It's Time to Put Some Respect on Brian Wright's Name (Spurs GM)

[ATLTimekeeper]

Isn't he the guy who knew about Primo's dangling habit and did nothing?

Where did you get that from? We have extremely limited details on that situation because the Spurs swiftly took care of business there, so most of the info people repeat online is pure speculation

It was a claim in the lawsuit, since settled. Not pure speculation, but an allegation:

Buzbee specifically cited Spurs general manager Brian Wright, as well as the team's general counsel, deputy general counsel and head of human relations, for failing to appropriately respond when Cauthen informed them of Primo's conduct in March, after several postponed attempts to meet.

The lawsuit states Cauthen was asked to meet with Primo again in a public setting and that he allegedly again exposed himself. He asked to meet with her again after that but she declined.

Buzbee said that Cauthen was told in June that coach Gregg Popovich was aware of the issue, but Buzbee added, "We may have concluded here that they were lying."

Buzbee said that instead of addressing the problem with Primo, Spurs management told Cauthen "to sit it out," telling her that she could work from home and that the team had "lost trust in her."

fwiw, the Spurs said this was a 'learning experience' for them, and they waived Primo. Sounds super dodgy to me.

[Bornstellar]

Isn't he the guy who knew about Primo's dangling habit and did nothing?

Where did you get that from? We have extremely limited details on that situation because the Spurs swiftly took care of business there, so most of the info people repeat online is pure speculation

It was a claim in the lawsuit, since settled. Not pure speculation, but an allegation:

Buzbee specifically cited Spurs general manager Brian Wright, as well as the team's general counsel, deputy general counsel and head of human relations, for failing to appropriately respond when Cauthen informed them of Primo's conduct in March, after several postponed attempts to meet.

The lawsuit states Cauthen was asked to meet with Primo again in a public setting and that he allegedly again exposed himself. He asked to meet with her again after that but she declined.

Buzbee said that Cauthen was told in June that coach Gregg Popovich was aware of the issue, but Buzbee added, "We may have concluded here that they were lying."

Buzbee said that instead of addressing the problem with Primo, Spurs management told Cauthen "to sit it out," telling her that she could work from home and that the team had "lost trust in her."

fwiw, the Spurs said this was a 'learning experience' for them, and they waived Primo. Sounds super dodgy to me.

Ah, thanks for clarifying that for me. While I am by no means defending Primo or insinuating that the woman was lying, I will say that I work in a field that frequently deals with litigation and attorneys constantly make these kinds of statements and insinuations and a lot of the time they turn out to be exaggerated.

Regardless, they definitely messed up with Primo and I am glad they swiftly waived him and were able to settle with Dr. Cauthen. Supposedly they were working with her to improve their procedures, but who knows what happened after the suit was settled.

[NyKnicks1714]

Anyone else see the title and think who the **** is Brian Wright?

Sounds like he plays for Calgary Flames

I kinda thought many wouldnt even know who he was I'm sure most think RC Buford is still the Spurs GM

There might be a few who think it's still Pop

[Slim Charlez]

Anyone else see the title and think who the **** is Brian Wright?

Sounds like he plays for Calgary Flames

I kinda thought many wouldnt even know who he was I'm sure most think RC Buford is still the Spurs GM

There might be a few who think it's still Pop

There are a ton in here. IDK how many times I've gotten into discussions with people here regarding the Spurs and they bring up Pop and RC up like they're the one's making the basketball decisions, it used to drive me **** crazy.

[zshawn10]

I respect how lucky he is to get the #1 overall pick in a year with a generational prospect. Great job!

or how the Spurs win the lottery each time there is a generational big man as the top overall prize

[ShootersShoot]

I've already outlined why, you just refuse to actually acknowledge the rest of his body of work and continually bringing up winning the lottery. Winning the Wemby sweepstakes was the culmination of the last few seasons. But like I said, carry on with the saltiness.

You appear to be the salty one here.

When "winning a sweepstakes" is the culmination of something, there's not much skill involved in it.

Plus, you're literally the one who brought it up. It was literally your first point.

