Who Would You like to see as Clipper GM/ Presi of BO?

[Quake Griffin]

throw some names out there.

any answer including Doc Rivers will be seen as trolling and reported.
thanks in advance.

[QRich3]

Well my dream scenario, and I think I already mentioned it here some time, has Durant leaving OKC and going east, severely weakening a rival team, and the Thunder owner getting nervous and kickin Presti to the curb. Then Doc resigns as GM cause he can't do both jobs at the same time, and we get Presti as GM and Doc as a coach.

That's pretty unrealistic though, so some names that have been getting press as future GM's are Presti's assistant Troy Weaver, Mike Zarren from the Celtics (the dude who came up with the stupid wheel idea for the draft, tho apparently he's pretty smart otherwise), Dean Oliver who's the stats guy the Kings kicked out at the start of the season, and the guy who replaced him Roland Beech, who was on the bench on the Mavs title, or Bobby Marks formerly from the Nets (he's a great follow on twitter btw).

To be honest I'd like a GM who's had extensive history with scouting and player development, like Olshey was, so Brian Pauga from the Spurs would be nice. And maybe get one or two of the stats / cap-legalese guys to help him out or something.

But that's just out of publicity tbh, I would have no idea how to actually evaluate which executives have been responsible of which successes in other teams.

[Neddy]

throw some names out there.

any answer including Doc Rivers will be seen as trolling and reported.
thanks in advance.

re-promote Gary Sacks as the GM. he did a very savvy job when he held the position and was wrongfully demoted. he deserves a real shot.

hire Tom Thibodeau as the HC. we need the real defensive guru. we have plenty of offense as long as we have CP and Blake.

hire whomever Steve Ballmer fancies for the BO. it's his money and making profit isn't the reason why Steve bought this team, nor would he suffer if the clips lost a million dollars a day, every day, for the rest of his life.

[BlzMwt]

throw some names out there.

any answer including Doc Rivers will be seen as trolling and reported.
thanks in advance.

re-promote Gary Sacks as the GM. he did a very savvy job when he held the position and was wrongfully demoted. he deserves a real shot.

hire Tom Thibodeau as the HC. we need the real defensive guru. we have plenty of offense as long as we have CP and Blake.

hire whomever Steve Ballmer fancies for the BO. it's his money and making profit isn't the reason why Steve bought this team, nor would he suffer if the clips lost a million dollars a day, every day, for the rest of his life.

i don't know why, because the bulls had relatively deep teams but TT insists on his guys playing extreme minutes. Imagine last playoffs where the top 4 guys were gassed and it would probably be worse

i think you want to bring in anyone from the spurs system, whether it is GM or Coaching

[nickhx2]

i get why tt plays his guys big minutes. the more you play the better you are and practice is not the same as a real game time environment. but it's a double edged sword because you burn out your players faster and it gives less developmental time to guys who might come up big for you in the playoffs.

[Neddy]

well hopefully Tom has learned a lesson since. I did think about the same issue especially with older, more frail CP, but I just cannot think of a better defensive coach available, maybe there are, I just don't know any

[Ranma]

I agree that getting a guy from the Spurs' organization would normally be an appealing route, but Danny Ferry came from that program as well, so it's not all great and the ripe front office talent seems to have been plucked from that organization at the moment. However, Dennis Lindsey was my top choice before Doc's hiring because he served 6 years as assistant GM in San Antonio, but he's currently the Jazz's GM. [Sigh]

I like Gary Sacks, but I wouldn't trust him to be the top dog right now, so maybe bringing back Jeff Weltman to the organization would help given the familiarity with those two collaborating. I believe Weltman did all the legwork while Mike Dunleavy, Sr. was GM-coach and I actually wanted him to succeed Dunleavy as GM. The idea of Weltman and Sacks working together appeals to me but I'm not as high on him now as I was then. He's been considered for other GM jobs in the past but I don't know if he's still seen as an up-and-comer any more, which concerns me for whatever reason. In any case, he should be better than our current GM and I believe he's currently Masai Ujiri's right-hand man in Toronto.

Troy Weaver gets a lot of hype now as a GM candidate as apparently the hottest name on the market, so I guess I should give him consideration. He supposedly recruited Carmelo Anthony to Syracuse and led an internal charge to draft Russell Westbrook for the Thunder. I've read Weaver is known for his scouting and relationships, so he'll need a capologist and contract lawyer on his staff; I'd recommend CBA FAQ founder, Larry Coon, for the capologist position.

I enjoy Bobby Marks' informative tweets, but I'd prefer to have him be a part of the front office team a la the Dodgers' Andrew Friedman, Farhan Zaidi, and Josh Byrne. He'd be a great hire under a Weltman- or Weaver-led front office.

