Countdown to Ernie Grunfeld Firing

[Dat2U]

Let see. He signed a two year contract around May this year, right.

So that puts the count down at around 18 mouths.

I don't think I can be that patient. But I also don't think Ernie has 18 months to turn this around.

[AFM]

That's 18 months until Ted gives him another extension.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I just want to say before I take a sabbatical from posting I apologize to anyone I have offended.

I apologize for name calling, insulting the intelligence of, or assuming I know what goes on behind closed doors with Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld.

I don't take back anything I said, believing to be the truth, no matter how painful. However, I am reminded that compassion and grace serves everyone well. I don't need to gossip or put down people, but rather I need to promote what I think are good/better ideas.

[montestewart]

I just want to say before I take a sabbatical from posting I apologize to anyone I have offended.

I apologize for name calling, insulting the intelligence of, or assuming I know what goes on behind closed doors with Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld.

I don't take back anything I said, believing to be the truth, no matter how painful. However, I am reminded that compassion and grace serves everyone well. I don't need to gossip or put down people, but rather I need to promote what I think are good/better ideas.

Your semi-annual sabbatical? I don't recall you saying anything that harsh, but whatever. Go in peace, my son.

[omegatronic3]

EG must go now....no question about it...I cant think of any argument for him not to be fired. This franchise cant afford to waste another draft on his horrible picks.

Even with a full healthy roster this team is going nowhere.

The best he ever did was make us a skin of our teeth 8th seed.

[BigA]

Good discussion of the options and candidates. Based on Ted's public statements (which admittedly do leave ample wiggle room) I don't think there's any way Ernie lasts past this year if there isn't significant progress in W-L.

If Wall and Nene come back and the team continues to struggle, I expect Ernie to be let go mid-season, even if they have to designate an interim GM.

I hope Ted has been educating himself about the managerial talent around the league. This will be an important hire. Just googling Troy Weaver it appears that he has turned down some GM positions. Someone like him would need to be courted, but that's something Leonsis should be good at. He sold Michael Jordan on coming here, after all.

[hands11]

Let see. He signed a two year contract around May this year, right.

So that puts the count down at around 18 mouths.

I don't think I can be that patient. But I also don't think Ernie has 18 months to turn this around.

Its really not a matter of how patient you are, its a matter of how patient Ted is.
He made a decision to extend him for two years. Not one year. Two years.
That said, I doubt he has even started to second guess that decision to cut that contract short.
By the vary nature of the length of the contract, he has set that date to re-evaluate what to do with EG
until about somewhere near the trade deadline next season.

What he is likely doing right now is watching individual players that are new like Beal, Trevor A, Okafor, Barron, Webster, Price and Pargo and evaluating what is the next piece they can add while they wait for their two best players to return so the pieces they have can continue to develop.

One sign that they are indeed doing that is the Livingston signing just 7 games into the season. Livingston in, Pargo out. Now he will evaluate how much adding a 6-7 27 year old vet PG helps a team that desperately needs a steady PG until Wall returns and who needed a solid back up going into the season anyway. The Livingston move was one I was hoping they would make and believed it was on the table for them even though they went into the season with Price and Pargo. I'm glad to see what I believed actually was what they were considering.

He is also evaluating how Randy is doing as head coach. But again, unless Randy loses the team, he is here for two years. Ted has made these two decisions and he is moving forward.

Ted knew what all of us know. The team was going to have a huge uphill fight to start the year with 7 new players, a new coach and no Wall or Nene. Not having those two players to start the year is why many of us projected low 30's in wins for the season instead of low to mid 40s. We know the start of this year was going to be really tough to get a win.

I'm sure he sees the reality of that situation and is looking forward to seeing what the team looks like once Wall and Nene return. For now, I'm sure he is excited to see how much adding Livingston can help. Livingston may not be an All Star, but he is a piece the team desperately needed since they are mostly a group of players that can't create their own shots given youth and injuries.

Once they get their core piece back out there, I'm sure they will be working to back channels to see what trades might be available come the trade deadline. Lots of work to do.

