In the 2004-2005 season, the Wizards surprised everyone by going from 25 wins to 45 wins with a young exciting team. Since then, we have not been able to match the win total. Using my memory plus a lot of help from basketball-reference, I've compiled most (hopefully all) of Ernie's significant personnel moves. Apologies for the poor formatting. Warning: it is kind of depressing.

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In the email I got from Ted, it mentioned a season ticket holder q&a Friday at 10. I figured it was nice to be invited, but I couldn't go. Turns out, they've called me with some auto call technology and I'm listening in and can even ask questions. I'm working now and may have to hang up the phone, but I'll try to track the questions and answers here:

opening statement: long time fan, wants to expand season ticket holder base, now number 2 in the NHL with the caps, thinks we can do it with the Wizards.

Contact him by email, facebook, and twitter.

Questions:

Treat your employees like you would like them to treat your best customers. What are your plans for making the Wizards a "happy company"?

Ted: good question. Need motivated employees. First, empower them. Treat with respect and dignity. Meet with employees, spoke with everyone yesterday and will continue to do so in an ongoing basis over next 100 days. Thinks employees and season ticket holders know best. Open door policy, likes errors of commission over errors of omission. Will try to replicate successes of AOL and Capitals.

 

I live on the eastern shore, so can't buy season tickets. Please keep ticket prices down, for  individual game tickets.

Ted: want to market to the entire 3 state area. Looking at how we rescale the house and how we can offer introductory packages. Wizards have had very aggressive promotions for low prices. But we need to build a great team and a world class franchise and we need people to buy season tickets because that is revenues you can count on. So we'll focus on that and then move on to partial plans and packages.

 

Caps fan and Wizards fan. Delighted how the Caps have embraced a family orientation. Lots of kids at Caps game. Will that translate into basketball and Wizards?

Ted: Thanks. the answer is yes. For the most part, it is families that you see at games. We're not like MSG even though we're a cosmopolitan city. At MSG, see thousands in suits, at Wiz and Caps, people dressed casually. Fans go with family or dates. Want to market to families, expand horizon to include more female interest programming and young adult and family programming. Best way to expand fan base. Keep things safe and clean while still having some hipness. Maybe we'll introduce some country music or rock .

How do you motivate athletes and employees toward team goals when they’re paid for individual accomplishments?

Ted: Good question. How do you metric and how do you reward. Reading about the Spurs and how they cast their team around Duncan and how they crafted the team and the important role of Bruce Bowen. They treated him and paid him like a star because he did the dirty work and knew what his role was. Celtics are similar. Key thing is to articulate what the higher calling of your enterprise or team is, and to celebrate winning as opposed to individual accomplishments. Need buy in. Seeing it with Caps and want to expand it to the Wizards. Ovie and Backstrom buying into winning team culture. So we’ve been able to create that type of environment with the Caps and I’m hopeful we can do it with the Wizards. Work with young players who buy in early and understand what we are trying to do together. Explained to Ovie how bad it would be then how good, and he bought in. Hoping we have that opportunity with the Wizards. Players have to be happy and how can they not be happy with a huge energetic fan base with good ownership and fellow players who are like minded. Fans are big part of the equation. Players like playing in front of full house and are more connected. He really means “we’re all in this together”.

 

Comment: I’m a happy customer. I see that your goal is to keep me a happy customer and I appreciate it.

Ted: Thanks. It is sincere. I am a season ticket holder and so I know how the accumulation of lots of little things add up to the total experience and the performance of the team is important too. Talks about the comments about lack of catsup.  Little things are important. I will walk by the catsup stands and make sure they are full and clean. It will make everyone understand that there is no customer request that is too small and is not important. If catsup is important to you, its important to me.

What is your plan to create a world class franchise?

Ted: I’m impressed with the quality of questions and observations. I’ve been doing lots of research into what works in the NBA and the teams considered world class and the teams that have won championships. In 20 years, only 7 teams have won. So it must be hard. It’s the ultimate deliverable to the fan base to win a championship. When I decompose the champions, for the most part were built with their foundational first players around the draft. They traded for pieces, but for the most part, foundational players were picked high in the draft. Same in the NHL.  Blackhawks best players were high picks.  The Lakers, Magic and Kobe were drafted, Duncan and Robinson were drafted, Jordan was drafted. Other than current Celtics, the majority started with a high and great draft pick. “Blessed by fate” to win the lottery.  I knew we would win it. I would like to get another high pick. Use this draft to launch the next generation of the Wizards. Once we see what we have, then we’ll explore trades and free agency. Other than Shaq, can’t remember another big free agent signing that helped the team win it all the next year. Use free agency as one of the tool, not the only tool. Oklahoma is pretty good building around the draft. Primary focus and directives to Ernie and Flip is “Let’s take advantage of this gift that we’ve been given and rebuild with young players, then see about free agents”.