I don't know much at all about Travis Schlenk, but the more I read about him, the more impressive his resume looks. He's interned with the Magic during the Chuck Daly era and is currently the Warriors' assistant GM and director of player personnel. Jerry West seems to endorse him as a humble hard-worker with a well-rounded understanding of team-building. In addition to Daly and West, he's benefited from past mentors like Pat Riley, Stan Van Gundy, Erik Spoelstra, Don Nelson, Jeff Bzdelik, and Mike Montgomery as well as current colleague Steve Kerr. Schlenk has not only paid his dues, but he seems adept at marrying big data with old-school player evaluation techniques. In addition to physical and athletic ability, he also considers personality in order to find appropriate fits as a team-builder. The current Warriors squad seems to be a product of such an approach. This guy seems to be under the radar and would be a great addition to any front office, but is he ready to lead it? Schlenk sounds like a possible gem.

A few other names I've come across that may be sleepers are Tommy Sheppard, Brian Pauga, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Sheppard is currently with the Wizards and seems to have worked in the background for 19 seasons with varied responsibilities but supposedly focuses on cap management and contracts in addition to having scouting experience. Pauga is the Spurs' director of scouting and runs the D-League's Austin Toros and has been with San Antonio since 2007. Former player Abdur-Rahim worked with the Kings before quietly leaving the organization in light of their current front office mess. He's noted for being a sponge with a keen eye but he still needs seasoning.

Tom Thibodeau would be a nice replacement for Doc as coach, but I'm not sure if he'd be the long-term answer. However, with a closing championship window with CP3 and BG, he could be the ideal hire. I'd still like to consider other coaching candidates, but if we can replace Doc the GM, I would be willing to still give Doc the coach a chance provided we unload some of his more unuseful toys (e.g. Crawford).

The one name, besides Isiah Thomas, I would avoid in our GM search is Tom Penn. He's currently an analyst for ESPN, which is almost a strike against him, but he was also a self-promoting cancer when he made his power play in Portland. Dude seems like he'd be part of the same fraternity of d-bags as Steve Lavin (former UCLA basketball coach) and Kevin Malone (former Dodgers GM).

[DLaren]

I still believe in Doc.

It's not his fault that CP3 & Blake fold every spring (it wasn't Vinny Del Negro's fault either).

[Ranma]

Vinny Del Negro was always a stopgap measure or at least he should have been. To seriously contend for a championship, we should have always looked for someone else to handle the job. It's why he was let go and why Doc was brought aboard in the first place. The expectations were different for both coaches.

[Texas Chuck]

I agree that getting a guy from the Spurs' organization would normally be an appealing route, but Danny Ferry came from that program as well, so it's not all great

The thing is Danny Ferry did a remarkable job as a GM for Atlanta. Not only did he turn a treadmill team into a 60 game winner who advanced to the ECF, he also managed to get assets for some of the nasty contracts he inherited.

Obviously he could never be hired by the Clippers because of the Deng scandal, but as far as doing his job, he was terrific.

[Quake Griffin]

I still believe in Doc.

It's not his fault that CP3 & Blake fold every spring (it wasn't Vinny Del Negro's fault either).

The teams typically aren't good enough to win.
It's lazy ESPN level reporting to point to stars that aren't performing poorly and say the team loses because they fold.

[QRich3]

re-promote Gary Sacks as the GM. he did a very savvy job when he held the position and was wrongfully demoted. he deserves a real shot.

He was the engineer of the Bledsoe trade that people blame on Doc whenever it looks like he could've done better... I loved the trade btw, and the vision that came with it, of needing to spread the floor around the Paul-Blake P&R, which is the base of every success we've had.

But I still want an Olshey type of GM, a dude with a long background in scouting who can foresee which players are gonna become what, and one who is good at drawing the general plan of the franchise in the next decade, not winning now at the cost of losing later, and not afraid of taking risks either. Like Olshey was, basically.

I like Sacks and hope he sticks around as part of the FO, but I'd probably be looking for a different sort of guy to be the head of the spear.

I still believe in Doc.

It's not his fault that CP3 & Blake fold every spring (it wasn't Vinny Del Negro's fault either).

The teams typically aren't good enough to win.
It's lazy ESPN level reporting to point to stars that aren't performing poorly and say the team loses because they fold.

but.. but.. they should want it more!

[Wammy Giveaway]

I'm asking this because the sentiment here is that we can only choose people who have worked under the San Antonio franchise. They do all the right things, from on the court to inside the offices. They have a longevity of winning. The employees are all Good Samaritans - no Evel Kninevels, Yes-Men or Me-First types over there.

