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Please tell me that I'm hallucinating and that isn't Blatche I see on the right.

---------- Post added January-25th-2012 at 01:55 PM ----------

@kevinlove

Kevin Love

To #twolves fans: I'll be in Minnesota for 4 more years! Excited to see you when I get back to Minneapolis.

R.I.P. to my hopes & dreams :(

There goes our chance to be any good over the next two seasons. Now our fate rests on the lottery and the hope that whoever we pick turns out to be a superstar. 2015 should be "our year". Hard to get excited about that.

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What choices has Leonsis really made, though? !

I think this team is entirely too young right now and the vets they do have are the wrong kind of vets. I don't know how John Wall can learn to be an NBA point guard or anyone can develop their games when the offense has the two worst ballstoppers in the league and there is not really one veteran who can show these guys how to be professionals.

Ted seems like he would be happy with nothing but first and second year players fighting for minutes and the ball. The fact that any future hope seems to lie entirely with MORE rookies is even crazier.

You know who this team needs? Derek Fisher.

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Pay Nicolas Batum whatever he wants if he becomes a restricted free agent ....pick up the unibrow...these are true rebuilding pieces to go along with wall.....not blatche, ny, or mcdumb

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2012/01/deadline_looms_for_trail_blazers_nicolas_batum_to.html

Batum wants to much money although he would be a nice addition. I'd personally rather have a all around talent like James Harden who OKC won't be able to afford.

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I think this team is entirely too young right now and the vets they do have are the wrong kind of vets. I don't know how John Wall can learn to be an NBA point guard or anyone can develop their games when the offense has the two worst ballstoppers in the league and there is not really one veteran who can show these guys how to be professionals.

Ted seems like he would be happy with nothing but first and second year players fighting for minutes and the ball. The fact that any future hope seems to lie entirely with MORE rookies is even crazier.

You know who this team needs? Derek Fisher.

I don't get the sense that he has ruled out veteran free agents. His blog post on the firing seems to recognize the problem of too much youth' date=' and he explicitly cites free agency as an option:

[i']

The simple facts are this – we knew we would be in a tough rebuilding process; we knew we had over indexed on young players with 8 of our 15 roster spots being taken by first and second year players .We also knew this lack of experience would be compounded by an absolute lack of contact during the NBA lockout during last off season. We couldn’t provide any coaching or mentoring to young players during the summer and with the shortened and compressed schedule – there would be a lack of true practice time during the season with 18 back to back games.

* * *

We know we have to implement a system that complements the talent we have – you heard yesterday talk about “tempo and pace”; and “length, and depth and athleticism”.

I also think it is important for the team to internalize its own strengths and weaknesses; play to its strength and mitigate much of the lack of experience we have as a very young team. This falls under the category of ” keeping it simpler and more efficient as to game plans”.

We are continuing to rebuild; I am sure our roster will be changing as we monitor and assess where we are; I am sure that we will add to our team and subtract from our team via trades- via the next draft – via free agency – via buy outs. We will use all the tools available to us to improve.

[/i]

http://www.tedstake.com/

Edited by DjTj
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Ernie is being scape goated. When you get down to it, his drafting has actually been high quality. His trades and FA signings are problematic, but I think they result as much from a lack of organizational direction than from incompetence.

Ernie has been here for 8-9 years and has yet to draft an all-star. I'm not going to say his drafting is horrible, but it certainly isn't high quality. Lets re-visit Ernie's drafts:

2003: Jarvis Hayes, Steve Blake. Neither of these players ended up being consistent starters in the league. Jarvis was a complete bust, Steve Blake has been a back up PG for the majority of his career.

2004: Peter John Ramos: HUGE bust; Devin Harris: never been able to stick with a team. I'll call him a lousy starter at best (we aren't going to consider the trade for Jamison, because this debate is about Ernie's drafting)

2005: Andray Blatche: We all hate Dray, but getting a decent backup big man (which Dray pretty much is) is not bad with a 2nd round pick; not a home run though

2006: Vladimir Veremenko: Who? Did he every play for us....bust

2006: Oleksiy Pecherov: Nice guy, met him at a caps game....basketball player not so much....BUST!

2007: Dominic McGuire: I actually liked Dmac a lot....apparently no one else in the nba does because he never became a role player and is pretty much just in the NBA to fill out a roster

2007: Nick Young: If Nick Young was on a good team and they used him as a scorer off the bench, he may be a successful 6th man and draft pick; but here in DC he has never reached his potential. I'm not going to call him a Bust, but not necessarily a good pick either

2008: Bill Walker: Sold him

2008: JaVale McGee: has yet to be determined whether this is a good pick or not. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (given JaVale's improvement this year) and call this pick a decent one

2009: Traded away the pick for Miller and Foye. Can't really judge the pick (because it was traded) we can discus this in a separate Ernie Grunfeld trade track record

2010: John Wall: no brainer pick. I don't care what you say or point to the debates on this board....any GM would have selected John Wall #1 overall

2010: Kevin Seraphin: can't really judge this pick yet, but it isn't looking pretty so far

2010: Trevor Booker: Same as Seraphin, although I personally really like Booker and think he could be a rotation player in the future.

