Nene - Disgruntled...trade coming?

[Induveca]

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"Because people have no respect for the game," he continued. "They think this opportunity's nothing right now. That's the problem with the young guys. They don't take advantage of being in the NBA, the best basketball in the world. A lot of young guys want to be in their position. But right here, I don't think they realize that."

Does he feel, he is asked, a responsibility to speak to them about that? It is not mentioned that he is in the second year of a five-year, $67 million extension he originally signed with Denver.

"My job is to play hard, to give my best on the basketball court," he said. "The responsibility is the manager and the coach. But somebody needs to talk to them."
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Many many ways to digest that quote. Getting the feeling Nene is showcasing HIMSELF for a trade. Wizards would be wise to accomodate him....or another well-timed "flare up" of his foot issues keeps him out the rest of the year, and makes Nene's value on the trade market exponentially less than it is right now.

It's not ideal, but Nene for Cousins/filler makes sense for both teams right now. We'd get blasted for it in the media, but I get the feeling we've got Nene healthy for 3 weeks more max before he shuts it down.

Obviously speculation, but he's old enough to have motives beyond a mere quote when calling out his teammates/coach/GM via the media. The only obvious motive is an attempt to kickstart the trade process by signaling to the rest of the league he's unhappy.

[FAH1223]

I'm loving this. Its a direct shot at management.

And this is a guy who was in the Western Conference Finals like 3 1/2 years ago and used to playing in May. I'd be mad too if I was put in a position where it was impossible to compete for anything.

[LyricalRico]

^ Also, him saying it's the coach/GM's job to talk to the young guys is interesting. Wasn't him being a mentor to the young bigs supposed to be one of the reasons for him being here? If he's not going to do that, that reduces his value to a rebuilding team IMO.

[Nivek]

Didn't Jamison say basically the same things? I sorta remember that.

[miller31time]

I wonder who he's referencing.

Our young guys are all good character guys - Beal, Singleton, Vesely, Seraphin. I don't see a work ethic problem with any of them.

I really haven't had a problem with the effort and intensity our team has put forth this year - we're just not that good.

[nate33]

I'm sure Nene is frustrated with the losing, but looking at the quote in context, It doesn't seem like the words of a disgruntled player who is trying desperately to get traded. Here is the quote in context:

There is, team sources say, a lack of accountability among the players, with no one feeling secure enough to challenge anyone else. It's not about yelling or screaming ... it's about not accepting excuses, and demanding better preparation and performance. It should be Wall, but he's currently wearing a suit. It could be Nene, but he's on a minutes limit, in and out of the lineup while trying to play with plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

There's no question that Nene is still one of the league's most talented bigs, capable of scoring with both hands. He's a willing and able passer and one of the best big men in the league at drawing charges. But the book on him in Denver was that he couldn't push himself through injuries, that he spent way too much time in the trainer's room to be a leader. And yet, he was the one with tears in his eyes Saturday night, his feet in ice, his knees wrapped up, after playing 26 minutes in his first start of the season.

"When you play with confidence, and you're together, it's different," Nene said. "You feel, you know your teammates know you, and you give your best. But right here, right now, it's the opposite. Total opposite."

And why is that not happening in D.C.?

"Because people have no respect for the game," he continued. "They think this opportunity's nothing right now. That's the problem with the young guys. They don't take advantage of being in the NBA, the best basketball in the world. A lot of young guys want to be in their position. But right here, I don't think they realize that."

Does he feel, he is asked, a responsibility to speak to them about that? It is not mentioned that he is in the second year of a five-year, $67 million extension he originally signed with Denver.

"My job is to play hard, to give my best on the basketball court," he said. "The responsibility is the manager and the coach. But somebody needs to talk to them."

So...how is that accountability piece coming along?

"We're working on that," guard Jordan Crawford said. "We're working on that."

It really just looks like a bunch of players struggling to find answers to why they keep losing.

The telling quote to me is later in the article from Ernie Grunfeld:

"It's frustrating," Grunfeld said Saturday night. "I understand the fans' frustration. We're frustrated. Our players are frustrated. Because we're all very competitive. We want to do well. And I understand the fans' frustrations. We have to do better. We have to play better. You don't have excuses with injuries, but the fact of the matter is that we have them."

