 |
| RealGM Hoop Net |
|
| Search |
|
|
|
|
| Trade Checker ID |
| Draft Sim ID |
| Newsletter |
|
|
|
|
21st February, 2006 - 5:21 pm
|
|
|
| Current Features |
|
SCOOP DU JOUR: 32 Fearless Predictions For The 2011 NFL Draft
The draft is less than a week away. Draft boards from teams are essentially set and are now being carefully guarded. Here are some predictions for what we'll see next week. Some are serious, some are fun, and less than five will probably come to fruition.
TEAM RANKINGS: Euroleague Top 16 Power Rankings
Barcelona, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Maccabi, Madrid and Siena enter the Top 16 phase as likely contenders to win the 2011 Euroleague.
PLAYER RANKINGS: 2010-11 NBA Player Rankings Through Dec. 14th
Now that more than a quarter of the season is in the books, we don't have many aberrations in the player rankings as Pau Gasol, Kevin Love, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and LeBron James comprise the top-five.
MOCK DRAFT: 2010 NBA Mock Draft, Version 5.0
An interesting week of prevalent deception is nearly over and the actual picks are hours away. Hundreds of hours have been spent watching the 60 players that 30 teams hope will improve their club in the coming years.
LOCKER TALK: Nash, Cleveland, & Orlando
Steve Nash could draw trade interest this summer and Cleveland isn?t overlooking Orlando?
CLASSICS: Hakeem Vs. Ewing: Who Was The Better Center?
Born within six months of each other in opposite corners of the world, two seven footers who are finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame this fall are two of the best ever to play the center position.
|
By Mark Deeks
Last month, Aaron Bronsteter and the Standing 10 brought you the ten best GM's in the game today. The logical way to go is to follow that up with the complete opposite. A harder list to do, in retrospect, since there's a few GM's currently in the job (Wayne Embry and Jeff Bower, for example) whom have only very recently been appointed to their post, which means making damning judgement on their abilities in the roles and as human beings in general is kind of unfair. Still, I've never claimed to be fair, so we'll do this anyway.
Whilst no GM's are flawless, some tend to get it wrong more than others. It is therefore only fair that if we champion the good, we at least highlight the bad, and applaud the very bad. Therefore, I present my list of the ten "recently least successful" general managers in the NBA today.
10) Dave Twardzik/Otis Smith, Orlando Magic .
Given the relatively short tenure of these two as co-GM's, it's a fairly harsh placing. Yet they have not gotten off to the best start. With one draft and one free agency period behind them, they have only Keyon Dooling to show for it. They spent the eleventh overall draft pick on the supermodel looks of Fran Vazquez, over such impact players as Danny Granger or Francisco Garcia, just to watch in anguish as Vazquez opted to return to Europe. The other player drafted that they didn't trade away, Travis Diener, then had to watch as part-MLE signing Dooling was brought in above him. Training camp invite Felipe Lopez was also the cause of an unnecessary public drama.
Essentially, whilst they haven't done a lot, what they have done has not gone very well. The Darko trade could be, and likely will be, the first in a string of moves, so we will see how that pans out in time.
9) John Nash, Portland Trail Blazers
Upon his appointment, Nash and new President Steve Patterson made a point of publically announcing their 25 point pledge, a pledge designed to win back the respect and reputation of the Blazers franchise, lost in the Bob Whitsitt era. The plan behind the new philosophy was to weed out the players with the bad rep, whilst slashing payroll, yet also maintaining a competitive team. It started pretty well, as a series of trades saw the $100 million dollar cut in half, whilst the on-court product put up another 40 win season (they did not make the playoffs, however, ending a streak of 114 straight years). Since then, however, it has gone a bit wrong. The team invested big money in the wrong players, tying down Randolph, Miles and Ratliff to a combined $160 million plus, two of whom are now on the trading block, and the third of whom probably is if you ask nicely enough. The team suffered through an ugly season last year, on a team with tiny shooting guards, Damon Stoudamire showing Salim how to chuck, and some locker room discontent. Outside of the bright spots that were Joel Przybilla and Sebastian Telfair, the season was pretty much over when it began.
