The Official 2024 Offseason Thread Part 2

[garrick]

Honestly, I'm more pissed off about this than missing out on Doncic. I was high on Doncic since day 1, but I atleast understood the justification of drafting Ayton (even though I had my doubt about him).

Haliburton was such an obvious fit. Have him play under Paul for two seasons and then let him take over the reigns. The fact that he slipped to us was a shock, and the fact that we passed up on him was an even bigger shock

Yeah, I mean I really wanted Luka but it was obvious to me with McD that we were never going to draft him, after we got the top pick. Had we gotten like the 3rd pick I think we may have (but wouldn't be surprised if we made a trade similar to what Atlanta did).

With Halilburton it was a crazy great opportunity and then it wasn't only by far the BPA but it was by far our biggest need long term. And we took some guy not even projected in the first round.

And bend over ungreased to get rid of him. Made zero sense. Egregious.

Common thread over the past 10+ …. GMs who are mediocre at best

Smith, though, is more than a throw in for the Pacers. However, the Suns’ decision to decline his third-year rookie option before the season traveled with him to Indiana.

So what does that mean? Smith, a 6-foot-10 center from Virginia, becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

The Pacers are eligible to re-sign him, they just cannot offer him more than he would have earned from the team option: $4.67 million. (If it was possible, teams may use it as a way to compensate star players sooner, and players and their agents would absolutely push for it.)

The Pacers have this limitation whereas the other 29 teams do not.

The decision not to play him was on Monty since he hates young players but JJ not deciding to pick up his 4th year was a head scratcher and just idiotic to say the least.

You don't give up on a young player on a cheap rookie contract like that and if you don't plan to keep him you shouldn't purposely tank his value by not playing him and not extending his contract so that the team that traded for him are handicapped when it comes time to resign him.


https://www.fieldhousefiles.com/p/pacers-options-with-jalen-smith

[AtheJ415]

Yeah, I mean I really wanted Luka but it was obvious to me with McD that we were never going to draft him, after we got the top pick. Had we gotten like the 3rd pick I think we may have (but wouldn't be surprised if we made a trade similar to what Atlanta did).

With Halilburton it was a crazy great opportunity and then it wasn't only by far the BPA but it was by far our biggest need long term. And we took some guy not even projected in the first round.

And bend over ungreased to get rid of him. Made zero sense. Egregious.

Common thread over the past 10+ …. GMs who are mediocre at best

Smith, though, is more than a throw in for the Pacers. However, the Suns’ decision to decline his third-year rookie option before the season traveled with him to Indiana.

So what does that mean? Smith, a 6-foot-10 center from Virginia, becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

The Pacers are eligible to re-sign him, they just cannot offer him more than he would have earned from the team option: $4.67 million. (If it was possible, teams may use it as a way to compensate star players sooner, and players and their agents would absolutely push for it.)

The Pacers have this limitation whereas the other 29 teams do not.

The decision not to play him was on Monty since he hates young players but JJ not deciding to pick up his 4th year was a head scratcher and just idiotic to say the least.

You don't give up on a young player on a cheap rookie contract like that and if you don't plan to keep him you shouldn't purposely tank his value by not playing him and not extending his contract so that the team that traded for him are handicapped when it comes time to resign him.


https://www.fieldhousefiles.com/p/pacers-options-with-jalen-smith

Drafting him to begin with was the most idiotic decision imagineable. Haliburton was the obvious pick, and Vassell was also there with high upside and the versatility to play immediately. This was as easy a pick as the franchise has ever had. This was worse than passing on Luka by a mile because Ayton at least was a good player with athletic upside that probably nobody else in the draft had.

Jones has been an awful GM for us. He gets way too much credit for Cam Johnson and the CP3 trade

[Saberestar]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

In case anyone wants to be mad today

I always thought it was hogwash when people said "he didn't want to come here"....it was all speculation. Atlanta and Cleveland, yes, make sense because they just got Young and Garland. We made more sense than a team like the Kings for him anyway, with a very old PG and no depth. Clear cut starter for the future.

Plus, any guy getting drafted and suddenly making a ton was going to be happy anyway.

I still have no real understanding why James Jones couldn't see that we needed a PG long term even though we just traded for Paul when it was clear to everyone else. Did he really think Payne was the guy? He couldn't have been too committed to Jalen Smith anyway since he didn't even pick up his option.

