Brenice wrote:Nivek wrote:That season Grunfeld so skillfully executed the strategic tank to get Wall was the one that began with him trading the team's first round pick for Foye and Miller, and signing Oberto. Those were moves that Grunfeld thought would get the team back in the playoffs.
That team was awful from the start. So bad that eventually dumping contracts was the only option.
And, of course, the organization tanked so skillfully that it won 5 of its final 8 games to finish with the fourth worst record.
The Wizards got lucky and drew the top pick, which they used to select Wall. I'm not knocking luck -- it was about damn time this franchise got some good luck for a change.
But, to suggest that obtaining Wall involved some kind of strategic thought by Grunfeld (or anyone else in the organization) is either delusional or dishonest.
All that said, Grunfeld and the organization did a nice job this offseason re-signing Gortat at a fair price, acquiring Humprhies on the cheap, and replacing Ariza with Pierce (who has thus far had more life in his body than I anticipated).
The concern going forward is that moving this team from "pretty good" to "contender" will take additional good moves by Grunfeld. His record doesn't give me a lot of confidence in him making those decisions. But we'll see. He did well this offseason. Maybe he can do it again.
Cleveland was so stategic that they exiled LeBron to South Beach because they did not have any talent to surrounding him as they knew they would win the lottery 3 times, acquiring enough talent to bring him back. San Antonio was strategic enough to injure Robinson so they could win the lottery and draft Duncan. OKC deserves credit for drafting Duran5.
The only team that is lucky is Washington in drafting Wall. In fact, historically Washington has been the luckiest team in the NBA win in the lottery. Ernie just messed up and didn't draft Anthony Davis.
Cleveland bumbled their way into Lebron, bumbled their way out of Lebron, and bumbled their way back into him. If they hadn't bumbled their way back into him, they'd likely suck because Anthony Bennett was a bad pick (though he could still work his way into being a good player if he wants it bad enough), and Andrew Wiggins is a work in progress. Their biggest "strategic" advantage was to be in a place where Lebron was from and where he wanted to return. Oh wait, that's luck.
They've been exceedingly lucky, and would be further along if they'd made better use of their draft picks. I mean, they STILL seem to think Dion Waiters is pretty good.
The Spurs get no credit from me for lucking into Duncan, even with their semi-strategic tank. Since then, however, I think it would be reasonable to conclude they've done a first-rate job putting talent around Duncan, which has enabled them to have a sustained run of excellence. A lot of teams passed on Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter, Danny Green, Matt Bonner, Cory Joseph, and Boris Diaw (and others). Any schmuck could've picked Duncan. Not just anyone could have repeatedly assembled rosters to keep a Duncan-led team in perennial title contention. There have been other players with similar attributes and production whose teams didn't do as well. I'm sure you could make a list just as easily as I could.
The Wizards did get lucky to get Wall. And Beal. And Porter. Getting Gortat was fortunate too, and resulted from bad decision-making from the GM, who failed to add frontcourt depth that offseason despite relying on two 30+ year old big men. No complaints from me about Gortat. Like PIF, and some others here, I've long thought Gortat was a good player, and I'd have been happy to have him on the Wizards. But, I recognize that his acquisition was a panic move from a team that had a poor offseason and had to scramble for a plan B when Okafor got hurt.
The move for Nenê has worked about the way I thought it would -- the expensive decline portion of his career. Still a useful player when he's healthy,
especially on defense, but his production is obviously down and his health is iffy. I hope they continue using him off the bench. I wasn't exactly heart-broken to see McGee depart in that deal. Since the trade, he appears to be in the expensive decline portion of his career as well.
Again, Grunfeld deserves full credit for the excellent work he did this offseason to get Humprhies on the cheap and to get Pierce at the MLE. Humphries has played well and should remain in the starting lineup. Pierce has been everything the Wizards could have hoped he'd be at this point.
However, Grunfeld didn't become the GM this summer. He has a sizable record to evaluate, and when I look at that record, it doesn't inspire confidence that he'll continue to make good decisions in the future. At least not to me. Folks can slice and dice Grunfeld's record however they want. I hope it makes you happy, and I hope you're right. I want the Wizards to win, and if they win a title, I'll be just as pleased if it's Grunfeld at the helm or if it's Someone Else. I'm just saying that based on his record, I'm not confident in him.
