eyriq wrote:pepe1991 wrote:
Getting lucky and drafting good AND running team are two separated things you should judge GM on.
At the end of a day more often than not GMs faith and perception is viewed through things he hardly ever had much control over ( draft lottery) but good teams leveradge other paths and not just rely on one strategy to save them.
Nuggets won championship with 1 lottery pick selected by them- Murray. They "won" Porter by missing playoffs with 46 wins and selecting last in lottery.
Celtics won title by benefiting from Billy King's epic blunder but also by taking massive risks with whole bunch of trades over years.
Bucks main core was made out of non lottery selected players etc.
My critique isn't with the draft picks. I remember quite clearly that those were underwhelming drafts at the time. EVERYTHING hinged on Porzingis and we barely missed it. I remember feeling devastated.
My critique is that he pivoted to win-now without a franchise player in place. It was foolish and short-sighted. You tank for a franchise player and focus on player-development with a young core. He got desperate and panicked.
By large part, 2014 was hyped to be one of best drafts since 2003, Hennigan went balls deep into that draft with two lottery picks.
Issue, however, was that 2014 was nowhere near as good draft as it was sold to be ( pretty much same as 2017 draft).
Issue with notion that he pivoted toward winning is not looking at bigger picture. You flat out can't be in lottery for more than 4-5 years because no matter how underwhelming your selections are, they will either:
1) padd some stats on bad team and get payed by you
2) lure attention from other teams in FA , and by default become expensive
Hennigan trades were fiasco, but what execlly he could do?
2014-15 season:
He had Vuc on somewhat okey contract but taking part of salary. Age 24.
Oladipo averaging 18-4-4 ( as one of like 20 players that year to do so ), at age of 22, asking for +$20M a year in years when salary cap was $64M
Evan Fournier averaging efficient 12-2-2. Age 22.
Toby Harris locked on big deal, averaging 17-6-2 (with solid efficiency)
Rookies Gordon, Payton
He couldn't continue to hold onto roster that is getting expensive by day , continue to burn $10-20M a year contracts on 35 wins team under $70M salary cap restriction, in same time there was no point of sucking for more, new picks because there was no space to ad more, young talent and actually play and develop them, and it's not like 2016 draft was viewed as good one, it was viewed as two persons deep- Simmons as generational talent, and Ingram ( in retrospective, it's draft where Brown was probably BPA, Sabonis and Murray were legit stars, Simmons is pretty much out of nba at this point and Ingram is fine allstar, but not somebody that alters your franchise, and 9 others are nameless scrubs, mostly already out of nba).
His trades were rushed, bad and panic-like. That's granted, that got him fired after all.
Today it's easier to have bit more flexibility because salary cap is pretty much x2 from what it was 8 years ago.
Again, difference between Hennigan and Weltman is starting position.
Hennigan was pretty much hired and told "oh now go and trade best player in our history, btw he is crybaby that asked trade in public and that killed his trade value, he also now has cronical back problems and will need surgery, we just fired best coach we ever had last month. ....oh...and we are $11M over salary cap, stuck with declining Nelson, Hedo who dropped off cliff. But hey, there is more, your highest payed player in books, Arenas, was waived by amnesty, so he only exists in your salary books". - Good luck boy.
His starting position was impossible.
What Weltman found when he got hired?
Bismack Biyombo as highest payed player, who btw didn't crack top 60 highest payed players that year. Vuc, Evan, Gordon, Ross on okey and tradable contracts. If he wanted to trade them.
He even had salary cap to add Jonathan Simmons and DJ Augustin on his own in FA.
Weltman made decision to run that roster, not because he needed to, but because he wanted to, where Hennigan was hired to make million trades from day one with bunch of overpayed old players who were salary burden.
Thing is, Weltman is running this team for 8 years now. I'm yet to see single Magic roster under him that makes funcional sense. Including current one.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon
) essentially the same player.