It's infuriating and I know people hate hearing about it but it would totally change our trajectory of the team for the next 6-8 years.

The most important thing and something that Haliburton hasn't denied is that he and his agent didn't share his medical info with certain teams (one of them was the Suns) and that was a big deal at that moment because he had a big time injury in the wrist.

James Jones said that he will only draft players that want to play for the Suns. It's the minimum to draft a player.

Haliburton didn't say "I don't want to play for you" (like with Cleveland and Atlanta) but he clearly was trying to avoid us not sharing his medical info with us and that was enough to not select him.

Now we can confirm that it was a mistake but there was a reason behind that and I think it's a great philosophy to draft only players that want to be on your team and city.

Every team committed the same mistake and obviously they didn't value Haliburton that high, teams in the late teens didn't offer crazy packages for him to draft him at #9, #10, #11 or whatever, so we know that his value wasn't high on draft night. He surpassed expectations.

Every GM have had mistakes and you can find them easily. Presti is considered a very good GM and he traded #16 (Sengun) for a couple of future FRPs and then traded those exact picks + another FRP for Ousmane Dieng.

And no need to talk about Harden's trade and many more...so every GM has his good and bad moves but at the end of the day results are what matters in sports and that will tell you how good a GM is/was for your team.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Jones had 1 great off season.

Coach - Williams
Trade - Paul
FA - Crowder, Payne, Saric
Draft - Johnson

But 1 out of 5 is a low strike rate

[lilfishi22]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

In case anyone wants to be mad today

I always thought it was hogwash when people said "he didn't want to come here"....it was all speculation. Atlanta and Cleveland, yes, make sense because they just got Young and Garland. We made more sense than a team like the Kings for him anyway, with a very old PG and no depth. Clear cut starter for the future.

Plus, any guy getting drafted and suddenly making a ton was going to be happy anyway.

I still have no real understanding why James Jones couldn't see that we needed a PG long term even though we just traded for Paul when it was clear to everyone else. Did he really think Payne was the guy? He couldn't have been too committed to Jalen Smith anyway since he didn't even pick up his option.

It's infuriating and I know people hate hearing about it but it would totally change our trajectory of the team for the next 6-8 years.

The most important thing and something that Haliburton hasn't denied is that he and his agent didn't share his medical info with certain teams (one of them was the Suns) and that was a big deal at that moment because he had a big time injury in the wrist.

James Jones said that he will only draft players that want to play for the Suns. It's the minimum to draft a player.

Haliburton didn't say "I don't want to play for you" (like with Cleveland and Atlanta) but he clearly was trying to avoid us not sharing his medical info with us and that was enough to not select him.

Now we can confirm that it was a mistake but there was a reason behind that and I think it's a great philosophy to draft only players that want to be on your team and city.

Every team committed the same mistake and obviously they didn't value Haliburton that high, teams in the late teens didn't offer crazy packages for him to draft him at #9, #10, #11 or whatever, so we know that his value wasn't high on draft night. He surpassed expectations.

Every GM have had mistakes and you can find them easily. Presti is considered a very good GM and he traded #16 (Sengun) for a couple of future FRPs and then traded those exact picks + another FRP for Ousmane Dieng.

And no need to talk about Harden's trade and many more...so every GM has his good and bad moves but at the end of the day results are what matters in sports and that will tell you how good a GM is/was for your team.

I don't know what happened at the time and perhaps the truth may never actually come out but it's worth noting that Hali, at this point, could say literally anything and it's his word against ours (Jones). It makes him no enemies saying he would've been open to playing for the Suns now, in spite of what may have happened behind the scenes during that draft. "Confirming" publicly now that he didn't want to play for the Suns does nothing for him, nothing for potential fans, nothing for his brand and nothing for him as a person. With the behind the scene stuff like his agent withholding his medical records from a number of teams (standard affair for a lot of prospects at the time), there's at least a degree of plausible deniability.

The mistake also wasn't one that Jones made solely. Okoro, Wiseman, Okongwu and Hayes were all taken by other GM's when Hali was available.

[Saberestar]

Read on Twitter

[dremill24]

Spoiler:

And bend over ungreased to get rid of him. Made zero sense. Egregious.

Common thread over the past 10+ …. GMs who are mediocre at best

Smith, though, is more than a throw in for the Pacers. However, the Suns’ decision to decline his third-year rookie option before the season traveled with him to Indiana.

