Grunfeld's Golden Era is Over

When the Wizards fired Flip Saunders on January 24^th, President Ernie Grunfeld made the following comment, “We have been transparent in how we would evaluate our team this season and we were disappointed in the lack of development of our players at this point in our rebuilding plan.” The Wizards continued their organizational house cleaning that began during the 2009-10 season, Saunders’ first with the Wizards. Expectations did not come to fruition for Flip Saunders or the organization over the past few years and the current version of the Wizards is far different from the one that made basketball relevant again in DC only a few years ago. Ernie Grunfeld was the man responsible for the renaissance of professional basketball in DC, but he is also the man to blame for the rebuilding project that DC fans are currently witnessing. Players have been traded and coaches have been fired over the past few years, but it remains a mystery how Grunfeld has escaped this demise unscathed. 

The Golden Years

Hibachi!

Grunfeld presided over the first Wizards playoff victory in 23 years when the team defeated the Bulls 4-2 during the 2004-05 season. This soon turned into a string of four consecutive playoff berths for the DC franchise. At the start of Grunfeld’s tenure, he had the foresight to sign 2^nd round draft pick Gilbert “Agent Zero” Arenas. Arenas burst onto the scene in DC and fans got to witness the birth of a superstar. After the first taste of playoff success in DC, Grunfeld did not try and pull a Dan Snyder and try to break the bank in free agency. He did not cripple the team by overpaying for talent (Larry Hughes) and made savvy trades in order to turn the Wizards into a competitive franchise (5^th pick for Jamison and Kwame for Butler trades). 

DC fans watched the Wizards franchise peak in the early part of 2007 as the team went 22-9 over December and January and head coach Eddie Jordan was selected to coach the Eastern Conference all-star game. Arenas turned into one of the games young superstars and when he wasn’t hitting game winning 3 pointers on a nightly basis, he was busy outdueling Kobe Bryant in LA with a 60 point, 8 rebound, 8 assist performance and Steve Nash in Phoenix to the tune of 54 points. Unfortunately this basketball re-birth came to a quick and painful end on April fool’s day of all days. On April 1, 2007, Butler fractured his hand in a game against Milwaukee and then 3 days later Gerald Wallace went tumbling head first into Arenas’ knee and effectively ending Arenas’ season and the hopes of Wizards’ fans everywhere (all 10 of them). The Wizards still managed to back into the playoffs with a 41-41 record but drew Lebron and the Cavs for a second straight year. Playing without their top two players the Wiz were soundly defeated 4-0 for their second consecutive first round defeat. 

Thanks for ruining my career Gerald

The Wizards last made the playoffs in 2007-08. Despite losing Arenas for most of the season after 8 games, the Wizards went 43-39 and drew the Cavs in the first round for the third consecutive year. Despite being the chic upset pick by many NBA prognosticators, the Wizards still had no answer for Queen James. The Queen finished off the Wizards in Game 6 at the Verizon Center with a triple double and the Wizards were sent packing yet again.

Ernie’s Big Gamble

After a dreadful and injury plagued 2008-09 season, Ernie Grunfeld pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table during the 2009 off-season when he traded the teams number five draft pick in order to get players that could help the team “win now.” This traded netted the Wizards two role players in the likes of Randy Foye and Mike Miller. Despite coming off a 19-63 season, Grunfeld believed that the Wizards could compete in the Eastern Conference with their big 3 of Gilbert, Caron, and Jamison (if healthy). A common refrain from the team at this point was “We were in 1^st place in the east in 2006-07 before Caron and Gilbert got hurt. As long as we stay healthy we will be able to compete again.” Unfortunately, Grunfeld did not factor in the fact that the Eastern Conference had improved tremendously over the years (Cleveland, Orlando, and Atlanta) and the team still did not have anyone to contain Lebron (DeShawn Stevenson did not count at this point of time). Also, after two injury plagued seasons, Arenas would never be able to regain the quickness and explosiveness he displayed when routinely hitting game winning shots and 60 point performances.

Grunfeld gambled that the addition of Foye and Miller could keep the Wizards competitive in the Eastern Conference; however this gamble failed miserably and soon blew up in Grunfeld’s face after the Gilbert / Javaris debacle. The Wizards recently posted the following records:

Year	Division	W	L	%
2008–09	5th	19	63	23%
2009–10	5th	26	56	32%
2010–11	5th	23	59	28%

The team that Grunfeld thought could contend in the Eastern Conference in 2009-10 was soon blown up and resulted in a team that became reliant on unproven bench players such as Nick Young and Andre Blatche. Grunfeld did have the good fortune to have John Wall and the number 1 pick fall into his lap during the summer of 2010, but he should not have the ability to squander Wall’s time in DC. The majority of players present in DC during its 4 year playoff run are no longer around and neither are the head coaches who presided over the team during Grunfeld’s reign as President. Flip Saunders took the head coaching job in DC with visions of playoff appearances. Instead he was handicapped by an injury plagued roster that was quickly disbanded and turned into a full fledged rebuilding project. Flip was fired due to his inability to develop the players on the current roster; however it is only fair that the man who put together this current group of players should be fired as well. The golden age in DC is long gone.

How am I still employed?