Presti has had a number of high lottery picks in loaded drafts. Presti deserves to keep his job, but this idea that he is some magic draft chooser isn't true if you look closer at the draft and timing. For example Westbrook wasn't falling past 4-5 and a number of teams were actively trying to move up to get him. Harden was a sure top 5 pick and was expected to go 3-4. Honestly the most impressive draft pick is Ibaka.
1. No Westbrook shot up the charts and there isn't a real doubt he was going top 5 at worse. The Former Knicks VP even said they tried to move up and he was someone many teams coveted. Presti deserves some credit for taking him but it wasn't out of left field. 2. Harden is better than I ever expected or Presti either. He would have dealt Perkins if he knew Harden would be this good. Still he was viewed as top 4-5 in his draft class. Again Presti gets credit for taking Harden but it wasn't a shock. 3. Adams is a very good athlete, and can do some things. He has thus been about what was hoped when he was drafted. I don't think he was a bad pick but I wouldn't call him a home run. When Presti has drafted outside the lottery, he has missed on a number of players (which is common for non lottery picks) but underscores that he isn't amazing in the draft. He traded the pick to get Bledsoe, traded for the lottery pick to get Aldrich as well.
I'm sorry this is ridiculous, the jobs that Morey and Presti took were as different as night and day, it's the difference between some african kid being forced to mine diamonds in Kenya and being the first born son of the Sultan of Brunei. When Morey took the job as the Rockets GM he had 0 capspace, he had broken down Yao Ming and Tmac and he had the league's oldest roster composed of guys like Rafer Alston, Knickerbocker retreads and Juwon Howard. When Presti took the job OKC was an expansion team, he had basically the entire capspace and he had 2 lottery picks (one of which was Kevin Durant). Even better, Durant wasn't an overnight sensation like Lebron or Kevin Garnett or Duncan, he took some time get into MVP form so OKC managed to compile 5 top 5 lottery picks in the next 6 years. Flash forward 7 years, who has the better record now? Who is closer to an NBA title now? LMAO Presti better than Morey? You gotta be kidding me, forget homerism the only people who say Presti has done a better job would be ignorant people who just assume every GM starts out the same. I think Presti is competent, but I don't think people should consider him best in class as GMs go. If you don't think Morey is the best, then fine, but looking at it objectively Portland has done an even better job than Presti has, they missed out on Oden but have been able to rebuild from Brandon Roy to LMA and Lilliard without skipping a beat.
You know who else was on the all defensive team last year? Pat Beverley. Where was he drafted? Jimmy Butler. Where was he drafted? You know who they replaced from 2013? Tony Allen. Where was he drafted? Avery Bradley. Where was he drafted? Getting decent role players/solid starters out of late pickd, which is what Ibaka is, late in the draft is something *every GM * does. It's not that uncommon. The Rockets have been regularly starting 4 former second round picks next to Harden.
Presti could've easily picked Tyreke over Harden...Eric Gordon over Westbrook. Just because a player is supposively a sure pick doesn't mean anything. GMs pick who they think are going to be good. Like when Thabeet was number two in that same draft as Harden. When you draft players you take risk. Memphis went the wrong direction, so did Portland. Presti took advantage and made the right decision. Add in Jeff Green and Steven Adams. A risk was taken and they made it to the finals in which the only possible team that could beat them made it too. Theyve re-upped already and with Durant back, have a better team. Every GM makes a bad decision every now and then. Presti IMO is one of the best.
He broke a golden rule by great GMs, don't waste cap flexibility on marginal players like Perkins, knowing full well he had a Big-Three to sign. He broke that rule in a disastrous fashion, because it led to him trading away a MVP player -- arguably on of the most lopsided trades in NBA history. Sorry, you can't write that off as "every GM makes a bad decision." fast is: very few GMs have ever traded a MVP-quality player who they drafted.
They got Perks to win a title. They would have had to extend Jeff Green too so somebody was going to have to go regardless. Trading for Perks was the best decision then.
You tell me what he should've done. Because without Perkins, they had no big. Thabeet would've have been the starting center. They tried to trade up in the draft for Beal but Washington didn't want Harden.
The question was: How many GMs have done the most stupid thing possible and traded an MVP. And note there were 7 MVP-caliber picks in those three drafts. All but 2 of them were available to be drafted by Presti with his unprecedented fortune to have three great picks in three stacked drafts in a row. I neever said he was a bad drafter, so please don't try to change the subject. He has been raped as a GM in trades directly by throwing away cap flexibility in getting Perkins -- who did NOT help him get to the Finals. Harden is who got OKC by SAS. Perkins had a horrible series, because SAS doesn't play centers for him to guard. He was useless.
So you're saying the Best Fit (Perkins) strategy was the right move over BPA (Harden)? It's very simple, don't break up a Big Three merely because you think Perkins is a better, short-term fit. That's how you make sh!tty draft picks, too. By going for Best Fit vs BPA. And that is exactly what Presti did by stupidly going with Best Fit/Perkins over BPA/ Harden. And Durant clearly agrees with this. In fact, Presti might now lose Durant because of this legendary, boneheaded series of bad decision wrt Harden.
Dude, the thread was on drafting, not on other moves as a GM. Yes, Presti traded Harden and paid Perkins, but that's not why this thread was made. I'm not sure why people are bringing his other moves as a GM into this thread.
But I thought only superstars define how good you were at drafting? Don't try to change how you evaluate a GM. How many superstars has Isiah drafted?
How many superstars have each of those GMs drafted? The Celtics had many high lottery picks. How about the Bulls? Oh yeah, Eddy Curry. Wait, Marcus Fizer.
They gave up Jeff Green for Perks. Either Jeff Green was going to be gone for nothing or James Harden was. Easy decision was to trade Jeff Green and deal with James Harden later. You have to deal with what you have. Had that been a larger market, Harden would still be there.