And later, regarding Vesely, he says, "He has to play better."

Grunfeld strikes me as someone who can't face the reality that he has failed in assembling this team. He keeps looking for excuses, like injuries, lack of effort, or lack of improvement to explain why we suck. Sorry EG. We suck because you have been unable to find talent and you squander resources way to easily. Sure, Wall wasn't your fault, but Vesely and Singleton instead of Leonard and Faried was. Trading Curry for Mike Miller was your fault. Selling 2nd rounder picks year after year has been your fault. Drafting Satoransky instead of Crowder was your fault. Giving up a bunch of cap space to acquire Okafor and Ariza was your fault.

[FAH1223]

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/features/d ... index.html

Here's the link from David Aldridge's column.

Lyrical,

Jamison said the same thing Nene is saying now. This further shows that the player development department here SUCKS, Grunfeld is horrible, and this organization needs to clean the culture at the top. They've changed the roster so much in 3 seasons.

[nate33]

What they should do is sit down with Nene and have Nene tell us how Denver develops their talent. Then sit down with Webster and ask how Portland did it. (I wouldn't ask Okafor or Ariza. It's not like New Orleans has developed anybody good in a while.)

[hands11]

Nothing to see here. Move along. Nene is going no where.

It's all in how you splice the footage together. Nene is frustrated but the editor interjected his own crap right the middle there to make the piece sound more edgy.

As for the team not being in sync. Playing with no starting quality PG for 80-85% of your games will do that to a team with over half the team as new players. If you have crappy guard play, your team will never get in sync.

Its total BS that this had to be this way because it didnt.

Crawford should have been the starting PG all year. He was the most experience guard who could handle it. Beal - they started him and stuck with it mostly and you have to live with rookie growing pains.

Just in those two positions we started Price, Pargo, Livingston and Crawford and even moved Beal to the bench at one point.

And though all of that, Randy finally was forced into playing he best healthy PG. Crawford. Same as it was throughout the summer.

I just hope you realizes it now.

If Nene is frustated. Good. He should be. I don't want players here that except losing. He should also look in the mirror because he F'd the team by not resting his foot the required continious time it needed rested. I hope he realizes that. It would be nice if he would own up to it because I haven't heard that from his month yet.

[Earth2Ted]

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"Because people have no respect for the game," he continued. "They think this opportunity's nothing right now. That's the problem with the young guys. They don't take advantage of being in the NBA, the best basketball in the world. A lot of young guys want to be in their position. But right here, I don't think they realize that."

I agree with what Nene is saying and honestly I hope he is asking for a trade- he has been a warrior and an All Star caliber player when he's been on the court- anyone that has kept this abomination of a Wizards team in ballgames is an All Star caliber player. He deserves far better.

The only thing I would add is that the people truly disrespecting the game are not so much the young players, but management and Ted Leonsis himself. They have clearly made no effort to build a winner, to make adjustments when they weren't winning, or to do anything other than make lame excuses for an inexcusably bad team.

It's interesting that people say from time to time that such and such a young player like a JaVale or a Cousins wouldn't ever make it here because we don't have the environment to nuture and grow young talent. Forget that- we don't have the environment to win, period. If LeBron himself materialized here, he'd try to put the team on his back, play 48 minutes a game, play through a stress fracture after being misdiagnosed by the team docs, and end up out for the year if not more.

All of us here, myself included, are fools for staying loyal to this team- I was a kid when we lost to the Sonics in 1979. It's getting to the point where you wonder how many of us will still be alive when and if we ever contend again.

[FAH1223]

Nothing to see here. Move along.

It's all in how you splice the footage together. Nene is frustrated but the editor interjected his own crap righ the middle there.

As for the team not being in sync. Playing with no starting quality PG for 80-85% of your games will do that to a team with over half the team as new players. If you have crappy guard play, your team will never get in sync.

Its total BS that is had to be this way because it didnt.

Crawford should have been the starting PG all year. He was the most experience guard who could handle it.
Beal - they started him and stuck with it mostly and you have to live with rookie growing pains.

Just in those two positions we started Price, Pargo, Livingston and Crawford and even moved Beal to the bench at one point.

And though all of that, Randy finally was forced into playing he best healthy PG. Crawford. Same as it was throughout the summer.

I just hope you realizes it now.

