Discuss Ernie Grunfeld's GM skills here (Part 2)

[Dat2U]

Its a fake account, but there are real NBA players that follow him. I wonder if they know its fake?

Oh, it's fake? Color me fooled, then. I know it's not blue check-verified, but man, most of the previous tweets are in the same bland corporate speak one would expect from an NBA GM (not named Phil Jackson).

These aren't the kinds of tweets normally associated with fake accounts:

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Frankly, the trollish tweet is the first one I could find that really seemed uncharacteristic. That's some long con.

We have to get to the bottom of this.. is it the real Ernie or no?? An NBA team GM can't get a blue verified check mark on his twitter? (or maybe he doesn't know how to request one - after all this is a guy who still uses Windows 2000)

I think its really him. NBA players, some media types along with some UT alum that he apparently has personal relationships with...all follow him. There's no real trolling type posts. He's had the account for a few years now. It's all real low key... not really bringing a lot of attention to himself. Not the type of stuff you'd normally see associated with a fake account.

[sfam]

Basketball is a bit like poker. A good poker player keeps the odds in his favor knowing that over time it will make him a winner. In the short term there can be a lot of variance. A bad move sometimes can pay off big and sometimes a good move can cost you big.

There isn't as much chance involved in basketball, but there is still some degree of luck involved. Last year we missed the playoffs. I am pretty sure that isn't what EG had in mind when he made the trade. Morris sucked the first two months of this season as well.

But it looks like Brooks may have turned a lemon into lemonade. Given that the trade was made before Brooks was hired i doubt that EG was able to foresee this. Certainly EG deserves credit for hiring Brooks who may be the best coach i have seen on a team i have actively followed.

After turning Kwame into lemonade, the hiring of Scott Brooks is EG's best move by far.

EDIT: I'd still put the Joe Gibbs hiring ahead of Brooks, but you may not follow the Redskins.

[DCZards]

PIF is dead on though. I've never seen DCZards criticize a move this organization has made either. Thankfully Morris has morphed into a quality starting PF the last two months but before then he was really really bad and not worth the unnecessary lottery pick we gave up for him. I still believe we could have had him for much less.

Oh Dat2U…you still hating on me because I wanted the Zards to draft Beal while you tried to convince me and others on this board that MKG was the better pick. Get over it!

[J-Ves]

Oh, it's fake? Color me fooled, then. I know it's not blue check-verified, but man, most of the previous tweets are in the same bland corporate speak one would expect from an NBA GM (not named Phil Jackson).

These aren't the kinds of tweets normally associated with fake accounts:

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Frankly, the trollish tweet is the first one I could find that really seemed uncharacteristic. That's some long con.

We have to get to the bottom of this.. is it the real Ernie or no?? An NBA team GM can't get a blue verified check mark on his twitter? (or maybe he doesn't know how to request one - after all this is a guy who still uses Windows 2000)

I think its really him. NBA players, some media types along with some UT alum that he apparently has personal relationships with...all follow him. There's no real trolling type posts. He's had the account for a few years now. It's all real low key... not really bringing a lot of attention to himself. Not the type of stuff you'd normally see associated with a fake account.

Read on Twitter

If you click on this tweet you will see in the comments section that J. Michael (the real J. Michael confirmed by his blue check mark) says that this isn't the real Grunfeld.

[tontoz]

Basketball is a bit like poker. A good poker player keeps the odds in his favor knowing that over time it will make him a winner. In the short term there can be a lot of variance. A bad move sometimes can pay off big and sometimes a good move can cost you big.

There isn't as much chance involved in basketball, but there is still some degree of luck involved. Last year we missed the playoffs. I am pretty sure that isn't what EG had in mind when he made the trade. Morris sucked the first two months of this season as well.

But it looks like Brooks may have turned a lemon into lemonade. Given that the trade was made before Brooks was hired i doubt that EG was able to foresee this. Certainly EG deserves credit for hiring Brooks who may be the best coach i have seen on a team i have actively followed.

After turning Kwame into lemonade, the hiring of Scott Brooks is EG's best move by far.

EDIT: I'd still put the Joe Gibbs hiring ahead of Brooks, but you may not follow the Redskins.

I was talking about the NBA. I was actively following the Redskins at that time and yes Gibbs was the man.

[Upper Decker]

Just a reminder, last deadline Ernie had a mountain of expiring contracts, middle 1st round picks and young prospects available for trade. He ended up with Kief. One year later the Pels had the same assets and got the NBAs best center in his prime.

[Kanyewest]

Just a reminder, last deadline Ernie had a mountain of expiring contracts, middle 1st round picks and young prospects available for trade. He ended up with Kief. One year later the Pels had the same assets and got the NBAs best center in his prime.

More about the timing more than anything to do with EG. The 2017 draft is much stronger than 2016. The new CBA forced the Kings hand to either extend Cousins or trade him. Buddy Hield is viewed as a big value because of his name, probably to the Kings owner. Cousins seems to have regressed in at least in his basketball image. Anyways, if the trade happened last year Beal and/or Porter may have been traded.

Sent from my LG-D851 using RealGM mobile app

[queridiculo]

Just a reminder, last deadline Ernie had a mountain of expiring contracts, middle 1st round picks and young prospects available for trade. He ended up with Kief. One year later the Pels had the same assets and got the NBAs best center in his prime.

