OT: Rank the top 5 GM's

[Michael Bradley]

In no particular order: Buford, Dumars, Thorn, Ainge, and Kupchak.

I think Buford, Dumars, and Thorn are self-explanatory. As far as the other two, a lot of the assets that Ainge used to acquire Garnett and Allen were mid/late first rounders. He kept his star and was still able to acquire talent with later picks. Whether they were "gift wrapped" to him or not, he got a championship out of it. Kupchak is not my favorite guy, but he has built a team that should be great for a few more years.

[ATLTimekeeper]

1) Buford, hands down. He built close to a dynasty in a small market with only one high draft pick and maintained a stable cap situation throughout.

He makes everyone else look terrible. I don't even want to think about the other guys. The one thing I'll point out here is that these following GM's have built competitive teams that I like to watch.

2) Mark Warkentien. Bad cap situation, but he's kept them in the playoffs in a competitive conference since Carmelo came into the league. And, unlike Cuban/Nelson, they don't try and solve their problems by just spending more.

3) Kevin Pritchard. Lucked out with Oden (or maybe he didn't), but he's made the most of his resources and built a solid young team, which has as good a shot as any of winning a title in the next five years.

4) Ed Stefanski. Bad contract to Brand, but post-Iverson this team has been pretty good. Young and Speights were great mid-round picks. I feel like Holiday will turn out to be the same. Also, his New Jersey teams were always competitive.

5) Joe Dumars. He's made some bad, bad decisions, but they remained an elite team for a long time with no "go-to" players. He just built a great team with an actual personality, which is something that few GM's have a feel for.

[Reignman]

Buford
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Almost everyone else
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Chris Wallace

[timdunkit]

1) RC Buford
2) Dumars
3) Pritchard
4) Morey
5) The Guy from Utah (forgot his name)

[YogiStewart]

1) RC Buford
2) Kupchak
3) BC
4) Kiki
5) Pritchard

i think your ranking's the one i agree with most except i am not sold on Kiki/Thorn. they signed Vince to that stupid contract and you see where that got them?
then again, every GM screws up. see BC as the prime example.

3 years ago, Paxton and Dumars would have topped this list.
1 year from now, Washington's GM may top this list.

[Yuri Vaultin]

1) RC Buford
2) Kupchak
3) BC
4) Mark Warkentien
5) Sam Presti

[James Ballswin (Realizar)]

3) Bryan Colangelo - This guy drafted Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Amare Stoudamire and Shawn Marion. Had it not been for Sarver's cheapness, the team he built in Phoenix (with Joe Johnson) could've been a contender every single season.

He also acquired Barbosa in a draft-day deal with the Spurs (the first & last time Buford was fleeced!)

The team BC built in Phoenix awould have included Joe Johnson (re-signed) or the 3 first round picks he acquired for JJ in the sign-n-trade to ATL - which was brilliant! What 'Starve the Scrooge' (new team owner) force BC and Steve Kerr to do with those 3 picks picks:

2004 - Luol Deng - #7
*Traded to Chicago for rights to Jackson Vroman, cash and a future first round pick.

2005 - Nate Robinson - #21
*Traded to New York with Quentin Richardson and future considerations for Kurt Thomas and the draft rights to Dijon Thompson

2006 - Rajon Rondo - #21
*Traded to Boston Celtics via Los Angeles Lakers

That doesn't include trading Marcin Gortat in 2005 and Sergio Rodriguez in 2006.

If the Suns had been sold to any other owner, they'd be a dynasty! (My heart goes out to Suns fans).

[timdunkit]

Kevin O'Conner ... there we go, he is quite underrated since I'm the only one mentioning him ...

[James Ballswin (Realizar)]

Kevin O'Conner ... there we go, he is quite underrated since I'm the only one mentioning him ...

+1

Kevin O'Conner is as underated as Jerry Sloan.

[Hendrix]

4) Ed Stefanski. Bad contract to Brand, but post-Iverson this team has been pretty good. Young and Speights were great mid-round picks. I feel like Holiday will turn out to be the same. Also, his New Jersey teams were always competitive.
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You seriously can only think of 3 guys ahead of him?

He's hardly got any more wins for his team since he came on. He's only been a GM for 1.5 years. Most of the players on the team that worked well together were there before he got there. He didn't draft Thad Young, that was Billy King.

He's signed Brand w/ some cap space he cleared w/ moving Korver. Fired his coach. Traded for Kapono. Picked Speights. Nothiong that impressive.

[inonba]

Kiki Vandeweghe is a terrible evaluator in talent. He drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili over Amare and Caron Bulter, and Julius Hodge who some scouts call the most unathletic 6’7" player ever to come out of the ACC. His best move was trading with Scott Layden (A GM worst than Isiah Thomas), and his worst move was trading 3 first round draft picks for KENYON MARTIN, and then giving him a max extension! Denver's franchise player fell into their lap, because all indications suggests Kiki would have selected Darko 3rd if Detroit took Melo. Finally, Denver actually going deep into the playoffs AFTER this guy left the franchise as oppose to a guy like Brian Colangelo who's team went down the crapper after he left. How can you rate this guy top 5?

