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The Amazingly Suck Theodore Leonsis Thread

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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#441 » by Nivek » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:15 pm

WizarDynasty wrote:The most important job now is the sign livingston to a longterm contract as the backup point guard and allow Livingston to be a foundational player for years to come. if we can get livingston to sign a longterm backup contract it will encourage him to develop walls basketball iq and improve the basketball iq of our athletic low basketball iq players just as he didn't te last time he was here.

Leonsis has the realize that Grunfeld failed to sign lviningston longterm the last time he was here and Leonsis should gambe that Grunfeld will repeat the same mistake he made last time with livingston. Livingston's value is that he has genius Jason Kidd like point guard mind and has the aptitude, intelligence, and leadership to design plays in the film room against opposing defenses nightly. Livingston's instincts, diagnostics, skills and passing ability are almost Jason Kidd like rating 9.5 out of 10. Wall will never come to close to Livingston has far has basketball iq and is more a tony parker clone. Tony parker only became successful because Pop forced kept him on a tight leash and turned him into a system point guard. Parker still isn't a high BBIQ player he just knows POPs system very well and he doesn't have the leadership and play designing skills of Jason Kidd. Liviningston actually has the intangibles of Jason kidd at the point guard position mentally. Wall rates as 4 at best 5 in term of his mental aptitude for play designing and people that will never improve. Having Wall with outstanding physical gifts put poor to average mental play designing ability and pairing him with a genius mentally in livingston who doesn't have the physical attributes of wall is the most important move that Leonsis can make this year in terms of changing the wizards culture for years to come.

Having Liviningston and Wall develop a longterm point guard relationship which is invested in the wizards longterm is the only way to build a strong foundation that will allow the wizards to address on a nightly basis the intellectual demands of adjusting to opposing defenses and adapting offenses.

the wizards have a unique situation that is perfect for wall/livingston. there are less than 3 teams in the league who have dynamic point guard with great personality traits but who only lacks point guard basketball iq. Wall wants to be great but he will never be gifted mentally. Livingston may want to be a starter but he will never be a starter physically because one wrong move and his knee may go out. Both of these players if attached to each other longterm have a multiplier effect. Livingston is probably the highest basketball iq player of his generation and has already demonstrated his last stint hear of dramatically improving player values. The problem last time was that he wanted to be a starter, if Leonsis can use his business skills to commit livingston longterm, he instantly transforms wall into a hall of famer.

It's that simple people. Grunfeld can't be trusted to sign livingston longterm before Livingston's value skyrocketed with the wizards. Leonsis must do all in his power to sign livingston longterm before his value skyrockets. Livingston true value is the leadership and basketball iq he brings to the organization and livingston is the type of player you want retiring as wizard and becoming a coach one day.

Leonsis, you have the power now build a long term winner. Don't follow Grunfeld and let the market price dictate what you pay livingston. Pay him to keep him here as a wizard now becomes the quicker Livingston feels he is longterm piece the wizards, the quicker he grants the organization his genius point guard aptitude and the fans begin to enjoy high iq basketball once again. LEONSIS, its all up to you.

Everybody in the league knows it except the wizards. I compare it to Perry Jones III the entire league passed on him knowing that the best situation for him would be with his idol Kevin Durant who has the exact same body type and playing style. The highest change of transforming Perry Jones into a valuable asset would be pairing him in the right situation longterm. Drafting Perry Jones without a model is basically throwing money into the fire instead of a upgraded screen for an arena.

same situation with wall, wall will be heavily devalued over payed assets without the right longterm conditions. He needs a jason kidd like longterm backup and that backup needs to invested for multiple season in order to be motivated to invest in wall mentally. Leonsis, invest in Singleton and make him a pillar. If you want wall to continue to be a shooting guard playing point guard and continue for the team to now evolve from season to season in terms of overall basketball iq, don't sign livingston and wait for him to bolt at the end of season instead of him spending the offseason with wall working on diagnosing defenses and designing plays for the upcoming season.

