<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">#16 - Washington Wizards - Jason Smith (Colorado State, C) Height: 7′0″ Weight: 233 lbs.</div> (Link to pick explanation) Feel free to comment on the blog or in this thread, whichever you want.
I wouldn't be suprised with this decision and Tiago Splitter wouldn't be a bad pick either. Generally, we have enough big man that are high-post/perimeter oriented and if the Wizards want to become a true contender, they will need a true big man. If we do end up picking Jason Smith, I can see him being a nice upgrade of Darius Songalia, obviously being a lot bigger and more mobile.
At this point, Jason Smith's game is more perimeter oriented. Although I wouldn't mind bringing in Jason Smith I feel as though the safest pick to contribute instantly would be Nick Young. Nick Young's an aggresive scorer while Jason Smith is very similar to Darius Songaila. We'll need to construct our 5 position through free agency and trades if we want consistent post scoring this season.
The team doesn't need a PF, Jason Smith is listed by some as a C, or a PF/C, but he's really a PF to me. Also while he's athletic, he has short arms, short arms as a big man is just not good. As athletic as one is, that will affect his shot blocking and ability to contest shots a lot. I like his skills, but the short arms and the fact that he's not really a C turn me off. If we're bringing Opec in, another perimeter oriented type PF, though he can rebound etc, then why bring in Jason Smith? I think the team is much better off going after a SG. I'd prefer taking Rudy Fernandez to taking Jason Smith, he went 25th, which would him up 9 spots up in this draft. Almond wasn't picked yet, so I'm assuming he's supposed to go higher than Washington's pick, if not though which would be weird then since he would be in the second round, I would love to have him. I see that in this mock though, Nick Young dropped to LA at 19th, if Nick Young was available at 16th, there's NO WAY I'd pass on him if I was Washington. Nick Young would be my pick according to how this mock is going. Washington doesn't need to play the "need" game and get a big man, a SG/SF who has skills on both ends is just as much of a need anyways. Nick Young, but I actually don't think he will be available for the Wizards on draft night. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">At this point, Jason Smith's game is more perimeter oriented. Although I wouldn't mind bringing in Jason Smith I feel as though the safest pick to contribute instantly would be Nick Young. Nick Young's an aggresive scorer while Jason Smith is very similar to Darius Songaila. We'll need to construct our 5 position through free agency and trades if we want consistent post scoring this season.</div> Haha, I didn't even read your post, yea, Nick Young!
OG, me and you are probabely in complete agreement over what needs to happen with the center position in this off-season. We're bringing Pecherov over, as you said. There is no point to draft a guy like Jason Smith who won't be able to contribute consistent post scoring and will focus on the perimeter. His game is way too similar to Songaila and Pecherov. Nick Young is the ideal choice, we need to focus on getting a post scorer through trade and free agency.
I didn't know that about Jason Smith, with his arms being short and everything, but we don't know that Pecherov is just another Darius Songalia type player, except more mobile and better hops. If Pecherov can't do any of the things a center or power forward should be able to do like rebound, block shots or contest then, I don't see how he's a better player in the paint than Smith is. I still won't mind us picking a power forward or center because we have enough guards as it is. Jarvis Hayes' shot can't be as worse as it was during the season and we know he well he explodes when his shot is on, so we have to expect that he'll be working on his shot a lot with the coaching staff. Besides that, his defense is nice, he's got nice size to help crashing the boards, he's not selfish, I think he'll have a nice season next year. We already know how Roger Mason impacts the play off the bench, he's definitely a keeper, then Antonio Daniels. That's 3 guards off the bench and we already know that Eddie Jordan loves to run an 8 man rotation with Arenas, Stevenson, Butler, Jamison, Haywood/Thomas, Hayes and Daniels, so why would we need another guard. We can't expect Gilbert to get hurt again and our big men are trash compared to the others in the league.
Deshawn Stevenson - FA Jarvis Hayes - FA Roger Mason - FA Donell Taylor - FA The guards currently signed on the team: Arenas (G), Daniels (G) The team only has 7 players under contract, 4 are big men, 2 are guards, and there's Caron Butler. Jarvis Hayes' shot is not going to improve now, I'm not putting any home on that, he's not a keeper. I won't cry if he comes back, but one of these drafted guys > Arvis. Roger Mason is also not a keeper, he's supposed to be here for his shooting (33% FG. 32.4% 3PT), but he doesn't hit a high enough percentage, he doesn't defend either backcourt position well, and can't really run an offense. This is on a team where as a role playing SG you get many open shots feeding off Arenas-Butler and Jamison as the big three options. Donell Taylor can be kept as a cheap backup who knows the system, and can defend. Stevenson will be kept depending on how much money he will cost. In that case we'd have Arenas-Daniels-Stevenson-Taylor, definately not good reason to not draft a guy like Nick Young if he's available. If you looked at big men: Jamison-Songaila-Pecherov-Etan-Blatche- (Booth) I'm taking Haywood out because we're expecting him to be gone, and I'd say we re-sign Booth because he's a good cheap underused guy. That's 6 players at PF/C, and probably another guy in the second round, so 5-7 players at the big men positions. The team definately "needs" a SG/SF more than it really needs a PF or a C. Jason Smith won't make the Wizards have good big men in comparison to other teams in the league. I think the second round is where the Wizards can look for a big man, someone decent should fall to them there.
