why is everyone excited about Ferry being the new GM?

[reazun]

This is a serious question because I really value yalls sports knowledge and opinions. I cringed when I heard Ferry was the GM, but maybe I dont know enough about his track record. All I know is that he was the GM for the Cavs when Lebron was there, but he repeatedly failed to give Lebron enough pieces to give him a championship. I am not a Lebron fan but I would watch Lebron decimate teams single handedly and he could get them only so far. I never blamed Lebron for not getting the Cavs a championship. I blamed their GM for not giving him the pieces to get there. I mean seriously what happened to the Cavs when Lebron left? That pretty much shows that the team was not put together. very well. Yall some smart sports people though, so please tell me why you are excited about Ferry so that I can be excited too.

[monsterblock]

im not excited either, getting Ferry as GM, is like getting Mike Brown as coach.... but oh well.

[myrak433]

Ferry was handcuffed by the owners in Cleveland because Lebron was calling the shots... all those players that were brought in were players Lebron wanted. well most of them. Larry Hughes, Shaq, and Antawn Jamison. it is hard to build a team the right way when you have a player trying to be GM. but he still got them to the finals two or three times. if all he does is get us to the finals once and we loose that will be a huge improvement.

[monsterblock]

Ferry was handcuffed by the owners in Cleveland because Lebron was calling the shots... all those players that were brought in were players Lebron wanted. well most of them. Larry Hughes, Shaq, and Antawn Jamison. it is hard to build a team the right way when you have a player trying to be GM. but he still got them to the finals two or three times. if all he does is get us to the finals once and we loose that will be a huge improvement.

What???........ so Ferry deserves all of the credit and none of the blame?

man what a great job, can i get that

[myrak433]

Ferry was handcuffed by the owners in Cleveland because Lebron was calling the shots... all those players that were brought in were players Lebron wanted. well most of them. Larry Hughes, Shaq, and Antawn Jamison. it is hard to build a team the right way when you have a player trying to be GM. but he still got them to the finals two or three times. if all he does is get us to the finals once and we loose that will be a huge improvement.

What???........ so Ferry deserves all of the credit and none of the blame?

man what a great job, can i get that

I didn't say he deserves all of the credit. Lebron did have to play out of his mind to get the cavs there. but it is what it is Lebron built that team Ferry simply managed the salary cap. now this job will be(or should be) his first true test to see how he can build up a franchise. I am just ready for something different and glad that SUPERBLOGMAN was not hired. LOL

[monsterblock]

Ferry was handcuffed by the owners in Cleveland because Lebron was calling the shots... all those players that were brought in were players Lebron wanted. well most of them. Larry Hughes, Shaq, and Antawn Jamison. it is hard to build a team the right way when you have a player trying to be GM. but he still got them to the finals two or three times. if all he does is get us to the finals once and we loose that will be a huge improvement.

What???........ so Ferry deserves all of the credit and none of the blame?

man what a great job, can i get that

I didn't say he deserves all of the credit. Lebron did have to play out of his mind to get the cavs there. but it is what it is Lebron built that team Ferry simply managed the salary cap. now this job will be(or should be) his first true test to see how he can build up a franchise. I am just ready for something different and glad that SUPERBLOGMAN was not hired. LOL

well if Ferry is only to be judge by the salary cap, then he did a horrible job, he overpaid so many bad players.

i'm not excited about Ferry, but he is way overrated on realgm. his limited draft history has me shaking my head.

BTW: the Cavs did not make the finals two or three times

[MaceCase]

He got a team that plays in Cleveland, Ohio during the winter to a Finals and two regular season finishes with the best record in the league with a star on a short extension and big markets like NY already claiming from the day he was drafted he'd be theirs. I'd say he did a pretty good job considering the pressure and short time frame he was working with because even with Lebron there nobody wanted to or was going to sign in Cleveland unless the money was very worthwhile or it was some older vet looking to ring chase. Sure they didn't win it all but they were a hell of a lot closer than the Hawks were/are and up until last week they were also more successful than the Heat and they never had the opportunity to even get a player half as good as Bosh.