Grunfeld has not shown this insight in terms of basketball making decisions which is why we need Leonsis to swoop in now and be the savior. Otherwise, expect decades of continued mediocrity.


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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#442 » by cdouglas » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:45 pm

I wonder if Phil Jackson is interested in a GM position. At least he knows what it takes to build a winning team.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#443 » by payitforward » Tue Nov 20, 2012 3:45 pm

WizarDynasty wrote:The most important job now is the sign livingston to a longterm contract as the backup point guard and allow Livingston to be a foundational player for years to come.

On the assumption that this is humor not a bad reaction to medication, I'd like to mention that we could also try using Pin the Tail on the Donkey to pick players. It works equally well for the draft, trades and Free Agency. I'm not sure it's the optimal strategy -- only that it's better than our current one.

Don't even have to fire Grunfield -- use him as the donkey....
Breaking News: In a shocking development, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has sold the NBA franchise to a consortium of participants in a discussion board devoted to the team on realgm.com. Details to follow....
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#444 » by Higga » Tue Nov 20, 2012 3:49 pm

cdouglas wrote:I wonder if Phil Jackson is interested in a GM position. At least he knows what it takes to build a winning team.


He hasn't built ****. He just hops onto teams already loaded w/ talent.

Hire a young up and comer from the Spurs organization.
Eric Maynor is the worst basketball player I've ever seen.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#445 » by dobrojim » Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:24 pm

my email to Ted

Hi Mr Leonsis,

FYI - my birthday is Jan 10. Just wondering if we'll have a home
win (The Wizards) by then.

At what point will the architect of this disaster, Ernie Grunfeld,
be held accountable?

Had to wear a paper bag on my head last night at the game.
Sorry, but that's what it's come to, and I've been a Bullets-Wizards
fan for 45 years (since I was 10 years old). I expect I won't be the
only one at the next game. Someone needs to know that WE (fans)
know what we are watching is not acceptable. As a fan behind
was shouting Sat night, we deserve better than this.

You're the one in position to take the first step.

We're waiting.

sincerely yours

edit to add - NOW I learn he turned off his TheWashWiz email account. Oh well.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#446 » by closg00 » Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:41 pm

Can Ted make money with near-empty arenas, but sell-out games for the Lakers/Heat etc?
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#447 » by AFM » Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:48 pm

Ted has 100 billion dollars.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#448 » by dobrojim » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:03 pm

I don't believe that's right...according to at least one source I found,
his net worth is like 1 billion

Not sure anyone on the planet has a net worth of $100 B.

I think the Koch bros combined had a net worth a year or 2 ago of around 45B

http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/

No one has 100 Billion
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#449 » by Nivek » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:06 pm

The CBA virtually guarantees that any team can make money -- even if attendance sucks.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#450 » by dobrojim » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:12 pm

players with guaranteed contracts don't do too badly either

compared to most people...
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#451 » by AFM » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:14 pm

My point is I think for a lot of these billionaires, they don't buy these teams solely as an investment. It's more of the idea of owning a basketball team. Then again I'm broke so what do I know
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#452 » by dobrojim » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:26 pm

I won't argue that they buy teams as serious investments. That said
the whole nets ownership Barclays center thing worked well for
those involved, besides the residents who lost their homes.
Other than that...

but owners could probably find better investments than pro sports teams,
it just wouldn't be as much fun.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#453 » by Nivek » Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:36 pm

I think owning pro sports teams is a really good business in general -- both in terms of annual profits and long-term appreciation.

NFL teams make money just from the national TV deal.

NBA teams make money if they exercise any restraint on their operations expenses. Player salaries and benefits are a fixed cost.

I don't know baseball's business model as well, but players and owners seem pretty happy.

My understanding of hockey is that they were losing money, but that the last CBA fixed that for most teams. The current lockout is more about the owners trying to be even more profitable.

Most owners make a ton of money when they sell their teams.

And none of this takes into account the ancillary benefits of team ownership -- the deals that come their way because they own the team, the contacts they get to make, etc.

