Official Countdown to Firing"NoLowPostOffense"Grunfeld

[WizarDynasty]

i think this lost goes squarely on the shoulders of Ernie Grunfeld's lack of defensive personnel decisions. None of the major players Grunfeld has brought in have the footspeed to stop guard penetration or block shots on the perimeter. Grunfeld (greatest moves arenas, crit, blatche young mcgee)--was responsible for keeping etan thomas, , not trading jamision, drafting a bench player in opec, bringing in caron without getting a back up perimeter defender to cover his weaknesses, bring in dominic mcquire and making him a core member even though he is not even a back up sf, bringing in dee brown to solve smart defensive back up point guard specialist, choosing juan dixon over demarr johnson, and lets not forget..had indiana not been dumb and taken hibbert instead of mcgee (a poor one one defender)....we would have been complaining about hibbert the stiff...and ernie already said he would have taken hibbert if hibbert was there...ernie didn't make great GM moves when getting young or mcgee, it was almost as if the other gm's felt sorry for him and just let these two players slip to him just so he could keep his job. they just luckily fell into our hands because of mediocre play of the team, not because of shrewd trade moves by grunfeld.. the places where grunfeld could hvae done great..(bringing in a starter who is above average on both offense and defense) he has failed to do so. He simply brought in the reject bench players of other teams that were super skilled offensive players and poor one on one defenders. Arenas has yet to play and has been out for nearly two season with a knee injury and more than likely will be there forever...(even if he does come back--his motto fits grunfeld--super skilled offensive player poor defender)--jamison already has negative value once grunfeld signed him. Sure he is leader off the court, but certainly not a leader during crunch time.
Grunfeld has not made any brilliant moves to address this teams biggest needs in the last three offseasons and deserves to blamed and fired for how poorly the wizards are personnel wise in their defensive matchups every night.
Juan Dixon--one of the worst man on man defenders at pg position in the nba. Signature Grunfeld move.
He brings in Jamison, a bench player on the last three teams, i decides that Jamison was this teams longterm starter playing the powerforward position.A player with a below average defensive man on man ceiling but in Ernie eye's warped view, jamison could be transformed into an average one on one defender. Poor judgement by the captain of our ship.
Mr. Blatche. His one of only two good moves that he has made. Blatche and Young have the potential to be above average on both offense and defense. Blatche..great GM..Young..fail to Ernie inthe draft..not a skilled move to pick up the guy who fell to you. Will Blatche make up for for 3 starters and 4 bench players who are all below average one on one defenders. I think the answer should be no.
Blatche..yes..young and blatche are the only two people that i think can become above average both offensively and defensively on this team when you compare how javale chases perimeter shots, it just magnifies how terrible both blatche and jamison are at being energy players.
Jamison has the few scoops shots he makes in the lane and he hits one of out 4 wide open three point shots...i mean jamison sucks--when he shoots his threes, they aren't contested shots like a dirk..they are freakin' wide open three point shots. when the crunch time comes..jamison can rarely be relied on to score for you... iwhen you need a stop..you can guess that it was jamison's man that scored and jamison is trotting up the court saying to us "you guys knew what you were getting when you got me off Dallas mavericks bench".

His scoring comes from standing at the three point line and wanting for the dish out because most powerforwards are protecting the paint and securing defensive boards for their team...this fraud style of play is the basis jamison existence and yet he is treated as though he is one of the most important players on the team. Jamison on defense isn't getting the loose rebounds out hustling the other bigman which is why we give up a ton of offensive rebounds.
Aminu--lock as an allstar s/f--will be defensive player of the years in about 3 years. And he will surely be an above average offensive players. Think Travis Outlaw..but more intelligent - a king on teh court. There is no way caron and jamison could keep their minutes with him on teh roster. His work ethic will put him in a league with scottie pippen.
We all know that eventually the entire offense will be run through mcgee..(after watching mcgee he has the skill set to get off a decent shot each possession no matter what defense is being played) Caron is a jumpshooter who can't create his shot and every time he drives, he is so slow and non acrobatic and bulky that he gets called for the charge, and undersized carmello anthony...just as bad on defense and worse re bounder. Nick is still trying to work on his explosive burst to get past his defender but is improving. Juan has no power in his legs to stop his momentum when trying to play d..almost any player can burst by him and force out bigmen to foul. Dee brown is basically on roller skates out there, we have no athletes at the point guard spot.

truth is, ernie has a poor eye for evaluating defensive athletes (he completely ignores lane agility and think that a player lane agility was just a flawed measurement...and yet you wonder why his teams seem to all have the worse perimeter defenses in the league..)at the guard positions when it comes to free agent signings and second round draft picks. I. AS times moves forward, we begin to see that Javale's Poor lateral acceleration begins to catch up with him as he doesn't have the foot strength (explosiveness) to beat a driving big to the point of action in the driving lane. (all this was revealed in his poor lane agility measurements on draft express)