[evildallas]

Reasons I'm excited by the hiring of Ferry:

He comes from outside the organization. When you promote from within you minimize the likelihood of new ideas or methods of doing things. I still see hiring Drew from within as a mistake like keeping Mike Woodson 2 additional years because of the afterglow of playing the Celtics tough at home in the playoffs. The roster could really have used a change of voice before too many habits formed.

He comes from San Antonio. That doesn't guarantee success but it does mean he was witness to the organizational workings of one of the best organizations in the NBA.

His stint in Cleveland exposed him to many of the issues facing the Hawks. He faced the threat of losing the team's best player to free agency, he's dealt with the equivalent of multiple owners (Gilbert and Lebron because of Lebron's unique power), and he worked with a perennial playoff team trying to get them over the hump. Note I'm not claiming he had great success in Cleveland. He saw the situations and should have learned from he did or did not do the last time.

He held out for organizational commitment to things he feels are needed to turn the organization into a top flight org. The results are all that matter but hearing him ask for commitment to player development and analytics encourage me at this point.

http://www.foxsportssouth.com/06/25/12/ ... eedID=3703

To me Rick Sund provided what the ASG wanted. He was a classic old school GM to do their bidding and be the public face on unpopular decision (Joe's contract). After 5 years they find themselves essentially stuck in neutral and in danger of sliding downhill when the luxury tax and expiring contracts force hard decisions. I see Ferry more in the role of Billy Knight*. He's being hired not to do the bidding on the owners but rather to actually run the basketball operations. I see the hire as an acknowledgement that they need to learn more to get over the hump.

* As much as I hated Billy Knight I felt he had more power as GM because as a new ownership group they needed a career basketball man to navigate for them. I felt Sund was hired so they could flex their ownership prerogative. If they promoted from within it would signal they aren't aware of their shortcomings.

[monsterblock]

we will see in a few days in the draft if Ferry allows a "Whiteside situation" happen or not. if he does, i think it will set the tone for the next 5 years of what we can expect.

[myrak433]

we will see in a few days in the draft if Ferry allows a "Whiteside situation" happen or not. if he does, i think it will set the tone for the next 5 years of what we can expect.

what does this mean? that you are going to base the hire on who Ferry drafts before they even get a chance to play?

[monsterblock]

^ after what happen with the "Childress situation", "Shelden situation", "Chris Paul situation", and "Whiteside situation".......... then yes.

it is sad that casual fans know more about prospects than the past Hawks' GMs

[Jamaaliver]

evildallas pretty much summed it up

He comes from a winning organization that has a proven record of success. They have structure throughout the org and have focused on scouting and player development. Two things we've needed here for a while.

I equate Danny Ferry coming from SA to Thomas Dimitroff coming over from New England. They come from organizations that now how to conduct business, Instead of just guessing.

He also forced ownership to commit to putting a winner together. Not just remaining as part of the status quo.

Now one of our 2nd round picks might actually have a shot at actually playing for us someday instead of just staying overseas or getting cut in training camp. (talk about wasted resources.)

[BAMABIRD]

Great post EvilDallas. I thing Ferry has a good basketball mind, and brings a different business style and method to the Hawks organization. The fact that he has experience and strong front office ties to one of the most well run professional sports organizations (Spurs) doesn't hurt either. The Cleveland gig was his very first GM job, and I think he did a decent job. Ferry missed on a few draft picks but those Cleveland teams were good tough defensive minded teams, ranked near the top while being carried on offense by Lebron. The Cavs even got to the finals one year. No big free agent was going to Cleveland, and its tough to get something good back in a trade when you don't have anything to give. Its not like Cleveland had pieces that would have gotten anything back in return. Ferry did the best he could with what he had in Cleveland and I think its a home run hire. Time will tell.

[D21]

I never blamed Lebron for not getting the Cavs a championship. I blamed their GM for not giving him the pieces to get there

I don't think he's great regarding picks, but worked hard on trades, and got enough power to help CLE win a title.
IMO, if CLE didn't win it, it was certainly not that James was alone, he had a good team, but it was more due to Mike Brown as a coach.
With James and Ferry as GM, and with Popovich or another great coach, they should have win it.
Brown was benching James as soon as he got 2 fouls thinking the refs would give him 6 fouls in 15 minutes, and it cost at least two games.

