Grunfeld a Great GM. Proves Doubters Wrong

[hands11]

This REALLY pains me to write this but Ernie has been very good at cleaning up his own mess and now could be favored to win executive of the year based on how the NBA grades such things. The cost of the mess however has been astronomical in terms of wins and losses. We could of been much better quicker

Mess:Javale McGee: Clean up Nene
Mess: Eric Maynor : Clean up Andre Miller
Mess: Jan Vesley: Clean up Andre Miller
Mess Gilbert Arenas: Clean up Trevor Ariza and Okafor/Gortat but we lost a 1st rounder
Mess: Terrible bench this year: Clean up Drew Gooden from Waiver wires
Beal and Wall--my mom could of drafted them so no praises there although some argue Drummond should of been picked for Beal
Booker has panned out as a role player
He still has not cleaned up his own mess of Singleton,Seraphin or the overpaying of Webster.
I still think Porter has good potential

What the f*ck is wrong with you, dude?

This is the most astonishing post I have ever read here.

LOL!

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

Maybe he is just a better GM when partnered with Ted then he was when partnered with Abe.

Different mandates. Different corporate cultures. Didn't organization.
Maybe Ted helped point out things that were his shortcomings and he has improved.

What it does appear is clear, is that Ted/EG is better the Abe/EG

Front offices are a team and they produce results as a team. And like with every organization, the buck stops at the top.

Ted is proving to be a good owner.

[Jay81]

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

your telling other GM's that basically i will give you 10 years of non accountability if you take the job

[closg00]

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

George Karl was with Denver for 8 1/2 years, won coach of the year while taking his team to multiple playoff appearances....and he got fired. What has Ernie have to show for the last 10 years?

Perhaps Ted will weigh Ernie's drafting/FA decisions (Vesely, early 2-year Maynor signing, wanting to trade Ariza for Butler), with Ernie's trades.

[hands11]

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

your telling other GM's that basically i will give you 10 years of non accountability if you take the job

I disagree.

What you are really telling them is, look, I'm not a short sighted owner. I understand everything that happened while you were the GM is not on you. You had an owner making decisions with you. I can evaluate that because I know the owners.

While you are here with me, I will judge you by what I know first hand actually happened. You will judge on the work we do together and how well you do your part of it. I'm not going to over react. No one get its 100% all the time. We need a plan. Sometimes we will need to take risks. But we need to evaluate things and be willing to fix them if we get them wrong. We need plan Bs.

Ted is earning made respect around the league as an owner for being a level headed owner who had a longer term plan. And lets be honest. Even owners need to learn so they can get better.

[Brenice]

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

George Karl was with Denver for 8 1/2 years, won coach of the year while taking his team to multiple playoff appearances....and he got fired. What has Ernie have to show for the last 10 years?

Perhaps Ted will weigh Ernie's drafting/FA decisions (Vesely, early 2-year Maynor signing, wanting to trade Ariza for Butler), with Ernie's trades.

Don't most eventually get fired? Do they get fired after reaching the (presumably) ECF or WCF? I'm not saying Ernie should not have BEEN fired, just that now is not the time.

[Jay81]

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

George Karl was with Denver for 8 1/2 years, won coach of the year while taking his team to multiple playoff appearances....and he got fired. What has Ernie have to show for the last 10 years?

Perhaps Ted will weigh Ernie's drafting/FA decisions (Vesely, early 2-year Maynor signing, wanting to trade Ariza for Butler), with Ernie's trades.

Don't most eventually get fired? Do they get fired after reaching the (presumably) ECF or WCF? I'm not saying Ernie should not have BEEN fired, just that now is not the time.

well officially he would not be fired...just not renewed. Ted said it about the Caps...he didnt think with the current regime that they could win the Stanley Cup. I really dont believe he believes that they can win a title under Ernie and that is when you say...thank you for your service but we need a fresh set of eyes now at this juncture.

[fishercob]

George Karl was with Denver for 8 1/2 years, won coach of the year while taking his team to multiple playoff appearances....and he got fired.

How has that worked out for Denver? You think maybe Kroenke watched what happened in Toronto this season and had a pang or two of regret over not keeping Masai?

