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What I have learned about a rebuild to date: A 10 point plan. A Washington Capitals perspective:

1. Ask yourself the big question: "Can this team--as constructed--ever win a championship?" If the answer is yes -- stay the course and try to find the right formula -- if the answer is no, then plan to rebuild. Don't fake it--really do the analytics and be brutally honest. Once you have your answer, develop the game plan to try to REALLY win a championship. Always run away from experts that say, "We are just one player away." Recognize there is no easy and fast systemic fix. It will be a bumpy ride--have confidence in the plan--"trust and verify: the progress -- but don't deviate from the plan."

2. Once you make the decision to rebuild--be transparent. Articulate the plan and sell it loudly and proudly to all constituencies, the media, the organization, the fans, your partners, family and anyone who will listen. Agree to what makes for a successful rebuild--in our case it is "a great young team with upside that can make the playoffs for a decade and win a Stanley Cup or two."

3. Once you decide to rebuild--bring the house down to the foundation--be consistent with your plan--and with your asks--we always sought to get "a pick and a prospect" in all of our trades. We believed that volume would yield better results than precision. We decided to trade multiple stars at their prime or peak to get a large volume of young players. Young players will get better as they age, so you have built in upside. Youngsters push vets to play better to keep their jobs, and they stay healthier, and they are more fun--less jaded by pro sports.

4. Commit to building around the draft. Invest in scouting, development, and a system. Articulate that system and stay with it so that all players feel comfortable-- know the language-- know what is expected of them-- read the Oriole Way*. It worked and it is a great tutorial. Draft players that fit the system, not the best player. Draft the best player for the system. Don't deviate or get seduced by agents, media demands, or by just stats or hype. Envision how this player will slide into your system.

5. Be patient with young players-- throw them in the pool to see if they can swim. Believe in them. Show them loyalty. Re-sign the best young players to long term high priced deals. Show the players you are very loyal to them as compared to free agents who achieved highly for another team. Teach them. Celebrate their successes. Use failures as a way to teach and improve. Coaches must be tough but kind to build confidence.

6. Make sure the GM, coach, owner and business folks are on the EXACT same page as to deliverables, metrics of success, ultimate goal, process and measured outcomes. Always meet to discuss analytics and don't be afraid of the truth that the numbers reveal. Manage to outcomes. Manage to let the GM and coach NOT be afraid of taking risks, and make sure there are no surprises. Over communicate. Act like an ethnic family--battle around the dinner table--never in public. Be tight as a team. Protect and enhance each other. Let the right people do their jobs.

7. No jerks allowed. Implement a no jerk policy. Draft and develop and keep high character people. Team chemistry is vital to success. Make sure the best and highest paid players are coachable, show respect to the system, want to be in the city, love to welcome new, young players to the team, have respect for the fan base, show joy in their occupation, get the system, believe in the coaches, have fun in practice, and want to be gym rats. Dump quickly distractions. Life is too short to drink bad wine.

8. Add veterans to the team via shorter term deals as free agents. Signing long-term, expensive deals for vets is very risky. We try to add vets to the mix for two year or three year deals. They fill in around our young core. They are very important for leadership, but they must complement the young core (NOT try to overtake them or be paid more than them). Identify and protect the core. Add veterans to complement them, not visa versa.

9. Measure and improve. Have shared metrics--know what the progress is--and where it ranks on the timeline-- be honest in all appraisals; don't be afraid to trade young assets for other draft picks to build back end backlog-- know the aging of contracts-- protect "optionality" to make trades at deadlines or in off season; never get in cap jail. Having dry powder is very important to make needed moves.

10. Never settle--never rest--keep on improving. Around the edges to the plan, have monthly, quarterly and annual check ups. Refresh the plan when needed but for the right reasons-- "how are we doing against our metrics of success and where are we on our path to a championship." Never listen to bloggers, media, so called experts--to thine own self be true. Enjoy the ride.

Nivek wrote:Nene is a major departure from The Plan. OkAriza not so much.

His "transparency" thing is one of the en vogue PR buzzwords. He wants the appearance of transparency, but he (and his teams) are not genuine.

I hope his "to think own self be true" stuff works out. I'd like for this team to contend for a title sooner rather than later.

fishercob wrote:

Nivek wrote:Nene is a major departure from The Plan. OkAriza not so much.