So what did they do to mend it? Well, they solved the small 2 guard spot by waiving Nick Van Exel (6'1) and Derek Anderson (6'5), and signing Juan Dixon (6'1) and Charles Smith (6'4). Which, as you can see, didn't exactly help. When third string point guard Steve Blake played his way into the starters role, former backup point guard Jarrett Jack (6'3) became the backup shooting guard. Which, as you can see, also didn't help.
What did they do with the overstocked small forward rotation problem? They drafted a wingman whose best position is arguably small forward (Martell Webster projected to be a 2 guard down the road) and signed their small forward draft pick from the previous season (Sergei Monia), giving them an impressive total of six.
What did they do about the backup power forward hole? They took one of the small forwards (the smallest of the bunch, 6'5 Ruben Patterson, although size doesn't seem to matter to him) and put him there.
My point here is that, the holes have not been filled. The plan has not been carried out, and the team has a whole load of work to do. Nash has dug out some nice pieces (goofy looking white boys Steve Blake and Joel Przybilla, for example. Although he's signed both to only two year contracts, making re-signing them unnecessarily difficult), but the roster is a big time work in progress.
Perhaps most importantly, convicted sex offender Patterson is still on the roster. Nash has tried to shift him on elsewhere, but the fact that this has not been done undermines his own pledge. A simple waiving would have sufficed. But apparently, that does not do.
8) Kevin O'Connor, Utah Jazz
When the Stockton and Malone era dribbled its way to a bit of an unromantic stop at the end of the 2002-2003 season, O'Connor and the rest of the Jazz management found themselves with a lot of work to do. An aging veteran team with one final crack at winning it all came up short, totalled 47 wins, and now had to be broken up. There were not a lot of young pieces remaining to start from. That season, old timers Stockton, Malone, Mark Jackson, Calbert Cheaney, Tony Massenburg and John Amaechi all left, along with key bench player Scott Padgett. The Jazz had their two draft picks that season, plus Raul Lopez (their draft pick from 2001) and a whole heap of cap space. They had a lot of holes to fill, but the assets with which to do it.
Yet the cap space did not work out too well. After being in the running for pretty much every free agent that season, they came away with very little. After signing Corey Maggette and Jason Terry to offer sheets that both got matched, the Jazz came out with little from the free agency crop. So O'Connor had to be creative. In return for taking on the bad contracts of Glen Rice, Keon Clark and (subsequently) Tom Gugliotta, O'Connor earned his team four future draft picks whilst giving up no assets. In free agency that season, he also dug up a pearler in Raja Bell, kept his cap space alive for the following season, found a steal in Carlos "Bronson" Arroyo (for whom playing under Stockton for one season seemed to work wonders), and also got to watch as Greg Ostertag put up a decent season (since it was a contract season, though, that should have been expected). He, combined with the long overdue breakout of DeShawn Stevenson and most welcome breakout seasons from Arroyo and Bell, led the Jazz to a surprising 42-40 record, only 5 games shy of their win total the previous season.
Why's he on the list then?
Because, that was 2003-2004. Since then, 2004 through to 2006 has not gone as well. With the cap space alive once again in 2004, O'Connor opted to fritter it away on Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur (both fine players, but whom, time has shown, can only play one position. The same one), as well as giving a multi year contract to Arroyo (Carlos then promptly fell wildly out of favour with coach Jerry Sloan, and was shifted on part way through season one). An incredibly injury prone roster fell victim to its own adjective, and finish with a dismal 23 wins. This season, they're back on a near-.500 keel, mainly due to players returning from injury. But my point here is that, with all the assets available to him, O'Connor turned a mediocre team into another mediocre team, via a whole lot of tweaking. Let's break this down a step further and scrutinise certain suspect moves, just for the hell of it:
* Trading three picks to climb to third in order to draft Deron Williams, who a) had a pretty good chance at being available at 6 anyway, and b) was the wrong pick, in our rather limited hindsight so far. For what it's worth, O'Connor traded his own number 6 pick, a high second, and Detroit's number 1 next season to move up those three spots.
