Countdown to Ernie Grunfeld Firing

[Dark Faze]

Jackson said he would be interested in a developing team "where you'd have the influence in (selecting the) coaching staff and the kind of culture that goes along with it. It goes all the way down to - not down to, but includes - trainers and the people who are doing the hands-on work with players, that have to be really embedded with how you put a team together. ... The support group is important; guys who get an opportunity to hear and talk and influence the players.

"It would be a real opportunity to implant the game, a culture that I believe in - that's the intriguing part."

Man it's not even funny how badly the Wizards need his influence. If we don't take this chance we're crazy. I really hope we're one of the teams he's talking with.

[verbal8]

Jackson said he would be interested in a developing team "where you'd have the influence in (selecting the) coaching staff and the kind of culture that goes along with it. It goes all the way down to - not down to, but includes - trainers and the people who are doing the hands-on work with players, that have to be really embedded with how you put a team together. ... The support group is important; guys who get an opportunity to hear and talk and influence the players.

"It would be a real opportunity to implant the game, a culture that I believe in - that's the intriguing part."

Man it's not even funny how badly the Wizards need his influence. If we don't take this chance we're crazy. I really hope we're one of the teams he's talking with.

It does seem like a long shot, but it seems to me the teams talking to him would be ones out of the play-offs. When you look at teams outside the play-offs, the Wizards would probably make a short list. John Wall is probably one of the best players not in the play-offs. Also the team as a whole seems to be the closest to becoming a play-off team.

[nate33]

It does seem like a long shot, but it seems to me the teams talking to him would be ones out of the play-offs. When you look at teams outside the play-offs, the Wizards would probably make a short list. John Wall is probably one of the best players not in the play-offs. Also the team as a whole seems to be the closest to becoming a play-off team.

Yup. And the Wizards have a GM and a coach who have just one year left on their existing contract, and an owner who has been touting a rebuild from the ground up ever since he got here. Overall, Washington really seems like a prime candidate.

[Dark Faze]

Thing is Phil is really tied to Jeanie Bus so I don't see him leaving the West coast.

But at the same time I don't see a lot of opportunities on the West coast either.

[closg00]

Is the D-League off the table with Vesely and others? "No. It's never been off the table. With the kind of injuries we had this year, we needed the bodies up here for practices or for game-type situations. A lot of times, players develop just as much in a practice-type situation, though at the end of the year, we didn't have as many practices. But we needed healthy bodies for this team also."

Yeah Ernie, the vaunted Wizards development program is mimicked around the league....by no-one.

[queridiculo]

Hiring Jackson to finally give this team some credibility would make far too much sense.

EG is doing Leonsis bidding quite masterfully, a contract extension for the incumbent seems far more likely.

Wouldn't surprise me if Phil Jackson ended up with the Sonics, with the Wizards bungling Walls extension only to have him reunited with his good friends Cousins.

[GhostsOfGil]

To me, that's a no-brainer. This team should do anything to get Phil here...but I think Ted likes yesmen, and Phil is definitely not a yes-man.

TGW, you can kill the credit in your sig if you want. Thanks for the call out though man.

[montestewart]

With Kahn replaced, where's EG now on the longest-tenure list?

Whoops, same place he always was.

[hands11]

To me, that's a no-brainer. This team should do anything to get Phil here...but I think Ted likes yesmen, and Phil is definitely not a yes-man.

TGW, you can kill the credit in your sig if you want. Thanks for the call out though man.

I'm still going to give Ted a chance.

So far, they have been rebuilding pretty well.

The 2011 draft was bad but other then that, things look much better then 3 years ago.

And he only signed EG for two years. One year is done. And in his first year of that extension he didn't screw anything up. We got Trevor A and Okafor for the R Lewis contract ( there were other option but this didn't suck and it was only for two year deals ), they found Webster for nothing and they drafted Beal.

So for that one year, they did pretty well.

But every year is important. I'm waiting to see what they get done this year. Then waiting to see if they go looking for a new GM. Not going to hold stuff against Ted that hasn't happened yet.

[GhostsOfGil]

Crawford taking shots at the wiz front office.
http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/5/1/ ... dd-man-out

I would be much more sympathetic towards EG and Ted if they had not handled that situation like complete idiots.

[nate33]

Crawford taking shots at the wiz front office.
http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/5/1/ ... dd-man-out

I would be much more sympathetic towards EG and Ted if they had not handled that situation like complete idiots.

I'm not sure how much better the Wizards could have handle the Blatche situation. Blatche was just a lazy bum. The Crawford situation could have been handled better by trading Crawford as soon as it became apparent that he couldn't handle a limited-minute role once he tasted starters' minutes.

