What Should the Wizards Should Do with the 5th Pick?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Hopefully, the poll says it all.

I say draft Blair because I believe the mocks are all wrong -- that guy's a beast.

What do you say?

[yungal07]

Trade down. Get rid of Deshawn...I cannot stand watching him play basketball.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

yungal, I have NO PROBLEM with trade down ... if it's a swap where Washingon drafts Blair later.

[mhd]

If we are there at 5, we should take Jordan Hill. I saw a good 12-15 games of him this year. People for some reason are down on him. He's a more athletic Al Horford. He rebounds like a mother and plays with passion. He scores with either hand. Won't dissapoint you.

[keynote]

I don't see us effectively trading down *and* picking up Blair, since the prospects are so closely clustered from 5-10.

And, I don't think the #5 pick is valuable enough for teams to want to swallow our pu-pu platter of bad salaries in return.

I say trade *out* of the draft entirely. Package Blatche or Young + 5 and see what we get. We'll be giving up a (relatively) valuable and cheap young player, but maybe we can get a starting 2 or a starting 4.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

mhd, I forgot Hill, even though he's there in mocks. I like doc's metas on Hill. Ornery guy supposedly ... Wiz can use one of them IMO.

I'll add Hill as an option.

[LyricalRico]

I was going to say "why do we need another thread" but since you've got the fancy poll up, I'll lock the other thread.

[McGeeNArenas]

demar derozen would be ideal......the pick is garbage, might as well swing for the fences and see if we can hit a home run.....if we strike out, oh well, that'll most likely happen with most of the players available like curry, harden and blair, at least demar has a high ceiling. oh and i don't see anyone trading for the pick.

[ToneSetter7]

I'll re-post what I wrote in the Lady Luck thread since it was locked:

DeJuan Blair is the next Michael Sweetney. Struggles with his weight and ballooned to 300+ at one point while at Pitt. He'll measure out at 6'6" and he dominated college by big-boying people. At 6'6" that's not gonna work in the NBA. Seen the kid play dozens of times. He was great in the Big East, but so was Luke Harangody. I just can't see Blair, all 6'6" of him, succeeding at power forward in the NBA. His game is predicated on strength, power, and size (width, not height). All that will be negated in the League.

[Rafael122]

Raptors fans seem receptive to the idea of trading Bosh for the 5th pick and someone else (they keep mentioning Caron, but I reckon Jamison makes much more sense since they don't have a true 3, they could move Barg to the 4).

So my idea is that they should trade the pick, for who I don't know, but there's no way this team will have 2 rookie draft picks.

[miller31time]

We're a veteran team. We will have little use for any more young talent.

We need a two-way veteran shooting guard.

Trade the pick and expirings for a player like Hamilton or Carter.

It's no Blake Griffin but it is adding All-Star-caliber talent to an already talented roster.

After making that trade, see if we can turn Jamison into a defensive power forward like Kirilenko.

It would basically be Washington doing a Celtics-esque rebuilding-on-the-fly move.

Arenas
Hamilton/Carter
Butler
Kirilenko
Haywood

I dunno....I'm not even thinking straight right now. So pissed.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Going into tonight, there were really only three players I wanted... Griffin, Rubio or Evans.

Evans might be left at 5, but methinks he'll be gone at 4.

At this point I do think EG would be wise to try to package the pick + a young player or two (Blatche, Young) and maybe a contract or two (Stevenson, Etan) to get a bonafide, used to be just a scorer, but now will accept whatever role I need to accept to win 2 guard. Vince Carter anyone? Then find a decent bench scorer with the MLE... Pay the tax, role the dice, try to win in the next 2 years or so.

Arenas/James/Critt
Carter/2nd rounder/MLE
Butler/DMac
Jamison/Songalia
Haywood/McGee

[miller31time]

Raptors fans seem receptive to the idea of trading Bosh for the 5th pick and someone else (they keep mentioning Caron, but I reckon Jamison makes much more sense since they don't have a true 3, they could move Barg to the 4).

So my idea is that they should trade the pick, for who I don't know, but there's no way this team will have 2 rookie draft picks.

If I'm a Raptors fan, no way am I trading Bosh for Jamison, the 5th and a filler. That's horrible return for a young star power forward.

I'd demand Caron Butler in addition to the pick, whether they need a small forward or not.

[ptown]

Gotta go with Tyreke Evans. The size of a shooting guard with vision and handles of a PG. Perfect compliment to Arenas. His only real weakness is his lack of a jump shot, but that's covered by Arenas, Butler and Jamison. He has a 6'11 wingspan and huge hands. He's loaded with potential, but he'll contribute right away. He and Arenas will both just be guards and share the ball-handling responsibilities.

