Washington Wizards Blog

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 11:14 AM

Yea, I agree with the article in so far as Carron is concerned. What is up with the Wizards?!!? I really thought this was going to be a big year for them. Especially Arenas. I knew Carron would bring it because he said he would at the end of last season and I worry that because the Wizards are doing so poorly Caron won’t get his props.

He definitely deserves a spot on the All Star team and I for one will keep voting on him over and over in hopes that I can help put him there. Go Carron!

Comment from Andrew
Time November 30, 2006 at 11:21 AM

This whole article is BS. This guy has generally no idea what he is talking about. Sure, things do not look good now, but it is a long season. I believe that things will totally flip in certain areas of the heirarchy. How you can write an article like this, crapping on every team in the East, after 10 freaking games is beyond me. It has no basis, and I could not disagree with this guy more.

Comment from smchawk
Time November 30, 2006 at 12:21 PM

I read Simmon’s every time he has a new article out, and personally think the NBA is his forte. Seems he has more knowledge of it over any other sport. He’s a Boston guy and very, very biased towards them (or away from them) and has season tickets to the Clippers, so you’ll see he watches a lot more of those games than others. He often writes from a fans perspective, rather than a reporter and I think this is mostly based on how he receives his information – along the lines of a fan. He’s in fantasy basketball leagues, he sits in the stands, watches them on TV etc… He’s not at practices or in the locker room. Hence, like all the fans on this site, our opinions vary greatly. He just has more time to watch games and look at stats since that’s his job. So, onto his opinions:

1) Caron – I think we can all agree he’s having a great season.
2) Defensively – The Wizards stink, no news there.
3) A bad road team? – Check.
4) Jordan getting fired – I don’t see him getting fired. Not after just signing the contract extension, but as far as how much to blame the coach, I think EJ should be shouldering some of this blame. I think he should also get some of the credit. For instance:
5) Etan / Haywood two headed monster – Besides the fight, this seems to be working. The competition brought out the best in Etan right away, and now that Haywood has seemingly accepted it, he’s playing better and better. Well done by EJ. But then why is Ruffin constantly in the game at the end?
6) “But you know what? For once, I’m not blaming the coach. How can you play good team defense when your best two players (Arenas and Jamison) can’t play defense. . .” – 2 things here, first Butler is clearly our second best player along with Areans, but that’s nit picky. Second, why can’t they play defense? I’ve always considered defense to be made up mostly of hustle, anticipation and positioning. Anticipation you can’t teach or coach, but hustle a coach should be able to get out of his players and positioning is on the coach (though execution is on the players).
7) “Plus, is it Jordan’s fault that Arenas’ home scoring average nearly doubles his road scoring average (35.2 to 18.7), or that he’s shooting an impossible 29 percent on the road?” – I think that he’s mostly right on this, it’s mostly Arenas’ shooting woes, but I also think a coach can put people in a position to be successful. Most of us have decried Arenas willingness to shoot and shoot when he’s cold, instead of driving and dishing and getting others involved. I do think the coach should have some impact on this.

Overall on the article, the East does stink compared to the West. Nice to see him giving Ivan Carter and Michael Lee a shout out. Major takeaway point: Anyone in the East has a chance this year.

Major missed point: The Eastern Conference doesn’t have a standout Big man, with the exception of perhaps Dwight Howard. I’m pretty sure you could sum up the entire Eastern Conference with that statement. Who am I missing? Shaq’s hurt, Sheed and J. O’Neal are good, but aside from Howard, is there a PF / C who could sniff the All Star team in the West? I don’t think there is, and I think any team in the east that can acquire one, is going to boost themselves to the top of the Eastern Conference.

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 12:36 PM

This guy is an idiot. This is one of the dumbest things I ever read.

Comment from Brickjp
Time November 30, 2006 at 12:37 PM

I agree that writing this column at this point in the season would be to make an extreme judgement about the NFL after 3 games. WAY too early for these conclusions to be made.

