The Amazingly Suck Theodore Leonsis Thread

[tontoz]

The Okafor/Ariza deal had nothing to do with any plan. It had everthing to do with trying to "get something" for Lewis.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Ted was impressed that Collins in so many words said the team was much more competitive without Blatche, McGee, and Mason. I wish Doug Collins had mentioned James Singleton by name as someone who contributed positively.

The culture changed before all the "post-bandaid-being-ripped-off" veterans were acquired.

Ted correctly noted that many players acquired had won at other stops along the way, but they had also suffered defeat. What he didn't mention is the negative performance curve or the salary of both Okafor and Ariza. The guys he brought in as part of the solution were not the best parts he could have acquired, particularly at the price he paid.

I think Ted simply is loyal to Ernie, and Grunfeld has proven over the past 8 years he's marginally effective at best and a catastrophic failure at worst.

[tontoz]

Sobering, by design. Well done, Ernie Grunfeld. You were able to un-do what you did faster than anyone, ever (perhaps).

“Has anybody else ever tried that?” said Leonsis about completely clearing the roster since he took majority ownership of the Wizards in the summer of 2010.

Yes. Blowing it up and starting over is not a new concept. The Hawks blew up their roster during the 03/04 season. Pretty sure the only guy they had under contract after the season was over (not on a rookie deal) was Jason Terry and they ended up trading him that summer.

[closg00]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bkUNY7cFh2Y

The plan. If you understand the plan, you understand the moves. This is what I have been defending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 6Xd70TD7rI

I have long advocated this view. Even before Ted was here.

Oh lord, get over yourself. Plan my ass.

I no longer pay attention to a word that comes out of Ted's mouth. Because it means nothing.

I look at the actions taken by the Wizards front office and the results of those actions. That tells me everything I need to know. IMO, we've moved on to plan B (Ernie's way - quick fix to get competitive) from plan A (Ted's way - patient rebuilding with high draft picks) because Ted's way had become too painful to withstand last season, partly because it was being poorly executed by Ernie.

Acquiring Okafor, Nene and Ariza wasn't a part of this glorious "plan" 12 months ago, it was an panicked over-reaction to the abject disaster last season had become and the general lack of player of development across the roster (most importantly Wall).

So how great will the "plan" be if the Wizards win less than 30 games this year, with a middlin lottery pick and limited cap flexibility?

+1 On the entire post with emphasis on what the org actually does vs the endless PR. If "the plan" gets us to below mediocre, the incremental improvement will be heralded as Ernie will once-again try to flip Okafor or Ariza for something else in his contract year.

[miller31time]

I didn't mind the Nene trade at all (quite the opposite, actually) because it didn't affect our cap flexibility, removed two young players who were bringing the whole team down and added a player who would bring the whole team up.

That wasn't plan deviation, IMO. It was a smart basketball move.

But the Okafor/Ariza deal? You can't possibly try to defend that move in the construct of "following the plan" and have any credibility. And worst of all wasn't even the fact that it deviated so strongly with our initial plan - it was that the trade didn't even make us that much better.

But that's been discussed ad nauseum.

[montestewart]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wx9RuI4rRY[/youtube]

[Bickerstaff]

They essentially gave up nothing for Okafor and Ariza. I have no idea how that sabotages the plan or makes Leonsis a liar. Are you people this miserable and negative in your real lives? The one time of year people might be expected to cheer up and be hopeful for a goddamn minute, but it never ends here. You've all turned into Ji. I've been coming here for 8 years, but it's time to delete the bookmark. There's no longer anything of value here.

[montestewart]

Cheer up Bickerstaff. Maybe they'll exceed our low expectations.

[DCZards]

I don't know how people can claim Leonsis is being dishonest about following HIS plan when only Ted (and no one on this board) knows exactly what that plan is.

Hang in there Bickerstaff.

[montestewart]

I don't know how people can claim Leonsis is NOT not following HIS plan when only Ted (and no one on this board) knows exactly what that plan is.

