<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">July 19, 2007 - 12:54 pm Miami Herald - The Wizards reportedly had been holding out for a team that also would take on one of the bloated contracts belonging to center Brendan Haywood (three years/$16.5 million), guard Antonio Daniels (three/$18.6 million) or forward Etan Thomas (three/$20.6 million) along with Juan Carlos Navarro. To execute such a deal, the Heat would have to send a player or players due similar salaries for at least next season, such as Jason Williams, Antoine Walker or Udonis Haslem. It's unclear if the Wizards are interested in either Williams or Walker, and the Heat has been reluctant to offer Haslem in the deal. </div> http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/472...g_with_navarro/ It is clear that getting rid of Brendan, Etan, or Antonio would be a move to create cap space for the signing of Gilbert Arenas next season. The Wizards need to make sure that they have enough money to offer Arenas a maximum contract so that he stays. I hope the Wizards don't give up Antonio Daniels, he's a solid contributer off the bench with great court vision and veteran leadership. Besides, without him the Wizards don't have a backup PG unless the plan is to bring in Jason Williams.
Antonio Daniels and Haywood are not the cap space guys, they can bring good value back. According to a source close to the team, the managament really likes Haywood and knows his value, and also know that he's a bargain, so even though EJ doesn't like him, they won't just trade him for cap space.
Eddie Jordan's hate for Haywood is really hindering the teams potential. He needs to get Etan's balls out of his mouth and realize that Haywood is a much more serviceable center who can be an impact player on defense and potentially offense if given the ball and some room to work with.
It's most likely gonna be Etan Thomas, I just really hope Eddie Jordan and Brendan Haywood could settle their differences. Bringing in Jason Williams wouldn't make much sense when we'd already have Antonio Daniels who is decent off the bench. He knows the system very well, he brings in veteran leadership and he knows how to set up for his teammates. I doubt Miami would trade away Udonis Haslem who has been a rising star for them and I don't know if Antoine Walker would be the solution to the lack of dominance of our front-court.
I think one of the main reasons management won't trade Haywood for nothing (and they shouldn't as he has value) is that as much as Arenas likes EJ, this is probably his last year to make something happen or it's time to start packing. I'm not that big on Udonis Haslem, and Miami probably won't want to give him up. He can hit the jumpshot decently, but how much better is he than Etan Thomas? Thomas is a better rebounder, much better shot blocker, scores more efficently, and they score at almost the same rate (Haslem and little more). Yes, Haslem has durability, more diverse offense, and is a better man to man defender against some guys, but he's not really "better". Haslem would also just end up taking minutes away from the young guys. Antoine Walker would do nothing for the frontcourt, and he makes more than Etan Thomas, and his contract is longer. Washington won't touch him with a 900 ft pole. He would basically become our replacement for Jamison (because we'd have less money to re-sign him if we wanted to) if we got him because of how much he made, and a much worse replacement too. So Jamison would be replaced by a worse scorer, rebounder, shooter, leader, and a guy that can pass better and double Jamison's turnovers. Walker's eFG% was lower than Jamison's FG% (43.8% to 45%) his TS% last season was just a little higher than Jamison's FG%, and he had that great 27.5% 3PT shooting. The bringing of Jason Williams would be in the situation of Antonio Daniels being traded to Miami along with Navarro. If the Wizards could do Etan and Navarro for Jason Williams and a pick; which I don't think could happen, Miami isn't looking to get rid of a PG and not get one back (Navarro is a guard, not a PG), he's $9 million expiring. It would be hard to work out the minutes and all, but yea.
