Grunfeld a Great GM. Proves Doubters Wrong

[milellie111]

Why does this guy always come to market Ernie when something good happens? Come in and bring some insight or elaboration. Not be Mr. Kiss Ernie's Arse Man!!!

I am not marketing anyone. I am just calling a spade a spade. Grufeld is proving his worth and doubters wrong. How so? Many felt he should have been fired. Many felt that this was a lottery team. Many felt that his draft picks and free agency moves would turn out busts and he would make horrible decisions to set the team up for failure financially. All of those are proving to be false. It's no surprise the doubters get mad when they are proven wrong and someone posts something positive about the team.

This is not the only thread I post in. I do provide perspective and elaborate on moves in other threads as well if you actually read them.

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=40623989#p40623989

This move is huge for the Wiz. Paul Pierce is an upgrade over Ariza and much cheaper. Many are overlooking how big this move is. Just a year ago Pierce averaged over 18ppg for the Celtics. What makes you think he wont be able to do that now? His production dropped in Brooklyn because there were more "stars"to share the ball with. Ariza has never even sniffed 18ppg in his whole career. Pierce is a proven scorer and has always been clutch. Pierce can create his own shot and can put the ball on the floor, all things Ariza does not do well. When you need a last minute bucket, anyone would give the ball to Paul Pierce over Trevor Ariza. This move makes the Wizards a better team than last year.

How about checking out this ranking list for the top 2013-2014 Small Forwards. Pierce came in at #6 only behind lebron,durant,paul george, kawi leonard and josh smith.

http://www.nba.com/magic/cohen-8-ball-ranking-2013-14-best-small-forwards-3

The Wizards just stole one of the top 15 durable scorers still in the NBA for 5 million a year??!

Again, the Wizards have just gotten better, more mature and more dangerous in just 1day.

[verbal8]

I swear that Ernie, who has had a really good few days in a row, must read this board for ideas.

In fact, perhaps he posts and participates here under a certain screen name.

Spoiler:

LyricalRico

He's on a bit of a roll. Keep it up, EG. Nice going.

If EG=LyricalRico, who is milellie111?

[verbal8]

Ernie is on his way to having a decent offseason. I dont even know who I am anymore

It is still the Wizards, so bad luck could undo all the potential improvements.

[Zonkerbl]

Congrats milellie111, today you win the internet!

[closg00]

Us fans on the board have been starved for years for any modicum of competence from this FO, so I welcome some of these recent moves and urge caution.

Never forget that the Ernie also brought us the infamous Jan Vesely draft and Maynor panic-signing. Ernie Grunfeld will still be the man responsible for draft picks and talent evaluation.


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[leswizards]

One the moves that has EG haters, such as myself, excited is that EG appears to be on the verge of signing Blair. Considering that many EG haters wanted EG to draft Blair, and then to sign him last year when he was available, rather than saying us haters are being proven wrong, wouldn't it be more accurate to say that EG is proving us right by getting rid of his incompetent ways and embracing the moves we have been advocating for years.

[Zonkerbl]

Well, to be precise, we advocated signing Blair because it would have been a great moneyball move. One where you could have gotten great value for the pick.

It's not a great moneyball move anymore because Blair is a known quantity. Just a plain old bball move now.

[nate33]

Us fans on the board have been starved for years for any modicum of competence from this FO, so I welcome some of these recent moves and urge caution.

Never forget that the Ernie also brought us the infamous Jan Vesely draft and Maynor panic-signing. Ernie Grunfeld will still be the man responsible for draft picks and talent evaluation.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

I've maintained for a long time that EG is a pretty solid GM when he is dealing with known quantities. His player-for-player trades tend to turn out well (Kwame for Butler, McGee for Nene), his free agent signings are usually pretty good (Maynor excepted), and he knows when to let a player walk away instead of overpaying (Hughes, Jeffries). He's also good at painlessly dumping salary (Jamison, Lewis, Arenas).

EG's Achilles heel is his drafting. He's terrible at projecting unknowns. That makes him bad when he drafts, and bad when he trades draft picks.

[stevemcqueen1]

I think Ernie is a middle of the road GM. He built an OK team in Milwaukee. He built an OK team with the Arenas era. And he's actually built a pretty good team here now.

It'll get harder to maintain the roster quality from here on out though as our young guys come off their rookie deals and our older bigs age out of the game.

The real challenge for Ernie moving forward is to build the kind of stable, self fulfilling culture of success that the truly great organizations built. He's got to sustain success for a while before he gets to be called one of the truly good GMs.

And considering how bad our culture was by the end of the Arenas era, I have my doubts that Ernie is the kind of leader and personality that can build a San Antonio or Dallas-type culture of organizational excellence.