When the Clippers tried to follow the Lakers model after Dr. Jerry Buss introduced Donald Sterling to the NBA, that didn't work.

When the Clippers tried to follow the Spurs model when Vinny Del Negro came aboard and into the vetoed trade, that didn't work.

When the Clippers tried to follow the Celtics model where Doc Rivers learned from Danny Ainge, that is seemingly not going to work.

Every model the Clippers have tried has ended in failure. They shouldn't be following other franchise's leads. I think they need to come up with something original. Take a piece from San Antonio, Boston and Big Brother for advice, but don't lean on it like a crutch.

For example, I would love to see the Clippers try something radical. What if there was somebody from the NFL, NHL or MLB who knew lots about the NBA? Maybe not in basketball sense, but in discipline, tolerance, focus. Clippers have a coach/GM/father with no direction other than to play his favorites and relive his 2008 championship route.

If the Clippers have to miss the playoffs for the sake of starting over, so be it. As it is, not only do they need a new face, they need a new direction.

For once, when are the Clippers going to be the leaders and not the followers? And for the righteous good, for a change?

[Ranma]

Doc likes to talk a lot about trying to emulate the Spurs' approach, but in practice he doesn't come close to implementing what the Spurs are doing whether it's with regards to the draft, developing players, finding fits in the system, or even putting an effective system in place. It's one thing to say that you're following someone's model, but it's an entirely different matter to actually do it, especially when you don't have the right personnel, resources, and leadership to actually commit to such actions.

Does anybody honestly believe that we genuinely tried to follow another organization's winning formula during the Sterling years? Come on now. I'm sorry but saying that he followed Jerry Buss's model of running a world-class organization like the Lakers of old is really disingenuous, if not outright absurd. Sterling only followed Buss in strictly owning an NBA team and ran it on a shoestring budget. To be fair, other NBA teams have followed Sterling's cost-cutting and tanking models to give themselves a better chance for a rebuild, but that's another matter.

At the behest of Dunleavy, Sterling finally built our very own practice facility when every other franchise had already been operating their own for years. He only recently started to care a little more about putting in the resources to winning and attracting free agents, but he put the onus on a single person: Mike Dunleavy, Sr. Also, let's not forget that he finally fired the incompetent Elgin Baylor after years of just cashing Sterling's checks, which is a far cry from Jerry West.

Likewise, to say that Doc is following the Celtics' approach is dubious. Danny Ainge kept Doc in check, whereas now, Doc is surrounded by his yes-men. Our current model is the same one we've employed before: having one man take the reins to drive the direction without objection, where Doc is reprising the role of coach-GM that was played by MD Sr. before him. If we're trying to model our approach to other organizations', then we're only going through the motions in a half-hearted measure. Seems to me that it's more business as usual than actually making effective changes.

Having said that, I'll reiterate that I think it would've been good to get someone from the Spurs organization, but the time is not right now given the lack of ripe talent currently available there. It seems too late now and it'll take some time before they develop ready talent in San Antonio. I previously advocated going after Dennis Lindsey before he went to the Jazz. The three names I cited in my previous post seem to be viable candidates for the GM position: Jeff Weltman, Troy Weaver, and Travis Schlenk.

I would've liked Brad Stevens but Ainge and the Celtics had the foresight to pursue and get him while everyone--NBA players included--were dazzled by the aura of Doc Rivers' lone championship ring. We've already mentioned Tom Thibodeau as possibly the best immediate and short-term answer as Doc's replacement given the closing championship window, but from a long-term perspective, I'd like to do what the Lakers tried to do: convince Mike Krzyzewski to leave Duke for the NBA.

At this point, my ideal coach and GM combo to carry out a reorganization of the Clippers are Mike Krzyzewski as coach and Travis Schlenk as GM. Schlenk appeals to me because he's well-rounded and puts in the work. He's had plenty of experience learning from some of the game's great NBA minds and he's currently a part of the NBA's best team. He's not only concerned with talent and athleticism in his evaulations, but also fit and personality into a system. Krzyzewski, despite being a college coach, is widely respected. He's both a taskmaster and trusted father figure who's built up a legacy of success on having players play their respective roles in his system albeit at the collegiate level. However, he's also coached NBA stars for the US Men's National Basketball program for international competition including the Olympics. Coack K will hand off his responsibilities for Team USA to none other than Gregg Popovich in 2017.