So what does that mean? Smith, a 6-foot-10 center from Virginia, becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

The Pacers are eligible to re-sign him, they just cannot offer him more than he would have earned from the team option: $4.67 million. (If it was possible, teams may use it as a way to compensate star players sooner, and players and their agents would absolutely push for it.)

The Pacers have this limitation whereas the other 29 teams do not.

The decision not to play him was on Monty since he hates young players but JJ not deciding to pick up his 4th year was a head scratcher and just idiotic to say the least.

You don't give up on a young player on a cheap rookie contract like that and if you don't plan to keep him you shouldn't purposely tank his value by not playing him and not extending his contract so that the team that traded for him are handicapped when it comes time to resign him.


https://www.fieldhousefiles.com/p/pacers-options-with-jalen-smith

Drafting him to begin with was the most idiotic decision imagineable. Haliburton was the obvious pick, and Vassell was also there with high upside and the versatility to play immediately. This was as easy a pick as the franchise has ever had. This was worse than passing on Luka by a mile because Ayton at least was a good player with athletic upside that probably nobody else in the draft had.

Jones has been an awful GM for us. He gets way too much credit for Cam Johnson and the CP3 trade

Na...it was bad but the Ayton pick was so much worse. Anybody with a clue knew Luka was the guy. And if you add the hindsight like we're doing with Haliburton, it was their one chance at a TRUE superstar and screwed their chances at a title for 20yrs.

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

In case anyone wants to be mad today

I always thought it was hogwash when people said "he didn't want to come here"....it was all speculation. Atlanta and Cleveland, yes, make sense because they just got Young and Garland. We made more sense than a team like the Kings for him anyway, with a very old PG and no depth. Clear cut starter for the future.

Plus, any guy getting drafted and suddenly making a ton was going to be happy anyway.

I still have no real understanding why James Jones couldn't see that we needed a PG long term even though we just traded for Paul when it was clear to everyone else. Did he really think Payne was the guy? He couldn't have been too committed to Jalen Smith anyway since he didn't even pick up his option.

It's infuriating and I know people hate hearing about it but it would totally change our trajectory of the team for the next 6-8 years.

After hitting with his surprise selection of Cam Johnson the year before, I thought James Jones had an itch to prove that he was clever. For various reasons, I thought reaching for Smith at #10 would look the most clever - at least, until the games started. And that's what I predicted.

So, I may be the only person who can say I was not surprised by the selection. The lesson to be learned is this. Best to ditch your ego on draft night.

[RaisingArizona]

Spoiler:

The decision not to play him was on Monty since he hates young players but JJ not deciding to pick up his 4th year was a head scratcher and just idiotic to say the least.

You don't give up on a young player on a cheap rookie contract like that and if you don't plan to keep him you shouldn't purposely tank his value by not playing him and not extending his contract so that the team that traded for him are handicapped when it comes time to resign him.


https://www.fieldhousefiles.com/p/pacers-options-with-jalen-smith

Drafting him to begin with was the most idiotic decision imagineable. Haliburton was the obvious pick, and Vassell was also there with high upside and the versatility to play immediately. This was as easy a pick as the franchise has ever had. This was worse than passing on Luka by a mile because Ayton at least was a good player with athletic upside that probably nobody else in the draft had.

Jones has been an awful GM for us. He gets way too much credit for Cam Johnson and the CP3 trade

Na...it was bad but the Ayton pick was so much worse. Anybody with a clue knew Luka was the guy. And if you add the hindsight like we're doing with Haliburton, it was their one chance at a TRUE superstar and screwed their chances at a title for 20yrs.

Well he hand a hand in that decision too.

[King4Day]

Spoiler:

The decision not to play him was on Monty since he hates young players but JJ not deciding to pick up his 4th year was a head scratcher and just idiotic to say the least.

You don't give up on a young player on a cheap rookie contract like that and if you don't plan to keep him you shouldn't purposely tank his value by not playing him and not extending his contract so that the team that traded for him are handicapped when it comes time to resign him.


https://www.fieldhousefiles.com/p/pacers-options-with-jalen-smith

Drafting him to begin with was the most idiotic decision imagineable. Haliburton was the obvious pick, and Vassell was also there with high upside and the versatility to play immediately. This was as easy a pick as the franchise has ever had. This was worse than passing on Luka by a mile because Ayton at least was a good player with athletic upside that probably nobody else in the draft had.