But whatever, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now I'm going to enjoy a rapidly improving Wizards team while I can.

[hands11]

One the moves that has EG haters, such as myself, excited is that EG appears to be on the verge of signing Blair. Considering that many EG haters wanted EG to draft Blair, and then to sign him last year when he was available, rather than saying us haters are being proven wrong, wouldn't it be more accurate to say that EG is proving us right by getting rid of his incompetent ways and embracing the moves we have been advocating for years.

No

Because their have been a tons of bad trade ideas that would blow up any momentum the team has made for the pure reason of tanking and "swinging for the fence" Lots of TA suck posts. Trade Nene at ever opportunity posts. Oh my oh my we just gave up a lottery pick for Gortat. EG sucks.

There are other here who stubbornly argued that there was no way forward after the Okafor/Trevor A deal. We went back and forth on that for a while. I said there will be options and there have been. How many stepped up and took that view. Not many. Maybe one other poster.

It wasn't 5 months ago more then 70% of the board had zero hope for this team as long as EG was in the front office. Now they are seeing moves they like and a team they can apprehiate. Maybe they can also look back and see the other moves that worked out.

I just hope we are finally gotten to a place that people can be more objective. Every move won't be great. Most will take time to fully evaluate. Nothing wrong with calling for his head sometimes. We are fans and that can be fun sometimes. We get emotional over the team. But cry wolf on every more ? That was getting pretty old like 2 years ago.

[hands11]

Us fans on the board have been starved for years for any modicum of competence from this FO, so I welcome some of these recent moves and urge caution.

Never forget that the Ernie also brought us the infamous Jan Vesely draft and Maynor panic-signing. Ernie Grunfeld will still be the man responsible for draft picks and talent evaluation.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

I've maintained for a long time that EG is a pretty solid GM when he is dealing with known quantities. His player-for-player trades tend to turn out well (Kwame for Butler, McGee for Nene), his free agent signings are usually pretty good (Maynor excepted), and he knows when to let a player walk away instead of overpaying (Hughes, Jeffries). He's also good at painlessly dumping salary (Jamison, Lewis, Arenas).

EG's Achilles heel is his drafting. He's terrible at projecting unknowns. That makes him bad when he drafts, and bad when he trades draft picks.

You know who else regularly traded draft picks and get older vet players.

Spoiler:

Joe Gibbs/Bobby Bethard... Different sport, yes. But some front office believe in the larger sample size more know thing.

What I have noticed is this. Since Ted took over, EG seems to have drafted better personality/minds as players. He has also acquired them. And they mostly seems to all be able to play defense. Hard workers. Smart. Dedicated.

Wall, Beal, Otto are of a different mold then Gil, Nick and McGee.

Kevin I think is a good kid, but he is to friendly. He needs an edge he doesn't seem to have.

Ves was a smart player. I just think he ran into a terrible situation changing countries, positions, benching, etc. and they got him into a huge funk. He lost his mojo. Not even Austin Power could survive that.

Singleton ? Not sure how to label him. I think he thought he was better then he was. Again, lost his mojo getting benched. It happened to some degree to all three of those players. It was to much youthful development players at once.

Anyway, they added their high picks. Added vets around them is fine. If they add Birch then who cares if he wasn't drafted and they sold that pick ?

I think this year or after, I could see them slowing starting to add younger players again. But as it is, three core players age 23, 21 and 21 is plenty of young players. Specially since they might turn to Glen Rice 23 and Birch 21

And if they add Blair, he is 25. Add those 6 player together and the team is plenty young.

Miller will be gone next year, they can then replace him with someone younger. Maybe in the 26/28 range. Everyone you add doesn't have to be 18-21

They had been an overly young team before. The blind leading the blind. They are still a young team. They just have vets surrounding those younger players.

[pineappleheadindc]

Two positive signings today from the E-man.

I thought I'd bump this to the top of the page to let EG (and Millie) bask in the sunlight.

Ernie, you're having a hell of a week.

[milellie111]

One the moves that has EG haters, such as myself, excited is that EG appears to be on the verge of signing Blair. Considering that many EG haters wanted EG to draft Blair, and then to sign him last year when he was available, rather than saying us haters are being proven wrong, wouldn't it be more accurate to say that EG is proving us right by getting rid of his incompetent ways and embracing the moves we have been advocating for years.

No

Because their have been a tons of bad trade ideas that would blow up any momentum the team has made for the pure reason of tanking and "swinging for the fence" Lots of TA suck posts. Trade Nene at ever opportunity posts. Oh my oh my we just gave up a lottery pick for Gortat. EG sucks.

