Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld quietly received a contract extension from the team prior to the 2017-18 season, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
This would be the second "quiet" contract of Grunfeld's time with the Wizards. In 2016, he received a contract extension that was not announced until the end of the 2015-16 season.
Grunfeld has held the position since 2003, and while he has had some success — his first major signing was future-All Star Gilbert Arenas, who led the team to its first first-round playoff series win since 1981 — his tenure is better described as a history of mediocrity.
Only three top executives have held their position longer than Grunfeld: Celtics president Danny Ainge, Heat president Pat Riley and Spurs general manager R.C. Buford.
Ainge has successfully torn down and rebuilt the Celtics multiple times and led the team to a 2008 title — which earned him Executive of the Year that season.
Riley was instrumental in bringing LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to the Heat and has guided the franchise to three titles.
Buford has won Executive of the Year twice (2014 and 2016) and helped the Spurs earn four rings during his tenure.
Grunfeld, on the other hand, has brought no Larry O'Brien trophies and has earned no Executive of the Year awards. Additionally, the Wizards have won just 44 percent of their games and missed the playoffs seven times during his tenure.
His personnel record is almost as ugly. He drafted stars John Wall and Bradley Beal, but those moves were countered by moments like drafting Jan Vesely ahead of four future All-Stars in 2011 and giving Ian Mahinmi a four-year, $64 million contract after the Wizards missed out on Al Horford.
The team's 2017-18 payroll was higher than that of the Rockets — who had the best regular-season record in the NBA — and the Raptors — who just eliminated the Wizards from the playoffs.
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The Wizards finished a turbulent 43-39 season that featured passive-aggressive Twitter remarks, a series of injuries and an unceremonious first-round exit against the Raptors. The team continued its 40-year streak of not advancing past the second round of the playoffs and its 39-year streak without 50 wins.
Fans certainly aren't happy, but probably more concerning is that the team's superstar isn't happy, either.
“If you want to be a championship team, be a team that do well in the playoffs and the regular season and succeed, you have to stay at a steady level," Wall told reporters after his exit interview with the team.
"You might drop a little bit, but you can’t keep going up and down every year all year. That’s something we’ve been dealing with since I’ve been here.”
Wall's solution is to add better pieces around him and Beal, but given how much money the Wizards owe its two guards and forward Otto Porter, that doesn't appear to be a likely option.
It's very clear to many that this franchise needs a change at the upper management level, but it doesn't appear as though that's happening anytime soon.