Best GM in the NBA?

[NomarFachix]

Zeke

[Newman]

Zeke

 

 

RC Buford gets my vote. He has found so many good players in the second round of the draft while keeping the Spurs competitive throughout all the years . (I think Pop was GM before Buford was so credit goes to him too)

[Mentch]

Lakers' GM.

[Jenneral]

Lakers' GM.

What's his name? ^_^

[Poe]

The top GMs IMO are (in no particular order) Pat Riley, Daryl Morey, Mitch Kupchak, RC Buford, Donnie Nelson, and Kevin Pritchard.

[Check my Stats]

That's where this "poll" is tainted. Is it all-time, this coming season, or recent years? Hammond won last year after a series of good moves including dealing Jefferson and the mid-season deal for Salmons. Also, don't be so quick to judge his most recent move as we really got a productive player in exchange for two players who never would have seen the court this coming season. Hammond is still in talks with Salmons and thinks they will still be able to reach a deal (we actually have more money now with Maggette on the roster).

 

The following roster could do some serious damage in the East.

 

Jennings/Ridnour

Salmons/#15

Maggette/Delfino

Ilyasova/Mbah a Moute

Bogut/draft pick

 

Not really, unless Jennings develops into an all-star next year.

[Mentch]

What's his name? ^_^

 

Dunno, how about Mitch Kupchak?

[NomarFachix]

No love for KP?

 

lol good call

[NomarFachix]

Definitely in my opinion, it's Pritchard.

 

lol good call

[NomarFachix]

IMO, Pritchard.

 

lol good call

Edited June 25, 2010 by Cotton Camby

[Dr. Feelgood]

Good job spamming with three posts when you could of posted all three quotes in one post.

 

But he is an amazing GM in the league. Paul Allen and the Vulcans screwed him out of the job.

[Hawks Fly High]

From an unbiased view. Kevin Pritchard

[NomarFachix]

From an unbiased view. Kevin Pritchard

 

lol good call

[NomarFachix]

Good job spamming with three posts when you could of posted all three quotes in one post.

 

But he is an amazing GM in the league. Paul Allen and the Vulcans screwed him out of the job.

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/50a6d.jpg

[Dr. Feelgood]

I'm disappointed. Firing Pritchard will back fire on the Blazers.

 

Maybe he'll land a gig in Phoenix, they need a GM.

[moeroadkill]

I'm disappointed. Firing Pritchard will back fire on the Blazers.

 

Maybe he'll land a gig in Phoenix, they need a GM.

and then they try to get presti, pshhh shame on u!

[Erick Blasco]

There's a really good BR article about this by Andrew Ungvari.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/379057-uncontested-shots-who-are-the-nbas-best-and-worst-general-managers

 

 

 

 

 

And that brings me back to my original premise.

 

What makes a good GM?

 

In breaking down the league's general managers it isn't fair to lump them all onto one list because each of them has different objectives depending on the current state of their team.

 

Therefore, it's best to put each GM in one of five categories and see where they rank accordingly.

 

The categories are:

 

1) Those who are trying to position themselves for free agency and/or rebuild right now.

 

2) Those who wish they could rebuild right now but can't.

 

3) Those who are trying to win championships now.

 

4) Those who are trying to win championships within economic constraints.

 

5) Those who have their nucleus in place and are just positioning themselves to try to win a championship within the next two-three years.

 

These rankings are based solely on how these GMs have performed in trying to achieve each stated goal and not on their careers as league executives.

 

While many of the guys on this list don't necessarily have the title of general manager, they are the men responsible for player personnel decisions.

 

 

 

 

Those Trying To Win Championships With Economic Limits (From Worst to Best)

 

5) Jeff Bower, New Orleans Hornets

 

I'm not an apologist for Bower but you have to feel for the guy. If it wasn't bad enough that his owner George Shinn instructed him to make a bunch of lopsided trades to trim payroll he also made him coach the team after he fired Byron Scott.

 

Bower would never have made the trade that sent Tyson Chandler to the Bobcats for Emeka Okafor had it not saved Shinn money this season and next. The same goes for the trade of Hilton Armstrong to the Kings for a conditional draft pick and cash, the one that sent Devin Brown to the Bulls for Aaron Gray, or the one that sent Bobby Brown to the Clippers for another conditional pick.

 

Even the firing of Scott has been attributed to cost-cutting since there are stretch provisions in place that allow teams to pay fired coaches over the course of five, ten, or even 15 years.

 

It was only two years ago that Bower's Hornets finished the regular season one game behind the top-seeded Lakers. Bower knew that he would have to overpay free agents to lure them to a city that was still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

 

But since then Bower has watched some of those overpaid free agents go from either being young or in their prime and overpaid to being old and overpaid—namely Peja Stojakovic, Morris Peterson, and James Posey.

 

But Bower redeemed himself a little with the drafting of Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton.

 

Now comes the (welcome) news that Shinn plans on selling the team to minority owner Gary Chouest. There have been reports that Chouest plans to spend the money that it will take to put the Hornets back into the position to compete for a championship—including holding onto franchise star Chris Paul.

 

But this offseason will be telling for Bower and the Hornets. The team's second-best player, David West, is a year away from free agency. Since Bower will be hard-pressed to find anyone who will take Okafor off his hands he'll most likely try to move Collison if he can find someone to take on the final two seasons of Posey's deal or, more likely, the final season of either Stojakovic or Peterson's deals.

