Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld is looking forward to the 2009-10 season. Let us count the ways, to a man:
1. “The season can’t get here fast enough because it’s been one of the longest summers I’ve ever had to have.”
Analysis — I’d like to take this as a throwaway, but it doesn’t feel clichéd.
2. “Flip [Saunders] has definitely raised the bar. He’s been there before. He’s done it. There’s no question about that. The last four teams that he’s coached have been to the conference finals, and he’s the leader of this team now, and he has very high goals for us, and our players are buying into it. Our players, to a man, believe if we come together, if we do the kind of things that flip needs us to do, if we improve defensively, if everybody accepts their roles and competes, we can compete with anybody in the league.”
The Wizards want to be in the same conversation as the Cavaliers, Celtics and Magic. Are they? We’ll see.
4. “Every situation is different. You can just say, poof, and [good chemistry] is going to happen. It’s a process. It’s going to take some time, obviously, to learn the system. It’s going to take some time for Flip and his staff, to figure out how they can best use the talent at their disposal… We have good people on our team, and I think that’s key. When you have quality people who are unselfish and committed for a certain goal, the chemistry comes pretty quickly.”
Washington isn’t going 10-0 in preseason, and probably not in the regular season, either.
5. “My New York teams always had a certain kind of attitude where we went into the season, expecting to win and expecting to win big, and I think that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re expecting to win, and we’re expecting to be very competitive on a nightly basis. Obviously, it’s not going to happen immediately because it does take a little time, and it’s a process, but the work has to be there every day, the commitment has to be there every day. I haven’t been this excited in a very long because of the change that we’ve had. There’s a different sense around here, a different sense around the team. The players feel it. There’s a new kind of enthusiasm, a new kind of professionalism, and just a new way of doing things, and I think that’s exciting for us and the players.”
Grunfeld’s Knicks were the other team in the East – besides Michael Jordan’s Bulls – in the 1990s. This compliment has some weight behind it.
6. “We take ownership of what is here, and we feel good about what we have. I feel good about these guys, about the competitive nature, their unselfishness, the work they’ve put in this summer, and I feel really good about Flip and his staff.”
Brendan Haywood is the only holdover from when Grunfeld took over in summer of 2003. Grunfeld re-signed him, too.
7. “I’ve talked to [Gilbert Arenas] about [his comments to the Washington Times]. I think that was a small part of a bigger conversation that he had with somebody. That’s in the past. We’ve learned some things from it, probably, and he’s learned some things from it, probably. But the bottom line is he’s healthy, he’s feeling really good, and we’re going to move forward with it.”
Less of a brush-aside than Flip, but still essentially the same tone. Grunfeld is the president, after all.
8. “I think this is one of the deepest teams we’ve had, especially since I’ve been here, for sure. Obviously, the whole thing has to come together, and guys have to accept their roles, and we have to see which combinations work the best.”
Details to be worked out in camp. My early take: the pressure’s on Dominic McGuire, Mike James, and I’m going to say DeShawn Stevenson. The team likes Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Fabricio Oberto. Why? Because they signed them.
9. “I think our players have a lot of pride. I think all our players, to a man, were hurt by what happened last year, and they wanted to come back this summer and work hard, which they did, and to prove for us that last year was a fluke, and we’re a much better team than that. Now we have to go out and show it.”
The Wizards would like to remind you that while they only won 19 games last year, they weren’t a 19-win team.
Any other concerns? “Not right now. I think every position is pretty well covered.”
Bring on media day.
