This frankly reeks of ownership impatience. Sam Quinn at CBS Sports
I've been on team "Let Will Dawkins (and Michael Winger) cook" since they got here. But I can't quite shake the feeling (or fear) that the organization might be up to old tricks.
Ownership wanted Dawkins to do the trade. WizardsMuse1
Look, I ultimately like the Trae Young trade. I think I'll end up there with AD, but you'll never convince me that he's reliably available. We made something out of almost nothing here. Incredible asset management.
Also suspect that the extensions might make or break the final grade on these trades. Extensions tend to be fraught under Leonsis.
I'm still letting our guys cook, but I'm watching a little closer than before.
31 comments
https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtonwizards/comments/1qw8ajj/pressure_to_win_from_ownership/
I understand the concerns but theses transactions can at least be argued as smart asset/business decisions. Winger, with Dawkins learning and following along, did this in OKC with different variations to it. I’d be pressed if we gave up young talent for the moves.
I say we keep keefe I like how he keep playes balanced so nobody gets u injured
Actually no. You can’t tank forever, and the acquisitions we’ve made were buy low and easy to walk away from.
I mean honestly, I would like to start seeing some wins soon too. Next two draft classes apparently suck so not much upside in tanking forever.
I would be concerned if we blew up future capital or traded key young players but we didn’t. Get the high pick this year and in a wide open East we can make some noise.
It never left
Considering how little we gave up, no. These were low risk deals.
Good. Nobody trying to win less than 20 games forever
Non zero chance Zach browses this sub on occasion
No
If it were Ted, he would’ve outright given up the 2027 pick, if he could.
Oh well. Tired of grooming players for other teams
Considering we didn’t give up any young promising assets, no. Two late-first round picks, a bunch of seconds, and a handful of rotation guys for an oft-injured big man who is great when healthy and a veteran PG who has been a consistent 25 and 10 guy for the last 7 years.
Who’s the most promising player we gave up? Kispert?
Short answer, no.
Pros:
-we paid nothing for him. Those picks are actually worthless
-got rid of that shitty middleton contact
-We need a good center. I heard he doesn’t like playing 5 but well, sorry AD
-AD is an elite defender. I’m sorry to say this but he could be in a wheelchair and be a better defender than most of our team. This is the vet mentorship we need
-Hypothetically AD/Trae/sarr/George/darryn Peterson is a genuinely competitive lineup
Cons:
-He has had a long term injury in almost every part of his body, he will probably sit out a lot
-He’s old
-His contract is a year longer than Trae’s and is expensive, especially if he’s not playing, or his age catches up with him
Yes. A tiger does not change it’s stripes.
At some point, the bottom line, putting butts in the seats and pushing to go quicker than it should will always be in the back of your mind.
That said, the front office that is in charge has options if they decided to say nope, we’re out of here, we didn’t sign up for this. So, you have to believe at some point they’re the ones steering it and Ted is just signing the checks. Does he want to win? Sure, of course he does. But he seems to have committed to this route.
next year’s class is not as good as this year’s class. As long as we keep this year’s draft pick, we still moving.
I think judging off how empty wizards games have been the past two years it is logical to assume the owner pressured them to do something.
Yeah I was worried about it with Trae and I dunno how this doesnt point further to that direction. Why do it now and not wait until the lottery/see what else is available in the offseason? With that cap space they could have still made moves for a playoff push next season even if they didnt get someone with AD’s name recognition.
I think all this speculation about ownership meddling is nonsense. Not saying it can’t be true, but no reason to think it’s relevant here because these moves stand on their own from an asset management and team building standpoint.
The whole AD, street clothes thing is way overblown. Let him rest up the rest of the season with Trae, working behind the scenes and he will come back strong next season. Both Trae and AD are looking to revitalize their careers and DC is the perfect place if they embrace it. I believe Trae already has and I think AD will as well. We’ve been flipping bad contracts for bad contracts for expiring contracts and now we are at the end goal, legit stars that need a new start, rehab their image and their careers. It provides us with so much flexibility, especially if we can sign them to a team friendly deal which I think both will be open to. They still getting big money but not max money type of deal. We really screwed the pooch when we failed to trade Beal when he was a hot commodity once upon a time and it really hurt our war chest of assets. Acquiring Trae and AD is huge for us, to help lead the young guys into being a competitive team and to possibly bring back additional assets via trade down the line. Really has been a Dawkins and Winger master class with the trades this past year. I’m starting to forgive the Deni debacle.
That is Sean Penn
Sure, it might have been a factor. Ted famously hates fielding awful teams and is fine with mid, but man when the assets management has been so good, giving up almost nothing substantive for two All Star talents to mentor and play with the Wiz Kids is just management wizardry.
They’re very savvy moves in terms of what was given up, so at least tactically we are far, far ahead of the Grunfeld days.
That said, the rubber will meet the road when AD pushes for a contract extension. If we offer multiple years in the 50M+ range then that is foolish, tying up our cap sheet. You have to hope that we are smarter than that. In Trae’s case, I think an extension is more sensible since he’s so much younger.
Gotta take your shot at some point….
I’d only worry if we turn around and extend them sight unseen….
Maybe extend Trae a year and drop his per year….
Davis, I would be shocked if they extend him without seeing a season of 60+ games.
I actually notice more GM are doing this it’s literally what Danny Ainge did yesterday. this is a new way to have another free agency and it’s genius so no way its Ted’s work😂
Nope
No. In the leonisis days this would have been a done a year ago and we would have given up our first round and a few of our young pieces for trae and AD. Or it would have been immediately been extended for bad contracts. These are super low risk and medium to high reward moves and in two years if we want we can wash our hands of them.
No
For me, the answer is yes and no. This type of move actually strikes a welcome balance between making the owner happy and also making a savvy move that takes advantage of another teams desperation. Instead of the other way around when we were desperate to surround Wall and Beal and then just Beal with talent because we were in a win now window. Or even like when we got Paul Pierce. AD is not the centerpiece of this team, it’s still the rookies we drafted and one can imagine that AD, even on the bench, can only help Sarrs growth.
I’m not saying Leonsis is a great owner, it’s still fuck that guy 100%, but I’m not seeing any evidence of him getting in the way of Dawkins and Winger yet.
Worse trade ever