RealGM

Long overdue, squandered almost the entire haul he got from the AD and Jrue trades, terrible roster building philosophy, while Zion is to blame in all of his misfortune, Griffin simply build terrible non-fitting rosters around him.

does this signal the end of Zion in NOLA? Does the NBA gift NOLA another #1 pick like they did after CP3 trade and the AD trade? Do the Pelicans squander a 4th franchise player's career? So many questions

It seems like it was just time in New Orleans for Griff, but they had a lot of bad injury luck.

Zion was supposed to be a generational talent, but he struggled to stay on the floor
Lonzo had a similar skillset to Jrue, but couldn't stay healthy
Ingram was never the best fit with Zion, but he developed nicely.

They were creative in the fringes getting McCollum, had some nice runs. But this is a treadmill team heading in the wrong direction.

GMs, like coaches, have skill sets that add value at different points of a team's development. Griffin is great at managing egos and putting the finishing touches on a competitive roster, but he doesn't trust the draft or young players in general. Once AD asked out, it was going to be a bumpy road.

Zion's health obviously didn't help, but he didn't value flexibility nearly enough for a team in the Pelicans position. There were too many times where he'd sign or extend vets who turned out to be poor fits.

The Pels next hire is going to be important for that organization.

They need to hire a new medical staff too

Godaddycurse wrote:They need to hire a new medical staff too

They've redone their medical staff like 3 times in the last decade. They cursed.

I always felt like Griffin was yet another one of the guys whose career was made riding LeBron's greatness. He made a bunch of trades with the Cavs, who had a lot of assets at hand, and built what in the end was an amazing squad but that unfortunately had to cross path with the greatest team ever. Yet, I think each trade was done after getting some hit and passive aggressive tweets and comments from LeBron, never something he fully constructed. In NOLA he basically spent all the assets he acquired the same way as in Cleveland. Unfortunately, Zion was unable to put the team in his back, and Griffin was exposed.

https://bsky.app/profile/fearthebrown.bsky.social/post/3lms55efj522d

Idek what Zion's value is at this point. Very talented but can't stay healthy, in shape and has all this drama with romantic partners following him around

He has drafted well of late, but based on what Langdon has done in New Orleans, I'd say Griffin doesn't really deserve the credit, nor another job *leading* a front office.

This at least makes sense timing-wise. (as opposed to Memphis/Denver).

Early in the offseason. Plenty of time to get a new guy in and set before actual moves take place in 2-3 months from now.

Joey Two Phones appears to have an inside track

There’s really no reason to believe Dumars will be better, or even equal, to Griffin. I love Joe the player, and he had the touch when rebuilding Detroit in the early 2000’s, but he made poor decision after poor decision for his last seven or eight years as GM.

ORL welcomes Griff after watching Sleepy Weltman skip every trade deadline and the one time he stirs in the summer, he overpays a solid, older version of Suggs rather than address any glaring needs like playmaking...now, Cory Joseph, an actual PG, is showing what happens to an offense with even a mediocre guy that knows what a PG is has the ball in his hands.

IF not ORL...I do miss Griff on Sirius NBA talk radio. He was insightful and seemed to give honest takes on players and situations.

Texas Chuck wrote:Joey Two Phones appears to have an inside track

Which is insane.

Joe Dumars isn't a good pick, he's a relic from older era and he wasn't very successful post early 2000s Pistons where he lucked into Billups and Rasheed TBH.

Mavrelous wrote:Joe Dumars isn't a good pick, he's a relic from older era and he wasn't very successful post early 2000s Pistons where he lucked into Billups and Rasheed TBH.

Agree Dumars isn't a good pick. Dumars had an excellent record as DETs GM until his assistant, John Hammond, left to become the GM of MIL in 2007 -- I don't think that was a coincidence.

Dumars seems to fall ass backwards in to new roles around the NBA

They fired Griffin, only to replace him with a dollar store Masai. Was Troy Weaver not available?

The Murray trade wasn't ideal even if he got healthy and I believe they held onto Ingram too late, but overall Griffin got screwed by Zion and injuries here, it works out ok for him since he'll probably be hired somewhere else.

tmorgan wrote:There’s really no reason to believe Dumars will be better, or even equal, to Griffin. I love Joe the player, and he had the touch when rebuilding Detroit in the early 2000’s, but he made poor decision after poor decision for his last seven or eight years as GM.

He also drafted Darko. Any other decision there and that Detroit team probably gets more than one championship.