As far as Caron, I think he will be an All-Star, like I said before the season. But we arent ‘wasting’ his career year. We have a long way to go and when we hit our groove we should be fine

Comment from zombie squirrels
Time November 30, 2006 at 2:07 PM

I think that the article is pretty dead-on. Gilbert’s head (as mentioned in several articles/blogs today) is clearly not in a good place right now. And I think that at this point, the coach has to shoulder a lot of the blame. This team has clearly plateaued as far as what EJ can get out of them. Yes he got us back to the playoffs, but there hasn’t been much improvement in the past 2 years and this team needs to get to the next level. EJ still has trouble with his rotations, still can’t get the team to play defense (yes, Gil and Antawn will never be great, but I agree with smchawk’s point #6) and team still can’t put teams away and has no killer instinct. I know that Ernie was between a rock and a hard place, but the extension for EJ was a mistake. This team needs a fresh voice to light a fire under them.

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 2:34 PM

Anyone who says we need to fire Eddie Jordan is just an idiot and know NOTHING about basketball.

He is struggling with the rotation, because he likes to have Antonio and Jarvis in at the end of the game. In past he would sub Hayes for Jeffries, but he can’t sub Hayes in now for Caron.

He’s got Antonio coming in for DeShawn… but to get Hayes in he’s got to take out Butler or Jamison.

Plus you can’t blame Eddie. The “Basketball Gods” have been against us. And the team is burdened with the injury to Songaila who is a major piece to this team.

Eddie is doing the best he can with a poorly constructed team which is not his fault it is Ernie Grunfeld’s fault. What has Grunfeld done so great? He lost Jeffries and Hughes, two players Eddie liked and wanted to keep. He traded Stackhouse and the #5 pick in the draft for the overrated and overpriced Antawn Jamison.

If Grunfeld didn’t make that dumb trade, we would have gotten a starter with that draft pick, Stackhouse would be gone via free agency by now, and we would of had enough money to retain Larry Hughes without Jamison’s rediculous contract holding us down!

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 2:36 PM

I agree entirely with smchawk’s comments.
I would like Arenas to take all of the time he currently is spending on scouting and figuring out the refs and spend it on figuring out how to defend better (scouting opposing players, working on his defensive rotations, etc.).

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 2:51 PM

did everyone forget gil’s comments b4 the season started? bout how if EJ isnt here he doesnt want to be here and might not re-sign i think this played more into his contract dicision than anything although i do belive that he had earned it at the time. at the same time EG had been preaching consistancy and after letting Larry and jeffries go he had to do something. so for all those who say EJ should be fired i dont agree he just needs more people healthy and gil to get his stroke bak
but mainly cuz i dont want to see gil not sign an extension.

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 2:56 PM

Amen to that anonymous! Arenas is focusing his energy in the wrong places. He needs to concentrate on further improving and elevating his game and quit spending time on how each referee calls the game. Start scouting players,find their weaknesses and figure out how to use it you your advantage Gil.

Comment from Wizards4life
Time November 30, 2006 at 3:06 PM

we have seen this type of crap all last year IMO this guy did not do his homework he has no idea what he is talking about and that’s all i am going to say because just like his article its a waist of my time! & the people that are for this guy saying he knows the NBA he is the best “I read Simmons’s every time he has a new article out, and personally think the NBA is his forte.” if he knows the NBA me and a few of the Blogger need to start a spots writing team because you would be blow away with some of the knowledge flying around here. if this guys forte is the NBA i feel sorry for him and sorry for the people who read his articles.

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 3:07 PM

I for one think all the hype about Arenas is getting to his head and might be affecting his game.Also it is to early in the season to be so worried.But I think we should look to make a trade for some good defenders mabe a trade with philadelphia and trade Antawn and Brendan for Andre Igoudala and Samuel Dalembert.

