A shout out to Hennigan

[Bensational]

I just wanna acknowledge that the team he had a big hand in putting together is now playing well.

Vuc, Gordon, Ross, Fournier and Payton all started well. They’re all Hennigan holdovers. Augustin stepped up big for us a couple of times. Vogel has really grown as a coach and has put an offensively potent team on the floor.

Oladipo and Harris are having big seasons so far.

So, yeah, he was doing alright at his job. WeHam have taken it to the next level with a quality draft pick in Isaac (Hennigan likely would’ve made the same pick) and the best value signing in years with Simms, and some other good value vets.

Yes, Hennigan gave away good value guys like Harris and Oladipo for underwhelming returns. Yes, he signed poor players to bloated contracts. But, his vision for the talent in certain players is paying off.

I’m glad we’ve got WeHam now, I’ve grown to appreciate what they’re doing. But I also wanna acknowledge that Henny wasn’t the failure we thought he was.

[MagicMadness]

Yes. Hennigan definitely has a great eye for talent.

It might've taken an extra year or two to pay off, but here we are with the type of team we all envisioned from Day 1 of the Hennigan rebuild. And for that, I give him props.

[MAGICian619]

Agreed. I said this when we fired him: I can't wait to see this team win with Hennigan's players.

[Def Swami]

Things went south for Henningan as soon as ownership hired Skiles and traded Harris. They completely derailed his plan.

[darthcheech2000]

Agreed.

A very small part of me is worried that, if we keep it up, they win or are even considered for Exec of the Year...

[Nightman]

Amen. When he was fired, even though I knew it was necessary, I wasn't happy about it because he had a great eye for talent.

I think the biggest downfall of the team Hennigan assembled was that we had a conglomeration of "master of none" players who were solid and could put up 30 pts on any given night but weren't spacing the floor or playing lockdown defense. Harris and Oladipo were the odd men out, being ball-dominant players that hadn't proven to be great defenders or 3pt shooters, while Fournier was a proven shooter and Gordon was already looking like a great defender.

Of course, Dipo and Harris are both shooting lights out so far this year so it does make me wonder what could've been if Henny had been given time to let his "organic" talent grow. But the team we have now gels really well and Hennigan played a large part in it.

[Jameerthefear]

Nah Rob is a complete joke as a GM. Decent scout, terrible GM. That terrible Biz contract is going to hurt us.

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[magic321]

Nah Rob is a complete joke as a GM. Decent scout, terrible GM. That terrible Biz contract is going to hurt us.

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I do not agree. The majority of this team are his players and we are, by record, the best team in the NBA so far. It would point to his long term plan is working out.

[basketballRob]

Sabonis is doing well also.

[Skin]

I was a strong supporter up until the day he drafted Hezonja.

[j_n]

All things considered, Hennigan was a decent GM, terrific his first 3 season and terrible his next two, I understand that the bottom line is the best way to evaluate a Gm and the bottom line is that after 5 losing seasons he left us with no superstar and no clear direction so he had to go but there were many things beyond his control that simply didnt go his way and could have changed everything if they did.

I am mostly speaking of the lottery balls not going our way at all in the last 4 years, given the lottery probabilities we had based on our record, the odds of us not being in the top 3 in any of the last 4 years AND losing the Lakers pick were less than 20 to 1, if we had gotten lucky just once and landed a guy like Embiid, Porzingis or Kat than the entire story of Hennigan as a Gm would have been completely different.

Than again, its the NBA, where someone like Hennigan can make mostly good decisions and end up in no man's land while a guy like Otis Smith can fail his way into building a contender.

[axl_c_cool]

All things considered, Hennigan was a decent GM, terrific his first 3 season and terrible his next two, I understand that the bottom line is the best way to evaluate a Gm and the bottom line is that after 5 losing seasons he left us with no superstar and no clear direction so he had to go but there were many things beyond his control that simply didnt go his way and could have changed everything if they did.

