Why bad teams are bad and good teams are good.
Tom Ziller at Fanhouse uses two salary dumps from this summer - David Andersen's trade to Toronto and Ramon Sessions' trade to Cleveland - to dig a little deeper into the persistence of poor decision-making.
over 1 year ago
Only_A_Lad
15 comments
0 recs |
Comments
nice catch
good article… i think these examples illustrate the diff between Kaaaahhn and Morey precisely
Good article
but I can’t help feeling as though all of the criticism of Anderson neglects the fact that the guy had one year to adjust from Europe to the NBA game all while being expected to fill in for that center position. Good salary dump and I wasn’t expecting him to get much time next year, but in all fairness he wasn’t given a fair shot in Houston. Luis took a couple years to adjust and he’s beast mode, ya know?
I'm always right, this isn't conjecture, merely statement of fact.
Agreed..
He was pretty solid overseas. There is no reason to believe he wont turn into a decent NBA player.
However, I was still disappointed that he wasn’t able to even be on the floor for most of the season.
Bad teams? They “fix” mistakes with new mistakes. They get into a hole, see only a shovel, and dig deeper. The good teams, like the Spurs, Rockets and Mavericks, fashion that shovel into a climbing apparatus and get out of trouble.
^^My favorite quote of the article. Bad teams make desperation moves. They make moves for the sake of making moves. While Morey has yet to make a big splash (mainly due to the hand he was dealt at the beginning), he doesn’t make stupid moves to please fans. He usually makes smart moves, and the ones that didn’t pan out didn’t hurt much. This was kind of the point of the article. But that’s the big reason why I like Morey as the GM.
They make moves for the sake of making moves
I think this is what it really comes down to. I mean, taken in isolation, the Telfair trade isn’t awful or crippling or anything like that. The problem is that when you take all of Kahn’s moves and look at them as a cohesive whole, you don’t see a real master plan here. There’s an obvious end goal, given his and the T-Wolves’ words (get Rubio to sign in two or three years), but most of Kahn’s actions over the last year have done relatively little to place the Wolves further towards that end.
I mean, Kahn has done some good things, don’t get me wrong. He has gained a great level of salary flexibility (which is absolutely important and a major asset whether he uses it on free agents or trades or just by saving the owners money), he has acquired a few potential star players in the draft and through a trade (Beasley’s potential as a star may have run out by now, but I’d say he has another year to give it a shot; I’m really not sure that the Wolves are the best team for him to try that with, though), and he made the right move (arguably) in choosing to trade Al Jefferson and keep Kevin Love.
The problem is that the substance underlying those aspects doesn’t look too great: e.g. what he’s doing with that cap space (more Darko!), what he’s doing in the draft, what he got in that Jefferson trade (I mean, fuck, Kosta Koufos and future picks? That’s the best he could get?). At the end of the day, the fact is that the Wolves look worse today than they did three months ago, and their future doesn’t look any brighter. You look at that roster and ask, “What is this roster going to look like in two years?” and it’s going to take a miracle for that team to be much closer to the playoffs.
Contrast that to.what we saw with Presti and the Sonics/Thunder. When he came in, they had a bad team, which he gutted completely. The result was a fantastic level of roster flexibility, regardless of how well they did in the draft. Now, at the time, fans were angry (mostly over the impending move, but also over selling off Ray Allen and everyone else on that team) and plenty of people thought Presti was just preparing the team for the move, but we can see the master plan working in all of his moves. We can see that he was acquiring assets and flexibility, keeping his eyes on the ultimate goal, which is to turn those things into good players.
I don’t see that with Kahn’s moves, nor do most NBA observers and fans. I admit that he could be pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, but we realized what was up with Presti pretty quickly. Nobody can see what’s going on in Kahn’s mind but more floundering moves.
The scariest thing about Kahn, I think, is how much his actions, the analysis of his moves in the press, and the reactions of Wolves fans to that analysis, reminds me of what goes on daily with the Astros and Ed Wade. You see moves that aren’t really bad or anything when viewed in isolation, but which do not show any sort of cohesive plan when viewed together.
to be fair to Beasly
the guy is playing out of position. He is just not a PF, he is a 3 and only a 3. He gets abused on defense and doesn’t seem to have it all on offense to play in the post. Put the guy at the SF and then lets talk him being a bust.
GO ROCKETS, GO TEXANS, GO ASTROS (EVEN THOUGH THEY SUCK)!!!
Imagine if you will, for a moment
what that Sonics/Thunder team would have looked like with Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, and Kevin Durant all on the same team. Maybe the bloated salary would have kept them in Seattle too. I think if that were the case Seattle would be pimp slapping the league. I want them to get a team back =(.
Also, on Beasely, Bat has a good point with the fact that he really is more of a 3. I think his big issue is work ethic anyhow though. He put up some good numbers out of position but he just seems out of it/disconnected with what he’s playing. The worst part is SF was Kahn’s position of draft fetish this year, so who knows what the hell they’ll do with Beaseley/Love.
I also love it when Wolves fans jump to the defense of Kahn regardless of the fact that that Wolves team was run into the ground with McHale and Kahn has just jumped behind the captain’s wheel and continued to “stay the course.”
I'm always right, this isn't conjecture, merely statement of fact.
It's pretty wild to think
that the Zombie Sonics and the T-Wolves both traded their star player to the same team at the same time.
Look at how promising the Thunder looks and how NOT promising the T-Wolves look.
Kudos to Sam Presti.
"I am from one of the top 15 cities in the world. Buffalo, New York." - TrentEdwardsHoF2018
by Artest4Prez on Jul 30, 2010 11:34 AM CDT up reply actions
To be fair
Getting a no-brainer pick like KD was a big help, but I see your point, and overall, OKC’s roster is just way better constructed.
it took Luis about 30 games...
Then they named him a starter and the team won 22 in a row. Or did you forget about the Streak already?
yea that's a good ass point
Not all good Euros are good for the NBA
GO ROCKETS, GO TEXANS, GO ASTROS (EVEN THOUGH THEY SUCK)!!!
A bit catty on the streak comment
I guess I’ve just been spoiled by Scola’s play and forgot about him coming right in. Also, did Anderson actually start any games? He had a lot to adjust to on the fly and didn’t seem to get the option. He was a rental anyway, but still.
I'm always right, this isn't conjecture, merely statement of fact.























