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I’m beginning to feel that Tommy Sheppard is something special. His tone here is so unlike most sports execs — it’s sincere, and genuinely feeling. And if you listen carefully, it’s tinged with the lingo and intonation of these players — a very subtle form of code switch, subtler than what you’ve seen Bill Clinton do, or even Obama do.

It looks to me now like TS is a HUGE asset in moving this thing forward — his keen eye in talent evaluation, his demonstrated willingness to put in the work, his clear vision, but also this ... his ability to connect with players, to get them to believe in HIM. (I guess it’s no insignificant detail that he was in the PR game at one point.)

And we’ve already seen ample evidence of his mojo.

Getting Bradley Beal to re-sign, when all the pundits said that that was a hopeless dream and when most players would have bolted.

Working that clever deal with Johnathan Williams, and getting him to stay in the fold.

Working that deal — yet to pay dividends — to get Justin Robinson on draft day.

I’d be willing to bet that his charm and subtle tenacity, along of course with his deep relationships across the sport, were a significant part of why the Spurs — out of 30 teams they might have swung a deal with — were willing to trade us the ginger bomber Bertāns.

And on and on and on ... nabbing Bryant — and then retaining him for below-market value ... persuading Ish to come back ... etc., etc.

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badinage wrote:I’m beginning to feel that Tommy Sheppard is something special. His tone here is so unlike most sports execs — it’s sincere, and genuinely feeling. And if you listen carefully, it’s tinged with the lingo and intonation of these players — a very subtle form of code switch, subtler than what you’ve seen Bill Clinton do, or even Obama do.

It looks to me now like TS is a HUGE asset in moving this thing forward — his keen eye in talent evaluation, his demonstrated willingness to put in the work, his clear vision, but also this ... his ability to connect with players, to get them to believe in HIM. (I guess it’s no insignificant detail that he was in the PR game at one point.)

And we’ve already seen ample evidence of his mojo.

Getting Bradley Beal to re-sign, when all the pundits said that that was a hopeless dream and when most players would have bolted.

Working that clever deal with Johnathan Williams, and getting him to stay in the fold.

Working that deal — yet to pay dividends — to get Justin Robinson on draft day.

I’d be willing to bet that his charm and subtle tenacity, along of course with his deep relationships across the sport, were a significant part of why the Spurs — out of 30 teams they might have swung a deal with — were willing to trade us the ginger bomber Bertāns.

And on and on and on ... nabbing Bryant — and then retaining him for below-market value ... persuading Ish to come back ... etc., etc.

It's his first year, so I will withhold judgment, but putting him in the special category based on what he has done so far seems questionable.

If you examine the Beal extension you can come away with the impression that he was was essentially throwing the Wizards a bone. Fact of the matter is that what he's done is essentially give the Wizards an extra year and that's about it.

The Justin Robinson story was debunked around here if I recall correctly, I am not giving him credit for something entirely based on speculation.

I'll also question the idea that Sheppard deserves credit for Williams, who is just one of many many US pros playing abroad desperate for a shot at the NBA. Of course he stuck around, it's not like he had any other options after leaving his Israel gig behind.

Sheppard does deserves credit for being in the right place at the right time in the Spurs and Lakers transactions, those were no doubt all about relationships he's build and cultivated.

He also did well reclaiming the second rounders Grunfeld wasted, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he committed $17 million to Miles, Thomas and Smith this season.

Aside from the fact that Thomas and Miles are just awful players at this point in their careers, exactly what was the strategic vision here, and as much as I appreciate Ish Smith's play I wonder what the point is of committing 2 years of near full MLE money to a 31 year old journey man that can't get more than 20 some minutes playing behind a complete stiff.

You can make a case that on balance, Sheppard has just been average and some would even argue that he's just been adequate given the choices he made in the draft.

queridiculo wrote:He also did well reclaiming the second rounders Grunfeld wasted, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he committed $17 million to Miles, Thomas and Smith this season.