Hang in there Bickerstaff.

I somewhat agree. Despite Ted's posting his plan on his website and referring back to it on a number of occasions, he seems to have modified the plan somewhat, and why wouldn't you, if it looked like it needed modification? I don't know exactly what the plan is. I think some of the outpouring was in response not to Leonsis' interview (I never find his answers very informative) but to hands146's repeated assertions that there is a clear plan, a plan that is being followed to the letter, but a plan that apparently few beyond himself have the capability of comprehending.

Regardless of my complaints about management and moves, I'll still be cheering my team, really, my only team in all of sports, and I look forward to seeing what Beal, Seraphin, Vesely, and some of the others have this year. After three straight years of overestimating their win total (by an average of 19 wins) I underestimated last year by five. Maybe I'm still stuck in that mode. I sincerely hope they exceed my expectations, if not in their record, then at least in terms of their future outlook.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

They essentially gave up nothing for Okafor and Ariza. I have no idea how that sabotages the plan or makes Leonsis a liar. Are you people this miserable and negative in your real lives? The one time of year people might be expected to cheer up and be hopeful for a goddamn minute, but it never ends here. You've all turned into Ji. I've been coming here for 8 years, but it's time to delete the bookmark. There's no longer anything of value here.

I never said Leonsis was a liar.

Okafor takes minutes from Seraphin, Vesely, and Booker. He possibly will necessitate a trade of Booker. If Okafor plays as he did when he was benched in New Orleans, he won't be an upgrade. An option would have been buy out Lewis and invest in veterans who could score efficiently or young players with more talent than those on the roster. (Elton Brand is making $10M less than Okafor this season, for example). I believe Emeka Okafor will play to his potential and become the best rebounder on the team and a fairly good but not elite defender. He will add professionalism and he is a very intelligent man. He won at U Conn. So, like monte, I think it is possible this player will exceed expectations. I think it is even more likely there were be chemistry issues due to players below him who averaged 24 minutes before who will now play far less, and on a team that might not be winning games. I also think Nene was the leader, but now that is dubious.

As for Ariza, he will be a better player than Chris Singleton, but he hasn't shot the three any better since a playoff performance with the Lakers many seasons ago. I believe Ariza is a good slasher, potentially an excellent passer, and a good defender. He might help. However, I have to assume he will be better than he was with New Orleans the past couple seasons. He will have to show discretion and not force shots. Ariza makes a lot of money relative to what he brings to the table.

Bickerstaff, you can assert people have miserable personal lives. That remark touched me because I have gone through a divorce and I know others have had career setbacks that they have disclosed. I don't know anything about you. But I will say if you don't value this sight do go where people tell you what you want to hear. I prefer to strive for balance. I think Ted means well and so does Ernie Grunfeld. I understand them valuing a change of culture. However, I think Dat is correct that there's a bit of a sales job going on with Mr. Leonsis.

I believe the man values the bottom line, butts in the stands. I think marketing and merchandising matters to him. I do NOT think the Wizards in general have made WINNING moves. Quite the opposite. This franchise has a miserable win percentage. I have seem them whiff on acquiring talented players for many years. I haven't been some unhappy dude who lives to flame the Wizards. I've slammed them on days I have been at my favorite beach in Hawaii. When you think Singleton is better than Faried, I have to say he's not. When you think Pecherov is better than Millsap, I do not concur. If you think it is a great idea to resign a guy with surgical knees, I say what about the cap for ever and ever?

I feel like a most embittered poster, Bickerstaff. I am sorry my style or others like me have turned you off. I would prefer you stick around and see how the Wizards do. At the very least, come back and gloat if the team out performs the low expectations. Vegas line says 31.5 wins. Maybe against the odds this team will win more like 40 games and make the playoffs. I will be happy for the team.

[badinage]

What surprises me is that from the moment I heard about the trade, I did not think that Okafor and Ariza were being acquired to be significant pieces. I thought they were being acquired to add competence and depth and professionalism. The core as I saw it, and still do, is young, very young. Wall + Beal + Seraphin + Nene + Vesely.

