RealGM

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2013/05/11/sports/nh6913632.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Danny Ferry is long gone, but the memories remain from the Cavaliers' summer of 2005.

Armed with $28 million in salary-cap space, the former general manager jumped into free agency by massively overpaying for the services of Larry Hughes, Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall and Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Using hindsight, one could question the signing of all four players, even though Ilgauskas had some solid seasons thereafter.

Hughes turned out to be the biggest disappointment, largely because of his five-year, $60 million contract.

A good read as we await Ferry's master stroke in Free Agency this year.

Thoughts, concerns?

Not concerned, at all. Larry Hughes was the only albatross contract there, and by all accounts, LeBron not only demanded talent NOW, but also asked for Hughes specifically. And Hughes wasn't bad until he broke his finger.

It's also somewhat worrisome that last summer Ferry chose to keep Josh last summer, even after Smoove turned down the three year extension we offered.

But he instead dangled Horford, our All Star on a fantastically manageable contract, in trade offers for Dwight without requiring any commitment from him.

While I agree pursuing Howard is a good idea...there was inherent risk involved. basically, we could have lost Josh and Dwight in Free Agency the following summer while AL continued his All Star ways elsewhere in the division.

I actually like most of the work he's done so far, but looking at his track record I'm just a little wary.

Source for the trade proposal? I didn't see anything but rumors in that vein.

I'm more worried about Ferry's drafting TBH. He's right in that shooting usually translates, but he has not demonstrated a consistent track record of excellence... if anything, his history is somewhat subpar.

Cavs: Shannon Brown, Daniel Gibson, Hickson, Eyenga, Danny Green, some scrub I've never heard of
Hawks: Jenkins, Mike Scott

The only good pick of that lot is Danny Green, for which I give him full credit. Hickson is okay, but was picked in a deep draft before Ryan Anderson, Serge Ibaka, George Hill, Nic Batum, Pekovic, and Dragic, all of whom are better, as well as Chalmers, Asik, and DeAndre, all of whom are comparable. The rest are deep bench guys.

I'm 100% okay with Ferry offering Dwight Howard a huge Larry Hughes type of contract

look at the top free agents of that free agency class and read the descriptions of each free agent going into free agency.

http://www.nba.com/features/freeagentpr ... 50705.html

azuresou1 wrote:Source for the trade proposal? I didn't see anything but rumors in that vein

Read it a few places. first one I could find: NY Daily news.

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News examines the fast starts of the Knicks, Warriors, and Hawks, but believes the script could have been drastically different for Atlanta this season. Here's a roundup of a few rumors he's sharing.

•The Hawks offered up Al Horford as part of a strong push to acquire Dwight Howard in August, according to Lawrence, who notes the Hawks will have enough cap flexibility to pursue the Atlanta native when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/lawrence-knicks-warriors-early-nba-surprises-article-1.1220940

azuresou1 wrote:Source for the trade proposal? I didn't see anything but rumors in that vein.

I'm more worried about Ferry's drafting TBH. He's right in that shooting usually translates, but he has not demonstrated a consistent track record of excellence... if anything, his history is somewhat subpar.

Cavs: Shannon Brown, Daniel Gibson, Hickson, Eyenga, Danny Green, some scrub I've never heard of
Hawks: Jenkins, Mike Scott

The only good pick of that lot is Danny Green, for which I give him full credit. Hickson is okay, but was picked in a deep draft before Ryan Anderson, Serge Ibaka, George Hill, Nic Batum, Pekovic, and Dragic, all of whom are better, as well as Chalmers, Asik, and DeAndre, all of whom are comparable. The rest are deep bench guys.

Hickson is significantly better than anybody you just mentioned (except for Pek who is already 28yr)

Azure, you actually expressed the same concern last summer about Hrford for Dwight. As it was being reported:

azuresou1 wrote: HELL NO. Are you guys kidding me?

Say we trade Horford, Teague, and 2 1sts. Dwight decides to bail. Then what? Josh likely follows him, leaving our roster barren of ANY NBA talent other than John Jenkins, who hasn't played a single NBA minute yet. Furthermore, without any picks, we won't be able to rebuild either, and will likely overpay a bunch of moderately scrubby players.

That is a TERRIBLE risk/reward ratio.