None of this is criticism. I think team owners should be profitable, and that making money should be one of their goals. But I am tired of hearing owners whine about losing money when they're actually profitable.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#454 » by verbal8 » Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:44 pm

Seeing some of the comments on the last couple Wizards posts on Ted's blog, I am surprised that people had their comments removed. There isn't anything out of line, but they definitely are very negative.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#455 » by Induveca » Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:20 am

dobrojim wrote:my email to Ted

Hi Mr Leonsis,

FYI - my birthday is Jan 10. Just wondering if we'll have a home
win (The Wizards) by then.

At what point will the architect of this disaster, Ernie Grunfeld,
be held accountable?

Had to wear a paper bag on my head last night at the game.
Sorry, but that's what it's come to, and I've been a Bullets-Wizards
fan for 45 years (since I was 10 years old). I expect I won't be the
only one at the next game. Someone needs to know that WE (fans)
know what we are watching is not acceptable. As a fan behind
was shouting Sat night, we deserve better than this.

You're the one in position to take the first step.

We're waiting.

sincerely yours

edit to add - NOW I learn he turned off his TheWashWiz email account. Oh well.


Send it to him on Facebook....he routinely answers there (at least last year)
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#456 » by miller31time » Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:39 am

I think the thing that surprises me more than anything is how a businessman that's as good as Ted's record indicates could be so accepting of excuses for failure.

I understand Ted is forgiving and I understand he takes a bit of a different approach to ownership, but for someone in his position (no matter how nice they are), excuses can only go so far.

Ted has allowed Ernie to give an excuse each year -- some are legitimate, some aren't (that's kinda the way excuses go) but they're all excuses.

I'm a fairly understanding person and certainly willing to be told the full story before passing judgement but at some point, if I were in Ted's shoes, enough has to be enough.

In some aspects, Ted reminds me of that one teacher we've all had that was so incredibly nice and incredibly gullible that you could walk all over them. You could forget to do an assignment day after day, and giving him/her a new reason for why it wasn't turned in, and they'd accept the excuse each and every time by saying "alright, just hand it in tomorrow." Now, it may be true that little Jonny was sick the 1st day, and it may be true that he left the assignment at home the 4th day but the reality remains -- you didn't turn in the damn homework!
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#457 » by hands11 » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:25 am

dandridge 10 wrote:
hands11 wrote:It amazes me that you guys are surprised.

This is his blog, not yours. He doesn't even need to allow comments to be left. This is a piece of his marketing and outreach. Not a realgm thread.

Its one thing to email him privately for him to read. Its another to go to his house and stick signs on his front yard that says, your an idiot for signing EG to a two year contract. For the record. Telling a multimillionaire that he made a mistake in hiring his highest level executive to a two year contract month after he did it... yeah.. I'm sure he enjoys the feed back. Some person he has no idea who they are that doesn't even understand that they are insulting him on his own blog. He's probably giving those comments some serious consideration.

If you want to bitch, you can do it here and the people that choose to visit this site can read it or they can block you. Hell, our stuff even shows up in a Google search. You can even post on the WP. But getting upset that he or someone that manages his site deletes messages on his own site ? Really ?

Look. The man purchased the Wizards, not the Lakers. I'm sure he got a good deal on this restoration project. Hell, when he bought it, the car was still on fire. I guess if money is no object, he could have thrown a ton at it and maybe have done a quick turnaround. But that wasn't his plan. He walked into this eye open knowing it was going to take more then two years. And he never said playoffs or bust this year.

This is the beginning of the third season of the rebuild and he is missing his two best players, one of which is the PG to run the team. The second is is most established talented post player. If Wall and Nene don't make it back in a reasonable amount of time, maybe they end up tanking again. If so, he gets another asset. In the grand scheme, sucking the first three years is small potatoes considering he will probably own the team another 15-20 years. Such is the way of a restoration project. Sometimes you just don't know what it is going to take. This wasn't a car that just needed a new alternator. And right now, his turbo isn't installed but he has bought one. Same with the headers. And when he gets those installed, we will see how the car runs.

Cut the man some slack. He only signed EG and Randy to two year deals. That is the window for them. Then he will evaluate and decide the next window.


