FanPost

2012 Draft, Wizards Fan, Rumored Trade

Also told that prior to making the deal with New Orleans... Washington and Portland talked extensively about swapping 3 for 6 and 10

The Trail Blazers continue to shop #6 and #11. No deal is imminent, but Portland is weighing their options and seeing what's out there.


Ernie Grunfeld our GM is always 100% unprofessional, last year he invited the Czech Republic President to the draft so that the entire league could know we were drafting Jan Vesely, a Czech native. Everytime we hear a rumor that Grunfeld is going to make a move, he makes the stupid move. Our owner Ted Leonsis also has a blog, and hinted we might do something like this.

Ted's Take: "These two new players are not signed for the long term – so we can manage our team, retain players and add players in the mid to long term the right way. We still have the draft coming up – and I bet we have some more moves to make before next season."

The Trade Would likely look like this:

Washington - Receives: #6 pick, Wesley Matthews

Portland - Receives: #3 pick, Andray Blatche.

From the Wizards Perspective:

1. Grunfeld can avoid getting fired by actually trying to put Blatche on the court in the Verizon Center this season; he simply won't amnesty All Day Dre' which is making everyone want to strangle him more than usual

2. Cover up our terrible SG play; Wes Matthews is decent I assume and Grunfeld has no problem overpaying for marginal production

3. With the #6 pick, we can add more clutter to our roster instead of getting a bonafide star at 3. Very Grunfeld. Unless Thomas Robinson falls a little in which case this trade works out okay for us.

Grunfeld is desperately trying to avoid using the amnesty clause because he is dumb. So he is gambling with the only asset this team has left since we have suddenly shifted into "win-now" mode in the middle of our abysmal rebuild. We booed Blatche off the court last season, and just to make it clear, this guy was never "talented". Blatche thinks he isCarmelo Anthony, he's a stretch 4 that hangs out on the corner baseline dribbling himself into double teams and launching up ridiculously difficult shots. He amazingly combines that with with a non-existent athleticism, zero hustle and horrific selfish tendencies he's hard to watch. You will also never see him box out in an entire season or attempt to play defense. He will screw up your floor spacing and ball movement as well. Grunfeld gave him a 6 year $36 million dollar because he was the piece he decided to start a rebuild around. He also brought in a player Jordan Crawford, who shows the same selfish difficult shot selection and is close to being booed off the court. So this trade will cover up 2 of his messes in one move. Just to speak for the fanbase, we would like to see Grunfeld making zero moves in general, let alone gambling with this draft pick, just another opportunity for him to get fleeced in a trade and combine it with an abysmal personnel decision.

From Portland's Perspective:

1. Have to deal with getting rid of Blatche; Making $7 million for 3 more years. Blatche's issues might be marginalized if he only receives weak bench minutes, he did so much damage because he was being used as our go-to post player.

2. Acquire MKG or Bradley Beal. Nice emerging duo with L.Aldridge.

3. Lose Wesley Matthews

4. Guarantee one of those 2 prospects, still have the #11 pick

I don't know how enticing it is for you guys but at the #3 spot you would be guaranteed either Bradley Beal or MKG. Bradley Beal might be the better fit with Lamarcus Aldridge, but MKG is a bonafide star although it might take him a longer maturation period to turn into an elite player. But you guys know who the draft picks are. It is very likely only one of your 2 draft picks would be in play, Grunfeld has moved into "win-now" mode because none of the players he has drafted are capable of producing an improved squad next year, so he won't be interested in taking on 2 rookies that need to be given minutes and require developing. When our owner Ted Leonsis said we were going to use the #3 pick Grunfeld must have felt like a gun was just put to his head, but he still might be allowed to deal it anyway because Leonsis has no grasp of fundamental basketball. Also Blatche might not hurt your team like he did ours, Blatche was surrounded by other players like himself, selfish volume shooters who don't contribute elsewhere. If he were on a different team with a different coaching staff that will not absurdly give him the green light, and he only played spot minutes he might not be a liability just sort of a junky forward scorer off the bench. He doesn't get arrested or anything he's just unbearable when your team is paying him to lose games singlehandedly for you.

Would your GM go for something like this, or is he not willing to take on any potential culture shock A.Blatche might create. Also I was wondering what type of player Wesley Matthews is. Our team has horrific perimeter shooting, nobody can hit the deep ball, nobody works well of John Wall's passing, and there is a lot of selfish ball-hogging. I've picked up that Wesley Matthews is a decent piece who moves the ball around well, is limited dribbling and works better coming off screens and so forth. Can he shoot from deep that might actually help us.