Are you serious? Read the whole column Aldridge put up on NBA.com. Crawford is not a PG... he is a shot jacking combo guard that has the ability to create for others when he doesn't feel like shooting.

Livingston and Pargo were horrible, Mack was better than them. Price can marginally shoot but he turns the ball over a TON.

Management failed at finding an adequate PG behind John and they have failed at building a team that can compete. We have the worst record in the NBA and Leonsis himself said a bottom 3 finish again will be a failure. GUESS WHAT? Its going to happen.

The only solution is to clean house of everyone in the organization at the top and start fresh.

[GhostsOfGil]

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/features/david_aldridge/12/24/morning-tip-holiday-wishes-from-david-aldridge/index.html

Here's the link from David Aldridge's column.

Lyrical,

Jamison said the same thing Nene is saying now. This further shows that the player development department here SUCKS, Grunfeld is horrible, and this organization needs to clean the culture at the top. They've changed the roster so much in 3 seasons.

This article is beautifully written. DA continues to be one of the best nba writers out there.

The Wizards are so dreadful that it is now progress when they only lose by nine to a horrible team.

They fell to a league-worst 3-22 Saturday after dropping a second game within 24 hours to the until-they-played-Washington 7-21 Pistons, the night after they lost in Detroit to the Pistons by 32, in a humiliating rout. It was another terrible performance in another lost season (already) for the Wizards, and the following night, most of the few fans remaining at the end at Verizon Center seemed too numb to boo. Or maybe it was too cold outside to boo. Or maybe the caring has been beaten out of them, with a fifth straight season with fewer than 30 wins staring them in the face.
The predictable scurrying for the lifeboats has followed.
"It's like there's a cancer in here," one player said.
"I see division, and no vision," said another.
And this is in a locker room full of, relatively, good guys.

The Wiz thought they'd fumigated their clubhouse over the last season, getting rid of talented-but-often-immature talents like JaVale McGee, Nick Young and Andray Blatche. Surrounding John Wall instead would be veterans like Nene, Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza, and Washington believed (and believes) it added a gem in the first round with rookie guard Bradley Beal. But a .120 win percentage can crack the sturdiest of foundations.
"The goal is for us to all be on the same page," swingman Martell Webster said, "so that when we're out there, it doesn't matter what group of guys are out there. They're a unit, that has a rhythm and a chemistry together. That's the most important thing is building the chemistry. When you're having fun going out there and battling with the guys on the floor with you, then it makes it a little bit easier to win. And you know guys are going to motivate you, and you that you can motivate guys, without it being 'oh, man, get off my back.'"
There is, team sources say, a lack of accountability among the players, with no one feeling secure enough to challenge anyone else. It's not about yelling or screaming ... it's about not accepting excuses, and demanding better preparation and performance. It should be Wall, but he's currently wearing a suit. It could be Nene, but he's on a minutes limit, in and out of the lineup while trying to play with plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
There's no question that Nene is still one of the league's most talented bigs, capable of scoring with both hands. He's a willing and able passer and one of the best big men in the league at drawing charges. But the book on him in Denver was that he couldn't push himself through injuries, that he spent way too much time in the trainer's room to be a leader. And yet, he was the one with tears in his eyes Saturday night, his feet in ice, his knees wrapped up, after playing 26 minutes in his first start of the season.
"When you play with confidence, and you're together, it's different," Nene said. "You feel, you know your teammates know you, and you give your best. But right here, right now, it's the opposite. Total opposite."
And why is that not happening in D.C.?
"Because people have no respect for the game," he continued. "They think this opportunity's nothing right now. That's the problem with the young guys. They don't take advantage of being in the NBA, the best basketball in the world. A lot of young guys want to be in their position. But right here, I don't think they realize that."
Does he feel, he is asked, a responsibility to speak to them about that? It is not mentioned that he is in the second year of a five-year, $67 million extension he originally signed with Denver.
"My job is to play hard, to give my best on the basketball court," he said. "The responsibility is the manager and the coach. But somebody needs to talk to them."
So...how is that accountability piece coming along?
"We're working on that," guard Jordan Crawford said. "We're working on that."
Wall's stress reaction injury to his left knee has had the same deleterious impact on the Wizards that it would on any team whose best player is sidelined all season. The Wizards built their team on the assumption that Wall would be forcing tempo at every turn, collapsing defenses, getting fast-break opportunities for runners like Chris Singleton and second-year forward Jan Vesely, and open threes for Ariza and Webster.

