The Ringer: Top 5 NBA Executives and Coaches

[GQ Hot Dog]

yeah those definitely seem like the only two possibilities....

What else accounts for willfully ignoring the league's most successful franchise of the last decade? People trying to wish the Warriors decline into existence without any rational basis for it being so.

Well of course many of us want them to decline. We are fans of teams competing with them. That doesn't mean we have no integrity.

And believe me nobody is ignoring them. We just don't have your myopic focus on them, which again seems really reasonable.

You seem to feel persecuted here and I assure you the Warriors aren't victims of some conspiracy of hate. It's going to be okay.

Reread what I wrote, I said those who can admit to wishing their decline into existence have integrity. It's totally understandable for a rival fan to do so.

Those without integrity are the ones trying to undermine the Warriors success over the last decade by claiming it was all luck or some such BS. We've achieved what we did through great drafting, great FA signings and great coaching. You don't go to the Finals out of the stacked WC 5 years in a row without all those things and I don't think it should be too much for a fan of another team to acknowledge.

It shouldn't be hard for writers at The Ringer to acknowledge either but here we are.

[NY 567]

Masai number 1 executive for sure, Nurse number 1 coach? Nah, I doubt it, he's probably top 5 tough. He can thank Fred Van Vleet for that perspective though, if he doesn't break out of that brutal playoff slump and the Raptors lose to the Bucks, no one is talking about Nurse as even an average coach.

[bongmarley]

Masai number 1 executive for sure, Nurse number 1 coach? Nah, I doubt it, he's probably top 5 tough. He can thank Fred Van Vleet for that perspective though, if he doesn't break out of that brutal playoff slump and the Raptors lose to the Bucks, no one is talking about Nurse as even an average coach.

What about this year? Nurse has a team where a lot of people say they wouldn’t make playoffs to the 3rd best record with a ton of injuries. THat has to count for better then just average as you say

[GQ Hot Dog]

Your team just traded for Andrew Wiggins and then finished dead last, somehow doing significantly worse than the Knicks or Cavs, and you think your coach and/or team executive should be ranked top 5?

Myers gets exec of the year twice in the last 5 years and yet somehow he's not top 5?

Lawrence Frank is top 5 even though everyone knows that Jerry West is the decision maker in the org?

Daryl Morey is 2nd presiding over a capped out roster of players that have never and will never get over the hump and he's traded away 5 of his team's next 7 1st round picks?

These lists are mindless garbage.

Lawrence Frank should get very little credit for Kawhi. There was no recruitment at all.... Kawhi basically had his mind made up: Clippers or Lakers. He just wanted to play in his hometown and that's been consistent since he forced his way out of San Antonio. And it's debatable whether the Lakers even had a chance for a couple reasons: (a) Kawhi not wanting to team up with Lebron & (b) Steve Ballmer depositing untold millions into Uncle Dennis' (a banking executive) off-shore bank accounts.

The main credit I would give Lawrence Frank is/was accumulating the assets to allow OKC to shake down the Clips to acquire Paul George - one of the all-stars that Kawhi wanted to team with. PG13 or not, I still think Kawhi is going to the Clippers, hell or high water.

My favorite exec on this list is Presti because he Billy King-ed both the Clippers and the Rockets, two rival orgs. Everyone knows by now not to get Billy King-ed yet he did it twice in the same freakin offseason!

And since Presti did that, how do they have Frank and Morey on the list too? Morey took a bigger chance because Westbrook is a lot shakier next to Harden than George is next to Kawhi but it's still two franchises that mortgaged their futures in the most reckless way possible. Neither belong on a top 5 list.

[Jabroni Lames]

Myers gets exec of the year twice in the last 5 years and yet somehow he's not top 5?

Lawrence Frank is top 5 even though everyone knows that Jerry West is the decision maker in the org?

Daryl Morey is 2nd presiding over a capped out roster of players that have never and will never get over the hump and he's traded away 5 of his team's next 7 1st round picks?

These lists are mindless garbage.

Lawrence Frank should get very little credit for Kawhi. There was no recruitment at all.... Kawhi basically had his mind made up: Clippers or Lakers. He just wanted to play in his hometown and that's been consistent since he forced his way out of San Antonio. And it's debatable whether the Lakers even had a chance for a couple reasons: (a) Kawhi not wanting to team up with Lebron & (b) Steve Ballmer depositing untold millions into Uncle Dennis' (a banking executive) off-shore bank accounts.

The main credit I would give Lawrence Frank is/was accumulating the assets to allow OKC to shake down the Clips to acquire Paul George - one of the all-stars that Kawhi wanted to team with. PG13 or not, I still think Kawhi is going to the Clippers, hell or high water.

