That's the direction I prefer as well. We had basically all of Dame tenure as a 1st round and out level of team. Was tired of that limited upside team. But it's really a personal preference. I can see some fans preferring to be a playoff team every year and that's fine if they instead prefer that direction. Neither preference is right or wrong. I will say winning the 0.9 playoff series Dame second season was awesome, something we hadn't done in 15 years. So maybe if we get a number of years with no success I'll crave a first round win with zero contending chance much more. But for right now I'm happy to have a couple more years of losing if it is more likely we can then build for better long term success.
Playoff experience is the best way to learn to win in the playoffs for coaches and players...with a young squad that might mean losing early but as a team...you need to jump into that fire to make the next leap...3 year playoff drought is not a great development plan in my view
I just got back from a long vacation, so maybe this has been covered. But why does Washington do this? At first the narrative was that they wanted to lose over the next two years to get better draft picks and Deni would want to win. But then they sign Jonas Valanciunas??? Deni seems close to a good timeline for them. But why bother to sign Jonas? It's not like he is remotely the kind of player that could teach Sarr anything. I'm confused.
There is a theory that they had money to spend, while contenders didn't, so they trade him at the deadline for a draft pick and development player.
The only way it makes sense to me is they brought in Jonas to protect Sarr, and/or they want Sarr at the 4, and plan to get a younger big to go at the 5 down the road.
Not only can I not figure out why Washington made the trade, I can't figure out why Jonas signed there. Surely, he could get more $$$ elsewhere....
Can you please give one example where Jonas could sign for more $$$? I don't see a 32 year old lumbering center averaging 12/8 as being a big free agent draw for all the lottery teams that still had cap space.
I don't believe they care at all about Jonas long term fit next to Sarr - Jonas was a short term move to add an asset. Sarr is pretty raw still, so like Scoot its unclear when he'll even be a useful starter. Like us probably doesn't matter since the Wizards aren't trying to win anytime soon.
Wizards fans online (from what I’ve read and watched) are surprised by the trade and have attempted to understand it as “selling high” on a player who won’t be a star and taking swings at draft picks to go young. Tanking. Deni was well liked though not uniformly with some seeing him as overvalued as a “home grown” player from the draft. Sarr is reported as not wanting to play center (at least at this point) and Valunciunas fills that stopgap role. His not going to the Lakers earns him more money (reportedly) AND when they don’t win it, who would get the blame? AD and LeBron get some blame, but there’s a perception that the surrounding cast and coach gets more than their share of blame.
I don't think there is much mystery about why Washington signed Valuciunas. He's signed to a quality contract and beween his signing and the Avdija for Brogdon trade, the Wizards climbed over the salary floor. Now they can tank and collect luxury tax payouts and, Valunciunas with that budget contract might be a really attractive trade chip as the deadline approaches tell me which player was better last season: then tell me whether a team would rather have the 10M/year guy or the 35M/year guy now, why Val signed in Washington, so early might be a mystery
25 years old vs 31, so going forward very likely ones numbers get better and the other worse. Id much prefer Ayton. Ayton contract is an expiring next season. Jonas 3rd year when he is 34 could guarantee him money when he shouldn't even be in an NBA rotation. Ideally with the Blazers roster status I'd prefer neither and flip them for a long term piece. But if the Blazers were both trying to win and had an average quality NBA owner possibly paying tax then Ayton is the clear superior option IMO.