Nate, you've long been a reasonable poster. Ignoring the asset acquisition and maintaining cap space that does, in fact, require skill is turning an eye on the work done. Wright has done a great job laying that groundwork of maximizing assets to stock cupboard with quality and number of picks, while maintaining discipline with contracts.

The culture and development were already in place. The rest took work to get the picks and cap space, work that involved negotiations of contracts and trades, of identifying who to keep and who to maximize asset acquisition on.

I'll ask again - which of the teams vying for top spot in the 2023 draft were better positioned to provide a great start for Wemby?

I mean, this is essentially the same approach the sixers had with hinkie, isnt it? Accumulate assets and create cap space..sounds very familiar. Although its not a bad approach, we really have to see how the spurs build around Wemby with those assets before being able to make any judgement of how good of a GM Wright really is. Merely gathering assets and creating cap space is a good start, but has no true bearing of how good a GM actually is imo. Now if/when they are able to turn those assets and cap space into good players, then he will deserve credit.

[WillyJakkz]

What exactly has he done?

[Bornstellar]

What exactly has he done?

Here you go, since apparently you didn't read the OP:

He took a flier on Zach Collins, who is looking like what Portland envisioned he could be when they drafted him. He executed a masterclass trade with the Hawks, fleecing them for multiple unprotected picks, which directly led to our bottoming out this season. He nabbed a 1st and an unprotected swap for White from Boston. He turned the corpse of Thad Young into a late 1st. He turned an expiring Poeltl into a top-6 protected 1st. And he turned Demar, who some people thought would be signing for the MLE, into another top-10 protected first from Chicago. He did all of this without ever panicking, without handing out bad contracts/extensions, without trying to overpay for middling all-star level players to stay relevant and maintaining tons of cap space.

If Masai did this over the last two seasons 75% of the general board would be proclaiming him a god amongst men

[Bornstellar]

You appear to be the salty one here.

When "winning a sweepstakes" is the culmination of something, there's not much skill involved in it.

Plus, you're literally the one who brought it up. It was literally your first point.

Nate, you've long been a reasonable poster. Ignoring the asset acquisition and maintaining cap space that does, in fact, require skill is turning an eye on the work done. Wright has done a great job laying that groundwork of maximizing assets to stock cupboard with quality and number of picks, while maintaining discipline with contracts.

The culture and development were already in place. The rest took work to get the picks and cap space, work that involved negotiations of contracts and trades, of identifying who to keep and who to maximize asset acquisition on.

I'll ask again - which of the teams vying for top spot in the 2023 draft were better positioned to provide a great start for Wemby?

I mean, this is essentially the same approach the sixers had with hinkie, isnt it? Accumulate assets and create cap space..sounds very familiar. Although its not a bad approach, we really have to see how the spurs build around Wemby with those assets before being able to make any judgement of how good of a GM Wright really is. Merely gathering assets and creating cap space is a good start, but has no true bearing of how good a GM actually is imo. Now if/when they are able to turn those assets and cap space into good players, then he will deserve credit.

Not really. Hinkie's 6ers were waaaay worse than the Spurs last season and they were that bad for like 4-5 years. Wright managed to stack the assets and acquire a solid core in like 1.5 seasons

[Johnny Bball]

15% brilliant/85% incompetent.

He slowly stacked up a number of picks and was going in the right direction. Trading talent for picks isnt necessarily difficult, but the desicion was necessary. Not sure why anyone would just him on a lottery win though.

[ShootersShoot]

Nate, you've long been a reasonable poster. Ignoring the asset acquisition and maintaining cap space that does, in fact, require skill is turning an eye on the work done. Wright has done a great job laying that groundwork of maximizing assets to stock cupboard with quality and number of picks, while maintaining discipline with contracts.

The culture and development were already in place. The rest took work to get the picks and cap space, work that involved negotiations of contracts and trades, of identifying who to keep and who to maximize asset acquisition on.

I'll ask again - which of the teams vying for top spot in the 2023 draft were better positioned to provide a great start for Wemby?