Comment from Andrew
Time November 30, 2006 at 3:44 PM

To anonoymous who ripped Grunfeld. What are your freaking talking about. Stack was becoming a clubhouse cancer. Larry is a traitor. He split before even giving the Wiz a chance to make a counter offer. As for Jeffries, he is nowhere near worth what the Knicks paid for him…they can have him. Grunfeld is a genious! Signing Songaila was huge, even though he is injured. It will be huge though. And getting Stevenson for spare change was phenomenal. I like the Pecherov draft pick. You forget that Grunfeld also brought in Arenas and fleeced the Lakers by sending Kwame and Laron Profit to LA for Caron and Chucky…pretty much Caron for Kwame straight up.

To sum it up anonymous…shut up, you know nothing!

Comment from wizardsdotcom
Time November 30, 2006 at 3:46 PM

Andrew - take it easy. I’d hate to close down this discussion…

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 4:52 PM

Grunfeld has made alot of mistakes plain and simple. The Caron for Kwame deal was great. But if he made that deal and then kept Hughes we would be a good team now. In essence, as far as our lineup, we exchanged Hughes for Butler, and did not replace Kwame with anything. That is fine, but you are saying we have reached the peak we can with Eddie Jordan as coach, but the reason we have been stagnant the past few seasons is because the talent of our roster has not improved. We have remained status quo. Hughes/Kwame for Butler is even(status quo), it is not IMPROVEMENT.

The plain fact is that Jamison is way overpriced, and his contract has kept us from making any move to take the next step. Including that number 5 pick was a huge mistake! Josh Childress, Luol Deng, Iguodala, and Josh Smith were players we could of had with that pick! Stackhouse would of left as a FA which would give us plenty of room to keep Hughes AND sign another FA!

Stevenson was just pure luck. Songaila is basically to replace Jeffries, again status quo.

And also he let go of Juan Dixon who signed with Portland for chump change, and overpaid Daniels at 6 mil a year for a backup guard! He could of just kept Chucky who we already had, or Dixon for a fraction of the cost. There was no need to pay that for Daniels with those other options, we needed to sign a PF to replace Kwame not another guard!

Jamison’s contract has prevented us from progressing. It has weighed us down. Plus we lost a young talent with the draft pick. ALSO Grunfeld made the brilliant draft pick of Peter John Ramos instead of taking Duhon.

If you want to find out why the ship is sinking, or not on course and just going around in circles, you look at the captain. And the captain of this ship is GRUNFELD.

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 5:10 PM

Arenas was pure luck also. Grunfeld only got him because of a glitch in the rule that because he was a 2nd rounder the Warriors could only offer so much and couldn’t match us. Everyone else had capped out so we only had to compete against one other team (the clippers). If things were all even we wouldn’t of gotten him, and because of this the rule in fact has since been changed. It was a good move, but it was no “genious” on Grunfeld’s part. It was total luck… it practically fell in his lap, just like the Stevenson signing.

Also he way overpaid for Etan Thomas. And he also made the brilliant move of cutting Bobby Simmons.

After the Arenas signing/gift this is the result:

Added: Songaila, Caron, Stevenson, Daniels, Jamison

Lost: Hughes, Kwame, Jeffries, Bobby Simmons, Stackhouse, the #5 pick in Draft, Chucky Atkins, Dixon

Not good, not bad…STATUS QUO.
Nothing “genious” about it.

Comment from ned_e_boy
Time November 30, 2006 at 5:12 PM

Wizard 4 Life - is that a slim waist of your time or a big fat one?

Comment from smchawk
Time November 30, 2006 at 5:12 PM

I think Andrew’s right about Grunfield. Basketball is a business and I think he’s made some good business decisions. Stack & Kwame were easy trades, and Jamison has an All Star year under his belt for us, but he has begun to wear down a bit now.
As far as Hughes, I never thought he was one of the elite players and I didn’t mind him leaving. He might have led the league in steals, but that didn’t mean he played defense. I have always likened him to a corner back in football. Who would you rather have, a guy who pulls down 7 interceptions but gives up 15, or a guy who the other team won’t even consider passing against? Well to me, Hughes was the type of player who always gambled on the interception, and he got burned as often, if not more, as he made the play. And the Knicks overpaid for Jeffries. And to paraphrase Simmon’s NBA preview on that matter where he praised Grunfield: The Wizards are paying Stevenson about 1/30 of what it would have cost them to keep Jeffries. Maybe Stevenson is only 1/4 of the player, but the math looks pretty good.

