The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread

[hands11]

This team simply can't afford to tank another entire season away. Since the Gil thing happened it been like one dark cloud. They did a ton to clean up the mess and the light finally started to shine starting at the end of last season. The Nene for McGee trade was actually a good trade. We were all happy we got Beal. Well at least most of us were. But now that you have Nene, you need to go for it and add the pieces. You can't just sit back and tank. We have to win now while you have Nene and Wall coming into his prime.

If you really had a chance at Harden and passed it by ( I still don't know how real this option was ) then Ted has no idea what he is doing. NONE.

If you have Wall and Nene and you can get Harden, you give up Beal, Ves, Booker, Kevin, and your youngest daughter to get that deal done. That would have been your big three that are ready to do it now. Not 3 years from now if everything eventually works out.

And in not getting Harden, you just put more pressure on Beal. And you made it harder for the fans to like Beal because they will always think about Harden. Total failure. As was the 2011 draft. Ves, Singleton and Mack. Really ? You draft a 3 and D SF with your second pick and you don't even have your core starter worked out ? Hell, I'll even give him a pass on Ves. Yes he is a project but at least he is long, athletic and has an old school approach to the game. Kid isn't just about scoring. You can actually develop a player like that in time and he fits better with better players. But they need production now. They could have had a very solid center in Nikola Vucevic. Could have had a dynamic type SG that is long in Brooks. Neither of those picks was a stretch to figure out. We needed a future center and we need a Nick replacement. It was a no brainer.

Wall
Brooks/Crawford/Mason
Trevor A/Webster
Nene/James Singleton/Kevin
Okafor/Vucevic

Thats not even counting what you would have gotten in this years draft. Hell, they could have added anything they wanted. Barnes, Lillard. Beal, Drummond

If they had the above roster, they very likely could have gone Lillard. I could make a case for every one of them.

It wouldn't have mattered because non of them would have been starting. Actually if they went Lillard, he would be starting with Wall out and the team would not have sucked. And the worst of our problems would be, what do we do with Wall and Lillard when Wall return. Hell, even Beal would have fit in better.

Not even to mention not dumping Dray for NOTHING.

They were so close to putting this together the right way. They make some good moves but then they miss the other 50% of the time. Thats not good enough in this league.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TED. WHAT ?

You have Nene and Wall. The time is now. Tanking isn't getting it done. Someone offers you Harden, you take the deal. Idiot.

[payitforward]

I've posted *many* comments on Ted's blog that have been denied. Here's what I made in response to his idiotic "Jordan Crawford's Positive Attitude" post:

Jordan Crawford has improved in his third season — his numbers are just about that of an average NBA 2-guard.

That’s it. Pretty sad if we’re hanging our hat on this. When will it be time to look in the mirror and say “we’ve made a series of bad decisions, one after the other. We’re going to have to start over. Scratch this rebuild, and on to the next rebuild.”

You don’t see these comments, and you certainly don’t read them. You don’t give them any weight, and you don’t look at anything outside the already-decided narrow perspective in weighing your own work here and that of your Front Office.

We just got dismantled by one of the worst teams in the league. Congratulations.

You keep saying “John Wall is our longest-tenured player.” Actually, we have 4 guys out of the 2010 draft, and 3 of them are equally long-tenured — Seraphin and Booker in addition to Wall. Crawford arrived a bit later that season.

Houston has exactly one player who’s been with the team as long as that group has been with us, Patrick Patterson. They started rebuilding from a disaster (loss of their franchise player, Yao Ming) right when we started rebuilding.

Darryl Morey has made a series of bold and clever moves, and his team is already well on its way up the ladder. He also is paying almost $20m less than we are in salary this year, and he has much more cap flexibility going forward.

Morey is starting a guy at the 3 who was taken a few picks *after* we took Shelvin Mack, whom we cut. He’s starting a guy at the 4 who was taken several picks *after* we took Jan Vesely (who had 1 rebound in 30 minutes last night — leave aside his pathetic shooting).