 

Bower is very much in the same position that Riley has been in for the past couple years. He needs to convince his star player that the team is headed in the right direction and that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

 

4) Steve Kerr, Phoenix Suns

 

You could make the case that Kerr has only made three positive moves since becoming the Suns GM back in 2006—signing and then re-signing Grant Hill, drafting Robin Lopez, and replacing Terry Porter as the team's head coach with Alvin Gentry.

 

The rest of Kerr's résumé isn't nearly as impressive but, as is the case with Bower, it isn't Kerr's fault. You can't blame Kerr for trading Kurt Thomas and two first-round picks to the then-Sonics for just a second-round pick or not re-signing Matt Barnes last summer.

 

But even though it wasn't Kerr's idea to trade Shaquille O'Neal to the Cavaliers for essentially nothing, Kerr does deserve blame for the failure of the trade that brought Shaq to Phoenix.

 

But with Gentry now running the same offense that the Suns had so much success with under Mike D'Antoni the Suns are not only back in the playoffs but managed to finish with the third-best record in the conference and might currently be the hottest team in the west.

 

Now it will be up to Kerr and his owner, Robert Sarver, to see if they can come to an agreement on an extension with Amaré Stoudemire if he decides to opt out of his contract after the season.

 

Should Stoudemire leave it will be hard for the Suns to convince any of the top free agents to sign a long-term deal with an owner who has spent the past three years instructing his GM to trim payroll.

 

It's amazing how one player can make a GM look better than he probably is. It's the other Steve, the Canadian one, who probably deserves more credit for the team's success. Nash is now 36 and could probably play for at least another three seasons.

 

But if Kerr can't keep Stoudemire from leaving then Nash might want to spend those last three seasons on a team that has a chance to finally get him that ring.

 

3) Kevin O'Connor, Utah Jazz

 

I always had a certain amount of respect for the anonymous GMs—the ones who even die-hard NBA fans couldn't recognize in a police lineup.

 

You could put O'Connor on that list.

 

Like the other names on this particular list, O'Connor has had to make some unpopular moves in order to keep his team's payroll down. But it's those moves that allowed him to make other moves to keep the team competitive.

 

O'Connor would never willingly trade first-round pick Eric Maynor or Ronnie Brewer for just a conditional first-round pick and the rights to someone named Peter Fehse.

 

But O'Connor was able to lure free agents like Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur to a city that has long been believed to be at the bottom of most free agent's list of destinations.

 

He also re-signed Okur and Paul Millsap when most just assumed that both would be let go.

 

Perhaps the best move that O'Connor made was when he traded Keon Clark and Ben Handlogten to the Suns back in 2004 for Tom Gugliotta and the rights to the Knicks' first round pick in this summer's draft—a pick that could end up being first overall.

 

O'Connor has ultimate flexibility this summer. He could try to move Millsap to acquire the missing piece so the team can better afford to re-sign Carlos Boozer or he could just wait for Andrei Kirilenko's $18 million contract to expire after next season and use the team's cap space to re-sign Deron Williams to a long-term extension and either re-sign Mehmet Okur or try to sign a free agent.

 

2) Mark Warkentien, Denver Nuggets

 

After the 2007-08 season, Warkentien was given instructions by Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke to trim the team's payroll. So Warkentien traded Marcus Camby, one of the most popular players on the team, for nothing.

 

In an effort to save face with the fans he signed former fan-favorite Chris Andersen and re-signed J.R. Smith for three years and just $15 million.

 

At the beginning of the following season he moved Allen Iverson to the Pistons for Denver-native Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess (who was bought out) in a move that not only trimmed payroll but instantly made the Nuggets a better team.

 

The 2008-09 Nuggets finished two wins shy of the NBA Finals. Warkentien was given instructions by the team's owner, Stan Kroenke, not to add to the team's payroll—so gone were defensive stopper Dahntay Jones and three-point shooter Linas Kleiza.

 

Warkentien found a replacement for both in one player—fleecing the Pistons again. This time he traded a 2011 second-round pick for Aron Afflalo.

 

Warkentien also traded a future first-round pick—likely in 2014—to the Wolves for the draft rights to Ty Lawson.

 

The Nuggets still have the ninth-highest payroll in the league but Warkentien has managed to trim payroll while simultaneously making the team better—the best indicator of a great GM.

 

1) Rick Sund, Atlanta Hawks

 

Under Sund's leadership the Hawks finished with the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference last season and the third-best record this season.

 

What's most impressive about what Sund has accomplished is in how he has re-signed the team's free agents to below-market contracts and kept the Hawks in the top 10 of the league's lowest team payrolls.

 

Sund allowed Josh Smith to test restricted free agency and ended up matching an offer sheet that pays Smith $58 million over five years—a bargain given Smith's production on both ends of the floor.

 

Sund also re-signed Mike Bibby for only three years and $18 million, Zaza Pachulia for just $19 million over four years, and Marvin Williams for five years and $37.5 million.

 

But the move that has brought Sund the greatest amount of attention was his trade last summer that sent Acie Law and Speedy Claxton to the Warriors for Jamal Crawford.

 

Crawford is not only expected to win the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award but will also provide insurance should Sund fail to re-sign Joe Johnson this summer.

 

 

 

[Poe]

Who you guys got?

 

FULL LIST

 

Leave your choice. I like Pat Riley.

 

lol good call.

 

Pat Riley is nowhere near the best GM in the NBA. It doesn't take any sort of skill to gut a roster and not put a good roster together for 3 years in anticipation for a single free agency period.

 

Give me Spurs GM, whoever that is.

 

lol bad call.

Edited July 10, 2010 by Poe

[YugoRocketsFan]

Daryl Morey is by far the best, has never made a bad move.