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Washington Wizards’ Ernie Grunfeld Is Entering Most Important Summer Of His Career

By Ben Mehic

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Washington Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld has gotten plenty of chances to get the job done, but now he’s entering the most important summer of his career

We all believe in second or maybe even third chances. The Washington Wizards, as it applies to Ernie Grunfeld, believe in many more chances than most of us.

Grunfeld has received more passes than arguably any other general manager in the NBA. After taking over as the general manager in 2003, Grunfeld has never reached the Eastern Conference Finals with the Wizards.

Grunfeld, who’s the fourth longest tenured manager in the NBA, has been criticized for virtually his entire career, and rightfully so.

Countless draft blunders and botches in free agency have set the Wizards back as a franchise. Prior to drafting John Wall with the first overall pick in 2010, Grunfeld only selected one All-Star – Michael Redd with the 43rd pick in the 2000 NBA Draft.

The opportunities have been there, but Grunfeld has failed to capitalize. For your sake, I’ll refrain from listing the failed opportunities.

This summer, Grunfeld is entering the most important free agency period of his career.

The Wizards agreed to a five-year deal with Scott Brooks, making him the third highest paid coach in the league who also doesn’t have front office duties.

Brooks is going to be in the nation’s capital for the long-haul. The Wizards have made a new commitment to developing their players and Brooks has been tasked with getting the most out of Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre.

We can assume that Brooks will be the team’s head coach for quite some time, even if they don’t quite meet expectations.

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Now the pressure has been put on Grunfeld to deliver.

The summer of 2016 has been sold to the fans as the time the Wizards will go all-in on acquiring another star and becoming a contender in the Eastern Conference.

Following two consecutive playoff berths and a disappointing year, the Washington Wizards can’t afford to not take great strides this upcoming season, and it will be on Grunfeld to put together the roster that can perform.

Grunfeld, to his credit, did a solid job of getting contributors with very little to work with this past summer.

He used the mid-level exception to acquire Alan Anderson, a deal that looked like a steal at the time, a trade exception to acquire Jared Dudley and the bi-annual to sign Gary Neal.

Two of the three previously mentioned players all contributed and helped the Washington Wizards become a better offensive team.

This summer is going to be completely different. With max dollars at his disposal, Grunfeld is heading into the free agency period with just five players under contract.

Beal will return to the Wizards on a five-year max contract, but the team will still have enough cap space to sign another player to a max deal.

Grunfeld, like virtually every other top executive, is going to pursue Kevin Durant.

If Grunfeld cannot convince Durant to come home, he’s still going to need to add talent to the roster.

Wall has already spoken about the team’s need to acquire another star player. Grunfeld added Markieff Morris, who’s going to be the starting forward, but he needs to do more in order to catapult the Washington Wizards among the contenders in the East.

The likes of Hassan Whiteside, Dwight Howard, DeMar DeRozan and Nicolas Batum are going to become unrestricted free agents. Trade options involving teams that are looking to rebuild could also become available.

Regardless of how it happens, Grunfeld has to find a way to add another star-quality player to the roster this summer.

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis acknowledged that Grunfeld stuck to his plan this past season and wasn’t in danger of losing his position:

"“If we had varied from the plan and the plan didn’t work then I think I would’ve been within my realm of my responsibility to take a look. We were executing a plan we agreed to when I bought the team five years ago.”"

At this point, no one really knows what the Washington Wizards’ plan is. But, we do know that they’ve been planning for this summer for at least two years by strategically signing players to contracts that expire in 2016.

Grunfeld has to execute whatever plan Leonsis was citing because it could be his last chance to do make the Wizards a top team in the East.

The blame cannot be shifted on anyone else. Randy Wittman took the fall this past season, but Brooks isn’t going to be that guy.

Next: Complete History of Ernie Grunfeld's Draft Failures

It’s on Grunfeld to sign the right players or acquire them through trade. He has all the cap space and flexibility in the world to get the job done. When the season is over and the Wizards either achieved their goals or failed miserably, the finger could be pointed only at one person: Ernie Grunfeld.

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