As far as the length of the season, some teams have played as many as 16 games, that’s a fith of the way through the season. About 20% in the bag. I don’t think the article was written as some grand analysis, it’s written from a fans perspective. That perspective to me seemed to be that the East is wide open, and whoever emerges from it would probably be somewhere near the bottom out west.

Bottom line is Simmon’s to me is entertainment. I enjoy reading his articles and obviously they hold some good jumping off points. For those who are critical, I’d much rather read a breakdown of what you agree / disagree with and why, then just dismissing the article as rubbish.

Comment from Anonymous
Time November 30, 2006 at 5:58 PM

Grunfeld:

Drafted Peter John Ramos and passed on Chris Duhon

Included #5 pick in Jamison trade. Available players included Josh Smith, Josh Childress, Luol Deng, and Iguodala.

Let Bobby Simmons, Juan Dixon, Jared Jeffries, Chucky Atkins, and Larry Hughes all go for nothing in return. Couldn’t trade any of these guys?

Overpaid for Etan. Took on Jamison’s rediculous overpriced contract which has weighed us down ever since. Our highest salary for a player who doesn’t play defense.

Overpaid for Daniels, a backup guard, instead of signing a PF that we needed, when we already had Atkins and Dixon for fraction of the salary.

Grunfeld is overrated, and certainly not a “genious”.

Comment from Neal
Time November 30, 2006 at 9:42 PM

I agree with smchawk on the Simmons article.

Jordan isn’t going soon. But I do hope Grunfeld has a free hand re. the manager. Hope Polin won’t give unqualified loyalty to Jordan as he did with Unseld. I like Jordan’s offense but it doesn’t seem to me he’s been demanding enough.

I like Grunfeld. I love the people he’s brought in. He did pay too much for Jamison. Either he or Jordan must have been anxious to get him out of the locker room. And it’s a shame we lost Bobby Simmons. Not sure if he/Jordan should have seen what Simmons was to become. But if the GM gets most of his moves right, he’s doing great. Neither Hughes (even ignoring his injury history) nor Jeffries were worth what he would have had to pay for them. Thomas is a little overpaid, but at the time Grunfeld had to make a statement to the fans and other players in the league that the Wizards were through letting other teams steal our good players when they became free agents. I don’t blame him for that.

Getting Arenas was the beginning of the turnaround for the team. I would much rather have Butler than Kwame. I would almost as soon have Daniels as Hughes. I would just as soon have Stevenson as Jeffries. And look at the salary we saved in each case. You can’t sign Hughes as the highest paid player on the team. Come on! Sometimes what a GM doesn’t do is as important as what he does.

Getting Songaila at his price was a steal. Who knew then that he was hobbled?

So…I think we are now in position to sign a big-time free agent. Someone tell me if that’s so. Do we have the salary cap? Whose contract expires next year other than Haywood? When is Jamison’s contract up?

Would Thomas, backed up by Lang, be feasible at center (presuming Pecherov remains at PF, as projected)? I presume Veremeenko will stay in Europe another year.

Comment from Neal
Time November 30, 2006 at 11:37 PM

So much depends on Arenas. I thought I would compare last year to this year so far:

Yr. Min. FG% Asst TO PF PPG
05-06 42 45 6.1 3.7 3.6 29.3
06-07 39 39 6.5 3.7 4.0 25.9

The picture is not as bad as I expected. His assist to TO ratio has actually improved, though it’s not where it needs to be. He hasn’t yet adjusted to the new tendency to call charges rather than blocking fouls on some of his drives. And his shooting is off. I’m glad he’s playing less than 40 min. per game. If he can just get back to shooting 45% I’m fine with him just averaging 25 points per game. The rest of the team will do better.

