Zydrunas Ilgauskas and John Wall got into a bit of a dust-up last night. Wall was pressuring Ilgauskas, who had the ball and Z swung his elbow through and popped Wall in the face. Wall, of course, took exception and punched Ilgauskas in his torso.
The best shot of Wall’s punch is at around the 1:15 mark, while the best view of Ilgauskas’ elbow is at around the 1:30 mark. No one likes to get hit in the face, but Wall needs to keep a cool head there. He really hurt his team by getting ejected.
The Orlando Magic capped a blockbuster day of wheeling and dealing by trading one franchise cornerstone for another, sending Rashard Lewis to the Washington Wizards for Gilbert Arenas on Saturday.
That trade followed news of a deal that sent Vince Carter to the Phoenix Suns in a six-player swap that returns Hedo Turkoglu to the Magic.
The Magic also get Jason Richardson and Earl Clark from the Suns in exchange for Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, a 2011 first-round pick and cash considerations.
The Magic added Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark and lost Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus and a 2011 first round pick.
Let’s take these deals one-by-one. First, Lewis for Arenas. The Magic had to be disappointed with the production they were getting from Lewis, who is averaging just 12.2 points per game this season, his lowest since his sophomore season. The truth is, Lewis’s production took a nosedive when Carter came to town. Now the Magic have Arenas instead, and Gilbert will have to embrace playing off-guard because Jameer Nelson is still slated to start at the point.
Not a bad deal for the Wizards who get a starter-quality ‘stretch four’ in Lewis, who should thrive spacing the floor for John Wall. Lewis’s contract is ridiculous, but it’s one year shorter than Arenas’s deal, which is just as ridiculous. The real upside is that it’s Wall’s team now and he doesn’t have to deal with Agent Zero stepping on his toes.
Now to the Suns’ deal. The Magic sent a starter-quality center (Gortat), Vince Carter’s expiring contract, Mickael Pietrus and a first round pick to Phoenix for Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark. J-Rich is the best player of this bunch, but his deal is expiring as well, so there’s little salary relief for either franchise.
The bottom line is that the Magic just traded away four of its rotation players, so it’s going to take some time to work Turkoglu, Richardson and Arenas into the fold. Unless they expect Richardson to play some small forward, one of the three guards (Richardson, Arenas or Nelson) is going to be short on minutes. And let’s not forget that the Magic want to work J.J. Redick in as well.
Orlando and Washington are engaged in serious discussions for a trade that would send Gilbert Arenas to the Magic, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Still unclear was whether Orlando would send the expiring contract of Vince Carter as part of the package or build a trade around longer-term contracts, including that of backup center Marcin Gortat, sources said. The Wizards also have been angling to get a first-round pick in return, sources said.
The Magic are currently sitting at 16-9 and in fourth place in the much improved Eastern Conference. They see the writing on the wall, which is why they are willing to roll the dice on Gilbert Arenas in order to improve their talent base and give the team a better shot in the playoffs.
Still, it’s funny how quickly things can change. Just a few short months ago, after Arenas was suspended for bringing a loaded gun to the Wizards’ locker room, the team couldn’t give him away. Now there trying to wrest a first round pick out of the Magic in return. Amazing.
For his part, Arenas is posting decent numbers (17-3-6) this season, but isn’t shooting the ball particularly well (39% from the field, 32% from 3PT). I don’t see how he’d work with Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter in the backcourt, so I suspect that Carter would be the one to go. That means that Arenas would have to play a lot of off guard because Nelson is a better point guard right now, in my opinion.
If the Wizards can get out from under Arenas’s contract and get a first round pick and/or a starter-quality center like Marcin Gortat, it will be a coup. John Wall is the future in Washington and Arenas is superfluous. I don’t think Arenas is a good move for the Magic, but they need to do something, and there’s no doubt now that Vince Carter experiment was a failure.
This year, I’m going to preview the NBA season by starting with the lowest of the low and working my way up to my Finals picks. If a franchise is a legitimate championship contender, I’ll focus on what stars have to line up for a title run. If a team is a playoff also-ran, I’ll identify the weaknesses that have to be shored up via trade, free agency or draft over the next couple of seasons to make it a contender. If a team is likely to miss the playoffs, I’ll take a look at the salary cap, and provide a blueprint for how the team should proceed in the near future to get back in the postseason.
