One of the least discussed aspects of Ernie Grunfeld’s Wizards tenure is what a good situation he walked into when he took over the job in 2003. Although the Wizards didn’t have a lot of roster assets, they also had no bad, long-term deals weighing them down. They also had control of all but one of their future picks. You couldn’t ask for much more of a blank slate.
When Ted Leonsis took over as Wizards owner in 2010, Grunfeld had reset the team for a total rebuild. The only negative asset was Gilbert Arenas’ disastrous extension, but even that didn’t matter much because Washington was so far away from being competitive they didn’t need to worry about free agents.