Let's start with the most obvious reason for dismissing Grunfeld...His record as GM is 444-606! The team has only won 42% of games during Grunfeld's tenure despite the Eastern Conference being incredibly watered down throughout virtually the entire tenure. A failure to win half of your games in a bad league could be plenty of reason to be let go. Never making the Eastern Conference Finals when you have been around since 2003 is also not acceptable. Those reasons alone are sufficient, but it gets worse.....
Ernie Grunfeld has had an incredible 22 draft picks in his time in Washington, many of which were top 5 selections. With those selections he has managed to pick one all-star. That all-star he should not even get credit for. John Wall was the no-brainer #1 pick that everyone would have made. The fact that he received the #1 pick should show you about his underwhelming teams at the same time. He did get one easy selection correct though. Look at all the misses below though and you will see how awful he was...
Complete draft history for Grunfeld in Washington
2003 DraftJarvis Hayes (10) and Steve Blake (38)
While Hayes was not what he was supposed to be, I did not mind this pick at the time so hard to fault it now. Hayes seemed to be the shooter Washington needed, but just didn't pan out. Steve Blake is still a productive player in the league, so that is probably Grunfeld's best pick there at 38. David West went 18, Josh Howard 29, Mo Williams 47, and Kyle Korver 51.
2004 Draft
#5 Pick traded for Antawn Jamison, #32 Peter John Ramos
It is hard to fault the Wizards for trading for Jamison, as he was incredibly productive and an all-star. However, picking Iguodala who went #9 would have been the ideal move. Iguodala would go on to be Finals MVP in the 2015 NBA Finals. He will again start for Golden State's dream team next season. Ramos was one of the biggest busts Grunfeld had and that is saying a lot. He played only during one season and only 6 games. He contributed nothing! Trevor Ariza meanwhile was drafted by the Knicks 12 picks later.
2005 Draft
#20 Pick Traded for Brandon Haywood, #49 Andray Blatche
As deep in the draft as he was picked, Andray Blatche was a pretty solid pick by Grunfeld. However, Marcin Gortat was still available at that point. Additionally, any good will with the selection was erased by the fact that Grunfeld extended him two years before he would have had to for way too much money. That contract and Blatche's attitude following the extension set the Wizards back for years. Overall it was a weak draft and while I wanted the team to pick Nate Robinson (a personal favorite) at 20, Brandon Haywood was a good trade.
2006 Draft
Olekisy Pecherov (18) and Vladimir Veremeenko (48)
Pecherov was the WORST SELECTION that I can remember in Wizards history besides Kwame Brown. He was terrible. It gets worse everytime you see Kyle Lowry be so successful in Toronto. Lowry was selected 24 overall by Memphis. Veremeenko never even played in the NBA. Meanwhile Ryan Hollins a 10 year vet was selected #50 that year.
2007 Draft
Nick Young (16) and Dominic McGuire (47)
Nick Young is probably my least favorite Wizards player of all-time. Dude was a black hole on offense who never passed. He won a few for the Wizards, but lost infinitely more games than he won. The top player selected after young was Marc Gasol, who was selected all the way back at 48. They could have had him in the 2nd round, but selected the underwhelming Dominic McGuire instead. Washington could have come out of this draft with Carl Landry (31) and Marc Gasol and really shored up that interior that struggled for years.
2008 Draft
Javele McGee (18) and Pick #47 Traded
McGee had some promise and the Wizards faithful were always hopeful that he panned out. Unfortunately, he never became the player we were told we were getting. DeAndre Jordan however was one of the best players in the draft all the way down at 35. What makes this pick really bad though is that every player picked 19-37 in that draft with the exception of 3 players (Donte Greene, JR Giddens, and Walter Sharpe) ended up as better players than McGee. 16 of 19 selections immediately following McGee were decidely better picks.
2009 Draft
The Wizards trade both selections in this draft. This will be described further below as it is the biggest miss that the Wizards had under Grunfeld. All of that to obtain Mike Miller!?!?!?!?
2010 Draft
John Wall (1), Kevin Seraphin (17), Trevor Booker (23), Hamady N'Diaye (56)
It was no surprise that the Wizards would get the top pick after trading a top 5 pick for Mike Miller. John Wall is the lone all-star that Grunfeld has selected, but you could argue that he is just the 5th most productive player in this class. Paul George, DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, and Gordon Hayward have all been slightly more productive to date in their NBA careers. Still, we can give Grunfeld credit for doing the smart thing in taking Wall, who still has a lot of upside.