Owner of Caps, Mystics, Verizon Center, and Wizards. Up and down team for the last several years, but dynamics of team didn’t fit playoff scenario, meaning couldn’t get past 1st round. As an owner, with Gil and the first pick, what can the fans expect within the next 1 to 3 years from the Wizards as far as turning it around?

Ted: Most important to articulate strategy and plan. Communicate it and stick with it. Only 6 players under contract. Ernie’s moves were appropriate and exciting because they were not getting it done. Had a high payroll. But bad luck and stale dynamics became apparent. Want players who want to be here, have high basketball iq, combine great athleticism with high levels of coachability. Being coachable and adhering to a system is a big part of the battle for team success and individual success. Players will understand coaches and owner’s expectations. Positive reinforcement with more wins. That’s what we are committed to create. I will be transparent with the expectations and plan. People who don’t buy in anywhere in the organization, will leave the organization. Caps had 2 captains who didn’t buy in, demanded trades, we traded them. So those things happen. Be consistent with expectations and plan.

 

Small and growing set of hardcore Wizards fans who have bought in. Aside from buying tickets, what can we do to help?

Ted: be very honest with input to us. I really do want to listen. I read email and will have lots of sessions. Doing it in a partnership oriented way. 90% of email is great.  10% caustic. I want to process and make action plans on the input. Give honest but actionable items in your comments and emails. Be a “net promoter”.  if you are happy with what we’re doing, you will tell a friend or bring a friend to the game. This is the big goal.  Buy in early, because once its gone, there’s nothing else I can sell you. Once we sell out, I don’t have any more tickets.  So buy in early. Etc. Wants to turn the Wizards into Malibu beachfront property.

 

 

Nothing major here, but nice to get an email.

Open Letter to Washington Wizards Fans
June 10, 2010   Dear Dan,

Today, as we finalize our purchase of the Washington Wizards, is a day that my partners and I are very excited about. But we also know that this is just a small step in our pursuit of our ultimate goal – to bring an NBA championship to Washington, D.C.

That is a lofty goal and an important one for which to strive. We have prepared for this day, and I hope that you will see in our new company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a strategic and unrelenting pursuit of that goal.

We can expect some early “wins” – the NBA Draft on June 24 will be an exciting day for the franchise as we were fortunate enough to win the lottery and we choose first. However, reaching that ultimate goal of a championship requires patience. There is no quick answer, no button any of us can push to produce a winner. I believe, however, that the Wizards’ future is bright, and we enter this endeavor having learned a lot about what it takes to build a championship-caliber team and a team built to last.

It will require a group effort. I consider a sports team a public trust, and we will only reach our goals with the cooperation of our fans, staff, corporate partners and players. We have no better partners than our season-ticket holders. I look forward to getting to know you personally and all of our fans, engaging with them and understanding their concerns. One of the first things we did with the Washington Capitals was to listen intently and then take earnest, meaningful steps to improve the fan experience at our games. With your feedback, we plan to do the same with the Wizards.

I will be open, accessible and honest with our fans – I believe in transparency. This won’t be the last you hear from me, whether it be in the media, on my blog http://www.tedstake.com/ or via email TheWashWiz@aol.com, and you can expect consistent communication from my partners and our staff as well. We are in this together; it promises to be a memorable journey.

Thank you in advance for your support of our efforts. We are humbled by this great opportunity. We hope to make you proud.

