Grant & Danny: Wizards finally making smart moves

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No permanent GM, no problem for the Washington Wizards. 

As the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to create salary cap room to complete their acquisition of Anthony Davis, the Wizards made a deal to net them a draft pick and Moritz Wagner, Jemerrio Jones and Isaac Bonga. 
"This is exactly what the Wizards should have been doing, not just now, but for years," Danny Rouhier said Friday on 106.7 The Fan.
"Understand who you are, where you are. You don't keep giving up picks, you acquire as many possibilities for future assets as possible when you are not a championship team," he said. "The refusal to acknowledge that they were not a championship team, the refusal to acknowledge they had tapped out at just OK, was what doomed them for the entirety of Ernie Grunfeld's tenure."

Rouhier argues during Grunfeld's long tenure the Wizards would make unnecessary moves to incrementally improve. This trade, on the other hand, is one that acknowledges, "We stink, we're not anywhere close."

"Someone else is winning the championship. You're not close, this is what you do," Rouhier says about the Wiz. "You see if Bonga can be somebody for you and if he can't be, who cares? It cost you nothing. You see if Wagner can step in and be somebody for you. If he's not, who cares? It doesn't cost you anything. You have a second round pick, you have future assets. Assets, assets, assets. It's all people should have been doing for years to then be in a position like the Lakers are in." 

To be in a position where you can attract a free agent signing and compete to win a title, Rouhier argues. 

And the Wizards were evidently quite high an asset in Wagner before the 2018 NBA  Draft.
"They couldn't justify picking him (at) 15th overall, but he was one of the most impressive guys they worked out last year, and they just raved about him," Chase Hughes told 106.7 The Fan Thursday.
"Tommy Sheppard deserves high marks, I think for this decision," Grant Paulsen added. "A lot of people have advocated he's different than Ernie, he has philosophical differences, his paradigm is completely different than Grunfeld's was over the years, I think this move signifies that." 

"This is very anti-Grunfeldian," Rouhier said. "These are the no-brainer type moves that the have-nots should always be making that's how you become a have."

"It's so anti-who-the-Wizards-have-been for so long," he said. "It's great."

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