Now after Walll...Kevin Seraphin always had the talent, but just did not produce to an adaquate level. The Wizards could have had Grevis Vasquez (28), Avery Bradley (19), or the most productive player at that point who was selected a pick later, Eric Bledsoe (18). Each of those would have been effective in pairing with Wall and building a nice young backcourt. Trevor Booker is no longer a Wizard, but he has had a solid career and was a very decent pick at that spot.
2011 Draft
Jan Veseley (6), Chris Singleton (18), Shelvin Mack (34)
Veseley and Singleton were each out of the league after 3 years, while Mack is still in the league and was a solid selection. The 1st two were busts. Singleton was the pick I liked at the time as a Nole. He had a great first year and then just stunk it up. To think this team could have come out of this draft with Kawhi Leonard (15) and Jimmy Butler (30) is enough to make you sick. This team could have competed for titles if they selected Leonard and Butler. Those two paired with Wall, almost certainly would have won a championship. They could have had the top 2 players in the draft. However, so could have a lot of other teams, Butler did fall all the way to 30. Still, Leonard should have been a player on the radar at 6. The Spurs certainly knew what they were doing....
It is hard to fault the Mack pick, but Isaiah Thomas and Chandler Parsons were still on the board. This draft should have set up the Wizards for a championship run with Kawhi, Butler, and Isaiah! Ahhhhhhhh!
2012 Draft
Bradley Beal (3), Tomas Satoransky (32)
The Wizards were given a unique chance to rectify their God awful 2011 draft with a few high picks in 2012. Unfortunately, they blew it again. Bradley Beal has been an injured mess, but they could have selected big man Andre Drummond (9). Drummond is flourishing and would have been ideal to pair with Wall. However, if they wanted to get a backcourt mate, they could have gotten Damian Lillard (6). Are you sick to your stomach yet? No, Well Draymond Green went (35) while Satoransky never played professional basketball! We could have had Andre Drummond and Draymond Green! Again, this should have been the building blocks of a championship!
2013 Draft
Otto Porter (3), Glen Rice Jr. (35)
It is hard to fault this one. Porter is developing into a nice player and needs time, but that being said, Giannis Antetokuonmpo is clearly the top player to this point and will likely remain top.
2014 Draft
Trade their picks again! Bunch of Morons!
They had the 18th pick and could have drafted Rodney Hood who ended up being a solid player
2015 Draft
Kelly Oubre (16) and Aaron White (49)
This actually looks solid
2016 Draft
Again traded the picks
I guess Grunfeld at least knows he sucks at picking by this point because he keeps trading picks.
Let's go over one of these in detail. Heading into the 2009 NBA Draft, the Wizards have the 5th pick in a loaded class. This draft had Blake Griffin, James Harden, Tyreke Evans, Ricky Rubio, DeMar DeRozan, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, Danny Green, Darren Collison, and some guy named Stephen Curry. Curry would go 7th during that draft. He was from Virginia and went to school in North Carolina. Picking Curry would have been perfect. But no.......Ernie Grunfeld trades the pick and 3 players for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. The Wizards thought they were close to competing for a championship and traded for the duo instead of picking in a loaded draft class. Any of the above players would have helped more than the short and unproductive stints of Miller and Foye, but this move especially stings knowing that the 2 time MVP and local boy could have been picked. This bonehead move and missing on Curry alone could be enough to fire Grunfeld, but we will continue....
I could talk about more bonehead free agent moves and terrible contracts, but this article just makes me angry. I am writing it and I am still mad. Ernie Grunfeld is a complete joke of a general manager.
All of this is irrelevant though in the grand scheme as Grunfeld still has a job. Even if Ted was able to let all of the other bonehead moves slide though, the question still remains?
Why wasn't Grunfeld fired for this failed plan this offseason?
The Wizards cleared cap space for this offseason and inadverntenly signaled to fans that they were going all in on #KD2DC. That plan failed. KD signed with the Warriors. We paid a rediculous contract for a guy that has averaged 5 points a game for his career instead.
How can we not see that Ernie has failed at this point?
Oh well, I guess I will never see a Wizards Eastern Conference Finals appearance or an MVP in my lifetime. Every other team has done one of those in the East except my Wizards (even the Raptors who haven't been around long), but hey at least we have those memories of Mike Miller and we get to see Ian Mahinmi this year right?
Why win anyways?
This is a DC Sports team after all!
- Noland
