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Killa4luv
Posts: 27769
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Joined: 6/23/2002
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On the heels of the Rob Babcock firing and continuing criticism being aimed at the enigmatic Isiah Thomas, this edition of Standing 10 will determine the ten best general managers in the NBA today.
10) Danny Ainge
Ainge has a love/hate relationship with the Celtics’ fan base. One day he’ll trade Antoine Walker for the long-term contract of Raef Lafrentz and the next he’ll draft Al Jefferson, Gerald Green and a slew of other draft picks with seemingly limitless potential.
When the Celtics win or the rookies perform well, he’s considered a genius, but when the rookies don’t get minutes or he trades for Wally Szczerbiak’s long-term inflated contract, he’s considered a burden.
Currently, the Celtics team is a strange entity consisting of veteran superstar Paul Pierce, the recently acquired Wally Szczerbiak and a young core featuring Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen and Delonte West.
Two seasons from now, it will be seen if Ainge can either make a serious mark on this Celtics squad or if he’ll be standing in the unemployment line.
9) John Paxson
Paxson has transformed the Chicago Bulls into a nice looking young team in the post-Jordan, post-Krause era. Some of his brilliant moves include trading an unprotected first rounder from the upcoming season to the Suns for Luol Deng and then making the playoffs, drafting Kirk Hinrich with the 7th pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and trading the underachieving Eddy Curry for Mike Sweetney and the right to swap draft picks with the struggling New York Knicks .
Along with the continually improving play of Ben Gordon and Tyson Chandler, this Bulls team has all of the pieces of a potentially great team down the line. All they need is a true superstar and if Paxson can land one without giving up too much youth, he can surely be considered among the league’s best GMs.
8) Kiki Vandeweghe
Although the Nuggets’ franchise player practically fell into his lap, Vandeweghe has done a nice job of building his team. First he traded an unhealthy Antonio McDyess for Nene and Marcus Camby, which ended up being a very nice move, especially with Camby’s dangerous defensive game. He also orchestrated a sign and trade deal for Kenyon Martin and that will really be the move that defines the rest of his career with the Nuggets. Martin has done a pretty good job so far, but has he really merited a maximum contract? Time will tell if the nucleus Vandeweghe built will pan out.
7) Jerry Colangelo
After stealing Amare Stoudemire in the draft and realizing that he and Stephon Marbury weren’t performing to the best of their capabilities, Colangelo flipped Marbury to the Knicks for expiring contracts, young talent and future draft picks. With the cap space, Colangelo signed future league MVP Steve Nash to a long term deal. The Nash, Stoudemire, Marion trio is one of the league’s deadliest, especially on the offensive end.
Colangelo also made the most of Joe Johnson’s departure by scoring the versatile Boris Diaw and some first round selections. Even with Stoudemire injured, the Suns are still on top of the league in offensive output.
6) Don Nelson/Donnie Nelson
Nelson has always tried to do the right thing for the Mavericks, including stepping down to let Avery Johnson take over the team (he will be the Western Conference All-Star coach.) Nelson also drafted Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels with very late picks in the same draft and landed Devin Harris, who will one day run the show when Jason Terry’s time comes. Nelson needed defence, so he traded for or drafted defence and the team has excelled as a result.
Dallas currently has the best record in the West and it is the result of good team building.
His son Donnie is now carrying on the Nelson tradition.
5) Geoff Petrie
Petrie is not afraid to take risks and he has proven that with his Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic trades. Petrie unloaded Webber’s hefty contract after the aging star was unable to lead the team to the promised land and received the tenacious Kenny Thomas, who has done a good job with the team. Petrie traded for Bonzi Wells, who has added some energy off the bench and signed Shareef Abdur-Rahim for a bargain basement price.
Trading for Ron Artest will only improve the team as Mike Bibby enters his prime and as Peja Stojakovic seemed to be getting worse and was not showing up. The improving play of Kevin Martin and Fransisco Garcia shows that Petrie knows how to draft late-first round contributors and his deal to land Brad Miller last offseason was a stroke of genius as the big man has provided the toughness that the team lacked.
4) Pat Riley
Riley drafted Dwyane Wade with the 5th pick in the 2003 draft and he has emerged as arguably the best or second best player to come out of the draft. But more importantly, Riley was able to trade Shaquille O’Neal without giving up Wade and got the Big Aristotle to accept a pay cut.
This past offseason Riley was able to land players like Jason Williams, Antoine Walker and James Posey while giving up next to nothing to acquire them. He also signed the hard working Udonis Haslem (whom he brought into the league) to a long term contract.
3) Rod Thorn
Thorn may have cost Rob Babcock his job after fleecing him on the Vince Carter trade last season. Landing Carter for practically nothing was certainly a large step towards bringing the Nets back to where they were in previous seasons. Thorn also decided not to re-sign Kenyon Martin to his desired maximum contract and traded him to the Nuggets for three first round selections.
He was also able to unload Kerry Kittles for a first round pick and did a great job with drafting Nenad Krstic and bringing him in from Europe.
2) Joe Dumars
Two finals appearances and one championship in the last two seasons after drafting Darko Milicic with the 2nd overall pick in one of the deepest drafts ever makes Dumars an enigma in terms of general managers. Dumars drafted Tayshaun Prince as a late selection in the 2002 draft, acquired Rasheed Wallace cheap and signed Ben Wallace to an extremely affordable contract.
Dumars also signed Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess and traded an aging Jerry Stackhouse for sparkplug Richard “Rip” Hamilton.
With those moves, Dumars has built a winning team for many years to come.
1) R.C. Buford
Many casual NBA fans will not even recognize this name, but the San Antonio Spurs GM has done an incredible job. The most impressive thing is Buford’s ability to pinpoint foreign talent and bring them into the league. This includes Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili who have become NBA stars and Beno Udrih, who is an up and coming young player with great potential.
Buford has also been able to add key players like Brent Barry, Michael Finley, Nick Van Exel, Robert Horry and Nazr Mohammed. All of those players have the ability to do the little things in a big way in order to make the Spurs a team that are considered a top two or three team in the NBA. Dumars and Buford are without question the best. But guys like Ainge, Kiki, and Riley are questionable imo. Riley: Shaq forced a trade to miami so its not like Riley worked some magic on that one. The Heat are a rag-tag collection of veteran talent plus Shaq and Wade. I give him credit for Wade who is definitely a superstar, but just about everything else hes done has been questionable. The heat look horrible, and they definitely are not contenders. No way they beat detroit, and may have problems with Indy, depending on how Peja fits in. Ainge: Signed carrot top to ridiculous money. Traded a budding all-star 2, for a all-star calibur 3 who is a defensive liability who plays the same position as their best player. I cannot give him credit for Gerald Greene who is basically Trevor Ariza at a younger age right now. Kiki: Maxed out K-mart and should not have which is a big mistake in a small market. He also signed Earl Watson when they already had 2 point guards, and created a glut on his roster when he obviously could have used a big man because K-Mart and NeNe aren't the most durable bigs around. He drafted Carmello and took the Layden trade, those were his 2 best moves, and I give Layden more credit for being stupid, than I do for him being smart. Mello was also a no brainer that Dumars bumped his head on. I dont think KiKi is spectacular. |
1/27/2006 3:57 PM