I mean, this is essentially the same approach the sixers had with hinkie, isnt it? Accumulate assets and create cap space..sounds very familiar. Although its not a bad approach, we really have to see how the spurs build around Wemby with those assets before being able to make any judgement of how good of a GM Wright really is. Merely gathering assets and creating cap space is a good start, but has no true bearing of how good a GM actually is imo. Now if/when they are able to turn those assets and cap space into good players, then he will deserve credit.

Not really. Hinkie's 6ers were waaaay worse than the Spurs last season and they were that bad for like 4-5 years. Wright managed to stack the assets and acquire a solid core in like 1.5 seasons

I do agree the current spurs have better players and assets than those sixers, but the philosophy is the same. Hinkie also blew a ton of blue chip picks..which proved that even though their rebuild plan was sound, that simply acquiring picks and cap space does not a good GM make. It is what they do with said assets that prove their mettle as GM, which wright has not had the opportunity to do yet.
Also, the spurs do not expect Wemby to miss two full seasons like Embiid did.

[WillyJakkz]

What exactly has he done?

Here you go, since apparently you didn't read the OP:

He took a flier on Zach Collins, who is looking like what Portland envisioned he could be when they drafted him. He executed a masterclass trade with the Hawks, fleecing them for multiple unprotected picks, which directly led to our bottoming out this season. He nabbed a 1st and an unprotected swap for White from Boston. He turned the corpse of Thad Young into a late 1st. He turned an expiring Poeltl into a top-6 protected 1st. And he turned Demar, who some people thought would be signing for the MLE, into another top-10 protected first from Chicago. He did all of this without ever panicking, without handing out bad contracts/extensions, without trying to overpay for middling all-star level players to stay relevant and maintaining tons of cap space.

If Masai did this over the last two seasons 75% of the general board would be proclaiming him a god amongst men

Calm down Chappie.

All of those "awesome deals" are of no consequence.

This thread is clearly about being fortunate enough to get the 1st Pick to get Wemby.

If the Spurs don't get #1 overall last night this thread doesn't exist. Period.

[Slim Charlez]

The Spurs and 76ers aren't really the same, the sixers were blatantly losing games playing guys they had no intention of developing while the Spurs tried to win games and develop their young guys just didn't have the talent to keep it up all season plus had to deal with injuries to key guys. Not saying the Spurs didn't trade Dj and blow it up intentionally this year because of Wemby, but the team itself went out to compete every night, just basically brought a knife to a gun fight.

[Arsenal]

Nate, you've long been a reasonable poster. Ignoring the asset acquisition and maintaining cap space that does, in fact, require skill is turning an eye on the work done. Wright has done a great job laying that groundwork of maximizing assets to stock cupboard with quality and number of picks, while maintaining discipline with contracts.

The culture and development were already in place. The rest took work to get the picks and cap space, work that involved negotiations of contracts and trades, of identifying who to keep and who to maximize asset acquisition on.

I'll ask again - which of the teams vying for top spot in the 2023 draft were better positioned to provide a great start for Wemby?

I mean, this is essentially the same approach the sixers had with hinkie, isnt it? Accumulate assets and create cap space..sounds very familiar. Although its not a bad approach, we really have to see how the spurs build around Wemby with those assets before being able to make any judgement of how good of a GM Wright really is. Merely gathering assets and creating cap space is a good start, but has no true bearing of how good a GM actually is imo. Now if/when they are able to turn those assets and cap space into good players, then he will deserve credit.

Not really. Hinkie's 6ers were waaaay worse than the Spurs last season and they were that bad for like 4-5 years. Wright managed to stack the assets and acquire a solid core in like 1.5 seasons

It's this sort of clown take that people don't respect. The Spurs have done JACK of importance except get lucky to get #1 in the year with Wemby.

Luckiest franchise ever getting #1 for Robinson, #1 for Duncan, and now #1 for Wemby. Therefore the most overrated franchise by far.

Without those 3 lucky rolls the Spurs are an NBA non-entity.

[hoosierdaddy34]

For having the ping pong balls go their way???