My favorite exec on this list is Presti because he Billy King-ed both the Clippers and the Rockets, two rival orgs. Everyone knows by now not to get Billy King-ed yet he did it twice in the same freakin offseason!

And since Presti did that, how do they have Frank and Morey on the list too? Morey took a bigger chance because Westbrook is a lot shakier next to Harden than George is next to Kawhi but it's still two franchises that mortgaged their futures in the most reckless way possible. Neither belong on a top 5 list.

Presti also had a chance to build a super dynasty with 3 MVPs in his stable and he fumbled that badly, so any good he does now is really just trying to salvage his reputation at this point.

[GQ Hot Dog]

Lawrence Frank should get very little credit for Kawhi. There was no recruitment at all.... Kawhi basically had his mind made up: Clippers or Lakers. He just wanted to play in his hometown and that's been consistent since he forced his way out of San Antonio. And it's debatable whether the Lakers even had a chance for a couple reasons: (a) Kawhi not wanting to team up with Lebron & (b) Steve Ballmer depositing untold millions into Uncle Dennis' (a banking executive) off-shore bank accounts.

The main credit I would give Lawrence Frank is/was accumulating the assets to allow OKC to shake down the Clips to acquire Paul George - one of the all-stars that Kawhi wanted to team with. PG13 or not, I still think Kawhi is going to the Clippers, hell or high water.

My favorite exec on this list is Presti because he Billy King-ed both the Clippers and the Rockets, two rival orgs. Everyone knows by now not to get Billy King-ed yet he did it twice in the same freakin offseason!

And since Presti did that, how do they have Frank and Morey on the list too? Morey took a bigger chance because Westbrook is a lot shakier next to Harden than George is next to Kawhi but it's still two franchises that mortgaged their futures in the most reckless way possible. Neither belong on a top 5 list.

Presti also had a chance to build a super dynasty with 3 MVPs in his stable and he fumbled that badly, so any good he does is really just trying to salvage his reputation at this point.

Presti's big fumble is in not having the foresight to see that the trajectory of the league was moving toward skilled guards like Harden and away from low skilled bigs like Ibaka. If money was the stumbling block Presti couldn't overcome being in a small market which is understandable, for him to have paid Ibaka instead of Harden was unconscionable.

[Doctor MJ]

Any list about GMs or coaches that doesn't include LeBron or Rich Paul is invalid.

These were Top lists, which means you’re disqualified if you acquire Rajon Rondo at any point in the 2010s.


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[DarkXaero]

Pretty terrible lists imo.

[Jabroni Lames]

My favorite exec on this list is Presti because he Billy King-ed both the Clippers and the Rockets, two rival orgs. Everyone knows by now not to get Billy King-ed yet he did it twice in the same freakin offseason!

And since Presti did that, how do they have Frank and Morey on the list too? Morey took a bigger chance because Westbrook is a lot shakier next to Harden than George is next to Kawhi but it's still two franchises that mortgaged their futures in the most reckless way possible. Neither belong on a top 5 list.

Presti also had a chance to build a super dynasty with 3 MVPs in his stable and he fumbled that badly, so any good he does is really just trying to salvage his reputation at this point.

Presti's big fumble is in not having the foresight to see that the trajectory of the league was moving toward skilled guards like Harden and away from low skilled bigs like Ibaka. If money was the stumbling block Presti couldn't overcome being in a small market which is understandable, for him to have paid Ibaka instead of Harden was unconscionable.

The saddest thing about not paying Harden is that his max contract quickly became a massive underpay when the cap spiked, and OKC could have had him locked into one more year than the Rockets, at way below market.

The other big mistake was not getting rid of Scott Brooks early enough and then compounding that problem by hiring a rookie NBA coach in Billy Donovan to coach MVP caliber players. Presti still hasn’t hired an elite coach in his GM career, which completely wastes the talent he’s able to accumulate.

[iamworthy]

Any list about GMs or coaches that doesn't include LeBron or Rich Paul is invalid.

These were Top lists, which means you’re disqualified if you acquire Rajon Rondo at any point in the 2010s.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

Damn, that's cold.

[prefontaine]

What else accounts for willfully ignoring the league's most successful franchise of the last decade? People trying to wish the Warriors decline into existence without any rational basis for it being so.

Well of course many of us want them to decline. We are fans of teams competing with them. That doesn't mean we have no integrity.

And believe me nobody is ignoring them. We just don't have your myopic focus on them, which again seems really reasonable.

