BROOOOOOK-LYYYN!

This is my last Wizards blog post of the year. I need some time off from writing about this team. What is it that I keep needing time off from writing about them by the way? It's not good. After this weekend, I'm completely exhausted by Ted Leonsis, Ernie Grunfeld and the rest of the Wizards' so-called brain trust.

I went to Brooklyn Friday for a very very quick weekend getaway. It's not the shortest Wizards road trip I've ever planned, but it was close. All told, this was the 16th different opponent I've seen the Wizards play on the road. 13 to go, I guess. Before this game, my road record was a surprisingly good 8-8 (while I'd seen the Wiz play 15 opponents not the road prior to this one, I'd seem them lose to the Clippers twice in L.A.). Now it's below .500 again.

Let's cut to the chase here, shall we? Below is a list of the three best things that happened Friday night in Brooklyn:

3. The Subway is way better than Metro. I love that train system.

2. They have Brooklyn Brewery beer at Barclays Center.

1. Kelly Oubre made a heart sign with his hands for Sophia when he saw her wearing his jersey.

Not so good, right? Now let's look at the worst three things that happened Friday in Brooklyn.

3. The Wizards played another uninspired game and lost to another team with zero All-Stars like they have done countless times in the last two or three years.

2. During the game, the Wizards front office orchestrated a three way trade to send Kelly Oubre to Memphis only to have the trade news leak and Memphis blow the whole thing up.

1. OK, so there were just two worst things that happened in Brooklyn Friday night but number 2 above once again emphasized for me that staying under the salary cap is more important to ownership than long term strategy or winning even while season ticket prices continue to increase.

Definitely not so good.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale. One of my favorites. 

I like going to Wizards road games. I love traveling and I love cheering on my team on the road. So the results are not always what I want but hey, if I can get to an even record over the years that I've been heading all over the country to see the Wiz, that's honestly better than the team's overall winning percentage over that same span. One day, maybe, I'll make it to all the other arenas in the NBA for a Wizards game. Hopefully this team doesn't kill my spirit before that happens.

This was not my first NBA trip to Barclays Center. I came here twice before during All-Star Weekend in 2015. This time I had better seats. Like 10 or 15 feet from the edge of the Wizards' bench kind of seats. Totally different perspective than sitting where I've sat before in the building. Basketball is a completely different game when you are close enough to hear the dialog between players and coaches and when you can see the eyes of the players. Those were some pretty good seats. I won't say much about the actual game other than the Wizards fell behind in the first quarter but recovered for a lead at the 12 minute mark then fell behind in the second the exact same way and never really decided to recover. 11-18 and behind the Nets. Might be called an off-night if there weren't so many just like this already this season.

Obligatory "I was at the game" picture.

One of the things I love about traveling to road games is checking out the other team's arena, especially with so many new buildings out there. From an architectural standpoint, Brooklyn's Barclays Center has to be one of the best out there. While other buildings make an effort to fit into their surroundings or go the generic downtown sports arena route, Barclays dares to be different.

It starts with their curved, video streaming iconic entrance that reveals itself as you emerge from the Subway and extends inside the arena to a lobby that flows right into the main space. You can actually see the scoreboard when you walk in as the walls between the main entry and the arena space were intentionally left off to create this effect. The concourses that make their way around the court space are pretty wide, way wider than we find at Capital One Arena. The more road arenas I see the more this fact hits home that our home building would have benefited so much from an extra 20 or so feet in the north - south direction and it's not a function of the street grid since G Street was eliminated to make way for then-MCI Center.

If MCI Center was one of the first downtown arenas to incorporate some of the character of the surrounding blocks by integrating Chinese motifs into the exterior skin of the building (and I think it was one of the first FWIW), it didn't go much further than that. Barclays does. While it may seem like a minor gesture, they have integrated large photographic displays of some of the early Brooklyn basketball teams into the concourse walls. Fed Ex Forum in Memphis had similar graphics when I was there earlier this year. It provides a great tie to the basketball history of the city. Basketball didn't just arrive on Long Island when the Nets moved from Jersey in 2012. It has been there for a more than a century since just after James Naismith invented the game in the late 1800s.