Morey is also getting 15 outstanding minutes a night from a guy who went undrafted that same year, and whom I was repeatedly calling for us to pick up after the draft. He has 4 rookies on his squad, and he has 4 2d year players as well — and at least 3 guys in their 3d year.

He also managed to sign a highly productive, reasonably-priced Center as a FA, not to mention Jeremy Lin (another guy I touted before the ’10 draft). And he managed to trade for one of the best players in the league as well.

What’s wrong, Ted? When are you going to make it right? Please replace Ernie Grunfield with a real GM, and then please give him a reasonable set of financial constraints and get out of his way.

I’m glad Jordan Crawford has “a positive attitude.” For heaven’s sake, man — don’t you get embarrassed when you assess what you’ve done here? Are you really thinking that a healthy John Wall takes us very far? He took us where last year?

This comment won’t get through moderation. Even if it does (and a few have since I figured out that saying my comments wouldn’t get online might help them actually get there), you won’t read it.

You are not taking in any information from anywhere but the mirror. As we all know, the mirror lies.

[hands11]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... n_Nets_Job

PAY HIM TED.

[pineappleheadindc]

Pine on December 28, 2012 at 12:05 AM said:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Perhaps this comment is way out of line, but perhaps the Wizards wouldn’t have trouble closing out close games against fellow NBA bottom dwellers if we had a GM who knew how to assemble a roster.

Could that possibly be it?

[Halcyon]

Everyday I check this site, hoping that Ernie has been fired. He's the last clown GM left in town (with Jim Bowden and Vinny Cerrato ousted long ago). Ted is holding back the area from becoming a dynasty town, with the Nats becoming legit championship contenders, and the Skins on the way there.

Ted is losing generations of fans right now, with no end in sight.

[Chaos Revenant]

I thought he was a marketing guy.

That's exactly the problem.

Ted knows how to MARKET.

He doesn't know how to build.

I'm honestly curious as to how he made all his AOL money, and what role he was in. A lot of these CEOs make their fortunes not by being able to assemble a competent team or by innovating a product or taking entrepreneurial risk, but by being able to sell stuff and shift resources around.

Compare how Mark Cuban and Ted Leonsis made their fortunes. The thing with Cuban is that he BUILT his fortune from the ground up. Leonsis really didn't. Dan Snyder had a similar background - a marketer, not a builder.

[mohammed10]

I've posted *many* comments on Ted's blog that have been denied. Here's what I made in response to his idiotic "Jordan Crawford's Positive Attitude" post:

Jordan Crawford has improved in his third season — his numbers are just about that of an average NBA 2-guard.

That’s it. Pretty sad if we’re hanging our hat on this. When will it be time to look in the mirror and say “we’ve made a series of bad decisions, one after the other. We’re going to have to start over. Scratch this rebuild, and on to the next rebuild.”

You don’t see these comments, and you certainly don’t read them. You don’t give them any weight, and you don’t look at anything outside the already-decided narrow perspective in weighing your own work here and that of your Front Office.

We just got dismantled by one of the worst teams in the league. Congratulations.

You keep saying “John Wall is our longest-tenured player.” Actually, we have 4 guys out of the 2010 draft, and 3 of them are equally long-tenured — Seraphin and Booker in addition to Wall. Crawford arrived a bit later that season.

Houston has exactly one player who’s been with the team as long as that group has been with us, Patrick Patterson. They started rebuilding from a disaster (loss of their franchise player, Yao Ming) right when we started rebuilding.

Darryl Morey has made a series of bold and clever moves, and his team is already well on its way up the ladder. He also is paying almost $20m less than we are in salary this year, and he has much more cap flexibility going forward.

Morey is starting a guy at the 3 who was taken a few picks *after* we took Shelvin Mack, whom we cut. He’s starting a guy at the 4 who was taken several picks *after* we took Jan Vesely (who had 1 rebound in 30 minutes last night — leave aside his pathetic shooting).