* His drafting skills in general. His first rounders have been Stevenson, Lopez, Kirk Snyder, Ryan Humphrey (traded for Curtis Borchardt), Aleksander Pavlovic, Kris Humphries, Williams and Pavel Podkolzin (traded away on draft night). To be fair, he has found two pretty good second rounders in Jarron Collins and Maurice Williams, although Williams has subsequently left without compensation.
* Letting Greg Ostertag walk, then 12 months later trading three of his own previous first rounders to get him back (Lopez and Borchardt, both since out of the league, and Kirk Snyder, now a starter on the Hornets, dumped by the Jazz after only one season as he was neither happy, nor a "Jerry Sloan player". In which case, why did you take him?)
I think you can see my point here. O'Connor set himself up very well for a quick yet good rebuilding project. As of right now, however, he has fluffed it.
7) Carroll Dawson, Houston Rockets
With his team beset by injuries all season, winless versus their division rivals, with a .333 home record and currently placing last place in the powerhouse Southwest, you would think Carroll Dawson needs to make some moves to put his team back into contention, which is where pretty much everyone expected them to be to begin the year. However, he's made this very hard on himself. Going into this season, the Rockets had three players (Ex-Knicks Clarence Weatherspoon, Moochie Norris and Vin Baker) who, combined, had expiring contracts totalling over $14 million this season. Yet all they have to show for that is another ex-Knick, Maciej Lampe, recently acquried for Norris.
Weatherspoon was Houston's amnesty provision, and Baker was cut due to his being inept. So now, to improve his team, Dawson has been left to make some relatively minor moves, such as signing rookie Chuck Hayes (who quickly became the league's best player called Hayes), and moving Lonny Baxter for Keith Bogans (who remains the league's only Bogans).
Dawson has gotten some assets, and few teams can boast two All Star starters. Well, I say "few"......two, to be exact: Houston and Miami. Dawson put both of those in place, for which he deserves credit. Yet he did memorably get fleeced in a trade by Rob Babcock, which is too much shame to administer on any human being. And he has seemingly made a mistake by throwing so much money at Stromile Swift, who, it transpires, wasn't actually the answer to anything. He's also mired in the midst of an eye-opening soap opera with his coach, Jeff van Gundy, whom he appointed. Depending on who you believe, the level of discontent ranges somewhere between a mild tiff, to a full blown rum-do. Either way, it seems to stem from Dawson providing van Gundy with players he doesn't feel are right, or at least right for him. In which case, you've hired the wrong coach. Two years of rotating many players at the guard spots to compensate Tracy McGrady have not given Dawson the answers he was looking for, and the frontcourt is both thin and ugly. Years of constant manoeuvring have left the Rockets needing to do a whole lot more manoeuvring.
Incidentally, considering Yao Ming was the apparent 'gutsy' pick, whilst Jay Williams was the consensus failsafe star, it's interesting to note just how much of a mirror opposite has gone on there.
6) Billy King, Philadelphia 76ers
Billy King gets through money like I get through beefburgers. It's alarming. In recent years, he has either given out or taken on the contracts of Aaron McKie, Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, Samuel Dalembert, Dikembe Mutombo, Todd MacCulloch, Greg Buckner, Kevin Ollie, Derrick Coleman, Kyle Korver, Marc Jackson, Keith Van Horn, Eric Snow, Steven Hunter, Jamal Mashburn, Glenn Robinson, Brian Skinner, Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson, George Lynch - you get the idea.
