The Wizards are choosing the wrong year to actually try to make the playoffs. One more year in the lottery and they would have been in much better shape.
I disagree. I think the Wizards are an example of what happens when a team picks in the lottery many years in a row and ends up with too many young talents to develop. At some point you need to try to make something of the young core that you have and actually make an effort to win games.
That's the great problem to have though. Take one of your young talents and trade him for a couple of veterans to help your younger players win sooner.
That's what they just did, isn't it? They traded their 2014 rookie for Gortat.
They made themselves at best a 5-6 seed with this trade, most likely a 7-8 seed. They are not going to contend by trading what could have been a lottery pick in a historically deep draft for an aging, average center. I understand drafting every year with the hope of finding a DWade or Lebron is not the best strategy, but they have a decent set of young guys to build around with Wall and Beal, and possibly Porter, they could have landed a great young big man in the upcoming draft and put themselves in OKCs position, but instead they chose mediocrity.
How is making the playoffs for the first time in how many years a bad thing? You say this as if they've completely mortgaged their future for an eighth seed ceiling. They gave away a single pick and considering the top 12 protection, all they're forfeiting is a projected role player, since you're not drafting a LeBron/KD/Duncan/etc. type in the mid-teens. Role players are a dime-a-dozen; they don't need to draft one, they can just sign one in free agency or trade for one.
One season spent at the eighth seed is nothing to be ashamed of if they make the right moves to improve in the future. The Rockets were a first-round exit last year and they very well could even make it to the Finals if things go their way this year. OKC was a first-round exit in 2010 and they made it to the Finals two years later. The Warriors were an expected first-round exit last year that made it to a competitive semifinals series after upsetting the Nuggets. Nothing wrong with striving for the playoffs even if they're probably not going far this year. They have to start somewhere and it's unusual to make a jump from lottery team to title contender over a single year. It's almost always a gradual process.
Mediocrity for a season is perfectly fine; each year, someone has to be average, just as someone has to be good and someone has to be bad. Mediocrity as the status quo, a la the Bucks or the Hawks or the Jazz up until this season is what's terrible.
Topic: Washington/Phoenix trade Being reported Gortat, Okafor (Read 20103 times)