Zach Lowe explains here
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-wizards-playoff-kevin-durant/
The answer is no.
The Wiz, by the way, have quietly done a lot of smart stuff that belies their reputation as an organization playing checkers while the best teams play chess. The path to this point was ragged. The Wiz blew a bunch of high draft picks — first by trading one for Randy Foye and Mike Miller in a rush to chase 48 wins, and then by just whiffing. They sold second-round picks like cheap candy, most recently flipping the pick that became Jordan Clarkson for some sweet, sweet cash and the ability to open a roster spot for a retread. They extended Andray Blatche, and then amnestied him. They needed lottery luck to vault up the Wall draft, sat out the James Harden trade talks, and built a roster with a doughnut hole where a prime-aged player should be.
But they’ve started to nail the little things. Pierce has been a huge plus, on and off the court, and the Wizards turned trade exceptions into bargain deals for Kris Humphries, DeJuan Blair, and Ramon Sessions — and even more trade exceptions. The trades for Nene and Gortat, controversial at the time, turned out well. They have four people doing analytics and a well-regarded training staff.
We just haven’t seen the Wiz with major cap room in a while. They punted that possibility in the summer of 2012 by dealing Rashard Lewis’s nonguaranteed deal for Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor, and if Durant signs elsewhere, the Wiz will be competing with just about everyone for the same pool of sub-superstar free agents. Should we trust them to pick the right backup plan and actually implement it? Al Horford is an obvious Durant fallback — a Nene replacement who brings the same all-around game, but with more shooting.
But Horford will have a dozen suitors, including the Hawks, who could outbid everyone. No one knows how the free-agency landscape of 2016 and 2017 will play out, but if everyone has cap room, offering money alone may not get it done — especially in a market with little history of drawing big-time free agents.
The Wizards are good now, and they should stay good for a while. But becoming great is hard, and it takes some luck. Get lucky enough and the path opens wide before you. If Durant thinks Wall is a top-10 player and is just dying to play with him, this other stuff won’t matter. But if things get more complicated, as they surely will, an organization that hasn’t made the good-to-great leap in 40 years will have work to do.
Why?
Grunfail
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-wizards-playoff-kevin-durant/
The answer is no.
The Wiz, by the way, have quietly done a lot of smart stuff that belies their reputation as an organization playing checkers while the best teams play chess. The path to this point was ragged. The Wiz blew a bunch of high draft picks — first by trading one for Randy Foye and Mike Miller in a rush to chase 48 wins, and then by just whiffing. They sold second-round picks like cheap candy, most recently flipping the pick that became Jordan Clarkson for some sweet, sweet cash and the ability to open a roster spot for a retread. They extended Andray Blatche, and then amnestied him. They needed lottery luck to vault up the Wall draft, sat out the James Harden trade talks, and built a roster with a doughnut hole where a prime-aged player should be.
But they’ve started to nail the little things. Pierce has been a huge plus, on and off the court, and the Wizards turned trade exceptions into bargain deals for Kris Humphries, DeJuan Blair, and Ramon Sessions — and even more trade exceptions. The trades for Nene and Gortat, controversial at the time, turned out well. They have four people doing analytics and a well-regarded training staff.
We just haven’t seen the Wiz with major cap room in a while. They punted that possibility in the summer of 2012 by dealing Rashard Lewis’s nonguaranteed deal for Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor, and if Durant signs elsewhere, the Wiz will be competing with just about everyone for the same pool of sub-superstar free agents. Should we trust them to pick the right backup plan and actually implement it? Al Horford is an obvious Durant fallback — a Nene replacement who brings the same all-around game, but with more shooting.
But Horford will have a dozen suitors, including the Hawks, who could outbid everyone. No one knows how the free-agency landscape of 2016 and 2017 will play out, but if everyone has cap room, offering money alone may not get it done — especially in a market with little history of drawing big-time free agents.
The Wizards are good now, and they should stay good for a while. But becoming great is hard, and it takes some luck. Get lucky enough and the path opens wide before you. If Durant thinks Wall is a top-10 player and is just dying to play with him, this other stuff won’t matter. But if things get more complicated, as they surely will, an organization that hasn’t made the good-to-great leap in 40 years will have work to do.
Why?
Grunfail
