Grade Larry Harris as a Trader, Drafter, FA signer

[paulpressey25]

I know this is impossible to do with the meddling issues, but listening to all you guys debate LH the last two days made me start to think about Larry's strengths and weaknesses.

If you break it down into the three ways a GM can improve or position a team, I think LH was decent at one (trading), poor to mediocre at another (drafting) and poor at the third (FA signings, including his own players)

Major Trades: ("A-")
Cassell/EJ for Joe Smith/Peeler. I count this as Larry since EG was out the door. Good trade and we dumped salary.

TT/Pryzzy for KVH: Bad trade but it seemed right at the time.

KVH/Mike James dump salary trade at the deadline:
Excellent deal.

Magloire for Desmond/#1: I think this was a great trade. We were just precluded from Larry getting value later with the Boozer/Brewer veto.

TJ for CV:I think the jury is still out here. I'd say Toronto did better but I'll wait until I see what CV brings back this summer.

Joe Smith for Ruben: Good trade, I'd argue Ruben was maybe our best player last year.

Magloire for Blake, Skinner, Ha: Not a great trade, but Skinner helped and Blake would have been a good backup PG under Larry K. but not Stotts.

Blake for Boykins: Bad trade. Blake's played well now for two playoff teams since he left and got a decent FA contract. Boykins career is on life support.

Then we've got the TJ/Mo "Almost assists" here with the blocked deals for Boozer and Marion. GAD can you share others? To me these were the home runs that denied Larry an ability to work out of his other mistakes he made elsewhere.

Drafting: "C-"
1sts TJ, Bogut, Yi (traded the 2006 #1 and the 2004 #1 was traded by Herb):

2nds: Syzmon, Ersan, Markota, Sessions

I don't know what to think here. The second round was a disaster in an era when contributing bench players are coming out of round two. But in reality the second round is irrelevant to the first where you get the stars.

The big one is Bogut over Paul. That one looks terrible now. Yi may pan out wonderfully, but that is also not looking so hot at the moment.

FA signings: "F"
This was the disaster. I for one supported the Simmons move big-time and don't blame all his problems on injuries. So he was terrible.

The Etan Thomas offer sheet....awful.

Desmond and Voskuhl? Not the end of the world but that money could have gone to Billups.

Gadz, Mo, Redd, Bell: All three he should have cut bait on and gotten value before they hit FA.

The little FA signings: Mo (home run), Bell part I (home run), Skinner part I (home run), Damon Jones (home run). But he whiffed on guys like Greer

[th87]

My grade for Harris is a big, fat INCOMPLETE.

We really have no idea which deals were actually Harris' idea, and which were by Kohl's coercion.

For example, I suppose Harris ultimately made the TJ for CV trade, but how much of it was a result of Kohl saying, "Hey, you have to trade for a PF. And he must be cheap. And be able to spread the floor. Because that's what Stotts wants."

That would narrow down Harris' options to only a handful of PFs. And he can't NOT make any trade, because Kohl already told him that he had to. So what's Harris left with? Taking CV.

Based on what we DO know, he wanted to trade for Boozer, Marion, and Andre Miller. And based on the fact that those trades would've made our team MUCH better, I'd say Harris is a very good executive.

[NotYoAvgNBAFan]

I think he is an excellent trader. There is no telling how many trades that Harris had lined up and Kohl himself, or through his lawyers, friends and cronies tore down.

Rumor had it that Harris had Boozer lined up, Hilario and Randolph and perhaps others and it was subverted.

I would give him a B on trades. And a C+ on drafts. I did not like the Bogut draft nor the selection of Yi although Bogut is a nice player and
I like him now...

But this team at that time needed either Marvin Williams and or Chris Paul or Deron Williams and you could have moved the others....to make room for them or traded that lottery pick altogether.

Free agency....he has done horribly. He gets a D.

He should have traded Redd to Portland as was offered for Randolph 4 years ago and then got Redd back in free agency or simply moved on right then and there.

Winning teams take risks and are not small and narrow minded like many in my hometown. That is why we dont win and realize our dreams in todays NBA!

The small town mom and pop ways are over! You are gonna have to roll the dice on some players every once in awhile who have tremendous talent and upside to win in this league!

Or you can have a group of mediocore 'character guys' who are all the same ability wise and who are backups on winning teams who all still fight for playing time and quit on coaches when they dont play just like anyone else...

Simmons, Mo, Bell, Villanueva Voshkul have all pissed and moaned and demanded trades just like many claim Randolph has done, and none of then can match his talent!

Harris did well if left alone to do his job. His two glaring mistakes I will always say was firing Terry Porter and trading TJ Ford...and listening to Redd and Bogut bad mouth him..

They needed to get their self in shape and run the damn floor with Ford and shut up! That guy ....WINS! So does Porter.

The Bucks have not won a damn thing since they left!

[heynow]

Harris wasn't the GM.
Kohl was the GM.

[midranger]

Tough to grade him.

The trades that didn't happen make him look like a genius. The ones that did were okay, but obviously Plan B's.

Drafted okay. The 2nd round disasters are on Babcock.

Great small FA signings. Cut bait with a number of guys at the right time (Damon Jones, Skinner x 2, Ruben, Earl, Mike James), others he overpaid grossly to retain.

Overall, I think he probably did the best he could for this franchise with what he was given.