Plenty of things to fault Grunfeld for, but I wouldn't blame him for not anticipating that the Kings would move Cousins for a slurpee and a bunch of skittles.

Here's a question, if you could have had Cousins for Gortat and Porter would you have made the move?

Chemistry is a fickle thing and the Wizards have a good thing going, I'm not sure if I would have touched that deal and that's likely what it would have taken for the Wizards to get it done.

Let the Pelicans figure out how they're going to make this work and hope that Leonsis much quoted luck shines brightly on the Wizards before/at the deadline.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Anyone interested in Mitch Kupchak??

[J-Ves]

Anyone interested in Mitch Kupchak??

Seems like a lateral move. Like EG, he's one step up from the bottom of the barrel.

[closg00]

I suppose it doesn't matter now or ever, but Ernie is once-again looking to burn a valuable 1st round pick for a vet to make-up for his crapper off-season and poor draft record. Ted doesn't care so.....

[Upper Decker]

Ernie is an arsonist fireman. He set the bench on fire last off season and now he's trying to put the flames out by wasting next year's first.

[SizzlinSimms]

Anyone interested in Mitch Kupchak??

Seems like a lateral move. Like EG, he's one step up from the bottom of the barrel.

Who's better? Mitch is pretty high regarded with Lakers fans I thought.

[queridiculo]

Assuming the Wizards finish the season out strong we've basically come full circle to the Arenas years.

A decent team that's capped out and Ernie spending year after year cleaning up his own messes by trading picks and doling out terrible MLE contracts while our smug **** owner basks in I told you so's.

Given the teams play since December there should be reason for optimism but I've seen this film before.

[BigA]

One thing that Ernie benefits from is there's always an Isiah Thomas or Billy King or Vlade Divac who's making obviously horrible moves and setting their franchises back years and years. Their teams end up terrible, capped out, and with no high picks because they've been traded away. So Ernie looks good by comparison.

That goes for this year especially, when it appears that 3 of the 4 high picks the Wizards had during 2010-2013 (all except Vesely) will end up living up to their draft positions. That's good compared with some other teams that had multiple top 3 picks bust during this same period. Plus Cousins who was traded for almost nothing. EG's record of misallocated resources and less devastating or obvious bad moves fades into the background.

It's like whenever a musician dies and you see the memes with Keith Richards saying "I've outlived Prince, George Michael, and Whitney Houston....bet you didn't see that coming."

Maybe I'll do a meme with Ernie: "I've outlasted Joe Dumars, Danny Ferry, and Mitch Kupchak....bet you didn't see that coming."

[BigA]

Assuming the Wizards finish the season out strong we've basically come full circle to the Arenas years.

A decent team that's capped out and Ernie spending year after year cleaning up his own messes by trading picks and doling out terrible MLE contracts while our smug **** owner basks in I told you so's.

Given the teams play since December there should be reason for optimism but I've seen this film before.

The Wall-Beal-Otto core is more talented than the Gil-Butler-Jamison core and has a chance to sustain itself for longer. It looks like the coaching is better as well.

So at least there's some justification for Ted's cloud of smug. Unlike when he was crowing about the "new big three" of Wall-Crawford-Blatche.

[leswizards]

The Wizards' 1st rounder looks to be better than Houston's 1st rounder. Corey Brewer is a better player and on a better contract than Andrew Nicholson, but only marginally so. I don't know if the Wizards can trade Martell Webster, but if they can, a package of Burke, Webster and Thornton should have worked, and would have been just as good or better than Corey Brewer's contract.

I don't understand how Ernie didn't get the deal for Lou Williams done. And his failure to do so is a result of him signing Nicholson to an awful contract.

[payitforward]

PIF is dead on though. I've never seen DCZards criticize a move this organization has made either. Thankfully Morris has morphed into a quality starting PF the last two months but before then he was really really bad and not worth the unnecessary lottery pick we gave up for him. I still believe we could have had him for much less.

Oh Dat2U…you still hating on me because I wanted the Zards to draft Beal while you tried to convince me and others on this board that MKG was the better pick. Get over it!

You know... going 18-3 in your last 21 games really does improve everyone's mood!!

[Kanyewest]

Wizards' 1st rounder looks to be better than Houston's 1st rounder. Cory Brewer is a better player and on a better contract than Andrew Nicholson, but only marginally so.

I don't understand how Ernie didn't get the deal for Lou Williams done. And his failure to do so is a result of him signing Nicholson to an awful contract.

Magic Johnson could be a sub-par GM that may view Corey Brewer as a much better player given that he was a lottery pick and really good in the playoffs a few seasons ago. Even if that isn't true, Brewer's contract is 2 years shorter and could be an asset as an expiring one next season.

[Mojo Amok]

Wizards' 1st rounder looks to be better than Houston's 1st rounder. Cory Brewer is a better player and on a better contract than Andrew Nicholson, but only marginally so.

I don't understand how Ernie didn't get the deal for Lou Williams done. And his failure to do so is a result of him signing Nicholson to an awful contract.

Seems like you kind of covered all sides of the argument and answered your own question there.

Easy to understand how we got outbid for Lou with Nicholson as cap ballast - we clearly had a worse offer on the table than the Rockets and quite possibly worse than the Pacers, Hornets and Jazz as well. Doesn't look like we were even close with $12 million more in financial obligations than what the Rockets were offering. Our offer sucked.