Jones has been an awful GM for us. He gets way too much credit for Cam Johnson and the CP3 trade

Na...it was bad but the Ayton pick was so much worse. Anybody with a clue knew Luka was the guy. And if you add the hindsight like we're doing with Haliburton, it was their one chance at a TRUE superstar and screwed their chances at a title for 20yrs.

Luka was never the consensus. The fact he fell 5 spots confirms that too.
Everyone wanted Haliburton, however. There's no hindsight there. He filled a need, and we chose to ignore it. I'm willing to bet if you go back to that draft thread on Real GM and Reddit, you'll see people clamoring for him too before JJ botched it.

[garrick]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

In case anyone wants to be mad today

I always thought it was hogwash when people said "he didn't want to come here"....it was all speculation. Atlanta and Cleveland, yes, make sense because they just got Young and Garland. We made more sense than a team like the Kings for him anyway, with a very old PG and no depth. Clear cut starter for the future.

Plus, any guy getting drafted and suddenly making a ton was going to be happy anyway.

I still have no real understanding why James Jones couldn't see that we needed a PG long term even though we just traded for Paul when it was clear to everyone else. Did he really think Payne was the guy? He couldn't have been too committed to Jalen Smith anyway since he didn't even pick up his option.

It's infuriating and I know people hate hearing about it but it would totally change our trajectory of the team for the next 6-8 years.

The most important thing and something that Haliburton hasn't denied is that he and his agent didn't share his medical info with certain teams (one of them was the Suns) and that was a big deal at that moment because he had a big time injury in the wrist.

James Jones said that he will only draft players that want to play for the Suns. It's the minimum to draft a player.

Haliburton didn't say "I don't want to play for you" (like with Cleveland and Atlanta) but he clearly was trying to avoid us not sharing his medical info with us and that was enough to not select him.

Now we can confirm that it was a mistake but there was a reason behind that and I think it's a great philosophy to draft only players that want to be on your team and city.

Every team committed the same mistake and obviously they didn't value Haliburton that high, teams in the late teens didn't offer crazy packages for him to draft him at #9, #10, #11 or whatever, so we know that his value wasn't high on draft night. He surpassed expectations.

Every GM have had mistakes and you can find them easily. Presti is considered a very good GM and he traded #16 (Sengun) for a couple of future FRPs and then traded those exact picks + another FRP for Ousmane Dieng.

And no need to talk about Harden's trade and many more...so every GM has his good and bad moves but at the end of the day results are what matters in sports and that will tell you how good a GM is/was for your team.

It isn't really relevant to compare what other teams did with their selections. Point is Jalen should never have been picked at #10 and their reasoning for drafting him never made any sense at all.

It just makes me mad that he barely got minutes here and he did eventually turn out to be a serviceable role player Monty did something to shatter his confidence by giving him a very short leash and not giving him consistent playing time as a rookie and in his 2nd season.

The entire way it was handled was an utter fiasco that Monty and JJ should never be given a pass for it, if anyone needs to be blamed for not bringing a championship here it should fall on those two clowns.

[KdoubleDees23]

Spoiler:

The decision not to play him was on Monty since he hates young players but JJ not deciding to pick up his 4th year was a head scratcher and just idiotic to say the least.

You don't give up on a young player on a cheap rookie contract like that and if you don't plan to keep him you shouldn't purposely tank his value by not playing him and not extending his contract so that the team that traded for him are handicapped when it comes time to resign him.


https://www.fieldhousefiles.com/p/pacers-options-with-jalen-smith

Drafting him to begin with was the most idiotic decision imagineable. Haliburton was the obvious pick, and Vassell was also there with high upside and the versatility to play immediately. This was as easy a pick as the franchise has ever had. This was worse than passing on Luka by a mile because Ayton at least was a good player with athletic upside that probably nobody else in the draft had.

Jones has been an awful GM for us. He gets way too much credit for Cam Johnson and the CP3 trade

Na...it was bad but the Ayton pick was so much worse. Anybody with a clue knew Luka was the guy. And if you add the hindsight like we're doing with Haliburton, it was their one chance at a TRUE superstar and screwed their chances at a title for 20yrs.

Luka won't win a ring with 80% of offense going through him. He is a stat padder and horrible on defense. Great offensive player but hes a bigger Harden.

