Posts for category ‘Ernie Grunfeld’

Ernie Grunfeld held a 2 pm presser this afternoon …. nothing ground-breaking. It can basically be summed up by:

“Hello press, we will be potentially drafting a player on Thursday and I’m not tipping my hat, but we’re going to do what’s best for the team.”

However, in the spirit of providing those who could not afford to listen to the WashingtonWizards.com streaming video-cast of the presser, I’m providing a bulleted account (before the video and sound cut off for me with about two minutes left).

Oh, and the ‘reporters’ asking questions didn’t have mics …. so that was kind of annoying. If only Dave Johnson were around to eloquently work the room like he did for Flip Saunders’ meet-n-greet night.

Some of these are quotes, and some are paraphrased thoughts/ideas/statements of Grunfeld. Evidently the Wizards website will have a complete video posted later today. Until then ….

• On preparing for the draft: “You always have to assume you’re going to [keep the pick].”
• The Wizards are still having conversations on what the pick can bring them in a trade.
• 5 or 6 players will be available the draft … they really like 3 or 4.
• Grunfeld seen Rubio twice in person and has a “real good handle” on his ability, but doesn’t want to get into any specifics about him (or any other particular player in the draft).
• On workouts: “Bringing players into your own building is just a process … if one doesn’t come in, it doesn’t meant you’re not going to take him, or you’re not familiar with him.” (Grunfeld cited that JaVale McGee did not work out last year.)
• Grunfeld doesn’t put much stock in workouts (especially in terms of if a player works out against others or not). He sees them as an extra opportunity to see the players’ skills and meet them.
• On the quality of the draft: “[This is] one of the strongest PG drafts in a long time … [they] could makeup half the lottery.”
• Teams that are ready to complete now are in a different mode (as far as cutting salary via trades around draft time) … the Wizards are obviously in a ‘compete now’ mode.
• Grunfeld likes his core, he’s trying to put a solid team around Gilbert, Caron, Antawn, and Brendan.
• On the team he has: “We’re a pretty deep team and we feel like at the 5 spot, we can get a pretty solid player.”
• On the salary cap: “We’ve been over the cap … the pick is slotted in, we’ve had it in our budget for years already.” (thought this was a curious statement – he could have misspoke, I could have misheard)
• On if he and Flip are on the same page in terms of what they want to do: “Exactly on page 1.”
• Antawn Jamison is out of his cast from ankle surgery and will begin running next week.
• DeShawn Stevenson is still not full speed from back surgery but he’s been working with trainers on a daily basis.
• On ‘The Plan’: “I’m going to do what’s best for this team short term and long term.”
• Grunfeld doesn’t know why rumors that the Wizards looking to cut salary are out there, and says “that’s not the case.” He then referred to the opportunity the Wiz had to shed salary at the trade deadline.
• On roster size: “When I played we had 11 players on the roster and we did okay.” Grunfeld doesn’t know how many players the Wizard will have on the roster.
• On moving up in the draft: “We’ve had some conversations about the possibility of moving up in the draft.” (among every other scenario, of course).
• On his mood this week: “Usually I’m in a pretty good mood [around draft time] because this is all about preparation.” Grunfeld went on to say that there won’t be any arguments on who to take in the waning minutes. They have their order pretty much figured out and will go with the best available.

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Amare Stoudemire, Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, Manu Ginobili, Michael Redd, Josh Smith, Josh Howard, Kirk Hinrich and Andrei Kirilenko are just of the few of the tiny players jumping over a fence in the mind of the restless Ernie Grunfeld as he tries to fall into a slumber every night leading up to the draft on June 25.

But he can’t sleep. He sits up in bed, drenched in sweat. It’s 3:30 in the morning and he’s trying to plod through the day’s ninth showing of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. But the show doesn’t help take his thoughts away from the matter at hand. His mind is racing through Wizards trade scenarios instead. And if you don’t pay attention to those damned Law & Orders, especially the crime at the beginning, the show just becomes a scrambled mess.

The mess, parallel to the team Grunfeld commands, spills into the night and into the next day, all of which are becoming the same. The Wizards GM is on the verge of making the most important move during his tenure with the team.

[continue reading on NBC Washington.com]

Andray Blatche had a great start to last night’s game against the Hawks. He hit three open jumpers that Atlanta gave to him, and a crazy out-of-control runner for eight points in the first quarter.

Unfortunately, in the second half, he settled for jumpers. And the times he did drive to the hoop, he seemed to easily bobble the ball away as if he didn’t value it with intensity.

But that’s the Andray Blatche we know….a foundering soul from whom we keep expecting big things.

In the post game show, Comcast’s Ron Thompson and Chris Miller dubbed Blatche a “20 & 10 waiting to happen.”

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Many have believed that 18-year old phenom, Ricky Rubio, would not enter the 2009 NBA draft because of a six million Euro buyout from his current contract with DKV Joventut of the Spanish ACB league.

However, recent reports, including one from Draft Express on February 22nd, indicate that via Rubio’s representatives, U.S. agent Dan Fegan, negotiations are under way to reduce Rubio’s buyout to three or four million Euros.

Rubio is very likely to be a top three pick in the ’09 draft which would be the most favorable conditions for a possible buyout. ESPN’s Chad Ford follows up with a Feb. 27th report that there are strong indications that Rubio will be available in the upcoming draft.

How does this benefit the Wizards?

Well, obviously, the potential lottery pick for a team currently tied with Oklahoma City for the second worst record in the NBA (two games behind the league worst Sacramento Kings) gets more valuable in what is considered a weak draft.