He picks oleksy pecherov when we needed a defensive back up point guard--lowry, rondo, farmar..all players he passed up even though we had no perimeter defense, lets steve blake walk.
most of the blame should go on Grunfeld not being able to secure a smart defensive back up point guard and not being able to secure a defensive back up small forward.
I would say that grunfeld biggest short coming is that he has no concept of recognizing lateral acceleration and agility in point guards...its almost like this dimension does not exist when he is making personnel decisions..all of his big acquisitions lack this dimension which shows a lack of basketball defensive IQ on by grunfeld and which is why he should be fired.
Main reason Ernie should be fired, he "failed" and I mean absolutely "Failed" for the last five years to bring in a legitimate post scoring option. Grunfeld has payed Jamison to be our number one post option...lets think about that for a second. Not one person on the roster is a number one post option during crunch time. Did this poor GM think that Jamison was the long term solution, or opec, or blatche,or etan thomas? This is why he should be fired. Apparently so because grunfeld for some reason has failed to bring in a post player...oh wait songalia was the answer? The wizard finally had a player that could matchup with Big smallforward with Jeffries--(he will correct this with aminu!)..what does he do...sign deshaun and antonio daniels--and ask undersized deshaun to guard lebron james in the playoffs [/b]

If Grunfeld will go down as one of the greatest GM's ever if he can get this line up on teh floor..arenas, critt, young, aminu, blatche and Haywood/mcgee. Its all over with! Fill the rafters with banners. Just don't mess up EG.

Well it's pretty much over now. Evan's was the pick that should have been made but Sacramento is going to grab him. Harden sucks. I will take Mike Miller over Harden any day of the week since everyone is in love with Harden's three point shot. Foye is a better defender than Arenas no matter how you spin it and we need someone next to arenas that can guard quick point guards and not fall off on the offense.
The only two bigmen in the draft were Hill and Mullen and no matter how you spin, other needs were still needed to be addressed.

This is what i stated days ago as our priorities.

Three major priorities for the team--we need one player with all attributes combined. You don't solve solution by acquiring two players and magically pretending that they are one player. Your starter is the most complete player and almost never needs to double team, and hopefully the other team needs to double him on offense. Ranked in priority
1. One big that has all of these attributes-High Motor, high field goal percentage, above average defensive rebounder, can block shots, can shoot from perimeter to open lane for Gil, is effective defending the pick and role. Explosive first step is a premium-, doesn't have an ego problem. All attributes need to be there.
2. Perimeter defense- A player that can guard big s/f's and has enough agility and standing reach to effectively contest a 6'8 players three point shot but has quick enough feet to guard on perimeter players such as point guards without being callled for a blocking foul, can knock down open three point shots, and can punish another team for using an undersized s/f by posting him up. Explosive First Step is a premium. All attributes need to be there otherwise he isn't worth a lottery pick.
3. A shooting guard who has the footspeed and strength to defend pg's, strong enough to defend s/f's, and has the ball handling ability to advance the ball against pressure, should be able to knock down an open three point shot. Explosive step is a must for a scoring guard.



We did upgrade our perimeter defense with extra length but I don't know about Mike's agility. i do know that i would rather see mike shooting three pointers than Caron jacking up two pointers all day hitting at the same percentage.
I think our third priority was met. Foye has the footspeed for pg and strength for sg's. He has pretty poor standing reach but he has an explosive first step and can knock down the jay.
If Blatche magically develops a high motor, our solution at powerforward is solved. But i did recognize that Jordan Hill didn't have lower leg strength needed to post on the blocks at will and Mullen's does have motivational issues.
So again, if we can figure out a way to trade Caron for Stoudemire, we are pretty set.
I still think EG screwed up by not getting Clark. That's going to haunt him for a very long time if he doesn't fulfill the teams first priority of getting a dominant offensive post bigman that is also an above average defensive rebounder with a high motor. That's been the organization number need for the last 6 years and EG still has done nothing to address it. As much as I complained about Stoudemire, I would rather have him over Mike Miller and Foye.