His "transparency" thing is one of the en vogue PR buzzwords. He wants the appearance of transparency, but he (and his teams) are not genuine.

I hope his "to think own self be true" stuff works out. I'd like for this team to contend for a title sooner rather than later.

I've thought about this whole transparency bit recently. How important is it? It makes us fans feel good in a warm and fuzzy way -- it's more inclusive, sure. But why is it important? Bill Belichick is the polar opposite of transparent. He takes being an evasive dick to an extreme. Pop is transparent. At the end of the day, wouldn't we all trade winning for transparency in a heartbeat? I question why this should be a core value.

badinage wrote:"Transparency" is a BS word. It doesn't mean anything. It sounds good, and the world of capitalism these days loves to say it. Just like it loves to say -- out of the box. Truly creative people don't think out of the box; truly creative people say, "What box?"

I have yet to hear of a businessman who I would call truly creative. They think money. Only money.

I have a deep distrust of anybody who is steeped in PR and marketing. And Leonsis made his money as a marketer. Marketing is about packaging things. It's often about BS.

Leonsis is like a lot of businessmen in this new age. They think they're more than businessmen, because they care. Because they do "outreach." Because they seek to integrate their business with the "community." Or some such BS. They're not MORE THAN businessmen.

Re: Nene ... I'm between doclinkin and nivek on this. It's not following the plan, but it's not a radical departure, either. Their hand was forced by having a player, McGee, they had to get rid of; a player they could not afford to commit big money to. It's easy to sit back and say, Well, the prudent thing would have been to just let him walk and free up money. Fans always suggest stuff like that. But how often has a GM -- in any sport -- done that?

Nivek wrote:

fishercob wrote:

Nivek wrote:Nene is a major departure from The Plan. OkAriza not so much.

His "transparency" thing is one of the en vogue PR buzzwords. He wants the appearance of transparency, but he (and his teams) are not genuine.

I hope his "to think own self be true" stuff works out. I'd like for this team to contend for a title sooner rather than later.

I've thought about this whole transparency bit recently. How important is it? It makes us fans feel good in a warm and fuzzy way -- it's more inclusive, sure. But why is it important? Bill Belichick is the polar opposite of transparent. He takes being an evasive dick to an extreme. Pop is transparent. At the end of the day, wouldn't we all trade winning for transparency in a heartbeat? I question why this should be a core value.

I actually don't think it's important, except that Ted has it as one of his core values. If it's something he values, he should do it. If it's not, he should stop talking about it like it is, and stop doing things that are a pantomime. As a PR guy in my day job, I agree with badinage's point that "transparency" -- at least as it's being peddled by the "thinkers" in the PR world -- is BS.

hands11 wrote:Honestly. This is the same ol same ol people posted before the season.

Trevor A would suck.
Okafor would suck.
Webster would be injured all year. He not that good.

The Trevor A and Okafor trade would leave them with their hands tied. Well it hasn't.

They are not done building. Actually, no team is ever really done.

But they do have Wall and Beal who are the two young very talented players. Thats the most important thing. You can build from that. They have their starting PG and SG. That is something that got answered this year.

And for now, they have two 26/27 year old SF that combined, cover what they need at SF. That also got answer this year. Neither was on the team last year.

So you work on the rest. Not a big deal. For now, they have Nene and Okafor who give them a good foundation in the post. Now they need to add to that. And they need to add depth in other places.

With Wall and Beal so young, they have a pretty big window to figure this out.

Yes they blow draft picks and we all have players we thought they should have gotten. But they have something they can build from the way they did it.

They got a lot accomplished this year. Culture change. Top 10 defense. They beat lots of good teams. etc.

So before people freak, lets see what they do next.

go'stags wrote:And Fish you are right about transparency not being vital. As long as a team is winning, they can do it however they want. But the wizards/bullets have sucked for a long, long time. They are trying to resurrect an entire franchise and fan base that has seen things done the same way-with miserable results- for a long time, through many different front offices (including this one) and now two ownerships.

If you want to build a new brand, and convince people that things are being done differently, then a little openness would be nice. Instead of trying to convince people that you see Blatche and Crawford as 2 pieces of a new big three.

Or you could just win. But that seems to be out of the Wizards reach.