Rook6980 nailed it in the comments section of the Bullets Forever article. I'm going to repost his comments here because they're so good:

What I find a bit disburbing is that both Crawford and Blatche were given tons of opportunity and playing time here in Washington.

Blatche was a starter for 176 games. He played an average of 25-30 minutes a game for almost 5 years here. Almost no other team in the League would have given him that much opportunity to prove himself. Yet, every year, he came into Training Camp overweight and out of shape…. taking at least half the season before he was in even passable basketball shape. And he’s complaining the Team and Fans didn’t “have his back”?…. Hey Andray…. how about you refund a part of your salary to the fans here in Washington who came and paid good money to see your slovenly butt trudging up and down the court for years and years.

Crawford? Atlanta never even gave him a chance to play. He comes to Washington and plays 133 games, starting about half of those games – playing 25-30 minutes a game over two years (three seasons).. How about some props to the Wizards organization for believing in you enough to start you 62 games, even though your true shooting percentage never reached 50% while you were here. The organization that gave you tons of development time in actual NBA games…. time that you squandered by continuing to be a shot jacking ball hog; and never developing an understanding of what a “good” shot is versus a “bad” shot.

Now both these former starters are coming off the bench…. playing fewer minutes and having a much smaller role…. against 2nd string players – and complaining that it was the WIZARDS fault things didn’t work out…..

I love how it gets turned around when the Wizards finally decide that they can do better than an overweight, out of shape big man and a shot jacking ball hog – and go in a different direction to obtain players that actually WANT to play defense, put the team FIRST, and worry more about wins than personal statistics or touches.

Andray and Jordan, maybe instead of bad-mouthing the Organization that gave you your chance to play significant minutes against the best players in the world – maybe you should shut up and work on your fitness; your defensive effort, and learn what it means to put the team first.

On the other hand, this organization obtained professionals like Kirk Hinrich, Antawn Jamison, Mo Evans, Josh Howard, etc… and even further back Antonio Daniels, Darius Songaila and others…

You never hear them badmouthing a previous team or organization that paid them Millions of dollars and gave them a chance to play.

Crawford was perfectly happy here jacking shots as the starting SG… Never heard a bad word… Happy as a clam. But once a better option came along, rather than do what was best for the team and become a 6th man – he sulked; and later bad-mouthed the team..

Yes – this team acquired those players… and yes, this team tried to prop them up, give them playing time to see if they could develop (10 point plan # 5: throw them in the pool to see if they can swim)… Once it was determined that they couldn’t do the job, they were replaced with better options… That’s how good organizations build teams… Crawford was let go only after he balked at being a bench player and fell into 10 point plan #7 (No jerks allowed).

So yeah – the team acquired them and propped them up. But it’s the PLAYERS fault if they couldn’t grab that opportunity and perform

.

[GhostsOfGil]

Kyle Weidie wrote an interesting piece over at TAI about the on/off #s from last season:

Found this quote interesting:

"And guess what: the draft pick isn’t the answer. It is almost certain to be traded, even if it’s just to trade down. …Grunfeld will believe it’s time to do something mildly desperate get desperately needed complementary scoring."

http://www.truthaboutit.net/2013/05/whe ... ds+Blog%29

[nate33]

Kyle Weidie wrote an interesting piece over at TAI about the on/off #s from last season:

Found this quote interesting:

"And guess what: the draft pick isn’t the answer. It is almost certain to be traded, even if it’s just to trade down. …Grunfeld will believe it’s time to do something mildly desperate get desperately needed complementary scoring."

http://www.truthaboutit.net/2013/05/whe ... ds+Blog%29

The part about trading the pick seemed like wild speculation to me. It certainly wasn't justified based on the rest of the content in the article. (Maybe Weidie has heard other things from the front office, if so, he should have mentioned it.)

The entire article seemed a bit strange to me. All that 5-man lineup data is pretty worthless given the sample sizes. And even if the sample sizes were relevant, the ultimate conclusion that he drew, that the Wizards need more offense, wasn't derived from the 5-man data.

The bottom line is that the Wizards need more scoring and need more guard depth. I think Burke or McCollum could solve the problem as easily as trading the pick would.

[FAH1223]

Kyle Weidie wrote an interesting piece over at TAI about the on/off #s from last season:

Found this quote interesting:

"And guess what: the draft pick isn’t the answer. It is almost certain to be traded, even if it’s just to trade down. …Grunfeld will believe it’s time to do something mildly desperate get desperately needed complementary scoring."

http://www.truthaboutit.net/2013/05/whe ... ds+Blog%29

Yeah. He's trading the pick. Its very obvious. And we're getting a crappy veteran out of it.

