Gotta love the community you all have going here.  I’m glad I finally got around to signing up.  Anyone have Ernie Grunfeld’s email?

FIRST step to the off-season will be to re-sign BOTH Gilbert and Antawn.

I’m not hearing any part of the argument against Gil.  He is a top-10 player in the NBA when healthy.  When someone on the court is that good, the role players simply don’t have to work as hard to get open shots and can focus on more important things like DEFENSE instead of the rare numb-face.

Now for the trade…

WIZARDS OUT

Brendan Haywood (5 mil/yr @ 2 years)

Andray Blatche (3 mil/yr @ 4 years)

Deshawn Stevenson (3.5 mil/yr @ 3 years)

18th pick in the draft

WIZARDS IN

Elton Brand (he would have to opt-out and then Sign and trade)

10 mil with 10% yearly increases thru 4-5 years

Brevin Knight (1.7 mil @ 1 year)

This deal would only work because it’s with the Clippers.  Why wouldn’t the Clips want to exchange a 29 year old forward fresh off knee surgery for a chance to get younger with players who have very favorable contracts?  This is the type of thing they’re known for.

They will be getting Shaun Livingston back, who also suffered a heartbreaking leg injury, but who is still just 23.  With Livingston showing the promise that he did before his injury, it would be cool to see him running the break with Maggette and Thornton on the wings and Mobley and Stevenson spotting up for 3’s.  They could have a great mix with that backcourt.  They’d also have 2 centers coming off incredibly strong seasons in Kaman and Haywood, and young Blatche with the opportunity to prove himself alongside a much younger roster with more minutes to go around.

Mix in their 2 draft picks at 7th and 18th, which they could draft someone like Kevin Love or Darrell Arthur to anchor their PF position, and another young PG like Ty Lawson or DJ Augustin to go behind Livingston and they would have a very potent group of young talent.

CLIPPERS depth chart:

Shaun Livingston / Ty Lawson / Quinton Ross

Corey Maggette / Cuttino Mobley / Deshawn Stevenson

Al Thornton / Tim Thomas / Nick Fazekas

Kevin Love / Andray Blatche / Paul Davis

Chris Kaman / Brendan Haywood

This is an extremely risky deal for the Wizards, and I doubt Ernie would make it with the good job security he seems to have right now.  But me on the other hand… “I’m so nice that I’ll bet my life (I guess I got a gamblin’ problem).”

The Wiz immediately become a contender in the East.  Elton Brand has a broad range of moves on the block as well as a sweet 15 ft jumper.  He's solid on defense, and he gives us that post presence that any team needs in order to win a championship.  Thats the goal with this trade...

And then you know what happens when you make that big of an improvement in one season: it attracts free agents who wouldn’t otherwise sign on.  After this blockbuster deal goes down on draft night, it will catch the eyes of guys like Mickael Pietrus, Desegana Diop, Chris Duhon, Devin Brown, or Eduardo Najera.

Personally, I think Pietrus and especially Diop would be the best fits as free agent additions.  Pietrus replaces the 3-point shooting that we lost in Deshawn, and has solid defense.  Diop is the one piece that we would absolutely need.  With the dynamic scoring of Gil, Caron, Brand, and Jamison (COMING OFF THE BENCH), Diop would be the rugged rebounder/shot blocker that could be the intangible aspect of the half-court that doesn’t show up in the box score.  It would then be important to re-sign Roger Mason.  His poise and 3-point shooting late in the season was a bright spot and I only see him improving his game.

Though our bench was much deeper this year than it was the past, one thing it lacked was a consistent 6th man/scorer that could come into the game to either keep the offense moving or give us a spark.  Jamison has proven in the past to be a great 6th man, and as captain, I see him relishing that role to make the team take the next step.  It would also be a cohesive second unit coming in, with AD, Jamison, and Songaila who all work well together and with Nick Young being the offensive threat that replaces Gilbert’s shooting.  That is a second unit that can straight up shoot the ball, and again you have your muscle in the middle in Etan.  Anyone have Ernie’s email??

WIZARDS depth chart:

Gilbert / AD / Brevin Knight

Roger Mason / Nick Young

Caron / Mickael Pietrus / DMG

Elton Brand / Antawn Jamison / Darius Songaila

Desegana Diop / Etan Thomas / O-pech