Three on Three...

(Ed Note: Another one that was written some time ago. Some time between Babcock being fired and the Detroit Pistons trading Darko)

Now that Rob Babcock has been unceremoniously sent packing, it’s time to look at the NBA’s other top dogs; which guys understand the subtleties of building a team, that you cannot just stockpile erroneous contracts and hope that because the guy is being paid 36 million he plays like he’s worth 36 million, and who should be following in Rob’s hollow footsteps. Who needs to parlay their NBA fame into a real estate gig somewhere? So, after consulting the committee (of one), Achanceyougottatake Sports presents our top three and bottom three General Managers in the NBA today.

Give the guy the keys to the car, the private jet, and a raise to boot…

The Best of the Pack – Rod Thorn was responsible for fleecing Rob Babcock in the Vince Carter trade, but the lack of a big man on the Nets roster holds him back; a whole article could be written on the great moves of Indiana’s Donnie Walsh (particularly trading Dale Davis for Jermaine O’Neal), but this Artest induced transition period will really be where he writes his legacy; Sacramento’s Geoff Petrie would have made the top three a few years ago, but right now it’s unclear which way the franchise is going; Denver’s Kiki Vandeweghe is a free agent after this year and will be highly sought after because of his success rapidly rebuilding the Nuggets; Jerry West is of course the Godfather of any top GM list (well, ok, maybe that’s Red Auerbach, but West is up there); but the hardest GM to leave off was Dallas’s father-son tandem. From taking a unknown German, to selecting Josh Howard and trading for Jason Terry, Don and Donnie Walsh have shown the Knicks that spending millions above the salary cap can actually field a winner, if done properly. Only giving Erik Dampier the money they deemed too rich for MVP Steve Nash keeps them out of the top three.

3) Jerry and Brian Colangelo, Phoenix Suns – Another father son combo, Jerry’s been in charge of the Suns for so long that you can champion his moves all the way back to the eighties --- the only blemish on his resume is the Suns failure to win a championship --- but these past two seasons have shown that he generously passed is gifts down the generational line. Brian is on an incredible run, first he had the foresight to hire a coach whose primary experience came not as an NBA assistant, not as an NBA player, not as a college coach, but as a coach in the Italian league. A coach who had a vision for up tempo, team oriented basketball. He drafted Amare Stoudemire with the ninth pick in the 2002 draft and while that seems like a no brainer, at the time he was criticized for passing on Caron Butler, Jared Jeffries, and Melvin Ely (and we can see how mercurial drafting is…). After watching a guard dominant team hoist too many shots, Colangelo tore it all down in a couple of brilliant trades (primarily with the Knicks’ newly hired Isaiah Thomas, hhmmm, coincidence?) and used the cap space to add Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson. 62 wins later, he parlays Richardson’s seemingly great season into Kurt Thomas, and hoodwinks the Hawks into giving him two draft picks and Boris Diaw for the right to significantly overpay Joe Johnson. One of those two picks will originate from the Lakers and thus be in or near the 20s this year, which all well and good, but the other is the Hawks’ own pick, lottery protected this year, top three protected next year, and unprotected in 2008. Which means that Joe Johnson could theoretically net the Suns, Diaw, some decent bench guy, and Greg Oden. And lets be clear, Diaw would not be having the season he is with just any team, but identifying the worst player on the worst team in the league as a potential game changer is how you get to be one of top three GM’s in the game. All the Colangelo’s are missing is that championship.

2) Greg Popovich and R.C. Buford, San Antonio Spurs – Buford is technically the GM, but this is a tandem and they work very well together, mining the entire globe to take little known future superstars. Yes, they lucked into winning the 1997 lottery, but three championships with three entirely different rosters based around Tim Duncan show that they have not anything for granted. They understand everyone’s value to the team, rarely get themselves stuck with a contract they don’t want (Rasho Nesterovic being the large exception), and find absolute gems throughout the draft. Every single team passed on Tony Parker, every single team passed TWICE on Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen was on the verge of being out of basketball before they plucked him up. The Spurs won the Michael Finely derby this offseason because of the reputation of the men at the top.

1) Joe Dumars, Detroit Pistons – The best, the absolute best. When Dumars fired former coach of the Rick Carlisle after his second straight 50 win season I didn’t just question, I chastised, but a championship the next season under Larry Brown showed that Dumars knew how to make the hard, correct choice. Each and every member of the famed starting five was brought in under Dumars: Ben Wallace in a sign and trade for Grant Hill, Chauncey Billups as a free agent from Minnesota, Richard Hamilton in a trade for Jerry Stackhouse, Tayshaun Prince as the 23rd pick in the 2002 draft, and Rasheed Wallace in a swap of junk with the Atlanta Hawks. Antonio McDyess has been a perfect sixth man, as was Mike James before him. The only complaint of his reign was the selection of Darko Millic over Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh, but two caveats should be mentioned in regards to Darko: 1) chemistry is a fickle thing, who knows how the addition of one of those stars would have affected the Pistons championship season. 2) Dumars’ wasn’t alone with the Darko pick, every GM in the NBA had him rated closely behind LeBron James. And, despite never playing, Darko still has considerable value around the league, so the pick wasn’t a total bust.

