Steve Patterson and Rudy had more to do with the championships... hell, it was Bob Weinhauer who actually negotiated the Drexler deal with Portland, that Rudy had to sign-off on. A case can be made that the decisions by CD (and likely Rudy) nearly drove this team into the permanent lottery/salary cap hell. Matt Maloney, Kelvin Cato, Maurice Taylor, Moochie Norris, Eddie Griffin... that is an AWFUL pattern that was set-forth starting in 1998. You may not agree with JVG's coaching philosophy, but the team overall has been far more selective in the type of contracts/players they've been getting. I don't think CD "allofasudden" decided to become a number-crunching/shrewd GM... based on his overall history, I'm not sure how much power he actually has.
T-Mac fits your mold: I remember him stoping Yao from helping a fallen Mav player off the court last year in the playoffs. He still needs to be meaner. People remember MJ as a nice guy but you knew when it was time to put the dagger in the opponents heart he could be counted on to do it with both hands and with a big smile on his face.
You can afford to be more selective when you're not rebuilding. When you already have a Yao, and then a McGrady (who was acquired w/CD-Rudy players), you can be selective. You don't have to worry about long-term deals, because you already have your franchise cornerstones that you're committed to - you just need to find bit players to put around them, which can usually be had in any year for cheap. JVG has never had to rebuild, so we don't know how he would fare in a similar situation.
Uhh... what were we rebuilding when we decided to sign Maloney for 6 more years (when we already had his clone-- Brent Price-- locked up for another 3). Why were we so desperate to sign Cato after a pre-season game? Were they afraid he'd refuse to negotiate throughout the regular season once he became a superstar? The Mo-T deal, I'll withold judgement on, because he was a decent prospect who had some room to get better, and become an all-star. Alas, he never did it. But, there was NO reason to think that they couldn't do any better for backup PG's for the next 6 years, by signing Moochie to that ridiculous deal. The sad thing is, that was AFTER the Maloney debacle.... showing that the powers that be did not learn any lessons. I know JVG and company don't have to find superstars... but neither were Rudy/CD when they were just finding complementary players to play alongside Charles/Hakeem/Clyde, and then Francis/Mobely. Those players were given superstar-like security, and none of them were ever projected to reach that ultimate level.
I guess that Mo-T and Shandon Anderson were two guys that came on board for little money first then big pay day later by a wink wink deal. CD and Rudy were having some under-table bad practice. If there were licenses, theirs could be revoked. They learned their lesson after seeing how Mo-T and Anderson panned out, and what Joe Smith incident brought to Minny.
Exactly. Also, I think another reason why there were so many backfired decisions because Rudy/CD had no idea of what kind of team they wanted... ie - they had no real system in place. Rudy's philosophy of coaching was inside-out, and with Hakeem that was all you had to do. Once Hakeem was out of the picture, and Francis came in, the only "creative" offense that was run was the freaking Francis/Mobely ISOLATION play (how many geniuses did it take to come up with that one?). Thus, they were merely signing players based on talent, individual skills (ie - FIT), rather than trying to get players who would both play hard, and be complementary in a system. But, even as I say that, it still doesn't excuse the Maloney/Moochie decision.
That's brilliant. That's the way it's been, is, and always will be. I feel we have a pretty nice cake, now we just need some icing to finish it off.
You can't compare contract negotiation in the late 90s and now. Different markets, different cultures, different rules. Almost every GM overpaid back then. Look at all the atrocious contracts every team had at that time. KG and Allen Houston's 100M+ contracts, Juwan Howard's max, just to name a few on top of my head.
Look: I'm a huge Yao supporter. But he is definitely more of a "Drexler" than an "Olajuwon" (honestly, more of a "Pippen") We need people that accentuates their talents.
I agree for the most part. Sura and Barry, to me, were bigger losses than Mike James though. I still like the trade, Rafer was a needed asset. So, the biggest point I get out of Will's post is "injuries suck."
I am still waiting for DaDakotas reply. So, if DaDakota trust CD WAY WAY more than Gundy, does the Dakotaman trust CD's instinct on JVG? Hmm....
Hell yes I do ! Or would you rather have Rod Strickland, Clearance Weatherspoon, Charlie Ward....or any other has-been washed up Ex-Nick. JVG can coach, but I can't stand his style, his teams are too worried about getting yanked to have the freedom to work in crunch time. DD