The front entrance of Barclays Center.

One of the early Brooklyn basketball teams with a beer vendor selling Brooklyn beer.

So let's talk about this whole trade thing. When it was clear that the Wizards were not going to win this game (or more accurately when it was mathematically impossible for that to happen), we headed for the exit. As we did, Kelly Oubre punctuated the loss with an emphatic dunk, leading one of our fellow Wizard fans (our row was ironically full of Wizards fans) to say something to the effect of he probably dunked that hard because he just found out he was traded. 

Hold up! What?

So sure enough a quick check of Twitter got us the news. Trevor Ariza back to the Wizards; Kelly Oubre to Memphis; and Austin Rivers to Phoenix. Oh and the Wizards got a second rounder out of the deal and a very very very very protected second second rounder. Initial reaction: the team is giving up on Kelly, getting a second round pick that they don't value at all and hoping the few years older version of Trevor Ariza gets the Wizards back to where they were when he was in Washington the first time. And of course, there has to be some cash savings, right?

About a half an hour later, that deal was dead. The initial scuttlebutt was that Memphis and Phoenix seemed confused about which Brooks from the Grizzlies (Dillon or MarShon) was headed to the Suns. Later it came out that the Grizz were upset about the deal being leaked  before it was finalized and torpedoed it. Whatever the reason, it was dead and the Wizards had two guys in the locker room who knew damn well the team had just given up on them. Couldn't be long before they got back on the trading block.

Coach Brooks furiously scribbling out a play. As bad as the Wiz were Friday, this happened a lot.

Sure enough by Saturday afternoon there was a different deal done, one that got the Wizards the same two players out of Washington and got less (that's right you read that correctly: LESS!) in return. Second rounders? Forget about it.

I have two takes on this trade. First, before I get to either opinion, let me say that the Wizards are in some sort of salary cap hell and likely will be for a while if they don't make some moves that reduces their cap number going forward like now. They are over the cap this season and have an 11-18 record. Next season, they already have $112 million committed to just five players (Wall, Beal, Porter, Mahinmi and Brown) against a cap expected to be around $123 million. Throw in Dwight Howard's $5.6 million player option and they are about capped out with just six bodies. How do you win with six players and no track record of being able to attract good free agents on discounted deals? You don't. You need more flexibility in a big big way. If the Wizards intend to trade their way out of this situation this year (and I think they have to) then they have lots of work to do. This deal ain't it.

First Take: This is one of many moves to transform this team.

There is a possibility here that the Wizards have a larger plan that nobody outside the organization fully understands (nor should they be privy to that lest it tips the league to the Wizards' hand). I know I'm giving a lot of benefit of the doubt here but stay with me just a bit.

On the surface of things, Ariza on an expiring deal does not seem like the fix the Wizards need, even for a team in desperate need of defense. If there's a plan to keep him, there better be a plan which is pretty darned solid to move Otto Porter and that move better come with a future first round pick coming back to Washington. Ariza is also clearly in demand, if rumors around the league are true; if the intent is to use him as trade fodder for another deal then I can get on board with that. But that trade better return some young talent and a first round pick because it's likely the team interested has some sort of championship aspirations this year and whatever pick comes back ain't going to be that great. 

In this scenario, the team is willing to part with Kelly Oubre because they just traded for Sam Dekker, who effectively becomes the Wizards' replacement draft pick from the 2015 NBA Draft. Dekker was picked three spots behind Kelly that year, is a year and a half older, is probably steadier right now but has nowhere near as much upside. He's also probably easier to retain on a reasonable deal because guys with little upside don't get big contracts unless they are really really really good (or Ian Mahinmi if Ernie Grunfeld has anything to do with it, I guess). Dekker ain't.

Kelly Oubre in his last game as a Wizard. Probably.

Second Take: The Wizards are trying to do whatever it takes to get below the luxury tax.

