He’s actually on my list of he scored 50?!?
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So you’re saying they should have gone for Kerr instead?
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JordanBall
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Probably and also it’s nuts seeing under-utilized 3pt shooters of decades past.
Teams shoot way too many 3s now but goddamn they shot like nooooo 3s for years and years.
Like, Wes Person shot a lot of 3s for his time and his career avg is just under lol four 3pa per game. That’s criminal.
He could’ve been one of the GOATs
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It’s all fun and games until the numbers get whipped out.
He was also guard Greg Oden, the man was born forty years old.
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Pretty insane these guys shooting 40+% 3s and no coach thought “hmm could 40% chance of 3 be better than 50% chance of 2?”
I don’t get all the Presti love. As mentioned he sucked for quite a while until he was forced to blow up the team. And while the CP3 and George trades were good, I would hope that any decent GM would have gotten similar hauls. It’s not like the trades happened due to Presti’s skill or efforts - both the Rockets and Clippers were desperate to make the trade so he had all the leverage. Kawhi announced he would only go to LA if they got George, so obviously the Clippers would trade whatever it took. Similarly, Harden announced he wanted Paul gone for Westbrook, so again Presti knew he had all the leverage.
Other than those two situations he luckboxed into what has he done? He got nothing Gallineri - other than a trip to the first round of the playoffs. I could see value in that if the Thunder were long suffering and a playoff trip meant something, but did fans really care about another first round exit. He’s snagged a few more late-round firsts this year, but unless he can start consolidating assets, how does that really help. As we saw with Boston and their horde of picks, it’s pretty much impossible to bundle them and move up in the draft.
I also think he lost both the Rubio and Horford trades. Horford is terrible and should have cost 76ers more to unload his albatross of a contract. Rubio is still pretty solid (Suns were good with him on court, terrible when he sat) and on a reasonable contract. Seems like moving him, plus a first to move up from 25 - 17 is an overpay.
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Dean is great, f the haters
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He drafted Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka.
Only Durant was a gimme. All gms are going to have transactions with warts, Jerry West paid Brian Cardinal and Earl Watson.
He’s a top ten gm.
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Sorry - should have been clear, was focused on the recent time frame, after he built the initial team. He did do a good job hitting on his picks in that era.
Also, not saying he’s not a good GM - most are pretty bad, and he does deserve credit for taking advantage of desperate teams. Just don’t see how it moves him to the elite category (e.g. saying he’s clearly better than Morey) - until we see if he can do anything with his current set of assets.
It’s almost impossible to separate owner demands from GM performance outside of maybe the draft. Always find it hard to rank GMs because of that. e.g. Westbrook trade by Morey, everything Knicks.
Who is tho?
Morey is my fave gm, but between those two and Ainge that’s pretty much the top three unless I’m blanking someone. Meyers, Olshey, and Pelinka (which is largely LeBron) are all good. Memphis GM seems good but I didn’t love the Winslow trade and he’s been at it for a short time.
Oh, Riley. Donnie Nelson too. Sean Marks.
Again, it’s hard to parse tho. Like Krayz is saying.
I’d put Morey, Ainge, Meyers, Olshey, Buford/Pop, Nelson, Ujiri, and Riley above him in the elite category. I think to be elite, you need to show the ability to build multiple top teams (or in the Spurs case to seamlessly transition from one elite team to another)
I agree it’s hard to really evaluate, just think that Presti has made enough questionable moves (including ones that were questionable at the time they were made) to say he’s elite.
Not for a while now.
I forgot Masai. One thing I admired about him was keeping Lowry and even Dwane Casey for multiple seasons. Most guys would feel the need to put their stamp on the team and he was all about results.
Presti’s bad moves were trading Harden (ownership imo) and Green for Perk. (And not having more shooting with Durant and Russ.) The latter is indicting him for not being ahead of the curve, I don’t think someone like Olshey is either tho. Olshey gave 70M to Evan Turner and traded away all his wing depth last year, I can’t put him ahead of Presti.
I would put Masai in the top three ahead of him. (Denver’s Connelly is good too, despite gifting Nurk and a 1st for Plumlee.)
Welp, what everyone thought was the case is the case. Klay has a torn achilles. Man.
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Was it his decision to move Harden rather than Westbrook? I’m not sure what the internal deliberations were in making that choice. Does anyone know?
The Green for Perk deal was understandable at the time. As it looked like the path to the Finals was through a Lakers team that had two 7+ footers in Gasol and Bynum, and 6’10" Odom in their front court.