“Fall into your lap” is always a cop out when trying to deccertify a coach or GM. “PHil never won without Kobe or Mike”.
True. And Kobe and Mike never won a chip without him either.
Pleanty of teams have had stars and failed to win a chip.
Presti is hailed as a very good GM but not icconic. Why? They did not win a chip.
But lets look at the business side. Seattle languished for two years when Shultz old the team to Bennett and his group who were hell bent on relocating them and like in a movie, they wanted to suck to move. So they tanked.
When an owner wants to tank, a GM gets a rare window to do cool **** long term.
You also have a team in OKC whose minority owners had fracking based wealth and it went south. One dude killed himself. It was economically unstable and iM suprised the team made it through. They did.
I keep reminding many of you its the owner that drives the direction of the team and each one is different for many reasons.
In hindsight one can always punch holes at mistakes. I won’t defend Presti or reconstruct what happend or how ownwership was ok with letting Durant walk out the door. We don’t know the back story of his leverage that Durant also was brave enough to take on career injury and walked free TWICE.
As for trades, some worked better than others. He was masterful in his Trade to get and then resell Paul George to Clippers.
Not so much in Harden. Shit happens.
Building a winner is not easy. Spurs post Timmy/Manu/Parker era has been a rough go for them. Same cast of brilliant FO and coach yet they have not been fortuitous in efforts. They missed on Dejuan Murray and punted on him. They did tank and got Wemby which Im sure is fuel for conspiracy talk but we can leave that for another day.
Martin depicted a good scenario of success. Ad in the depth of the west that they had to contend with GSW epic run and some damn good teams as well.
Denver is the new darling that has been there for for 3 years. Injury derailed them but they stuck it thru. Nalod has mentioned them as preseason favorites a few times (I stopped making predictions) prior.
Winning chips matter and OKC is small market and not a destination city for free agents. True, but money is a destination if they have it.
I agree Presti is not heralded as he has been in the past. This is why when fans starphuch Execs thinking “Bring in this guy and we set” does not work. Way too many things have to happen.
Its why we really should apppreciate what Leon is doing. WE have not been given great picks or been “lucky”. What Dolan did by firing Phil, and not letting mills cash in chips was to create opportunities that create luck. Jules for all his warts came as a free agent. That we got Brunson too was another example. Patience is being exampled. Does not mean everything is great. Fans don’t need to show it so we can rail on jules and RJ when frustrated, and suggest deals to quench that thirst.
I won’t predict but if you look at Denver and Miami they have been very consistant and patient. Porter Jr is frustrating and Murray injuries were not easy. They also lost their president last year to Minny!
So how did they stay on track?
Ownership saw it thru. In ten years they lost Massai and Connelly.
Miami, same thing. Aronson in on board with the teams ups and downs over the years.
Be it as it may, Phil Jax came in and ended the starphuch era and stoppeing trading picks. MIlls might have wanted to keep his job and do it but he got canned and Perry kept it cool under the direction of ownership and implimented by Leon.
We have not been lucky via the draft yet, but we on a decent path. Leon been here 3 seasons now. The fun is the journey.
Miami and Denver both been on good runs the last few years. One will be happier than the other but its june and there they are.
