The Next Coach (SCOTT BROOKS HIRED pg.13)

[WizTom]

WoooHooo!
I bet those season tickets are jumpin' off the shelf now.

But really. Who cares? EFG is still in charge.

Now, if Ted could grow a pair and #FireEFG, then hire Troy Weaver (insert other competent GM), the Wiz might could start re-building for real.

As it is, I actually feel sorry for Brooks. All that money will be nice, but it won't get him where any competitor wants to be.

#FireEFG

[TheKingOfVa360]

I'm actually happy with the hire. Brooks has a strong staff and is good at player development. The only problem is EG is still the gm

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

I just don't see how people can say this is a bad move getting Brooks, it's actually pretty good for various reasons. I guarantee if EG wasn't our GM the people moaning about this hire would be probably be on board with it. Ernie Grunfeld has long outstayed his welcome, should have been gone years ago, but I honestly really like the Brooks hiring, retread or not.

[closg00]

Ted would be evil genius smart to fire Ernie and make Brooks coach/Team President next year.

[80sballboy]

I just don't see how people can say this is a bad move getting Brooks, it's actually pretty good for various reasons. I guarantee if EG wasn't our GM the people moaning about this hire would be probably be on board with it. Ernie Grunfeld has long outstayed his welcome, should have been gone years ago, but I honestly really like the Brooks hiring, retread or not.

I think the best part of this move is that he could help get a few quality free agents to come here. Probably not KD, but maybe a guy signs here that would sign if Witt were still the coach.

[stevemcqueen1]

Really good point in the article:

We've seen the same thing unfold with how the team approaches signing players. Last summer, Washington restricted themselves to players who would sign one-year deals and looked for players based on the roles they needed to fill, instead of trying to find players who could raise the overall talent level on the team.

That's a very vague criticism though. Who should we have signed/hired? Saying "we should sign more talented players and hire more talented coaches" is almost tautological. Picking specific names is much harder.

[Illuminaire]

If only people had spent the last few years debating those better moves for better players and higher upside coaches. If only there were a repository of those debates easily available on a network of connected devices, recorded for all the world to see.

Oh, wait.

[gtn130]

If only people had spent the last few years debating those better moves for better players and higher upside coaches. If only there were a repository of those debates easily available on a network of connected devices, recorded for all the world to see.

Oh, wait.

dude you should interview for the next GM opening

[80sballboy]

http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/15291677/5-5-experts-washington-wizards-hiring-scott-brooks

[payitforward]

Damn, I genuinely feel bad for you guys.

Damn, I genuinely feel bad that you're on the Wizards board in the middle of a Raptors playoff game.

I came here in peace to show solidarity with your pain and you get all defensive.

He's right. Come on slugger.... After that awesome piece of writing yesterday? You could apologize to the dude.

[payitforward]

It could be worse. Yeah, the process was focacta, but Brooks is a good coach. They could have done worse. This isn't Kevin Loughery or Leonard Hamilton.

"focacta" ?? -- Kev, you need some help w/ your Yiddish, dude! Then again, Yiddish is actually written using Hebrew letters, so I suppose any transliteration should be allowed.

Still, it's usually "verkocht" or "verkochte" (depending on gender of the word it's modifying), though I've also seen it w/ an "f" instead of a "v" and in that case sometimes w/ an "a" instead of the "e". Occasionally a "k" in place of the "c."

It's from a German/Dutch word that essentially means "f@cked up" -- but literally it's "sh@tted up".

Semantically, OTOH, you are right. Ted and Ernie "sollt seyn wie eyn tschaendelier. Sollt haengen und brennen."

("...should be like a chandelier -- he should hang and burn!" -- Yiddish is given to extreme expressions, so please understand I don't mean that literally!)

[payitforward]

Dollars to donuts Ernie's play was to convince Ted that the "plan" to get Durant s still on. It just might not happen until 2017. Job security in tact. Check.

Well done! I think you've nailed it.

[AFM]

Don't give Kevin a hard time. He's only familiar with numbers. He needs to be beeped at like R2-D2

[pcbothwel]

Really good point in the article:

We've seen the same thing unfold with how the team approaches signing players. Last summer, Washington restricted themselves to players who would sign one-year deals and looked for players based on the roles they needed to fill, instead of trying to find players who could raise the overall talent level on the team.

That's a very vague criticism though. Who should we have signed/hired? Saying "we should sign more talented players and hire more talented coaches" is almost tautological. Picking specific names is much harder.

I mostly agree with you, but we did trade for Morris and take on an additional 7.4M next year in salary. So any calculation of a potential FA last year would be..."We must sign all 1 year deals and if any go beyond that they cannot exceed 7.5M".

Aminu, Ed Davis, Brandan Wright, Aron Baynes, Jerebko are:
1) UFA that were signed last summer
2) Better Players
3) Bigman
4) On better contracts
5) Dont cost 1st round pick

Thats being unimaginative.

