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Going to be honest - I find myself rooting against this team and hoping they fire EG and start over. Curious how common this feeling is.

I hope they trade Wall, Porter and Grunfeld.

My brain tells me I should be rooting for them to tank, but my stupid heart is still rooting for them to win games.

If, by midseason (say January 10th or so), we are still in the 7-10th range and struggling to hang with Charlotte, Miami and Orlando, then I will fully commit to tanking. Fighting for a 7th or 8th seed does nothing for me. It just means we will get destroyed by Toronto, Milwaukee or Philly in the first round. I want to see the team fighting for a 5th seed with Indy and Boston for me to have any real hope of playoff success.

I'm never going to root against them. I hope somehow things turn around. But this is a complicated set of issues to do a poll about, since we don't actually know what the alternatives are.

The key thing is firing Grunfeld, whether they somehow get into the playoffs or not. We have no idea under what circumstances Ted would fire Ernie, and therefore what connection there is between the team's performance on the court and Ernie's status. If there's no way Ernie gets fired even if they lose all of their remaining games, then of course I'd want them to do better.

Probably, any chance for sustained success over the next 5 or so years depends on trading Wall, and there may (or may not) be a window after which Wall is much more difficult to trade. But Ernie needs to go first.

General assumption is that EG would be fired if the Wizards miss the playoffs

Top 4 draft pick + wall trade + Grunfeld sacked.

jangles86 wrote:Top 4 draft pick + wall trade + Grunfeld sacked.

Interesting thought:

If Ernie proactively trades Wall on December 15th, and then the team plays poorly and doesn't make the playoffs, will he be fired? Or will he hang on by arguing that they would have made the playoffs with Wall if they didn't have to let him go for salary reasons?

What I'm saying is that if the goal is to fire EG, we might have keep Wall for another month or two and continue to suck with Wall - at which point it will be much easier to blame EG for the failure. Then we fire EG in late January and have the new GM trade Wall by the Deadline (or perhaps EG is given the leeway to trade Wall before he is ousted).

I'm just struggling to see how this sequence plays out. Do we have EG manage the logistics of trading Wall and hopefully moving Howard and/or Morris for whatever value we can get? If you don't trust EG to do these things, is there time to fire him and hire another GM to get them done before the Trade Deadline?

Fire EG now before he f’s any more of this team.

I'm just rooting for a breakup of the team, which means I'm rooting against them at this point. A win tonight shouldn't stop the potential trades but you never know with TL and EG. It's hard to do but I did that in the MJ second season and the Blatche knucklehead era.

I also look at it this way. Experiment with the lineups more, add Troy Brown into the mix, maybe Dekker in the bench rotation, less Rivers, who is so boring to watch. I would be more interested. Just tired of the same guys putting up the same numbers and same lack of effort.

Just EG gone, that's it, and that is all!

I'll evaluate the next steps after that one, but that has to be the first thing.

1. Fire Grunfeld
2. Fire Brooks
3. Trade Wall and/or Porter
4. Top 3 pick.

JWizmentality wrote:1. Fire Grunfeld
2. Fire Brooks
3. Trade Wall and/or Porter
4. Top 3 pick.

I agree - we need 4 top 3 picks.

If Grunfeld is gone after this season I'll call this season a success, and moving Wall's contract would be the cherry on top.

Beyond that I'm rooting for the team to get it together to make a push in the standings so I can enjoy Wizards playoff basketball once more.

Ruzious wrote:

JWizmentality wrote:1. Fire Grunfeld
2. Fire Brooks
3. Trade Wall and/or Porter
4. Top 3 pick.

I agree - we need 4 top 3 picks.

Still not enough

Is it too much to hope for Ted, Ernie, Scott and John to be simultaneously consumed in a fiery gas explosion, with Ted’s Will found nearby willing the franchise to a win-above-all-else owner?

With you OP, rooting for us to lose every game. It’s sad but it’s the only way there will be changes

gtn130 wrote:General assumption is that EG would be fired if the Wizards miss the playoffs

If only....

BigA wrote:

gtn130 wrote:General assumption is that EG would be fired if the Wizards miss the playoffs

If only....

We've made that mistake before, haven't we?

1. The firing, tarring, feathering and banishment of one Ernest Grunfeld.

But thats every year, so...

1. Moving Wall with some sort of return. Would love the package to include Ball or another young PG with promise.

2. NOT moving Beal.

3. IF 1. does not transpire, I will go back to doing what I've been doing, rooting for the team and hoping we can bring it all together.

4. ALSO IF 1. doesn not transpire, a new coach that can pull everyone's heads in. A lot of whiny babies on this team that need a good slap.

5. IF 1. doesn't happen: Keeping our first, but perhaps using Oubre to move Mahinmi, and/or shopping Porter to see whats out there.

6. Playing Troy some minutes, playing Bryant more than 20 mins, and playing Rivers 10 mins or less.

nate33 wrote:

jangles86 wrote:Top 4 draft pick + wall trade + Grunfeld sacked.

Interesting thought:

If Ernie proactively trades Wall on December 15th, and then the team plays poorly and doesn't make the playoffs, will he be fired? Or will he hang on by arguing that they would have made the playoffs with Wall if they didn't have to let him go for salary reasons?

What I'm saying is that if the goal is to fire EG, we might have keep Wall for another month or two and continue to suck with Wall - at which point it will be much easier to blame EG for the failure. Then we fire EG in late January and have the new GM trade Wall by the Deadline (or perhaps EG is given the leeway to trade Wall before he is ousted).

I'm just struggling to see how this sequence plays out. Do we have EG manage the logistics of trading Wall and hopefully moving Howard and/or Morris for whatever value we can get? If you don't trust EG to do these things, is there time to fire him and hire another GM to get them done before the Trade Deadline?

Again, this is trying to mind-read and impose some logic on the thought process of the one person who is making this decision. A person who has gone years past the point when action was clearly justified. Maybe the embarrassment of having to pay the tax on a 10th place team will finally do it.

But given how far it's gone, my prediction is they will go through the entire season, keeping Wall, maybe making a move at the deadline to get under the tax line if that's possible. I don't think Ted will fire Ernie during the season, no matter how bad it gets.