by Charley Rosen

Updated: November 26, 2008, 12:29 AM EST 5 comments

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We've all seen this movie before: A general manager stocks his roster with a dysfunctional mixture of players, but since he's the one who procured the players he thinks they're better than they really are. Eventually the team loses, and the coach is canned — because it's easier to fire the coach than to fire the players, and because the GM is certainly not going to fire himself.

This is approximately what happened to Eddie Jordan in Washington. Ernie Grunfeld's team had no reliable big men as well as too many gunners with similar talents.

To win in the NBA, teams must play inside-out offense — where the ball is dumped into a big man in the low post whose ability to score demands double teams. Then, with his teammates playing 4-on-3, a series of adept out- and swing-passes invariably creates open shots.

Or else teams can play outside-in basketball — wherein clever penetrators are called upon to drive-and-dish.

But the Wizards have to play outside-out basketball, since they lack a scoring center, and since their not-so-big three are all shoot-first guys.

Then, of course, there's the injury factor. Gilbert Arenas, Brendan Haywood, Antonio Daniels, and so on. Since he's been in Washington, Jordan has done a magnificent job with this team even though Arenas and Etan Thomas have been periodically down and out — repeatedly leading them into the playoffs. But yesterday's competence is not relevant in the what-have-you-done-lately mindset of the NBA. No excuses. No mitigating circumstances.

Plus, Grunfeld had to do something (anything) in order to justify his own job security.

So Jordan — one of the truly honest, reasonable, universally respected, friendly and knowledgeable guys in what is mostly a backstabbing, cut-throat business — takes the fall.

I'd wager that within the next two years, Jordan will return to the coaching ranks and Grunfeld will be unemployed.

Game Time: Wizards 124, Warriors 100

There's nothing unusual about a team responding to its first outing under a new coach by playing with an impressive surge of energy. Especially if their opponent happens to be the none-for-all Warriors who have little interest in playing coordinated offense and no interest whatsoever in playing defense.

Even so, the Wizards' performance was superlative on many fronts.

Caron Butler showed why he's such a potent scorer, but it was his timely ball-hawking that was especially impressive. Even when/if Gilbert Arenas makes his dramatic return, Butler is a much more versatile and dependable fail-safe scorer.

Antawn Jamison is another dynamic point-maker. A reliable long-distance bomber, Jamison also posted up on several occasions, and as is his wont shot swingers and fadeaways but never sought any kind of contact. As always, Jamison was mostly timid and ineffective on defense.

Dee Brown was the starting point guard, a speedy fellow who dropped a pair of treys and showed some fast-handed defense. But Brown was frequently taken advantage of in the pivot by bigger opponents. Plus he lacked the wherewithal to carry the ball into the paint (not even once!), which by itself should relegate him to the end of the bench.

JaVale McGee started the game with a pair of hustle buckets, and continued to play hard for the duration. Indeed, the big fellow is as quick as a guard. If his hands are questionable and he was often confused by the swift pace of the game, there's nothing wrong with the youngster that experience and lots of time in the weight room won't set right. This guy might be a project, but he also a keeper.

DeShawn Stevenson didn't have a particularly good game. He forced too many shots, and played hustling if sloppy defense. But taking several turns behind Brown, Stevenson did an admirable job of facilitating the offense.

Nick Young is athletic, aggressive, and has a sweet shot-release.

Dominic McGuire is still another young man with explosive speed and elevation.

But the star of the game was Andray Blatche. He shot the ball softly and accurately, made several swooping drives, executed a number of alert and accurate passes, and was a shot-blocking machine. In all, he wound up with an all-star line — 11-18, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 5 blocks, 25 points. Is this indicative of the REAL Andray Blatche? Or was this game just another tease? If he can play at this level with any kind of consistency, then Gilbert Arenas will be expendable and can be dealt for a muscle-man in the middle.

On offense, nearly every play was a quick-hitter. Handoffs, weaves, post-ups, back- and dive-cuts, and isolations, with a few screen/rolls thrown in. Similar to the departed Eddie Jordan's Princetonian offense but executed with more quickness, verve and unselfishness.

The extra flip at this end of the court was their 23 offensive rebounds. Overall they out-bounded the Warriors by 54-40.

On defense, the Wiz had fast hands flashing at every interior dribble and pass. They started off by going under the Warriors' high screen/rolls, but then had the bigs make hard shows interspersed with double teams in the second half — all to good effect.

Whatever they did, the Wizards played with sustained intensity and focus.

Not every opponent will be as easily discombobulated as the Warriors, and it will be interesting to see just how long the Wizards' adrenalin rush can last.

Vox Populi

J.J. Redick is continuously cited as lacking the athletic ability to play in the NBA despite his stellar shooting ability. Why is it that a comparable player such as Steve Kerr has been successful and Redick might find himself out of the league in the near future? — Kevin, Hampton, VA

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Kerr had a quicker release, was indeed more athletic, was a better passer, and understood the intricacies of the pro game. Also, while neither Kerr nor Redick had sufficient handling ability to get to the hoop on a regular basis, Kerr was at least able to dribble-pull-and-shoot going both left and right — which, without suckering his defender off his feet with an elementary head-fake, is more than Redick can do.

Moreover, Kerr had better lateral quickness and was physically tougher. These two qualities also made Kerr at least an adequate defender, whereas Redick would have trouble staying in front of a corpse.

Remember, however, that Kerr was strictly a marginal player until he joined the Bulls — where he was a perfect fit in the triangle offense.

More than Kerr, Redick's game is much closer to another heralded shooter who never made a splash in the NBA — Rick Mount. The only difference being that Mount would have bested Redick in any kind of shooting contest.

Travels with Charley

Just as in the film An Officer and a Gentleman, NBA players have to be wary of gold-digging women. One trick of the trade is for a woman on the make to borrow high-priced clothing, shoes and jewelry so that she'll give the appearance of being wealthy enough on her own, and therefore not a threat to get her hands on a player's checking account.

Getting pregnant is often a ploy guaranteed to at least receive lucrative child-support payments. In fact, one agent used to put away 30K every year from his client's paychecks to be specifically used to deal with pregnancies.

Then there was the case of an All-Star player with a hefty contract who had a live-in girlfriend. Virtually every day over the course of the several months they'd been together, she would bring up the subject of their getting married.

"Not a chance," said the player, since he was already paying child support for two illegitimate children.

Still, she persisted.

Until, one night, he'd had his fill of her nagging. In the resulting argument, he touched her shoulder to get her out of his face — "touched" is the exact term he used to describe the contact. She, however, claimed that he "punched" her and quickly sued him for a million bucks.

An out-of-court settlement was reached wherein the woman received a one-time payment of $200K. However, during the course of the legal proceedings, he learned that both the name by which he knew her, as well as the personal history that she had told him were totally fictional.

It's all about the money, honey.