RealGM

If the Spurs end up making quick work of the Thunder and Durant does happen to leave....at what point do we put some heat on Presti? If this team goes from having 3 future HOF to absolutely none with zero rings its a damn shame. Scott Brooks lost his job, when would Presti lose his? Would you be in support of Presti leading on a new era if the team does split?

He should be gone either way.

I'll just say Presti would be out of work for about a week before someone hired him. You won't find more than 5 or so better GMs in the league.

Oh bondom stop it. He's a terrible GM if he's not drafting, he just is.

lol.

Yep, and he'd instantly find a new job, because clearly random internet people are better at being GMs than actual GMs. Look around the league and realize how much better off this team is.

Yeah, just like Scott Brooks, another Top 5 guy according to you, instantly found a new job. I heard he got 1000 offers a week after he was fired.

Oh and since you think he's a God walking among us: How about you tell us all about his great GM moves since 2012. Please, I wanna hear all about it since apparently I'm not getting the greatness in giving Sebastian Telfair a guaranteed contract or in signing Nazr Mohammed out of his grave. Great stuff.

I don't think Brooks is top 5?

And what have the Spurs done in that time frame outside a single signing? The Cavs? These amazing GMs everywhere must love having Presti make them look good. Every day I think, man what a genius Ernie Grunfeld is.

I don't think the statements 'he's a top five gm' and 'he deserves to be fired' are mutually exclusive. That said, I'd be more prone to wanting him fired if Russ and KD re-sign longterm. If they're gone then there's no gm I'd rather have.

Oh, and Scott got plenty of looks after he was fired so I don't know why that was even brought up?

bondom34 wrote:I don't think Brooks is top 5?

And what have the Spurs done in that time frame outside a single signing? The Cavs?

Added Kyle Anderson, Lamarcus Aldridge, and David West. Re-signed Patty Mills and Danny Green and won a championship?

Added Lebron James and Kevin Love plus a whole host of role players and made the finals?

What has Presti done since then?
Negative on court impact- Lost Harden, Reggie, and Martin, and added Dion, Enes and Singler.
Positive- added Steven and Robes
It's not just about the moves you make, it's also the ones you don't, and the spurs have avoided making bad moves and adding bad players. Singler, Dion, and Enes combine for 26 million dollars in salary and that's the difference between the Warriors/Spurs and us. Our top three all make similar amounts of money, but they don't have that dead weight. We could have went into this off season with the ability to add a max player if we hadn't committed meaningless dollars to Singler. Or we could have came into this season with a good bench if we hadn't traded for Dion, Enes, Singler, and DJ.

These amazing GMs everywhere must love having Presti make them look good. Every day I think, man what a genius Ernie Grunfeld is.

Does Ernie Grunfield's failure negate Presti's in any way? And if we remove the draft is Presti any better than Grunfield? The truth is Presti needs to prove he can add productive guys in other ways, otherwise why keep him around and draft 27th next year and not have picks this year or in 2018?

He made 1 or 2 great picks (maybe? Once you saw them in person maybe westbrook, harden, or serge were "great" picks- durant certainly wasnt. Too easy. If had pick 1 and yook durant then he gets credit)

I like the shots at both enes and dion waiters and i shouldnt have said only 2-3 great xraft picks because steven adams was (only thing close to saving the harden trade(though 2 picks could have gotten you into adams teritory))

All in all hes a pretty good gm. But patience needs to go out the window righg now for him to keep going. Make some rigt now moves if they let him keep going. Dwight, robin lopez/calderon. Those types.

Coeur wrote:He made 1 or 2 great picks (maybe? Once you saw them in person maybe westbrook, harden, or serge were "great" picks- durant certainly wasnt. Too easy. If had pick 1 and yook durant then he gets credit)

I like the shots at both enes and dion waiters and i shouldnt have said only 2-3 great xraft picks because steven adams was (only thing close to saving the harden trade(though 2 picks could have gotten you into adams teritory))

All in all hes a pretty good gm. But patience needs to go out the window righg now for him to keep going. Make some rigt now moves if they let him keep going. Dwight, robin lopez/calderon. Those types.

