Whatever you might think about the Washington Wizards’ choices in free agency, they didn’t mess around and while they might have paid too much for some players it’s clear they’re building around a plan.
General manager Ernie Grunfield, after securing two offensive weapons in the draft in the form of Otto Porter and Glen Rice Jr, blitzed free agency on the first day.
The Wizards acted without hesitation, re-signing shooting forward Martell Webster to a four-year, $22 million contract then agreed to a two-year deal with point guard Eric Maynor and on the third day a one-year deal with shooting guard Garrett Temple.
Webster has largely failed to impress for most of his career, hampered by injury, but last year with the Wizards the swingman enjoyed something of a revival, shooting at 42 percent from three-point range and doing a good job spacing the floor.
He complemented both John Wall and Bradley Beal nicely in 2012-13, so the Wizards clearly made keeping him a priority.
It’s a lot of money, but if he can maintain the level of play they saw last season then the team will be happy with the investment.
Eric Maynor will likely replace A.J. Price as the team’s point guard off the bench. Maynor is a better shooter and should create more assists as well.
Able to generate more opportunities to the rim, he’s a more suitable replacement for Wall for a spell or – heaven forbid – should he suffer injury.
Like Webster, the Wizards are hoping for Maynor to not regress, and should provide more offensive consistency off the bench.
The third move the Wizards made was the one-year deal with Garrett Temple at the veteran’s minimum.
After being signed off of the NBA Developmental League last season, Temple gave the Wizards some solid production on defense, and as he can play both guard positions he’ll likely see AJ Price released.
The re-signing of Temple at the minimum was a safe move by the Wizards, and should he continue to develop could be their best move of free agency.
The Wizards clearly came into free agency with a plan and by all accounts executed it, confident in their roster.
Of course, some holes remain. The Wizards need a stretch four to help with the pick and roll, but could be waiting for some value late.
They were reportedly interested in 37-year-old Antawn Jamison, but they’d have to offer him the minimum, so instead they’ll likely chose to revisit it next season.
The Wizards are gearing up for a playoff run, and with the Atlanta Hawks appearing to go into rebuilding mode they might have a genuine shot (let’s assume the Heat win the division again in 2013-14).
To do this they added some depth on the bench to keep the offence scoring, and were quick to re-sign key roleplayers.
They may have not added the pick-and-roll weapon John Wall wanted via the draft or free agency, but it’s obvious the Wizards had their own priorities and acted without hesitation.
Now, Washington has begun to build a competitive team around the trio of Wall, Bradley Beal and rookie Otto Porter, and there’s a good chance their efforts in head office will bear fruit.
Mushi
Guest
Bynum and Irving need to stay healthy for the cavs to live up to that. Plus Irving needs to defend this year not just put on a show with the ball. The wiz with wall we're a 0.500 team coming off injury (and a positive margin suggesting more ofa 0.550 team) Just the improvement of wall and beal should be enough to push them to that 0.550 level for a season which would be good enough for 5th or 6th. I think your Knicks might be the bigger problem, bargnani is a millstone contract and plays the same position as your other millstone Amare, with the same laxidasical defence.
John Calhoun
Guest
Here's a plan for them: change their name back to the Bullets. The name change to Wizards was the stupidest poitically motivated name change in sports history.
knickradamus
Guest
The wizz more then anything have been unlucky I did my east seedings earlier today and had them running with the pistons for 8th here it is - Miami - Chicago (Rose healthy) - Indiana - Knicks - Nets - Cav's (If they get Bynum) - Pistons and Wizz (Atlanta rank darkhorse) I think where the Wizz were without Wall to the Wizz with Wall is a top 8 team from a bottom 3 team and they were real giant killers last year...... think Wall and Rose are the 2 best PG's n the East and their team is better then last years on paper... Cant wait to watch them play Note Otto Porter is not an Offensive power he cant shoot....and Glen Rice JR was drafted outta D-League after being kicked from is georgia tech team. Porter was selected due to his "Best SF in the draft" status and they needed a SF (hes also from Georgetown/Washington) and Glen Rice JR fell to the 2nd round probably because he was kicked off his college team. so those two additions aren't going to be scaring the atlantic too much. They have a young core and if he can stay healthy a good PF/C and last year we saw the Okafor everyone in 2004 thought he was..... Good team with room to move...