Firing people isn't always the answer -- and it certainly isn't a complete one. Who the replacement is matters and there are almost always transitional "transaction costs."

That is not to say that I think Ernie is a great GM; I think any truly objective analysis would conclude that his performance has been a mixed bag, at best.

But I cannot for the life of me understand the fervor of this debate NOW. Why, when the Wizards are gaining national acclaim for the first time in seemingly forever, do people want to fight about whether the GM is any good or not? It's just bizarre to me.

I care about the Wizards and their success; If Ernie is their GM and they succeed, GREAT! If he's fired and replaced with Daryl Morey, but they fail, I will be no more fulfilled as a fan.

I don't understand why after doing something the franchise hasn't done since 1982, someone would take to a message board to declare victory for their allegiance to an executive. No do I understand why ardent fans of the same team would be so consumed with their dislike for an executive when the team is actually playing well.

Lock this thread until the playoff are done!

[Jay81]

hands11,

DAT said best. Abe Pollin was not scouting Foye and demanded Ernie to trade the 5th pick overall for Foye and Miller. He might of asked Grunfeld to bring a great veteran in with that pick but it was Ernie who made the terrible shortsighted trade. Dont blame that one on Abe.

and remember...even as early as last year...Ernie tried to trade Ariza for a half broken Caron Butler.

Ernie has not been good under Ted.

[Nivek]

Maybe he is just a better GM when partnered with Ted then he was when partnered with Abe.

Different mandates. Different corporate cultures. Didn't organization.
Maybe Ted helped point out things that were his shortcomings and he has improved.

What it does appear is clear, is that Ted/EG is better the Abe/EG

Front offices are a team and they produce results as a team. And like with every organization, the buck stops at the top.

Ted is proving to be a good owner.

I don't think this has been proven at all. They've spent heavily in terms of player acquisition resources to get to this point, and they've been helped considerably by a very weak conference and the top seed in that conference having an epic meltdown the last two months of the season.

Enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts, but it's premature to reach broad conclusions about Leonsis's abilities as an owner.

[montestewart]

This REALLY pains me to write this but Ernie has been very good at cleaning up his own mess and now could be favored to win executive of the year based on how the NBA grades such things. The cost of the mess however has been astronomical in terms of wins and losses. We could of been much better quicker

Mess:Javale McGee: Clean up Nene
Mess: Eric Maynor : Clean up Andre Miller
Mess: Jan Vesley: Clean up Andre Miller
Mess Gilbert Arenas: Clean up Trevor Ariza and Okafor/Gortat but we lost a 1st rounder
Mess: Terrible bench this year: Clean up Drew Gooden from Waiver wires
Beal and Wall--my mom could of drafted them so no praises there although some argue Drummond should of been picked for Beal
Booker has panned out as a role player
He still has not cleaned up his own mess of Singleton,Seraphin or the overpaying of Webster.
I still think Porter has good potential

Mess: Blatchemo: Clean up $23 million and departure of poop filled shoe.

[closg00]

George Karl was with Denver for 8 1/2 years, won coach of the year while taking his team to multiple playoff appearances....and he got fired.

How has that worked out for Denver? You think maybe Kroenke watched what happened in Toronto this season and had a pang or two of regret over not keeping Masai?

Firing people isn't always the answer -- and it certainly isn't a complete one. Who the replacement is matters and there are almost always transitional "transaction costs."

That is not to say that I think Ernie is a great GM; I think any truly objective analysis would conclude that his performance has been a mixed bag, at best.

But I cannot for the life of me understand the fervor of this debate NOW. Why, when the Wizards are gaining national acclaim for the first time in seemingly forever, do people want to fight about whether the GM is any good or not? It's just bizarre to me.

I care about the Wizards and their success; If Ernie is their GM and they succeed, GREAT! If he's fired and replaced with Daryl Morey, but they fail, I will be no more fulfilled as a fan.

I don't understand why after doing something the franchise hasn't done since 1982, someone would take to a message board to declare victory for their allegiance to an executive. No do I understand why ardent fans of the same team would be so consumed with their dislike for an executive when the team is actually playing well.

Lock this thread until the playoff are done!