[Ji]

with the 5th pick..we should just fold the franchise

[Ced67]

Hopefully, the poll says it all.

I say draft Blair because I believe the mocks are all wrong -- that guy's a beast.

What do you say?

Are you Doc Walker?

He was saying this on the John Thompson Show today, I assume you mean in a trade down move. I think he would have taken the top 5 pick and taken Blair there. I personally think he is part of what this team is missing, toughness and physicality and work ethic, so I'd love to have him too, just not at #5.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Gotta go with Tyreke Evans. The size of a shooting guard with vision and handles of a PG. Perfect compliment to Arenas. His only real weakness is his lack of a jump shot, but that's covered by Arenas, Butler and Jamison. He has a 6'11 wingspan and huge hands. He's loaded with potential, but he'll contribute right away. He and Arenas will both just be guards and share the ball-handling responsibilities.

I agree... but, I really don't think Evans will be around at 5. He'll go 4th.

[Rafael122]

Raptors fans seem receptive to the idea of trading Bosh for the 5th pick and someone else (they keep mentioning Caron, but I reckon Jamison makes much more sense since they don't have a true 3, they could move Barg to the 4).

So my idea is that they should trade the pick, for who I don't know, but there's no way this team will have 2 rookie draft picks.

If I'm a Raptors fan, no way am I trading Bosh for Jamison, the 5th and a filler. That's horrible return for a young star power forward.

I'd demand Caron Butler in addition to the pick, whether they need a small forward or not.

Raptors don't have any other choice, you either a) trade him for a guy who gets 20 and 8, a top 5 pick and an expiring contract or b) wait until the trade deadline and hope something better comes along or c) they lose him in free agency. There's no way Bosh is staying.

It's really not that bad of a deal. They could always re-sign Marion as well.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

From the other thread before it was locked, I say Ji, most folks already think I'm a bit crazy. Admittedly, Blair will be considered a bad idea. But I've been right about Boozer, Millsap, and a whole bunch of lesser guys.

Tonesetter, your post was very compelling as well. Blair as next Mike Sweetney is very possible. My biggest miss ever IMO was Sweetney. But if you look at his stats at both Chicago and New York, it was the fat and not his game that took him out the league.

Tonesetter, you said that at 6'6" Blair's big boy stuff isn't going to work in the NBA. You are probably saying the same thing 80%-90% of everybody else is saying. Personally, my perspective as a guy who has a BS in math and who's followed hoops for a long time; and as a guy who can read people pretty well is that BLAIR WINS GAMES!!!!! The stuff he does on the boards and defensively WILL TRANSLATE to the NBA. I love the numbers he put up in college. Efficiency, PER, and rebounds/40 were completely SICK! (Also contributed in high Points/possesion and points/40) What else do I like about Blair?

--He's just as tall as Millsap
--He rebounds as well or better than Kevin Love
--Blair's not just freakish at rebounding, he's also very good at stripping the ball. I view him as a huge upgrade over Chuck Hayes.
--Most of all: Blair is going to be sneaky good at converting missed shots for points.

I'm old enough to remember watching Wes Unseld. I see Blair as a combination of Unseld and Millsap. Blair will be a BETTER rebounder the Millsap.

What I love about Blair is teams he's on seem to win a lot.

AND AS FOR HIS WEIGHT: I remember Bob Knight kicked Barkley off an Olympic squad because he thought Barkley was too fat. IIRC Barkley weighed 280 while at Auburn. Charles Barkley and Carlos Boozer are two guys who IMO slimmed down and cut up.

I see Blair doing the same because I just don't think he's of the same passive mindset as Sweetney.

The REAL CONCERN I have for Blair is the ACL surgeries he had in HS. Therefore, the best bet would be to trade with the team that drafts Blair in the 12-20 range.

[Pitbull]

The only players that will have some semblence of an immediate impact are:

Blair (as a hard-nosed guy on the blocks who may put up 6 & 6)
Curry (as a spot-up shooter who may put up 8 & 2)
Harden (as a solid, if unspectacular SG worth 10/2/2 a night).

As tempted as I am by the potential of Evans and/or DeRozan, we're not set up to take a flyer on either guy. And given our luck at developing players... Well... I'm not going there.

Say no to Hill. We have absolutely no use for him.

Aw, eff it... I'm gonna hop on the Harden bandwagon. Might not wow with athleticism, but he's effective. I had soured on him after watching the tourny, but I'll let the body of work be my guide.