Post#225 » by AtheJ415 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:53 am
Let's just look at the actual hand McD was dealt, and the moves he's made:
Dudley and a 2nd for Bledsoe. Very obvious and huge win.
2nd for Leuer. Very obvious win.
Traded a 2nd to move up and get Archie. Loss. Archie hasn't panned out, but that was a weak as hell draft, and Archie was always a hit or miss guy, and the Suns drafted him knowing he could miss. Since he missed, I'll call it a loss even though there was logic behind it. He is still young enough to turn it around though.
Traded Marcus for a 2nd. Got a cancer off the team, and he may have been overpaid at the time. I'll call this neutral because Marcus did have talent so you could argue this is selling low (I wouldn't, but trying to be impartial here).
Traded Tolliver for Tony Mitchell. Win. Yes, Mitchell isn't on the roster and it didn't work out, but Tolliver came in and sucked, and we got a young guy who had a little upside in return. These are the trade rebuilding teams have to make. In this context, I'll call it a win.
Traded Shavlik Randolph for Reggie Bullock. Same logic as above for Mitchell. It's a win, regardless of the result. When you are rebuilding, trading an old as hell non-factor for a recent first rounder is always a win.
Re-signed Bledsoe for about $15 mil/year. Expensive at the time, but now it's a bargain. This is a win. He's a star (not a superstar, but a star).
Re-signed Knight for the same. TBD. Knight is a 2 guard. I don't really buy the whole "2 PG system" problem, because Knight simply doesn't play like a PG. He is an undersized 2, and if I look around the league at the 2 guards, Knight is one of the better ones (top 7 I'd say). He's also one of the best his age or younger. That said, whether he's worth $15 mil/year going forward is TBD. He's been very inconsistent so far, but his good games show his promise/ceiling.
Re-signed Tucker for $5 mil/3 years. I hated it, but given where we were in the offseason, it's a bargain price. Also, the 3rd year isn't guaranteed, so he can be cut. I still have no idea how he fits with this team's future though.
Re-signed Kieff for $8 mil/4 or 5 years. Win. You have to factor in where we were at the time, and nobody could've predicted that the Morri would use their extensions as an expectation that they could do whatever the hell they want with no consequences.
Re-signed Marcus for $5 mil/4 or 5 years. See above, although Marcus was overpaid, but you got Kieff underpaid as a result, and were able to get something for Marcus despite being overpaid.
Traded Dragic for 2 firsts, including 1 unprotected. People can long for the glory days and may disagree here, but Dragic has been absolutely awful in Miami relative to his new salary, which pays him into his 30s. It could be we'd be in the playoffs right now if Dragic was in our system and he and Bledsoe had kept it up, but I don't think anyone could say we'd be a contender at all, so I don't see the point in building a roster just to make the playoffs while maxing out all salary. I'd rather have the picks.
Signed Thomas for nothing, traded him for a first. Completely threw off team chemistry upon signing. That said, the team the previous year played above their heads, and a 2nd year at that level was unlikely. Thomas played well here, Dragic didn't. At the end of the day, the result was we used our cap space to underpay for something that was undervalued on the market, and then flipped it for an extra first rounder, and then were forced to move our once upon a time star for 2 more firsts, and that star signed a huge deal and hasn't been performing. It was awful to watch and messy as hell, but if you told me before the season I could get 3 firsts by signing IT or use that money to overpay some veteran PF, keep Dragic happy, and make the playoffs while getting Dragic at his current deal, I'd be taking the picks.
Drafted Len. Great pick in a weak draft imo.
Drafted Booker. BPA in the draft. Looks great so far.
Drafted Warren. It was a loaded draft, but he shows a lot of promise. He still needs to become a better 2 way player.
Drafted Ennis. Hasn't really done anything. Could be a missed pick. Could be he's just so young he needs more time.
Drafted Bogdan. TBD. Moved up the Euro prospect ranking since being drafted, but has struggled a bit this year.
Traded Scola for a 1st, Plumlee, and Granger. Win. Scola, like Tucker now imo, had no use on this team given where it was. We got a 1st and a younger player who for a significant amount of his time here, outperformed Scola.
Traded Plumlee, Ennis, and laker pick for Knight. This is the big TBD. It could be a huge loss. It could be a huge win. If I had to call it now, I'd say it's neutral. The laker pick will very likely be top 3 this year, which means we would have never touched it. But let's say Philly gets crazy lucky and it's the #4 pick. Is Plumlee, Ennis, and Dragan Bender better than Knight as a group of prospects?
Seriously, what is there McDonough should've been doing here? The only possible negative I can really see is the Knight trade, but top picks fail all the time as well. Even if we end up with a high pick, it could be a bad draft (and this year's is imo) or we could just miss the pick. But it certainly looks like the Lakers will be tanking their way to keeping it.
If your goal for this team is to make the playoffs ASAP, then I get why you'd be upset with McDonough, but if you see this team for what it really is, a rebuilding team of young players that is not as bad as some of the other rebuilding teams with young players, therefore we don't/can't tank like them, then what has he done wrong? He's cherrypicked additional draft picks and young guys at every opportunity, trying to amass the most talent possible. He's drafted well. He's won almost every trade. What do you/did you expect him to do that makes him below average somehow?
