.7 PER (below average), 46.3 FG%, 51.7 TS% (pretty cruddy). At the very least, they look pretty comparable to Nick's (13.1 PER, 48.1 eFG%, 53 TS%). But according to 82games.com, Foye's numbers at shooting guard are much more impressive (17 PER, 48.5 eFG%, 2.2 TO/48 compared to 3.9 at PG). This is consistent with Foye's last healthy season in 2006/07 (see here). It was Foye's ill-conceived tenure at point guard that dragged down his production. If we break down Foye into "Foye the PG" and "Foye the SG," "Foye the SG" is much better than Nick Young. If the Wizards realize this (which they should, since there are more minutes behind Mike Miller than behind Gilbert Arenas), Foye's going to get most of his time at shooting guard, where he'll cut deeply into whatever minutes Nick Young was going to get.
2. Randy Foye passes better: The big improvement of Young's season in 2008/09 was that he cut his turnover percentage down significantly. However, he did not improve his passing much, as his assist percentage barely improved (9% to 9.6%, both pathetic numbers for a shooting guard). Foye, on the other hand, has registered three straight seasons with an assist percentage over 20%, and cut his turnover percentage all the way down to 12% this year. Obviously, some of Foye's high assist numbers have to do with him playing point guard a bit, but that doesn't account for how Foye's assist percentage is twice that of Young's. As we've discussed before, passing skill is important for someone playing with Arenas, and Foye passes that test better.
3. Both players have similar usages: Both Foye and Young used over 20 percent of their team's possessions each year of their career. Foye's career usage is a bit below Young's (22.2% compared to 23.8%), but it's still pretty high. There's not much need for two reserve shooting guards who use a similar number of possessions.
4. Foye catches-and-shoots better than Young: Allow me to quote Stop-n-Pop of Canis Hoopus, who I e-mailed earlier this week with some questions about Foye for the Foye piece.
Foye is a fantastic catch-and-shoot player. Flip will find a good use for this guy.
(later in the e-mail, in response to a more specific question about his catch-and-shoot abilities)
As mentioned above, he's a fantastic catch-and-shoot player. There's not much to complain about the guy on this front. If he can embrace this role, he'll do very well in Flip's system.
Foye's assisted % hasn't historically been so high, but there's ample evidence to suggest that was a function of being the only decent guard in Minnesota for three years running. There's at least more hope that part of his game shines through than there is with Young.
5. Foye's less of a work in progress: The upside and downside to Foye is that he is what he is at this point. S&P expressed that to me multiple times in our conversations and I agree with him. Young, however, still has development to make, and for a team that's supposedly "winning now," there's less time for him to come around.
6. Young can be an asset in a trade to balance the roster: It's not like Young isn't talented, so whereas he might get lost in the minutes shuffle here, another team could see a lot of value to him. That might be big in a trade for one of two purposes: either as an incentive to trade away a decent third big man for Young and expirings, or as an incentive to take on a bad contract like DeShawn Stevenson so there's more room under the luxury tax in 2010 to sign Brendan Haywood and maybe Mike Miller.
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Detroit, Washington, Houston, Cleveland, San Antonio and Boston are believed to be among McDyess' suitors. McDyess, 35, left $8 million on the table last year when he took a buyout from Denver to return to the Pistons. He would like to recoup most of that in a two-year deal, but he told Miller it was more important to be on a team with serious championship aspirations.
Detroit News. That makes me feel a little better about yesterday's Times article.
1 day ago
Mike Prada
43 comments
0 recs
Wizards Summer League Team
by Jon L
on Jul 1, 2009 9:32 PM EDT
17 comments
Editor's Note: Confirmed on the Wizards official blog. I guess this confirms it: James Lang is our fifth big man! </sarcasm> -Mike
I'm not sure if this has been officially-officially announced yet, but in tracking down Summer League info for RU I came across a full list of the players on the Wizards' Summer League team. Remember James Lang? Also, NY was listed as a G/F for some reason. Sadly (for me anyway), no D-Leaguers who could've actually helped the team.
Alade Aminu 6'10" F, Georgia Tech
Ryan Ayers, 6'7" G/F, Notre Dame
Jimmy Baron, 6'3" G, Rhode Island
Javaris Crittenton, 6'5" G, Georgia Tech
Jon Edwards, 7'0" C, Kent State
Josh Heytvelt, 6'11" F/C, Gonzaga
James Lang, 6'10" C, Central Park HS
Dominic McGuire, 6'9" G/F, Fresno State
JaVale McGee, 7'0" C, Nevada-Reno
Tywain McKie, 6'2" G, Coppin State
Tyrese Rice, 6'0" G, Boston College
Jason Rich, 6'3" G, Florida State
Alex Ruoff, 6'6" G, West Virginia
Diamon Simpson, 6'7" F, St. Mary's
Kyle Spain, 6'5" F, San Diego State
Brandon Wallace, 6'9" F South Carolina
Nick Young, 6'6" G, Southern California
I've also heard that the Wizards are going to have a "mini-camp" for these guys for a few days before heading to Vegas, but I'm working on confirming that.
17 comments | 1 recs
Detroit blows its cap space on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva
Agree 100% with KD here ... that's the best Detroit could do? Really?
So you basically just traded Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Flip Saunders for Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva and (most likely) Doug Collins. That's progress?
On the bright side, I don't think we have to worry about the Pistons too much as a competitor with the Wizards next year.
1 day ago
Mike Prada
49 comments
0 recs
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