Official Countdown Grunfeld Era-2nd SuperStar?

[DaRealHibachi]

EG not signing livingston long term even though he greatly improved our team basketball iq is why he should be fired.
Hinrich's and wall's handles are poor and neither throw pin point passes that give their team mates wide open shots. Livingston made this the norm last year.
EG devalued Livingston bball iq and this team was devoid of basketball iq. he thought hinrich was a better at increasing his team mates basketball IQ or that he was better than Livingston at team on court team chemistry.
he lost oberto and didn't find a high bball big to replacement. he replaced him with low bball iq YI and Armstrong.
Hinrich has a much lower bball iq than livingston and we saw alot chemistry between blatche and livingston last year. EG didn't value this which is why he didn't sign him longterm and let him hit the open market.
His flaky knee who still have allowed him to increase our bball iq and off the court culture with our bigs. hinrich does nothing of the sort. Very bad move by EG.

So I guess Wall just pulls 9 assists per game outta thin air then...???

[WizarDynasty]

all i want to see is slight mental improvement each week. when i watch film, i want to see that our starters are thinking 3 seconds ahead at every point in the game both offensively and defensively. I want to see Wall diagnose that a moving pick is coming 3 seconds before it happens.
I want our bigs to anticipate a guard getting beat and where that guard is going to pass the ball to once they help out the guard.

I want to see our players recognizing when the other teams big is trying to clear the lane by running through it so that he opens up a lane for his guard to follow him on a drive. I want to see plays like the one trevor booker did when he slammed chandler to the ground on a moving pick knowing that if he didn't, dirk was going to 2 easy points.

[AceDegenerate]

http://www.csnwashington.com/02/04/11/G ... eedID=8679

CCJ pegged this early on and was 100% about it. Either the Pollin family or EG himself leaked the Gil gun story to the media.

This team goes nowhere with Ernie steering the ship.

[JonathanJoseph]

http://www.csnwashington.com/02/04/11/Gilbert-Arenas-Exclusive-Part-5-The-gun-/landing.html?blockID=404524&feedID=8679

CCJ pegged this early on and was 100% about it. Either the Pollin family or EG himself leaked the Gil gun story to the media.

This team goes nowhere with Ernie steering the ship.

Wow. You gotta take everything Arenas says with a grain of salt, but the timeline and storyline seem to match up.

Grunfeld bet his career on Arenas and it looks like he tried to ruin Arenas to get out of the bet he placed. A stupid move at best, it didn't work (because they couldn't void the contract) and in the process he destroyed the chemistry and tanked Arenas' trade value.

Set an already moribund franchise back by probably 5 years at least.

As one of the longest most ardent supporters of Grunfeld, this is a colossal error and overshaddows anything positive he's done here and maybe his entire career.

[closg00]

http://www.csnwashington.com/02/04/11/Gilbert-Arenas-Exclusive-Part-5-The-gun-/landing.html?blockID=404524&feedID=8679

CCJ pegged this early on and was 100% about it. Either the Pollin family or EG himself leaked the Gil gun story to the media.

This team goes nowhere with Ernie steering the ship.

You can't trust Ernie, he is a horrible manager & problem #1, I can't believe he is still in-charge.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

http://www.csnwashington.com/02/04/11/Gilbert-Arenas-Exclusive-Part-5-The-gun-/landing.html?blockID=404524&feedID=8679

CCJ pegged this early on and was 100% about it. Either the Pollin family or EG himself leaked the Gil gun story to the media.

This team goes nowhere with Ernie steering the ship.

AD, I was most disappointed that Ted Leonsis, being privy to a lot of information, apparently sided with Grunfeld, regardless of whether Ernie was acting on behalf of the Pollin family (not Abe). There are ways of doing business that are ethical and other ways that are mean-spirited and self-serving at the same time.

There was more than moral outrage amidst the disavowing and condemning of Arenas--somebody was looking at the bottom line all along IMO. Thought so then. Practically know for sure now.

The absolute worst part is they really could care less if Gil got hard time in part because of how they handled things. OTOH I believe he could avoided prosecution altogether despite his actions had the Wizards handled things differently.

