PAXON'S TOP 10 MISTAKES !!! LIST EM

[Cliff Levingston]

1. Not trading for Kevin Garnett
2. Not trading for Kobe Bryant
...
9. Not trading for a superstar

11. Not mediating a peace treaty between the U.S. and Al-Queda

How do you propose he get this done? Threaten their lives with a .38? Cause Cliff Levingston remembers hearing:

- Pax offered Deng, Chandler and #2 pick in '06 for KG, but McHale wasn't ready to deal him.
- Pax offered anyone the Lakers want for Kobe, but Kupchak/Buss weren't ready to deal him.

[topper09]

[quote="Shill4Tyrus24"][/quote]

Ever stop and think which players Paxon threw in that deal? If he didn't want to give up Deng for Bryant in a deal? (Which is a moronic move to begin with), what did he not want to give up to get Garnett?

[NLK]

I feel like I'm in english class here

you'd flunk history too......

touche'

[kyrv]

Dude, bash away at the GM, but at least spell his name right. The reason I had to fix your other thread names were spelling issues.

.......

Overall, I think the fundamental problem with the team is, was and always will be ownership.

Paxson's primary mistake has been taking the philosophy of winning with defense and rebounding to an extreme. By drafting and acquiring so many defense and rebounding specialists, he created a team that is too unbalanced to be competitive on a continual basis.

I personally think a lot of the individuals on this team would look a lot better in the right situation.

That would be a good summary.

I do consider the Tyrus drafting and then not playing him (trading Aldridge and passing on Roy and Gay) to be a huge mistake.

[richard]

you spelled paxson's name wrong.

as far as garnett, minnesota wanted a young big man in return. who would they rather have, thomas, or a proven stud in al jefferson? plus kg would get to play with pierce, who is much better than anything the bulls have. easy deal for mchale.

and kobe never wanted to be traded, he was just throwing a tantrum at management and ownership. there was no deal to be made.

[topper09]

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That would be a good summary.

I do consider the Tyrus drafting and then not playing him (trading Aldridge and passing on Roy and Gay) to be a huge mistake.

Great there's some more.

Paxon is not logical, he lives in his own little fantasy world.

[ice9]

Awful, awful list.

There have been only a few bad moves

1) Signing Wallace (although JR appears to have his hand in it)
2) Trading Chandler (JR involvement again? He wouldn't be the same player he is in NO either way)
3) Thabo over Brewer
4) Waiting too long to fire Skiles (see Chandler as an example, we've sacrificed too much talent for Skiles type guys). Also, getting a crappy interim coach (JR not allowing him to sign new coach while Skiles still getting paid?)

[topper09]

you spelled paxson's name wrong.

as far as garnett, minnesota wanted a young big man in return. who would they rather have, thomas, or a proven stud in al jefferson? plus kg would get to play with pierce, who is much better than anything the bulls have. easy deal for mchale.

Ok.. maybe Garnett was a bit of an over shoot. What about Kobe, who was licking his chops to come to Chicago?

My point is simple. Paxson is a horrible GM.

[sonny]

Ever stop and think which players Paxon threw in that deal? If he didn't want to give up Deng for Bryant in a deal? (Which is a moronic move to begin with),

Is it moronic when Kobe states he will veto any trade that has him not playing with Deng?

Reports later had him trading Deng+Gordon for Kobe but Kobe rejected.

Even if one thinks that Kupchak/Buss had no plans on dealing Kobe, the fact remains that it was pretty much impossible to get him.

what did he not want to give up to get Garnett?

He wanted to give up a lot for KG, but he wasn't available at the time. The draft of 06 he wanted to give up Tyson+Deng+#2.

According to KC or Sam Smith his offer this past summer was better than Boston's

[DuckIII]

Any criticism that starts with "not trading for" should be ignored. None of us have any idea what was offered, demanded, or rejected.

For my own list:

1. Trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown.
2. Trading away Aldridge.
3. Taking Thabo over Brewer
4. Releasing Corie Blount the day after he could sign on with another team for the playoffs.

And thats pretty much it. If I really wanted to stretch it, I'd add drafting Gordon over Iggy. But that one would really be nitpicking.

[mr.ankle]

Any criticism that starts with "not trading for" should be ignored. None of us have any idea what was offered, demanded, or rejected.

For my own list:

1. Trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown.
2. Trading away Aldridge.
3. Taking Thabo over Brewer
4. Releasing Corie Blount the day after he could sign on with another team for the playoffs.

And thats pretty much it. If I really wanted to stretch it, I'd add drafting Gordon over Iggy. But that one would really be nitpicking.

I still think Picking Gordon over Iggy was the Right Decision for this team .

[topper09]

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I still think Picking Gordon over Iggy was the Right Decision for this team .

I agree too as Gordon's ability to close a game or be the go-to-guy in a game winning situation is very rare to find.

