Should Ernie Grunfeld have spoke out like Bryan Colangelo?

Thanks to Extraordinary Ice for pointing out something in this FanPost that also caught my eye over the weekend. As many of you noticed, Ernie Grunfeld recently made some public comments about the state of his 2-15 team. Here they are, as delivered to Michael Lee of the Washington Post.

"We'd like to have more wins at this time, but we have to look at the big picture and see where we are," Grunfeld said."The players compete on a nightly basis and that's what we wanted and they've faced adversity and they've responded. Down the road, this is going to help them. But going through the process is not easy for anybody."

[...]

"We said we'd like to put ourselves in position to compete for a playoff-type of situation. Who's to know how the season would start from an injury standpoint? It has taken time and things that we can't control have played a part in it. Obviously, everything that we've tried to do was built around John and Nene and fitting pieces around them, for now and for the future."

Now, contrast those to the comments Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo made about his 4-17 club in the Toronto Star.

"This situation is, from all standards, unacceptable," the team's president and general manager said. "It's disappointing, it's embarrassing but this is where we find ourselves."

[...]

"It's obviously something we are addressing, we continue to look and evaluate. Again, 4-16 is unacceptable."

[...]

"We're all under a microscope now, as should be the case, including myself. We clearly have to make this right."

Both men have been with their organization for quite some time. Both men have been well-respected by their peers, but their tenures with their current franchises have been largely disappointing. Both men are on short-term contracts and must prove to their respective owners that they are the right person for the job in the future.

And yet, their public comments on their team's situations could not be more different.

To be fair, the situations are not exactly the same. The absence of John Wall is a far bigger loss than any of the nagging injuries the Raptors have faced this year. As trite as it sounds, not having your two best players (Wall and Nene) really does affect a team.

But it does beg the question: would it be better if Grunfeld spoke out like Colangelo?

I think so. On some level, I understand the reluctance, because harsh comments like Colangelo's don't always help the situation. But while it must kill both men equally that their team is floundering, at a certain point, you have to show publicly that you care as much as your fanbase does. In this respect, Grunfeld's classic, "things will be OK" message really falls flat.

So, yes, I think Grunfeld needs to speak out like Colangelo, if only to show the fanbase that these losses are burning him up as much as they are burning us up.

But what do you guys think? Is it fair to compare the two situations? Should Grunfeld's public message have been different? Let us know.