2010: Jermain Taylor: Sold. This pick could have been and obviously should have been DaJuan Blair...SUPER FAIL!!!!

2011: Jan Vesely, Singleton, Mack.....too early to judge any of these picks. The Singleton pick looks pretty good so far, could be a huge success.

all and all this draft track record of Ernie with the Wizards is pretty damn lousy? Not sure how you can justify that it is high quality? Is it absolutely abysmal?...no, but it sure isn't good

No doubt trading the #5 pick was horrendous but look at the circumstances of the time: we got screwed by the lottery, Rubio didn't seem like he was going to make it to us, it was a weak looking year (we were debating between a stiff like Thabeet and Rubio, who probably wasn't going to come play for us for years). We were still in flux on the big 3 and wanted to try and make another run before it became abundantly clear that was impossible. You can see the seeds of rational thinking behind trading the pick, horrifically short sighted as the move was. The real problem was having no cogent overall direction as an organization, which is understandable since we were going through big ownership changes.

agree. Easy to look back on it and criticize in retrospect....still wasn't good though.

Other than that, his recent drafting has been outstanding IMO. Last year's class was terrific given how much that draft class sucked overall. We probably had the best class in the NBA and salvaged some long term quality from it in getting two guys who look like they can definitely play. In 2010, John Wall was a homerun, and remember, he certainly wasn't a no brainer pick. Just go back and read the debate on whether to take him or Evan Turner on this very forum to see how much support for Turner there was.

doesn't make sense to support this argument by saying it was widely debated in this forum by a bunch of non basketball professional fans. Wall was pretty much a no brainer...the media tried to hype the "decision" with Evan Turner, but 9/10 GMs would have picked Wall #1 overall

Seraphin and Booker haven't really proven to be great picks....so I'd say this draft is not that great considering the no brainer #1 overall pick.

Booker was a nice value pick

Booker wasn't much of a value pick....we traded up (two picks) to get him.

Plus finding Nick Young and Javale McGee where we did in the draft was impressive bargains for each.

average picks...not great. Neither has proven to be anything special so far. Not going to call them bad picks, but they aren't All-stars or reliable starters 4/5 years down the road...so they were hardly good picks.

His drafting isn't reason we're terrible right now because I don't think he could have realistically gotten any more out of his past two drafts than he did. And when you get down to it, he's made some good trades ever since Leonsis took over and established a clear, strong organizational direction and vision. Crawford, Evans, and the first (Singleton) for Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong was a heist.

Just getting Singleton alone makes this trade a pretty good one. Ernie has a pretty good history when it comes to trades. Brown for Butler was unbelievable

Unloading Arenas on a division rival (who was forced to use up their amnesty on him) to take a year off an awful contract and simultaneously put a ton of pressure on Orlando's ability to keep Dwight Howard was another coup and clear win for us.

this was pretty much a stalemate. Reshard has done nothing good since he got here. The only positive I see in this is the buyout clause in Rashard's contract that will enable us to buy him out so we can amnesty Blatche.

Not signing more veteran scoring FAs is a legit cause for concern. We should have found someone more than just Roger Mason and Ronnie Turiaf. Turiaf's injury has hurt.

I can't believe we didn't bring any contributors in this year. Turiaf was a good "trade" acquisition, but Roger barely sees the floor. We definitely could have brought in another player or two to contribute via free agency.

This team is awful today mostly because of the lockout and by our lack of direction prior to Leonsis taking over. We have more second year players on the roster than any other team in the league and they were absolutely screwed over by the lockout, more so than anyone else was. Four 2010 first round picks. These guys looked great and put together a strong stretch run together to end the 2011 season and now they all look like they've regressed. There is no chemistry or cohesion and none are scoring and playing like they did in March and April of last year.

I believe this has a bit to do with a terrible coach in Flip Saunders who Ernie brought here and who he kept about two years too long.

The fact of the matter is this team needs wholesale changes. The whole atmosphere needs to change. Ernie hasn't been successful as a GM....We've only made it out of the 1st round once in his tenure as GM and missed the playoffs more than we've made them. Abe passed and we got a new Owner. Since then we've gotten new uniforms, a new head coach, and a new franchise player.....time to bring in a new GM.

---------- Post added January-25th-2012 at 03:54 PM ----------

Batum wants to much money although he would be a nice addition. I'd personally rather have a all around talent like James Harden who OKC won't be able to afford.

James harden would be a good addition, but I doubt OKC lets him go. They will go into the luxury tax in order to re-sign him.