The Worst of the Pack – It’s hard to know exactly what Danny Ainge is doing in Boston and two years from now it might look great, but right now it stinks; Billy King’s Chris Webber trade has pretty much destroyed any roster flexibility for the Philadelphia 76ers, they can’t trade Iverson, but the AI-Webber core is barely .500; Seattle’s Rick Sund didn’t give enough credit to coach Nate McMillan and has already had to fire McMillan’s successor. Perhaps worse, he signed three players to the one year tender, which makes them virtually untradable. So now that the team needs a shake up, Flip Murray, Reggie Evans, and Vladimir Radmanovic have veto rights (and subsequently lose their Bird rights). Chris Mullin made one great trade, and has a couple solid draft choices (although that Mike Dunleavy pick’s really holding them back), but the exorbitant deals he gave to Derek Fisher, Adonal Foyle, and Dunleavy are crippling this sad sack franchise. If he hadn’t given Dunleavy the unnecessary (and exorbitant) new contract, Ron Artest is likely leading the Warriors to the playoffs; And then there is Portland’s John Nash, for god sake Nash, if New York is dumb enough to give an expiring contract for that terrible deal you gave Theo Ratliff, then quite trying to purge David Lee as well and make the trade (editors note: they already squandered the opportunity, the Knicks expiring deal went to Orlando instead. For shame, for shame).

3) Kevin McHale, Minnesota Timberwolves – The worst part, is that for the longest time I confused McHale the great player with McHale the great executive. He was a great player, he is not a great executive. Certainly a decade ago he deserved credit for being the first to take an extremely gifted high schooler, but who has he put around Kevin Garnett? It’s been ten years now and the best player to have on the court with KG was allowed to walk away for a 6 million per year deal to… Detroit. He lost four years of first round draft picks because of an under the table deal (idiotically put into writing) for Joe Smith. Losing four first round draft picks in an under the table deal for KG would be one thing, but for Joe Smith, come on. McHale gave long term contracts to: Trenton Hassell, Troy Hudson, Marko Jaric, and Mark Madsen, and worse he has somehow relegated Garnett’s prime to a vain attempt to finish 8th. I like the Szczerbiak trade, but it might be too little too late for the T-Wolves to keep Garnett, and it’s certainly too little too late to keep McHale off this list.

2) Billy Knight, Atlanta Hawks – There’s a nice symmetry to this list, the guys at the top are there almost to a tee because of one great deal in which they stole the lunch money from the losers down here at the bottom. In Knight’s case, it’s because he sold the house to Jerry Colangelo for Joe Johnson. I hate flogging this dead horse, because it makes it seem like I don’t like Johnson’s game, when in fact I love it, but he just isn’t worth 12 million plus a year. Worse is trading him for two draft picks and a player who then produces just as well as him for the other team (Johnson’s PER last year – 15.18, Diaw’s PER this year – 16.06). That Phoenix will get a top 5 draft pick from Atlanta sometime in the next three years is mind numbing (and could be the thing which propels Colangelo to the top of the list in three years time). Worse still for the Hawks, in this years draft the team passed on point guard Chris Paul whom they desperately needed. Their roster is top heavy with swingmen, but light on either power players or points and they’ve been so inept that all their cap space has been snubbed by everyone except Johnson.

1) Isaiah Thomas, New York Knicks – Does anyone else find it curious that the NBA’s best GM and it’s worst GM formed one of the NBA’s all time best backcourts? Maybe Isaiah should try hitting up Dumars for some suggestions, or maybe he should realize that team construction is just not his thing (this is, after all, attempt number two). Whatever the case, if we forget for a minute his off court troubles (and given the early stages of the allegations I’m inclined to wait before passing judgment), Isaiah is hands down the NBA’s worst GM. Take last weeks trade with the Raptors interim GM, essentially Isaiah paid 34 million (the difference in Jalen Rose’s final contract year versus Antonio Davis’s expiring contract plus the luxury tax implications) for the Denver Nugget’s first round draft pick (likely 22nd). Yes, they get an extra year of Rose, but this is a player whom Knicks’ coach Larry Brown practically glued to the bench when they were together in Indiana. The Knicks’ payroll now sits at 126 million, before luxury tax, and that’s for a last place team. There is no financial relief in sight and because he gave Chicago New York’s first round pick this year (and the option to swap next year), there wont be an influx of young talent either. Give Isaiah the chance to swap an expiring contract for average, overpaid players with long term contracts and you’ve got a deal.