Sincerely,  
  Ted Leonsis

OK, I know we're all sick of the gun story and should be able to enjoy a full day savoring the Sacramento victory. But conflating the prosecutors' story with all of the other stories floating around has left me with the feeling that we still don't know the true story and with a lot of questions. In particular, I'm curious about the actions and reactions of Wizards management. What did they know? When? How did they react at each point? Part of me thinks that they may not have been aware of the complete details of "the incident" until the New York Post and Yahoo stories emerged on New Year's Day. Part of me thinks that they may have helped Gil concoct the "keep the guns away from the kids" story. I also think that Gilbert may not have revealed the full story to them immediately and only acknowledged each event when he had no other choice (like a teenager who has dented the car, at a strip club when he was supposed to be at the library, with 6 friends in the car, with beer in the backseat, etc.). So I have a developed a timeline along with some questions that follows after the jump. I'm not sure what it all means or if I really want to know the answers, but I guess I'm just posting this to show that we will probably never know all of the facts related to this story. Ultimately, I have to shake my head and wonder how Gilbert Arenas could have been so stupid. And I'm someone who wants to see him play for the Wizards again. I don't vouch for 100% accuracy and have tried to credit Mike Jones and Michael Lee when I referenced their work for the information.

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via www.washingtonpost.com

Editor's Note: And so it begins.  Here's part one of our summer Bullets/Wizards oral history from the fan's perspective project, via hotplate.  A description of the project, along with a list of landmark events in Bullets/Wizards' history, can be found here.  There are still many, many openings left.  -Mike

Our story begins in 1989. I was a big Bullets fan and along with a buddy and his brother had a 10 game ticket plan. That was a fun year to root for the Bullets. During the off season, we let Moses Malone go to free agency. I was ok with the move as he was clearly on the decline. But we had no one to replace him so it was difficult to imagine that the team could get better. But we did, especially at home. Led by Jeff Malone, Bernard King, and my namesake John "Hotplate" Williams the team played inspired ball for Coach Wes Unseld that year. The ended at 40-42 and barely missed the playoffs. At home, the team was almost a powerhouse. The record was 31-10 (I don’t even want to think about what that says about the road record) and included wins over all of the powerhouses including the Celtics and Lakers. Nothing thrilled me more than to watch my overmatched Bullets silence the opposing fans with a close well played victory. It was a great basketball watching year for me and the excitement carried over into the summer

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Every year, basketball fans approach the NBA draft like a child at Christmas. Just as a Christmas toy looks the best just after opening it, a player's reputation is never so shiny as it is on draft night. And just like our Christmas toys are shoved into storage within a month, most fans soon realize the limitations of their draft pick. This phenomenon made me curious as to what the real success rate is for each of the draft picks. So starting with the Lebron draft of 2003 through last year's Derrick Rose draft, I rated each first round draft pick on a scale of 0 to 6. The categories are:

6 - transcendent! Guys who can truly make a difference by themselves. Currently I rank only 6 players in the league as sixes. They are Lebron, Kobe, D Wade, Garnett, Duncan, and Dwight Howard. Shaq used to be a 6 but not anymore. Howard is borderline.

5- perennial all star.

4- borderline all star

3- solid starter

2- contributor/role player

1- journeyman

0- bust

I was interested in finding out what a realistic expectation is for a draft pick based on his relative draft position. I had the toughest time deciding between 2 and 3 and 3 and 4. For the 2003 and 2004 drafts, separating the 0's from 1's was easy. If you are no longer in the league, you're a 0. Otherwise, you're at least a 1. Internationals who have never come over are rated 0. Here is my summary of each of the last 5 drafts. If you want my rankings for each player, just send me an email.

• 2003  2 sixes, 2 fives, 1 four, 4 threes, 8 twos, 6 ones, and 6 zeros.    average player rank: 2.34
  
• 2004 1 six, 0 fives, 2 fours,10 threes,5 twos,3 ones, and 8 zeros.       average player rank: 1.97
  
• 2005 0 sixes ,2 fives,1 four, 7 threes, 9 twos, 5 ones, 6 zeros             average player rank: 1.93
  
• 2006 0 sixes ,1 fives,0 four, 5 threes, 3 twos, 13 ones, 8 zeros           average player rank: 1.3
  
• 2007 0 sixes ,1 fives,0 four, 7 threes, 10 twos, 8 ones, 4 zeros          average player rank: 1.8
  
• 2008 0 sixes ,1 fives,2 four, 4 threes, 10 twos, 9 ones, 4 zeros         average player rank: 1.93
• 
  
• Now by draft position:

Top 10: 3 sixes ,7 fives,3 fours, 25 threes, 8 twos, 8 ones, 6  zeros  average player rank:  2.73

11-20:  0 sixes ,0 fives,3 fours, 4 threes, 18 twos, 24 ones, 11  zeros  average player rank: 1.4

21-30:  0 sixes ,0 fives,0 fours, 8 threes, 19 twos, 12 ones, 19  zeros  average player rank: 1.28

All told, there have been 178 first round picks between 2003 and 2008. 3 sixes, 7 fives, 6 fours, 37 threes, 45 twos, 44 ones, 36 zeros

2003 was far and away the best draft class of the last 6 and 2006 was awful.

