PAXON'S TOP 10 MISTAKES !!! LIST EM

[Chicag-Fro]

The thing that makes me the most angry is trading away Chandler for nothing. If Pax didn't like Chandler that is fine. If he thought Wallace and him couldn't co-exist, thats fine too. But to trade a young 7-footer away, who produced pretty effectively on the defensive end, and have nothing to show for it a year later is unacceptable.

He had PJ Brown's expiring contract to use in a trade. Thats the only reason you do the trade in the first place, to get an expiring back. But he didn't use it to get anyone let alone a "star". He could have at least traded for Kurt Thomas who is expiring this year, and tried again to make a deal. But now we essentially have nothing to show for the Chandler trade (i think we might have a 2nd round pick from it, but you get the picture).

I have been an LaMarcus fan since his college days so I was very angry when the deal happened. I think he could have filled that one hole we are missing. But Tyrus has shown some flashes, so maybe one day the deal will even out.

[Professor Frink]

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I would add to your list that Paxson actually tried to sign Eddy Curry to a long-term contract, and but for Curry's funky heart, he'd still be here.

Now that's a good one. I shudder to think of fatty on this team.

[Dieselbound&Down]

Not funding stem cell research so Jayson Williams knee could heal correctly.

It fits in with the others on the OP list.

[BobbyBulls]

1) Drafting TT over Brandon Roy.

Big guards who can run the offense and create shots for others while playing with a short combo guard are very hard to find. This was our chance. He could then have packaged the other combo guard for a big. A Roy - BG backcourt would have been fun to watch.

[coldfish]

Any criticism that starts with "not trading for" should be ignored. None of us have any idea what was offered, demanded, or rejected.

For my own list:

1. Trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown.
2. Trading away Aldridge.
3. Taking Thabo over Brewer
4. Releasing Corie Blount the day after he could sign on with another team for the playoffs.

And thats pretty much it. If I really wanted to stretch it, I'd add drafting Gordon over Iggy. But that one would really be nitpicking.

I wouldn't even put Corie Blount on the list. That's more an emotional issue than a tactical one. It had no negative implication on the team. Might as well say: "Forgot to send Topper a birthday card." to the list.

I would add four to it:
- Signing Ben Wallace
- Signing Scottie Pippen
- Giving Nocioni too much
- Giving Chandler too much

That would leave my list as:
1. Trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown.
2. Trading away Aldridge.
3. Taking Thabo over Brewer
4. Signing Ben Wallace
5. Signing Scottie Pippen
6. Overpaying Chandler
7. Overpaying Nocioni

Oddly, 4 out of the 7 items occurred in a 3 week period in 2006.

Good moves:
- Dumping Jalen Rose
- Drafting Hinrich over guys like Peitrus
- Getting Deng for a future first
- Drafting Duhon in the 2nd
- Resigning Duhon on the cheap
- Signing Nocioni
- Signing Joe Smith
- Drafting Noah
- Drafting Gray in the 2nd
- Getting two lottery picks for Eddy Curry
- Hiring Skiles
- Firing Skiles

The biggest issue with Paxson, and I kind of leaned into this before, is that he is kind of a "best move available" type guy with only the base philosophy of looking for non trouble type people. The issue is that all those "best move availables" don't really fit together well.

[JeremyB0001]

I think if you assume that Pax could have traded for Kobe (for a remotely reasonable price) and chose not to, contrary to a number of published reports, that shows a lack of objectivity. The same is true for a lesser extent whenever someone criticizes a GM for *failing* to make a trade.

[DuckIII]

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Ah! Finally a list I can relate to.

As for #1, I was fine with trading Chandler because I didn't think you could start Chandler and Wallace together and because Chandler was way overpriced for a backup. I wasn't thrilled with getting PJ, but then became enthralled with the idea of what Paxson might do with the big expiring contract. When nothing was done with PJ's contract, I was ticked. We now know that Paxson operates under an "absolutely no LT" constraint. With this in mind, it's clear that Paxson had to trade Chandler and that he had to get an expiring contract. Given this and the fact that Paxson needed a starting PF, he probably did as well as he could possibly have done.

Unfortunately, the more time that passes, the more #2 and #3 ring true.

#4 was unquestionably bad form and did no good for management's reputation among vet players (though it hasn't seemed to had a concrete negative effect). I've never heard any explanation for this uncharacteristic blunder, so Pax should be thrashed for this one.

