Who is the worst owner of the NBA?

[PaulKellerman]

I think Ted does not get enough ridicule. No Conference Finals appearances since forever, content with fielding a mediocre team, that horrid extension for Beal.

Ernie Grunfeld at one point in time was one of the longest tenured GM's in the league, despite horrendous moves like trading the #5 overall pick in the 2009 (Steph Curry would have been available at that slot) for Randy Foye, trading Kelly Oubre Jr. at the peak of his value for a washed-up Trevor Ariza to chase the 8th seed. Leonisis willingly let Grunfeld hold onto his job, for some reason.

Exactly. Keeping Randy Whitman as coach who has not sniffed a job since, then hiring Scott Brooks...........the tragedy continues in DC

[meekrab]

So glad that the Reinsdorf conglomerate are only considered the 7th worst ownership in the NBA.

[Tacoma]

People keep saying Dolan here, I get he's an idiot but hasn't the Knicks story just been mostly about FO's having impatience and also not finding the right luck? They've had a ton of GMs in Dolan's time and they keep failing for different reasons that focus on those two things, try to win too quickly then get crap luck at rebuilding and then repeat since they think there's a fast-forward button to make up for that.

Feels like those aren't stemming form Dolan so much as he's not able to stop them, which seems way less direct and way more passive a role than some of these other owners.

Well... for one thing, Masai Ujiri practically built his resume off Dolan:

• Melo was going to sign to join NYK in 2011, but instead, Ujiri coaxed Dolan to sign off on a trade including Gallinari, Chandler & others and several picks including the 2014 1st-round pick.
• Ujiri was just hired as Raptors President and wanted to rid of Bargnani at any cost. That desparation by Ujiri turned into a windfall thanks to Dolan. The return included several picks inlcuidng #9 pick that became Jakob Pöltl who was a key piece in the Kawhi trade that was key to Raptors 2019 Championship.
• Dolan became so spooked by Ujiri that he vetoed a trade his GM made with Ujiri to bring Kyle Lowry to NY for fear that he may get screwed over by Ujiri again. Lowry became instrumental to Raptors winning the 2019 Championship.

Hardly passive. Hardly bad luck. His GM's were pawns, the buck stopped with Dolan.

[Rich Michmond]

probably because you're too young

So you didn't capitalize his name and misspelled it on purpose? Seems a bit silly in an otherwise fine off-season poll. I expect that was your intention for the thread in any case.

I voted Dolan.

that's how I've been spelling jordon's name since decades.
whoever was around usenet talking NBA in th3 mid to late 90s knows the origin of it.

Here's a nice gem from that era: https://airjudden2.tripod.com/ejf/indexf.html

[Ryoga Hibiki]

If you wanted a thread to **** on Jeannie Buss, just do that. Why the elaborate charade?

Here's a few your list is missing:

1. An owner who presided over a decade long sexual harassment scandal in his franchise in Dallas.
2. An owner who's openly been trying his best to sell the team in Minnesota only to find a deal that appears to not be complete because he failed to do due diligence to make sure the buyer had funds.
3. An owner in New Orleans who is alleged to have stolen the team away from rightful heirs.
4. An owner who named his arena after a pyramid scheme in Orlando.
5. An owner who bought and relocated a team from Seattle because the city won't build him an arena.

But hey.. Jeannie Buss!

At this stage I am more interested at how they manage their team in terms of basketball operations.
Sorry if the Jeannie reference triggered you so much, I didn't mean to hurt you.

Trigger? There's a difference between something that unreasonably sets off someone that usually will not for a mentally/emotionally stable person, and, something that is just mentioned to garner or fish out opposing opinions on it, to slight the person.

Two persons having an argument with two polarized, opposing opinions is nothing triggering in there... to mention it and accuse the other of it is just a cop out , especially when you insincerely gift-wrap it in an apology. It's a thoughless and manipulative ploy when you don't want to admit you may have a wrong opinion. See it occasionally done at the office. Not very cool and sort of a weak move.