You just named 3 players worse than those on the team.

There's only one issue I have with Presti's management.

He's much more obssessive about finding the next 2011/12 James Harden than he is to find a two way wingman two start next to Westbrook and Durant taking pressure from them offensively and defensively, which created a major flaw in this roster imo as the years went. He pretty much only targeted Jeremy Lamb as a swingmas for this team.

Interesting turn of events since this thread was started. I thought the Spurs would kill us, though I also thought if we were going to have any chance against one of the two top teams they would be it. I think winning is masking the flaws we've dealt with all season right now and if we move on to the next round they may pop back up. We'll see if the current Kanter/Dion pairing is a matter of favorable matchup, fortunate timing, or them actually turning a corner. I hope they prove Presti right (and me wrong in the process), but much like the rest of the season I still can't help but be afraid the other shoe is about to drop.

spearsy23 wrote:Interesting turn of events since this thread was started. I thought the Spurs would kill us, though I also thought if we were going to have any chance against one of the two top teams they would be it. I think winning is masking the flaws we've dealt with all season right now and if we move on to the next round they may pop back up. We'll see if the current Kanter/Dion pairing is a matter of favorable matchup, fortunate timing, or them actually turning a corner. I hope they prove Presti right (and me wrong in the process), but much like the rest of the season I still can't help but be afraid the other shoe is about to drop.

Prior to the start of the 2nd round, thunder were 20:1 odds to win the title.

I thought that was the best odds out there. Westbrook/durrant are both top 5 players, you are never out of it with that, like when the spurs ran off the first 10 games of the playoffs, then lost 4 in a row to the thunder. Talent can really do it.

After a poor game one, OKC has really handled the Spurs. Duncan looks totally done vs the young legs of adams/kanter.

Has Donavan turned a corner here? Game 6 at home with a chance to knock out the "BEST" Spurs team of all time?

Or maybe this is just the year that everyone finally stayed healthy for the Thunder? (it seems every year since they last made the finals, that someone major has gotten hurt for the finals during the playoffs.)


As for Kanter/Waiters. Kanter has at least looked a bit better on defense this year(right?) and is an offensive force, what he can bring on the offensive side of the ball when Durrant/Westbrook get rest make him valuable.

I think Waiters is awful. But, only 6.6 shots per game, and 1.2 turnovers per game, THIS series. That is pretty impressive for him. Less shots, and less turnovers makes Waiters a more effective player, he also might know he is up for a contract soon... so... maybe he has finally gotten his head straight.

Kanter has been better than I expected. His defensive improvements have been solid. He still needs to keep working on it. The biggest improvement has been from Roberson. He shot 36% this year on corner 3s and 31% overall. He made a 6.5% improvement from last year. If he can do that again, to 38% next year he'd be an elite 3&D guy. I'm not expecting that, but Roberson being a solid 35% 3pt shooter and 40% from the corner doesn't seem unreasonable.

Yes, Roberson has been cold from 3 in the playoffs. However, should continue to be a better version of Thabo, when compared to the same age, for his whole career. Roberson should continue to develop into a very good role player.

Waiters knows that a good playoff showing can lead to a stupid team giving you a big contract. He's taking better shots and being a better version of himself so he can cash in. Then he will return to being garbage and we can only hope that is for another team.

Donovan needs to stick with the Adams/Kanter lineups. Not just against the Spurs, but going forward. There is not a team that it won't force to adjust. The Warriors might be able to exploit them with faster players on defense, but they won't have an answer for their size on the glass or when the Thunder have the ball. The Warriors got 10 offensive rebounds a game in the regular season and are getting 10.5 a night in the playoffs. Having both Kanter and Adams out there will limit their offensive possessions. If the Warriors are fine with a 6'8 and 6'7 PF and C with three 7 footers, including KD, on the floor then just post them up and enjoy the size advantage. Kanter and Adams are both good enough passing out of the post to take advantage if they send a help defender leaving someone open.