Post#1439 » by hands11 » Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:09 pm
You ask why are people here so upset. Well its something like this.
They are so invested in the idea that EG sucks and they have done its as a group. And in that group, they have standing. That group has been very vocal on the board for very long time and they dominated it. Dare I say.. trolled it. They laughed and tried to shame any moderate views on his abilities and positive views on the teams future. They continually framed him as the worst or bottom 3 GMs in the league. They said Ted was a terrible own and the franchise as a joke. Without moderation. Most took shots from time to time but these folks lived this as their mantra.
They refused to acknowledge the fact that a front office runs a team, not just a GM. Its a front office team. Including and directed by the owner. And that since Abes early years where he lead the franchise to winning a title in a very different NBA, he became horrible in organizing the front office and setting the direction/time frame. Not bad, but horrible. Making Wes the coach and then GM held the team back for like 15 years alone. And he created the same dysfunction on EGs arrival by hiring a HC first before hiring his GM. A coach he couldn't get ride of who was a terrible defensive coach who refused to play their best defensive center at the time who almost left the team if not for EG. But like GM does, EG executed to the best of his abilities what Abe wanted. He assemble talent that played into EFJs hands which would be offensive players. He anti EJs the team the best he could by move Arvis, They added a defensive 2 so Gil could be Gil at the one. And they did keep Haywood around even though they didn't use him enough.
He actual build a decent team given his mandate and the limitation of what he was allowed to do. He even hired Hoops to help players with shooting. He tried to hire Tibbs to help with defense. But given the talent they had, they couldn't get past LeBron which wasn't just a Wizards problem. And the team was often injured because EJ would play his big 3 the top 10 minutes of the entire league. He would burn them out early and they would never make it to the playoff healthy. Then they got that top 5 pick and EG was instructed to trade it. Go all in for Abe before he passed. Go get the pieces that could help get them over the top. Well, Miller was a top 3 three point shooter. Last I checked, MIA constantly looked to add him to their team and he has helped them win titles. And now he has followed LeBron to CLE. Foye was the combo guard who was to back up Gil and DS, he wasn't supposed to start in their place. But it didn't work out. Gil stayed injured. And Miller and Foye ended up injured. Actually that year, most of the entire team was injured. That was the year Haywood was even injured.
Well max contract injured Gil, Gungate, Abe passed and it all blow up. Then they blow up what was left to start over using Teds vision.
But lets be clear. EG build a decent team pretty quickly once he got here under Abe and with in the constants he had which included not even being able to pick his own HC. They had only been in the playoffs once in 16 year before EG got here. He got them there 4 times in a row before it all fell apart.
I remember when I first learned they got EG because I was happy to hear that after knowing what kind of front office insanity Abe had done the previous 15 year or more. And it started off pretty well. They got Gil. They traded Kwame for Caron Butler. They picked up AD. I wasn't a fan of the AJ deal when they did it but I understood why they did. I felt they should have waited one more year and let L8 expire. I felt the AJ trade was there being in to much of a hurry instead of doing it the right way. But that was an Abe MO. He would start rebuilds and then always try to cash in to early. They let Hughes walk when he got to expensive which was better then over paying him. What I was seeing could have been better but it was miles better then what they were doing before under Wes. But to get from good to very good or great, you need the right vision and right time line. And some luck.
A vision of a great team with Gil as the leader and super max contract player was something I never bought into. Specially an injured Gil. And that is at the heart of why that team failed, not trading the #5, which I didn't agree with because I wanted Curry. Had Gil come back healthy and Haywood didn't come up injured, that team would have won a lot more. Miller would have likely stuck around. Maybe Foye as well. Kind of like Gortat is sticking around now when we got him on his last year. I think the team would still have been flawed because it was a team build around Gil as the max player so it was what it was. But injured Gil max player, that was doomed.
But actually, Gil doing what he did might has been the best luck the team could have stumbled into. It allowed them to blow it up just as they were changing owner and rebuild more soundly under Ted and Ted brought a plan that was different. They finally tried to build a core from the draft. And now we have the team we have with Wall, Beal and Otto and some real nice vets of like character that want to play team first. Play defense. There are no, I don't play defense players, no look at me clown players.
Getting good takes some luck. Well, oddly that luck was the timing of Gil bring guns into the looker, Haywood, Miller, and Foye all getting injured so the team tanked and got the #1 pick the next year which was Wall. And Abe passing so Ted took over.
That #5 pick that could have been Curry turned into the #1 pick in the following draft and a complete reboot to build under Wall.
Thats some serious luck.