Mitch Kupchak: People forget how bad this guy was before Phil Jackson came out of retirement.
http://www.firemitchkupchak.com/

Danny Ainge: Another guy that was notoriously bad until recent fortunes.

Kevin Pritchard/Sam Presti: Guys that haven't even finish the rebuilding process and some of you consider them top 5?

[Mike Hunt]

I'll go with:

1. R.C. Bufford (San Antonio):
He's had a winning team forever. Got lucky early. Was shrewd in the middle. He's kind of in a spot right now where he has to consider making bigger moves as his team's looking less and less dominant. The most impressive thing he's done though, has to be that he rarely ever touched the luxury tax.

2. Sam Presti (Oklahoma):
Learned from the best. Doesn't have a great team yet but, since taking over, I don't think he's made one mistake.

3. Danny Ainge (Boston):
He was considered one of the worst but, in one summer, he took big risks and made his team instantaneously championship calliber. The most surprising thing is that while he had a bad draft history early in the first round, his late picks have all seemed to reap some rewards i.e., Rondo, Perkins, Davis

4. Bryan Colangelo (Toronto):
His Phoenix work certainly plays a big part in this. His best quality is that he doesn't fear pulling the trigger. If what he's done this summer ends up being half as good as some expect, he might move up on the list.

5. Mitch Kupchak (L.A.L.):
I'd have him even higher were it not for the fact that he's in L.A.. The drawing power of the team alone makes GMs look better than they really are. That being said, he was really looked down on when the team had Kobe and nothing else and he made the right moves to add the depth that was sorely missing to the team.

[Young_Buc]

Buford
Dumars
Ainge
Prichard
Thorn
BC/Kupchak

[dacrusha]

Pritchard lucked out on Roy and lucked out on Oden... but in this year's free agency, he bombed big time.

So far, he's all luck, but not much skill.

[MattBoner]

I don't think Pritchard deserves to be anywhere near the top 5 with the stunt he tried to pull last year with Miles

[inonba]

I'll go with:
5. Mitch Kupchak (L.A.L.):
I'd have him even higher were it not for the fact that he's in L.A.. The drawing power of the team alone makes GMs look better than they really are. That being said, he was really looked down on when the team had Kobe and nothing else and he made the right moves to add the depth that was sorely missing to the team.

That's total nonsense. The post Shaq era of the Lakers featured Kobe Bryant, Caron Butler, and Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, essentially the same supporting cast Wade took to the playoffs. Depth was not what they were lacking, as even when the Lakers missed the playoffs, they were still consider a pretty talented team.

Secondly, I'm all for people making mistakes as nobody is perfect, but if you can't tell the difference between the biggest bust of the decade Kwame Brown, and multiple time all-star Caron Butler, you don't deserve to be on the top 5 list, PERIOD.

[WesWesley]

While BC is certainly an exciting GM, he has yet to get us out of the first round. Let's not call him a top 5 GM just yet.

[ponder276]

1) Kevin Pritchard
Has yet to make a bad move, is constantly robbing teams. Yes he has a loaded owner, but still, this guy is gold.

2) Daryl Morey
Hit with some very bad luck re: injuries and inherited players, but the guy knows how to build a tough, winning team, and he's constantly acquiring quality pieces at little cost.

3) RC Buford
Great at keeping the Spurs competitive, and getting quality players while giving up basically nothing (in the last 2 offseasons he's added Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, Roger Mason Jr., George Hill, and DeJuan Blair for basically nothing, only some dead contracts, low picks and small amounts of cap space).

4) Joe Dumars
Has botched a few moves lately, but still had Detroit competing at a high level for a very long time, including a championship win, without having the luxury of being able to build around a superstar. Could easily go higher on this list.

5) Danny Ainge
His work over the last 2 seasons with the Celtics has been beautiful, the 06/07 was terrible and had virtually zero assets, I love that he had no problem blowing it up, and was able to quickly create a fantastic team out of very little.


I like BC to a certain extent, but I can't fully get behind a guy who's fundamental philosophy is to build soft, jumpshooting teams that do not defend well. I also think he is prone to massively overpaying 1-dimensional jumpshooters, such as that terrible deal for Kapono, or the massive extension for Bargs (no team in the league was gonna give Kapono anything close to the full MLE, just as no team in the league would give Bargs anything close to $10 mil/year). Overall I just don't think he's a GM who's ever gonna build a championship winning team.

[bane_dd]

You could theoretically say that Brian was 'gift wrapped' Bosh and Calderon as some posters are pointing towards Kupchak having Bryant and O'neal. The mess the Lakers were in just over a year ago could have turned into something much worse - instead they're the team to be beaten now (the Gasol trade was an absolute steal, no matter how you put it).

Are you seriously comparing Bosh and freaking Calderon to a young Kobe and a prime-time Shaq? Kupchak got Odom AND Butler for O'Neal but then traded Butler for some guy named Kwame Brown. LOL @ anyone who all of a sudden thinks Kupchak is a great GM. What's next, Danny Ferry being a great GM?

[inonba]

While BC is certainly an exciting GM, he has yet to get us out of the first round. Let's not call him a top 5 GM just yet.

You do realize BC was a GM before he was hired by Toronto, right?