FanPost

Five steps on how to reload the Wizards without a complete rebuild

Yes, both should return - Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

I think the Wizards are actually not in that bad of a place right now. Sure, they will probably miss the postseason. But they aren't one or two steps away from having to blow it all up like in 2009, before Gilbert Arenas' gun incident happened. Here's a five-step plan on how I'd reload as opposed to rebuild the team this summer.

1. Dump the Pace and Space idea get back to "defense-first" basketball

Randy Wittman is a excellent coach when it comes to defense rotations. When that was our team focus we were one John Wall wrist injury away from going to the Eastern Conference Finals.

We changed our identity tried to be Golden State Warriors 2.0 and it back fired. Let Randy be Randy, get back to defense intensity, and that will create offense. Contrary to what many may want, I would retain Wittman because Wall is entering his prime. You just can't blow this up now. The Wizards' philosphy of getting back on defense first and the lunchpail-mentaitly served us well but there is a catch on Wittman's job.

2. Tell Wittman he needs to bring in a decent offensive assistant coach

STOP SHOOTING THE LONG two pointers!! I coach high school basketball. We play many great teams in the region and the county. We do not shoot jump shots from mid range or two feet in anymore. No coach worth his or her salt does!

Why? Because they are the least effective possesions in basketball. At least until this season, that's all the Wizards did.

Play hard defense, get out on the break, attack the rim, or shoot open threes off the penetration. We need to get to the free throw line more and settle for long two pointers never. Just that alone would improve us by ten games.

3. Retain most of the Wizards' top contributors this season.

Despite all the "is he a max player" talk, Bradley Beal must be re-signed. In addition, Nene -- even in his declining state -- should also be re-signed.

Ramon Sessions is possibly the most underrated back up pg in the league, resign him no question. Resign Nene to a team friendly deal let him finish out last few years coming off bench.

Beal's comments after Wednesday's loss were directed at Jared Dudley who was ony interested in taking shots. I saw Wittman scolding him during a timeout for no effort on defense.

Now that we got the re-signings out of the way, let's talk about which new players to bring in through free agency. I suggest that the Wizards sign a swingman like Chandler Parsons to give us a legit small forward that can shoot.

No matter what, DO NOT PANIC AND GO FOR CARMELO ANTHONY! The problem is not so dire we can't fix things.

4. Fire Ernie Grunfeld

The mistakes he made in the draft over the last 13 years cant be overlooked anymore. Can the Atlanta Hawks take any player off our bench and turn them into a legit NBA player? Shelvin Mack, Shaun Livingston, Hardaway, are prime examples rumor is they are looking at Jan Vesely because there front office knows we don't develop talent like we need to.

Grunfeld needed to bring in better assistant coaches, and honestly a new medical staff. None of this happened.

Around the league, the Wizards' mishandling of major injuries costs us free agents looking here and that is the truth. Perception is reality and perception is that the Wizards' medical staff is sub par. We fire Grunfeld, we tell Wittman to get back to defense, hire somebody to build an offense built around modern NBA stuff.

Wittman will be on short notice even though the new GM won't be picking the head coach in his or her first year. Wittman must lead the team to the playoffs in 2017 or he'll lose his job. Any new GM that the Wizards hire MUST be able to do this at a minimum.

5. Save the money and cap space we originally built for Kevin Durant until 2017

With these changes, we will be back and more attractive for free agents, I don't think we need talent as much as we need a better foundation. Swap Nene and Beal's contract get them re-signed, pay Sessions, and get Parsons for about 8 million that leaves us a bunch of cap space for future.

Also, the NBA's salary cap is scheduled to increase considerably for the 2017-18 season, so it's not like this summer is a be-all, end-all situation anyway.

We can't panic. We must add players around Wall's age and stick to our plan.

The TL;dr version

A year ago, we were on pace to make Eastern Conference Finals built around hard defense, good transition offense, hitting open threes, and driving in transition. Now we spread the floor, take a long two, and don't defend nearly enough. Parsons, Morris, Beal, Gortat, and Wall make a nice lineup. We could go with Porter as well for his defense.

If the Wizards make these changes, we can once again be a threat in the East. If we fire Wittman and bring in a free agent like Carmelo Anthony solely because we miss out on Durant, then we are done. Wall's career is wasted. If we stay the course, we can get back to what made us legit and we get better.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.