Morey is also getting 15 outstanding minutes a night from a guy who went undrafted that same year, and whom I was repeatedly calling for us to pick up after the draft. He has 4 rookies on his squad, and he has 4 2d year players as well — and at least 3 guys in their 3d year.

He also managed to sign a highly productive, reasonably-priced Center as a FA, not to mention Jeremy Lin (another guy I touted before the ’10 draft). And he managed to trade for one of the best players in the league as well.

What’s wrong, Ted? When are you going to make it right? Please replace Ernie Grunfield with a real GM, and then please give him a reasonable set of financial constraints and get out of his way.

I’m glad Jordan Crawford has “a positive attitude.” For heaven’s sake, man — don’t you get embarrassed when you assess what you’ve done here? Are you really thinking that a healthy John Wall takes us very far? He took us where last year?

This comment won’t get through moderation. Even if it does (and a few have since I figured out that saying my comments wouldn’t get online might help them actually get there), you won’t read it.

You are not taking in any information from anywhere but the mirror. As we all know, the mirror lies.

I nominate this as a HOF post...

[mohammed10]

Pine on December 28, 2012 at 12:05 AM said:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Perhaps this comment is way out of line, but perhaps the Wizards wouldn’t have trouble closing out close games against fellow NBA bottom dwellers if we had a GM who knew how to assemble a roster.

Could that possibly be it?

Pine - all I can say is thank goodness Real GM does not have the 'awaiting moderator' feature. Otherwise, NOTHING bad would ever get posted about the Wizards!

...and Ji would be exiled

[mohammed10]

He doesn't know how to build.

I'm honestly curious as to how he made all his AOL money, and what role he was in. A lot of these CEOs make their fortunes not by being able to assemble a competent team or by innovating a product or taking entrepreneurial risk, but by being able to sell stuff and shift resources around.

Compare how Mark Cuban and Ted Leonsis made their fortunes. The thing with Cuban is that he BUILT his fortune from the ground up. Leonsis really didn't. Dan Snyder had a similar background - a marketer, not a builder.

Hmmm...is that why The Danny and Ted are not on Shark Tank?

[Jay81]

just curious but what does Ernie do at work on a day to day basis. Serious question

[payitforward]

Ted posted another dumb "...don't know how to win close games" entry. I commented as follows:

Oh, Ted… you know perfectly well that there is no such thing as “knowing how to win close games.” Better teams win more games; worse teams win fewer games. We are a terrible team.

What makes a team good? In the NBA, it’s pretty simple: better players make better teams. The reason we’re better when Nene is on the floor is that he’s such a good player.

The reason we’re bad overall is that overall we have a roster of really bad players. How could there be any other reason, Ted? Do you really want to blame it all on John Wall’s injury? Has John Wall led us to lots of wins in the past? When did he show he was a “franchise player?” I must have missed that.

Why do we have a roster of really bad players? Well, as you’ve pointed out, you’ve turned over the entire roster. You and Ernie chose this entire roster. So, Ernie is the reason we have bad players, and to the degree that you enabled him you too are the reason.

Nene is terrific, but he seems to be a 20-25 minute player who’s under contract for the next 4 years at $13 million a year. Do you really think you made a good trade for him? Better than simply using the cap room you’d have had by letting JaVale go?

Have Okafor and Ariza (before he got hurt) accomplished what you expected when you traded for them — a trade you bragged about (!) on this blog? More than you’d have gotten by buying out Rashard Lewis and acquiring lets say Brand rather than Okafor and some other SF on the FA market?

Did Price show anything to make you think he was a good signing? That it made sense to pluck him out of the air as he was falling out of the NBA because of his 3 years of bad play?

Did you have a successful 2011 draft, Ted? You really think so?

When do you step up, take responsibility for the disastrous mess you’ve made, and make the moves you need to make? When?

You’re in a hole. Please stop digging.

