Ra$hard Lewis traded to New Orleans for Okafor and Ariza

[rise]

http://dc.sbnation.com/washington-wizards/2012/6/20/3101806/washington-wizards-rashard-lewis-trade-emeka-okafor-trevor-ariza

The Washington Wizards traded forward Rashard Lewis and the No. 46 overall draft pick to the New Orleans Hornets for forwards Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor.

The Wizards realize they could have just bought Lewis out for $11M, right?

On another note, the Wizards now lead the league in Trevors.

[Lamrock]

Phenomenal deal for New Orleans. They get rid of a pair of overpaid players and now have an incredible amount of cap space. Wizards meanwhile round out their roster for a doomed run at the 8 seed.

[Mavs4Life]

It's a meh on both sides for me, other than the cap space.

[NovU]

The most overpaid player in the legaue in terms of buying wins, to the Hornets. But 14 season look promising with the cap space they will have. Meanwhile Okafor and Ariza's contract runs till 14. Just 1 more season than Rashad. By no means, Okafor and Ariza are good players but I see them little bit improved if that's what they wanted from this trade.

[Martti.]

Since Rashard is one of my fav players, I hope he will sign with Miami next year for the repeat. (For the vets minimum)

[shadowgrin]

Since Rashard is one of my fav players, I hope he will sign with Miami next year for the repeat. (For the vets minimum)

So the Heat will have two chokers in the team. People seem to forget how Rashard choked in the 2009 Finals.

[Andrew]

Since Rashard is one of my fav players, I hope he will sign with Miami next year for the repeat. (For the vets minimum)

He's got one more year left on his contract.

Not too bad for either side. Lewis may or may not be able to give the Hornets a productive season but it doesn't really matter, they'll either benefit from his expiring contract or they'll be able to snare picks or something from a team desperate for cap relief. Ariza is capable of being a solid player if he's far enough down in the pecking order, while Okafor is a better than average centre when he's healthy and could form a decent twin tower duo with Nene in Washington.

[Martti.]

The Hornets can buyout Lewis' $23.8 million contract for $13.7 million before July 1st.

Provided they do this.

[Andrew]

Ah, I stand corrected. So much better for the Hornets then.

[yosifun]

Good deal for both teams when you think about it, Hornets got rid of some high payrolls while taking Lewis so they probably use the amnesty on him.

Washington now has a pretty solid rotation when all are healthy (plus the 3rd pick at the draft):
C: Nene, Okafor, Cook, Seraphin
PF: Blatche, Vesely, Booker
SF: Ariza, Singleton
SG: Crawford, Evans
PG: Wall, Almond, Mack

[Andrew]

They can't amnesty a player they've traded for, but they can buy him out.

[Nick]

Wizards GM is dumb. Why go into win-now mode when you clearly don't have a roster that can support it? Now they're locked into bad contracts and stuck in mediocrity for years. I feel sorry for John Wall.

[Sauru]

Wizards GM is dumb. Why go into win-now mode when you clearly don't have a roster that can support it? Now they're locked into bad contracts and stuck in mediocrity for years. I feel sorry for John Wall.

i think they went into "win enough to sell tickets" mode. they could care less about winning it all.

[cavs4872]

Washington now has a pretty solid rotation when all are healthy (plus the 3rd pick at the draft):
C: Nene, Okafor, Cook, Seraphin
PF: Blatche, Vesely, Booker
SF: Ariza, Singleton
SG: Crawford, Evans
PG: Wall, Almond, Mack

I would start Okafor at the 4. Blatche is a disaster; I would amnesty him. About $23M over the next three years.

I agree with the previous two comments.

[Andrew]

I'm guessing Nene would be playing power forward while Okafor is in the middle. If both are healthy, they could be a solid twin tower duo.

Blatche does have some talent, but his history of attitude problems, injuries and a bad contract do make him a good amnesty candidate.

[NovU]

I don't see how this is that bad of a deal for the Wizards. Okafor and Ariza's contract runs just one year longer than Lewis's. It's not like John Wall was getting anywhere with the current roster, so might as well keep him happy by adding couple ok players to the roster. And if the Wizards can retain them at cheaper salary even after the expiry, everything will be better off than just keeping Lewis around for an year.

[benji]

Uhhh, did you miss the part where they could have bought out Rashard Lewis' contract?

Now they get to pay $40 million to Okafor and Ariza to move down in the draft but not get any playoff revenue for two years.

[SkyLine03LT]

Wizards GM is dumb. Why go into win-now mode when you clearly don't have a roster that can support it? Now they're locked into bad contracts and stuck in mediocrity for years. I feel sorry for John Wall.

i think they went into "win enough to sell tickets" mode. they could care less about winning it all.

And maybe to try and keep John Wall from leaving after three more years of 20 wins or to sign a big time free agent as now they at least got something to work with to win.