Their salaries are high, and make people view them as more meaningful acquisitions than they are. The fact that they may end up starting this year, also makes people view them that way. But they are not core pieces. The idea, as I understand it, is that they enable the core pieces, since they are so young, to realize their potential -- to become better core pieces.

Average age of the core: 22 years old. (Twenty-freaking-two. A generation ago, that's a college team.)

The angst and despair, Bickerstaff, is because we have somehow moved away from our stated intention of being a team that intends to grow its own -- to build through the draft and develop an identity around a young cohort of players who come of age together.

I think, from my perspective, that that is what we are doing.

I think it's reasonable to bitch about the fact that we didn't catch lightning -- there isn't, it would appear, a dominant young player in the mix despite all those high draft picks.

I think it's reasonable to wrestle with/quibble -- not bitch -- about the acquisition of Okafor and Ariza with the free cap space.

But a lot of what I read on here has to do, I think, with exaggeratedly romantic notions of the pure. Say "The Plan," and you are speaking of something perfect and inviolable and beautiful. I think that, for a lot of posters, the arrival of Leonsis and his talk of change and building through the draft inspired fantasies that we would not merely have a good basketball team to watch but that we would have the Platonic ideal of a basketball squad. A squad that is a pioneer in the latest stats. With a no. 1 star who is a once-in-a-generation player who goes on to the Hall and two more great drafts to follow -- drafts that supplement that HofF'er with consistent All-Stars. There is, with this Platonic squad, cap room at all times and so therefore the ability to pull off brilliantly lopsided deals. Injuries? No, never. Promising players that don't realize their potential? No, never -- because that simply cannot happen if you know how to draft and you have the best in player development, etc.

Leonsis probably erred in citing the Thunder as an inspiration. I mean, how many Thunders are there? Or have there been in league history? But others have erred in holding him to something he did not say. He did not say: This team will be constructed exactly like OKC. This is our template.

The fact we are not close to the Platonic ideal, however, does not mean we are not a young team that is building through the draft and intends to develop its own homegrown culture and an identity that emerges among guys who all come of age together.

[montestewart]

I think most of the mention of the "OKC plan" is from pro-Leonsis people citing imaginary criticisms. I think most of the informed critiques are citing this plan:
http://www.hogshaven.com/2009/2/26/7729 ... es-his-ten
and perceived deviations from it and from subsequent elaborations from Leonsis. The "Platonic" ideal is a nice prop, but it bears very little resemblance to the breadth of criticism, or to the realism, of many posting here (really, too many to list). During times of war, anti-war patriots are accused of all sorts of things. So what? Doesn't make it true.

It's just a difference of opinion. Some see a lack of realism, others see a boatload of potential and/or actual mistakes. If the team greatly exceeds expectations, we'll all be happy, and you all can say, "See montestewart! Now shut up." I just might do that for a second.

[miller31time]

To be honest, I don't really give a flying you-know-what about sticking to a formulaic plan. If we're making solid basketball moves, I'm a happy customer. I was overjoyed with the Nene trade even though it didn't follow a certain plan (sucking, drafting, rinse, repeat). I didn't mind it because it was a good basketball move that made our team markedly better.

The problem I have with the Okariza trade isn't that it deviated from the plan. It's that the trade arguably made us marginally better in the short term while ignoring the long term. Oh, and New Orleans, in one fell swoop, cleared their troublesome cap situation without having to give up the 10th pick.

[closg00]

To be honest, I don't really give a flying you-know-what about sticking to a formulaic plan. If we're making solid basketball moves, I'm a happy customer. I was overjoyed with the Nene trade even though it didn't follow a certain plan (sucking, drafting, rinse, repeat). I didn't mind it because it was a good basketball move that made our team markedly better.

The problem I have with the Okariza trade isn't that it deviated from the plan. It's that the trade arguably made us marginally better in the short term while ignoring the long term. Oh, and New Orleans, in one fell swoop, cleared their troublesome cap situation without having to give up the 10th pick.

