With Grunfeld’s Latest Draft Pick, Wizards Fans Can Expect To Pay For It
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When the Wizards were preparing to announce their selection for the No. 32-overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, I couldn’t fight the feeling.
Although landing Bradley Beal with the No. 3 pick was rewarding, it came with very little excitement. Barring an unexpected draft night trade, Beal was expected to go to the Wizards all along. And as my team’s final pick of the draft, the second-rounder naturally came with much more intrigue than the first.
Keep in mind the reason for my excitement. At this point in the draft, the 32nd-overall pick was about as close as you can get to a late first-rounder. This is especially true considering the depth of this specific draft class — which held tons of value from picks 20-40.
As I sit there waiting — hastly clicking around on the internet and stuffing pizza into my face — I think about the Wizards’ options. They’re better than good. There’s multiple (literally multiple) players the team could use and benefit from selecting.
Despite addressing their need for a scorer in the first round, the Wizards still don’t have enough. Guys like Doron Lamb from Kentucky, Will Barton from Memphis and Kim English from Missouri are all available.
If the Wizards were thinking more along the lines of frontcourt contribution, Michigan States’ Draymond Green, Baylor’s Quincy Acy and Florida State’s Bernard James were still waiting for their name to be called.
And if the Wizards wanted to build on their culture-change, selecting a gritty all-around basketball player could have interested them. Marquette duo Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom were there, as well as Kris Joseph from Syracuse and Robbie Hummel from Purdue.
“With the 32nd pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards select, Tomas Satoransky — guard from Czech Republic.”
Come again?
After hearing very little about foreign players leading up to this draft — in addition to seeing only one selected within the first 31 picks — Ernie Grunfeld and the Wizards just selected the only white guy from Europe that can’t shoot?
The only reason you’re reading this now and not immediately following the 32nd pick is because I was too busy screaming at the top of my lungs, while crying hysterically and smashing my head through my living room table. Since then, of course, I have slept on Ernie’s decision and have attempted to think like him. However, for the life of me, I can’t understand it.
Any fan with half a brain would be curious as to why Ernie Grunfeld enjoys selecting European players so much. When you take a look at his track record of foreign players in Washington, it’s beyond terrible. In fact, I don’t think any of them have panned out (with the verdict still open on Jan “Air Wolf” Vesely).
Say what you want, but this tirade is perfectly justifiable.
For starters, Wizards fans have had enough of this draft abuse. Every year, regardless of the talent, no one ever feels like the Wizards came out with a stellar draft class. For a draft that only contains two rounds, it almost seems harder to suck than it does to pick at least two solid rotational players.
Secondly, we have to assume at this point that Ernie Grunfeld has a summer home in Europe. Either that, or he watches a few quick highlight tapes on YouTube of some lanky kid dribbling down a lane shaped like a triangle and gets overly estatic. There has to be some method behind his madness.
Although it was mentioned that Washington’s near-full roster was the possible reasoning behind Grunfeld’s draft-and-stash method of the second round, I can’t find the value in such a move at all. Regardless of who you draft with that pick, the player receives no guaranteed money. You draft him, he shows up to camp. If he’s good enough to make the team, splendid. If he can’t hit a bucket to save his life, you cut him. In any case, the Wizards can’t lose.
Finally, how much longer do fans have to suffer before another figure within the organization informs Ernie about just how bad he is at selecting Euro players? I know he’s the general manager and you really shouldn’t say anything of the sorts without fearing for your job, but Grunfeld was just signed to an extension. If this is what we can expect for another five years, owner Ted Leonsis needs to cut his losses now.
And to really put the icing on the cake, this kid Tomas may never even touch down in Washington.
Let’s say his ultra-attractive stat line of 4.8 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.4 apg, 0.6 spg, 16.9 mpg, .500 FG, .273 3PtFG and .705 FT doesn’t get any better — which would shock no one. In that case, the Wizards probably never even call the kid back. He just melts away in basketball overseas and the Wizards mark their second-round pick of the 2012 Draft as yet another wasted and disasterous selection.
At this point, it’s going to be hard to root for this kid, Tomas. After watching Ernie pull this kind of crap for so many years, I want all of his bonehead moves stemming from his foolish philosophy to fail. And, well, Tomas looks very much like another casuality.