Instead, Washington is last in the league in offensive efficiency, averaging just 95.2 points per 100 possessions, 17.9 points fewer than league leader Oklahoma City.
Wall visited knee specialist David Altchek in New York last week, but there is no timetable for his return. It's the fifth time in the last 10 seasons (see chart below) that the Wizards' likely star has missed significant time with an injury.
And Ariza (strained left calf), forward Trevor Booker (knee injury) and guard A.J. Price (broken hand) -- who was signed to replace Wall during training camp -- have all missed significant time already. On Sunday, the Wizards brought back Shelvin Mack, whom they had released at the end of camp, and waived Shawn Livingston and veteran forward Earl Barron.

Also post game interviews:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfnqOgFNdIg[/youtube]

Nene at the end looks broken.. I wish more players on this team had his attitude and heart.

[AFM]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... _Situation

The Washington Wizards are 3-22 on the season and turmoil amongst the players is increasing.

"It's like there's a cancer in here," said one player.

There exists a lack of accountability among the players, according to sources.

"When you play with confidence, and you're together, it's different," Nene said. "You feel, you know your teammates know you, and you give your best. But right here, right now, it's the opposite. Total opposite."

Wow, worse than I thought. I just figured we have no talent. "Cancerous" doesn't refer to talent but attitude. Who could the problem be?
I could see Nene having problems with Crawford's style of play.

[Floater]

Ernie has rebuilt this organization 3 or 4 times, depending on how you look at it. His teams have gotten out of the first round one time in a REALLY WEAK Eastern conference that year. He drafted 1 AS in 20 some years in an NBA front office position. How many other GMs in ANY sport would keep their jobs after that?

[popper]

TL needs to fire EG ASAP and let the new GM clean house, hire a new coach at the appropriate time, and start over. The fans are so disgruntled they would probably be relieved that we are embarking on another rebuild. Out of sympathy for our veteran players we should trade Nene, Okafor and Ariza while packaging any one of our younger players (except Beal and Wall) to make things happen. When Wall is healthy, I wouldn't hesitate to trade him as well as me may flee anyway when his contract is up. Ugh

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

^ Also, him saying it's the coach/GM's job to talk to the young guys is interesting. Wasn't him being a mentor to the young bigs supposed to be one of the reasons for him being here? If he's not going to do that, that reduces his value to a rebuilding team IMO.

Nene seems totally out of place on this roster. He's seems almost too mature for this current roster. The way I've felt for awhile is that Nene is a sort of babysitter for these younger guys and it shouldn't be that way and wouldn't if these guys were developing properly. The team may be better suited to get younger all the way down to the head coach. I keep suggesting Leonsis try something that may be radical by Wizards' standards and try to woo Shaka Smart away from VCU.

[Induveca]

I have to disagree that this was purely Nene blowing off steam.

Nene is 30, normally mild-mannered guy. To call 90% of the team immature, unappreciative, and unresponsive to motivation is bad enough. To follow it up by pointing the figure at the coaches and management for the problem's existence is a media quote with personal motive.

The season is lost, he is used to being in the playoffs......we're 3-22. Quite obvious to me he wants out, sooner rather than later. No one wants to waste 2-3 years of the tail end of their prime dealing with this type of lunacy in any profession.

[montestewart]

EG's trades and other acquisitions seem like they were done under some sort of cultish spell. He determines a team need, and once the idea is planted in his brain, it becomes his singular pursuit: shooters, passer, defenders, veterans, etc. Somewhere on the box, it must say, "Repeat Until Roster is Full." I imagine him chanting these desires, mantra-like, in Homer Simpson voice, "must...have...veteran." He should do seven-footers, and see how many lousy tall guys he can accumulate.

[LyricalRico]

^ Sounds a lot like Inception. Could Ted have that technology? LOL

[sashae]

It wouldn't be Christmas without a total turd in the Wizards holiday punch bowl. Nene deserves better than this mess, which reminds me of the Jay Glassie article from last year about Ernie's no accountability loser culture. The players change but the story remains the same. A fish rots from the head down, and until Ernie goes nothing will get fixed.