Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld gave his post-trade deadline assessment of the team a short time ago. If wins and losses aren’t you’re thing, and rebuilding is, this is for you. Some highlights: On when the Wizards can be judged on wins and losses: “I don’t think that’s what we went into the season with. We didn’t go in it being judged on wins and losses. What we want to be judged on is the assets that we accumulate, how hard we play, how competitive we are, player development and making progress as we go along and putting ourselves in a financial situation where we can make some moves down the road. I think we’ve accomplished some of those things, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
On being able to stomach 20-point losses: “Those are difficult, and one of the things we’re going to be looking for, and everybody is being evaluated as we move forward, and nobody likes to lose, and we want to see effort every single night. We want to see our young players improve. We want to see player development continue as the season progresses, and we hopefully can improve as the season goes along. Those are some of the things that we’re going to be looking for, and we’re not going to be happy if we’re not winning, and I hope our players feel the same way. They have to put forward a good effort every single night, and we have to compete and scratch and claw.”
On whether the player rotation needs to change to emphasize younger players: “We’ve been playing our younger players more minutes, and we’re going to continue to play them a little more time going forward, but we also need some veterans in there to add some stability.”
On John Wall’s comments after Wednesday’s loss in Philadelphia, in which he call out his teammates for a lack of effort: “John really cares about winning and losing. In the heat of the moment, I’m sure he was frustrated at the time, but he’s a competitive guy, and I’m glad that he cares about that, and I’m glad that he has a passion and wants to go out there and win, and frankly we did not give a good effort that night.”
On Jordan Crawford: “He’s a very athletic player. He’s a good shooter, a good scorer. He’s a competitive kid. He can play both positions, but right now he’s probably more of a scorer than a point guard, and he’s a competitive kid who likes to play the game. he’s a first round pick. We followed him very closely throughout his college career, and last year we liked him in the draft, and he’s someone that has potential.
On Mike Bibby: “He’s a veteran guy. John is obviously averaging a lot of minutes, and we want him to play a lot of minutes to get the experience that needs, and I think he’s making good progress so I think Bibby will be a good complement for him, try to teach him. Bibby’s been around for a long time.
On reports of Bibby wanting a buyout: “It’s always hard when you get traded. Rashard [Lewis] went through the same kind of things, initially. But if that opportunity comes up, and it’s something that helps both of us, it’s something we’ll look at, but right now, I don’t know where that stands.”
On the Wizards’ current status: “For one year, I think we’ve come a long way, considering where we were last year at this time. We had a game plan to rebuild the team and to get assets, and to build through the draft and to develop our young players. Right now, between last year’s and this year’s draft, we’ll have six first-round picks. Some of our young players who have been with us, like JaVale [McGee], Andray [Blatche], and Nick [Young], are developing. They’re going to get considerable minutes, and we’ve put ourselves in a real good financial situation going forward, as far as the salary cap is concerned. We still have a lot of work to do. We know that. But considering where we were last year and where we are right now, we have to feel pretty good about that.”
On the players’ plea after the Indiana game for coaching from Flip Saunders: “It’s up to all of us, together, and that includes me. It includes the coaches. It includes the players. We all have to band together, stick together. It’s never easy going through losing, and it’s difficult. It’s hard. But we all have to stick together, continue to work hard, continue to compete and see where everything falls for us.”