I am enjoying the Wizards playoff run immensely, they have the look of invincibility and destiny about them which is a little scary for a down-trodden Wizard fan. Just don't need the "neener neener" from those folk who are apologist for Owner/Mgmt and them in-place for life.

[MJG]

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

I would tell them that I am not some goldfish who will hand wave a decade of incompetence after two weeks of relatively strong play. If that scares them, then they are a bad potential GM and I wouldn't want to hire them anyway.

[TGW]

I still think he is the worst GM in professional sports. The only reason he is good at cleaning up his own mess is because Ted let him. 99% of other GM's would of been fired years ago.

If i was the owner, i would of fire him after this season no matter how far we advanced.

So you would fire the GM if the team makes the ECF?! Wow. What would you be telling potential GM's?

I would tell them that I am not some goldfish who will hand wave a decade of incompetence after two weeks of relatively strong play. If that scares them, then they are a bad potential GM and I wouldn't want to hire them anyway.

This X 1,000.

This team is a nice Cinderella story, and I honestly do want to root for these players because they all work hard, but let's be honest for a second...they are overachieving and peaking to their absolute highest point. I don't expect it to carry over into next year, and I don't expect this frontcourt to play at this level for a long time. Emotions get the best of common sense at times, especially when it comes to sports, but there's more than enough data to NOT bring this FO back.

But as I've been saying, Turd is a weak owner and he'll do stick with the status quo until things go badly...again.

[Brenice]

your telling other GM's that basically i will give you 10 years of non accountability if you take the job

You got to seperate the Ernie era by the Abe era and the Ted era.

Leonsis acquired the Wizards in 2010. Ernie acquired Nene, Gortat, Beal, Wall, Ariza all during the Ted era, in other words the whole starting 5 that no team seams to be able to stop, that also rebounds and defends, and has chemistry. The miss during Ted's era is Vesely and who else? A couple 2nd round picks, trading a first round pick in the next draft, and a backup point guard? Keep in mind, unlike Miller and Foye, Ariza and Gortat would like to re-sign here. Why wouldn't they want to? Gortat is already talking about training with Wall during the off-season, perfecting the pick and roll. Ariza has never played with anybody like he is with the Wizards. He is in his ultimate role.

Everything else happened during the Abe era.

[Brenice]

This team is a nice Cinderella story, and I honestly do want to root for these players because they all work hard, but let's be honest for a second...they are overachieving and peaking to their absolute highest point. I don't expect it to carry over into next year, and I don't expect this frontcourt to play at this level for a long time. Emotions get the best of common sense at times, especially when it comes to sports, but there's more than enough data to NOT bring this FO back.

But as I've been saying, Turd is a weak owner and he'll do stick with the status quo until things go badly...again.

This team is not over-achieving. They are gelling while Wall and Beal are maturing, all simultaneously.

[TGW]

This team is a nice Cinderella story, and I honestly do want to root for these players because they all work hard, but let's be honest for a second...they are overachieving and peaking to their absolute highest point. I don't expect it to carry over into next year, and I don't expect this frontcourt to play at this level for a long time. Emotions get the best of common sense at times, especially when it comes to sports, but there's more than enough data to NOT bring this FO back.

But as I've been saying, Turd is a weak owner and he'll do stick with the status quo until things go badly...again.

This team is not over-achieving. They are gelling while Wall and Beal are maturing, all simultaneously.

You're right...for the team to be over-achieving, I guess they have to beat a team that is actually better than them. Chicago and this version of the Pacers don't count.

By the way, to discount what Grunfeld did before Leonsis bought the team is absurd. Ted is not doing anything Abe didn't do (other than changing the urinal cakes in the bathrooms). Ted is not in the front office, making trades on ESPN's trade checker, learning the nuances of the CBA, and breaking down game tape. He gave a mandate to Grunfeld to make the playoffs at all costs, and Grunfail used nearly every available asset not named Wall and Beal to get them to this point. It only happens that it somewhat worked this time around...it was a complete and utter failure when Grunfeld was given that win-now mandate by Abe.

6 games is not going to erase all that fail from the past 10 years.

[Nivek]

You got to seperate the Ernie era by the Abe era and the Ted era.