AND we gave them OUR 46th pick Mindboggling

[DCZards]

What surprises me is that from the moment I heard about the trade, I did not think that Okafor and Ariza were being acquired to be significant pieces. I thought they were being acquired to add competence and depth and professionalism. The core as I saw it, and still do, is young, very young. Wall + Beal + Seraphin + Nene + Vesely.

Their salaries are high, and make people view them as more meaningful acquisitions than they are. The fact that they may end up starting this year, also makes people view them that way. But they are not core pieces. The idea, as I understand it, is that they enable the core pieces, since they are so young, to realize their potential -- to become better core pieces..

Pretty much the way I see it as well.

[Dat2U]

They essentially gave up nothing for Okafor and Ariza. I have no idea how that sabotages the plan or makes Leonsis a liar. Are you people this miserable and negative in your real lives? The one time of year people might be expected to cheer up and be hopeful for a goddamn minute, but it never ends here. You've all turned into Ji. I've been coming here for 8 years, but it's time to delete the bookmark. There's no longer anything of value here.

Please do. You won't be missed.

There's nothing more irritating or more ridiculous than reading about someone bitching about someone else's bitching. Especially when that's all you've EVER done!

[montestewart]

False! In between, Bickerstaff has made some pretty funny posts over the years.

[tontoz]

Their salaries are high, and make people view them as more meaningful acquisitions than they are. The fact that they may end up starting this year, also makes people view them that way. But they are not core pieces. .

But the cap space they take up over the next two years could have been used to get a core piece. Now that is not an option unless they are traded for a core piece or they (very unlikely) opt out next summer.

[payitforward]

"The Plan" was to "rebuild through youth and the draft and become a contending team."

If you don't do a good job executing a plan, or if you deviate from it (and in particular endanger the goal to "become a contending team") why would you not be criticized? And the Wizards qualify in spades on both counts.

1. We made 3 mediocre drafting decisions in 2011. Vesely could turn out a pretty good player, and this would still be true. If you want to "rebuild through... the draft", I'm sorry but you must draft well. We had the opportunity to pick Kawhi Leonard, Kenneth Faried, and, in Round 2, any one of several better college players than Shelvin Mack.

We'd be a heck of a lot better team w/ Leonard, Faried and e.g. Chandler Parsons than we are w/ Ves, Singleton and Mack.

Then came 2012, a draft that had @10-12 guys in it who'd laid out for the '11 draft, anticipating the lockout. This meant that at #32, we could take a guy who might have gone in the low-mid twenties of round 1 most years -- but we'd be getting him w/ little risk (no need for a long-term guaranteed) -- and at #46 we'd get a guy who most years might well have gone #36; another low-cost, low-risk, high-upside asset for a team "rebuilding around youth."

Instead, we took a guy who isn't (and may never be) ready to play in the league at 32, and we threw #46 in as if it was of no value at all. Finally, when we could clearly have given a camp shot at backup point guard to a young player like Machado who had a great senior season, instead we signed proven nonentity A.J. Price and proven even worse nonentity Jannero Pargo.

2. We had a couple of bad seasons, and Ted blinked. We went all in on a desperate attempt to attain mediocrity, throwing away our cap flexibility in the process, by trading for Okafor and Ariza. We also showed that we thought no FA in his right mind would choose to play for the Wizards. Gutless.

We may win 40+ games this year; we'll "compete with anyone when we're healthy" (anyone remember that Grunfield mantra from his last go-around building a mediocre team?). But we'll do it at the cost of putting in place the pieces that might make us an actual title contender.

It's the start of the season, and I'm ready to enjoy being hopeful and enthusiastic. But we're back to the old Ernie Grunfield type of team. The dream that a new owner would turn us into a top-shelf NBA franchise is over. At least for a few years. At best, it might return if Ernie were gone. But he's not gone. Far from it. Ted seems to think he's done a heck of a job.