[G R E Y]

What exactly has he done?

Here you go, since apparently you didn't read the OP:

He took a flier on Zach Collins, who is looking like what Portland envisioned he could be when they drafted him. He executed a masterclass trade with the Hawks, fleecing them for multiple unprotected picks, which directly led to our bottoming out this season. He nabbed a 1st and an unprotected swap for White from Boston. He turned the corpse of Thad Young into a late 1st. He turned an expiring Poeltl into a top-6 protected 1st. And he turned Demar, who some people thought would be signing for the MLE, into another top-10 protected first from Chicago. He did all of this without ever panicking, without handing out bad contracts/extensions, without trying to overpay for middling all-star level players to stay relevant and maintaining tons of cap space.

If Masai did this over the last two seasons 75% of the general board would be proclaiming him a god amongst men

Calm down Chappie.

All of those "awesome deals" are of no consequence.

This thread is clearly about being fortunate enough to get the 1st Pick to get Wemby.

If the Spurs don't get #1 overall last night this thread doesn't exist. Period.

Well! If the 'period' is brought out then it truly must be that no argument has been made lol

Jazz get a haul of picks - great!

OKC gets a haul of picks - great!

Cs got a haul of picks for their aging core previously - great!

But our reference point is somehow 76ers after our FIRST rebuild year, and zero credit given for contracts and cap management or the actual pick haul we got after identifying who to go forward with or not.

People are either ignoring Born's premise about Wright's body of work or are totally downplaying it. You know who isn't? Wemby and his team.

Still have yet to hear a single response to two basic questions:

1. Which other that was in the running for a top pick was in a better position picks and cap-wise?

2. Why do people suppose that, if it doesn't matter where Wemby goes, that he was both happy with teams that didn't get the 1st pick as he was cheering that the Spurs did?

[azcatz11]

There’s nothing impressive about tanking. It’s literally the easiest thing for a GM to do. The rigged nba led to this and there should be an audit of what actually transpired last night

[ShootersShoot]

The Spurs and 76ers aren't really the same, the sixers were blatantly losing games playing guys they had no intention of developing while the Spurs tried to win games and develop their young guys just didn't have the talent to keep it up all season plus had to deal with injuries to key guys. Not saying the Spurs didn't trade Dj and blow it up intentionally this year because of Wemby, but the team itself went out to compete every night, just basically brought a knife to a gun fight.

Those sixers went out and competed every night as well..At the end of the day everyone knew this was a tanking year for the spurs and they finished bottom 3 in the league, tied for the worst record in the west. The sixers were trying to develop guys as well such as covington, mcw and noel.

I don't know how one can justify trading a 25 year old who just made the all star team for future picks as if that is not intentionally trying to lose...that is literally the type of move tanking teams pull off. its not much different than when hinkie traded jrue.

[Bornstellar]

What exactly has he done?

Here you go, since apparently you didn't read the OP:

He took a flier on Zach Collins, who is looking like what Portland envisioned he could be when they drafted him. He executed a masterclass trade with the Hawks, fleecing them for multiple unprotected picks, which directly led to our bottoming out this season. He nabbed a 1st and an unprotected swap for White from Boston. He turned the corpse of Thad Young into a late 1st. He turned an expiring Poeltl into a top-6 protected 1st. And he turned Demar, who some people thought would be signing for the MLE, into another top-10 protected first from Chicago. He did all of this without ever panicking, without handing out bad contracts/extensions, without trying to overpay for middling all-star level players to stay relevant and maintaining tons of cap space.

If Masai did this over the last two seasons 75% of the general board would be proclaiming him a god amongst men

Calm down Chappie.

All of those "awesome deals" are of no consequence.

This thread is clearly about being fortunate enough to get the 1st Pick to get Wemby.

If the Spurs don't get #1 overall last night this thread doesn't exist. Period.

What a prediction... considering I said that earlier in the thread already.

[Bornstellar]

There’s nothing impressive about tanking. It’s literally the easiest thing for a GM to do. The rigged nba led to this and there should be an audit of what actually transpired last night

Come on man