Upcoming Q&A with Ted Leonsis - What would you ask him?

he’ll dodge, but i’m still curious

With a team lacking a quality veteran presence around Wall, who are the main people tasked with being his teachers and advisers? Who is he learning from? How much emphasis do you place on the team showing at least minimal signs of improvement to avoid a situation where Wall has never seen anything but 50+ loss seasons?

Is he thinking of letting Sam Cassell coach the team since this is a rebuilding, and place a master mind group around him, like Dallas did for Avery Johnson his first time coaching.

Ted, in the history of the NBA, with the greatness of the dream team, Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain, the Mail Man, Dr. J, who was your favorite team and why?

Do you think teams now a days think and play differently than in eras past?

You’ve talked passionately about ownership of the Wizards as a public trust. How was the lockout consistent with that public trust?

Have you not fired Flip Saunders this season in order to save money, or because he has met the standard you’ve set for his performance? If the latter, what is that standard and can you offer some examples of how he has met it?

Flip Saunders has a great resume’, but the last three years haven’t gone well. His first year he had to deal with Blatch, McGhee and Youngs’ immaturity and agent “0” problems. The second year roster changes were multiple and developing a “team” mentality would challenge any coach. This year the team is loaded with 1 and 2 year rookies with varying skills and developing a “Team Mentality” again presents a challenge. This led me to consider how college coaches seem to have the skill to put together and create teams with constant changes in personnel. Would you consider making a coaching change and consider someone with college coaching experience who has the skill to develop a winning team with consistent changes in personnel?

Given the fact that the wizards have literally been considered a laughingstock franchise – clippers east – in many corners, why did you not make cleaning house (new gm, new coach, new MEDICAL STAFF, etc., etc.) a first priority for this franchise? What do you say to your season tix holders right now about what you concretely intend to do SOON given that the wizards have only added fodder to that perception so far in the truncated current season?

Barring you don’t get screwed by the Lottery, which almost always happens to the Wiz Kidz.

or

Does Ernie G. have a pic of u wearing a tutu or in some other compromising position? As a fan I feel this must be the only reason why you keep all these incompetent losers in your front office and coaching staff.

If the coach is not held to any standard for winning games, how can you expect to hold the professional athletes to any standard of not playing well?

The Wizards seem to have some strong individual horses, but those horses don’t seem to be pulling in the same direction. That’s a failure of leadership.

In the NBA, great leadership comes from some combination of the head coach and an individual player or two.

At one extreme, the head coach can stand almost alone. Examples are disciplinarians like Jerry Sloane in Utah and Larry Brown, at every stop.

At the other extreme, you can get “player’s coaches” who teach, manage egos, game plan, and rely on a strong personality in uniform to enforce discipline. The best example is Phil Jackson who relied on MJ in Chicago and Kobe/Shaq and later just Kobe in LA.

Flip clearly seems to fall into the latter category, relying on KG in Minnesota. Which of the Wizards players do you envision stepping into the KG role here? As the face of the franchise, John Wall is the obvious crown prince, but he’s still incredibly young. What is the team doing to help Wall take control of the team? And until Wall is ready to assume full leadership, who can steward this team? Flip doesn’t seem to be cut out for a Jerry Sloane or Larry Brown role. Among the players, Blatche has seniority here, but we saw how well his lockout practices turned out. Who’s it going to be?

how would you prioritize the following objectives?

1) winning games
2) developing the young players
3) seeing teamwork on the floor
4) entertaining the fans and ensuring that they stay interested in the team

the fan’s are looking to the young player’s development for encouragement.

Would you agree to release the top three development priorities for each player and which coach is assigned to each of those development priorities?