I apologize if my post sounded manipulative to you, my intention was to be transparently sarcastic and dismissive to a post that was unnecessarily fired up about all this.
You think that Jeannie is a good owner? Fine, whatever.
You're somehow outraged that he's included in that list after the dumpster fire the Lakers have have been with Pelinka, Magic, the Rambleys, Klutch... come on. The Lakers got gifted LeBron and Davis for no real merit of the organization, and they messed up literally every other move.
My prediction isq tht the Lakers will be the new Knicks, if something doesn't change at the top.
The brand won't save them forever.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

So you didn't capitalize his name and misspelled it on purpose? Seems a bit silly in an otherwise fine off-season poll. I expect that was your intention for the thread in any case.

I voted Dolan.

that's how I've been spelling jordon's name since decades.
whoever was around usenet talking NBA in th3 mid to late 90s knows the origin of it.

Here's a nice gem from that era: https://airjudden2.tripod.com/ejf/indexf.html

THE Judden is good and wise

[nate33]

I think Ted does not get enough ridicule. No Conference Finals appearances since forever, content with fielding a mediocre team, that horrid extension for Beal.

The Wizards haven't won 50 games in 43 years. We can't blame Ted for all of them, but he hasn't done anything in his 12-year tenure except make bad strategic decisions. First, he kept the hapless Ernie Grunfeld for 9 more years after taking over the franchise. And when Leonsis finally got rid of him, Leonsis let the world know that he would be a meddling owner, so all the good candidates (Ujiri, Connely) turned him down, forcing him to hire a yes man from within (Tommy Sheppard).

And now, the Wizards basically have the bleakest future in the league - with no real possibility to finish in the top 6 for the foreseeable future, no capacity to tank for a high lotto pick, and no chance at max cap room with an overpaid Beal locked in for 5 more years.

[NyKnicks1714]

Yep, I never thought I'd see Jordan misspelled on a basketball forum.

probably because you're too young

Weak + 1.

It was actually a thing

https://airjudden2.tripod.com/ejf/indexf.html

[Beethoven]

At this stage I am more interested at how they manage their team in terms of basketball operations.
Sorry if the Jeannie reference triggered you so much, I didn't mean to hurt you.

Trigger? There's a difference between something that unreasonably sets off someone that usually will not for a mentally/emotionally stable person, and, something that is just mentioned to garner or fish out opposing opinions on it, to slight the person.

Two persons having an argument with two polarized, opposing opinions is nothing triggering in there... to mention it and accuse the other of it is just a cop out , especially when you insincerely gift-wrap it in an apology. It's a thoughless and manipulative ploy when you don't want to admit you may have a wrong opinion. See it occasionally done at the office. Not very cool and sort of a weak move.

I apologize if my post sounded manipulative to you, my intention was to be transparently sarcastic and dismissive to a post that was unnecessarily fired up about all this.
You think that Jeannie is a good owner? Fine, whatever.
You're somehow outraged that he's included in that list after the dumpster fire the Lakers have have been with Pelinka, Magic, the Rambleys, Klutch... come on. The Lakers got gifted LeBron and Davis for no real merit of the organization, and they messed up literally every other move.
My prediction isq tht the Lakers will be the new Knicks, if something doesn't change at the top.
The brand won't save them forever.

I get it and I respect your opinion. Thanks.

[ConSarnit]

It’s Vivek and it’s not even a question.

Not only have the Kings not made the playoffs during that time, they’ve never even won 40 games.

[Meat]

Who was the owner who cheaped his way out of a prime harden, westbrook and Durant team?

[HotelVitale]

People keep saying Dolan here, I get he's an idiot but hasn't the Knicks story just been mostly about FO's having impatience and also not finding the right luck? They've had a ton of GMs in Dolan's time and they keep failing for different reasons that focus on those two things, try to win too quickly then get crap luck at rebuilding and then repeat since they think there's a fast-forward button to make up for that.