#30: Cleveland Cavaliers The Cavs could very well finish with the worst record just one year after finishing 2009-10 with the best regular season record. This, of course, is all LeBron James’ fault. He wasn’t supposed to leave, but he did. Not only did he drag his feet during free agency and make it impossible for the franchise to make any other significant moves, he also broke up with the city of Cleveland in the most public way possible. (Hey, at least the Boys & Girls Club made some money off of the deal.) The Cavs are trying to look forward, but it’s tough when you’re planning to start Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon on the wing and are depending on a 34-year-old Antawn Jamison to be your go-to scorer. Jamison and Mo Williams do bring some offense, and Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson will keep the front line competitive, but this team is seriously lacking in talent, specifically at shooting guard and small forward. Byron Scott is a good coach, but he’s going to have a tough time winning more than 25 games with this group. The good news, if there is any, is that the team is not in salary cap hell. They project to have about $10 million in cap space next summer and nearly $30 million in the summer of 2012. But there’s more bad news — it’s going to be tough to attract free agents to Cleveland, especially after Dan Gilbert’s open letter to LeBron.
The Chicago Bulls have a deal in place that would move Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick to the Washington Wizards, freeing up enough cap space to pursue two maximum-salary players on this summer’s free-agent market, sources with knowledge of the Bulls’ plans said Thursday.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Washington would send to Chicago in the trade.
Since it’s a good-faith deal for the time being, there remains a chance it could fall apart. But according to one source, the Sacramento Kings are prepared to make a similar deal with the Bulls in the Wizards’ stead if that were to happen.
Hinrich is a good defender and is talented enough to be the fourth or fifth best player on a contender, so the Bulls are giving up a good player, even though it’s creating the flexibility to sign two max free agents.
Now the Bulls can go to LeBron James and Chris Bosh and offer to sign them both to max or near-max deals to play with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.
In order to get this much talent together, a team has to have plenty of cap space (check) and 1-2 budding stars that are still on their rookie contracts (check, check). The only con to playing in Chicago is the long shadow of Michael Jordan. Will LeBron want to play in a city where his legacy has almost no chance of measuring up to that of the greatest player ever to play the game?
Wondering why everyone is jealous that the Wizards won the #1 overall pick?
As a finisher, he reminds me a lot of Dwyane Wade though it would be nice to see some highlights of his best passes of the season. He is supposed to be a point guard, after all.
Former Washington Times reporter John Mitchell thinks so…
The Washington Wizards are going to use their number one draft pick to select John Wall, the freshman point guard out of the University of Kentucky. They see Wall as the cornerstone of the franchise for at least “the next decade”, which is why they are going to do everything in their power to prevent the player from ever sharing a locker room with controversial guard Gilbert Arenas, according to two league sources with knowledge of the team’s future plans.
According to one source with intimate knowledge of the team’s plans, the Wizards front office, headed up by President Ernie Grunfeld, doesn’t want Arenas – released earlier this month from a Washington DC halfway house after serving 30 days for a felony gun conviction – anywhere near Wall, whom the team has already decided it will select with the top pick in the June draft. After Arenas was convicted Grunfeld traded away four starters.
One source tagged Arenas as “the reason why a core of players that reached the playoffs” on multiple occasions had to be broken up, “and it was entirely due to what he did. He poisoned the team. He is a cancer.”
The Wizards’ options include trying to trade Arenas, who has four years and more than $80 million in salary remaining on his contract. But that is not the only option. According to a source the team will “definitely consider buying out” Arenas’ contract. This flies in the face of the public position the Wizards have taken with Arenas.
Trading Arenas before next season is not going to be easy. We’re talking about a 28-year-old, shoot-first point guard with knee problems, a contract that still has four years and $80 million remaining, and a propensity to bring loaded firearms into work. Needless to say, in this economy, it’s going to be very tough to move him.
How much would it take to buy him out? And if the Wizards have to resort to that, why are they keeping the man that signed him to this ridiculous contract, general manager Ernie Grunfeld, on board? Instead of taking a cautious approach with Arenas, who was coming off of knee surgery two seasons ago, Grunfeld panicked swung for the fences and offered him a contract that no other team would even dream of.
One team that could potentially use Arenas’s services are the Knicks. Once they sign their two “big-name” free agents — whether it’s LeBron James and Chris Bosh or Rudy Gay and David Lee — they could trade Eddy Curry’s expiring contract for Arenas. Once the Knicks have their two stars locked up, they’re probably not going to care how far over the cap they go. Owner James Dolan will do what it takes to build a winner, and if Arenas looks like he’s still All-Star caliber, they may pull the trigger.
(Note to Knicks fans: I don’t think acquiring Arenas is a good idea.)
But that raises the question — how long will the Wizards wait? Arenas missed the last few months of last season and teams will want to see how he plays before taking on his monstrous contract and adding his quirky personality to their locker room. How does this happen if the Wizards are intent on keeping Arenas and Wall apart?
After the Washington Wizards won the right to pick John Wall, the first question on everyone’s lips was what about Gilbert Arenas?