The top players selected have been:

6's Lebron, Wade, Howard

5's Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, Carmelo, Bosh, Kevin Durant,Derrick Rose (projected)

4's David West, Danny Granger, Al Jefferson,Michael Beasley (projected), O J Mayo (projected),Devin Harris,

 

The 6 top ten zeros are: Mike Sweetney, Shaun Livingston,Rafael Araujo, Luke Jackson, Patrick O'Bryant, Saer Sene

 

Of the 16 all star or better selections: all but 4 (Roy #6, Granger #17, West #18, Jefferson #14) have been top 5 selections.

So the lesson is most picks are going to be just so-so at best. If you want an all star, get a top 5 selection. And get it in the right year.

For any player selected after that, be happy if he becomes a regular rotation guy. Do not plan on him being in any all star games. 

Wizards picks: 2003 Jarvis Hayes  1  (probably should be a 2 but I've got some lingering bitterness), 2004 Peter John Ramos (second round): 0, 2005  Andray Blatche(second round) 2, 2006 Pecherov 0, 2007 Nick Young 2, Taser (second round)  2, 2008  Javale McGee 2

I'm a Wizards season ticket holder. I keep my ticket book in the backpack that I use in lieu of a briefcase. I also drive a 1999 Toyota Corolla that's about to hit 150000 miles on it.  Most of the time, I just leave the backpack in the car. Recently, I stopped locking my car when I park it because its old , dirty, and I don't keep anything of value in it. Well, except for my tickets.
Which brings to mind the late Newsweek columnist  Pete Axthelm.  In addition to his column, Ax served as the prognosticator/tout for the NBC NFL pre-game show in the early '80s  hosted, then as now, by Bob Costas. He was NBC's answer to Jimmy the Greek.  Axthelm had a strange term for those meaningless late season match ups between 2 dog teams. He called them "Smashed Windshield games" because if you left 2 tickets visible on the dashboard, you were likely to return to your car to find your windshield smashed...and 2 more tickets left on the dash.
Sadly, the Wizards are now a smashed windshield team. And I live in terror of returning to my car one evening and finding even more Wizards tickets.

OK, Its early to start stirring the pot, but how long should we wait? Slow starts have been a problem thus far during the season and preseason. Without Gilbert and Haywood, there's been a lack of firepower starting off games thus far.  The one player who has exceeded expectations has been Nick Young. He's shown the ability to create and hit his own shot and seems to be playing in control for the most part. Is it time to move him to the starting lineup? Its tough playing most of the game 10 down and having Nick in the lineup could open things up for Caron and Antawn from the opening tip.

The reason that I'm bringing this up so early in the year is that Comcast  Sportsnet showed an interesting graphic last night. Currently, Tayshaun Prince has a streak of over 300 consecutive games started. This leads all active players. Number 2 is Deshawn Stevenson who has STARTED  243 (or so) consecutive games. So making this change will involve much more drama for Eddie Jordan than the usual lineup switch. Does Eddie have a plan for moving Nick Young into the starting lineup? Would Deshawn accept the demotion in a non-disruptive manner? Is it the right move?  Too soon to tell?

My own feeling is that if the streak weren't involved, I would give it a try. But since the streak is involved, I don't know how I would handle it. There's potential for drama and pouting which could hurt the team. So I'm glad I'm not a coach. But Eddie needs to do something to get us more than 18 first quarter points.

I apologize that this will read like a Wizards press release. Its not. It just a deal that I don't think many people are aware of.

Just want to make sure that all in the DC area are aware that the Wizards have a season ticket deal for $16 a ticket for an upper deck seat this year. I've been buying them for 5 years now and its the best deal around. I'm not a Wizards sales person, but I'd love to see more true Wizards fans at the game.  The total price comes out to about $650 and at that price they are easy to sell (if you can only go to a few of the games).  Face value on them is $48 (I think). The best part is that  once you're a season ticket holder, they treat you like a vip even though you bought the cheap seats. You have your own account rep and get invitations to pre-game happy hours, an open practice, and things like that.