Feels like those aren't stemming form Dolan so much as he's not able to stop them, which seems way less direct and way more passive a role than some of these other owners.

Well... for one thing, Masai Ujiri practically built his resume off Dolan:

• Melo was going to sign to join NYK in 2011, but instead, Ujiri coaxed Dolan to sign off on a trade including Gallinari, Chandler & others and several picks including the 2014 1st-round pick.
• Ujiri was just hired as Raptors President and wanted to rid of Bargnani at any cost. That desparation by Ujiri turned into a windfall thanks to Dolan. The return included several picks inlcuidng #9 pick that became Jakob Pöltl who was a key piece in the Kawhi trade that was key to Raptors 2019 Championship.
• Dolan became so spooked by Ujiri that he vetoed a trade his GM made with Ujiri to bring Kyle Lowry to NY for fear that he may get screwed over by Ujiri again. Lowry became instrumental to Raptors winning the 2019 Championship.

Hardly passive. Hardly bad luck. His GM's were pawns, the buck stopped with Dolan.

Didn't know he was seen as fully 100% responsible for all that but I'll take you word for it. Don't think I've ever heard about the Bargs thing being all Dolan before, and that was indeed a major blunder. Those definitely qualify as not passive. The other two do kinda feel like piling on or scapegoating though; even if they were Dolan's fault, they were reasonable-ish moves at the time and in any case weren't franchise-destroying catastrophes. Carmelo was expensive but they were in a bidding war and the price worked out well for them (they also got Billups with that trade too)--besides that random pick swap thrown in at the end in 2016, which was unnecessary and ended up hurting them the most. Opinion was generally positive at the time, sort of remember it is as 'they had to pay big to secure him but this was a great move to set the future for the Knicks,' and there were weird things about FA that year too. Also I remember there were a lot more players in those discussions than just James Dolan.

The Lowry trade you've got me a little confused about--if you just lambasted Dolan for trading 1sts for win-now guys, why was it bad that he refused to do so for Lowry when the Melo team was already starting to fail? Should he have doubled down on that team and traded another 1st to maybe eek out another first-round exit that year? That seems like it was huge for TOR not to make that move but wouldn't have been particularly good for NYK.

I'd also add that all those moves were at least almost 10 years ago. Seems like other owners have been more actively involved in making teams bad more recently.

[rzzzzz]

Who was the owner who cheaped his way out of a prime harden, westbrook and Durant team?

The same one who promised a very patient Seattle fan base that he was on the level.

[PaulKellerman]

I think Ted does not get enough ridicule. No Conference Finals appearances since forever, content with fielding a mediocre team, that horrid extension for Beal.

The Wizards haven't won 50 games in 43 years. We can't blame Ted for all of them, but he hasn't done anything in his 12-year tenure except make bad strategic decisions. First, he kept the hapless Ernie Grunfeld for 9 more years after taking over the franchise. And when Leonsis finally got rid of him, Leonsis let the world know that he would be a meddling owner, so all the good candidates (Ujiri, Connely) turned him down, forcing him to hire a yes man from within (Tommy Sheppard).

And now, the Wizards basically have the bleakest future in the league - with no real possibility to finish in the top 6 for the foreseeable future, no capacity to tank for a high lotto pick, and no chance at max cap room with an overpaid Beal locked in for 5 more years.

Couldn't have said it better. He needs to stomach a proper rebuild but the Beal extension will sink that thought for another few years

[Doctor MJ]

I added Jeannie Buss to the because I think this should be adjusted to how strong your brand is. The Lakers have been run so poorly that I think she deserves to at least be in the conversation.
Sarver has a long history, not sure I would leave him off the hook for the recent Suncs success.
Also true that during his tenure they had two different teams that have been fairly successful.

I think I would go for jordon, the Hornets have been the most forgettable franchise in the NBA.

___
Sent from my Nokia 3210 using RealGM mobile app

When evaluating Jeannie I think you have to factor in that a lot of this is really on her Dad, despite the fact that I'd consider Jerry largely a great owner.