You seem to feel persecuted here and I assure you the Warriors aren't victims of some conspiracy of hate. It's going to be okay.

Reread what I wrote, I said those who can admit to wishing their decline into existence have integrity. It's totally understandable for a rival fan to do so.

Those without integrity are the ones trying to undermine the Warriors success over the last decade by claiming it was all luck or some such BS. We've achieved what we did through great drafting, great FA signings and great coaching. You don't go to the Finals out of the stacked WC 5 years in a row without all those things and I don't think it should be too much for a fan of another team to acknowledge.

It shouldn't be hard for writers at The Ringer to acknowledge either but here we are.

Yeah I'm 100% with you. Sure we had a crap season this season, but we didn't have 2/3 of our main stars and we jettisoned a whole bunch of our team.

You can't just ignore what is arguably the best or second best 5 year run of any team in history.

[jlokine]

Celtics top 5 coach top 5 gm top 5 player under 25...not too shabby

but you hope ainge does something with his assets.. right now it's starting to feel like he had poor asset management when he stock piled so many picks but didnt use them to get a big name.. it'll seem that way if he doesnt end up getting deep into playoffs.

[The Warrior]

This made me realize that whoever owns the Raps should be getting a lot of credit but I don't even know who it is. Seems to be a group of people from what I just read by googling, but whoever is the managing owner who made call on the Masai and Nurse hires should be better known and get his due credit.

The Raptors are owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chaired by Larry Tanenbaum. MLSE happens to be run by Rogers Communications (also own the Blue Jays) and Bell Communications. These two corporations own multiple assets and control the majority of the media content.

The person who deserves credit for bringing in Masai Ujiri is none other than Tim Leiweke, sharing a similar philosophy and mindset of having a winner's mentality. Leiweke left MLSE in 2015 but set us up for success despite his short stint and it was evident we were in good hands with Ujiri. It came full circle when Ujiri said "believe in this city, believe in yourselves" most recently. I remember Leiweke talking about championships and turning the Raptors into contenders as soon as he arrived when Bargnani was still the cornerstone.

There was an immediate shift in culture when Leiweke became President and CEO of MLSE that has really shaped the franchise and has been a staple of our organization ever since. He left before seeing all the fruits of his labor come together, but he in large part deserves a huge amount of the credit.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[monopoman]

They have vastly overrated Nurse, call me when Nurse wins 4+ championships or something then we might be able to talk about him being the best coach in the NBA. This article is 100% recency bias and if they would have lost in the Finals to the Warriors it likely would have knocked the Raptors either off the list or put them much lower.

Nurse is a good coach, but there are coaches still in the NBA that have proved far more than he ever has.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

Right now, they probably are ranked correctly.

[YogurtProducer]

They have vastly overrated Nurse, call me when Nurse wins 4+ championships or something then we might be able to talk about him being the best coach in the NBA. This article is 100% recency bias and if they would have lost in the Finals to the Warriors it likely would have knocked the Raptors either off the list or put them much lower.

Nurse is a good coach, but there are coaches still in the NBA that have proved far more than he ever has.

But he didn’t lose, so what’s the point of pretending he did? “If he would’ve lost he would be less good” no **** Sherlock.

[YogurtProducer]

Well of course many of us want them to decline. We are fans of teams competing with them. That doesn't mean we have no integrity.

And believe me nobody is ignoring them. We just don't have your myopic focus on them, which again seems really reasonable.

You seem to feel persecuted here and I assure you the Warriors aren't victims of some conspiracy of hate. It's going to be okay.

Reread what I wrote, I said those who can admit to wishing their decline into existence have integrity. It's totally understandable for a rival fan to do so.

Those without integrity are the ones trying to undermine the Warriors success over the last decade by claiming it was all luck or some such BS. We've achieved what we did through great drafting, great FA signings and great coaching. You don't go to the Finals out of the stacked WC 5 years in a row without all those things and I don't think it should be too much for a fan of another team to acknowledge.

It shouldn't be hard for writers at The Ringer to acknowledge either but here we are.

Yeah I'm 100% with you. Sure we had a crap season this season, but we didn't have 2/3 of our main stars and we jettisoned a whole bunch of our team.

You can't just ignore what is arguably the best or second best 5 year run of any team in history.

I will ignore it. If you guys don’t luck into KD you might have one ring, one finals loss, and possibly that’s it.

Your most recent transaction was trading an all star in D Russ for Andrew Wiggins and you haven’t hit a draft pick in like 7 years. A main guy (West) in making those decisions is now gone.