Comment from Wizards4life
Time December 1, 2006 at 12:31 AM

well said neal you coverd all the points i was just about to cover and i been saying that all year about the cap sapce but i have no idea what kinda room we have or who might be up for grabs

Comment from Neal
Time December 1, 2006 at 8:54 AM

Just for fun I looked up the assist to turnover ratio of the following:
Antonio Daniels 2.6/.79 = 3.3
Jason Kidd 9.2/3.0 = 3.1
Steve Nash 10.8/3.58 = 3.1
Tyronne Lue 4.0/1.54 = 2.6
Gilbert Arenas 6.5/3.7 = 1.8

Makes me wonder whether Daniels should be the PG and Arenas the SG.

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 1, 2006 at 9:48 AM

You all should get off Gil’s back. Let him do whatever he wants. If he wants to complain about the refs so what!

Comment from FUTANG
Time December 1, 2006 at 9:50 AM

We’re undefeated in the Golds, maybe we should wear those more!

Comment from smchawk
Time December 1, 2006 at 10:11 AM

Neal - Right now AD is the sixth man off the bench. Between him and Hayes the second unit scoring is on thier shoulders. That’s why at the end of games AD is usually in there, but I don’t think his roll is to start for this team.

I think the stat comparrison of Arenas last year to this year is a bit skewed by two things: 1) Much bigger population to draw from last year and 2) Break out this years stats either by wins vs losses or Home vs. Away games. Actually, for some real nice analysis do it for both this year and last year. I’m fairly confident you’ll see that Arenas was much more consistent last year, where as his average this year is only similar because he has been so far above the averages at home / wins and so far below in road / losses.

Comment from wizardsdotcom
Time December 1, 2006 at 10:35 AM

This column obviously touched a nerve…

Some thoughts, mostly on the comments regarding Ernie:
* Bobby Simmons was a marginal player at the time he moved to LAC and was mostly a training camp invitee. He was hardly pursued by anyone.
*Jamison overpaid? Maybe - but remember, he’s the primary reason behind the team’s resurgence the past three years.
*PJR - was considered by many a 1st round draft pick and was picked late 2nd round.
*Daniels was paid his market rate when he was signed last off-season.
*Stevenson - luck? Sure, maybe. But everyone needs luck and gets lucky in the NBA. (Off topic: You could consider Gilbert a lucky acquisition. A number of things fell into place that summer which gave the team enough cap space to sign GA - anyone remember what those things were?)
* Caron for Kwame - a steal. You don’t think LA would LOVE to have CB right now?

Many of the criticisms of Ernie don’t even take into account salary cap/luxury tax constraints. Don’t forget to keep all of that in mind.

Everything, especially roster moves are 20/20 in hindsight in ALL sports and businesses. Every max player (aside from the All-Worlders like Kobe, KG, Shaq, etc) will be overpaid as their yearly wages rise because of their contract structures and as they start to age (ie. Allan Houston, Scottie Pippen, etc). There are a lot of players now on at least half the teams in the league that will fit into this category in the next few years. It’s how it works.

Bottom line - Ernie has put together a team that contends for the playoffs every year. Give the man the credit he’s due.

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 1, 2006 at 11:05 AM

Yeah well, then give Eddie Jordan the credit he’s due also.

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 1, 2006 at 11:59 AM

The Jamison for Harris and Christian and Stack trade was a great trade for both teams. Dallas definetely got the better of the deal, but without it we’re nowhere near playoffs. We got rid of two cancers in the locker room for our a border line all-star the last two years. Without Jamison, we’d still be in the lottery hoping to go to the playoffs. Of course, then again a #5 pick is pretty important. After all Iverson and Iguodala have been going to the playoffs each year, right?

We’re way over the cap (9 Mil) and we’re getting close to luxury tax territory. That’s pretty much the story for every team. We’re not going to be able to get a major free agent until Jamison or Thomas contract expire. I believe ESPN says that Jamison has two years left. Says Haywood has 4 years though. Hayes’s and Deshawns contract expires next year along with most of our bench warmers.

