a Big man

[sagaliba]

jamal has signed for the nets so there not much FA out there who are bigs, it will have to be a trade

Nets reportedly was interested in Haywood first, but EG only wanted to trade Etan, so now they inked Magloire instead.

[steve]

After watching Pechorov played for the first two summer league games, he is no way a "7-foot Songaila." He got pushed around easily and cannot hold his ground, nor does he has a post gmae.

I didn't watch the last game, but his stat line looked pretty good 26 and 14.  It's going to take him awhile to get his barings with the NBA, but he's got potential.  Also from most sources I've read it looks like McGuire's going to turn into a fairly decent player.

Pechorov did play better in 3rd and 4th games than his first two (he didn't play in the 5th). But his inside scoring was basically result of good passes and not of his post moves. I think he benefited from the fact that Miles is a pass-first point guard (and McGuire is a pretty good passer too). When playing with a score-first point guard like Gilbert, he would need to be able to hold off his defenders, which Songaila can do pretty well, but Pechorov seems have trouble doing. On defense he also have problem holding his position against stronger guys.

OTOH, he does have a longer range than Songaila and can drain 3pts.

BTW, I also think Miles can be the 3rd point guard of this team. He is a more natural point guard and can run the offense better than either Donell Taylor or Roger Mason.

Yeah, McGuire looks promising, handles the ball pretty well, athletic, versatile. I think he will get some minutes during the season.

Nick Young is obviously a scorer but sometimes his drives look wild. I am not sure he can be pressed into the 6th man role right away.

But this after all is just summer league. We will know more as the season starts.

Yeah, it'll be a little while before Young is effective off the bench (I'm hoping by the middle of the season but who knows).  The bench is probably just going to be Songalia and Daniels for the time being (they're going to have trouble rebounding again, fun).  I'm a little surprised that it looks like Haywood is staying on the team after the blow up he had at the end of last season (although I am sad that his sparring match with Thomas are going to end).

[sagaliba]

Yeah, it'll be a little while before Young is effective off the bench (I'm hoping by the middle of the season but who knows).  The bench is probably just going to be Songalia and Daniels for the time being (they're going to have trouble rebounding again, fun).  I'm a little surprised that it looks like Haywood is staying on the team after the blow up he had at the end of last season (although I am sad that his sparring match with Thomas are going to end).

Personal issue aside, Haywood is a more effective center, and at a cheaper price than Etan. Plus, if you only want to keep one of them, you would be wary with Etan's injury history. In his 7 seasons in NBA, he averaged less than 50 games per season (60%). In contrast, Haywood averaged 74 games (90%).

In addition, I think Ernie also wants to manage cap space, getting rid of Etan would give Wizards more cap room to maneuver (since Etan has the bigger contract). Of course, there is a personal problem between Haywood and the coach. But judging the fact that all EJ's assistants only received one year extension, EJ may not be here after 2008 if he cannot advance Wizards to the next level.

[steve]

I agree with you there, Haywood definitely has more talent, but it's frustrating to watch him play and the sole reason Thomas even got minutes over because he actually put forth an effort most of the time (and Haywood was still more effective).  I was actually hoping for a scenario where both of them would be gone by the time next season started, but that's probably not going to happen.

[sagaliba]

The problem is, there just not that many NBA centers that you can bring in (yeah everybody wants Shaq). Of course, EJ probably does not mind playing without center, but I think that's where he and EG differ.

For example, effort or no effort, I will take Haywood over Jason Collins - the player who was drafted two spots ahead of Haywood - any day. Collins was touted as a "defense specialist" in NJ, but that's more because he is horrible on offense and they have to justify his existence. He doesn't even have the shot blocking ability of Haywood. Maybe someone can argue he is a better one-on-one defender, but Wizards' center will always have to leave his man and cover for the penetration, one-on-one defense is actually a luxury for Wizards centers! Collins averaged more minutes, but has less points, less rebounds, less block shots, and much worse FG%! But guess what? Collins costs more than Haywood in salary!

So do the math, even with fans complaining about Haywood's lack of effort, Haywood has a better "price-to-value" ratio than most centers in NBA. No wonder EG is reluctant to give him up.