Aside from the fact that Thomas and Miles are just awful players at this point in their careers, exactly what was the strategic vision here, and as much as I appreciate Ish Smith's play I wonder what the point is of committing 2 years of near full MLE money to a 31 year old journey man that can't get more than 20 some minutes playing behind a complete stiff.

You can make a case that on balance, Sheppard has just been average and some would even argue that he's just been adequate given the choices he made in the draft.

To be fair 3M of that 17M was dead money that was going to be used to buy out Howard anyhow. The mistake was shelling out a total of 9Mfor Miles when we could have saved 6M of that by merely buying out Howard for 3M.

Ish Smith at 6M was a good deal. And I don't have a problem with $1.7M on a gamble that Isaiah Thomas might have been a serviceable vet point guard.

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queridiculo wrote:He also did well reclaiming the second rounders Grunfeld wasted, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he committed $17 million to Miles, Thomas and Smith this season.

Aside from the fact that Thomas and Miles are just awful players at this point in their careers, exactly what was the strategic vision here, and as much as I appreciate Ish Smith's play I wonder what the point is of committing 2 years of near full MLE money to a 31 year old journey man that can't get more than 20 some minutes playing behind a complete stiff.

While there were plenty of reasons to question the move when it happened, the signing of Ish Smith to a 2yr,12 mil contract was one of the best moves made by TS last offseason, imo. Ish has brought oncourt leadership to a young team and has been the best Zards player on a number of nights.

The fact that IT starts ahead of him is insignificant. Ish averages more minutes than IT and always closes out tight games.

On top of that, Ish may be the only Zards player who has been healthy and available for every game. I have no doubt that he’ll be a valuable and competent backup to Wall next season, which is something that the Zards haven't had in several years.

Agree -- it's pretty simple: Ish is worth $6m/year. Just as it was worth a minimum salary to take/give a chance on/to IT.

As to trading Howard for Miles, it was financially wasteful even if we wanted Miles for some reason: he was about to be cut, obviously. But bringing in a 1-year vet... not a big deal.

Hey, no one wants to go young any more than I do! But as it is we've had 10 guys play for us this year who are either rookies or else are 22 or under.

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Assuming we're in playoff contention at some point, is there anyone who doesn't believe John's playing this season?

Yeah, me too....

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Hmm...

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Illmatic12 wrote:Hmm...

Read on Twitter

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You and I are thinking the same thing.....

I'm at the point now where I don't want to see any more John Wall videos. It just makes me mad that he's not playing.

I think once the insurance for sure kicks in and there is about 30-20 games left and we are still a couple games out of 8 . That's when we see John.

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nate33 wrote:I'm at the point now where I don't want to see any more John Wall videos. It just makes me mad that he's not playing.

Yep. Can’t quite figure out the plan. Are we tanking? Then why play Beal 38 mins per game? Are we going for a playoff spot? Then why play IT?

With Wall playing 5 on 5 and training at full speed, why not play him?

gambitx777 wrote:I think once the insurance for sure kicks in and there is about 30-20 games left and we are still a couple games out of 8 . That's when we see John.

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It's been over 41 games. The insurance has kicked in.

I think he's gonna be on a minutes restriction per game and total . So they probably don't wanna toss John in to early cuz the dong wanna blow his minutes Incase we make z play off run

nate33 wrote:

gambitx777 wrote:I think once the insurance for sure kicks in and there is about 30-20 games left and we are still a couple games out of 8 . That's when we see John.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using RealGM mobile app

It's been over 41 games. The insurance has kicked in.

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nate33 wrote:

gambitx777 wrote:I think once the insurance for sure kicks in and there is about 30-20 games left and we are still a couple games out of 8 . That's when we see John.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using RealGM mobile app

It's been over 41 games. The insurance has kicked in.

I think we'll see him first game after the all-star break. It's an optimistic guess of course, but everythings leading up to it and he even said "we'll see him soon".

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