Big picture: Gil did something dumb, criminally dumb. We move on to here and now. He's got other issues now that that is a closed chapter (except for years of probation and PO reporting, drug testing, compliance stuff that Gil better take seriously).

[Induveca]

It's been obvious from day 1 that's what happened........pure and simple they wanted to try and void his contract. Been saying it right alongside CCJ for 9 months now.

I think the most relevant part of what Arenas said is people are fooling themselves if they don't think crazy stuff like that goes on in locker rooms everyday of the week. Teams protect their assets (players obviously), in this case no one was there to squash it and the Pollin family/Grunfeld handled it out of bounds.

Real problem was, if it was a Chris Webber situation and Arenas was infinitely tradeable, nothing would have been said. He would have been shipped out in the offseason. Instead with Arenas' injuries/contract they decided to leak the information, then Arenas' made it worse on himself by his gun toting thing and Stern was forced to take action.

Just a stupid organization. With the way Arenas was playing last season, we would have gotten a MUCH better deal for the TEAM and the FANS if they weren't foolish enough to go the "let's void his contract" route. Gotta agree with Arenas, it just seems like no one with experience was running the ship. If everytime marijuana or a gun was found in the lockerroom and was leaked to the media a good 60% of the league would be arrested for possession, or their character under attack from the media.

[AceDegenerate]

The bigger issue here as far as the Wizards are concerned is something I've said before; does anyone truly believe elite players like Dwight Howard would ever sign here? I think we are seeing that there is way more at play when it comes to free agency then just money. Money will get you mediocre players like Rashard Lewis on ridiculous contracts, however it is not going to bring a Carmelo Anthony or a Dwight Howard here. I think the Wizards cost themselves a whole lot more than Gilbert Arenas' trade value with their handling of his situation.

[Induveca]

The bigger issue here as far as the Wizards are concerned is something I've said before; does anyone truly believe elite players like Dwight Howard would ever sign here? I think we are seeing that there is way more at play when it comes to free agency then just money. Money will get you mediocre players like Rashard Lewis on ridiculous contracts, however it is not going to bring a Carmelo Anthony or a Dwight Howard here. I think the Wizards cost themselves a whole lot more than Gilbert Arenas' trade value with their handling of his situation.

Winning can fix anything, the real issue is everyone points to OKC as the "model to follow". That model DOESN'T WORK. OKC got very lucky getting Durant, and Westbrook has exceeded anything anyone expected. I give a lot of credit to their coaching and Durant quite frankly.

Not sure if anyone remembers the post MJ Bulls, but they followed the "OKC model" before OKC existed, and all it resulted in was 7-8 years of bottom dwelling. Portland did the same, and they had some promise but never did much and now due to injury.....well yeah.

This is one of the lowest points for this franchise in a long, long time..........I can only say the 99 season felt worse to me............

[JonathanJoseph]

The bigger issue here as far as the Wizards are concerned is something I've said before; does anyone truly believe elite players like Dwight Howard would ever sign here? I think we are seeing that there is way more at play when it comes to free agency then just money. Money will get you mediocre players like Rashard Lewis on ridiculous contracts, however it is not going to bring a Carmelo Anthony or a Dwight Howard here. I think the Wizards cost themselves a whole lot more than Gilbert Arenas' trade value with their handling of his situation.

Winning can fix anything, the real issue is everyone points to OKC as the "model to follow". That model DOESN'T WORK. OKC got very lucky getting Durant, and Westbrook has exceeded anything anyone expected. I give a lot of credit to their coaching and Durant quite frankly.

Not sure if anyone remembers the post MJ Bulls, but they followed the "OKC model" before OKC existed, and all it resulted in was 7-8 years of bottom dwelling. Portland did the same, and they had some promise but never did much and now due to injury.....well yeah.

This is one of the lowest points for this franchise in a long, long time..........I can only say the 99 season felt worse to me............

RIght. I keep pointing out that if Kevin Pritchard took Durant instead of Oden, OKC would be a <.500 team and Sam Presti wouldn't be such a genius.

