Frankly, I think you're going a little soft on Grunfeld. Re-signing Hughes was a no-brainer and the Wiz should have done what it took to get him committed right away instead of dicking around in the hopes of reaping some minor financial gain. The 'zards fielded a solid squad last year that was pretty clearly on an upward trajectory (Arenas' play, e.g., lacked a certain maturity that should have improved with experience) in the context of an East field whose leading teams (i.e., Detroit and Miami) are past their primes. There was no really pressing need to sign additional free agents with whatever money they thought could be saved by getting stingy with LH.

Now the team is, to put it politely, totally fucked. Meanwhile, if Scola makes the rumored move from Spain to San Antonio I think we can expect the Spurs to continue dominating for quite some time.

A few years ago I really thought the Wizards were on the verge of turning around that franchise.  There has been great talent that passed through and developed in Washington.  But when it comes time to pay the players after the original rookie contracts are up the Wizards have shown they are unwilling to pay.  Rip Hamilton gets traded away and soon after the Pistons are World Champs.  Gotta not only spend money, but spend crazy money to be a winner in any pro sport.

But in defense of Washington if they were in the Ray Allen bidding they must be willing to spend the money.

 In re: Grunfeld has been "smarter than the average bear" for some time now:

Four words: "Tim Thomas" and "Anthony Mason." Ask any Milwaukee Bucks fan -- especially today: howdy doo Bobby Simmons! -- and you will not hear any of them agree with this sentiment.

Tim Thomas was a millstone for the Bucks, as he now is for the Knicks (and as the various lousy things the Bucks got in trade from the Knicks, and then from the Mavs, for Tiny Tim), and it was Grunfeld's genius that signed him to a max contract, and thereby saved the Pistons from wooing him away (imagine that alternative universe).

Anthony Mason was a millstone for the Bucks whom Grunfeld signed to a 3-year deal (competing with himself in doing so) partly in order to appease an increasingly out-of-control George Karl.

 Now, each of these deals individually is defensible as a rational act. But each is the product of a very average NBA executive with little ability to prognosticate talent and the mix of personalities on a team (both Thomas and Mason proved to be especially lousy teammates).

First, as a general matter, I don't think Grunfeld is a bad GM, I just don't think he's elite. So, take all that follows as consistent with that premise. But every significant argument you make about Grunfeld and the Bucks is entirely wrong.

As to the team that got to the Eastern Conference Final: Of the "big 3," he inherited all three: Ray Allen was drafted in '96, Sam Cassell was acquired five months before Grunfeld was hired, and Glenn Robinson was drafted in '94. Although Grunfeld didn't acquire Thomas, he did sign him to a max deal. I will give him props for one significant acquisition, though the player had nothing to do with the ECF team: he drafted Michael Redd in the second round in the 2000 draft. But Ernie acquired none of the major contributors to the team that your credit him for having built.

As to the ease with which Thomas was disposed of: You can only come to that conclusion by thinking that the Bucks' being forced to take  Keith Van Horn and his max contract was a good deal. That's totally nuts. It was Mark Cuban who was willing, ultimately, to take Thomas's contract off the Bucks' hands by taking Van Horn, but that required taking back two players with longer contracts who have absolutely zero talent: Reese Gaines and Calvin Booth, both of whom sat on a deeply mediocre bench for the Bucks last year, and Booth is still due $6 mil for the next two seasons. (It also required taking Alan Henderson and agreeing to cut him immediately so the Mavs could get him back. The Bucks were still required to count his contract against their cap -- whether Cuban or Kohl paid him, I don't know.)By the time the Bucks traded him, everyone knew his contract was a total liability.  There's simply no other conclusion to make: besides one good playoff run, Thomas has been an absolute bust wherever he's been, and his trade value reflected that fact. And that's the player whom Grunfeld chose to offer a max contract to. That's not a mark of a great GM -- not by a long shot.

Finally, as to GMing for a cheap owner: Say what you will about the Senator, but Kohl gave Ernie the green light with Anthony Mason and Jason Caffey and had to eat both of those deals. He also owns a team that plays in Milwaukee -- not exactly New York, or Dallas, or Washington in terms of market size. Kohl also just ok'd signing Redd to a max and Bobby Simmons to a quite large 5-year deal. He isn't a Dolan or a Cuban, but he's a long, long, long way from Donald Sterling, and Grunfeld had plenty of opportunity to build a good team for the long term while he was there. Instead, he reaped the benefit of others' decisions and of George Karl's great year of coaching (before, as seems to be his MO, Karl self-combusted).

In short, Grunfeld left the team in worse condition from how he found it. If you like him for the Wiz, great. But his track record with the Bucks was definitely less than "elite." In fact, it was pretty pathetic.

Peter Vescey today writes:

Meanwhile, as much as the Wizards revere Hughes' all-around excellence (if you overlook his 29 percent from 3-point range and 62-game average attendance record over the last five years) and as badly as they wanted him to re-up, they should consider themselves lucky he turned down their last proposition of $12M per over six.

Come on; they're already paying Antawn Jamison $13.8 and Gilbert Arenas $10.2M. How many non-centers/macho forwards can you overpay before your salary cap irrevocably resembles the Knicks? It's infinitely more economical (not that difficult, either) to use Kwame Brown in a sign-and-trade to get a big guard instead of squandering cash to make themselves look good to their fans and the media.

At last count, the Wiz had seven offers for Kwame, several of them significant, which summarily erases the Knicks from contention on numerous scores. For some reason, they don't find Michael Sweetney and Jerome Williams ($6.6M/$7M/7.3M) all that appealing.

Hearing aides inform me Washington GM Ernie Grunfeld can have his pick of Memphis' James Posey, Indiana's Fred Jones and the Lakers' Caron Butler.

I think he's not far off the mark, although I'd have bitten the Bullet and signed Hughes for $70M over 6 years.  But he is indeed correct that tying up $36M/year for 3 perimeter players is a recipe for a bad tasting cake.  Jamison is the bad puppy in that mix.

And either Posey or Jones would be a decent pickup.  Jones, especially, has some real potential.

"What the team needed to do was acquire more frontcourt strength. Losing Hughes and then trading Brown away for a replacement can't possibly accomplish that."

No doubt.  I'm in agreement with you that they should have signed Hughes.  (Although, as I've said, I'm not convinced Hughes wouldn't have gone to Cleveland even if Washington had thrown out a better opening offer.)

But if they had signed Hughes for $12M, that would've capped them out for the next two seasons until Jamison comes off the books, leaving them not very able to acquire significant frontcourt help.

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Regardless, this is a very profitable offseason to be an above-average, but not great, 2 guard.

Hughes, Michael Redd, and Joe Johnson are all good young players.  But at $14M/year, several, if not all, of those teams are likely to be very unhappy with their investments a couple of years down the line.