In recent times, he has made absolutely no mistake about spending a lot of money. He traded the expiring contract of Glenn Robinson for Jamal Mashburn and Rodney Rogers, for which all he got was 25 games of Rogers (insurance pays Mashburn's salary, but it still counts against the salary cap). He traded the expiring contract of Derrick Coleman for Corliss Williamson. He gave Iverson $80 million for 4 more years. He threw 6 years at Greg Buckner, then bought him out after 2. He chose to cut his losses and eat the big contract of Aaron McKie. He chose to cut his losses on the massive contract of Eric Snow and gift him away for what amounted to Kevin Ollie and his 5 year contract. (Kedrick Brown, the other piece of the trade, was out of the league within months). He threw $20 million at Brian Skinner, just to hire a coach that wouldn't play him. Speaking of which, he is still paying the contract of previous head coach Jim O'Brien, and has now turned to his fourth head coach in two years.
Subsequently, he trades away Marc Jackson for a second round pick citing "payroll concerns". And then gives a five year contract to his replacement, Steven Hunter. Who he then tries to trade away to the Hornets in a bid to save on payroll. Illogical, really, seeing as it was King who created those payroll concerns in the first place.
King's best moves have come on draft nights, which over the years have seen him acquire, via either drafting or draft night trades: Larry Hughes, Speedy Claxton, Todd MacCulloch, Nazr Mohammed, Kyle Korver, Sam Dalembert, Willie Green, John Salmons and Andre Iguodala. In 2001, King assembled a team around Allen Iverson that was good enough to get to the NBA Finals. It's what has happened since then, however, that has been the problem.
After Dikembe Mutombo's career slowly trickled to a near-stop, King first sought replacement in the softer, whiter Keith Van Horn, before trading him after one season for the equally soft, somewhat blacker Glenn Robinson. Neither of them turned out to be good fits. Numerous years of public clamoring for an inside presence to compensate Iverson led to a trade for Chris Webber to compensate Iverson and the youthful perimeter players picked up through the draft. And even with both players staying relatively healthy, the pairing has not worked, as the team is sub-.500 at the break, barely holding onto the final playoff spot. For such a pricely outlay (a salary cap figure of $75 million this season, already $71 million committed for 2008), that's not a good return. And it's hard to know where to go from here, unless they finally do opt to trade Iverson. Something which can never be ruled out.
5) Mitch Kupchak, L.A. Lakers
Let's keep the Kobe and Shaq thing to one side, and look at everything else.
Kupchak's efforts to improve his team this past offseason involved re-hiring Phil Jackson (good), trading his third best player for bust-of-the-decade-thus-far Kwame Brown (not good), burning half of his MLE on this year's "Would have been put down if they were a horse" award winner, Aaron McKie (bad), and bringing in nobody else of any note. Unless of course, you opt to include Smush Parker. A man who, whilst respectable as a player, is benefitting as much from circumstances right now as anybody else in the league, except maybe Eddie House. To surround possibly the game's best talent with a supporting cast accurately described as 'dodgy', doesn't leave your team with a lot of options. Indeed, they have only one option: to turn Kobe loose and see what happens.
Previous seasons haven't gone a whole lot better. The team is paying Brian Grant $16 million to not be there, burnt their MLE this year on Aaron McKie, and the one the season before on Vlade Divac. The club continues to have glaring weaknesses at point guard and center, weaknesses that have not been addressed. The team has stayed largely injury free this year (or at least, the main rotation has), yet is stuck on an even .500 record. The One-Mamba band has the franchise merely treading water. It gets bums on seats, and the team is holding a winning record as a result. Yet it's hard to argue that this team has a lot further to go, and that this is not the limit of this current roster. And that is something to which Cupcake must take the flak. After all, he built it.
4) Danny Ainge, Boston Celtics
In two seasons as the Executive Director of Basketball Operations (a title given to him in order to craftily appoint him over the head of former GM Chris Wallace, without having to fire Wallace), Danny Ainge and the teams he has assembled have made the playoffs both times, with a division title in 2005.
Not bad, right? So how can it be that a man who has never missed the playoffs in his managerial career can be placed so highly on a list such as this? Pretty easily.
