Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: Moving On From Randy Wittman and Ernie Grunfeld

Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: January 4th, 2016

Happy New Year, everybody.

Even though it’s a new year, we’re going to continue our old traditions with Mailbag Monday. The ball has dropped and the Washington Wizards remain two games below .500, so have things really changed?

To start the first Monday of the new year, Nithin (@Nkuchibhotla) is here to answer all of your Wizards-related questions. If you’d like your question featured next week, please tweet us: @WizofAwes. Thank you for participating.

Today’s questions come from Twitter and Reddit.

And as always, Happy Monday.

This is what it has come to for the Wizards – debating whether Jon Freaking Leuer is the answer to our problems. In all seriousness though, given the implosion that’s taken place in Phoenix, I think it’s absolutely a good idea to take a look at some of the role players they have there to see if there might be an available trade.

Mirza Teletovic and Leuer are both interesting candidates and fill obvious needs, as does Markieff Morris (who at this point might cost the least of the three).

As always, the Wizards have to be careful in how much salary to accept back that extends past this year, but there is wiggle room to add Durant thanks to holding on Beal’s extension.

Washington has dug itself into a corner for three years based on the KD2DC movement so at this point they’re going to do everything in their power to make sure that plan isn’t disrupted (as unlikely as we know that is to come to fruition).

Other guys that I think would be worth looking at include Ryan Anderson in New Orleans, one of the bigs in Boston who is out of the rotation (either Jonas Jerebko or Jared Sullinger), Patrick Patterson in Toronto, and Brandon Bass from whichever team he plays for at the moment.

Well, given the open-ended nature of this question, I’m going to look at the entire NBA universe to answer, though I’m not counting out just wishing for a healthy Bradley Beal to come back.

At this point, I’d probably pick Anthony Davis, as I assume most NBA GMs would. Given the age, the contract security, and the sheer dominance he could exhibit over the rest of the league for the next decade, The Brow seems like the obvious choice. Any argument for Steph, LeBron, KD, or Kawhi would not be wrong either.

Bottom line is, to become a real force in this league, you need one of those kind of generational superstars. The Wizards don’t have one but adding Davis in this Utopian world would be sure to lift them among the game’s elite.

Interestingly enough, the Wizards were a few ping pong ball bounces away from landing Davis in 2012, ultimately picking 3rd and selecting Beal. While the Wall-Beal pairing has some flashy marketing potential, the missed chance of John Wall feeding Anthony Davis over and over and over again is almost as painful as passing on basically the entire Warriors core from 2009-2011.

Wall had a rough start to this season, and he’s admitted as much. But make no mistake, his December was truly one to remember. His combined stat line had not been seen in the league for a full month since vintage Chris Paul in 2009 and in general he has carried his makeshift, undermanned, and uninspiring roster on his back the entire season.

The real reason we see cracks in Wall’s game more than most is that he has an unfathomable burden every single night. It was clear to see on Sunday that once Miami took Wall out of his game, the Wizards had as much chance to win as they do to land KD.

Unfortunately, the band-aid that Ernie Grunfeld tries to place on the roster every summer (and subsequently comes off during the season) doesn’t work and Washington is very much at risk at wasting Wall’s prime.

He’s already in Year 6 and had never played with an all-star or top 50 NBA player. One day we’ll look back and wonder what could’ve been. Oh wait, we’re doing that now. In summary, Wall is back to his all-star ways, and the team is still bad. I wouldn’t place more than 10% of this year’s struggles on him.

(UPDATE: Since writing this, Wall was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for December so…yeah I think he’s fine).

I’d generally agree with you, and in fact want to take this opportunity to mention that I absolutely hate fan voting as it stands in the NBA. While the game is just an exhibition and might be for the fans, their collective opinion is usually worthless and leads to situations like Kyrie Irving slated to start for the East after playing 3 games. Even if the game itself does not mean anything, all star selections matter to a player regarding contract incentives, career legacy, etc. u

Anyway, I digress. To your actual question, I do see the Wizards climbing back up to .500 before the all-star break. They’ve had the third hardest schedule in the league thus far, per Basketball Reference and some more of the cupcakes will be trickling down the pipe between now and February (though, this is also the team that lost to the Lakers so I say we suspend the use of the word cupcake until further notice).

