Which front office would you rather have running this team?

[jnrjr79]

Pax solo > GarPax > AKME

I thought the Lonzo extension was a great deal, and the LaVine trade was just fine (and a relative win after a couple of years where it appeared you’d need to attach assets to move him). That said, his overall performance has been so dismal that this is not a difficult question.

The one thing you could say about GarPax - they rarely put a team in a deep hole that would be tough to recover from. That’s precisely what AKME have done.

[PistolP]

GarPax all day. I watched the presser today and wow, AK just comes off as a total clown. Even more so than normal. He’s in wayyyy over his head and it’s so obvious. Hiring him has easily been one of the worst moves the franchise has ever done. Unfortunately I have zero faith that the Reinsdorf’s care enough to replace him.

Since AK got here, he’s basically given up Gafford, Lauri, Franz Wagner, Lavine, multiple second round picks, and our 2024 lottery pick for what has amounted to basically nothing. His first round picks have been bench caliber talent. We have no promising young talent other than Matas. Our cap situation is just mediocre. And barring some lottery magic, we are probably locked into another late lotto pick for 2025.

The level of incompetence year after year after year is just disgusting and hard to deal with as a fan.

Game threads on RealGM used to roll pages and pages deep. Now half the city literally can’t watch the games and the other half has no reason to waste their time watching this garbage product. They’ve literally run this franchise to the ground.

Hoping this is rock bottom…

[Dez]

Gee I wonder who voted for AKME?

[MrSparkle]

Well, would've bet $100 on AK in 2021.

Last 3y, gimme GarPax.

MarcTuras has brought greater new levels of apathy.

They managed to make me a Lakers fan! I'm so uninterested in this directionless Bulls roster, that I am excited by the secret-Silver-assembled Lakers. Luka, twilight-uncle Bron, Mark Williams the human pogo stick...

Long lost the Bulls stress... becoming a casual Lakers fan is nice and easy.

[SalmonsSuperfan]

I love how lopsided this poll is. Everyone agrees. Paxson was genuinely very good at his job. Gar had “connections” but they were the wrong connections. Karnisovas offers literally nothing. Micheal hired the dumbest guy from that front office. AK is probably very good at speaking and Michael is a nepo baby who likes smoke being blown up his butt.

I liked the idea of hiring new management, it was time to move on, but they hired the wrong guy and staff. AK and co has proven to be worse at the job. I’m not sure how to distinguish between pax and gar, we used to talk about how we respected the pax part of the equation. But that duo seemingly made good draft/roster decisions. There’s a bit here “pax bullsica” or something. There was a peace between the championship era and today. I was a big fan of the peace, I was raised on it in lieu of MJ, but I can’t even watch these AK-constructed teams. They finally traded the last guy worth watching from a simpler/better generation.

[Onibuh]

It was time to move on. I don't think I want AK with this upcoming roster and Cap Space in 2026 (if he can manage to keep it). Pax without Gar should be the answer here.

[The Explorer]

Bulls were a laughing stock with Boylen and trash. Bulls are a laughing stock now. It doesn't matter because the same incompetent ownership remains.

[Jcool0]

I voted for Gary/Pax but they stilled sucked and anyone who told you otherwise is lying.

[Jcool0]

This franchise is in considerably worse shape now than when they took over. They had Zach on an absolute bargain of a contract , Coby with 3 years left on his rookie deal, Markkanen with a year left on his, and the #4 pick in the upcoming draft. Didn't have a draft surplus , but also didn't owe any future 1sts either.

Now our only young guy with any kind of value is Buzelis ,and maybe Jalen Smith but hard to see when he barely gets any minutes to show it. Coby perhaps. Just now finally being debt-free on 1st rounders, until we probably unload another batch for guys like PG and Randle ! Not for real needle movers and young stud 23 year old bigs like the Lakers do. Nah. Let's blow our wads on B-listers that might get us an 8 seed one of these days.

