The Consiglieri wrote:CCJ
I think I did a poor job of explaining myself in some ways.
1.) We're agreed
2.) I don't think you've called for Leonsis' head, if I said that, or suggested it, it was a goof. I do want a young FO. I want a hungry young management team that is on the cutting edge of metrics and statisitical models in addition to have traditional scouts. I want a modern FO. I don't want an old school cranky guy who made his bones for an NBA that is gone.
3.) My point isn't the elite players argument entirely, i think our major issue in the eighties/nineties/aughts was that we had a terrible FO, and we had no elite players. You can't win w/o elite players in this league, so you def need them, but having a top notch management team is crucial to landing elite players, paerticularly if you end up picking outside the blue chip zone.
4.) You make great points here and I dont actually disagree with any of this. I guess in the end, I simply don't mind having the wrong guys in place now because I believe this draft is top heavy in elite difference making talent, and deep in potential elite talent. I want a top 2 pick, and I want to trade assets to get a 2nd top 10 pick because I believe a top 10 guy in this draft is probably as good as a top 3 guy in nearly any non-Lebron type draft. I love this draft and I am very happy if we chose to implode, it happened this year at least, rather than a horrible draft year that offered no pay off (sorta like '09 which featured basically 1 or 2 elite talents, and then subpar role players plus curry, that would be painful).
Your philosophy is sound. If I could choose what to do in Leonsis' place i would have fired EG immediately, hired one of the bright young minds circulating than like Cho, or a Petrie assistant, someone trained under the best, and I would never have hired a recycler coach (why are these guys so damn popular in sports? I have no idea, give me a hot young assistant every day of the week over that nonsense, these guys never ever end up winning either, its totally baffling how they constantly rotate around all the leagues always finding a soft landing with some piss poor team thats desperate and not terribly creative or innovative). I would have blown up the roster and started building young and I would have scoured the league for good locker room mentor players, like that dude we let go that helped Blatche or was it McGee back in '09-'10 so darn much, and good glue guys and build it slowly.
I dont care about whether the public's entertained, competitive teams will sell tickets, the plan has to be building a winner, you build a winner in a good sports town (not Atlanta), and they will come. D.C. has shown this with the Nats and the Caps, the second they thought they may have something worth a damn they started selling out the house. Season Ticket holders will respect ownership with a plan, not ownership trying to bilk its fans with b.s. like the clippers, the warriors and boulez have been doing for twenty years. I can deal with the half filled house if that happens so long as the plan works.
I believe in the plan, the only fear I have, THE ONLY ONE, is that I believe Leonsis may be loyal to a fault. He did not fire GMGM with the caps despite being entirely justified in doing it. GMGM had presided over garbage and the collapse of the team, instead of canning him after the Jagr disaster (granted it sounds like Leonsis owned that he wanted that as much if not more than GMGM) he instead presided over a genius strategy: sell off all assets at the next few trade deadlines for picks and young quality players in their 19-23 age bracket. Build it, take your time, and spend your money instead of free agency on revamping the scouting department to make it top notch (the Nats appeared to do the same thing once Rizzo took over, utilizing the '09-'11 drafts to pay overslot systematically to haul in the best possible draft day collections humanly possible according to their highly paid and superb scouts (Rizzo made sure he brought in the guys who helped him and an assistant create outstanding farms in Arizona and Atlanta) so the team would max the draft. It didnt always work, the caps missed on a few guys here and there, and for a while seemed only to hit on first rounders but by the end of the day they were pulling out franchise talents in draft after draft in '04, '06-'10, and now have Colorado's #1 in 2012. Great design. I dont know if he should have fired GMGM, I just know a lot of owners would have. Will he give EG the same crazy amount of rope he gave GMGM (which he seemed to earn), I don't know, but Im deathly afraid he will because I dont trust EG. While I think he's vastly better than any GM we've had in 30 years, that isnt saying much, since our GM's have been ghastly since Reagan was first elected.
In the end, i just believe we need to grin and bear it, get that top draft pick, and yes, hope Flip and EG get canned, but take some solace in the fact that if Leonsis goes whole hog on this horrible duo, at least it seems likely to pay off next May/June, and hopefully by then, if it truly pays off, even a loyal guy like Leonsis will pull the trigger on necessary firings.
Consiglieri, I don't get the fascination with coaching retreads, either. Only in the case of guys who have been successful and who lost and got canned due to injuries or politics do I see giving coaches do overs. Jeff Van Gundy has been good in the past. Lawrence Frank wasn't bad in New Jersey and he's still only 41. Not sure Theus was a bad coach. That said, give me the hot assistant, Dave Joerger over all those guys.
The first thing I didn't like about Ted coming on board and still the only thing I can point to as troublesome is that he stuck with Ernie right out the gate. That kind of loyalty concerns me, too, Consiglieri. Ernie seems to be following Ted's vision, but I don't trust that the best players will be drafted at all.