Ainge returned to Boston in May 2003, bringing with him his idea of the players and mindset that would lead the Celtics to a record 17th NBA championship. In his two and a half years at the helm of the team, only one player remains from the team he inherited: All-Star and career Celtic (thus far) Paul Pierce. But years of tinkering have not churned up the right players to stick around him to make it work. His running mate, Antoine Walker, was traded away by Ainge. Twice. For a combined total of not a lot. And his other primary sidekick, Ricky Davis, was recently dealt for Wally Szczerbiak.
Ainge was adamant in his claim that, to achieve said title, the Celtics had to get younger and more athletic. The team had certainly done just that under his tenure, due in no small part to some of their drafting of recent years. (It should be noted that, whilst the final decision rests with Ainge, much of the draft selection process is handled by Chris Wallace.) Draft picks of the Ainge era include current starters Delonte West and Kendrick Perkins (technically drafted by Memphis, but done so in a pre-arranged deal prior to the draft night trade), and key reserves Al Jefferson and Tony Allen. The acquisition of draft picks has been a factor in pretty much every deal made by Ainge, seemingly a man playing to his strengths. However, the coach he hired, Doc Rivers, appears to have 'reservations' about playing said youngsters over lesser skilled veterans. And I deliberately grossly understated 'reservations'. Also, perhaps worst of all, Ainge's entire free agency resume reads like this: Brian Scalabrine, Dan Dickau, Mark Blount, Tom Gugliotta. Let's not beat about the bush here - that's dreadful.
For the future, Ainge has continued to stockpile more draft picks (they have six first rounders coming in the next three drafts, and as of right now they stand to keep five), although he's starting to run out of roster spots to put them in. He's now onto his third Pierce second option, and his frequent tinkering has left his team five games out of the final playoff place heading into the All Star break. Considering recent moves by Ainge, it's hard to know quite what his plan to rectify that involves. Hopefully though, it involves signing Keith Van Horn, so that the incredibly white starting five of Dickau/Szczerbiak/Van Horn/Scalabrine/LaFrentz can take place. See, this is why you cannot trust me with any kind of important NBA job. This is the kind of thing I would do.
3) Chris Mullin, Golden State Warriors
Here's a recap of the Chris Mullin GM era in Golden State.
* Gave a $58 million extension to Troy Murphy.
* Gave a $70 million extension to Jason Richardson.
* Gave a $45 million extension to Mike Dunleavy Jr.
* Signed Derek Fisher for $36 million
* Re-signed Adonal Foyle for $41.6 million (I'm still amazed every time I look at that. At least the others have ball skills)
* Traded an expiring contract for the remaining 4 years at $62 million of Baron Davis.
(If you're still totalling, that's $313 million. A third of a billion dollars. Yeesh.)
Did it work? No. The team is 4 games under .500, even after duping almost everybody into believing they would be a playoff team this season. And what's more, Chris is worried about his high payroll. Last season, he gave away a first round pick to Denver to get them to take on the contract of Eduardo Najera. In that trade, Golden State received Rodney White and Nikoloz Tskitishvili, both gone within a matter of months. It's now rumoured that, to avoid paying Mickael Pietrus, he's trying to give him to any team that will take the contract of Derek Fisher.
Now for all of Mullin's, shall we say, 'liberal' spending, he has acquired some young talent. Monta Ellis and Chris Taft, his two second round picks this year, have some ability, and Ike Diogu has shown he can score at this level. Mullin was also responsible for the selection of Andris Biedrins who, depsite having some bad hair, has shown promise as a shot blocker with some scoring ability. But even regarding these moves, it all hinges on his big spending. Had he not done so, he would not have had to weaken his team and spend some of its assets to avoid paying the luxury tax. Ask yourself this - would the team be better with Baron Davis or Speedy Claxton? Talent wise, it is one thing. But Speedy is the sixth man on the 6-games-above-.500 Hornets, and an invaluable part of their set up. The Warriors (albeit with only a very small sample to work from) are arguably a better team without Baron Davis. At worst, the difference is negligible. Additionally, without the trade, the Warriors would have saved $9 million on payroll with the contract of Dale Davis expiring, a saving which could feasibly have meant they would have had to make the Najera move, nor the possible Pietrus move.