I also think GarPax probably drafts Haliburton instead of PW because they liked players from Iowa. That one move would've changed everything.

There was a group of posters here that advocated for Haliburton at the time, but the Gar/Pax special was to take Obi Toppin.

[Dan Z]

This franchise is in considerably worse shape now than when they took over. They had Zach on an absolute bargain of a contract , Coby with 3 years left on his rookie deal, Markkanen with a year left on his, and the #4 pick in the upcoming draft. Didn't have a draft surplus , but also didn't owe any future 1sts either.

Now our only young guy with any kind of value is Buzelis ,and maybe Jalen Smith but hard to see when he barely gets any minutes to show it. Coby perhaps. Just now finally being debt-free on 1st rounders, until we probably unload another batch for guys like PG and Randle ! Not for real needle movers and young stud 23 year old bigs like the Lakers do. Nah. Let's blow our wads on B-listers that might get us an 8 seed one of these days.

I also think GarPax probably drafts Haliburton instead of PW because they liked players from Iowa. That one move would've changed everything.

There was a group of posters here that advocated for Haliburton at the time, but the Gar/Pax special was to take Obi Toppin.

Toppin wouldve been better than Patrick Willisms of the past few years.

[Dez]

I know 2 of the 3 that voted AKME, fess up who was the 3rd?

[step]

As dysfunctional GarPax duo was, they at least were more responsive and adaptable to change. Even during the time there was the power struggle, change were made. Not always the right ones, but they atleast tried to keep moving.

AK largely has been a deer stuck in the headlights.

[coldfish]

With Garpax 2011-2020 you had a plan. You had hope. You also had the complete confidence that they would screw it up.

With AKME, there is no plan. There is no hope.

I'll take Garpax but this is like saying I would take chlamydia over syphilis.

[DASMACKDOWN]

The correct answer is neither.

GarPax were TERRIBLE. They never made moves to improve the team but at least you knew they value draft picks.

AKME is TERRIBLE not only because of moves but also non moves. AK is also a terrible communicator, so you have no idea what he values.

But to answer outside of the poll, I would rather have Pax and not GarPax.

[dougthonus]

There was a group of posters here that advocated for Haliburton at the time, but the Gar/Pax special was to take Obi Toppin.

I don't know if they'd have taken Haliburton, but he was their exact type of player, and that insanely close ties to Iowa St. Toppin was most definitely not their MO for player type. I would have pegged them as taking Haliburton, Vassell, or maybe Advija in terms of guys I think would have fit their pattern.

[dougthonus]

With Garpax 2011-2020 you had a plan. You had hope. You also had the complete confidence that they would screw it up.

With AKME, there is no plan. There is no hope.

I'll take Garpax but this is like saying I would take chlamydia over syphilis.

I think it's more like taking a cold over cancer.

Still, no one wants a cold.

[coldfish]

With Garpax 2011-2020 you had a plan. You had hope. You also had the complete confidence that they would screw it up.

With AKME, there is no plan. There is no hope.

I'll take Garpax but this is like saying I would take chlamydia over syphilis.

I think it's more like taking a cold over cancer.

Still, no one wants a cold.

GarPax was never going to succeed as they operated during that period. Between the political issues and the poor talent evaluation, they were just going to be a neverending series of 30-40 win seasons. It would just be 30-40 wins seasons with hope, instead of what we have now.

[League Circles]

also shout out to doug for being maybe the only person i can remember arguing that things could be worse during the twilight of the garpax administration

I also pointed out the obvious truth that A new totally unknown front office could be worse than an average one had been.

[robert76]

This is like the opposite of Sophie's Choice.

[League Circles]

Overall the Paxson was obviously similarly average to the AK one in results (though I'd take Paxson over AK personally), but the era cherry picked for this thread has such higher highs and such lower lows than the AK era it's hard to say. Both the Jimmy Butler and Rose trades were absurd IMO, and the talent evaluation was pretty bad for quite a few years.