If you fire Morey, who would you hire to replace him?

I don't agree. Mitch picked Bynum, didn't panic to trade Kobe, or Bynum when there was some down years and made some nice, astute moves like the Ariza trade with Orlando. He's also found some diamonds in the rough like Shannon Brown. I think he is a fine GM.

 

Ainge and Dumars are the only ones with rings that didn't completely come from being terrible and lucking into drafting studs in the lottery. Those guys really had to work for those rings. I thought the idea was to win championships. Presti has done nothing impressive, not sure why people keep mentioning his name. Getting an 8 seed when half your team is a lottery pick, whoopty-damn-do.

 

Nice rankings. I would put Warkstein (Denver) up in the GOOD category, as well.

Another thing that needs to be factored in with these rankings is the OWNER of the GM's team.

I think if every one of these GMs had "the average NBA team owner" instead of their particular owner, then the following happens:

--Pritchard goes from ELITE down to GOOD

--Kupchak goes from GOOD down to AVERAGE

--Perhaps Jeff Bower (Hornets) makes the list, since that poor guy is forced to dump contracts left and right to cut costs and has not really been allowed to focus primarily on basketball moves.

 

This entire thread is blasphemous!
IN MOREY WE TRUST

 

Jerry "organizations win championships" Krause.

 

theres no other gm better than morey. in morey we trust.

 

Bima, ur so wrong about kupchak. How many gm's would have the gall to trade shaq still the best center in basketball? Shannon brown was almost out the league. Ariza for brian cook. Not trading bynum for kidd. Hell drafting bynum at 9 when they couldve easily done what the rockets did in terms of battier.

 

Pritch is a damn good GM. If he didn't have ego problems, he would be elite. I would really like for Pritch to become our assistant GM.

 

How can you consider his stint with the griz not successful. Their team had been terrible and they made the playoffs. He was smart enough to hire the right coach and not screw things up. He won gm of the year while with the griz.

With the lakers he picked guys like eddie jones, nve,etc. I mean he has a track record of being a great gm.

 

The Shaq decision did take balls. But those balls belong just as much to Jerry Buss and Kobe Bryant. But I'll give Kupchak some credit for selling a year early rather than a year late on Shaq.

The Shannon Brown thing was just luck. That trade was a straight salary dump of Vladimir Radmanovic's contract.

My nine-month-old son would have known to trade Brian Cook for Trevor Ariza. Cook was clearly overpaid (by Kupchak, a reason why he is not on the ELITE list). Meanwhile, Ariza had had a very promising rookie year in New York, then signed a reasonable multi-year deal in Orlando. Inexplicably, the Magic felt they should trade the better player simply because there was a logjam at the SF position. It was a no-brainer for the Lakers. No. Brainer.

Not trading Bynum for Kidd? I don't even know if that was a major (non-) move. The Lakers could have won a title with Kidd, Kobe, Gasol and Odom. Bynum's constantly injured. It worked out well for the Lakers, but I don't think not making that move qualifies as being an ELITE GM.

FYI, Bynum was taken 10th. It was definitely one of his better moves as Lakers' GM. But then he signed him to a ridiculous new contract. Sure, you tend to overpay for size; but I think the Lakers WAY overpaid for the oft-injured Bynum.

Don't get me wrong. Kupchak is an above-average GM. But I don't think he's anything special.

(P.S. I appreciate you not mentioning the Gasol trade in your post. We both know that was simply desperation and stupidity from Michael Heisley.)

 

Morey is the shiznit as far as NBA GM's go. However if something does happen and he's out (God forbid!!!), then I say Clutchfans should take over the team's personnel decisions. We'll vote on everything.

We'll probably be the worst team of the century, but it would be hella fun.

 

i wouldnt mind having kenny smith as the rockets GM

 

Chris Wallace would probably go from terrible to average too. In terms of getting what his owner wants (mostly saving money, while trying to keep the fans coming back), he is probably ELITE.

 

The Shaq call was more Buss than Kupchak, that being said, if someone wanted to hand Gasol for draft rights and a cpl bench players like they did, any team would be amazing.

 

Kuptchak

 

presti.

We should hire Pritchard as an assistant GM lol

 

Buford probably.

or maybe some geek from MIT

 

Even as a hypothetical thread title to prove the doubters wrong, it's still blasphemy.

 

You mean the same guy that traded Caron Butler for Kwame Brown?