I would be shocked if Ted even spent 2 minutes second guessing the decision he made about the two year contract for EG at this stage of the game. He did that evaluation before the contracts and he will decide again what he wants to do sometime around the trade dead line next season.

So if you counting down, you most likely have about 14 months of counting to do.

[FAH1223]

hands, the man has had 10 years.. and Ted will feel the pressure of the fans very soon especially when Wall/Nene come back and this team still has a horribly win-loss record.

[montestewart]

Perhaps Leonsis the businessman has market research showing a loyal hardcore following of paying Wizards fans who will continue to pay no matter what product is offered, their dollars providing a safety net against bad decision making. The fans. The cattle. The peons. We don't belong to the same clubs as he does.

[barelyawake]

Ted: We need to tank to get franchise players to build a champion for the next decade.
Ernie: I'll tank, but you need to give me job assurance because I don't want to be held accountable for the awful record you want.
Fans: This GM sucks because he's losing and not signing second round pick roll players that would help us win three more games than we have won.

All these meaningless players you drool over DO NOT MATTER. The NBA is a star driven league. Learn it. Accept it. Without a top ten player, you OUGHT to be tanking. Ernie isn't good, or great, but he is doing his job.

Wall
Beal
Shabazz
Nene
Seraphin

Is actually a very good team...

[nate33]

Ted: We need to tank to get franchise players to build a champion for the next decade.
Ernie: I'll tank, but you need to give me job assurance because I don't want to be held accountable for the awful record you want.
Ridiculous fans: This GM sucks because he's losing and not signing second round pick roll players that would help us win three more games than we have won.

All these meaningless players you drool over DO NOT MATTER. The NBA is a star driven league. Learn it. Accept it. Without a top ten player, you OUGHT to be tanking. Ernie isn't good, or great, but he is doing his job.

Wall
Beal
Shabazz
Nene
Seraphin

Is actually a very good team...

If the intent was to tank, then we had no business making the Okariza acquisition (or the Nene trade, for that matter).

I'm sure we'd all feel a bit better about being 0-16 if we had max cap room this summer. At least then, it would feel like a plan. But what's happening isn't a plan. This is simply failure. Fire EG.

[FAH1223]

Guys, flood Ted Leonsis twitter with #FireGrunfeld and suggestions of new GMs

[barelyawake]

No, the plan for this year was not to tank.

But, I'm talking about the list of "EG failures" that includes years where his job was to tank.

This year, our two best players are out.

[TGW]

No, the plan for this year was not to tank.

But, I'm talking about the list of "EG failures" that includes years where his job was to tank.

This year, our two best players are out.

I don't buy the whole "his job was to tank" narrative. His job is to put a competitive basketball team on the court, and he has failed miserably. There are better teams that the Wizards that have made better draft picks at much lower draft positions than the Wizards, so even if the job were to tank, how can you be happy with the players they've gotten from tanking? Even if you were right, EG still fails.

[dandridge 10]

Ted: We need to tank to get franchise players to build a champion for the next decade.
Ernie: I'll tank, but you need to give me job assurance because I don't want to be held accountable for the awful record you want.
Ridiculous fans: This GM sucks because he's losing and not signing second round pick roll players that would help us win three more games than we have won.

All these meaningless players you drool over DO NOT MATTER. The NBA is a star driven league. Learn it. Accept it. Without a top ten player, you OUGHT to be tanking. Ernie isn't good, or great, but he is doing his job.

Wall
Beal
Shabazz
Nene
Seraphin

Is actually a very good team...

If the intent was to tank, then we had no business making the Okariza acquisition (or the Nene trade, for that matter).

I'm sure we'd all feel a bit better about being 0-16 if we had max cap room this summer. At least then, it would feel like a plan. But what's happening isn't a plan. This is simply failure. Fire EG.

+1,000,000. It was clear that both EG and Ted believed we had enough young talent and that we just needed to develop it. In addition to blowing the cap space on Okariza, they also picked a Euro stash in the second round. There was no plan to get additional youth, just a plan to develop what we have. Unfortunately, what we have is not very good and outside of possibly Wall and Beal, are not going to be more than role players. Agree, Fire Ernie.