I would add to your list that Paxson actually tried to sign Eddy Curry to a long-term contract, and but for Curry's funky heart, he'd still be here.

I've always said that by far and away the one thing that has always made me question Paxson's competence was that he would have locked Eddy up long term if he could have. I was always against that and it still concerns me that Paxson would have done it.

But that "mistake" never happened, thank God. So its not on my list.

[Magilla_Gorilla]

Would someone please edit the thread title and spell Paxson's name correctly.

If you are going to criticize the guy, at least learn how to spell his name.


You have to try to be this dense.

[Hold That]

After going over everyones list, theres one thing that rings out to me in bright neon lights.

John Paxson is a poor evaluator of big man talent and value to this team.

Exmaples from other peoples list..

Trading away Eddy Curry and underestimating his value to this team.
Trading away Tyson Chandler for nothing
Trading away LaMarcus Aldridge for nothing.(Tyrus Thomas as of right now is nothing until he stops racking up the DNP's then I will give him some respect)
Signing Ben Wallace and failing to realise how fast he is on the decline. The signs were evident in Detriot, no excuse for Paxson not to be aware.
Drafting Joakim Noah when you already have two big men on your team who do the exact same thing.(Trade the pick if you nobody in the draft fills a need)

These moves I just listed are the reason why this team is in complete disarray and currently have no direction.

With that said, I'm really skepticle if Paxson will ever fix our big man problem. I believe we are more likely to aquire a "pass first" point gaurd before we get a true quality big man. Either one would help this team out tremendously to be truthful.

[sonny]

Would someone please edit the thread title and spell Paxson's name correctly.

If you are going to criticize the guy, at least learn how to spell his name.


You have to try to be this dense.

[img]

Eh, it prepares me for the fact that 4-5 items on his list are the same thing[/img]

[step]

What about Kobe, who was licking his chops to come to Chicago?

And funny enough he is the reason why he's not a Bull. That one does not fall on Paxson.

[JackFinn]

1. Not trading for Kevin Garnett
2. Not trading for Kobe Bryant
3. Trading away Chandler and signing Ben Wallace
4. No trading for a low post PF like Gasol
5. Not signing a big SG in the offseason
6. Not trading Deng or Gordon at start of season when they declined their deals.
7. Signing Ben Wallace to a ridiculous contract when he had Chandler (same player)
8. Being too loyal to his young draft talent when he couldn've had a star
9. Not trading for a superstar
10. Waiting for almost 2 years and counting to fix a problem which he and the fans know about.



I haven't been angry as a Bulls fan since the Matt Maloney, Chris Carr, Dragan Tarlac and Chris Anstey Days. I'm fuming.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SyWEBbFwU1o

[Tommy Udo 6]

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(What did I spell wrong??)


As Barkley and Pippen stated: " You can't play midgets in your back court".



I feel like I'm in english class here

I've never known you to spell Paxson's name correctly.

So either you are incredibly clueless or you do it deliberately as a form of insult.

[Clint Eastwood]

1. Not trading for Kevin Garnett
2. Not trading for Kobe Bryant
3. Trading away Chandler and signing Ben Wallace
4. No trading for a low post PF like Gasol
5. Not signing a big SG in the offseason
6. Not trading Deng or Gordon at start of season when they declined their deals.
7. Signing Ben Wallace to a ridiculous contract when he had Chandler (same player)
8. Being too loyal to his young draft talent when he couldn've had a star
9. Not trading for a superstar
10. Waiting for almost 2 years and counting to fix a problem which he and the fans know about.



I haven't been angry as a Bulls fan since the Matt Maloney, Chris Carr, Dragan Tarlac and Chris Anstey Days. I'm fuming.

come on, realgm status should be revoked until you spell paxson's name right. i disagree with almost all of your points by the way. if you could please name what trades were acceptable to teams like minnesota and emphis that paxson foolishly declined, i would be happy to comment. it has been widely published for what its worth that the bulls offered the sun and moon for garnett, but was turned down because he doent sleep with him like he does danny ainge.

[p_s]

I am going to agree with BobbyBulls because it seems that in that draft Pax identified two areas of weakness -- PF and Big Playmaking Guard. In hindsight, the pick should not have been TT or Aldridge, because neither provides post offense. It clearly should have been Roy.

Another blunder might be not demanding that Skiles hire a big man coach during his contract negotiations.

