hands11 wrote:I think it was much worse when it was Abe, EG, EFJ. There you had the owner and the coach on one side and GM on the other.
At least with Abe, EG, Tapps, I know the GM and coach are on the same side. What you don't know is how much the owner is driving the GM but at least the water is running down hill. This is the story behind the story for the season. We started to fix our front office problem. But the real fix my not happen until we get a new owner.
Point is, we don't know what the game is. We don't know what if anything Abe is doing and we have a complicated situation with salaries. And with Abe as owner, we don't even know how much of the salary situation was influenced by Abe so it's hard to know how much to blame EG for this. As such, I don't try to over think this to much. Give it time. i.e. the trade deadline at least.
Besides, last I checked, we have seen some progress in some of our young players this year. Is Tapps a top NBA coach.. No. Is he decent given this is the first time he has coached in a lone time and he came into a really bad situation.. Yes.
okay, I'ma rant a bit here so bear with me:
1. I hate the cop out used by many on here and elsewhere that somehow meddling ol' Abe Pollin has something to do with this. I seriously doubt Abe is telling Ernie who to play or what to do considering how sick Abe has been recently. Heck, Abe hasn't even made a public appearance in nearly a year. Ernie Grunfeld isn't some weak, no-backbone GM (like Chris Wallace for example) who'd let some 80 yr old near-senile man walk all over him and ruin his reputation. EG could walk away and have a job somewhere else in no time. Grunfeld has worked meticulously to get complete control of the basketball operations so he could have total autonomy in terms of the decision making process. I think Ernie is the major reason that Susan O'Malley is no longer here. He "gently" pushed her out so he wouldn't have someone undermining his decisions by continuing to whisper in Abe's ear. In other words, he consolidated the power structure so the only voice Abe would hear would be his.
Does this sound like a man who'd let an owner undermine his decision making and reputation by forcing him to sign this player or that player against his will, or meddle in actual player rotations? Sure Ernie likely has a financial mandate to probably stay under the lux tax until we can compete for a title but outside of that I think Ernie has complete authority to do want he wants in relation to trades & coaching choices. Abe loved Susan O'Malley, but she's gone. Abe loved Eddie Jordan, but he's gone. Stop sleeping on Ernie, he's a man of his own volition.
2. As hands mentioned, the GM and coach now are on the same side. And honestly, that's kinda scary considering what were seeing from this coach. Hands, I know you support E-Tap and believe there's a plan in place and I agree with you to that extent that E-Tap is executing that plan.
However the plan has to be one of the worst ideas Ernie has ever come up with. First of all, it appears to Wizards were so intent on not losing the veterans during season that they've forgotten about the young guys and now have lost them.
We've watched the vets & the coach continually throw the kids under the bus whining about effort & consistency, even when it was obvious that the kids were clearly outperforming the vets on the court.
It's created a culture that sets a dangerous precedent for the future. The young guys now may believe that playing at a high level & playing time are mutually exclusive. Heck, they see that the coaches play favorites and vets are given preference irregardless of their on-court performance. To me that's worse that giving a young guy minutes he may not necessarily deserve. At least with giving a young guy minutes, you have the possiblity that he can grow into the position, gain confidence and get better over time. By going this route of playing favorites, your sabotaging the motivation for these kids to improve and get better.
I agree that EG is trying to build up the trade value of guys like James, Stevenson & Etan (before he got hurt), however none of these guys are going to get you an expiring contract even if they were playing moderately well...and they weren't. Their performance has been absolutely dreadful at best. Etan couldn't be traded when he was healthy, what makes anyone think its any different now after heart surgery & declining play? Mike James is a running joke around the league. No playoff team would dare put him in their rotation unless they absolutely had no other option. Even then, you could sign a NBDL scrub to do better for cheap and without the baggage. Stevenson is a historically bad shooting guard. His numbers defy logic for an NBA player that actually started for as long as he has.
It was a waste of time, space & opportunity to play these guys to "rebuild" or "strengthen" their trade value. More aptly, it was like beating a dead horse. Totally and utterly pointless.
And that also describes Caron & Jamison, our great supposed "veteran leaders" getting 40 minutes a night because they want to get their empty numbers so it doesn't look like this 10 win season is their fault.
By scapegoating the young guys and not giving them minutes the Wizards have put their development at risk. That's not worth 2 or 3 spots in the draft lottery IMO. I'd rather see McGee, Blatche & Young and so forth develop into quality players (or at least quality trade assets) and let some of these vets rot on the bench than watching this convoluted & backwards ass plan that's being carried out now.
Eddie Tapscott may be simply the guy Ernie is using to carry out this plan but that just means Ernie is an idiot too.