[montestewart]

^
LA Clippers were using the "Bottom Out and Get a Top Pick" plan for like 20 years. Many failures there. Some bad teams are just bad, without the additional curse of long, large, bad contracts. OKC perhaps got lucky, but their downward spiral began when Rashard signed with Orlando. Maybe they could have kept Allen, but that probably didn't seem enough to build onto. I recall Ray Allen musing what the team would have looked like with him, Lewis, and Durant together and in Seattle, maybe not quite like Miami's big 3, but much better outside shooting for sure.

Bottoming out sure is torture on loyal fans.

[AceDegenerate]

For what it’s worth, Arenas isn’t sure the Wizards’ plan to build through the draft is the way to go.Asked how far the Wizards have to go, Arenas said, “if I’m running the team, I’m looking at Wall and I’m going to put veteran players around him. That’s how you build him. You can’t have him out there playing alone in bad basketball. It’s just like putting a young player in the D League. You’re going out there just throwing up shots and learning bad habits. It’s like (Boston guard Rajon) Rondo, his second year, he got put with those All-Stars, he learns playing winning basketball. That’s what they need to do. Derrick Rose, same thing. You eventually put veterans around him, so he can learn faster. You keep young players the same age, they all learn bad habits.”

Funny how Gilbert would make for a better GM here than Ernie.

[closg00]

This is the link to all the great discussion about why we need to fire Ernie so check it out.
http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=853974

Bringing it back because nothing has changed.

[keynote]

Reid's been dropping bombs on Ted and Ernie as of late:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wi ... story.html

Presumably, Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis is only getting started. And if so, he’ll soon announce even bigger, needed changes. Although Tuesday’s firing of beleaguered coach Flip Saunders was inevitable, Leonsis clearly left the job half-done.

He took the easy route in choosing to treat a symptom of Washington’s sickness rather than targeting its cause. Leonsis’s approval of the decision to make Saunders the fall guy for yet another embarrassing Wizards season (is there any other kind?) prompts an obvious question: So when does team President Ernie Grunfeld get the boot?

The Wizards coddle their players, offering excuses for their missteps. Each time the Wizards fire a coach, they validate their players’ repeated acts of ignorance.

Why should Andray Blatche attempt to do better when he plays in an organization that apparently places little value on accountability? How is JaVale McGee expected to learn the right way when, eight days after Saunders took issue with his showboat dunk, the coach is the one taking the blame for this disaster of a season?

Is it any wonder the players had tuned out Saunders? And when Saunders gets fired just 15 days after management declared his job safe, is it any wonder they don’t take anything seriously?

[go'stags]

Wow, I'm not a fan of Reid, but that was spot on. I hope he can keep this up-I believe the DC area has needed a strong media personality who actually cared about the Wizards writing articles questions why things have been so bad for so long.

[JonathanJoseph]

Wow, I'm not a fan of Reid, but that was spot on. I hope he can keep this up-I believe the DC area has needed a strong media personality who actually cared about the Wizards writing articles questions why things have been so bad for so long.

I agree. Credit to Reid who's not leaving room for interpretation. It's the obvious sentiment for people who follow the franchise but his voicing of that will help force Ted's hand (in the event Ted isn't already lining up Grunfeld's replacement).

[TGW]

Several different news outlets are attacking Grunfeld, including the post and Yahoo sports.

There's no way Ted isn't hearing it.

[omegatronic3]

Its definitely time to give old Ernie the boot. Hes had years to make something happen and whats he gotten right?

Well he drafted Wall that was a no brainer. The rest of his picks are pretty much all busts.
Sure Mcgee is ok and Blach in the 2nd roud was ok but everything else has been junk.

A couple of decent years with Arenas Jamison and Butler but that team was never going anywhere.

We need a fresh start and someone who can come in a build a team around Wall.

[closg00]

Several different news outlets are attacking Grunfeld, including the post and Yahoo sports.

There's no way Ted isn't hearing it.

Yep, steady drumbeat in the media finally for the obvious to happen. I'm sure Ted's email is also getting flooded with the same.

[MOrgil]

Several different news outlets are attacking Grunfeld, including the post and Yahoo sports.

There's no way Ted isn't hearing it.

Awesome, I hope we see some major changes soon. Ernie should take Blatche with him when he's shown the door lol.