Would Antonio Daniels and maybe a second round pick be enough to get Duhon and Sweetney(why isn’t he being played at all?) from the Bulls? That would give the Wiz another backup center and a real point guard. Maybe then Arenas wouldn’t have to play 40 minutes a game, score 30 pts a game, get 6-7 assists and play defense. Maybe Daniels for Brevin Knight might work? Charlotte already has Felton.

I’m not so sure that the Lakers won’t get the last laugh with the Caron for Kwame trade. Kwame is doing well this year now that he’s getting over injuries. If Kwame and Bynum can just show some promise, they can trade one of them for a lot more then Butler.

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 1, 2006 at 1:03 PM

I’m glad we are having this Grunfeld conversation. In my view, he’s done some good things and some bad:

The good:
- The Jamison trade. He gave up a ton, too much in my opinion, but a team of talented young players can get used to losing and never develop. He probably felt he needed to get the team in the playoffs to avoid that loser’s mentality. He gave up too much to get Jamison, but the team’s been in the playoffs ever since and the team is in the right frame of mind. You can’t argue with that.
- Not matching Cleveland’s huge offer for Hughes. But see below on Hughes.
- Not matching NY’s offer for Jeffries.
- The Kwame for Butler trade. I’m disappointed he didn’t do more to make the Kwame situation work (Kwame is pretty much what this team could use right now), but when it didn’t work, he got a gem of a player in return.
- The extension of Brendan’s deal at a good price.
- He has taken a long term view and managed the cap well. After Jamison’s deal comes off the books summer of 2008, there aren’t any bad contracts, with the possible exception of Thomas’s, but even then the deal isn’t that bad.

The bad:
- He could have extended a couple of rookie deals for an extra year at relatively low prices, didn’t, and then paid the price when those players walked or got a high offer the team then matched. Etan Thomas is the primary example here. The team could have extended Etan’s rookie contract for another year but chose not to. Milwaukee then came in with a mid-level offer, and the Wiz matched, a $2 or 3 million mistake in the first year alone. Same thing with Juan — could have extended Juan for an additional year for $1.5 or so, but instead Juan signed a deal for #$3 or so million per year. Why would you not keep someone with Juan’s scoring ability around if it only costs you $1.5 million?
- Chose Chucky Atkins over Steve Blake — let Blake go when it was obvious even at the time that Atkins should have been traded in that summer for a big guy. Donnell Taylor is no Steve Blake, and the team misses having a good backup pure PG.
- Did not resign Hughes to an extension the year before Hughes became a free agent. He was the team’s best player for the 18 months prior and was getting better and better. Instead of having the foresight to lock him up at a discount, he gambled and Hughes landed a big deal with a desperate Cleveland the next summer. His biggest error so far.
- Didn’t sign Hayes to an extension this fall when he, again, could have done so at a discount. I think this one will come back to bite him too.

Overall, a B-. The team has taken a step back in the last couple of years, but the only way to avoid that was to have overpaid for Hughes and Jeffries. Short term, that’s not so great, but long term it should be really great.

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 1, 2006 at 1:17 PM

Are they wearing the gold jersey’s tonight?

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 1, 2006 at 2:57 PM

I had a similar injury and surgery as Darius Songaila. I can tell you for a fact it is caused by poor posture. It is an injury that can be avoided by keeping your back straight rather than slouching throughout life.

Comment from wizardsdotcom
Time December 1, 2006 at 3:34 PM

Anonymous - everytime the people jump on this board to criticize Eddie, I’m the first to defend, if not here, at least in my mind (and to anyone nearby who’ll listen).

Comment from smchawk
Time December 1, 2006 at 3:43 PM

Perhaps I’m skewed on Grunfield. I feel like he’s done an A+ job. But that’s perhaps because Unseld before him got around an D- or an F. Like a guy who gets out of a horrid, miserable relationship, and starts dating the decently attractive friend who was the shoulder for him to lean on during those rough times. Compared to what he had before, she’s a super model.