Curry/Klay/Wiggins/Draymond don’t scare people as much as prime KD, prime Curry, Prime Klay, and prime Draymond (plus Iggy and whoever else).

Again, if it wasn’t for KD, you could be a one time champion. You deserve no more respect than any other one time champion because as far as anyone is concerned, your KD titles mean nothing to how your team is now, and it means nothing to Kerr or Myers as HC’s or GM’s.

[monopoman]

They have vastly overrated Nurse, call me when Nurse wins 4+ championships or something then we might be able to talk about him being the best coach in the NBA. This article is 100% recency bias and if they would have lost in the Finals to the Warriors it likely would have knocked the Raptors either off the list or put them much lower.

Nurse is a good coach, but there are coaches still in the NBA that have proved far more than he ever has.

But he didn’t lose, so what’s the point of pretending he did? “If he would’ve lost he would be less good” no **** Sherlock.

My point is they would have whoever won as the #1 option here if Kerr won it they would be like Kerr top Coach even with this rough season.

So enjoy the #1 spot but if Nurse doesn't win it this year he will fall rapidly if they do their top 5 for the 2020-2021 season. My point was I like looking at a full career not just basing it on "Well he won last year so he's the best herp derp." Poppovich has proven he is an all-time great NBA coach and therefore if we are doing best coaches he is my #1 easily.

[prefontaine]

Reread what I wrote, I said those who can admit to wishing their decline into existence have integrity. It's totally understandable for a rival fan to do so.

Those without integrity are the ones trying to undermine the Warriors success over the last decade by claiming it was all luck or some such BS. We've achieved what we did through great drafting, great FA signings and great coaching. You don't go to the Finals out of the stacked WC 5 years in a row without all those things and I don't think it should be too much for a fan of another team to acknowledge.

It shouldn't be hard for writers at The Ringer to acknowledge either but here we are.

Yeah I'm 100% with you. Sure we had a crap season this season, but we didn't have 2/3 of our main stars and we jettisoned a whole bunch of our team.

You can't just ignore what is arguably the best or second best 5 year run of any team in history.

I will ignore it. If you guys don’t luck into KD you might have one ring, one finals loss, and possibly that’s it.

Your most recent transaction was trading an all star in D Russ for Andrew Wiggins and you haven’t hit a draft pick in like 7 years. A main guy (West) in making those decisions is now gone.

Curry/Klay/Wiggins/Draymond don’t scare people as much as prime KD, prime Curry, Prime Klay, and prime Draymond (plus Iggy and whoever else).

Again, if it wasn’t for KD, you could be a one time champion. You deserve no more respect than any other one time champion because as far as anyone is concerned, your KD titles mean nothing to how your team is now, and it means nothing to Kerr or Myers as HC’s or GM’s.

But it's not luck is it? We sold KD on the project and he was into it. That's called having a great recruiting process. Was there some luck involved? Yes, of course - luck exists in every business - the Raptors likely got "lucky" with Kawhi.

You're creating a strawman - no one on this thread is arguing about "respect" or any of that crap. We're arguing about whether a warrior coach or exec should be one of the top 5 in the league and that's a no-brainer.

Let me take you where you're at - I'll still show you, you have no point.

Suppose that what you say happens - we don't get KD AND we don't win anymore titles (not that I agree with you, I'm going to take your premise and show you how you're still wrong). This is still a perennial WCF/Finals contender with one championship and 2 MVP awards and a 73 win team.

That's more than what Brad Stevens, Lawrence Frank, Sam Presti, Danny Ainge and Masai Ujiri have done in the last 5 years. Hell if anything your argument should also knock Lawrence Frank off the list, because he basically "lucked" into Paul George and Kawhi Leonard (your words not mine).

In a similar vein, in the last 5 years

1. The Spurs screwed up their relationship with their franchise centerpiece (this is on Pop too)
2. Rick Carlisle is on this list, but Steve Kerr's record in his entire time as Warriors coach is blows him out of the water. Hell Steve Kerr's record from *before* KD blows Carlisle out of the water (and that's not small sample size)
3. Kerr has 100% done better than Spoelstra.

I don't need to argue that the Warriors execs and coach are the best in the league. I just need to argue that they are better than exactly one person on either list...which isn't that hard to do.

Your ball.

[bondom34]

TBH I'm somewhat a fan of Kerr, but Pop/Spo/Nurse/Carlisle seem comfortably ahead. Same for Bud.

Not much an argument against Nurse and Ujiri being there. I might argue against Ujiri but what the Raps have done is amazing and though I don't know if he's the best (IDK if you can say for sure anyone is) he's one of the best.