Ernie Grunfeld was fired in 2019 after 16 years. He built the Arenas-led teams that reached the East Semis once and got beat by LeBron yearly in Round 1. Then gun-gate happened in 2010. He blew up the roster and was allowed by Leonsis to rebuild (Leonsis took over ownership from the late Abe Polin in Summer 2010 which was the same time the Wizards won the lottery and Wall was drafted).
The Warriors, who had a similar history to the Bullets/Wizards since the 1970s and being a terrible to mediocre franchise also got a new owner in 2010. He got himself Jerry West and Bob Myers in 2011 to revamp the organization from the top down. And that saved the career of Steph Curry.
Leonsis didn't do what Lacob did in GSW. He kept Ernie. Who ruined the team's ceiling for the Wall era. He had 2 1st round picks in 2011 and drafted two busts. Drafting Beal and Porter in the top 3 wasn't rocket science, that was where they were mocked in many places. He routinely traded picks for win now moves and limited what the Wizards could do in a weakened Eastern conference with those transactions.
But Leonsis was fine with making the playoffs, reaching the 2nd round, and selling merch and new season tickets based on those Wall-led teams.
Now, who was Ernie's right hand man for all of this? Tommy Sheppard.
Ernie gets fired during a disasterous 2018-19 season. He traded Oubre for a washed up Ariza, had to salary dump Otto Porter to avoid the luxury tax, and got right back into the lottery.
Tommy takes over and he has to work to get up under from Grunfeld's mess. He built a team that had the worst backcourt defense in NBA history in 2019-20.
He made "OK" draft choices with Hachimura, Avdija, Kispert, and perhaps Davis. But he passed up on Tyrese Haliburton, who he told he was drafting, they could be working with Trey Murphy rather than Kispert, and with Davis we all know that Jalen Williams was taken two spots afterwards and don't tell me we're saying its hindsight. Wizards twitter was talking about Jalen Williams during the college season when he was mocked 2nd round.
The drafting killed Sheppard and I'm actually impressed that Leonsis fired him so he wouldn't be able to make another lottery selection.
With trades, he did well with the Westbrook trade but again fumbled the 2021 Lakers 1st by using it to trade down to get the worst Holiday brother and then drafting Isaiah Todd who probably has no future in the NBA.
He did well to get Bertans from the Spurs for nothing. But didn't trade him when his value was highest.
He did well to get Porzingis for that bum Bertans and Dinwiddie last year.
He did amazing to get Daniel Gafford from Chicago for Troy Brown.
But it looks like he lost the trade of KCP to DEN for Monte Morris and washed up Will Barton.
It looks like he lost the Hachimura trade to LAL since Kendrick Nunn is a bum and the three 2nd round picks are iffy in terms of the talent you can get for them. One of those 2nd rounders is in this 2023 draft so you may be able to get a player if the GM knows how to draft..
He let Kris Dunn go to Utah when he could have easily opened a roster spot for an impressive Capital City Go-Go reclamation project.
He didn't do consolidation trades when he had a collection of mid veterans all looking to get paid in 2021-22 and you had Wes Unseld Jr as a first year coach trying to navigate that BS.
Tommy can't build teams. He relies on trades too much. He can't build a foundation and that's with the draft.
Whoever Leonsis hires has to hit in the draft. It's the only way for this franchise to get talent.
So give me Langdon from the Pelicans. Give me anyone in the Grizzlies front office.
It's also a common misconception that Leonsis needs playoff games to make a profit. The Wizards are already profitable without making the playoffs. They had a $90M operating profit in 2021-22 winning 35 games.
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