Ernie v. Eddie re Brendan?

I was discussing whether Brendan Haywood will return next season and only later came upon this nugget from Post beat reporter Ivan Carter:

A divide clearly exists between Ernie and Eddie's perceptions of Brendan Haywood. Ernie sees a 27-year old 7-footer with a very, very, very reasonable contract who works hard, takes care of his body, has good shot-blocking skills and has helped his team reach the playoffs three straight years.

Eddie sees a 7-footer who too often coasts through games neither effectively scoring or rebounding, a guy who gets shoved under the basket too easily by big centers, a guy who fights with a teammate, pouts when he comes out and basically quit on his team late last season, saying he had a back injury as he missed several key games on a west coast trip as the team was fighting for its playoff life.

So there you have it. GM Ernie Grunfeld likes Haywood, correctly regards him as inexpensive, and rather less correctly thinks Haywood is a hard worker. Coach Eddie Jordan thinks Haywood is lazy, a poor rebounder, and a poor sport.

I think Grunfeld's points about Haywood being cheap and a legitimate, if not terribly good, NBA center are well-taken. However, EJ is clearly [at least in my mind] correct that Brendan is lazy, a lousy rebounder for a 7-footer, and a whiner. EJ would be happy to put up with Haywood's problems if he was a star center. But he isn't a star center. He isn't even close.

I'm open to Haywood returning or not returning. If he's going to be traded, though, as I've written, I want the Bullets to get a good player in return. Legitimate 7-foot NBA centers don't grow on trees, you know.