Harden was a bench player. Next to no gm moves Russ first. Morey is the only guy that I could imagine it (maybe Hinkie with the security he thought he had) and I doubt he would bc he’s always been about acquiring stars (and Russ was the star of the two).
In terms of why they moved him, it came down to haggling over like 6M on an extension. Clay Bennett looked so bad after that he’s green lit super spending.
They did end up with Steven Adams out of it (I never understood why he wouldn’t stick with Jeremy Lamb too).
I would also add trading for/extending Kanter as a pretty bad move. Didn’t cost them much in the trade, but that $20 million per year could have been used for someone that was a fit with Ibaka and Durant (and had to give away a first and take on Melo’s contract to dump him).
I would’ve agreed with you a couple years ago but he’s def better than Brooksy.
Singler was bad. With Adams, you do have to pay someone. Basketball nerds are overly obsessed with the cap sheet when the alternative is a shitty team and you getting fired after a bit. Hinkie was rich in Sklansky bucks.
They were up 3-1 on GS, yes they lost but I don’t think you can point to hiring him as a bad move. Getting rid of Brooks in KD’s last year takes balls imo.
Like I said, I can list bad moves by Riley and all those guys.
Your list isn’t very egregious. Paying Whiteside a max and loading up Dion Waiters and James Johnson with cash is horrible. Matching that rfa on Tyler Johnson was horrible. Amnestying Mike Miller to piss off Bron was stupid. Drafting Beasley #2. And on and on.
I would love to see data on how to rate a GM being good at the draft vs bad at the draft. I know in the NFL it’s more luck so the better teams just try to get more picks.
Bucks waived Ilyasova, which means the Bogdan trade is nixed. Somebody fucked up horribly.
EDIT: I suppose it’s possible that they have another option for a Bogdan deal ready or a very solid plan B in the works, as waiving Ersan right now wouldn’t make sense otherwise.
I looked up the play by play and his 1st points were at 8:44 and he only had 10 points by the 6 minute mark.
Also the video posted doesn’t have his last 3 which was at the 35 second mark just before the 2 free throws at the end of the quarter but yeah just under 9 minutes for the 37 points
This kind of thinking is such a level 1 / lol casual fan line. That Kanter move has turned into multiple firsts now, and he was very useful for those Thunder runs until the “cant play Kanter” series.
Ainge is probably the most overrated GM in the league. His draft record outside of Tatum/Brown is atrocious.