The Ernie Grunfeld Myth

[Comet]

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I suppose that in a vacuum I agree that keeping the franchise in Milwaukee is the top priority and that Kohl's continued ownership is the best way to guarantee that. I know the Senator has a nephew who works (worked?) for the franchise. Maybe he stands to inherit the team? Has anyone heard anything regarding a change of ownership since MJ almost got the team?

You're thinking of Dan Kohl, who was the assistant GM but resigned in 2006. I guess he would inherit the team if Kohl died, because Kohl is unmarried and has no direct family.

And I haven't heard anything about ownership changes since the MJ thing. Craig Leipold was a candidate for a while but (correct me if I'm wrong) he bought a hockey team. Minnesota I think.

Mark Attanasio's name was also brought up but he has denied interest in this team.

[MickeyDavis]

Yeah Atanassio's name has been mentioned but I hope not. He could only afford to buy part of the Brewers. He would have to put together a large ownership group and I don't want that. He has done o.k. as the Brewers part owner (thanks in part to Miller Park) but he has made it clear that his investors want a yearly profit even though they will make millions when they eventually sell.

At least Kohl has spent money, even if often unwisely. I don't want an investment group buying the team that only cares about being in the black every year.

[mhd]

As a Wizards fan, Grunfeld has been a Godsend. We had the worst GM in proffessional sports history with Wes Unseld who destroyed the team for tweny years. As GM with the Wiz, Grunfeld has:

Pros:
1) Signed Arenas
2) Drafted Andray Blatche (steal in the 2nd round)
3) Traded Kwame for Butler (steal)
4) Traded Stackhouse+Laettner+5th pick (Devin Harris (would have been Deng had the Wiz kept the pick)) for Jamison. Good move for both teams.
5) Signed Blatche and Brendan Haywood to dirt cheap contract extensions (both would easily make double what they make on the open market)
6) Signed ANtonio Daniels for the MLE (as solid a FA as you can get for the MLE)
7) Drafted Nick Young and Oleksay Pecherov in the last two drafts in the 1st round (both show tremendous promise and potential).
Refused to match Jared Jefferies crappy contract from the Knicks.
9) Did not match the Cavs offer for Larry Hughes.
CONS:
1) Matched Etan Thomas's contract offer from Bucks (could be that our owner forced him to do it since he likes Etan personally)

[paulpressey25]

The one thing Ernie G. hasn't done is get that superstar that makes you guys title contenders and 55-game winners......

But he's done everything else......and thus helped you guys build a nice team.

Dinking around on Larry Hughes and ultimately losing him turned out to be a really good thing. I'm not sure that is all Ernie's doing, as I recall on the Wiz board Grunfeld wanted him back but was unsure on matching until it was too late.

[Profound23]

Don't forget about signing Vinny Del Negro

[MickeyDavis]

Weinhauer brought in Vinny. Ernie traded him in the Caffey deal.

[Rafael122]

Wizards fan here...and this is a very interesting read. My question is did Grunfeld do pretty well when the owner wasn't involving himself in everything? In other words, did Ernie work best without a meddlesome owner?

So far, the only 'mistake' Ernie has done as Wizards GM is matching the Etan Thomas contract, but other than that, he's done very well. I think he's President of Basketball Operations and he has total control over team moves. Only time Abe would involve himself in deals or what not is when it comes to the luxury tax and bringing in players with a questionable history.

[MickeyDavis]

Hard to tell with Ernie's tenure here. The moves he made were mostly bad or neutral. But who knows if there were moves he wanted to make that were nixed by Kohl. I actually doubt it. Ernie inherited a very good team. He didn't need to make major moves.