RealGM

How do you feel about the job Masai has done in 2024? This is just his last year, not his tenure.
Well actually let's go back to December 30, 2023 since that's when the rebuild officially began with the trading of OG one Adobe.

In:
IQ
RJ
Mogbo (NYK pick)
BB
Kelly O
Ochai
Walter (Ind pick)
2026 1st rounder
Carton
Davion
Shead
2025 High 2nd
Chomche
Battle
Bruno 2.0

Out:
OG
Precious
Flynn
Pascal
Koloko
Otto
Dennis
Thad
McDaniels
JFL
Johnny

Nothing has changed really. The Siakam and Bruce Brown saga looks worse now but everything else is status quo. Its too early to change approval rating so still a hard C. It all depends where they end up, if they finish bottom 5, moves to a B, if they finish 6-14 C- to D. If they make the play in...still C as we would be worse off than with a top 5 pick.

OG trade was a good one, Siakam trade was not. The McDaniels deal was very good asset acquisition. Bruce Brown is a question mark.

The very early returns on two of our second round picks (Mogbo, Shead) is pretty positive. They both have NBA skills and are both excellent athletes (Mogbo has excellent lateral quickness which really allows him to guard in space, Shead is about as fast as anyone in the league). Shead has surprised me with his playmaking. In a poor draft, potentially getting bench pieces in the second round is great. On top of that you've got Battle being signed who looks like he has some talent.

If Jakobe looks good then that's potentially some real finds from a crap draft. Again incredibly early but Shead, Battle, Mogbo, are 2nd, 5th, and 10th in PPG by rookies so far, most other rookies this year have been absolutely terrible.

I think that ups his overall grade for the year.

Somewhere from a C+ to a B-

Like the hard pivot and the assets we've acquired. Our draft seemed to go well. We have our first plus a high 2nd in 2025. Two firsts in 2026.

Looks like we're set to potentially turn it around.

I give him a B. The Siakim deal is what is keeping it from an A.

This thread is poorly labelled. If you are asking someone to consider his 2024 moves only, then it 100% is not the same as a current approval rating. Call the thread "Grade Masai's 2024 moves"

He has done OK with his moves this year. But asking for a current approval rating on Masai and disqualifying his disastrous February 2023 which really hurt our current rebuild, is a bit silly to me.

How about we wait until the season is done?

A-/B+

Siakam trade hasn't aged well. HOWEVER, Pacers don't look that great and I feel like they might regress further next season, leading to a lotto pick in another stacked draft.

The other moves have been a homerun - OG trade, Ochai trade, draftees, etc.

LoveMyRaps wrote:A-/B+

Siakam trade hasn't aged well. HOWEVER, Pacers don't look that great and I feel like they might regress further next season, leading to a lotto pick in another stacked draft.

The other moves have been a homerun - OG trade, Ochai trade, draftees, etc.

I don't think the siakam trade has aged either way yet really.

Ochai, Walter, the 2026 1st are the key components and who knows in them yet.

If he trades Poeltl for Edey (plus salary) right now, I'll give him an A.

For the moment, Poeltl is looking a lot better then Edey, plus he is screwing up our tank by playing too well. WTF, he can shoot free throws now? And Edey can't?

Swap them quickly, helps Memphis win now, helps us tank and win later.

Tank and Win Later is what this season was supposed to be all about.

Ok, still have to make that an A minus, as he did stupidly pick up BB's option.

It's a C. We don't have any high end prospects other than Barnes and Dick. I loosely put Dick in that category. However he's positioning himself well. If we get a top 10 lottery pick and develop bench talent that can eventually be placed in a package for a 3rd star we will be in a better position.

I don't see RJ as a long term piece and the jury's out on IQ. IQ needs to show he has game changing degrees of offense. However I do see Shead and Mogbo carving out roles as good role players. I still have Agbaji in the border zone between rotation player and end of the bench piece.

The only sure fire player we have here who will remain here over the next 5 years is Barnes. That is concerning since we've been a non-contender for 3 years and we just started a rebuild.

Intriguing prospects in Mogbo and Shaed. Way better than Flynn and Percious in terms of long term potential.

For a tanking season, I applaud Masai for not adding boring vets to the rotation (Bruno needs to go) Secure a top 5 pick and add to the core of BBQ.

If one of BBQ takes a leap, all the better. If anything I expect marginal improvement for them.

Encouraging results from the 2024 draft class considering it was supposed to be super weak. I do like the direction but still can't look past the ineptitude of the past 4 years because we got some potential role players.

Gotta land a top 5 pick to get that high level talent this team desperately needs to pair with Barnes. High level talent wins in this league so that's what will matter most here.

Scase wrote:How about we wait until the season is done?

Because historically we've been gauging the approval rating as the season progresses?!

Duffman100 wrote:

LoveMyRaps wrote:A-/B+

Siakam trade hasn't aged well. HOWEVER, Pacers don't look that great and I feel like they might regress further next season, leading to a lotto pick in another stacked draft.

The other moves have been a homerun - OG trade, Ochai trade, draftees, etc.

I don't think the siakam trade has aged either way yet really.

Ochai, Walter, the 2026 1st are the key components and who knows in them yet.

I think you forgot to add to the key components for the Raps, not paying Pascal $189M for the next 4 seasons.

I was down to a D on the FO going into the off-season but I think i'm now in that C+ range. They've seemed to hit on a bunch of rotation-level players which will help our depth tremdenously and as we saw for years (And throughout the league with other teams right now) that's not an unsignificant factor.

But I'll save the possible B or A grades until they actually get to playoff and/or championship level contention.

JB7 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:

LoveMyRaps wrote:A-/B+

Siakam trade hasn't aged well. HOWEVER, Pacers don't look that great and I feel like they might regress further next season, leading to a lotto pick in another stacked draft.

The other moves have been a homerun - OG trade, Ochai trade, draftees, etc.

I don't think the siakam trade has aged either way yet really.

Ochai, Walter, the 2026 1st are the key components and who knows in them yet.

I think you forgot to add to the key components for the Raps, not paying Pascal $189M for the next 4 seasons.

And foregoing a top pick in the next two excellent drafts in the process. Yeah, no.

Masai's superpower/fatal flaw is his patience. That's just who he is. He takes the attitude that GM's can't make something happen, they have to wait for opportunities. There was no opportunity available to us with Pascal, but there was with OG. The OG trade - gifting us RJ, IQ and Mogbo - has a chance to be forever legendary. (Better than the one-year rental which got us off DD's contract?) The Sacramento deal was an opportunity we jumped at. Getting Ochai and Kelly for a late first in a crappy draft was opportunistic. So ... a solid B.

And to combine the last 12 months with hitting on Scottie and Gradey and securing a top 10 pick in the upcoming draft is (or will be) elite GMing.

Caped Crusader wrote:

Scase wrote:How about we wait until the season is done?

Because historically we've been gauging the approval rating as the season progresses?!

But basically everything to judge him on right now, is based entirely on the performance of the players, 4 games is a bit on the early side for that.

Still stuck in no man's land.

And not only is Bruce Brown still here but he's also not playing.

Low picks have been pretty ok but it's only 4 games in, so hard to get too excited and at the end of the day, they don't really move the needle either way.

So my grade doesn't move much from offseason. Voted F on an instinct but could also give him D.