After the outrage over Gay and Swift for Battier, I'm surprised Jerry West isn't up there for best. Jerry West has made Memphis a respectable team, and he was the GM behind the Laker's dynasty. Worst is easily Isiah Thomas. He's was a great player, decent coach, terrible GM.
This shows how fickle and easily persuaded to jump on or off the bandwagon. CD goes from proclaimed "exec of the year" to "CD is terrible, our team sucks, we will never win, he is stupid, etc."
I wasn't one of them, I liked that Heat team of Butler/Odom/Wade/etc...but knew that they probably weren't going win a championship w/o a decent big man, well, in comes the best big man of the game. I agree that he is Pfund is maybe too much of a newcomer to be considered the best, but bringing in Payton/Walker/Posey/J. Williams were great moves, bringing back Zo and picking up Haslem were great moves as well.
My rating on CD has been steadily declined over the years and now it's all time low. Don't matter what he's done, his postive impact is always brought down by his negatives. As a result we've been stuck in mediocrity for a decade. He's what our team's record shows, a GM in the middle of pack.
Worst GM's: 1. Zeke Thomas I'll call it a three way tie after that between: Billy King Kevin McHale Billy Knight If St. Jean was still the GM of Atlanta or Babcock the GM of Toronto, they'd be on this list, but they're not. Chris Mullin might actually make the worst GM list one day but I've got to give the guy some more time to make moves. Incidentally, I'm not sure how long Steve Patterson has been in Portland, but whoever made that mess out there should probably be on this list too. Best general managers: 1. Gregg Popovich 2. Bryan Colangelo 3. Whoever the hell is running the show in Dallas - Don, Donnie, Cuban, whoever. 4. Jerry West 5. Rod Thorn Honorable mentions to Paxson in Chicago, Pfund (or Riley) in Miami, and Kevin O'Connor in Utah all deserve honorable mention.
I'd have to agree with most of this list. However, on the best GM's list, I have to put Joe Dumars at #3, above the Maverick GM triumvirate. While some of his moves may be a bit questionable as of late, he acquired Rip Hamilton AND Ben Wallace for next to nothing, drafted Tayshaun Prince, swung the Rasheed deal and brought a title to Detroit, while challenging for another the next year. If that isn't top 5 GM work, I'm not sure what is. I can't rate Dallas above Joe Dumars for the simple reason that they haven't won a ring at this time.
I forgot about Dumars, he's definitely in the Top 4. But I wouldn't say he acquired Ben Wallace for next to nothing, they did have to part with Grant Hill. But it really did turn out to be next to nothing w/ Hill's injuries.
Best: Dumars. Built a championship team from scratch with no superstars. Paxson. Turned around a bad Chicago. Colangelo. Never seems to have a bad team. Great talent evaluator. Worst: Zeke. They actually were about to get out of salary cap hell when he took over. Then he aquired several mediocre maxed out players. Mullins. Has he done anything to help his team? Knight. GM rule #1 should be to never overpay for Suns or Jazz players. Overpayed for Johnson. Bad draft picks. Loose good players to free agency or trades.
Good call. Dumars does deserve to be on that list. Though I've been less than impressed with his moves in the last season or so. Still, you win your team a championship with shrewd personel moves and you should be on the best gm's list.