Of course, none of that is provable. And some of it may not happen. But to base it back in fact once again - Mullin has spent a third of a billion dollars for a team that is still stuck with a sub .500 record, and has limited his chances of improving on that. Not good news, really.
2) Kevin McHale, Minnesota Timberwolves
In Kevin McHale's first move in charge of the Timberwolves, he drafted Kevin Garnett. Everything since then has been somewhat anticlimactic, as years of trying to surround this franchise level talent with the right personel to make a championship calibre team have resulted in repeated failure to do so. He got close in 2004 with the acquisition of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, as the team advanced past the playoffs first round for the first time in franchise history. But outside of that experiment (a one year fling that ended badly, but we'll come to that in a minute), pretty much everything has whiffed. In the interests of fairness, we'll focus on recent events (his tenure at the helm has been far longer than everybody else cracking this list, so that seems fair, although I'm not responsible for any Joe Smith references that seep out.)
Since losing all those draft picks in the Joe Smith deal but amazingly keeping his job, (whoops, that was quick), McHale has had two first round draft picks to work with. One turned into Ndudi Ebi, who was waived whilst still on his guaranteed rookie contract. The other is current rookie Rashad McCants, who has been something of a disappointment. To compensate for the lack of fiorst rounders, McHale has sought to improve his team by taking on other team's reclamation projects, such as former number 1 pick Michael Olowokandi (recently traded away), Nikoloz Tskitishvili (ditto), Eddie Griffin (might be about to be) and, to a certain extent, Sprewell, who left somewhat acrimoniously turning down a $21 million extension, claiming he has "a family to feed". They're clearly still starving, as no one has signed him since.
The contract McHale gave to Wally Szczerbiak forced the team to work wisely in any trades to avoid paying the luxury tax. Szczerbiak has since been moved on for the inconceivably bad contract of Mark Blount, and Ricky Davis. This past offseason, McHale traded Sam Cassell and a 2006 first round pick (I'm guessing he was used to not having to worry about those) for Marko Jaric, a $40 million contract, and Lionel "Judith" Chalmers. If you didn't know, Chalmers is out of the league, and Jaric is picking up DNP-CD's, whilst Cassell is thriving on a winning team. The constant 'will they, won't they' whispers surrounding the future of Garnett in Minnesota has the team (and arguably half the league) in a state of flux with no one knowing how that will truly pan out. The term "state of flux" could be aptly used to describe the franchise, as with no apparent direction or plans to reshape the team (and with no tanking option available either, since they have no first rounder this season), the Timberwolves franchise is treading water. And McHale, the man who put them there, is seemingly still entrusted with the job of getting them out again. I can't say I agree with that. I'd nominate myself to do it. Although, as we discovered earlier, I'm not sure I could be trusted. But wouldn't we have fun finding out?
1) Isiah Thomas, New York Knicks
You knew this was coming at some point.
As is something of a theme woth this list, Isiah's distinct strength is his ability to draft. In this tenure alone, he has acquired Channing Frye, David Lee, Trevor Ariza and Nate Robinson (technically drafted by Phoenix, but at Isiah's request) through this. And, if there's one thing you can commend him for, it's that he is not bashful. He's managed to change every single player he inherited when he took over in 2004, which is not bad going.
However......
