The first crisis came during his second summer with the New York Knicks. A player they hoped — and expected — to keep reversed his thinking late in August and bolted to a rival. Xavier McDaniel had helped them reach the conference semifinals; now he created a hole at an inopportune time.
It wasn’t a good time for the Knicks.
“A lot of people were panicking,” said Ed Tapscott, then in his first season in the Knicks’ front office.
So general manager Ernie Grunfeld gathered his troops and laid out the situation. And he told them to look at who’s available at the same position that they could acquire in a trade. His voice remained firm; his mind focused on the future. A few weeks later they traded for Tony Campbell, who wasn’t as good as McDaniel but still helped the Knicks.
“There was never a, ‘What are we gonna do or how could that guy do that to us?’” Tapscott recalled. “It was just, ‘OK, X is gone, we need to replace 16, 17 points and we need some toughness.’ So we got it. There was a sense of we have to respond and do the best under the circumstances. How your boss handles that first crisis tells you a lot about him. He was about making something happen that was positive.”
And that ability has defined Grunfeld’s career as an NBA decision maker: he showed it again in the summer of 2005 when Larry Hughes signed with Cleveland. Rather than match the nearly $15-million a year offer, they let Hughes leave. And they later replaced him by trading Kwame Brown for Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins; and by signing Antonio Daniels.
The Wizards might not yet be in a crisis mode, but the franchise is heading into a defining offseason, and season. They have eight free agents, a star in the last year of his contract (Antawn Jamison) and a bigger star who could opt out of his contract after next season (Gilbert Arenas); and they have a center (Brendan Haywood) with three years remaining on his deal who clashes with the coach.
They have made the playoffs three straight years; they have advanced past the first round only once. There’s no doubt Grunfeld, the President of Basketball Operations, has helped remake the Wizards into a perennial playoff contender, with help from coach Eddie Jordan.
Injuries robbed them of going farther this season. But before the injury bug started to hit in late January, the Wizards held the Eastern Conference’s best record.
“We want to make some noise in the playoffs,” Grunfeld said. “The goal for next year is to move up, not just make the playoffs but to do something.”
For that to happen, he’ll have to tweak the roster once more.
He’s already shown in Washington that he can make big moves — trading Jerry Stackhouse and Christian Laettner to Dallas for Antawn Jamison; signing Gilbert Arenas as a restricted free agent; trading Kwame Brown to the Lakers for Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins — which one GM called a “horrible move for the Lakers.”
Now Grunfeld, who will be handcuffed by the salary cap this summer, must get creative again. Colleagues say that’s what he’s always done.
“He knows what it takes to win,” said Indiana Pacers President Donnie Walsh. “He has a knack for going out and finding players that can fit into that and maybe before they’ve become real well-known.”
Arenas was on his way, but as Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said, “Gil wasn’t a franchise guy at the time.”
He is now. And Butler wasn’t an All-Star before joining Washington. This past year, he was.
In New York, he dealt popular players such as John Starks and Charles Oakley, two players who had helped the Knicks reach the NBA championship. But the players acquired for those two, Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby, helped the Knicks reach another NBA Finals.
He also had to trade the popular Ray Allen in Milwaukee (a salary cap move desired by the owner, Herb Kohl). In New York, he acquired Larry Johnson and Allan Houston on the same day.
“If you want to play a certain way and your talent can’t do it, you have to be willing to risk take,” said Memphis’ President of Basketball Operations Jerry West. “Prudent risk-taking is what sets aside what people do in this league. … Ernie has done a tremendous job.
“You have to look at your coach, how he wants to play and how your talent is best suited for playing that way. That’s something Ernie has done very well.”
In his first three seasons, Grunfeld has reshaped the roster entirely, with only Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas as leftovers from the previous regime. One of them could be moved this offseason.
“We didn’t want to change the situation with Band-Aids and have two good years and then fall back,” Grunfeld said. “We wanted to set a solid foundation and get players who can stay together. We have a solid core. We have a nucleus that can stay together for four or five years — and be very effective.”
And, as Jordan said, “We haven’t sold our soul. From our first-round picks, to free-agent signings to second-round picks, to signing your own free agents, it’s been working really good.”
But that’s no surprise to those who know Grunfeld. And it’s why they expect the Wizards’ success to continue. He’s taken two franchises, New York and Milwaukee, to the conference finals and had one, New York, reach the NBA finals. The Knicks reached the conference semifinals nine straight times in his tenure.
“Ernie did what I expected him to do [in Washington],” Walsh said. “He went out and got better players and just did it in a very quick way. He’s very definitive about what he wanted to do and therefore he got it done.
“They’re good now and they will get better. He’s not going to stop. He’ll get guys who are better for the team than they have now. Yet he has the core guys, that’s the important part.”
Bold and the Beautiful
Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld is not afraid to make a big move:
» Signed Gilbert Arenas in 2003; has become franchise player
» Traded for Antawn Jamison; has become team leader.
» Traded for Caron Butler; now with his third team, has become an All-Star.
» Drafted Michael Redd in second round with Milwaukee; now an elite player.
» Signed Tim Thomas to a six-year, $67-million deal with Milwaukee; flopped.
» Signed Anthony Mason to a four-year, $21 million deal with Milwaukee; past his prime.
» Traded Charles Oakley to Toronto for Marcus Camby; youthful and athletic Camby helped Knicks reach finals.
» Traded John Starks to Golden State for Latrell Sprewell, see above.