Truth of the matter is Young has no power to his game. This guy games is completely designed to avoid contact. When you see him drive, he will throw up a weak floater rather than colliding into a "OUT OF POSITION BIGMAN and Still scoring" like arenas attempting to get the and one call. Arenas is TOUGH. When you have the mentality of attacking a defender who has 50lbs of weight on you, you are tough. CAron has the mentality but doesn't have the speed or one legged explosiveness to execute a And One move scoring through Fouls. ITs atrocious watching Haywood in the paint. You almost never see jamison on the block challenging a shot blocker and still scoring. !! Young has no power to his game. I feel that McGee kind of has the same philosophy. Their offensive moves are designed to avoid contact rather than attacking and attempting to get the And-One.
If they added that dimension of toughness to their offensive games, Wizards would really be a force on offense--(instead of relying on low percentage shots and not being able to score when the opposition gets physical). But how can a player add this element to their game, when their entire career, they chickened out against contact and didn't take pride in scoring even after being fouled. One thing I love about Arenas, his game is designed to score even after he is fouled. He is the only player on the team with a true power game. jamison, blatche, haywood....I really don't see Butler score frequently through fouls. ...So yeah..Arenas is our only true powerplayer on offense that scores through fouls.
That's why this team is soft. Could McGee and Young have been guided toward being finishers through fouls. Could this mentality have been coached through the jordan era. Does Grunfeld mandate that his handpicked coach emphasize this toughness aspect to his player. I fear that it has never been the case. Arenas was an And-One scorer back in Golden State. NO player that we have brought to this team have developed into And-One specialists. That should be a major concern and points directly to personnel decisions--for soft non-power players that can't score through contact consistently.
It seemed at one point that Blatche was beginning to turn into a power player, going into the post during the summer league and scoring through fouls yet coaches seem to keep that side of his game undeveloped and designing the 90Percent of his plays for him to jump shoot out on the perimeter instead of going on the block attempting to get the And One. Could it be that because Jamison is a non power player, Blatche has to run the same exact plays that are designed for soft jump shooting Jamison and this in turns is slowly turning Blatche into the soft player that Jamison is. Let's hope Saunder's recognize the huge gap in talent that Blatche has over Jamison in the post. We almost never see Jamision post anyone up that his bigger and taller than him, which is 80%percent of the time while blatche is bigger and quicker==or at teh very least same size with most of the power forwards players he matches up with. Could this inherent Flaw with Jamison completely cripple Blatche being a dominant post player at the p/f position? what McGee needs at this site to get stronger http://www.weightvest.com/Pages/40basketball.html

[Terpman]

Eddie....is that you?

[Dat2U]

Ernie hasn't done a great job IMO, especially recently. For long time I was one of his only critics, and blasted the "In Ernie we trust" motto that was used alot around here. But even I can recognize he's not getting fired anytime soon.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

You might have said he could have drafted Millsap instead of Pecherov, but I don't need to put any more logs on the fire.

Javale was a good pick, but drafting Chalmers would have given them a starting-caliber PG from day one. One that plays defense very well. (Just like I predicted before the draft). Hey, I'm impressed with McGee but I'm thinking there might have been a way to acquire a later pick as well for Chalmers (such as trading Pech and the Memphis pick plus a second).

I think Grunfeld's done well enough on the talent of McGee and Young, and on the fleecing of the Lakers with Brown for Butler to keep his job.

Ernie hasn't drafted well defensively and he's overpaid or signed too long the likes of Thomas, Daniels, and Songaila; and I think he truly misstepped signing Gil and AJ for that much/long---but he still hasn't been poor enough to get fired.

[clubbing_caveman]

EG isnt getting fired. He may walk away, if Abe doesnt let him make necessary changes to the team for its betterment.
EG has done well for us. Not the greatest, but certainly didnt do anything bad. He's an above average GM.

[yungal07]

EG isnt getting fired. He may walk away, if Abe doesnt let him make necessary changes to the team for its betterment.
EG has done well for us. Not the greatest, but certainly didnt do anything bad. He's an above average GM.

100% agree. The McGee and Young picks more than allow him to keep his job.

[JWizmentality]

Eddie?? Shouldn't you be training the players for their next loss tomorrow??

[WashWiz54]

Ernie getting the ax before Eddie is a complete joke. I'm not a die-hard fire Eddie right this second (although a change is needed at seasons end) but the thought of Ernie losing his job is crazy. Has he made a few mistakes? Yep but there have been plenty of good decisions too.

While his job shouldn't be set in stone it should be a whole lot more secure than Eddie.

[nate33]

IBTL

[mhd]

Eddie would have resigned Arvis and JJ.

[Scabs304]

Until EG signs his own coach then you can't talk about him getting fired.

[mohammed10]

Eddie would have resigned Arvis and JJ.

[WizarDynasty]

you gotta be kiddin' me if you don't think ernie should be held responsible the lack of defensive role players on this team..and the mod wants to lock this thread... the fact that you want stop the discussion of holding ernie accountable shows how pathetic a mod you are..if you really want to keep people from evaluating ernie grunfeld...you won't let this thread last for a day yet you let the eddie jordan thread stay open for nearly 3 years...