There are other here who stubbornly argued that there was no way forward after the Okafor/Trevor A deal. We went back and forth on that for a while. I said there will be options and there have been. How many stepped up and took that view. Not many. Maybe one other poster.

It wasn't 5 months ago more then 70% of the board had zero hope for this team as long as EG was in the front office. Now they are seeing moves they like and a team they can apprehiate. Maybe they can also look back and see the other moves that worked out.

I just hope we are finally gotten to a place that people can be more objective. Every move won't be great. Most will take time to fully evaluate. Nothing wrong with calling for his head sometimes. We are fans and that can be fun sometimes. We get emotional over the team. But cry wolf on every more ? That was getting pretty old like 2 years ago.

Totally agree. The overreactions on this board by some are asinine and we should be glad to have a professional running the team who is not swayed by emotion and popular opinion.

The addition of Pierce and Humphries to solid bargain deals is a plus this offseason. This offseason is still not over yet!!

[Brenice]

Is Beal's backup, especially since Webster is injured, on the team? How was he acquired? Is Ernie justified in picking him?

[MJG]

Two positive signings today from the E-man.

I thought I'd bump this to the top of the page to let EG (and Millie) bask in the sunlight.

Ernie, you're having a hell of a week.

Agreed! I have to say, the last 0.0017% of EG's reign as GM has really been quite impressive.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Us fans on the board have been starved for years for any modicum of competence from this FO, so I welcome some of these recent moves and urge caution.

Never forget that the Ernie also brought us the infamous Jan Vesely draft and Maynor panic-signing. Ernie Grunfeld will still be the man responsible for draft picks and talent evaluation.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

I've maintained for a long time that EG is a pretty solid GM when he is dealing with known quantities. His player-for-player trades tend to turn out well (Kwame for Butler, McGee for Nene), his free agent signings are usually pretty good (Maynor excepted), and he knows when to let a player walk away instead of overpaying (Hughes, Jeffries). He's also good at painlessly dumping salary (Jamison, Lewis, Arenas).

EG's Achilles heel is his drafting. He's terrible at projecting unknowns. That makes him bad when he drafts, and bad when he trades draft picks.

You know who else regularly traded draft picks and get older vet players.

Spoiler:

Joe Gibbs/Bobby Bethard... Different sport, yes. But some front office believe in the larger sample size more know thing.

What I have noticed is this. Since Ted took over, EG seems to have drafted better personality/minds as players. He has also acquired them. And they mostly seems to all be able to play defense. Hard workers. Smart. Dedicated.

Wall, Beal, Otto are of a different mold then Gil, Nick and McGee.

Kevin I think is a good kid, but he is to friendly. He needs an edge he doesn't seem to have.

Ves was a smart player. I just think he ran into a terrible situation changing countries, positions, benching, etc. and they got him into a huge funk. He lost his mojo. Not even Austin Power could survive that.

Singleton ? Not sure how to label him. I think he thought he was better then he was. Again, lost his mojo getting benched. It happened to some degree to all three of those players. It was to much youthful development players at once.

Anyway, they added their high picks. Added vets around them is fine. If they add Birch then who cares if he wasn't drafted and they sold that pick ?

I think this year or after, I could see them slowing starting to add younger players again. But as it is, three core players age 23, 21 and 21 is plenty of young players. Specially since they might turn to Glen Rice 23 and Birch 21

And if they add Blair, he is 25. Add those 6 player together and the team is plenty young.

Miller will be gone next year, they can then replace him with someone younger. Maybe in the 26/28 range. Everyone you add doesn't have to be 18-21

They had been an overly young team before. The blind leading the blind. They are still a young team. They just have vets surrounding those younger players.

Austin Powers shagged to keep his mojo. I wish Vesely had not broken up with that lovely woman he kissed on draft night. If he married had her, perhaps Vesely may have kept his swagger.

I wanted Jan to grow a beard and reinvent himself. Get some tattoos and have a Birdman like image. Jan Vesely should have just become a veteran energy guy off the bench. He needed to toughen up and to play with confidence. Look at Josh McRoberts and look at Chris Anderson. They look cool not scared. Jan needed a makeover and some backbone. Jan had the physical tools to be a decent role player.

That dude did lose his mojo, hands.


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[AFM]

I've maintained for a long time that EG is a pretty solid GM when he is dealing with known quantities. His player-for-player trades tend to turn out well (Kwame for Butler, McGee for Nene), his free agent signings are usually pretty good (Maynor excepted), and he knows when to let a player walk away instead of overpaying (Hughes, Jeffries). He's also good at painlessly dumping salary (Jamison, Lewis, Arenas).

