Posted by TMS:

i don't have a problem w/Isiah coaching this team & giving his input on draft choices as long as we get another GM to make the personnel decisions & hirings... i definitely think Marbury needs to go ASAP, which probably won't happen as long as Isiah's in charge of making personnel decisions... i'd make a strong play for Jerry West.

Posted by TMS:

i don't have a problem w/Isiah coaching this team & giving his input on draft choices as long as we get another GM to make the personnel decisions & hirings... i definitely think Marbury needs to go ASAP, which probably won't happen as long as Isiah's in charge of making personnel decisions... i'd make a strong play for Jerry West.

Posted by MS:

In my opinion he has only done three things that are horrible in his tenure, although i still don't like the crawford trade and never will warm to a player that always give us two buckets a game with errant shooting

1. Jerome James
2. Steve Francis
3. Not protecting those picks in the top 5 which was just plain stupid

Other than that he would be acceptable, but those three are very crippling

Posted by efw:

Posted by MS:

1. Jerome James
2. Steve Francis

agreed

3. Not protecting those picks in the top 5 which was just plain stupid

Paxson said the trade wouldn't have happened if they were protected. So, it wasn't stupid, it was a necessity. The fallout of the whole deal still remains to be seen.

Posted by fishmike:

Posted by MS:

In my opinion he has only done three things that are horrible in his tenure, although i still don't like the crawford trade and never will warm to a player that always give us two buckets a game with errant shooting

1. Jerome James
2. Steve Francis
3. Not protecting those picks in the top 5 which was just plain stupid

Other than that he would be acceptable, but those three are very crippling

I dont hate Isiah like you and Isles do. I want him gone because I think he's failed and has shown such poor judgement that he's not to be trusted in future deals. When you look at those three points, and some others (Vin Baker for MLE, giving up a pick for Mo Taylor) its just clear as day we need a different finger pushing the buttons.

Its one thing to make deals or pick players that dont work. Isiah's blunders are more common sense (or lack of) type errors, which is scary. If you followed Lampe and Skita's workouts and predraft play you could see the potential. Those guys didnt work out. But at some point Kiki saw something in Skita and took a shot. Bad shot. Whats scary is at some point Isiah watched Jerome (maybe he never did) and thought giving him a 5 year deal was a good idea. Then he drafted a center with our lottery pick. Then he traded for Eddy Curry. Are we seeing the pattern? The lack of a plan?

Its just time to move on.

I don't know if it is so much a lack of plan or a plan that keeps changing because new opportunities become available, i.e. Curry. In all events, IT has done, at best, a poor job of managing the cap and signing impact FAs. He has excelled, IMO, in turning our late round picks into quality players. The three biggest busts mentioned above (jj1, francis, and unprotected picks) can at least be justified to some extent. At the time we signed JJ1, we needed a center desperately because we had no one above 6' 9" of note on the team. I think we would have been better off signing someone like a Steven Hunter, who was available, for $1-$2 million a year as opposed to signing JJq for $5 mill a season, but I at least understood the logic. The Francis trade was a move made to appease LB. It was a stupid decision that IT should have rejected and IMO is by far the worst deal because we have little use for Francis and cannot trade him (or at least it will be difficult to trade him in any kind of good deal for us). The unprotected picks really depends on if Chicago was not going to budge. I actually think that if we threatened to walk away, they probably would have allowed for top-3 protection on one of the years, but who really knows. I am sure IT did not just walk in and say we will make our picks unprotected. I have no doubt Chicago made that demand.

Overall, I think IT has done a poor job, but I think he has learned from several of his mistakes and has given us a young nucleus of players. If the team can play well this season, I am willing to give him one more year to see if he can keep improving the team. In terms of talent, the franchise is in a better situation that it was when IT arrived. It remains to be seen if any consistent chemistry can develop among these players.

Posted by K22:

Posted by fishmike:

signed Brian Cardinal to a 5 year deal?
Does anyone even remember what West got back for Jason Williams or Bonzi Wells?
Traded Kendric Perkins and MArcus Banks (2 picks) for Troy Bell and Dahntay Jones

Dude, West is great but he gets like a D+ for his job w/ Memphis. They are mired in NBA mediocrity.

Well, it's better than the perennial doormat expansion team they were before the Logo got there.

[Edited by - K22 on 12-11-2006 2:13 PM]