Presti's teams have 1 NBA championship. Auberbachs have 7 as an executive (with another 9 as a coach before that.) He put teams that won 2 chips in 3 consecutive decades (with an extra in the 80's.) There's genuinely levels to that ****, Presti aint there yet.
The Venn Diagram of "Best Coach or GM of all time" and "Luckiest Coach or GM of all time" is a plain old circle.
Aurbach coached and was GM in the past thats like saying Russell is the goat cuz he has 11 rings both as a coach and a player. We dont know if he will still be successful today where everyone is extremely knowledgeable and we stat nerds and analytics everywhere. Sure Presti just has 1 ring but rings unpredictable, as a GM all you can do is build a great team whether they get a ring or not is not up to you. If you didnt get the Jordan or Lebron of the era then its already an uphill battle right. To me the goat GM is the GM I would start with if I was a new billionaire owner and thats 100% Presti cuz he has shown an ability to build a dynastic team multiple times. Other GMs they are mostly tied to one or 2 players like Auerbach Russell or Krause Jordan or even Buford Tim Duncan. Presti the only guy you know if you give him time and unlimited resources he will consistently make a dynastic team.
For sure. There's good GMs and bad GMs but the ones who end up at the top of profession have a lot of luck and sliding doors moments that would have derailed it. Bob Myers talked about how they really liked Klay but only got him because Sacramento traded up to take Jimmer. Otherwise Milwaukee would have drafted Klay. He also talked about how they really liked Draymond and were surprised he dropped but also noted they still drafted Ezeli over him and someone could have gotten Draymond between those picks. For Presti, his career might be a lot different if Portland had gone with what they really wanted to do and drafted Durant or had Kawhi not told the Clippers he'd sign with them but only if they could land Paul George and otherwise he'd sign with the Lakers. He's very good but if something happened like he went to the Kings and Vivek gave him total control and a 15 year contract it's far from a given that he's going to turn them into a championship caliber team over that time frame.
Just like with players you can't play the "if I had this guy today" game because just like players are much better today, front office sophistication is miles from where it was. If you dropped 70s-80s Auerbach in a front office today he'd get absolutely fleeced. However, if comparing Auerbach vs his peers at the time to Presti vs current GMs there's no comparison at all. Saying Auerbach is tied singularly to Bill Russell is pretty ridiculous.
I would not be surprised if Presti trades out of 1 or more of those 2026 draft picks. One could even argue that OKC does not have the minutes for the players currently on their roster.
If you could choose between Presti or Auerbach transported today who would you choose to be your GM? Also Russell is your goat then right? MJ and Lebron aint **** compared to 11 rings.
Ok so Russell is your goat then? 11 rings will never be beat. Not sure why people keep saying MJ is the goat then 11> 6 and Russell didnt even need to retire 3 times.
That's not how logic works I'm afraid, those are entirely unrelated to this discussion. Presti has been a decent GM for a decade and a bit, an average one for a bit before that. Auberbach was contending at the top of the game for 3 whole decades. Your take is **** tbh.
He won 3 in the 80's and 2 in the 70's just before the merger also. Are we going to pretend there are as many competitors in 2025 as there were in 1981, 1984 and 1986 now? And you're actually old enough to probably name most of the teams of them last 3 rings.
What do you mean Russell and Auerbach literally in the same timeline. Why the rings of Auerbach count but Russell dont? Your take is the **** one tbh.
Durant was good but people in here treat like Durant won OKC a championship, he did not. Steph took him to the Championships. The greatest Trade in recent history is still Paul George for SGA and picks that turned into Jay Dub and more.
The Auerbach argument, yeah, I can see a world where you could say that but keep in mind. How much of a leading NBA market Boston was back then and how small of a market OKC is....... What are you even talking here, being compared to Auerbach is already a great accomplishment.
The number of picks he hit are just insane. Drafting 3 mvps in 3 years? Just cause his owners were cheap doesn't mean he wasn't a really good gm.