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EG has actually done a pretty good job drafting players when he actually holds on to the picks. Pecherov was a bust but Young and McGee in the middle of the 1st round are good picks, as are Singleton and Booker. As bad as Blatche is, getting a player who can last in the NBA for more than 5 years in the 2nd round is still pretty good. But trading that 09 pick for Foye and Miller was FAIL. Imagine if we took Steph Curry, a Wall/Curry backcourt would be awesome. I don't mind trading the Devin Harris pick for Jamison as that team needed a solid vet and Jamison did help get this team to the playoffs. Harris wouldn't have done much here as we already had Arenas and Hughes at the time.

His trades and FA signings have been up and down. Trading Kwame for Butler was a huge steal obviously, and getting Hinrich for nothing and then flipping him for draft picks was crafty. Also not commiting big dollars to Hughes and Jared Jeffries was smart. But he also spent decent coin on mediocre players like Antonio Daniels and Darius Songaila and failed to trade Blatche while his value was still high. We probably should have gotten a lot more for Butler, Haywood, and Stevenson too. I was okay with the Jamison trade because it got his contract off the books. Then of course there was the Arenas saga. No way should he have signed him to a $100 Mil+ deal coming off that major knee injury. I can live with trading him for Lewis as at least Lewis's contract expires a year earlier.

I'd say overall EG has been an average GM. But right now the roster he's built is an absolute disaster. Unfortunately for us, I think he's just doing what Ted wants him to do: destroy the roster and start completely fresh with nothing but young guys. But EG should have gotten smarter players with higher basketball IQ, even if it means sacrificing a tad bit of long term potential.

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EG has actually done a pretty good job drafting players when he actually holds on to the picks. Pecherov was a bust but Young and McGee in the middle of the 1st round are good picks, as are Singleton and Booker.

not seeing how you can say he has done a good job drafting....you list two decent picks (Young and McGee) in 9 years of drafting. Booker can't be considered a good pick because we traded two picks to get him and he hasn't really made much of an impact yet...he might end up being a good pick, but can't call it good yet.

Percherov was a major bust as were the guys i listed who never even played in the nba: Peter John Ramos and Veremenko. Jarvis Hayes and passing on DaJaun Blair.

You seriously can't look at his 9 years of drafting and say it was good...you are just lying to yourself.

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Good relative to where we had picks. His biggest blunder was trading the #5 pick which should have landed a stud for two mediocre players who lasted one year.

Peter John Ramos, Jarvis Hayes? You haven't looked at the facts. 9 years of drafts and no impact players; no all stars???

I think you are just arguing to argue now.

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I liked how in the pregame huddle, all the Wiz players wear wearing shirts that said, FIT. The only player who did not? Andray Blatche

---------- Post added January-25th-2012 at 07:23 PM ----------

Having said that, I haven't seen him play this well in terms of teamwork in a while. It will be interesting to see how Whitman spreads out the minutes and when he uses the players

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Good relative to where we had picks. His biggest blunder was trading the #5 pick which should have landed a stud for two mediocre players who lasted one year.

I agree. I will very, very, very rarely give a GM **** about a 2nd rounder. Peter John Ramos? How many 2nd rounder hit that year? Total shots in the dark once you get down in that part of thee draft.

---------- Post added January-25th-2012 at 08:39 PM ----------

I really think Vesely can be a Kirilenko (in his prime) type of player. Becoming a fan. Needs to get stronger and build up his offensive game (he's got that. "six picks a possession" role now), but he is definitely talented. Pleasant surprise. For me anyway. I really wasn't xpecting ****.

How are the other Euro rookies doing? Kanter, Valecuscioius (or wtf ever) and that other guy. Didn't one stay in Europe?

Edited by G.A.C.O.L.B.
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I agree. I will very, very, very rarely give a GM **** about a 2nd rounder. Peter John Ramos? How many 2nd rounder hit that year? Total shots in the dark once you get down in that part of thee draft.

---------- Post added January-25th-2012 at 08:39 PM ----------

I really think Vesely can be a Kirilenko (in his prime) type of player. Becoming a fan. Needs to get stronger and build up his offensive game (he's got that. "six picks a possession" role now), but he is definitely talented. Pleasant surprise. For me anyway. I really wasn't xpecting ****.

How are the other Euro rookies doing? Kanter, Valecuscioius (or wtf ever) and that other guy. Didn't one stay in Europe?

Kanter is averaging about 5 and 5. Edited by NotSoSuper
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Effort is much higher tonight. It's easy to see it on defense. Worth noting that coach can do whatever the hell he wants because they aren't going to fire him now for benching someone. Team might realize this.

Edited by Destino
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He's playing well. That drives you nuts doesn't it? lol

In the sense that it shows what he's capable of and what he fails to do on a consistent basis because he's a lazy POS, yes it pisses me off. But that's what's always pissed me off about Blatche.

---------- Post added January-25th-2012 at 09:06 PM ----------

Boris Diaw got fat.

Edited by G.A.C.O.L.B.
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