fabikaze
Nachwuchsspieler
..., bei Artest weiß ich es auch nicht
hat der nicht seiner Frau eine gescheuert??
..., bei Artest weiß ich es auch nicht
Michael Rosenberg
Special to FOXSports.com
With some NBA general managers, you don't even wonder what they are thinking.
You wonder if they are thinking.
I'm talking about you, Otis Smith. And you, Kevin McHale. And to a lesser extent, I'm talking about you, too, Danny Ainge. (I know what Ainge is thinking. I just think it's foolish.)
Smith, the Orlando general manager, must think he "won" this year's free-agent sweepstakes. After all, he signed Rashard Lewis, the biggest name on the market. But Smith might regret that — history has shown that only a few players are worthy of maximum-salary contracts.
Lewis is a wonderful talent, and he is only 27. But he has never earned All-NBA or All-Defense honors in his eight seasons. He is an All-Star, but not an elite one. There is no doubt that he makes Orlando better, but at this salary, he needs to lift the Magic to championship contender. Lewis' signing severely limits Orlando's ability to dip into the 2008 free-agent pool, one of the deepest ever.
But hey, at least that deal makes some sense. That is more than we can say for one of the dumbest decisions in recent NBA history: Smith withdrawing his qualifying offer to Darko Milicic, turning Milicic from a restricted free agent into an unrestricted free agent.
Orlando did not have the money to sign Milicic and Lewis. But Milicic, despite being turned into a national punchline, is a young 7-footer with lots of talent. The Magic could have worked a sign-and-trade, and Smith didn't even try.There was absolutely no benefit to what he did. He might as well hold up a sign at the Lewis press conference that reads, "We landed Rashard and I STILL have no idea what I'm doing!"
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Check out Smith's record: He hired and fired Brian Hill. He (or Orlando ownership) hired Billy Donovan, who celebrated by resigning. It's true that Orlando is considered a team on the rise, but that's not because of Smith. The top four scorers on this year's Magic — Dwight Howard, Grant Hill, Hedo Turkoglu and Jameer Nelson — were all on the roster before Smith showed up.
Smith drafted seven players in his first two years. In the first round of this year's playoffs, they scored a grand total of three points. In 2005, he used the 11th pick in the draft on Fran Vazquez, who didn't sign. In 2006, he used the 11th pick in the draft on J.J. Redick, who has yet to show he can play in the NBA.
He is on his way to being ... Kevin McHale?
McHale once made the extremely savvy move of drafting Kevin Garnett at the start of the preps-to-pros craze. Alas, that was 12 years ago. McHale has continually failed to build a team around KG. He probably should have traded Garnett two years ago.
Now, finally, McHale is obviously committed to moving his star, so what does he do?
Nothing.
Oh, Garnett will go eventually. But the time to do it was before this year's draft, one of the deepest in years — there were building blocks to be had. Now McHale's options are more limited, and he might actually have to go into the season with Garnett on the roster, even though Garnett is sure to opt out of his deal next summer.
Then there is Ainge, McHale's old Celtic teammate. I know what he is doing: trying to save his job. Unfortunately, that never works.
Ainge is also trying to appease his star (Paul Pierce). That almost never works, either.
Ainge traded the fifth pick in the draft (and Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak) for Ray Allen and Glen (Big Baby) Davis. Allen is a good guy and an excellent scorer. But he is a poor defender, will be 32 at the start of next season and just had surgery on both ankles.
Will Allen and Pierce, at 30, lead the Celtics to the playoffs? Almost certainly. But then what? Both players will decline and the Celtics will be in trouble again.
Ask yourself this: if Ainge just took his job last month, what would he do? A smart GM would look at the 24-win Celtics and recognize the need to rebuild. He would shop Pierce for young talent or draft picks. He would use the fifth pick to find somebody to complement Al Jefferson (like Jeff Green, whom the Sonics took at five). And he would have a young team on the rise.
Ainge can't afford to do that. His job is on the line. He probably saved it, at least for another year. But Celtics fans don't have much hope for that 17th championship any time soon.
Ainge was a very good player and a pretty good coach. Now he is just another bad GM in a league that has too many.
die Bucks sind doch selbst schuld eigentlich...man nimmt kein Spieler bevor man ein wenig mit ihm gesprochen hat, dann hätten sie gewusst was Sache ist...
Sinnfreies Argument. Wer sich zum Draft anmeldet, muss damit rechnen, von jedem Team gezogen zu werden, bzw. kurz darauf getradet zu werden.
Meinst du damit (als Vergleich), wenn Greg Oden gesagt hätte "Ne, der Nordosten liegt mir nicht so" wären die Blazers und Sonics genausogut selbst dran Schuld, wenn er sich weigern würde dort zu spielen oder gar bis Pick 3 oder so durchgereicht worden wäre?