EG's Achilles heel is his drafting. He's terrible at projecting unknowns. That makes him bad when he drafts, and bad when he trades draft picks.

You know who else regularly traded draft picks and get older vet players.

Spoiler:

Joe Gibbs/Bobby Bethard... Different sport, yes. But some front office believe in the larger sample size more know thing.

What I have noticed is this. Since Ted took over, EG seems to have drafted better personality/minds as players. He has also acquired them. And they mostly seems to all be able to play defense. Hard workers. Smart. Dedicated.

Wall, Beal, Otto are of a different mold then Gil, Nick and McGee.

Kevin I think is a good kid, but he is to friendly. He needs an edge he doesn't seem to have.

Ves was a smart player. I just think he ran into a terrible situation changing countries, positions, benching, etc. and they got him into a huge funk. He lost his mojo. Not even Austin Power could survive that.

Singleton ? Not sure how to label him. I think he thought he was better then he was. Again, lost his mojo getting benched. It happened to some degree to all three of those players. It was to much youthful development players at once.

Anyway, they added their high picks. Added vets around them is fine. If they add Birch then who cares if he wasn't drafted and they sold that pick ?

I think this year or after, I could see them slowing starting to add younger players again. But as it is, three core players age 23, 21 and 21 is plenty of young players. Specially since they might turn to Glen Rice 23 and Birch 21

And if they add Blair, he is 25. Add those 6 player together and the team is plenty young.

Miller will be gone next year, they can then replace him with someone younger. Maybe in the 26/28 range. Everyone you add doesn't have to be 18-21

They had been an overly young team before. The blind leading the blind. They are still a young team. They just have vets surrounding those younger players.

Austin Powers shagged to keep his mojo. I wish Vesely had not broken up with that lovely woman he kissed on draft night. If he married had her, perhaps Vesely may have kept his swagger.

I wanted Jan to grow a beard and reinvent himself. Get some tattoos and have a Birdman like image. Jan Vesely should have just become a veteran energy guy off the bench. He needed to toughen up and to play with confidence. Look at Josh McRoberts and look at Chris Anderson. They look cool not scared. Jan needed a makeover and some backbone. Jan had the physical tools to be a decent role player.

That dude did lose his mojo, hands.


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"And tonight on TLC's 'Extreme Total Makeover'...."

[LyricalRico]

Is Beal's backup, especially since Webster is injured, on the team? How was he acquired? Is Ernie justified in picking him?

He is on the roster - Glen Rice Jr. And he was a 2nd round pick that Ernie specifically made a move to acquire.

[pineappleheadindc]

Is Beal's backup, especially since Webster is injured, on the team? How was he acquired? Is Ernie justified in picking him?

He is on the roster - Glen Rice Jr. And he was a 2nd round pick that Ernie specifically made a move to acquire.

EG has been on a roll lately.

These are glorious, "I told you so" days for Lyrical.

[nate33]

What I have noticed is this. Since Ted took over, EG seems to have drafted better personality/minds as players. He has also acquired them. And they mostly seems to all be able to play defense. Hard workers. Smart. Dedicated.

Wall, Beal, Otto are of a different mold then Gil, Nick and McGee.

Kevin I think is a good kid, but he is to friendly. He needs an edge he doesn't seem to have.

Ves was a smart player. I just think he ran into a terrible situation changing countries, positions, benching, etc. and they got him into a huge funk. He lost his mojo. Not even Austin Power could survive that.

Singleton ? Not sure how to label him. I think he thought he was better then he was. Again, lost his mojo getting benched. It happened to some degree to all three of those players. It was to much youthful development players at once.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

You always have one for EG's failures. The bottom line is that EG has had 7 1st round picks and 6 2nd round picks in the last 5 years of the rebuild. 4 of those 6 1st rounders were in the top 6. He drafted two no-brainers (Wall and Beal). He crapped the bed with his Vesely pick. And Porter remains an unknown who played just 319 minutes in his rookie year. He also blew the #18 pick on Singleton and the #15 on Seraphin. His only real upside success was packaging the #30 with a 2nd rounder to land Booker.

In the 2nd round, he has been even worse. He drafted N'Diaye, Mack and Satoransky who have all done diddly as Wizards. He sold what could have been the Blair pick for cash. He sold this year's pick for cash. The only 2nd round player who might be remotely useful is Rice, and that remains to be seen.

So again, 13 overall picks. 3 of them were in the top 3 which should be sure-fire 100% successful players and he's only 2 for 3 (Porter is yet to be determined). And in his other 10 picks, he's had only one true success in Booker, plus one possible success in Rice. Everything else is failure. Stop making excuses for him.