Washington Wizards Need To Fire Ernie Grunfeld

By Ben Mehic | Apr 3, 2016

Washington Wizards Must Fire Grunfeld

When people are bad at their jobs, they get fired. It’s a part of business and it happens daily. No one wants to see people lose their jobs, but in order to gain the highest level of success, having competent leaders in place is incredibly necessary. That’s why the Washington Wizards need to finally fire Ernie Grunfeld.

Grunfeld is one of the longest tenured general managers in the NBA. Kids who were born when Grunfeld became the Wizards’ team president in 2003 are now freshmen in high-school. He’s been around for an unbelievable amount of time.

I’m not going to write about his past failures as the team’s president.

I’m not going to write about how he passed on Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard for Jan Vesely, who washed out of the league quicker than he could airball a free throw.

I’m not going to write about how he traded a pick that could have been used to draft Stephen Curry for a season of Mike Miller and Randy Foye.

I’m not going to write about how he passed on Draymond Green a few years ago for Tomas Satoransky, who will probably never play a game for the Washington Wizards.

I’m not going to write about how he reportedly decided not to trade for James Harden.

I’m not going to write about how he paid our beloved Gilbert Arenas a trillion dollars, knowing that he had issues with his knee and it would come back to bite him.

I’m not going to write about how he wanted to build a team around John Wall…Nick Young, JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and Jordan Crawford.

I’m not going to write about any of that.

Instead, I’m going to focus on Ernie Grunfeld’s failures as a general manager this season.

Washington is currently in the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference with just a handful of games left to go in the season. Unless a 30-for-30 type of miracle occurs, the Wizards will miss the NBA Playoffs this season – effectively wasting the best season in their franchise player’s career.

The Wizards have been an absolute disaster and I won’t torture you through it again.

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We’ve blamed Randy Wittman for the problems the team has endured, and he’s deserving of some of the blame, but the next time the Wizards drop a double-digit lead, please take a look at who’s on the court.

Wittman doesn’t have much to work with and neither does Wall.

The team’s supposed second best player, Bradley Beal, has rarely been on the floor this season.

Marcin Gortat has been one of the team’s most reliable players, but if Gortat is one of your primary options, you’re probably going to be in some trouble.

To make matters worse, Grunfeld neglected to add youth during the off-season and opted to add veterans, even though the team was looking to play a faster, more modern brand of basketball.

The likes of Drew Gooden (who got a raise and hasn’t contributed at all this season), DeJuan Blair, Kris Humphries and Nene all occupied spots on the roster. None of the aforementioned players would be rotation players on contending teams and none of them have skill-sets that are conducive to winning in an uptempo system.

Grunfeld then signed Alan Anderson, who was dealing with a semi-serious ankle issue before agreeing to join the team.

Anderson has appeared in nine games this entire season. The other free agent they signed, Gary Neal, was eventually waived because of injury. Martell Webster, who was supposed to compete for a spot in the rotation, was also waived because of injury.

Grunfeld signed a bunch of injury prone, grumpy veterans who are well past their primes.

And then what did Grunfeld do? He tried to clean up his mess – just as he does every season.

Grunfeld acquired Markieff Morris at the trade deadline, hoping that the forward would give Washington a big enough lift to push them towards the playoffs. While he’s been good, his presence has not been enough to make that much of a difference. Morris is not an All-Star nor is he capable of carrying a team to such heights.

Grunfeld also signed J.J. Hickson and Marcus Thornton after completely mishandling the free agency situation during the summer. Of course, neither of those players have made much of an impact or at least one that is noteworthy.

Now the Washington Wizards are probably going to be without a spot in the NBA Playoffs and without a first round draft pick. This season is lost and the Wizards have nothing to gain from it, and it’s all Ernie Grunfeld’s fault.

Next: Roundtable: Discussing Bradley Beal and his Future

Ted Leonsis has to finally get rid of the person who’s set the franchise back, because not doing so means that the head guy is okay with losing and torturing his fan base. Realistically, Grunfeld should have been fired a very long time ago. Allowing Grunfeld to continue would be the equivalent of a slap in the face to those who care about the franchise, including John Wall.

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