How would you rank the GMs?

[Doctor MJ]

Plus didn't it sound like he wanted to break up that core when he got there and they had unexpected success? I'm not saying he's a bad GM because I think he's a pretty good one but yes, you are right....he didn't particularly build that team...it appeared Lowry was somewhat on the block right after he got there. Not sure where they'd be without him now.

Yup and understandably so. Ujiri is smart and thus knows the Raptors aren't a serious title contender like this and thus ready to burn it to the ground. But the Raptors have managed to become good enough like this that I think he knows he'd be a fool to blow it up on the off-chance he lucked into a superstar anchor.

His smartest move as GM is arguably recognizing that he can coast for years on what Colangelo built now that he's gotten rid of the obvious busts.

[pacers33granger]

Ujiri has to be at the top of this list.
Teams are literally scared to make trades with him because he rips them off with regularity.

- The Melo trade to NY
- Getting 2 picks plus pieces for Andrea Bargnani
- Getting a 1st plus Norm Powell for Vasquez
- Getting Lou Williams and Bebe Nogueira for Salmons

You forgot to mention all the superstars he's drafted, traded for, or acquired from free agency, his many championship rings, his previous tenure as a great coach. I mean if you just took all the players he's acquired for the Toronto Raptors you'd get...

a realization that someone else acquired the guys who actually matter.

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

[CoachD]

Ujiri has to be at the top of this list.
Teams are literally scared to make trades with him because he rips them off with regularity.

- The Melo trade to NY
- Getting 2 picks plus pieces for Andrea Bargnani
- Getting a 1st plus Norm Powell for Vasquez
- Getting Lou Williams and Bebe Nogueira for Salmons

You forgot to mention all the superstars he's drafted, traded for, or acquired from free agency, his many championship rings, his previous tenure as a great coach. I mean if you just took all the players he's acquired for the Toronto Raptors you'd get...

a realization that someone else acquired the guys who actually matter.

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

They definately believed McGee would evolve into more.

As far as Ross goes ... If you subtract his horrible November ... he has played very, very well this season and would easily be getting offers of 10 and 11 million per under the new Cap and the Cap to come. He's an outstanding shooter, who is playing very good D

[pacers33granger]

You forgot to mention all the superstars he's drafted, traded for, or acquired from free agency, his many championship rings, his previous tenure as a great coach. I mean if you just took all the players he's acquired for the Toronto Raptors you'd get...

a realization that someone else acquired the guys who actually matter.

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

They definately believed McGee would evolve into more.

As far as Ross goes ... If you subtract his horrible November ... he has played very, very well this season and would easily be getting offers of 10 and 11 million per under the new Cap and the Cap to come. He's an outstanding shooter, who is playing very good D

I get that, but I was more making the point that he's not immune to bad moves. I think he's definitely a good GM but gets overrated by some.

As for those two specific moves, the Mcgee deal was horrible from the start. No one was paying him that and he had shown little outside of athleticism to that point. The Ross one isn't as bad and you can likely speak to it better, but I have a hard time believing anyone would offer him 11 mil this offseason.

[bondom34]

Ujiri has to be at the top of this list.
Teams are literally scared to make trades with him because he rips them off with regularity.

- The Melo trade to NY
- Getting 2 picks plus pieces for Andrea Bargnani
- Getting a 1st plus Norm Powell for Vasquez
- Getting Lou Williams and Bebe Nogueira for Salmons

You forgot to mention all the superstars he's drafted, traded for, or acquired from free agency, his many championship rings, his previous tenure as a great coach. I mean if you just took all the players he's acquired for the Toronto Raptors you'd get...

a realization that someone else acquired the guys who actually matter.

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

Nene as well, and Faried I believe was him.

[dalton749]

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

They definately believed McGee would evolve into more.

As far as Ross goes ... If you subtract his horrible November ... he has played very, very well this season and would easily be getting offers of 10 and 11 million per under the new Cap and the Cap to come. He's an outstanding shooter, who is playing very good D

I get that, but I was more making the point that he's not immune to bad moves. I think he's definitely a good GM but gets overrated by some.

As for those two specific moves, the Mcgee deal was horrible from the start. No one was paying him that and he had shown little outside of athleticism to that point. The Ross one isn't as bad and you can likely speak to it better, but I have a hard time believing anyone would offer him 11 mil this offseason.