And puh-lease stop asking for “patience.” We’re heading in the wrong direction, Ted. The longer we’re “patient,” the farther from our goals we’ll be when you finally have no choice but to fire Ernie.

Admitting error is a strength, not a weakness. It’s the first step towards “winning the close ones.”

What do you think, will his gatekeepers let it through? Will they even let him see it?

[hands11]

Everyday I check this site, hoping that Ernie has been fired. He's the last clown GM left in town (with Jim Bowden and Vinny Cerrato ousted long ago). Ted is holding back the area from becoming a dynasty town, with the Nats becoming legit championship contenders, and the Skins on the way there.

Ted is losing generations of fans right now, with no end in sight.

From a marketing perspective, it looks like that train is already leaving the station. Its called RG3

I wrote about this some years ago when the Skins sucked and the Nats hadn't shown up yet. The city was ripe for the taking. It was a matter of who stopped screwing up first. Looks like it was The Dan. He brought in Shanny and got ride of Vinny 3 years ago. Now you see the fruit of that decision. Going all in for RG3 and getting Cousins as the back up is looking brilliant. So is finding Alfred in the later rounds.

The Wiz need to try to win now. Like you said, you have the Skins, The Nats and the Caps already who are sucking all the air out of the room.

They need a bold move like getting Phil as VP. That would be your MJ move only Phil actually knows how to get it done already as a front office person. He has the name and the experience.

Ted said he wasn't afraid to spend when spending made sense. Well, now is the time. Getting Phil involved would add instant cred to the team and he is the ultimate when it comes to motivating players. Phil is the ultimate player development person. He develops their minds. Skill, production, and winning follow.

[LyricalRico]

They need a bold move like getting Phil as VP. That would be your MJ move only Phil actually knows how to get it done already as a front office person. He has the name and the experience.

Ted said he wasn't afraid to spend when spending made sense. Well, now is the time. Getting Phil involved would add instant cred to the team and he is the ultimate when it comes to motivating players. Phil is the ultimate player development person. He develops their minds. Skill, production, and winning follow.

From all the reports of what Phil wanted to be the coach of the Lakers, I'd expect him to demand a minority ownership stake (in addition, of course, to a huge salary). Not sure Ted gives that up. He already tried that with MJ and it didn't work.

[hands11]

They need a bold move like getting Phil as VP. That would be your MJ move only Phil actually knows how to get it done already as a front office person. He has the name and the experience.

Ted said he wasn't afraid to spend when spending made sense. Well, now is the time. Getting Phil involved would add instant cred to the team and he is the ultimate when it comes to motivating players. Phil is the ultimate player development person. He develops their minds. Skill, production, and winning follow.

From all the reports of what Phil wanted to be the coach of the Lakers, I'd expect him to demand a minority ownership stake (in addition, of course, to a huge salary). Not sure Ted gives that up. He already tried that with MJ and it didn't work.

That was Abe.

It actually makes decent sense if you think about it. Ted has both the Caps and the Wiz to worry about. He could use some help. He could let Phil focus more on the Wizards and he could focus more on the Caps. And if it work, he has a better team and he makes more money. He can focus on the marketing and let Phil focus on building the franchise. Its actually a good fit and it would be a brilliant marketing move. Phil is the name and smart this franchise needs. He would help pull in the bigger fish. Phil is a winner.

The MJ plan was actually not a complete failure. MJ made Abe a ton on money and he did clean house of bad contracts. It was just that Abe then screwed MJ. Phil would give you all the name that MJ did only he already has the front office experience.

Brilliant if he can pull it off. This is the kind of move the Ted needs to make to jump start this team from its losing ways.

[LyricalRico]

^ Yes, Abe was the majority owner at the time, but wasn't Ted the one who brought MJ in? IIRC Ted had already bought the Caps from Abe and he was trying to build the Wizards brand in preparation for taking them over upon Abe's death.

But either way, my point was that Phil wouldn't want to be viewed as doing the same thing MJ did with the same team. Maybe he'd do it somewhere else, but not in DC IMO.