Leonsis acquired the Wizards in 2010. Ernie acquired Nene, Gortat, Beal, Wall, Ariza all during the Ted era, in other words the whole starting 5 that no team seams to be able to stop, that also rebounds and defends, and has chemistry. The miss during Ted's era is Vesely and who else? A couple 2nd round picks, trading a first round pick in the next draft, and a backup point guard? Keep in mind, unlike Miller and Foye, Ariza and Gortat would like to re-sign here. Why wouldn't they want to? Gortat is already talking about training with Wall during the off-season, perfecting the pick and roll. Ariza has never played with anybody like he is with the Wizards. He is in his ultimate role.

Blatche extension? When did that happen? I think that was after Leonsis bought the team.

Vesely and Singleton over Leonard and Faried was in 2011.

Eric "he knows how to play" Maynor.

And that's without going into debatable/questionable stuff like drafting two SF types (one who's probably more of a SG) and using the MLE to re-sign another SF when the team had a glaring need for frontcourt depth -- and yet another SF on the roster. Not addressing frontcourt depth ended up costing their 1st rounder this year to get Gortat.

I'm enjoying the hell out of the Wizards being position to make a deep playoff run. Doesn't ruin it at all for me to acknowledge the "parting of the Red Seas" portion of the run. It's about time some good fortune came the Wizards way.

[Brenice]

This team is a nice Cinderella story, and I honestly do want to root for these players because they all work hard, but let's be honest for a second...they are overachieving and peaking to their absolute highest point. I don't expect it to carry over into next year, and I don't expect this frontcourt to play at this level for a long time. Emotions get the best of common sense at times, especially when it comes to sports, but there's more than enough data to NOT bring this FO back.

But as I've been saying, Turd is a weak owner and he'll do stick with the status quo until things go badly...again.

This team is not over-achieving. They are gelling while Wall and Beal are maturing, all simultaneously.

You're right...for the team to be over-achieving, I guess they have to beat a team that is actually better than them. Chicago and this version of the Pacers don't count.

By the way, to discount what Grunfeld did before Leonsis bought the team is absurd. Ted is not doing anything Abe didn't do (other than changing the urinal cakes in the bathrooms). Ted is not in the front office, making trades on ESPN's trade checker, learning the nuances of the CBA, and breaking down game tape. He gave a mandate to Grunfeld to make the playoffs at all costs, and Grunfail used nearly every available asset not named Wall and Beal to get them to this point. It only happens that it somewhat worked this time around...it was a complete and utter failure when Grunfeld was given that win-now mandate by Abe.

6 games is not going to erase all that fail from the past 10 years.

Oh I agree. The problem is that Ted should have fired him a couple years ago. As for what Ernie did under Abe, Ted is probably more concerned with what Ernie did under Ted, which looks like it could see the Wiz going to the ECF and may even result in some Executive of the Year votes.

[Brenice]

Blatche extension? When did that happen? I think that was after Leonsis bought the team.

Vesely and Singleton over Leonard and Faried was in 2011.

Eric "he knows how to play" Maynor.

And that's without going into debatable/questionable stuff like drafting two SF types (one who's probably more of a SG) and using the MLE to re-sign another SF when the team had a glaring need for frontcourt depth -- and yet another SF on the roster. Not addressing frontcourt depth ended up costing their 1st rounder this year to get Gortat.

I'm enjoying the hell out of the Wizards being position to make a deep playoff run. Doesn't ruin it at all for me to acknowledge the "parting of the Red Seas" portion of the run. It's about time some good fortune came the Wizards way.

I know all that. I didn't name everything. I just don't think they are major misses. A lot of people would have drafted Vesely then. A l few teams missed on Faried. Still, Leonard and Faried are not world-beaters. It ain't like Ernie picked Darko over Wade or Carmelo or Bosh. As for the SF's, I still have an inkling that Otto was wanted by Georgetown Ted and it was not like Otto was picked outside of the best 1 or 2 players available at 3rd pick. You can hold him accountable for all of that. But Ted won't. Not after this run. Cause as of right now, for this season, Ernie is playing with house money for this season as far as the expectations.

[leswizards]

Calling Out All Haters!!.....Crickets.....

You were a hater, and you are posting, so we are hearing more than the crickets.