[QRich3]

Yeah I liked Brian Pauga because of his particular background, not because he comes from the Spurs. The Spurs have a nice way of working but it's been proven that their model is not replicable, you can't just function like the Spurs unless you build a way of working like the Spurs, and for that you need a particular type of owner and some very specific FO people with some very specific talents, and there's no other coach like Pop to put it all to work, just as there's no other GM like Buford. And on top of that, you need years of it working that way for the culture to get roots, maybe decades. Besides, some people from the Spurs tree have failed spectacularly (think Vaughn and Brown for instance), so it's not like everyone you hire from them is gonna surely work. You can't be like the Spurs unless you're the Spurs. You have to find a model that works for your franchise, in the city it is located, with the owner it has, and the kind of fans that follow it.

[Ranma]

The thing is Danny Ferry did a remarkable job as a GM for Atlanta. Not only did he turn a treadmill team into a 60 game winner who advanced to the ECF, he also managed to get assets for some of the nasty contracts he inherited.

Obviously he could never be hired by the Clippers because of the Deng scandal, but as far as doing his job, he was terrific.

I'm not sure I can make a fair assessment on Ferry, but you make a good counterpoint with regards to what he did for Atlanta prior to his ouster, especially during the ownership uncertainty. Ferry, being the son of a former NBA GM, was largely seen as someone to be groomed for the position. However, Ferry's roster construction didn't work until Mike Budenholzer, another Spurs alumnus, came onboard to collaborate with him.

The reason why I'm admittedly biased against Ferry is because, as a #2 overall pick in 1989, he left to play in Italy rather than put on a Clippers uniform. He wasn't even the guy I wanted as I preferred Sean Elliott to him and even Purvis Ellison, who surprisingly went 1st overall that year. He eventually netted us Ron Harper and Loy Vaught in trade, but is a despised figure to Clippers fans who remember his treachery.

[Texas Chuck]

Face Palm. I forgot all about Ferry originally being a Clipper pick. Yeah that's probably as big as reason as the Deng scandal for the Clippers to never want to touch him.

Although the Mavericks did hire Kiki Vandeweghe despite him doing essentially the same thing to us when we drafted him so maybe time heals all wounds?

[DLaren]

I still believe in Doc.

It's not his fault that CP3 & Blake fold every spring (it wasn't Vinny Del Negro's fault either).

The teams typically aren't good enough to win.
It's lazy ESPN level reporting to point to stars that aren't performing poorly and say the team loses because they fold.

"Lazy" is blaming the coach every time your "superstars" collapse -- you guys ran Vinny out-of-town too, and that hasn't stopped CP3 & Blake from falling a part every time the heat turns-up.

I hope Doc is our coach/GM for the next 10-15 years...I'm not interested in swapping coaches every year-and-a-half.

Doc has a ring and 2 conference-finals appearances, so I know he can coach. CP3 & Blake have zero rings and zero conference-finals appearances...I'll stick with the guy whose done it before.

If that means he has to move CP3 and/or Blake for some guys who aren't allergic to the semi-finals, then so be it.

[nickhx2]

I still believe in Doc.

It's not his fault that CP3 & Blake fold every spring (it wasn't Vinny Del Negro's fault either).

The teams typically aren't good enough to win.
It's lazy ESPN level reporting to point to stars that aren't performing poorly and say the team loses because they fold.

"Lazy" is blaming the coach every time your "superstars" collapse -- you guys ran Vinny out-of-town too, and that hasn't stopped CP3 & Blake from falling a part every time the heat turns-up.

I hope Doc is our coach/GM for the next 10-15 years...I'm not interested in swapping coaches every year-and-a-half.

Doc has a ring and 2 conference-finals appearances, so I know he can coach. CP3 & Blake have zero rings and zero conference-finals appearances...I'll stick with the guy whose done it before.

If that means he has to move CP3 and/or Blake for some guys who aren't allergic to the semi-finals, then so be it.

it's sad when the lazy espn narrative stuff starts being echoed by the fans.

[DLaren]

I still believe in Doc.

It's not his fault that CP3 & Blake fold every spring (it wasn't Vinny Del Negro's fault either).

The teams typically aren't good enough to win.
It's lazy ESPN level reporting to point to stars that aren't performing poorly and say the team loses because they fold.

"Lazy" is blaming the coach every time your "superstars" collapse -- you guys ran Vinny out-of-town too, and that hasn't stopped CP3 & Blake from falling a part every time the heat turns-up.

I hope Doc is our coach/GM for the next 10-15 years...I'm not interested in swapping coaches every year-and-a-half.

Doc has a ring and 2 conference-finals appearances, so I know he can coach. CP3 & Blake have zero rings and zero conference-finals appearances...I'll stick with the guy whose done it before.

If that means he has to move CP3 and/or Blake for some guys who aren't allergic to the semi-finals, then so be it. Of course I hope it doesn't come to that, but I'd choose Doc over any player on this roster.