2018-2019 Washington Wizards Season Thread - FREEDOM!

Will this be the year that the Wizards finally win 50 games?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No

    Votes: 5 83.3%
  • Who cares?

    Votes: 1 16.7%

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .
upload_2019-5-20_10-49-49.png
 
So still not GM and the #9 pick....wizards!!!
I was really hoping for some blind luck in the draft. Who are possible prospects at #9? We got a shot at Cam Reddish? or Cobe White?
 
Today, NBC Sports published another unsourced gem claiming that the Wizards are considering Masai Ujiri, despite the rather notable impediment that he’s currently under contract with a more successful organization: https://www.nbcsports.com/washingto...earch-latest-raptors-gm-masai-ujiri-wild-card

That’s like saying we’re considering signing Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer. He’s not available and he has no reason to jilt a contender for a laughingstock.


 
Smoke screen by Ted?

upload_2019-6-14_10-9-34.png
Masai Ujiri still has two years left on his contract. The Raptors would have to grant permission for him to meet with the Wizards.


I will say this: as much as I don't respect it, the Wizards are playing the media better than they play basketball, and it's exposing the dearth of professional journalism in NBA coverage generally.

Think about the nonsensical rumors that this organization has managed to spread through the media, primarily via the use of "anonymous sources":
"I am not cheap. I'll prove it! Tonight, let's go to the fanciest restaurant in town. We'll even order wine! What's that? We'd need reservations? Oh, darn. And I was so excited to go! Oh well, I guess McDonald's is still open..."

They're trying to push this narrative that everyone wants this job and the Wizards will spare no expense to bring in the best candidate, but "anonymous sources" are a poor counterweight to observable reality.

Somehow, this all seems pitifully familiar:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...share=6551463153661499&utm_term=.bdbda0008edd


This process has been a joke from the start.

Top candidates are demonstrably uninterested in this job. The Ujiri offer comes across as desperate, and when he remains with Toronto, it will appear as though the best candidates would not join this team "for all the money in the world."


The team wants to look like they're doing everything they can to find someone actually qualified, but they will cheap out and promote from within. Sheppard will manage the draft. Sheppard will decide if Beal is traded and for whom. Sheppard will handle the team's free agent decisions.

We finally rid ourselves of Ernie Grunfeld, only to hand the team over to his assistant.

Classic Wizards.
 
Masai Ujiri still has two years left on his contract. The Raptors would have to grant permission for him to meet with the Wizards.


I will say this: as much as I don't respect it, the Wizards are playing the media better than they play basketball, and it's exposing the dearth of professional journalism in NBA coverage generally.

Think about the nonsensical rumors that this organization has managed to spread through the media, primarily via the use of "anonymous sources":
"I am not cheap. I'll prove it! Tonight, let's go to the fanciest restaurant in town. We'll even order wine! What's that? We'd need reservations? Oh, darn. And I was so excited to go! Oh well, I guess McDonald's is still open..."

They're trying to push this narrative that everyone wants this job and the Wizards will spare no expense to bring in the best candidate, but "anonymous sources" are a poor counterweight to observable reality.

Somehow, this all seems pitifully familiar:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...share=6551463153661499&utm_term=.bdbda0008edd


This process has been a joke from the start.

Top candidates are demonstrably uninterested in this job. The Ujiri offer comes across as desperate, and when he remains with Toronto, it will appear as though the best candidates would not join this team "for all the money in the world."


The team wants to look like they're doing everything they can to find someone actually qualified, but they will cheap out and promote from within. Sheppard will manage the draft. Sheppard will decide if Beal is traded and for whom. Sheppard will handle the team's free agent decisions.

We finally rid ourselves of Ernie Grunfeld, only to hand the team over to his assistant.

Classic Wizards.

ANDDDDDD now were here

https://www.bulletsforever.com/2019...no-president-of-basketball-operations-meeting
 

From the comments section:

Eh - not really buying it
I think the team just wanted to get control of the reporting before it got out of hand. Within hours of the raptors winning it all, reports were pouring out of the Wiz getting ready to make a godfather offer. I doubt that has changed but I’m sure the organization doesn’t want the entire world knowing it right now.

There’s a reason Buckner is the one reporting it. Wiz feeding her the narrative they want out there.

Sensible take.

ALL the chips on the table for Masai. IF the rumors are true about an ownership stake in Monumental, then Wizards ineptitude be damned, he'll absolutely consider a position with the organization. The 6/60 is insane money for a GM, but the ownership stake is what will ultimately drive the deal. This is one to keep an eye on.
 
This is to my point: the offer was never legitimate to begin with.

And if they want us to believe they’re having second thoughts because of Ujiri’s altercation with an Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy, that just grinds salt in the wound. Masai Ujiri shoved some racist deputy who didn’t think he, the GM of the winning team who was holding up his security credentials, “belonged” on the court. If the deputy actually believed that Ujiri was some crazed fan, his reaction should have been to restrain him and keep him away from the players - not shove him back like he was taking part in a barroom dispute.

Meanwhile, the Wizards already interviewed Danny Ferry.


Whose behavior was more disqualifying?


Nobody is buying this “it’s not me, it’s you” act. Masai Ujiri will not become the Wizards’ GM because he is uninterested and already under contract with a superior team.

Now they’re going to pretend they weren’t rejected because they never “officially” asked. They’re handling this like a kid using an intermediary to ask someone to a middle school dance.
 
New report (plus the return of the Obama rumor)

The Wizards are reportedly preparing to make Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri a massive offer to run Washington's NBA franchise. And they may have some big-time help recruiting him to D.C.

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, is trying to persuade Ujiri to leave the NBA champions to join the Wizards, according to The Athletic's Ethan Strauss.

"I hear Barack Obama's a part of that whole Masai recruitment to D.C.," Strauss said on a recent episode of the "Back To Back" podcast. "I've heard Obama wants Masai in D.C. Obama wants to do something with basketball."

Obama and Ujiri are close friends. Obama was in attendance at Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Toronto, while Ujiri attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2015 when Obama was in office.

The Wizards' potential offer for Ujiri is reportedly for six years, $60 million, and could possibly include an ownership stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment and other responsibilities within the company, sources have told NBC Sports Washington.

And hey, it doesn't hurt to have the former Commander in Chief making your sales pitch.

https://www.nbcsports.com/washingto...rack-obama-trying-recruit-masai-ujiri-wizards
 
Can someone explain the logic behind the Barack Obama rumor? We all know he's a Bulls fan.

This is all starting to remind me of something:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...himself/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b2145fb6e839

Nothing about it makes sense...it's all we got right now as wizards fans until Shep is eventually hired :lol: :smh:

(One theory I read was about Obama/Ujiri having ownership stakes in Monumental...that's about the only angle that could make sense as far as why 44 would have a vested interest in bringing his boy to DC to be part of this trainwreck.)
 
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