[GRADEN]

num 1-10 Trading Aldridge for Tyrus and VK.

the rest is just speculation. 2 to tango... here we made THIS happen

[richard]

paxson's mistakes are in his trades.

- getting garbage for jamal crawford. you could say addition by subtraction, but look at the long term impact. we still don't have a tall shooting guard. adrian griffin and thabo both suck.

- getting garbage for tyson chandler. he traded him at the wrong time when his value was low and got crap back.

getting nothing for jr smith. see a pattern here? he keeps giving young players away and replaces them with guys on the decline.

[sonny]

The Crawford trade resulted in both short and long term gains.

Short term:

Got vets such as Pike, Griffin and Othella who were huge that 04-05 season

Long Term:

Freed up a ton of cap space especially with us sending JYD's contract out. What we did with that space is the problem

[topper09]

The Crawford trade resulted in both short and long term gains.

Short term:

Got vets such as Pike, Griffin and Othella who were huge that 04-05 season

Long Term:

Freed up a ton of cap space especially with us sending JYD's contract out. What we did with that space is the problem

Ya.. To get who... BEN WALLACE !!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH

[NLK]

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I still think Picking Gordon over Iggy was the Right Decision for this team .

What about picking Deng over Iggy? Because Deng was #7, and Iggy was #9. Iguodala is more of a playmaking SF than LD is. To me, that is my gripe I'd make toward management/coaching staff. And the Thabo over Brewer. Those two draftings hurt us.

Even though I'm soured on Big Ben, him,Tyson Chandler, etc. additions blah blah blah, I'm ok with! Tyson wasn't going to work out here in Chicago. He didn't have a independent work ethic, something management & the coaching staff see a in most of our players.

[Cliff Levingston]

Cliff Levingston prefers not to focus on hindsight. There were plenty of good reasons to sign Wallace and trade Tyson and other decisions he made. The only obvious mistake Pax has made (to Cliff Levingston) was re-signing Nocioni and then signing Joe Smith.

The price for Nocioni was higher than he was worth at the time and higher than we should be paying for a guy who's pegged to come off the bench given how we plan/planned on spending ~$10+ mil per year on 3 other guys in the near future and already have a guy making $15mil per year. If he had as much value as his contract worth says he did then he could've fetched a decent return via a sign and trade.

However, that's acceptable in isolation. But then he signs Joe Smith for $5mil per year as well. Everyone and their pet snake knew that Skiles (and by extension, Boylan) would favor Joe Smith over Tyrus/Noah/Gray, and with Wallace and Nocioni already around, you further bury your lottery picks on the bench.

This series of moves signals indecision (or stupidity) as to what direction we're trying to go as a team. We're either a team that's still developing it's young talent while also being pretty good, or we're ready to compete for a championship. Since it was pretty obvious even before the season started that we're not a championship team, we should be looking to develop the talented young bigs we have.

As a result, we're wallowing in mediocrity right now and hurting the development of some guys that might be able to help us make a push toward the championship in the next couple of years.

Cliff Levingston's hope is that Reinsdorf had too big a hand in this decision, wanting to be able to make it a little further in the playoffs in effort to make a little more money. If that's the case, then Cliff Levingston really wishes that he'd let Pax do his job and build the team 100% how he wants to. If that's not the case, then the gleam on Pax is gone to Cliff Levingston.

[bullzman23]

Waiving Corie Blount! That pissed the hell out of me. It was also kinda mean (probably unintentionally) because he waived him like the day after that deadline for be eligible to make a playoff roster.

[transplant]

Any criticism that starts with "not trading for" should be ignored. None of us have any idea what was offered, demanded, or rejected.

For my own list:

1. Trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown.
2. Trading away Aldridge.
3. Taking Thabo over Brewer
4. Releasing Corie Blount the day after he could sign on with another team for the playoffs.

And thats pretty much it. If I really wanted to stretch it, I'd add drafting Gordon over Iggy. But that one would really be nitpicking.

Ah! Finally a list I can relate to.

As for #1, I was fine with trading Chandler because I didn't think you could start Chandler and Wallace together and because Chandler was way overpriced for a backup. I wasn't thrilled with getting PJ, but then became enthralled with the idea of what Paxson might do with the big expiring contract. When nothing was done with PJ's contract, I was ticked. We now know that Paxson operates under an "absolutely no LT" constraint. With this in mind, it's clear that Paxson had to trade Chandler and that he had to get an expiring contract. Given this and the fact that Paxson needed a starting PF, he probably did as well as he could possibly have done.

Unfortunately, the more time that passes, the more #2 and #3 ring true.

#4 was unquestionably bad form and did no good for management's reputation among vet players (though it hasn't seemed to had a concrete negative effect). I've never heard any explanation for this uncharacteristic blunder, so Pax should be thrashed for this one.

I would add to your list that Paxson actually tried to sign Eddy Curry to a long-term contract, and but for Curry's funky heart, he'd still be here.