The Wrap On The Wizards

     From the researching genius of lifelong Washington hoops fan Josh "Hibachi" Kranz, words on the woeful Wizards' front office problems. 
                                 

Here is the Wizards draft history since 1997:

Year	Round	Pick	Name	From
2008	1	18	JaVale McGee	University of Nevada, Reno
2008	2	47	Bill Walker	Kansas State University
2007	1	16	Nick Young	University of Southern California
2007	2	47	Dominic McGuire	California State University, Fresno
2006	1	18	Oleksiy Pecherov
2006	2	48	Vladimir Veremeenko
2005	2	49	Andray Blatche
2004	1	5	Devin Harris	University of Wisconsin–Madison
2004	2	32	Peter John Ramos
2003	1	10	Jarvis Hayes	University of Georgia
2003	2	38	Steve Blake	University of Maryland
2002	1	11	Jared Jeffries	Indiana University
2002	1	17	Juan Dixon	University of Maryland
2002	2	38	Rod Grizzard	University of Alabama
2002	2	39	Juan Carlos Navarro
2001	1	1	Kwame Brown
2000	2	35	Mike Smith	University of Louisiana at Monroe
1999	1	7	Richard Hamilton	University of Connecticut
1999	2	35	Calvin Booth	Pennsylvania State University
1998	2	43	Jahidi White	Georgetown University
1997	2	45	God Shammgod	Providence College
1997	2	48	Predrag Drobnjak

First thing that is clear is that the Wizards paid dearly for the Chris Webber trade.  They ended up with only one first round pick from 1997-2000  Now that one pick was a great pick – Richard Hamilton, who Michael Jordan then traded for daring to talk back to him.  Calvin Booth and Jahidi White weren’t bad picks for where they were taken, but no impact.  All that stuff is from the Wes Unseld era, including the trades in question plus the Rod Strickland/Rasheed Wallace trade.

Now you get to 2001-2003, the Michael Jordan GM years.  Kwame Brown was obviously a huge mistake, although Jordan and Doug Collins also screwed up the dude’s potential development the way they handled him.  Of the top 3 high schoolers taken in that draft, only Tyson Chandler really worked out at all and he has very limited offensive game.

Fast forward to 2002: I think they traded away Courtney Alexander to move up and get Juan Dixon.  Good move, at least it looked like it at the time.  Jared Jeffires – I remember somebody I liked a lot more went at #10.  Was it Caron Butler?  Jeffries never really panned out, no offensive game, though he was the glue guy on the Wizards’ playoff teams.  In 2003 Jarvis Hayes was pretty much a bust, and Steve Blake maybe wasn’t given long enough to show what he had.  Since then, he’s been a surprise.

I think before MJ left he made the trade that brought Antawn Jamison in, with Jerry Stackhouse and others going to Dallas, and Dallas using the draft pick to take Devin Harris, which became Jason Kidd. Interesting.  I think Jamison proved to be a good addition and it was a good deal.  And actually, looks like the Wizards drafted Harris and then traded him.

Around this time MJ left and Ernie Grunfeld came in, and he made the moves to get Gilbert Arenas and Butler and no matter what you might think about Zero, those were great moves and helped the team get out of the NBA basement.

Grunfeld’s draft history isn’t bad.  Blatche at 49 is a great pick.  Nick Young at 16 isn’t terrible and McGee at 18 was a very good find.  The only big mistake was Pecherov at 18.

Grunfeld’s follies are giving Gilbert the $111M contract after knee surgery, trading away the #5 pick last year for Randy Foye and Mike Miller, and hiring Flip Saunders.  All of those decisions are among his most recent.  Bad sign.


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