His voice started to rise, filling the practice court with his passionate plea. One day after the Game 1 loss to Cleveland, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan needed to deliver a message to his team. Others had written them off. He had not.
Yet his team was practicing as if intent on proving the so-called experts right. And that angered Jordan. So he loudly reminded them what was being written.
“He got really upset and he was almost tearful,” Wizards guard Antonio Daniels said. “To see a coach with that much passion, for me it was awesome. … It was definitely contagious.”
Jordan has led Washington to three straight playoff berths. And before the injuries hit in late January, the Wizards held the Eastern Conference’s best record. They struggle defensively, but they were still dangerous.
“Eddie is a damned good coach,” one NBA assistant coach said. “He is a top-notch coach. It’s tough to scout his teams because of his offense.”
Jordan’s future in Washington is secure, having signed a two-year extension last summer. But he also knows next year will be a pivotal one for the franchise and himself.
“We want to get better and we want to get better as a coaching staff,” Jordan said. “So I don’t look at the complaints. We’ve got a good offseason ahead of us.”
He has helped the Wizards, when healthy, become one of the best offensive teams in the NBA.
And he’s helped them not collapse during difficult times. Though they lost 10 of their last 12 games, they only dropped one game by more than seven points.
“That’s something that will get swept under the rug,” Daniels said of Jordan’s coaching. “He did a great job making adjustments and doing the things he had to do to make us competitive. I have a lot of respect for him.”
Said Antawn Jamison, “I love Eddie and think he’s a great coach. He’s made myself and other guys in this locker room great players.”
But the fact is also this: The Wizards have not improved defensively under Jordan.
“The goal for next year is to not just make the playoffs, but to do something,” Grunfeld said. “That can’t be accomplished unless we improve defensively. Everybody has to have a defensive mindset. … Eddie did a good job, but it’s hard when you’re always having to adjust and you don’t have your full hand to play with.”
Grunfeld: Time heals a lot of things
Two big men could be headed in, but that doesn’t mean a pair, or even one, will be leaving.
When the Wizards return to camp next season, last year’s first-round draft pick Oleksiy Pecherov will be on the roster — something Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld has made clear for a while. He could be joined by last year’s second-round pick Vladimir Veremeenko. At the least, the Wizards would like Veremeenko to play in the summer league, along with Pecherov.
Grunfeld said it should not be assumed that either Etan Thomas or Brendan Haywood would be traded.
“Time heals a lot of things,” Grunfeld said. “Our No. 1 concern is putting the best team out there possible. … Over the course of the season, if you put their numbers together, there was good production.”
As for Haywood’s occasional antics exiting the bench, Grunfeld said: “There’s a certain decorum and way you should act during a game and that message has been relayed.”
Grunfeld said he liked what DeShawn Stevenson, who will become a free agent, did for most of the season. And he said he has maintained contact with the agent for Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro. But his buyout clause of approximately $3 million remains a problem.
—John Keim