[payitforward]

Really good point in the article:

We've seen the same thing unfold with how the team approaches signing players. Last summer, Washington restricted themselves to players who would sign one-year deals and looked for players based on the roles they needed to fill, instead of trying to find players who could raise the overall talent level on the team.

That's a very vague criticism though. Who should we have signed/hired? Saying "we should sign more talented players and hire more talented coaches" is almost tautological. Picking specific names is much harder.

You're saying it would be hard to pick specific names of players better than the ones we've acquired? You're not saying that, right?

Is this - "Last summer, Washington restricted themselves to players who would sign one-year deals and looked for players based on the roles they needed to fill" - a true statement or a false one?

Do you think, in re: this -- "instead of trying to find players who could raise the overall talent level on the team" -- that in fact they *did* try to raise the overall talent level of the team?

[TheSecretWeapon]

It could be worse. Yeah, the process was focacta, but Brooks is a good coach. They could have done worse. This isn't Kevin Loughery or Leonard Hamilton.

"focacta" ?? -- Kev, you need some help w/ your Yiddish, dude! Then again, Yiddish is actually written using Hebrew letters, so I suppose any transliteration should be allowed.

Still, it's usually "verkocht" or "verkochte" (depending on gender of the word it's modifying), though I've also seen it w/ an "f" instead of a "v" and in that case sometimes w/ an "a" instead of the "e". Occasionally a "k" in place of the "c."

It's from a German/Dutch word that essentially means "f@cked up" -- but literally it's "sh@tted up".

Semantically, OTOH, you are right. Ted and Ernie "sollt seyn wie eyn tschaendelier. Sollt haengen und brennen."

("...should be like a chandelier -- he should hang and burn!" -- Yiddish is given to extreme expressions, so please understand I don't mean that literally!)

Learn something every day! I just learned my use of "focacta" is verkochte or farkakte (depending on where you look).

[tontoz]

Really good point in the article:

We've seen the same thing unfold with how the team approaches signing players. Last summer, Washington restricted themselves to players who would sign one-year deals and looked for players based on the roles they needed to fill, instead of trying to find players who could raise the overall talent level on the team.

That's a very vague criticism though. Who should we have signed/hired? Saying "we should sign more talented players and hire more talented coaches" is almost tautological. Picking specific names is much harder.

It wasn't hard for Toronto to sign Biyombo who is making only $2.8 million this year.

[stevemcqueen1]

If only people had spent the last few years debating those better moves for better players and higher upside coaches. If only there were a repository of those debates easily available on a network of connected devices, recorded for all the world to see.

Oh, wait.

Who do you think the Wizards should have hired instead of Brooks?

[stevemcqueen1]

You're saying it would be hard to pick specific names of players better than the ones we've acquired? You're not saying that, right?

No, I'm saying that it is difficult to find names that are realistic acquisitions and are good in real time. The BF article cited in the post I responded only made this general criticism, without offering any names of coaches they would have rather seen considered.

My personal opinion is that Brooks was a good hire. The only candidate I liked more was Thibs, who it turned out wasn't a realistic option.

Is this - "Last summer, Washington restricted themselves to players who would sign one-year deals and looked for players based on the roles they needed to fill" - a true statement or a false one?

I don't know. I think the article believed it was true.

Do you think, in re: this -- "instead of trying to find players who could raise the overall talent level on the team" -- that in fact they *did* try to raise the overall talent level of the team?

Well yeah, I think the FO believed they were attempting/accomplishing that in the acquisitions they made.

[stevemcqueen1]

I mostly agree with you, but we did trade for Morris and take on an additional 7.4M next year in salary. So any calculation of a potential FA last year would be..."We must sign all 1 year deals and if any go beyond that they cannot exceed 7.5M".

Aminu, Ed Davis, Brandan Wright, Aron Baynes, Jerebko are:
1) UFA that were signed last summer
2) Better Players
3) Bigman
4) On better contracts
5) Dont cost 1st round pick

Thats being unimaginative.

I'm not sure we did restrict ourselves to signing one year deals. Nor am I sure that we would have made the Keef trade in the summer of 2015 if it were available, I think that was a deadline desperation trade to try and save the season when it was slipping away. Also, remember that we jettisoned some future salary by trading Humphries, Blair, and cutting Webster. If we were trying to avoid taking on future salary that would eliminate our ability to offer a max contract, the timing of those moves made us more flexible than we were in the summer.

I appreciate you including a list of names, as I think it makes for a more substantive criticism. But on your list, I would remove Aminu, Baynes, Wright, and Jerebko if you're judging them against Keef. Aminu is a SF, not a big man, and Baynes, Wright, and Jerebko are not better than Keef and their contracts are not better. Davis works though, and it would have been good to at least pursue him. Signing him could have prevented the need to trade for Keef.