This take is way easier to execute and way more short sighted and has the capacity to cripple to team for years to come. And since it is the easier and more obvious take, it's the scariest because as fans, the primes of John Wall and Bradley Beal (who has already allegedly asked out of Washington and will no way re-sign) have been completely wasted. It's also scary because even if the plan is to go with Take 1 and it doesn't work no matter how well planned, you have achieved nothing to solve the short or long term issues with this team which means you end up with Take 2 anyway and have completely failed. Completely.

Before we get to the salary cap stuff, let's start by addressing the arguments that Kelly Oubre wasn't that good for the team now or in the future anyway.

I'm sure there are some folks out there who think Kelly Oubre will never be as good as he should be. Now, I'm not pretending that Kelly is the best player on the floor most nights or even most minutes right now but here's what's good about Kelly: (1) he plays hard; like with more energy and effort than anyone on the Wizards, a team noted for not playing hard at all most nights the last season and a half, (2) he's got a ton of upside; sure he may not pass the ball as much as he should and he commits some poor fouls sometimes (he is getting way better) but he's likely to be better than Trevor Ariza will be in three years or so and he's likely to be better than Sam Dekker ever will be. Or not; there's some risk there. Kelly's a swing for the fences type of prospect. You might also strike out.

For those out there who say there's no way we will be able to re-sign Oubre in the offseason, I say why not? First, the Wizards can match any offer if they really wanted to; maybe Kelly gets not much interest and the offer is reasonable. Second, if he gets an offer that you are not willing to match, then sign and trade may be an option. If he gets a great offer and you let him walk, he's not here next year. Guess what? Neither is Ariza. If there are no more plans to move Ariza, then you've traded away flexibility for a shot at glory this year. Ariza ain't the difference maker the Wizards need so you really traded Oubre for nothing. There won't be any glory this year based on this trade.

So if it's a salary cap move, what's wrong with that? Isn't ownership allowed to save money if they want to? Well yes sure, but the fact that the Wizards are choosing to save money and sacrificing competitiveness short term without having a long term vision that's attainable (that point is very important) should be important to every fan of the team and especially those who pay for season tickets every year. My lower level seats increased in price 20% this year and the owner of the team gave the front office an A grade for the offseason and here we are trying to dump salary in December. Again, all this assumes future moves don't materialize. Not future moves are not intended; intent gets you nothing here.

Can we take a look at that offseason A grade just for a paragraph or so? The big moves since the 2017-2018 season were trading Marcin Gortat for Austin Rivers (who the team just traded again); drafting Troy Brown (who hardly plays); and signing Jeff Green and Dwight Howard (who has played in nine of the team's 27 games this year). Doesn't look like an A to me.

Part of the pennant wall at Atlantic Social across from Barclays. Not relevant maybe but too good not to post. 

I left Brooklyn upset on Friday night. Upset at another poor showing on the court but more upset about what I see as trading away a young player with lots of promise who plays hard and is likable as strictly a salary cutting move. My patience is wearing thin with this front office. It might be absolutely done. If we as Wizards fans think trading Kelly Oubre for Trevor Ariza thinks this makes the Wizards good enough to compete this year or better long term we are absolutely fooling ourselves. It does neither of that. I can't see any argument that will convince me of that.

The pressure should be on this front office. Not to deliver millions of dollars of tax savings by cutting salaries short term, but to produce a winner that is more than a failed promise of competing in the Eastern Conference year after year after year. So far, there has been nothing delivered in that regard. If they can't do it, then someone else needs a shot for the fans' sake. For the sake of the people who spend millions of dollars collectively to go watch the Wizards in person at Capital One Arena.

I realize I've said nothing about Austin Rivers in this whole narrative. You can take that silence as my opinion of the relative value of him on the Wizards.

When it became obvious to the Brooklyn faithful that the game was in the bag Friday night, we started to hear long choruses of BROOOOOOK-LYYYN coming from the crowd behind us. Why can't we get that sort of enthusiasm from our crowd at Capital One Arena. Maybe if we got that kind of enthusiasm on the court or from our front office we would. Here's hoping my next Wizards road trip gets me back to even.