[KdoubleDees23]

I think Ayton and getting Halliburton would have set us up for awhile!!!! Doncic and Booker wouldnt be a good fit together and one would be on the way out

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

In case anyone wants to be mad today

I always thought it was hogwash when people said "he didn't want to come here"....it was all speculation. Atlanta and Cleveland, yes, make sense because they just got Young and Garland. We made more sense than a team like the Kings for him anyway, with a very old PG and no depth. Clear cut starter for the future.

Plus, any guy getting drafted and suddenly making a ton was going to be happy anyway.

I still have no real understanding why James Jones couldn't see that we needed a PG long term even though we just traded for Paul when it was clear to everyone else. Did he really think Payne was the guy? He couldn't have been too committed to Jalen Smith anyway since he didn't even pick up his option.

It's infuriating and I know people hate hearing about it but it would totally change our trajectory of the team for the next 6-8 years.

The most important thing and something that Haliburton hasn't denied is that he and his agent didn't share his medical info with certain teams (one of them was the Suns) and that was a big deal at that moment because he had a big time injury in the wrist.

James Jones said that he will only draft players that want to play for the Suns. It's the minimum to draft a player.

Haliburton didn't say "I don't want to play for you" (like with Cleveland and Atlanta) but he clearly was trying to avoid us not sharing his medical info with us and that was enough to not select him.

Now we can confirm that it was a mistake but there was a reason behind that and I think it's a great philosophy to draft only players that want to be on your team and city.

Every team committed the same mistake and obviously they didn't value Haliburton that high, teams in the late teens didn't offer crazy packages for him to draft him at #9, #10, #11 or whatever, so we know that his value wasn't high on draft night. He surpassed expectations.

Every GM have had mistakes and you can find them easily. Presti is considered a very good GM and he traded #16 (Sengun) for a couple of future FRPs and then traded those exact picks + another FRP for Ousmane Dieng.

And no need to talk about Harden's trade and many more...so every GM has his good and bad moves but at the end of the day results are what matters in sports and that will tell you how good a GM is/was for your team.

He only specifically didn't intentionally share his medical info with the Hawks and Cavs. The Suns never contacted him, worked him out or asked for it. They may not have thought he would be there but he wasn't trying to dodge the Suns. I don't really care what other teams did. Most of them at least drafted guys highly rated. Most importantly, they may not have had only a 35 year old PG at the tail of his career and a guy that had been in the China league as their PGs.

Him not wanting to play for us is pure speculation and only exists as an excuse to excuse incompetence.

It's quite ridiculous people even buy into this narrative that he wouldn't want to play for the Suns. It was one of the better avenues to a major role. It obviously makes sense why he wouldn't want to be drafted by teams that just took franchise PGs in the previous few years. He probably would have preferred us to the Kings, but I won't comfirm my speculation as fact of course. I'm sure he didn't want to make less money.

[dremill24]

Spoiler:

Drafting him to begin with was the most idiotic decision imagineable. Haliburton was the obvious pick, and Vassell was also there with high upside and the versatility to play immediately. This was as easy a pick as the franchise has ever had. This was worse than passing on Luka by a mile because Ayton at least was a good player with athletic upside that probably nobody else in the draft had.

Jones has been an awful GM for us. He gets way too much credit for Cam Johnson and the CP3 trade

Na...it was bad but the Ayton pick was so much worse. Anybody with a clue knew Luka was the guy. And if you add the hindsight like we're doing with Haliburton, it was their one chance at a TRUE superstar and screwed their chances at a title for 20yrs.

Luka was never the consensus. The fact he fell 5 spots confirms that too.
Everyone wanted Haliburton, however. There's no hindsight there. He filled a need, and we chose to ignore it. I'm willing to bet if you go back to that draft thread on Real GM and Reddit, you'll see people clamoring for him too before JJ botched it.

Luka was picked 3, not 5.

As I said, "consensus" or not, anyone who knew what they were doing had Luka #1. To me it doesnt matter how many more fans wanted Hali vs how many wanted Luka (most of which, I'd argue, was driven by position rather than the level of player he was projected to become). Passing on Luka was worse, to me, because of the clearly elite, rarely ever seen pre-NBA resumé and obvious otherworldly playmaking ability. He was multiple levels above Haliburton as a prospect at the time and is multiple levels above him as a player now with hindsight as well.

If you go the hindsight route, drafting Haliburton would give you an All Star caliber PG in your lineup to help build a good team with. Drafting Luka would give you a top 5 player in the world and a straightforward path to building a title contender for years.