Ted doesn't have a sign on his front yard saying "please post signs here about the Wizards." However, he does have a "comment" section on his blog. If he doesn't want negative comments, perhaps he should just have a disclaimer that says, "please only post positive comments here."

You are entirely right that its his blog and he has the right to restrict access or manage it the way he likes. However, inviting comments and then censoring them seems a bit disingenuous to me, especially when the comments are not derogatory (I know mine was not). I don't see other bloggers doing that.

I was willing to cut Ted slack. I even said that this thread was "dumb" 2 years ago. However, that all ended when Ted extended EG. It doesn't matter that he only signed EG for 2 years. The question is, what did EG even do to justify 2 more years? Ted admitted that the culture of this team had to change. Well, any fool knows that you can't change the culture until you start at the top.


Save you disgust for after you get to see the actually team they assembled.

Take RG3 off the Redskins along with ... fill in the blank for the second best offensive player.

This team is a team of young players they want to grow and compliment pieces to help them grow and that support Wall and Nene.

You have no Wall and Nene.. You people amaze me. Really. I now losing ever game to start the season sucks. Specially two years in a row. But this team does will look a lot better when Wall and Nene return. They are better then they were last year. Don't judge the situation by the worst of the situation.

Now if Wall and Nene don't play this year, then yeah.. They will be really back all year. For me, I'm not counting on that happening until I actually see it play out that way.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#458 » by hands11 » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:28 am

Nivek wrote:If Ted doesn't want negative comments on his blog, he should just turn off comments. He's the one who put himself out there as being accessible to the fans. Accessibility is double-edged. When stuff is going good, he's going to hear good stuff. When stuff is going bad, he's going to hear complaints.

dandridge uses the word "disingenuous" above. That's a word that keeps coming up when I see and hear the things Leonsis says publicly about the Wizards.


I see, so because I'm nice enough invite you into my house, you should be able to disrespect me and say and do as you want without me kicking you out.

You want to have your voice heard. Call them and tell them you are a ticket holder and you are not happy. What would be the best way for you to voice your opinion. Tell them what you want. Tell them your not buying anymore more tickets.

Guess what. I don't think it will matter. I think he knows what his plan is and he is sticking to it. He may even think he made a mistake not buying out Lewis, but there is nothing he can do about that now except learn from it. It in deed that is what he thinks.

He is going to wait till he see what the team looks like with Wall and Nene. Then he will evaluate and make moves as needed when he can. He knew what he bought and he knew it wasn't going to the quick fix. Fans or no fans isn't going to change that. Only time will.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#459 » by payitforward » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:38 am

hands11 wrote:Save you disgust for after you get to see the actually team they assembled.
...
You people amaze me. Really. ... this team does will look a lot better when Wall and Nene return. They are better then they were last year.

So, Hands, how is it exactly that you know "they are better than they were last year"?

You're the one who's amazing. I can't remember the last time you made even the slightest sense or said something that was characterized by the simple common sense of looking at a situation straight on. On top of which you feel perfectly free to characterize others in a dismissive way -- which is why you're getting this characterization from me; otherwise I don't do that kind of thing.
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Re: The Amazingly Sucky Theodore Leonsis Thread 

Post#460 » by Nivek » Wed Nov 21, 2012 1:15 pm

payitforward wrote:
hands11 wrote:Save you disgust for after you get to see the actually team they assembled.
...
You people amaze me. Really. ... this team does will look a lot better when Wall and Nene return. They are better then they were last year.

So, Hands, how is it exactly that you know "they are better than they were last year"?

You're the one who's amazing. I can't remember the last time you made even the slightest sense or said something that was characterized by the simple common sense of looking at a situation straight on. On top of which you feel perfectly free to characterize others in a dismissive way -- which is why you're getting this characterization from me; otherwise I don't do that kind of thing.


How are they better? The losing streak to start the season is only one game longer this year despite the fact that they're missing Wall and Nene.

Also, their moral victory record through 8 games was 7-1 this season -- just 4-4 last year.

Please think before you post. :nonono:
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