Why "patience" is not gonna work

I initally applauded Ted's "patience" plan. Building through the draft seemed like the the right thing to do. It worked for OKC right? A variation of this idea worked in a number of different places right? The key caveats here is that you need the right environment to grow in (a concept discussed at length here on BF) and you have to actually stockpile young talent. Consider the past 6 years. The draft picks that have ended up playing for the Wizards have been: 2005- Blatche (49). 2006 - Olekisy Pecherov (18). 2007-Nick Young (16) and Dominic McGuire (47). 2008 - JaVale McGee (18). 2010- John Wall (1), Kevin Seraphin (17), Trevor Booker (23) and Crawford (27). 2011 - Vesely (6), Singleton (18), and Mack (34). The Wizards are one of the few teams with only 1 top 5 pick and only 2 top 10 picks on their roster. Only one player has ever made an all-star game (Lewis who is most definitely no longer playing at that level). Looking at this data, this much is obvious: we don't have the young talent to be patient with. Basketball is not like football. In the NFL draft, you have 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. rounders that emerge as quality starters or all stars regularly. In the past 10 or so NBA drafts, a very few players drafted outside the top 10 have gone on to become all-star quality players, and the ones who have were all part of teams that already had transcendant talents on the team (Tony Parker and Ranjon Rondo come to mind).

Which brings me to the point of all this. Ted and the brain trust over at VC are asking fans and players to be patient and let players develop. I would counter with this: why? Why should we be patient when based on recent histories there is only a slim chance of our young players actually developing into the kind of players we need when the bulk of precendents suggest otherwise? Why are we clutching to second round picks and later 1st rounders that are essentially vestiges of a different era in our team's history while hoping and waiting and praying they become the kind of star players we can build around and with? Young, Blatche, etc. were drafted to be young accessory pieces to the veteran Gil-Butler-Jamison core. When Ted/Ernie blew it up, did they relly expect these accessory pieces to develop into the new generation of stars to build around when really, through character flaws, deficits in talent and/or skill, they were probably never going do so? Even finds like Booker/Singleton, while great roleplayer, off-the-bench energy types who might start on teams with two or 3 other stars probably don't have the ceiling to develop into the kind of player we need to regain respectability. Projects like Vesely/Seraphin are so far away they might not reach it for several more years.

Repeatedly preaching patience with this group of players is like repeatedly asking for fans make risky investments. It's ok when you have 3 or 4 other solid established pieces in your portfolio. It's not ok when that''s all you have. Unless starting 0-8 is part of some grand scheme to tank this season and get somehow 2 lotto picks, the way this roster has been assembled is incredibly irresponsible. Players have been overvalued and overpaid. Forget about chemistry and coaching for right now, even though all though those are huge problems as well. You can't win if you can't play. And the majority of the players on our team are not good players.