RealGM

If you had a voice in the Wizards front office, what -- if any -- would be your strategy for "managing the message" in the age of the digital rumor mill, ESPN, twitter, etc?

Is it worth it to devote resources to debunking rumors about bad trades, to planting rumors of your own, etc. so as to make fans feel good and get reporters, bloggers, and columnists on your side? Or is all of that just "noise" and at the end of the day, the only thing that should matter is results on the floor?

The Ilyasova and Deng trade rumors have made people here lose their sh*t, to varying degrees. I understand "here" is not a representative swath of the fan base. At the same time, "Joe Da Fan (TM, John Thompson) hears the rumor on 980 or sees it on ESPN's front page -- he often doesn't hear it debunked or shot down within an hour. Again, does any of that matter?

I think Ted made a solid PR move in repeatedly articulating that the Wiz were rebuilding, and doing so around young players and draft picks. Since then, I haven't liked much of what he's done from a PR standpoint -- crowing about fringe roster moves, overvaluing mediocre players in print, etc. But to me, that stuff is besides the point to this discussion.

Does the smoke matter, or only the fire? What say you, ladies?

I don't think it's worth their time. The only people who would freak out are die hard enough that "bad press" won't change their allegiances, only their blood pressure. The casual fan will care enough to pick out the tidbits so they'll have something to offer when they talk to their buddies who are more knowledgable.

I'm basing this off my casual fandom of other sports. I know peripherally that Ovechkin is kind of slacking and isn't living up to his potential but I'm not really sweating it. I know that Bryce Harper hurt himself a few weeks back slamming into a wall but I'm not up to speed on the severity or how it's being treated. Same goes for Strasburg. I know much more about RG3's knee and how it's being handled. Heck, I knew more about Kobe's knee and currently achilles.

Plus I think much of the fun in fanatical following is speculation vs actualization. Speculation is fun. Getting hit in the gut by gamechanging news is also fun. It's fun to freak out. It's fun to rant. It's fun to see Ji completely melt down. I would hate to see the sterile, politically correct whitewash of a PR firm take that away from me.