This is pure speculation, but one idea that is circulating is that the Wizards could trade Agent Zero to the Knicks for Eddy Curry’s expiring contract. This would have to happen after July 1, because Curry has to opt in to the final year of his contract. (And he will opt in.)
This should be a no-brainer for the Wizards because they can put Arenas’ tumultuous season behind them and start to truly rebuild around Wall. Arenas has four years and $80 million remaining on his contract, so if they were able to move him for an expiring deal, they’d have a ton of cap space in the summer of 2011.
For the Knicks, the decision is not quite as easy, but it is intriguing. A healthy Arenas could fit into Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system as a two guard who could also run the point if necessary. GM Donnie Walsh has the cap space to sign two big-name free agents, and he shouldn’t use this space to acquire Arenas. He should sign the two best players he can in July, and then think about adding Arenas to that mix, if he’s a fit.
As Alex David (of Buckets Over Broadway) writes, Walsh may be served to wait and see how Arenas looks at the start of the season.
If it were to happen at all, most likely it would go down during next season. That would enable Walsh to see if Arenas still has it, and similarly give Washington some time to see if perhaps Gil & John Wall can work as a dynamic duo. Also, hopefully Walsh would be smart enough to hold out for a draft pick too if we’re gonna take this huge contract off the Wiz’s hands.
So take a deep breath. This trade likely ain’t gonna happen. And if it does, it won’t be for a while.
I thought the deal that the Wizards gave Arenas was ridiculous even before the ink was dry, but the Knicks don’t care too much about payroll once they lock in their two big-name free agents this summer. Maybe it will be LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Or maybe it will be Rudy Gay and Carlos Boozer. Either way, Arenas, if healthy, is an All-Star caliber player that could be a very dangerous combo guard under Mike D’Antoni. Once the Knicks have their stars and are over the cap, it won’t matter if he’s making $10 million or $20 million a season.
Do I think that Gilbert Arenas will ever win an NBA championship? No. But he can help the Knicks become relevant again.
Last year, John Hollinger’s Draft Rater really liked Ty Lawson and Tyreke Evans, and that turned out well. The year before, it liked Michael Beasley over Derrick Rose, who wasn’t even listed as the top point guard in the draft. It also liked Kevin Love (score) and thought Anthony Randolph was way overrated (fail).
The Draft Rater has yet to miss a lottery pick who became an All-Star in its top 12 collegians list — although that string may end in another year or two thanks to a miserable 2008 performance (Russell Westbrook and Brook Lopez both were overlooked that year). And if it’s blown a couple of picks, look at the actual draft and you’ll find even more mistakes by the pro teams themselves.
On the other hand, the Draft Rater has picked out five All-Stars that the pros missed among the first 12 collegians — Carlos Boozer, Rajon Rondo, Danny Granger, Josh Howard, and David West. No misses, five additions. I like that ratio.
It’s a good read, but to sum up, the Rater thinks DeMarcus Cousins is the top player in the draft, with Evan Turner and John Wall reasonably close behind. Questions about Cousins’ coachability will likely hinder his draft stock, but I think he’s going to be a great player. You don’t rebound like he does and not love the game. He just needs to get into a good, stable situation with a solid coach and grow up a little bit.
It’s going to be interesting to watch how he progresses through the draft process. Do we hear stories about how he’s texting his friends during interviews with NBA teams? Does he dog it in certain workouts? If he acts like a pro over the next month, it could mean he’s picked #2 or #3 instead of #5 or #6.
The Rater also predicts some duds; Cole Aldrich, Patrick Patterson, Ekpe Udoh, Ed Davis and Hassan Whiteside are the big names on that list.
The Cavs could very well finish with the worst record just one year after finishing 2009-10 with the best regular season record. This, of course, is all LeBron James’ fault. He wasn’t supposed to leave, but he did. Not only did he drag his feet during free agency and make it impossible for the franchise to make any other significant moves, he also broke up with the city of Cleveland in the most public way possible. (Hey, at least the Boys & Girls Club made some money off of the deal.) The Cavs are trying to look forward, but it’s tough when you’re planning to start Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon on the wing and are depending on a 34-year-old Antawn Jamison to be your go-to scorer. Jamison and Mo Williams do bring some offense, and Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson will keep the front line competitive, but this team is seriously lacking in talent, specifically at shooting guard and small forward. Byron Scott is a good coach, but he’s going to have a tough time winning more than 25 games with this group. The good news, if there is any, is that the team is not in salary cap hell. They project to have about $10 million in cap space next summer and nearly $30 million in the summer of 2012. But there’s more bad news — it’s going to be tough to attract free agents to Cleveland, especially after Dan Gilbert’s open letter to LeBron.
