gtn130 wrote:TheSecretWeapon wrote:gtn130 wrote:
I'm not making that argument at all. Grunfeld has done a terrible job. I just don't think the Morris trade is that bad all things considered.
Boston has a top 2 coach on the entire planet, so they're able to make a lot of things work that most franchises wouldn't. Their drafting hasn't been great tho. They just butchered the 2015 draft by taking Rozier 50 spots too high.
Don't have time to look deeply into their drafting, but I suspect they've done a pretty good job with the draft.
Their drafting has been ok. Smart, Olynyk and Sullinger are the best players they've drafted in the Brad Stevens era. Their 2015 class doesn't look good, but it's early.
Boston's future is so bright largely because they were able to scam a world class terrible GM in Billy King. Because of that, they've been able to compete while still having the ability to draft elite talent. They're either going to leverage their draft assets by trading them for a star or drafting one.
What I'm getting at is that while Boston may be a smart franchise, they're also clearly pretty lucky. Without acquiring those picks they're a middling team that can only be so good. I don't think anything they've done validates Ted's plan. And let's not kid ourselves, his plan isn't about winning a championship -- it's about selling playoff tickets while never ever having to tank. Mark Cuban is effectively doing the same thing but he's a little bit smarter and was also able to acquire a top level elite HOFer early on.
The thing is -- and this is why I think you're wrong, gtn -- pretty much every GM has to succeed *in spite of* his owner's dumb ideas. And Ernie could have. Instead, he made a series of horrendous moves in the draft, he signed awful FAs, and he made trades that reflected *his* -- not Ted's -- failures along the "young players to develop" line that TSW mentions.
As to the Morris trade, if your only point is that it isn't the worst move Ernie has made, then there's little point in debating it. It was a lousy trade, and it was a trade for a lousy player too. And, no surprise, it didn't achieve its foolish goal either. That's bad enough for me; I don't need it to be even worse than that!
You also seem to be off base about Boston. They didn't trade for youth by being *lucky.* They did it by being smart. For that matter, they haven't had the ability "to draft elite talent" either. They've just drafted reasonably well when their turns came up, and used their multiple picks to maneuver their drafting position a little.
Note that Boston also won a title by trading youth for veterans, right? Because they had a window -- and in that case, yes, you can argue it was "luck" (i.e. a friend running Minny) that got them Garnett to make that possible.
Cuban isn't "a little bit smarter;" he's *a lot* smarter. Note that Dallas won a title recently.
I hate that man and his moustache (though I wish I could grow a beard).