Signing Ben Wallace seemed like a decent idea, but clearly not it was a mistake. I believe that Gooden was an FA that same summer. Signing him, along with acquiring a big man coach might have been a better use of company funds.

[Balance-a-Bull]

coldfish wrote:

Overall, I think the fundamental problem with the team is, was and always will be ownership.

Paxson's primary mistake has been taking the philosophy of winning with defense and rebounding to an extreme. By drafting and acquiring so many defense and rebounding specialists, he created a team that is too unbalanced to be competitive on a continual basis.

The philosophical premise of management in general pertaining to the construction of the team is accurately summarized in this assessment. The thinking with management is that you always build according to defense and the offense will take care of it's self.

The problem with that theory is if you don't get NBA caliber lock defenders that will shut down the highly skilled offensive players in the NBA, the theory is doomed to fail. You will find a lot of flat out shut down defenders, so you better be able to score on the other end to have a chance.

If you only concentrate on defense you will only get so far, unless you have absolute elite defenders that constantly create turnovers and fast break opportunities for the offense on a consistent basis. Otherwise, you need to balance your team with players that can contribute on offense to compete on a high level night in and night out.

The San Antonio Spurs are a tremendous defensive team when operating on all cylinders and they an excellent offensive attack to complement their defense, therefore they are properly balanced. We should not abandon defense, but should not neglect offense either. It is a recipe for disaster.

As everyone on this board knows, I have been harping for a viable post player constantly and I was arguably the biggest supporter of us drafting and keeping Aldridge. He is not a post player, but he can score, and offense from the front line players outside of Smith would certainly be welcome and appreciated.

We should not have traded Chandler to sign another non-offensive defensive player in Wallace that is aging. We could have signed Bonzi Wells instead to help Gordon with scoring in the back court, and added Aldridge and Brewer or Rondo as a point guard prospect.

We should have pursued Gasol to help balance our perimeter offense also. We need to stick with drafting the best player in the draft and not the player with the most potential that may never materialize , i.e TT over LA , Roy or Gay that were and are more established and proven despite not having a high ceiling. Good is better than trying to find a diamond in the rough, when you know or have a good idea what to expect, rather than not getting much anything in return for your high risk investment.

[coldfish]

We need to stick with drafting the best player in the draft and not the player with the most potential that may never materialize , i.e TT over LA , Roy or Gay that were and are more established and proven despite not having a high ceiling. Good is better than trying to find a diamond in the rough, when you know or have a good idea what to expect, rather than not getting much anything in return for your high risk investment.

In general, the 2006 draft was out of character for Paxson. Before then, the knock on him was that he only drafted safe picks. With both Thomas and Sefolosha, he went with high risk guys.

Many of the same people who are bashing Paxson now for taking Thomas were bashing Paxson before 2006 for not taking risks in the draft.

.....

I agree with your other comments.

[ChiBullsFan83]

This is why I don't post here much anymore, to many fairweather fans. The bad thing about this team winning is everyone pretends to care again and when they lose, people bitch. Paxson has made mistakes but considering some of the rediculous things posted on this board, I'm glad the majority of you guys never will have a job in the NBA for this organization or anyother for that matter! Does anyone remember how bad we were five years ago or have we just chosen to forget that?

I don't agree with all the moves Paxson has made either, but I'm not going to whine everytime we lose a game. I get pissed sure, but that's just being a fan. The biggest one I'm mad at is when we decided to go for a big in the '06-'07 draft. I wanted Pax to stay on the safe route and select Roy instead of Aldridge or Tyrus. Then we could of shipped Gordon out of here and have Gasol. A starting five of this would be ideal:

PG - Kirk
SG - Roy
SF - Deng
PF - Gasol
C - Wallace

Hindisight is 20/20, get over it people.

[Tommy Udo 6]

Right - no one gets them all right

Paxson has done better than most.

No other team's fans moan in hindsight as much as Bulls fans.....

In hindsight - the worse move was getting Wallace, but JR & Skiles were also in favor of it,

Remember that the person many consider the best - Joe Dumars - once picked Darko over Anthony, Bosh, Wade & Kaman.

[fudgie]

I don't think that Pax has made a lot of mistakes. Anything that includes not trading for somebody is not a mistake unless you can prove that there was a good trade on the table that he rejected.

Anyway here's my list:

1) What was essentially a Ben Wallace for Tyson Chandler trade
2) Drafting Thabo over Brewer
3) To a much lesser extent taking Gordon over Iggy.