As much as I don't like Jarvis Hayes, I think in Ernie's eyes, he's played well enough to earn himself a new contract. Don't lie though, he's had seven 10+ point games since the injury to Butler, he's shown how deadly he can be when his shot is on, kind of plays like Allan Houston. You have to take the fact that the man's coming off a long term knee injury that limited him to 21 games last year, he's still young, I'd give him one more chance. I wouldn't mind if we didn't keep Roger, but the fans like him. Oh yeah, what about Juan Carlos Navarro? Dude's a guard and definitely has a future here after being named MVP over in the ACB. That would be 6 guards...take Hayes out and that'd still be 5, but I'll just say this again: We'd have 5 guards and then again Eddie Jordan only uses 7-8 guys on a regular bases, no reason why we'd need Nick Young or any type of guard. How many centers do you have with Jamison, Songalia, Pecherov, Etan, Blatche and Booth then? Only 2, then Blatche's contract is up this offseason, we don't even know for sure if Pecherov will be coming here, so that would only be 2 centers. Honestly, the Wizards need a big men as much as they need a guard, but I would take Jason Smith or maybe Tiago Splitter. The Wizards worked out Aaron Gray who were considering drafting last season, but that extra year had to help along with working Eric Dyson, Darryl Watson, and Major Wingate.
First of all, I'll say I made a mistake there, Hayes isn't even a guard on this team, he's the backup SF, he's hardly ever at SG. He doesn't have the handles to play SG, though I'd say he's better there defensively than at SF. You see, my point with Jason Smith is that he's 7'0 tall, but he's also more of a PF, so we wouldn't have anymore C's in our lineup, just one more PF to add to the many PF's. There's no way Blatche with how cheap he should be, and his potential doesn't get signed. I thought it was already settled that Opec was coming? Going back to Smith, offensively he doesn't have a C's game, he has a perimeter game, and all he has in the post is a turnaround jumper. Defensively he's only 233 lbs, and has short arms, which is going to kill his shot blocking in the NBA. The short arms will also hurt him with rebounding, especially since he's said to also have small hands, poor box out technique, and he will get outmuscled by NBA guys with his weight. Smith is not supposed to be an immediate impact player anyways, he's a guy that "should be good in the future", so I see no point bringing him on this team if our worry is who's going to play C next season. Nick Young is a G/F though, he can play both SG and SF (needs some weight there), since without Hayes the team doesn't have a backup SF (Blatche played all PF). Nick Young is a player that can impact right away, and not just offensively, but on both ends of the floor. I like Young better for the team than Jarvis Hayes, and even Stevenson, but I wouldn't start young over Stevenson because Deshawn knows the system and how to play off Arenas, Butler and Jamison. Young has more skills though, and wouldn't have looked as foolish without Butler and Arenas like Deshawn did, creating his own shot is one of Young's greatest strengths. About Splitter: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Considering that Splitter has still no buyout for this summer, that he will have a one-million escape clause in the 2008 summer and his current draft stock (out of the top-10), chances are he will have to spend another season in Vitoria to finally leave for the NBA after the next campaign. Tau would require a very big buyout this summer to free Splitter (let’s remember he has a Spanish passport, so he’s very valuable to fill the required Spanish-player quota in the ACB league), which looks hard to gather with the two-year guaranteed first-round contracts. That’s why his final position in the draft will highly rely on how high the teams that are willing to wait a year for him are picking. </div> Splitter is out in my books. Pecherov is already coming in, and the team has Navarro out there who has to be bought out, we'll just be wasting money n buyouts. Tiaggo also won't even be coming this season. Isn't the whole point getting a guy to play C this season? Splitter isn't our guy. Aaron Gray would be terrible, he's just too slow (okay, he is working on it and probably isn't that slow anymore). I can't see him doing much for the Wizards, or many teams really. He's a guy that will just be there because he's big and can rebound, but you really won't want to start him or play him for too long. I can be wrong about him though, he's working. I've gone through these guys, and if Jason Smith, Splitter and Nick Young are available, I'm going with Nick Young without thinking twice. In theory we have 4 guards (Arvis is a SF on this team), but the draft is before free agency, and that will help determine who we re-sign. Going into the draft we will only have 2 guards, and even if we bring back the big names, only 3 guards. These two big men we're talking about, one is a really a PF, and isn't supposed to impact right now. Even then, he seems like he'd be giving more offense than defense and rebounding at the big man positions, and still needs to refine his offense. The other one can't even come out till after a year, and will probably have an annoying buyout.
I won't lie, I'm not much of a draft guru. But look at it this way, would you rather sign an all-star guard or an all-star center in the free agent market? Generally what I'm saying is that, we need a center more than we need a guard. When's the last time we've had an all-star center or close to being even considered good? Gheorghe Muresan? We have a nice backcourt at the moment and if Arenas isn't satisfied, make a trade right now. Haywood wants out, trade off the 16th pick and throw in Hayes if you want and get a current star that's a guard wanting to win just as much as Arenas does. The East isn't getting any worse from here on and with the way the Cavs looked, we could've made a better Finals contender than them.
I'd rather trade Haywood + the 16 + something else to get a GOOD center tha draft a center this season. The team does have need at SG though, especially off the bench, I think Stevenson is servicable, but he's not neccesarily a take the team to the next level guy. I think a guy like Nick Young actually makes the Wizards a better team, while those two big men will have the name C, but won't improve the team. Actually the thing I would like most is to keep Haywood and have him play. How many teams can get a C that can do what he does for the amount of money he's getting payed?
