Washington Wizards: David Aldridge breaks down Ernie Grunfeld’s Tenure
2010-2018 Tenure
Thus, there were some good years in between 2002-2010. But from 2010-2018 is where the story really begins, because that’s when Leonsis is at the helm.
One can look at Grunfeld as the wizard Merlin, and Leonsis as King Arthur. Just to keep going with the historical theme.
During the mythical reign of Arthur, a king answered to no one. (But everyone answers to someone, just trying to keep this history lesson a little fun).
Thus, Aldridge pointed out the fact, that King Leonsis “judged” Merlin’s tenure from the day he assumed sole control of the kingdom in 2010. Not before.
Ok, that is reasonable.
In the big picture, Aldridge found that under King Leonsis (2010-18), that things in the kingdom weren’t looking as bright.
Of course, Grunfeld had some good signings—Wall in 2010, Bradley Beal in 2012 and Otto Porter in 2013.
But Merlin made mistakes that would have banished GMs from other kingdoms. Such as:
"“blowing first-round picks in 2011 on Jan Vesely (sixth overall) and Chris Singleton (18th), then whiffing completely on Kevin Durant in 2016 after spending two years positioning the Wizards to have the cap space to go after the DMV superstar. It would have been one thing for the Wizards to get turned down by Durant after going to the Hamptons and making their pitch, but they didn’t even get a face-to-face meeting!“"
Then Al Horford chose Boston. Thus, the summer of 2016 appears to be when Merlin’s magic potion to fix those problems appeared to have gotten out of hand.
Leonsis’ quick fix of ‘signing Ian Mahinmi to the $64 million contract and Andrew Nicholson’s $26 million contract’ left Washington between a rock and a cap space.
Because the following summer they were expected to give Porter a max contract. Therefore, they “had to burn their 2017 first-rounder to get Nicholson off their books“.
Ok, Porter gets the max. According to Aldridge “Leonsis has said signing an impact free-agent to play with Wall, Beal and Porter Jr. to make the Wizards a “have” team, as he puts it, is the last step in the team’s plan to become a true contender.”
At this point, I could take it from here, because I know what happened in 2017-18. But then Aldridge like a true historian throws water on that, and explains how history cannot repeat itself.