He’s never really been into signing free agents away from other teams, mostly because—for years—Washington just hasn’t been an attractive destination. It’s tough to be the guy always paying what amounts to a tax just to get guys to show up to the party.
Now, it can one hundred percent be said that not much has been done to cultivate D.C. as a free agent “destination” during Grunfeld’s reign in Washington, which began in the summer of 2003 (1). Signing Paul Pierce in 2014 was the signal of some sort of change (even if Sam Cassell was more influential in that decision, and even if Pierce left after one season), but we also don’t know what sort of damage a disastrous 2015-16 did to that foundation (2).