Finally, while Washington probably will be over the hump come All-Star game time, I point back to your initial claim as why I think objectively Wall should not be starting that night.

He’s been superhuman and is the best point guard in the East, but unfortunately his team hasn’t followed suit; I’d lead with Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler with Wall serving as 6th man.

Missing the playoffs will most definitely get at least Wittman fired. He’s already been rumored to be on the hot seat this year, and was in trouble last year after the stretch that saw Washington lose to Minnesota and Philadelphia. That combined with his less than stellar coaching track record leaves him in peril in a lame duck season.

However, to Wittman’s credit he has adapted his practices in ways I didn’t imagine. He still doesn’t understand quite how to use lineups and juggle small ball vs. traditional strategies but he’s come farther than expected.

Now, let me use my words to get some thoughts out on Grunfeld: *^&^&^%&^$^%#^%$^%$()(*)O*&*(^!!!!!!!

Sorry…couldn’t do it. I tried.

Look up ‘the worst’ in the dictionary and his mug will undoubtedly pop up. His list of screw-ups combined with the longevity of his tenure make the Knicks hiring of Isiah Thomas seem almost shrewd. If the team misses the playoffs, he’ll probably be out as well but under no circumstance, short of hoisting the damn Larry O’Brien trophy, should he return next season.

Reality is, the team isn’t going to want to pitch KD with instability in the front office and coaching position. Both should be gone, regardless of season outcome but it’ll all depend whether or not Ted Leonsis realizes he also owns a basketball team in addition to his far more successful hockey one.

What’s Jarell Eddies fate with the Wizards? – via bowiehockey74

As a Virginia Tech graduate, I watched Eddie play for years in Blacksburg and color me totally and utterly shocked that he seems like a serviceable NBA player. I think he’ll stick around for the duration of the season unless the Wizards are involved in a 2 for 1 type situation at the trade deadline which requires them to cut bait with a non-guaranteed contract.

While he’s on the roster, I’d say he is pretty far back on the depth chart if everyone’s healthy though I wouldn’t hesitate to bring him in when Neal/Temple/Dudley inevitably go cold (side note, this is the problem with expecting replacement level players to carry offenses for a stretch. Eventually it’ll stop working, and that’ll happen almost immediately).

For games where all the Miami and LA “transplants” seem to come out of the woodwork, what’s the best way to handle them? Drunken heckling? Spitting on every crisp new jersey? Tell them where they can buy Warriors gear? – via masedizzle

This isn’t a recent problem, nor is it isolated to the Wizards. You may remember what Nationals games looked like 6 years ago or what FedEx Field looks like when the Steelers are in town. Washington DC is just a transient city with fewer locals than most major markets.

That being said, I think the team needs to put together an official marketing campaign, similar to what the Nats did with their ‘Take Back The Park’ movement. There’ll always be a collection of those fans but at this point the organization doesn’t even seem to be cognizant of it (or care that much) but some promotional work could get the job done.

Also, a lot of people point to what the Capitals have done as a sign it can be replicated with the Wizards. Two points there;

A. Hockey fans are much more die-hard in nature and in general, the atmosphere in NHL arenas is incredible (while TV ratings are not too impressive),

B. The Capitals have one of the greatest players of ALL TIME on their roster. I think it goes underappreciated just how good Ovechkin is. If the Wizards were to land Durant, I think you’d see something similar happen.

What do you we need to do in order to catch a win streak and become a contesting team again? – via crossle2000

From a strategy perspective, the perimeter defenders have to learn to close out hard on three point shooters and also rotate well enough so weak side guys can help Gortat on the glass. Offensively, the team has started to limit the turnovers but too often exhibit turnstile characteristics on defense.

It would also help to get half the roster back in good health. Consider, that Beal, Nene, and Neal are probably 3 of the top 7 players in the Wizards rotation. It’s not easy to beat teams anymore in the East by just showing up so heaving a full complement of players is essential.

Next: Reality Kicks in for the Wizards -- Player Grades

That’s it for this week’s edition of Mailbag Monday. For the past editions, click here. Please follow Nithin on Twitter: @NKuchibhotla.