As an rfa with a billion dollars to go around Ross would absolutely get the same offer. Teams like Indiana, Atlanta, Washington, New Orleans, Memphis would all probably be interested in a 2/3 wing that can play defence at hit 3s at a 40% clip for 11 mil.

[CoachD]

You forgot to mention all the superstars he's drafted, traded for, or acquired from free agency, his many championship rings, his previous tenure as a great coach. I mean if you just took all the players he's acquired for the Toronto Raptors you'd get...

a realization that someone else acquired the guys who actually matter.

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

Nene as well, and Faried I believe was him.

Nope Faried was re-signed by TC

[bondom34]

He's made some poor moves as well, such as signing Mcgee and Ross to those atrocious extensions.

Nene as well, and Faried I believe was him.

Nope Faried was re-signed by TC

Ah, my bad on that one, couldn't remember the timeline. He was Nene for sure though.

[CoachD]

Nene as well, and Faried I believe was him.

Nope Faried was re-signed by TC

Ah, my bad on that one, couldn't remember the timeline. He was Nene for sure though.

Yes he re-signed Nene - who was already making 10 million and outperforming his contract based on the market... and he resigned him for term and a modest increase of 3 million per. Is that a horrible deal?

[bondom34]

Nope Faried was re-signed by TC

Ah, my bad on that one, couldn't remember the timeline. He was Nene for sure though.

Yes he re-signed Nene - who was already making 10 million and outperforming his contract based on the market... and he resigned him for term and a modest increase of 3 million per. Is that a horrible deal?

It has been a pretty bad deal, 13 mil a year for an injury prone aging big man isn't good at all.

[CoachD]

Ah, my bad on that one, couldn't remember the timeline. He was Nene for sure though.

Yes he re-signed Nene - who was already making 10 million and outperforming his contract based on the market... and he resigned him for term and a modest increase of 3 million per. Is that a horrible deal?

It has been a pretty bad deal, 13 mil a year for an injury prone aging big man isn't good at all.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20 ... but at the time ... he had outperformed his deal - was NOT going to get a paycut on the open market, and term was needed to resign him.

That contract was also moved right away .... So it clearly didn't hurt his franchise.

[Doctor MJ]

Yes he re-signed Nene - who was already making 10 million and outperforming his contract based on the market... and he resigned him for term and a modest increase of 3 million per. Is that a horrible deal?

It has been a pretty bad deal, 13 mil a year for an injury prone aging big man isn't good at all.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20 ... but at the time ... he had outperformed his deal - was NOT going to get a paycut on the open market, and term was needed to resign him.

That contract was also moved right away .... So it clearly didn't hurt his franchise.

...for McGee.

McGee alone is a good enough reason to ask whether he knows what he's doing frankly.

[bondom34]

Yes he re-signed Nene - who was already making 10 million and outperforming his contract based on the market... and he resigned him for term and a modest increase of 3 million per. Is that a horrible deal?

It has been a pretty bad deal, 13 mil a year for an injury prone aging big man isn't good at all.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20 ... but at the time ... he had outperformed his deal - was NOT going to get a paycut on the open market, and term was needed to resign him.

That contract was also moved right away .... So it clearly didn't hurt his franchise.

They traded him for McGee, who they used a first to dump.

[CoachD]

It has been a pretty bad deal, 13 mil a year for an injury prone aging big man isn't good at all.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20 ... but at the time ... he had outperformed his deal - was NOT going to get a paycut on the open market, and term was needed to resign him.

That contract was also moved right away .... So it clearly didn't hurt his franchise.

...for McGee.

McGee alone is a good enough reason to ask whether he knows what he's doing frankly.

Anyone who is anyone in basketball has said McGee had a world of talent and just needed the right opportunity to develop. He is athletic, but braindead. I'm sure Masai would love to have that one back - but he's made plenty of other moves to overshadow that

[SF_Warriors]

Bob Myers at the Warriors... easily.