I am mostly speaking of the lottery balls not going our way at all in the last 4 years, given the lottery probabilities we had based on our record, the odds of us not being in the top 3 in any of the last 4 years AND losing the Lakers pick were less than 20 to 1, if we had gotten lucky just once and landed a guy like Embiid, Porzingis or Kat than the entire story of Hennigan as a Gm would have been completely different.

Than again, its the NBA, where someone like Hennigan can make mostly good decisions and end up in no man's land while a guy like Otis Smith can fail his way into building a contender.

Agree completely, if we literally got #4 in 2015 we end up with Kristap and we end up with Payton/Oladipo/Fournier/Harris/Gordon/Porzingis/Vucevic. Hennigan did a good job here, just as others have said we sped up our rebuild and signed the wrong coach. I’m still optimistic with Hezonja and think the right Coach and development he’d be progressing really well. Rob deserves a shout out and props for the core he built


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[p0peye]

Rob didn't handle well FA negotiations (I can't fathom him to pull off Simmons signing) and made questionable trades in last two years.

That being said, it is not out of realm of possibility that both Harris and Ibaka trades were made in some part due to coach (Skiles & later Vogel) vision in order to provide them with players they needed (Skiles wanted different PG in Jenkins and didn't feel Harris was that valuable, while Vogel envisioned playing big).

With all his faults, I've always given props to Henny for his exceptional eye for finding talent under the radar (Vučević, Fournier, Harris, AG).

Insights and foresights indeed, at least when it comes to scouting.

PS. Firing Henny may have been the wake-up call for these guys on the team, sending clear message babysitting time is over. I am not sure improvement we are enjoying now would've happened this fast and to this degree without it.

[RookieStar]

I love Henny's draft picks. I am not a fan of his signings though. ( Biz )

[j-ragg]

Good eye for talent in the draft.

Maybe too inexperienced to handle free agent signings better, although DJ and Biz forgetting how to basketball when they got to Orlando didn’t help things for him.

It was obvious some things were out of his control in terms of player/coach acquisitions. Hope he gets a fair shake at his next stop.

[cedric76]

I was a strong supporter up until the day he drafted Hezonja.

Same here.

Same happened with 76ers, owner gave up too early on the rebuild

As soon as we hired Scott and start talking about play-off, Rob had to change his original plan.

[uraverage]

I think he got put in a bad position when the uppers wanted to make a playoff push before the pieces were ready. I question some of the trade returns, but at least he took swings when other GMs were tanking.


Another thought.... most believed that ibaka was a missing piece and Dipo was not worth 20+ million (probably wanted a max from orlando) at the time of the that trade.

[Last Guardian]

He was great until he was pushed to make the playoffs. Trading Oladipo for Ibaka went against everything he was trying to build and clearly wasn't his plan.

But his vet signings didn't help the team. But one could argue he wasn't trying to help the team win and was trying to get high picks while developing players.

No doubt he would have drafted Isaac too.

[Flannerz]

If he had an experience Director of Basketball Ops that would have helped him with free agent negotiations. He had a good few years and then went downhill after the Skiles hire (where we all think Martins interfered). Unfortunately he f***ed it all up last summer with the Ibaka trade and DJ and Biz's contracts). He did right the Ibaka trade by getting us Ross and a 1st rounder. I still think he can make a good GM, he just needed an experienced person to help him out in his first GM role.

[fendilim]

Thunder Name Rob Hennigan VP Of Insight & Foresight


not surprised.

I've always said this, we've never had the lottery luck to begin with, but Hennigan was solid at getting talents. Even trading Afflalo at his peak value for an unknown in Fournier.

TBH though, last year was on Vogel. AG at SF? Mario creating off the dribble? Biz and Vuc at the same time? I think Hennigan or was it Vogel who said during mid-season last year that they both agreed to the idea. I think Vogel should have disagreed with going big, he is the coach, he should have seen this coming.

His signings other than Biz was really bad. Jeff Green was understandable. A 30-year old athletic guy was offered a 1-year deal to sign with a lottery team. Its obvious that he'll get bigger money. He doesn't have job security for the next year and is stuck to play for a lotto team.