Dark Faze wrote:Another day another terrible package traded for a superstar while we do nothing. Cool.
We've got to remind ourselves that we have a completely incompetent F.O. that sucked it's way into a generational talent in Wall and a damn good player in Beal and a potential damn good player in Porter. All 3 were consensus picks at slot more or less, not genius finds by Ernie. Any time he had to think out of the box he blew it, with literally every single pick made in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, and his franchise killing horror show trade in 2009 remains a testament to his complete incompetence. Having grown up and lived in the Bay Area till I was 30 back in '04 and moved to Lake Tahoe/Reno, I've followed closely as first the local Warriors had their umpteenth rebuild over a 20 year period just as we were, and watched the warriors repeatedly nail decisions while we whiffed, and whiffed badly, indeed the only horror show mistakes the Warriors seemed to make were with late draft picks, and the selection of Harrison Barnes which many, but not all of us, recognized was a talent that would NEVER live up to his billing at the next level. Meanwhile the Wizards blew virtually every asset they had to work with: Vet contracts to deal, available salary cap space to take on vets for picks, trades, later draftees, everything, we blew literally every single move we made for more than half a decade of our rebuild other than three rubber stamp draft picks (I wanted Noel at 1.03 in 2012, but Porter was the consensus 1.03 going into the draft, 1.04 if Noel had gone as expected) was blown.
Then as if a cherry on top, in 2016, when anyone with even half a functioning brain cell knew Durant was not going to DC (why do you move from a perenial contender to a dumpster fire F.O. and franchise that's been known as Clippers East throughout the nineties and most of the 21st century, and that appears to have one franchise piece, and an injury prone solid one, when you could play with LeBron, the Warriors, the Rockets, or sign a 1 year, and then go in '18 to someone else? It was a pipe dream the second it was thought up and the team blew it's entire cupboard of draft picks other than 1.01 in '10, and 1.03 in '12 and '13 leading to its suspect situation in the summer of '16), the next move was to look for bargain bin depth deals, hold your nose and select them, but above all else, ABOVE ALL ELSE, do not sign anyone to long term mega contracts just because you have money burning a hole in your pocket, your drunk, and hey, that chick over at the roulette table thinks your HOT! For gods sake, I play freaking Dynasty Salary Cap Contract League Fantasy on RSO and other sites, and Dynasty 101 is NEVER sign long term mega deals to RB's (injury prone, short careers), and all 4 year+ deals should go to proven talents under 30, w/o a history of injury and playing at positions where production is predictable (top end WR's and QB's heading into or into their prime). I'm a 42 year old nobody's ever heard of that will never pull a check within 1/20th of what Ernie pulls. And I KNEW THAT FROM PLAYING FANTASY. How is he so insanely stupid that not only did he not know it, but he behaved like a drunk, 55 year old balding divorce in Vegas w/some lottery winnings in his pocket with beer goggles, that those 40+ers at the C grade strip club really did love him, and another lap dance wasn't going to hurt his bottom line any.
And it's this way with every DC team save the Nets. The Caps ruined by the Forsberg trade, the Redskins lead by a megalomaniacal owner, and yet another incompetent GM, and the wizards rapidly approaching 15 years under the same horrific F.O. that has been lapped by both the Warriors in the West and the Celtics in the East despite having more initial assets of high value to rebuild with than either team, but having squandered virtually all of them while the Warriors parlayed their lesser assets into vastly superior talent via draft picks, trades and smart FA decision making, and the Celtics, for gods sake they were making runs at the NBA title when we hit rock bottom, hit rock bottom several years later, and have already long since passed us largely due to being about 1,000,000x smarter when it comes to asset management and trades.
Nothing is worse than having a message board consistently smarter about rebuilding beloved franchises than management, and yet that's what we have with the Wizards, with the Caps and with the Redskins. What an awful situation. We are in the worst possible region for a salary cap based league: Too good (and too stupid to land a steal) to land picks high enough to draft elite talent, too bad to actually contend for titles or lure elite free agents. I appreciate for the first time in my lifetime the wizards actually have some legit talent, but the horrible mistakes that were made in 2009-2015 in the draft, and in 2016 in free agency destroyed any possibility that the good fortune of landing 3 top 3 picks in 2010-2013 would actually matter and that is a truly bittersweet reality to deal with. It's also why I begrudge the Warriors nothing while everyone hates on them. I find it odd, and maybe very East Coast (being a west coaster I'm a bit more attuned to it). Nobody complained about the NBA being boring when it was all Celtics and lakers in the eighties, or Bulls in the nineties, or lakers in the early aughts. The NBA has always been ruled by dynasties in huge major cities. Now that LeBron opened up the horrors of AAU ball infecting the NBA w/super teams when he moved to Miami it's far too late to complain about the warriors and strikes me as a bit much. The Warriors other than the RUN TMC days late eighties early nineties, and Webber's rookie year were a mirror image of the incompetence of the Wizards, it even coalesced into an epic trade that would do neither team any good with Chris Webber, both teams were essentially horrible from 1994-2012 or 2013, w/a few blips for both teams of playoff relevance but 85% of those 20 seasons were miserable affairs, and the Warriors were horrible in the eighties too, even worse than the mediocre Bullets. Now after suffering as a franchise for 40 years JUST LIKE THE WIZARDS, brilliant asset management, draft day decisions, trades and signings have built a power house. GOOD FOR THEM.
Unlike the Lakers, who seemingly never have to suffer because of the allure of LA, and the history, and unlike the Celtics who seemingly always fall ar$e over tea kettle into a pot of gold (and who feels for Boston really, a billion titles in every major sport since 2001-what do they have a claim on in regards to suffering?), the Warriors, exactly like the Wizards, have suffered, and suffered and suffered, both cities even dealt with devastating crime and homicide and drug issues in these decades, now the Warriors are finally enjoying what we've always hoped for and might have achieved if we and not the incompetent EG were in charge, and media pundits and fans are hating on them? It just strikes me as absurd. Few fanbases as die hard have been as snakebite as the warriors fans have, and now they finally have success to celebrate, and it's success built on brains and great decision making, rather than allure (LA, NYC), or Luck or whatever the hell Boston has going for it, or Miami for that matter (the freaking Marlins won two titles, still can't believe that in addition to the Heat), genuine success built on smarts, and people are hating left and right (haven't seen it here, just seen it and heard it a ton of the radio, media, podcasts etc. It just pisses me off. I hope the warriors win another ten titles and the Lakers, Bulls, NYC and Miami continue to be totally irrelevant (well, Im screwed on the Celtics, but the rest still could suck for a while), and hopefully the Celtics never figure it out. If the Wizards couldn't do it, and they can't, at least our sister city in failure and miserable incompetence in the Warriors of the 1990's and aughts can, and they've done it by earning it through smarts, and that means something.
Sorry, felt like ranting.
Although sometimes I am -- everybody is!