• Gets rid of Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut.. taking a gamble on Bogut's elbow and ankle injuries. (Even hiding the seriousness of the microfracture surgery Bogut had... to take the heat off the trade)
• Drafts Harrison Barnes (pick 7) along with Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green in the 2nd round of the same draft.
• Signs Steph Curry for the deal of a lifetime at only $12 million per year... against everyone elses better judgement because of his ankle injuries.
• Signs Andre Iguodala for less money than he was offered elsewhere. (Might have even been Andre's agent at one time)
• Signs Mo Speights,Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa.
• And most importantly... fires the head Coach Mark Jackson even though had what would be considered a successful season by Warriors standards...much to the laughter of most people and supporters in the NBA... who said it was a massive mistake.
• Signs Steve Kerr even though he has 0 coaching experience... again despite people saying it was a mistake.

Ends up building a championship team all in 5 years.

Yup..and a couple things to add:

He had to facilitate a trade in order to be able to sign andre. It was a ballsy move seeing as how they already had barnes and he took some heat from people saying it was not worth the 2 first rounders, or the 12 mill per yr contract. We all know how that turned out.

He got a lot of heat for the speights signing as well...3.5 mill is an absolute steal for that kind of production.

He took on richard jefferson's contract for the 30th pick which became ezeli. Gotta give props to the FO for willing to pony up the extra cash for a really late first rounder. Ezeli was a pivotal piece to that championship team.

Prior to the offseason where he signed livingston and bosa, he was able to improve the bench midseason by bringing in steve blake and jordan crawford to replace toney douglas. A very small and underrated move that allowed steph to rest a bit more end of season. Really shows his knack for identifying team weaknesses and ability to turn them into a strength.
Livingston and bosa are as solid a backup guard combo as there is.

And yes, some of the top GMs right now have built quality rosters, but have made poor coaching choices. Warriors FO is pretty good at identifying player and coaching personnel.

[Throwback24]

I would imagine Masai is in everyone's top 5?

[Doctor MJ]

Sure, hindsight is 20/20 ... but at the time ... he had outperformed his deal - was NOT going to get a paycut on the open market, and term was needed to resign him.

That contract was also moved right away .... So it clearly didn't hurt his franchise.

...for McGee.

McGee alone is a good enough reason to ask whether he knows what he's doing frankly.

Anyone who is anyone in basketball has said McGee had a world of talent and just needed the right opportunity to develop. He is athletic, but braindead. I'm sure Masai would love to have that one back - but he's made plenty of other moves to overshadow that

Right, the thing is thought that McGee was in his 4th year at the time and 24 years old, and to that point he still had a BBIQ on the same order as the bench he sat on when his team played best. But aside from the fact that to me it seemed really clear by that point he was incapable of learning, they didn't just take a chance on him, they acquired him right as he left the sexy rookie deal and so their acquisition of him meant committing big bucks for the guy.

But, I don't know the full story of what happened. It may not have been Ujiri's baby. I just know that while we're praising him for getting rid of Bargnani and Gay in Toronto, it's not like he doesn't have a history of creating his own Bargnani situation.

[Doctor MJ]

I would imagine Masai is in every Canadian's top 5?

Fixed that for ya.

(Sorry to be so mouthy here folks. Again not saying Masai's a bad GM, but this notion that he's a proven genius just isn't based on very much.)

[Texas Chuck]

He took on richard jefferson's contract for the 30th pick which became ezeli. Gotta give props to the FO for willing to pony up the extra cash for a really late first rounder. Ezeli was a pivotal piece to that championship team.

.

He's been really good, but this is a poor example. He wasn't doing this to get that pick--which has almost no value. It was done to get rid of Stephen Jackson and he had to eat Richard Jefferson's extra year to do so and got a very late pick. The value there isn't good as you can get a pick of that quality for cheaper and certainly could then.

Now you can arguing removing Jackson was a big part of starting a culture change and obviously props to him for nailing the pick and taking Ezeli, but that's a separate matter. That pick could easily have been what a 30th pick typically is and that's a guy who doesn't belong in an NBA rotation.

And in sheer terms of value the Warriors "lost" that deal. Of course that's highly overshadowed by all the smart moves he's made, but as a transactions nerd I had to weigh in.

[Texas Chuck]

I would imagine Masai is in every Canadian's top 5?

Fixed that for ya.

(Sorry to be so mouthy here folks. Again not saying Masai's a bad GM, but this notion that he's a proven genius just isn't based on very much.)

I think he's definitely a smarter than average GM. Definitely top a top 5 lock imo but also someone I would be reasonably happy about if my franchise hired him to run the show.