[nate33]

I don't mod this board. The IBTL was really just a comment on how stupid I felt this thread was. I don't actually expect the mods to lock it.

I can't believe you're going to sit here and bash Ernie's drafting of Blatche and McGuire when he got them late in the 2nd round. Do you realize how rare it is for a 2nd round pick to even last past his 2nd year in the NBA? EG managed to find one guy (Blatche) who is sure to stick around the league for 8-10 years, plus another guy in McGuire who at least has a chance of sticking around.

EG made a mistake in retaining Etan, but rumor is that Abe made him do it.

EG managed to find a defensive role player in Stevenson for a very cheap price. He paid him the NBA minimum in his first year, and just $3.3M in his second year here.

And you are a complete fool if you would take Jeffries at a full MLE contract rather than Blatche at $3M a year. EG was absolutely right to let Jeffries (and Hughes) walk rather than match those crazy offers. Those two guys ended up with two of the worst contracts in the league.

EG's biggest mistake was drafting Pecherov. When you are drafting in the late teens, you swing for the fences. EG swung and missed. He tried it again this year with McGee and hit a home run. I'm happy with that slugging percentage.

EG is no Joe Dumars, but he's done pretty well putting together some young talent despite not picking in the lottery for 5 years.

[Rafael122]

Speaking of OPEC, you think his option gets picked up? I mean, if Ernie thinks it was a mistake to draft him, there's no need to keep him one more year.

I just don't understand all the player options. Etan has one, Songaila has one. Why?

Daniels - his contract was a year longer than it should have been.

[Scabs304]

Okay Abe is a great man he just isn't a good basketball owner if you want W's. Just like with the Orioles it would be better for the teams success if thier owners would retire and sell the teams. EG has been handcuffed and I only believe he hasn't quit yet is because of the clout Abe has with other owners.

[Benjammin]

Speaking of OPEC, you think his option gets picked up? I mean, if Ernie thinks it was a mistake to draft him, there's no need to keep him one more year.

I just don't understand all the player options. Etan has one, Songaila has one. Why?

Daniels - his contract was a year longer than it should have been.

I believe Stewie's option was picked up for next year. At the very least, cap filler for a deal...

[nate33]

Speaking of OPEC, you think his option gets picked up? I mean, if Ernie thinks it was a mistake to draft him, there's no need to keep him one more year.

I just don't understand all the player options. Etan has one, Songaila has one. Why?

Daniels - his contract was a year longer than it should have been.

Etan has an option because that was the deal Milwaukee negotiated and we matched. Daniels' contract is a year too long because we made that signing while in a position of weakness. We had just lost Larry Hughes and were scrambling to find a competent guard to play alongside Arenas. At the time, Daniels was the best guy available (and he proved to be worth it through last season).

Songaila's player option year is a mystery to me. I cannot comprehend why we paid him so much for so long. I understand the rationale for getting him. He's a smart big man who knows how to run the Princeton Offense; and at the time, we really had no competent backup PF. I just don't understand why we paid so much. Instead of 5 years, $23M, I think he could have been signed for 4 years, $16M. Nobody else seemed to be banging on his door.

[FreeBalling]

I don't mod this board. The IBTL was really just a comment on how stupid I felt this thread was. I don't actually expect the mods to lock it.

I can't believe you're going to sit here and bash Ernie's drafting of Blatche and McGuire when he got them late in the 2nd round. Do you realize how rare it is for a 2nd round pick to even last past his 2nd year in the NBA? EG managed to find one guy (Blatche) who is sure to stick around the league for 8-10 years, plus another guy in McGuire who at least has a chance of sticking around.

EG made a mistake in retaining Etan, but rumor is that Abe made him do it.

EG managed to find a defensive role player in Stevenson for a very cheap price. He paid him the NBA minimum in his first year, and just $3.3M in his second year here.

And you are a complete fool if you would take Jeffries at a full MLE contract rather than Blatche at $3M a year. EG was absolutely right to let Jeffries (and Hughes) walk rather than match those crazy offers. Those two guys ended up with two of the worst contracts in the league.

EG's biggest mistake was drafting Pecherov. When you are drafting in the late teens, you swing for the fences. EG swung and missed. He tried it again this year with McGee and hit a home run. I'm happy with that slugging percentage.

EG is no Joe Dumars, but he's done pretty well putting together some young talent despite not picking in the lottery for 5 years.

Nate you sound like a realist with this post, well done.

[MJG]

I don't remember who said it, but: in the NBA, there are a few stellar GMs, a slightly larger group of competent GMs, and a much larger group of incompetent GMs. EG falls into that competent category. Unless one of those scarce few stellar GMs becomes available and is a realistic get for us, firing EG will be a lateral move at best, and an utter dud move at worst.