mushi
Guest
I do think he is a horrible GM though and can't understand why he's still there
mushi
Guest
I think Webster’s value is in the vicinity of this contract. Not sure the fourth year was necessary but at 5.5m I think it is fair if you look at his past 4 years, or about 1m cheap if last year wasn’t an outlier. Sure his only elite skill is as a shooter but he is a decent finisher generating the most FTA per shot out of any low useage (<20%) 3pt shooter (min 3tpa/0.385%+) and a passable rebounder and defender for a wing. That’s where it is tough to look to an Ellington. He is JUST a shooter it is a huge gaping massive travesty of justice to imply you lose nothing going from Martel Webster to Wayne Ellington. That’s why Webster has good adjusted +/- numbers (+2) he’s a guy who fills a role without forcing you to cover for major deficiencies. He actually is a little more of a basketball player than just a shooter. Now is he a bona fide starter? No way but as a rotation player 5.5m a year is a fair price for a contributing role player. If you pay circa the mid level a year for 25minutes a night guy from a guy that gives +/- 2 then you build a good team. Because you can now afford to pay your starting line-up an average of around 10m without paying luxury tax. In terms on not being in high demand teams have sought out JJ Reddick, Dudley, Dunleavy and Korver because right now the most sought after single skill is floor spacing. If you can not space the floor you can not run your offence in today’s NBA.
astro
Roar Rookie
Right you are mushi...no getting past you. Was actually thinking of Wayne Ellington...no clue why I wrote Henderson. But my point is more related to the need for the Wiz to overpay for a guy with skills that plenty of other players in the NBA possess, and who is not in high demand...Just makes no sense to me.
mushi
Guest
Delfino and Henderson aren't actually big 3pt shooters. Delfino takes a lot of them but isn't a sharp shooter having only broken the 38% mark once in his 8 year career and posting zero seasons at 40%+. Henderson hasn't even been passable as a three point shooter last season breaking out his best year at 33% and brings something entirely different that I don't think meshes with Wall. Plus he's a restricted free agent so you have to pay more than his current team thinks he's worth.
Dominic Davies
Expert
Fair call with Grunfield, it has been a rough run since he got the job in 2003. And while we've seen him sign gems such as Gilbert Arenas and draft wonders such as Jan Vasely the picks of Beal, Wall and Otto (the safer pick over the risky Noel) leads me to believe he's finally getting it. Bad teams have to overpay in free agency and the Wizards are a bad team. They hope that they get the 2012 Webster instead of the every-other-year Webster. If so, it's not a bad deal. I can't fault them for rolling the dice. To their credit the Maynor and Temple deals were much more conservative (arguably because they had to be). I'd like to think contracts like Nene's are a thing of the past if Wizards find success this year, but till then I'll credit them for going after exactly who they wanted. You never know, Nene might find some health, I actually like what he brings to the table if not for the cost.
astro
Roar Rookie
Sorry, but I find it very hard to ever praise Ernie Grunfield...especially for his draft decisions. And while a core of Wall, Beal and Porter might be ok (remembering that Wall has a history of injury, Beal is still raw, and Porter hasn't played a game), the Wiz still have Nene's massive contract, and those of Ariza and Okafor. Once those come off the books, the question will be what the Wiz can do with that cap space. If massively overpaying for Webster is a sign of things to come, they'll go no where. Honestly, the Webster signing is moronic...was any other team actually interested in Webster? Why pay him over $5mil to shoot 3s? Why not Novak, or Gerald Henderson, or Delfino or any other guy who shoots 40% from 3 but costs less??? Madness...