the jazz have been consistently good for over a decade now brother, and they just swapped boozer for jefferson. he's a damn good GM that can go unnoticed. hate the jazz team in general, but be unbiased. pat riley has to be #1 rightfully for what happened, don't know if he deserves it or not since it was all lebron. surprisingly, i think morey should be lower. #2 should be the spurs GM. if riley didn't pull off the coup, buford should be #1. what he has done with the spurs is more than incredible. if we're in awe of what morey does, buford is like lebron james. other than buford being low (and i'm purely looking at the top of the list), the list is pretty damn accurate. good list.
If I remain you that Buford, who became GM in 2002, didn't draft Tim Duncan (1997), Manu Ginobili(1999), Tony Parker(2001), would you still considering Buford as top 1 / 2 GM in NBA?
I'm not sure how Riley got #1. If the basis is getting the 3 to sign to Miami then i think the 3 should get as much credit for as Riley did. I mean, who honestly doesn't think there wasn't any player collusion involved there? Props to Riley for freeing up cap space and accommodating the side requests of the players (LBJ's entourage for one) but i honestly think that it's more on the 3 ,or at the very least Wade's hand, that resulted in the acquisitions.
obviously you don't know much about buford. he officially became the spurs GM in 2002, but he worked for the spurs as a scout i believe, and parker and manu WERE discovered by buford. he was with the spurs when they drafted duncan, but that was a nobrainer so you can't really credit him for that. you think morey's draft picks have been great? buford's discoveries of parker and manu (both all-stars) are ridiculous. past decade, i would argue he's the #1 GM.
his trades haven't been that hot. and his FA signings, also not so hot. The only reason he's been good is because he has consistently been able to convince manu and other FAs to re-sign for less than their market value.
Ok, yes, Buford is a great scout, but my point is he wasn't the GM back then when the team was assembled. As a matter of fact, Gregg Popovich was the GM back then, and he even was responsible for name Buford as the head of scout (and GM later) for Spurs. Spurs is a truly great organization, and I'm not denying Buford's contribution to it. But when you have such a strong leadership figure as Gregg Popovich behind, I'm not sure Buford should be the only one taking credit. And it is not the case for other teams.
I hope there is sarcasm behind your quote, because if not, there is something wrong with the way you think.....Morey is the 100 times better than Ferry....they had the luxury of having the number one pick fall into their lap when the ping pong ball bounced their way....a GM (and owner) should be able to put pieces around a superstar like Lebron, but the Cavs were unable to (Stackhouse, Shaq, etc.).... Morey took a terrible roster in 2007 (remember he was assistant GM in 06 before taking over CD) that included Head, Bobby Jackson, T-Mac, others with not a chance of being successful to put is in position to where we are now and a position to make another big move....
What does it say about us that we get more excited about our GM being highly ranked than about our team's performance? a) We haven't had anything to brag about in 15 years, or b) We're hopeless geeks I say both.
And (c) It's late July, so no team has any "performance" to speak of. Kind of related to Jeff's recent threads. There's been too much talk of "winning July" instead of "winning November-June" for the league in general. Houston isn't even the worst. But it's July.
So all of a sudden GM's are only judged by who they draft?? Name me one good trade Buford has made, or FA signing.
A team's performance is never a guarantee. Injuries, the fate of other teams, and some times just the luck of the bounce. The competency of management, on the other hand, CAN be held accountable, and is the true key to success and longevity in the league.
Pre-Morey 1st and 2nd stringers Rafer Alston / Moochie Norris David Wesley / David Anderson Tracy McGrady / Keith Bogans Juwan Howard / Chuck Hayes Yao Ming / Dikembe Mutombo July 23rd, 2010 1st and 2nd stringers Aaron Brooks / Kyle Lowry Kevin Martin / Chase Budinger Trevor Ariza / Shane Battier Luis Scola / Jordan Hill (Chuck Hayes?) Yao Ming / Brad Miller If the Rockets of today could somehow play against the Rockets of 2006, the current Rockets would have the advantage at 7 of the 10 spots*, most by a significant amount. The only advantages for the 2006 team would be near-prime McGrady, prime Yao, and a still very effective Dikembe. It should be noted that injuries caused the Rockets to regress at both of those positions, and that's not really something you can put on the GM. Morey has done his part, but the sad reality is that none of it matters if the players can't stay healthy. *You could make the argument for Miller > Mutombo, but I have to give it to Mutombo as a defensive game changer.
I think you meant Derek Anderson. But anyway, was Moochie still hanging around in 06ish when Anderson landed here? Man, that crappy year is getting a little fuzzy.
buford discovered manu and parker. that's the reason why he's so highly regarded. those 2 guys have played major parts in their dominance over the past decade. i think looking at the past decade, you can argue he has been the best GM.
no. they're judged by the team's winning %. the spurs have been consistently at the top of the league. and buford's 2 all-stars of parker and manu (when no one knew who they really were) are primary reasons. morey has been doing well in trades, but he's still searching for that all-star.
Yeah, I did mean Derek. I had the entire roster on there, then went back and moved some stuff around and trimmed it down to just starters and backups...I think somewhere along the way I deleted his name and retyped it as David. Because, you know...Derek and David look exactly alike. And yeah, it looks like Moochie was here and played 29 games, although if I remember correctly, the back up PG spot had a revolving door on it that year.