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1194438&start=15

azuresou1 wrote:Not concerned, at all. Larry Hughes was the only albatross contract there, and by all accounts, LeBron not only demanded talent NOW, but also asked for Hughes specifically. And Hughes wasn't bad until he broke his finger.

All good points. Different circumstances call for different approaches. It's also important to note that he was in Cleveland and not Atlanta. I don't see many young rich black men willfully moving to Cleveland.

There's nothing in that blurb about moving Horf without talks of an extension.

Here, a source from Atlanta's hometown paper:

He approached the Orlando Magic about a trade for Howard in early July but was turned down. He never had the opportunity to share his vision with Howard and try to convince him that the dysfunction that Howard (an Atlanta native) was familiar with was a thing of the past. It never even got as far as being in position to convince Howard to sign an extension.

http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/ ... ped-short/


Must be confusing that with this that happened much earlier and under a different GM.

Sources told ESPN.com that the aforementioned Hawks, meanwhile, engaged Orlando in trade talks for Howard earlier this month with an offer believed to be headlined by $124 million guard Joe Johnson and swingman Josh Smith......

.....The Hawks nonetheless took the risk of pursuing Howard anyway without any assurances about how long he’d be willing to stay and, according to sources, felt like they were making some semblance of progress before the Magic shut down talks.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... for-dwight




As to the topic, people can twist hindsight all they want but Ferry came away with 3 of the top 10 free agents that summer. Them not working out later has nothing to do with what their value was then and if you even look at the two best free agents that summer (Allen and Redd) both gave their teams severe buyer's remorse too. It's only by a stroke of luck that the Hawks made out okay with giving out a max deal, Diaw and multiple lotto picks for Joe because we were set to give up the pick that became Al too had it ended up outside the top 3 like it was projected to be. Not that BK needs anymore dirt thrown on his grave but imagine that scenario.

I think Ferry has learned from his mistakes in the past, but let's remember, he won't go mistake free going forward, so keep that in mind as his tenure with us progresses.

The goal for any GM should be to build a championship caliber team. However, things are out of his control, and we might have to rely on signing some free agents that only help us become a lower seed.

HMFFL wrote:I think Ferry has learned from his mistakes in the past, but let's remember, he won't go mistake free going forward, so keep that in mind as his tenure with us progresses.

The goal for any GM should be to build a championship caliber team. However, things are out of his control, and we might have to rely on signing some free agents that only help us become a lower seed.

I wouldn't even called his decisions mistakes. In hindsight, Hughes is honestly his only real blimish. He actually went after Allen and was turned down by Allen. So he then goes after Hughes who was up and coming and just had a huge season. Hughes didn't pan out like most would have thought he would, but he was also banged up from time to time.

Everbody else he signed were quality contributors including Z, who probably could have gotten more from somewhere else.

Hughes wasn't even a blimish. he was coming off a 22 point, 6 rebounds, 5 assist and 3 steal season for a playoff team and was 18/5/3/2 the year before that. He was trending up, young player with monster numbers.

He was considered a better get than Joe Johnson that year.

Hindsight gets used WAY too much. the only things I hold a person accountable for is moves that were clearly bad at the time and still are bad. Like Rick Sund drafting Robert Swift(who dominated in highschool because he was tall and in no way would be able to contribute in the NBA out of highschool) and Saer Sene, who had no basketball skills and Johan Petro. THATS bad drafting.

I brought this issue up as soon as he was hired, but then everyone on this board calmed my fears by pointing out his work with the Spurs.

I guess we just have to wait and see, I for one, am much more confident with Ferry than with Sund or Knight.

reazun wrote:I for one, am much more confident with Ferry than with Sund or Knight.

I'm definitely with you there.

Though I am always skeptical, I gladly acknowledge Ferry is much more in control than either of those two.

The puppet and the jerk.

reazun wrote:I brought this issue up as soon as he was hired, but then everyone on this board calmed my fears by pointing out his work with the Spurs.

I guess we just have to wait and see, I for one, am much more confident with Ferry than with Sund or Knight.

Targeting D West is good move as long as it's a reasonable deal. What about if you traded J Smith to the Kings for a package built around Evans? I feel like that and D West and you guys would have a pretty good core with those three players. Then again if Evans' contract is bad it could be Joe Johnson 2.0.