behind Kevin O'Connor (Jazz) and Pat Riley (heat) http://www.sbnation.com/2010/7/22/1582380/nba-general-manager-rankings-pat-riley-heat
take your homer glasses off, the Jazz have been one of the better teams in the NBA consistently for a very long time.
It's not such a bad ranking. The Jazz are consistently good and you continually have to worry about them on the court and/or in the playoffs. It's not like they've ever had very high draft picks with the exception of Deron Williams, so I do see his point. O'Connor has done a pretty good job when you think about it and he does deserve a lot of credit (perhaps not this much though). On the flip side you have someone like Sam Presti who probably gets more credit than he deserves. His current team is basically built on years of lottery picks and while he's had good success with his picks, it still doesn't show much management skill, just talent evaluation. If the Thunder continue to improve without lottery picks through trades/signing, then I'll be impressed. The reason why Morey (and O'Connor, actually) impresses me is because he did it without lottery picks. Sure, he came into Yao and McGrady but their injuries have been terrible during his tenure. What did he do with a $40 million black hole in the salary space? Build a great, well-balanced team with 10-12 quality players. It truly is impressive how few mistakes he's actually made.
Kevin O'Connor has consistenly fielded an incredibly competitive team in what could possibly be one of the worst markets of any pro sports teams in this country. The way that he has continously kept that team on the brink of contention is admirable. I hate the Jazz as much as the next person, but I can give credit where credit is due. He gets the most out of his players, and if it wasn't for him, I don't see someone like Deron Williams sticking around. Heck, he even turned the loss of Boozer into a positive, and acquired Al Jefferson.
Seconded. It's amazing what he does in Utah. I would be willing to bet that most players consider that the least desirable destination in the NBA. And yet year after year they're right there in the playoffs. Both O'Connor and Sloan deserve a whole lot of credit. As much as I hate the Jazz, they're one of the best run organizations in the league.
Morey owns both of these guys, and if he wanted to GM either of their clubs they would be fired by the AM.
It doesn't make sense to say Kahn building around Rubio is a positive, when he's been inexplicably overloading the roster with PGs. If Kahn's long-term plan is to build a roster around Rubio, it doesn't appear like he knows what he's doing.
Ditto what everyone else has replied on Utah. But Kupchack? Really? No fan of the Lakers but regardless... ask yourself other than having Gasol fall into his lap with the gift of the century, inheriting Kobe, and getting Fischer in another sweetheart signing, what has he done??? Bynum would be average on any other team and I'm not going to give him props because Steve Blake wanted to play with Kobe. So besides Odom the rest of his deals and drafts have been garbage. Kupchack is over-rated even at 13.
I will not jump on the Morey bandwagon till we win another championship. Till then he's just another manager.
Yes Kupchak. He rebuilt a team that lost Shaq and went to the lottery. Those championships have his fingerprints.
It's longevity. The Jazz have been very solid for a very long time in quite possibly the worst market in the NBA. Morey is amazing, but he's been our GM for three years. I think Morey is actually a better GM, but I have no problem with O'Connor being ranked above him right now. It's like trying to compare Durant to Kobe. It isn't yet a fair comparison because one of them has an entire career to look at whereas the other is the young phenom. It's also hard to argue with Riley right now considering he just pulled off one of the greatest offseasons in the history of the NBA. But honestly, he hasn't always been such a great GM.
So in this thread some are fawning all over Kevin O'Connor while others chime in to say that Morey isn't good until he wins a championship. Seems like ranking GMs is just an abstract art.
I just wanted to point out that the Jazz have essentially a monopoly on professional sports in Utah. It's not very close to the worst market in the NBA.