Here's the link:

Season Tickets

Its not quite year end report card time for our roster but I want to clear my conscience as soon as possible. I was against resigning Deshawn Stephenson. While I wasn't a Juan Carlos Navarro backer, I felt that we could replace Deshawn with a better shooting journeyman for cheaper. I was disappointed in the cost and length of Deshawn's new contract.

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[editor's note, by Pradamaster] Seeing as how I wasn't there, this will act as the postgame thread. Thanks to hotplate for sending in his thoughts. -PM

General impressions of the game from my vantage point in the upper deck:

Evidently there are Black people in Lithuania, although they all seem to have shortened their names. The starting guards were named Dujuan Collins and Marcus Brown. And a key substitute was named Tanaka Beard. Collins in particular, had a good game.

Andre Blatche is the MAN. I am amazed at how mature his overall game seems to be. He seems like he can be one of the rare players whose very  appearance on the floor leads the entire team to play better. He shot well, made several nice passes, made a couple of nice defensive plays, and started a couple of nice fast breaks after taking down the defensive rebound. But more than that, he seems to have great court awareness and to be a genuine presence on the floor. I heard radio man Glenn Consor compare him to Danny Manning, but I'd like to go back further for a comparison. He reminded me a bit of my namesake, John Williams (later nicknamed "Hot Plate"). Taller and thankfully much skinnier. Williams did everything well except perhaps shoot. He could influence the game without scoring. When Williams was on the court, the team's offensive spacing and ball movement was much better than when he was off. I think that Blatche could have similar impact and it may be as soon as this year.

Dominic McGuire had at least 4 assists. These were all excellent passes that led directly to an easy layup or dunk. He really sees the court well. In 2 years, he and Blatche could be an amazing tandem with their all around skillz.

Pecherov is too enamored with his jump shot. He shoots every single time that he has an open look from the 3 point line. He missed them all tonight. He needs to realize that one reason he has that open shot is that the opponent doesn't particularly mind him taking it.
Butler played a solid game including a dunk in which he sent a Lithuanian defender into the goal post.
Haywood also was solid and showed a lot of hustle.

I hate myself for it, but I find myself doing a "Donnell Taylor watch" as soon as he comes on the floor. I check the score in order to track his plus/minus which I know is going to be a minus. I start counting the number of missed shots and turnovers. I see how quickly he can pick up fouls. He had a rough start during the first half although he settled down when AD came into the game. His second half showing was uneventful, but I think the potential is there for him to become wildly unpopular with the fans.

The Wizards promotion staff led by the annoying man at the mike Chris Stiles and mascot G-Wiz/GMan seemed genuinely annoyed by the presence of a large contingent of very enthusiastic Lithuanian fans. The fans were seated in 2 lower level sections behind their team's bench and were all clad in green. They cheered and chanted throughout and didn't appear concerned that their team was losing. From my distant vantage point they seemed very good natured and looked like they would be fun to hang out with. But during 1 time out, G-Wiz went over and got one of the green Lithuanian t-shirts. He then tossed it on the ground, stomped on it, picked it up and pretended to use it as toilet paper, and then tossed it back down on the ground and stomped on it about a dozen more times. He continued this for about 30 seconds after the game resumed. I thought that he might be doing this in fun, but once he was finished, he simply walked off the other side of the court rather than return to the Lithuanian section and hanging out. It seemed mean spirited, humorless, and almost offensive. Had he engaged in a t-shirt exchange and sat amongst the fans clowning around, he would could have gained new fans for the 'zards. Similarly, Stiles and the promotions crew carefully avoided those 2 sections during the t-shirt tosses and the give aways. During one t-shirt toss, Stiles said into the mike "Don't make me go there" referring the the Lithuanian sections. Honestly why not act like HOSTS and practice sportsmanship? These fans were cheering for their national team. They don't play in our league and don't directly compete with the Wizards. Its not like they were rooting for the Cavaliers. They knew their team was going to lose but stayed cheerful throughout.  Instead of ignoring them, the promotions group should have lavished special attention on them. Give them extra t-shirts. It seems like it would be good business and kind of cool to have people in Vilnius wearing Wizards t-shirts. Why not have G-Wiz sit among the fans and party with them for a time out? Why not have a brief interview with one of the fans? Just petty and short sited. I was very surprised as the Wizards public relations seemed to have really improved over the years.

Guess I'm getting tired of all of the moaning and groaning about improving our defense. Yes, we play lousy defense. But when I watched the games that we lost, I was always much more frustrated with the offense.

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