Both are quite bad, but one is just levels different, IMO.

[King4Day]

Spoiler:

Na...it was bad but the Ayton pick was so much worse. Anybody with a clue knew Luka was the guy. And if you add the hindsight like we're doing with Haliburton, it was their one chance at a TRUE superstar and screwed their chances at a title for 20yrs.

Luka was never the consensus. The fact he fell 5 spots confirms that too.
Everyone wanted Haliburton, however. There's no hindsight there. He filled a need, and we chose to ignore it. I'm willing to bet if you go back to that draft thread on Real GM and Reddit, you'll see people clamoring for him too before JJ botched it.

Luka was picked 3, not 5.

As I said, "consensus" or not, anyone who knew what they were doing had Luka #1. To me it doesnt matter how many more fans wanted Hali vs how many wanted Luka (most of which, I'd argue, was driven by position rather than the level of player he was projected to become). Passing on Luka was worse, to me, because of the clearly elite, rarely ever seen pre-NBA resumé and obvious otherworldly playmaking ability. He was multiple levels above Haliburton as a prospect at the time and is multiple levels above him as a player now with hindsight as well.

If you go the hindsight route, drafting Haliburton would give you an All Star caliber PG in your lineup to help build a good team with. Drafting Luka would give you a top 5 player in the world and a straightforward path to building a title contender for years.

Both are quite bad, but one is just levels different, IMO.

Trust me, I'm not saying Luka isn't better or wouldn't have been the better choice.
But Haliburton was a more obvious pick considering where we were picking and team need.

As for draft location, The Suns, Kings, Hawks, and Griz all passed on a chance to draft/retain/acquire him.

As has been noted, sadly, I believe the Suns would have picked Bagley or Young, before selecting Luka. FO was awful.

[dremill24]

Spoiler:

Luka was never the consensus. The fact he fell 5 spots confirms that too.
Everyone wanted Haliburton, however. There's no hindsight there. He filled a need, and we chose to ignore it. I'm willing to bet if you go back to that draft thread on Real GM and Reddit, you'll see people clamoring for him too before JJ botched it.

Luka was picked 3, not 5.

As I said, "consensus" or not, anyone who knew what they were doing had Luka #1. To me it doesnt matter how many more fans wanted Hali vs how many wanted Luka (most of which, I'd argue, was driven by position rather than the level of player he was projected to become). Passing on Luka was worse, to me, because of the clearly elite, rarely ever seen pre-NBA resumé and obvious otherworldly playmaking ability. He was multiple levels above Haliburton as a prospect at the time and is multiple levels above him as a player now with hindsight as well.

If you go the hindsight route, drafting Haliburton would give you an All Star caliber PG in your lineup to help build a good team with. Drafting Luka would give you a top 5 player in the world and a straightforward path to building a title contender for years.

Both are quite bad, but one is just levels different, IMO.

Trust me, I'm not saying Luka isn't better or wouldn't have been the better choice.
But Haliburton was a more obvious pick considering where we were picking and team need.

As for draft location, The Suns, Kings, Hawks, and Griz all passed on a chance to draft/retain/acquire him.

As has been noted, sadly, I believe the Suns would have picked Bagley or Young, before selecting Luka. FO was awful.

We'll have to just agree to disagree. Cant quite get behind the fact that the three teams at the top of the draft were woefully and obviously mismanaged in this situation makes it more defensible.

[Sunsdeuce]

Jones had 1 great off season.

Coach - Williams
Trade - Paul
FA - Crowder, Payne, Saric
Draft - Johnson

But 1 out of 5 is a low strike rate

Coach - Williams - Monty was never considered an elite coach. But he was the best they could get

Trade - Paul - Chris Paul had no market at the time. His contract was deemed unreadable. OKC was just happy they found a team to take him.

FA - Crowder, Payne, Saric. They all had one good year and struck lightning for a year

Draft - Johnson This was a Jeff Bewers pick. Bewers had scouted him for years. Bewera was co-GM at the time. Somehow Jones gets credit for that pick

[Mulhollanddrive]

Chris Paul basically said he's only happy as a starter and chose that over championships and close family.

Gross.

[Frank Lee]

I wouldn’t be surprised if any experience GM would want to work here. Book it

An over optimistic hands on owner like theMadMatter who is the ultimate puppet master

Too many strings involved

Corrected… sheesh
May be should do a Revived version and say nobody wants to work for that asshat