Not saying Ferry is the best GM, but it's certainly a good one, and coming from SAS is important.

[monsterblock]

I never blamed Lebron for not getting the Cavs a championship. I blamed their GM for not giving him the pieces to get there

I don't think he's great regarding picks, but worked hard on trades, and got enough power to help CLE win a title.
IMO, if CLE didn't win it, it was certainly not that James was alone, he had a good team, but it was more due to Mike Brown as a coach.
With James and Ferry as GM, and with Popovich or another great coach, they should have win it.
Brown was benching James as soon as he got 2 fouls thinking the refs would give him 6 fouls in 15 minutes, and it cost at least two games.

Not saying Ferry is the best GM, but it's certainly a good one, and coming from SAS is important.

Ferry ended up loosing on every trade he made as the Cavs' GM

[evildallas]

Not so fast, monsterblock.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/exe ... da01x.html

The trade that brought Mo Williams to Cleveland has to be considered a win. They gave up an aged Joe Smith and Damon Jones. Jones was out of the league 18 games later.

The Shaquille O'Neal trade happened a half season late but they gave up little to get him. The Antwan Jamison trade was for Z's contract which he came back to the team after a buyout and a 1st round pick (Lazar Haywood). That pick was the 30th of the 1st round, so they got Antwan Jamison for almost nothing.

Reviewing his trades they were complicated, multiple team deals normally, but he for the most part turned little going out into something coming in. Maybe the players didn't pan out as well as he'd like (Jamison never seemed to fit) but he wasn't bent over in any of his deals either like say giving a former 1st rounder and 2 1st round picks for Joe Johnson when Phoenix was bluffing about matching his salary (when has Sarver spent like that?) or sending a former 1st and another 1st to rent Kirk Hinrich for a season and a half.

[MaceCase]

I would love to know what trades he "loosed" on. The only trade where he didn't get a clear cut better player was Hughes and Gooden for Ben Wallace and Wally Z but he moved Damon Jones for Mo Williams, later turned Ben Wallace into Shaq and turned Zydrunas into Jamison.....and got Zydrunas back. That's practically all of his trades and he turned a worse piece into a better piece in every single one of them.

By this metric he also has the 5th best draft record amongst current GMs with at least 5 picks to their resume.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/gm-ratings

Add in that details of him accepting the Hawks job included:

Having full authority over basketball decisions.
Establishing an analytics department.
A foreign and domestic scouting department.
Better and more modern team doctors, trainers and methods (no offense to Wally Blase but how are you the trainer and the fattest one on staff and somehow also hold a coaching position?)

I mean the fact that a frickin NBA franchise was operating in the stone ages without these amenities that are basic to most other franchises is shocking within in itself so Ferry just using common sense and saying "hey, we should have that too" is enough to be at least mildly excited over.

[reazun]

ok, i guess I can see why some of yall are excited. but what did he do with the spurs? he wasnt a GM, if I am right, he didnt even do much with the Spurs. He was working with their D-League team.

[Geaux_Hawks]

I would love to know what trades he "loosed" on. The only trade where he didn't get a clear cut better player was Hughes and Gooden for Ben Wallace and Wally Z but he moved Damon Jones for Mo Williams, later turned Ben Wallace into Shaq and turned Zydrunas into Jamison.....and got Zydrunas back. That's practically all of his trades and he turned a worse piece into a better piece in every single one of them.

By this metric he also has the 5th best draft record amongst current GMs with at least 5 picks to their resume.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/gm-ratings

Add in that details of him accepting the Hawks job included:

Having full authority over basketball decisions.
Establishing an analytics department.
A foreign and domestic scouting department.
Better and more modern team doctors, trainers and methods (no offense to Wally Blase but how are you the trainer and the fattest one on staff and somehow also hold a coaching position?)

I mean the fact that a frickin NBA franchise was operating in the stone ages without these amenities that are basic to most other franchises is shocking within in itself so Ferry just using common sense and saying "hey, we should have that too" is enough to be at least mildly excited over.

Wow! Did not know we didn't have all of that. Makes Ferry look even better and glad he got full control.

[reazun]

yall are making me thing that Ferry was a good choice. thanks for the info