Key point: Unless something has changed recently, the reputation around the league was that there were 29 teams with serious analytics departments, and the Lakers. Jerry was in control of the basketball decision making process long after analytics departments were becoming standard, and so the Lakers lacked that infrastructure because he didn't apparently didn't see the point.

Run an organization by gut feel for decades and you're going to get surpassed by other organizations that work more professionally. Things will get compounded if you hand the reins over to kids who aren't as smart as you sure, but if you put a better infrastructure in place, it won't just help you, it will help your kids.

Extra point: If was Jerry Buss' decision not to have Jerry West, or Pat Riley, or anyone else, because THE decision maker separate from the family on all things the way the Celtics did with Red Auerbach back in the day, or the Heat did with Riley himself. This was foolish, and it eventually led to Jeanie hadn't the reins over to the far less capable Magic Johnson...who Buss had treated much more like he was part of the Laker/Buss family.

If the Lakers had been continued to be run by Jerry West this entire time, they'd be a much healthier franchise.

None of this is to say that the Jeanie is great or that the Lakers are well-managed, but I would disagree with the notion that Jeanie is the one who started the decay. It began under Jerry, got much worse under Jim, and in the time post-Jim they actually did win a title. I think the place is getting more toxic under Jeanie, but the the rot was largely in place well before that.

In terms of my choice, Vivek took the crown from Dolan a while ago and I'm not ready to give it to anyone else yet. Signs of hope with the GM really took a turn for the worse when they traded Haliburton to go all in on "win now" with a Fox/Sabonis core, and still couldn't even make the play-in.

[Doctor MJ]

Who was the owner who cheaped his way out of a prime harden, westbrook and Durant team?

In fairness to him:

I think the problem was that the Thunder's basketball people (Presti/Brooks) didn't see Harden as anything like a superstar. Had they been stating definitively that "We have 3 MVP level players", I think it likely that the owner would have been ready to pay the bill.

[Invictus88]

5. An owner who bought and relocated a team from Seattle because the city won't build him an arena.

Arena or no arena. Clay Bennett never had any intention of ever keeping the team in Seattle.

The entire year the club was "trying to work out an arena deal" he was messaging his buddies in OKC about how it would only be a little while longer till they achieved their goal of moving tbe team.

[Warriors Analyst]

I think Ted does not get enough ridicule. No Conference Finals appearances since forever, content with fielding a mediocre team, that horrid extension for Beal.

Ernie Grunfeld at one point in time was one of the longest tenured GM's in the league, despite horrendous moves like trading the #5 overall pick in the 2009 (Steph Curry would have been available at that slot) for Randy Foye, trading Kelly Oubre Jr. at the peak of his value for a washed-up Trevor Ariza to chase the 8th seed. Leonisis willingly let Grunfeld hold onto his job, for some reason.

Exactly. Keeping Randy Whitman as coach who has not sniffed a job since, then hiring Scott Brooks...........the tragedy continues in DC

Man, I forgot how bad Whitman was. If I recall, he had one of the most archaic, mid-range-oriented offenses in basketball. It was brutal that Brooks was such a significant upgrade to him.

[Ugly0598]

Ted is a bad owner.

[PaulKellerman]

Ernie Grunfeld at one point in time was one of the longest tenured GM's in the league, despite horrendous moves like trading the #5 overall pick in the 2009 (Steph Curry would have been available at that slot) for Randy Foye, trading Kelly Oubre Jr. at the peak of his value for a washed-up Trevor Ariza to chase the 8th seed. Leonisis willingly let Grunfeld hold onto his job, for some reason.

Exactly. Keeping Randy Whitman as coach who has not sniffed a job since, then hiring Scott Brooks...........the tragedy continues in DC

Man, I forgot how bad Whitman was. If I recall, he had one of the most archaic, mid-range-oriented offenses in basketball. It was brutal that Brooks was such a significant upgrade to him.

I can't believe it took them so long to get rid of Randy. Watching the Wiz play was torturous