Now that we're firmly in the off-season, most of the talk is centering around the draft or making some trades, so let's split 'em up into two categories.

The Draft:

For all of you mock drafters out there, make sure you check out Ridiculous Upside's Mock Draft tool.

In terms of mock drafts that are already out, Chad Ford says take Javale McGee and Matt of Ridiculous Upside says take Marreese Speights.  Also. make sure you check out NY1's lottery mock draft.

Romans12 makes the case that Joey Dorsey would be a better fit for the Wizards than Roy Hibbert.  Matt of RU offers a rebuttal.  I can see the case for drafting someone like Dorsey -- the Wiz can use all the defense and rebounding that they can get -- but I'm really worried about his free throw percentage.  The 37.8% mark from the charity stripe is just bad on so many levels.  It doesn't bother me much from an offensive standpoint since that's not what we'd be bringing him here for in the first place, but it does bother me that in his senior year where he has a chance to contend for a national championship, his free throw percentage drops from an already poor 46%.  That just raises some red flags for me about his character (I know, buzzword with no real meaning, deal with it).  Then again, I thought Rodney Stuckey would be a bust, so take this paragraph with an epic grain of salt. 

Romans12 also had another FanPost about his fave 5 prospects in the draft this year.

Off-season trades/Rebuilding/Other stuff:

Just in case you were unsure, there are Wiz fans who aren't sad to see Cleveland out of the playoffs.   Their championship dreams might be over for this year, but that doesn't mean that Cavs fans aren't still ambitious.

Remember Vladimir Veremeenko?  He was the 2nd round pick back in '06 who, like his first round counterpart Olekisy Pecherov, spent his first season overseas.  O-Pec made his way over last year and now it looks like VV may be heading over as well:

Yesterday, I spoke with Marc Cornstein, the agent who represents Vladimir Veremeenko, and it appears that there is a decent chance that Veremeenko could play in summer league. Taken in the second round by the Wiz two years ago, Veremeenko is playing for Khimki in Russia (also have seen it spelled "Khimky") but could negotiate his way out of the contract all together or simply be cleared to play in summer league.

Ernie Grunfeld has indicated that he would like to see Veremeenko in summer league as well so maybe something can get done. Cornstein declined to detail Veremeenko's contract situation but it appears that it is nowhere near as restrictive as the one Juan Carlos Navarro had in Barcelona before negotiating his way to the NBA last summer. At the very least, it would be good to get Veremeenko over to Las Vegas for summer league so other teams can see him. You never know, maybe some team falls in love decides to make a move for him.

If nothing else, the fact that his contract is more manageable that Navarro's is a good sign.  I'm going to try and look into his game some more this week to see what it is that we'd be getting if he does make the jump this summer.

Wooz and johnnyv both have some ideas on how to shape up the Wizards in the off-season.

It looks like Carmelo is on the trading block in Denver.  For anyone that's about to run over to the trade checker, let me make it simple: If your trade doesn't have Caron, it won't work.

Melo might be out of our reach, but what about Chris Wilcox?

In the wake of Chicago winning the draft lottery, Truth About It has an idea for a trade between the Bulls and Knicks that's worth checking out.  I'm not sure if either GM would go for it (who knows what Paxson and Walsh are thinking these days?) but I'd definitely be interested if I was in their position.