The Amazingly Suck Theodore Leonsis Thread

[Illuminaire]

Oh Doug Collins... he looks so much more comfortable coaching without the ghost of MJ looming over him like some ghastly zombie demanding playing time in exchange for his job.

[mohammed10]

what matters is the record imo, and on that count it's hard to see any justification for maintaining the status quo.

wizards w/l record (%)
2008–09: 19 / 63 (.232)
2009–10: 26 / 56 (.317)
2010–11: 23 / 59 (.280)
2011-12: 01 / 12 (.077)

This.

[mohammed10]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wi ... story.html

Just adding some fuel to the fire

OK - back to the ranting...

[keynote]

Oof. On the day that Flip gets fired, this is the splash page on the Wizards' website:

[Nivek]

keynote: That's been the splash page image for about a week now. I laughed out loud the first time I saw it.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I am glad Flip was the first thing to go. Now the Wizards can make a better decision on McGee, Young, and Blatche based on what happens the rest of the way.

Ted did fire the coach and Ernie does not have a new deal--he's gone soon, too.

I am feeling patient. Thank you, Mr. Leonsis. This thing is going to get better.

[LyricalRico]

Ted finally steps up and does the right thing. If season ticket holders have to eat the money they paid for their tickets because they can only get 30 cents for them on the open market, then Ted should eat the contract of a coach that was hired to do a different job.

[keynote]

keynote: That's been the splash page image for about a week now. I laughed out loud the first time I saw it.

Yeah, but you *gotta* take it down now. At least before the 3 PM press conference, no?

[Nivek]

It should have never gone up in the first place, but yeah -- it should come down.

[closg00]

I consider the rebuild officially underway, clean-house Ted.

[Jay81]

not a good day for Ted

1) He fired flip but replaced him with basically flip and retained the rest of the staff including flip son
2) He kept Ernie
3) He blogged about some stupid fugazi
4) New traditions

[JonathanJoseph]

Ted finally steps up and does the right thing. If season ticket holders have to eat the money they paid for their tickets because they can only get 30 cents for them on the open market, then Ted should eat the contract of a coach that was hired to do a different job.

That's a pretty good take on the situation.

[JonathanJoseph]

Flip Saunders coached them to 26-56 that first season. Look back at that roster. Recall the trades for Miller and Foye that were win-now moves. Flip brought in Oberto. Stevenson's back was hurting but he still played ahead of Young just like Oberto played ahead of McGee. I posted about that then, only for most to tell me then how great of a coach Flip is. In addition to playing DeShawn ahead of Nick Young, Flip even played Quinton Ross ahead of Nick. That year Flip had a veteran lineup and young bigs off the bench. He had a lot of shooters.

But that's the proof that Flip Saunders is a good coach playing with an awful roster. As sad as it is to say, the highlight of Flip Saunders tenure here was the Shaun Livingston era, during which the Wizards looked like a team playing way over their talent level in a really, really effective offense. That (short) stretch was the Wizards most successful from a W/L record.

Oberto, Ross and DS ahead of McGee and Young WAS the right call. Look at our W/L since. The proof is in the pudding.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Oberto could have been fine at PF. At C the Wizards had a guy who routinely had more fouls than points or rebounds. If you think he was the right call at C, I will have to agree to disagree with you.

DS had a bad back and had the worst season at starting SG than any player you will ever find in terms of PER and WS/48. He was beyond terrible. Starting an injured DeShawn that season with Oberto concurred with the Wizards going from a high-scoring team the year before to becoming self checks on offense.

Quinton Ross over Nick Young? JJ, you're better than that.

[dandridge 10]

Oberto could have been fine at PF. At C the Wizards had a guy who routinely had more fouls than points or rebounds. If you think he was the right call at C, I will have to agree to disagree with you.

DS had a bad back and had the worst season at starting SG than any player you will ever find in terms of PER and WS/48. He was beyond terrible. Starting an injured DeShawn that season with Oberto concurred with the Wizards going from a high-scoring team the year before to becoming self checks on offense.

Quinton Ross over Nick Young? JJ, you're better than that.

I think the JJ is trying to say that the guys you wanted Flip to play back then (NY, McGee) over guys like Stevenson, Oberto and Ross are indeed playing now. In other words, you basically got your wish. Yet, we are now worse than we ever have been. You like to point out how bad our record has been since Flip has been the coach to show how bad a coach he was. I think the record is equally damning on how bad our players are.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I edited a long rant.

As far as Flip goes, he's gone as Wizards coach. There is no need for me to expend any energy debating his legacy one way or another.

[MOrgil]

Why can't Ted Leonsis just get rid off coaching staff or management personel that has been with the team and never brought succes? Ernie Grunfeld, Tapscot, who else? Oh yeah, the whole medical staff. F*ck loyalty and start over. Ted needs to reach out the best in the business and offer good money and try to bring in people familiar with winning cultures around the league.

[hands11]

Here is why I am not pissed at Ted, EG or Flip ( who is now gone )

Back when the team was

Abe, EG, EFJ, Gil with AJ, CB and Haywood - with EFJ hired by Abe so EG wouldn't just let him go like he just did Flip. And Abe connected to Gil and AJ like they were his kids. Dysfunctional to the extreme.

I never thought that was the rebuild a lot of people thought it would be. I saw that as a dead end and something that would take another round of rebuilding to get things on the right path. 4-5 years.

First the team needed a new owner ( I had no time table on that but Abe was old ) - Check
Then they needed a new coach who was credible and could coach D - check
They needed to get ride of Gil who was leading nobody anywhere - check
They needed to clean up there cap - check
They needed a true PG who was talented and would pass and play D - check
They needed to get AJ out from PF - check and gone

Now I wanted to keep Haywood and maybe CB if they could but oh well.

So much of what I wanted to see happen has happened. Those are the big moves that were needed so there was a way to move forward in a more sound manner. It was never going to happen with Abe or Gil.

Ted will be a good owner
EG did the tear down effectively and added some assets
Flip was a quality coach who had to adjust to living through all that crap. Thanks Flip
And they have John Wall, other pieces, a huge expiring and another top pick on the way.

All is good. This is the right path to rebuilding the franchise so they are good for years to come.
They are heading in the right direction. Flip wasn't a mistake. He was part of the path.

Rock bottom was trading the #5 to win now for Abe then Gil with the gun thing. Since those days, they have made a lot of good moves to tear it all down and rebuild the foundation. I like were they are today way more then where they were then. It isn't perfect or exactly the added players I wanted but I will take this over the Abe, Gil, EFJ team any day.

This is something to build on. Ted is a new owner. It is smart to observe and learn first, then makes moves. You don't want a Dan Synder do you ? Worse thing Dan did was fire Charles Casserly when he did.

[fishercob]

I find Ted's recent blog thanking Andray to be very disheartening.

[Nivek]

I find Ted's recent blog thanking Andray to be very disheartening.

You're not the only one.

Holy crap.