Comment from wizardsdotcom
Time December 1, 2006 at 3:45 PM

Actually, it wasn’t Wes who preceded him….the guy who preceded Grunfeld was here for three+ seasons…

Comment from Wiz034
Time December 1, 2006 at 6:29 PM

I find this amazing that you are having this discussion after less than twenty games. I guarantee you when the Wizards hit there stride and they will, you guys will be singing a different tune. You guys will be talking about how great they are, what a genius EJ and Grunfeld are. How you weren’t worried about about Gil’s and AJ shooting slump. You guys should just lay off for now, give the Wizards a little more time. The season just started.

Comment from Neal
Time December 2, 2006 at 9:26 AM

Anonymous, seems to me you’re spot on. I hadn’t focused on those several non-extensions that we should have had. Are you sure the players would have signed them?

These things sound like the same old Bullets/Wizards. And it sounds like the hand of Polin (not wanting to pay the market price). Still, I think Grunfeld has more pluses than credits to his account. Saying he was lucky doesn’t ring true to me. He seized opportunities when they were there and other teams didn’t. And he was patient enough to pass on other opportunities we don’t even know about. I doubt there’s any GM prospect out there as good.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time December 2, 2006 at 9:56 AM

Decisions about personnel and contracts are *all* made in the middle of a bunch of financial and other complications. It’s not like building a fantasy basketball team, guys.

There are few geniuses, and maybe the quality doesn’t last either — anyone think Jerry West has displayed ‘genius’ w/ Memphis?

Most people thought Michael’s trade of Rip Hamilton for Stackhouse was a good trade for us. Most of us would have made that trade at the time. Most of us would have drafted Kwame in ‘01 too. But, a few years later, we needed to do *anything* to dump Stack (whom no one else would take in a trade), and clearly trading Kwame for Caron was a big win for us. There was no way Kwame could stay, and under those circumstances you are lucky if you get *anything* in return — we got a potential all-star.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time December 2, 2006 at 10:03 AM

Someone suggested we could have traded Chucky for “a big guy.” Come on! Do you really think we just let Chucky go before looking around the league to see what we could get for him?

There was also criticism of AD’s salary. Sorry, but he is probably the most productive player on the team minute-for-minute.

The one thing I will say is that all the congratulatory extensions, promotions and general back-patting over the summer don’t look so good right now. I would also like to see a first round draft choice from this last draft as part of the team. But, if Pecherov comes in next year as an even better player then I’ll take my hat off to Ernie.

Comment from wizardsdotcom
Time December 2, 2006 at 10:07 AM

Neal - I don’t think pointing the blame based on the past or at Abe Pollin is what the anonymous poster was getting at.

Remember, fiscal responsibility is a big part of the NBA market place. Most owners don’t want to pay the luxury tax, even contending teams (ie, MIA).

To be honest, I don’t know what the CBA rules are regarding extending Larry before his contract was up (he was on a 4 year mid level contract).

Comment from Anonymous
Time December 2, 2006 at 11:05 PM

I think Ernie has done some great things for the team. First off he has put together a team that is capable of making it to the playoffs. However, Eddie Jordan has NO idea what to do with the team. In watching and analyzing the games I feel as though the team lives by the “BIG 3″ and also dies by the “BIG 3.” If the Wizards do not play as a team (instead of as individuals) they will have a repeat of last season. Arenas is a GOOD player. However he will never be great because he plays as an individual. Great players make other players on their team good by getting them involved. That my friends is the difference between winning and losing. Steve Nash……

Eddie has no clue what to do witth this team. For one his is clearly jerking Hayes, Daniels and Thomas around. Hayes is clearly healthy yet averaging 5ppg? Compared to his last 3 years something is wrong with this picture. I would love to see him get the opportunity that he deserves. I would love to see Eddie work these 3 players into the rotation consistantly. Thomas seems to have stepped his game up over the last year and as a result has earned a well deserved starting position. However, Eddie still doen’t know what he wants to do with Thomas and Haywood. Daniels has to be one of the most consistant players on the team. Daniels plays unselfishly and smart. He gets his team involved and doesn’t take stupid shots just for the sake of getting his average up. Eddie’s extention was a mistake; and I am sure you will agree after the season is over.