If we look outside of drafting, this is where it starts to go a little wrong. With two MLE's in two seasons, Isiah has spent one full one on Jerome James, (whom has a season high of 16 minutes, has been suspended once already, and is on the books for over $6.5 million in 2010,) as well as spending most of one the season before on re-signing Vin Baker, who played 24 games very badly before being traded. That's one way to utilise $35 million, I suppose. His only other free agency signees have been Bruno Sundov, Jermaine Jackson, Qyntel Woods (possible find if you overlook the jib factor) and Jackie Butler (promising youngster that the coach won't play). Speaking of which, Isiah hired his "perfect" head coach in Lenny Wilkens, who quit after just less than a full season. He soon after hired another "perfect" head coach in Larry Brown, and within one part season, a serious conflict of interests has arisen, both publically and privately. More importantly, the team's win/loss record has gone from mediocre to dreadful.
Trade wise is where the real problems lie. After having targetted him since day one of his tenure (headlined by his quote, "If you expect to make the playoffs and compete for a championship, you've got to have an outstanding point guard like Jason Kidd, Jamal Crawford, Baron Davis, Steve Nash or Stephon Marbury.''), Isiah found he was bidding against himself for restricted free agent Crawford at the end of the 2004 season. After drawn out negotiations. Isiah's determination to get his man resulted in John Paxson getting everything he wanted from the trade, and a 7 year, $56 million contract for Crawford. The following season, in more dealings with Paxson, and once again bidding against himself, Isiah came away with Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis for three players, three picks, giving the Bulls the right to swap picks in 2007, and another $55 million-ish contract on his desk. Combined with the trading of Kurt Thomas for Quentin Richardson and Nate Robinson, Isiah had achieved his publically stated wish upon his hiring: he'd gotten himself an elite point guard, and surrounded that man with skilled athletes.
The result? The team, a playoff team in his first year, is now 22 games under .500 at the All Star break, and suffering from what you might call a bit of an internal rum-do, and a potential power struggle between coach and GM.The best assets Isiah brought in (namely, the talented youth), do not see as much time on the floor as they ought, due to Larry Brown, the coach Thomas brought in after acquiring these players. Those that Brown does prefer (which could be anyone on any given night - despite stating that he would more than once, he still has little semblance of a set rotation) aren't carrying the team particularly well, what with the 15-37 record and everything. And every ill-fitting piece currently in place was put there by Isiah, and for a price. Still, he's trying, eh?
One final thought - is Elgin Baylor going to win executive of the year? Seriously, how weird would that be? This is the man once generously described by Reggie Theus as a "veteran of the lottery process", and an object of, shall we say, a fair smattering of criticism over the years. But this season, there's something of a dearth of candidates.
The teams to have improved the most this season are, in no particular order, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Dallas, San Antonio, Detroit, and the L.A. Clippers . Detroit and Dallas did not do an awful lot to their rosters this offseason, and rightly so. Of all the players the Pistons added, only Maurice Evans cracks the rotation, comapred to Adrian Griffin and DeSagana Diop for the Mavericks. San Antonio signed Nick van Exel, Michael Finley and Fabricio Oberto, all three of whom have been slightly disappointing. And let's be honest, they weren't half bad beforehand. New Orleans has made an incredible turnaround, but the man who did it (former GM Allan Bristow), has left.
This leaves Cleveland (they have improved their win/loss percentage by about 6%, which, given all the roster additions, isn't too great), and the Bucks. To me, it's between Larry Harris of Milwaukee, and Baylor. And despite Larry's fine work in recent months (his 30 win team of last season has 27 at the All Star break this time around), I give it to Baylor. Just. He owned Minnesota and Kevin McHale in the Sam Cassell trade, he found a replacement for Bobby Simmons in the better Cuttino Mobley, and he picked up two decent young rotation players in James Singleton and Daniel Ewing. He may even have made a decent playoff push trade by acquiring Vladmanovic for Chris Wilcox this past week. Forget previous seasons for a moment - on the basis of this one season, Baylor has done a good job. Even with the somewhat baffling decision to draft Korolev. I never thought I'd see the day, but maybe this is it. Stay tuned.
To criticise or harass the author or this article, send abusive mail and large Paypal payments to themanwiththebigbigfeet@hotmail.com |