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The Wizards are hemorrhaging and the sharks are in the water. When a team is in the crapper, opposing trade ideas get delusional.

The Wiz are in a unique situation of futility. They are dealing with crucial injuries that would be a critical blow to any other team. (Do I appreciate the job that Eddie Jordan & Co. did last year even more? Yes I do.)

That being said, it’s evident that even if 100% healthy, the Wizards are pieces short of being a championship contender.

Does all this mean that Ernie Grunfeld, on whom the heat has been increasing lately, should push the panic button and just start making trades? Maybe and maybe not.

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Eddie Jordan was fired just a week ago. On the road at the time, I found out the news via email from Jake The Snake and began to hack out a post, The End of the Eddie Jordan Era: Say Goodbye to the Fall Guy.

Like many, I was surprised, but not necessarily shocked. It wasn’t until that night, as I sat in the Superdome for a great Monday night showdown between the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers, full of raw oysters, crab legs and Ketel-tonics, that it really hit me.

“Sh*t!,” I randomly said aloud. (well, random to those around, but not to me)

“What’s wrong….what happened?,” my dad quickly replied.

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We now know the scapegoat threshold on an NBA season in the District of Columbia: 10 losses against a solo win. As head coach of the Washington Wizards, Eddie Jordan is no more. If the WizzNutzz only had the foresight to include this among their Screaming Headlines…..

Someone had to take the fall. The Wizards crack medical staff? Well, they can’t exactly control the environment in which they work, but by most accounts, they are no medical staff of the Phoenix Suns.

The most glaring problem for the Wizards during Jordan’s tenure was bottom-of-the-barrel defense. Despite these facts surrounding the team’s stars: Gilbert Arenas, a bad defender; Caron Butler, a bad defender; Antawn Jamison, a bad defender; Antonio Daniels, a bad defender……when the pattern of defensive inefficiency creeps into its sixth consecutive year, the ultimate responsibility falls on the shoulders of the head coach.

All the tinkering and gimmicks in the world…..match-ups zones, doubling the ball off screens, the scheming of Randy Ayers (and to a lesser extent, Flip Saunders, who made a cameo in training camp as an instructor of zone defense)…….could not circumvent the fact that it’s easier to get rid of a coach than make roster adjustments.

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An old prophet once said, “I need you to do two things, be real with me, and be real with yourself.” You know who that prophet was? Jesus. Wait….no it wasn’t…..it was my old college roommate. No matter, a couple of Washington Wizards are having serious issues with this concept.

Case Study #1: Andray Blatche

Ok, I don’t recall every chance that Andray Blatche had to block out….maybe that’s something I should pay closer attention to in the future since it’s a problematic area for him. Remember, Blatche only played 3:49 seconds in the final preseason game specifically because he badly missed block-out assignments on two consecutive trips. Doing such a horrendous job in that one instance against the Nets, at such an important stretch of the game, would not lead me to think he did “well” at boxing out. Bigger picture….if turnovers are the only area in which Andray Blatche didn’t fare well last night, then we’ve got a problem with Blatche’s own assessment of his game. How are you going to improve if you’re not your own biggest critic?

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photo from washingtonwizards.com

I suppose people, myself included, can’t exactly help themselves when a team jettisons two guys named ‘Johnson’ from its roster. The official Washington Wizards blog treated the happening as if naming a law firm (or health care products/pharmaceuticals company) with the title, “Wiz Waive Johnson and Johnson.” Wizards Insider, usually run by the Washington Post’s Ivan Carter and Michael Lee, went the safe route with, “Wizards Release Two.” Someone named Alexa Steele filled in for Carter and Lee on this specific post….I guess when you have what sounds like a porn name already, you might want to avoid sexual innuendos by spitting out Johnson, the word. But alas, Mike Jones of the Washington Times ‘went there’ with his title, “Wizards Cut Johnsons.” C’mon Mike….don’t you know that Johnsons would rather be released than cut?

Ok…enough of that, back to the point at hand. Two positions of need assumed by Wizards fans this past offseason, before Gilbert Arenas went down, were a small forward to backup Caron Butler, and a third string point guard. After Dee Brown was signed, along with the summer league developments of Dominic McGuire’s mid-range jumper, the school of thought was that the former player would fill the latter position of need and vice versa. Working off these assumptions, Ernie Grunfeld would hold the 15th roster spot in a glass encased box to be broken in case of emergency.

Then Gilbert Arenas happened…..then Brendan Haywood happened….Haywood’s wrist surgery not having a greater influence over roster moves, as the Wizards seemingly had a logjam at the post position (Etan, Oily, ‘Dray, JaVale and Jamison — hey, that sounds like a MotheringHut t-shirt…..just remember where you heard it first).

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photobucket – TheCoolest404

I’m not sure if Ernie Grunfeld is good at chess, but when it comes to generally managing an NBA franchise, he has a knack for moving around pawns for the benefit of the program (not to trivialize the fill-in pieces which are crucial to a team’s end of the bench by calling them ‘pawns’).

A Michael Ruffin here (yea, he was the definition of a role player, but always did what was expected of him….well, except for this of course – Best game ever as a Wizard? Game 1 of the 04-05 season when Ruffin pulled down 11 boards, scored 6 points, and blocked 7 shots in a win at Memphis….to say the Wizards were short-handed that night would be an understatement: Kwame Brown, Etan Thomas, and Steve Blake were on the injured list; Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, Brendan Haywood an Anthony Peeler were all suspended from a pre-season fight with the Chicago Bulls)….Note: The Memphis game was also Antawn Jamison’s first game as a Wizard – 45 minutes, 34 points, 8 rebounds.

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