[Deeptu McPullup]

Kyle Weidie wrote an interesting piece over at TAI about the on/off #s from last season:

Found this quote interesting:

"And guess what: the draft pick isn’t the answer. It is almost certain to be traded, even if it’s just to trade down. …Grunfeld will believe it’s time to do something mildly desperate get desperately needed complementary scoring."

http://www.truthaboutit.net/2013/05/whe ... ds+Blog%29

The plan that I expect they’re going to unfurl before the adoring throngs is a continuation of last offseason’s MO: use the pick and make a trade for a veteran, but at the expense of future salary flexibility.

On trading the draft pick to add more veterans: “We can get an old player any time, but if the old player doesn’t help you on the court. That’s not the kind of situation we want to get into.”

If the front office plans to keep Okafor or sign another well compensated vet, they're really going to paint themselves into a corner if they don't land a go getter on a rookie salary. It's painfully obvious that we can't afford two additional "old players" of any note, though we can probably get one without trading the pick. To me, that says that a trade down as Wiede mentioned is possible, but an outright trade out is a precarious premise (aside from someone still on a rookie deal or who we think takes us into contention, like Cousins or Horford).

That said, depending on what all's out there, it's by no means certain that a trade down that sacrifices the 8th is going to get a substantially superior player to what we would get by showing a willingness to take on some salary and throwing out peripheral assets, especially if we don't mind an old guy, which we apparently don't.

[closg00]

Grunfeld outlasts Kahn as an NBA GM.

[verbal8]

Grunfeld outlasts Kahn as an NBA GM.

Exit interview with Kahn:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/205919251.html

I could see EG giving similar answers.

In the last part he mentions the fleecing of EG as being a highlight of his career:

Q. Is signing him(Rick Adelman) one of the things you’re most proud of?


A. And also it was no easy task bringing Ricky over. There are still people to this day who are surprised he showed up. It wasn’t Rick was difficult. With Rick, I had to fight the temptation to pressure him. That would have been the worst thing possible. He didn’t need me pressuring to make a decision in time and he needed to do it only if he wanted to coach again. I’m also proud of that trade (that sent Mike Miller and Randy Foye to Washington for the 2009 fifth pick that became Rubio) I don’t think we would have had the institutional courage to take Ricky with that sixth pick if we didn’t have two picks in the top 10 that year. I knew Ricky wouldn’t come for a year or two. We didn’t have a point guard on the roster. We probably still would have had to take Flynn because of scouts’ assessment and we felt he was ready to play right away. All we would have had without that trade, I don’t know where we’d be today. Ricky is a critical part of the team’s future, along with Kevin.

[fishercob]

Wowzers. From that same exit interview:

Q. Think his (Love's) feeling toward that (his contract) or his feeling towards you influence Glen’s decision?


A. I doubt it. You’d have to ask Glen, but I doubt it. And my feelings toward Kevin, frankly, I really like him. And we’ve had some really productive conversation about the steps he needs to take to win back the respect and admiration of his teammates and coaches. It’s almost ridiculous how much attention to paid to my relationship with him. In terms of import, it has no bearing at end of the day whether he’ll be happy here and whether organization will be happy with him. Q. Think his feeling toward that or his feeling towards you influence Glen’s decision?


A. I doubt it. You’d have to ask Glen, but I doubt it. And my feelings toward Kevin, frankly, I really like him. And we’ve had some really productive conversation about the steps he needs to take to win back the respect and admiration of his teammates and coaches. It’s almost ridiculous how much attention to paid to my relationship with him. In terms of import, it has no bearing at end of the day whether he’ll be happy here and whether organization will be happy with him. It’s much more important for him to forge really meaningful relationships with his teammates and coaches.

Q. Why did you say he needs to win back the respect of his teammates?


A. I think there’s some work for him to be done in terms of, he didn’t play very much this year, right? And I think there’s a void there because of that. Many of those guys really fought their way back from injury, sometimes multiple injuries. He had two broken hands. He came back once, didn’t play well, broke his hand again and then decided to have his knee done at the end of the year when the pain was such. I think he has some work to in the locker room and I believe he will. I certainly don’t want that to come across negatively. I believe he will and I believe he’s on the right path.

HA! I don't mean this in a bad way, but you're ugly! Hopefully Kahn's parting gift for Taylor is to stoke the flames of discontent between Love and the T'Wolves. Call his agent, Ernie!!

[Jay81]

Its may 6,2013. How is this guy still running our team

https://twitter.com/jhatem/status/331471700975816704

[Higga]

Yep it's incredible how incompetence gets rewarded in the NBA. I wish I could suck that bad at my job and still remain employed and make millions.