EOTY - Using hindsight 2020/2021

[jazzfan1971]

I think that the EotY award is flawed. Executives don't usually operate on a one year timeline. It is the job of an executive to plan and build a team years into the future.

Many of the best moves made by executives don't pan out for many years. And are often hard to evaluate early on. It's difficult for us to see who drafted well in a given year. But easy to see 3 years later. It's hard to evaluate who won a trade in a given year, but easier to evaluate in time.

So, since I can't change the world, I thought I might try to do a RealGM EotY award every year, but going back 3 years giving us the benefit of hindsight.

I figure the most fun way to do this is to ask folks to make an argument for their favorite team. And if the like to nominate someone for EotY 2020/21.

So, if anyone wants to play, go back to 20/21 and evaluate the moves your team made with all the information you have available.

[bisme37]

It's still Brad Stevens.

Read on Twitter

[jazzfan1971]

So, my Jazz from 2020/21 were pretty pathetic.

We drafted Santi Aldama which was good. But we traded him for Jared Butler who didn't pan out.

We signed Derick Favors in a tragic deal where we then paid a 1st to dump him a year later. A move that continues to haunt the Jazz.

Best things we did were to resign Mitchell and Clarkson. Mitchell was a no_Brainer but the Clarkson signing was decent.

Mostly we picked up guys that didn't help the team and used assets to dump minor salary.

I give the front office a D- for the year. Mostly for the disaster that was Derrick Favors, but also just making nearly zero positive signings, trades, or draft picks.

Sadly the Jazz will not be in the running for HSEotY2020.

[DBurks2818]

It's still Brad Stevens.

Read on Twitter

• Hired Joe Mazzulla (Amazing Coach).

Amazing Coach

Interesting.

[Sealab2024]

All I know is that Tim Connelly built the team that won last year's championship and then decided to stay in the same division and build their biggest challenger and send them on a collision course with each other.

That is some Makiavellian level, my biggest competitor is myself stuff.

[Slax]

It's still Brad Stevens.

Read on Twitter

I think under OP's framing, Stevens' first season would be the 2021-22 season, which would come up next year in 2025, and we would solely be looking at his actions in that one season. I think his major moves that season were hire Ime Udoka, trade Kemba Walker for Al Horford, trade for Derrick White, sign Hauser, sign Kornet. That would certainly compare favorably in hindsight to the actual winner Zach Kleiman, who basically won the award that season due to internal growth resulting from moves he had made the previous two seasons - from memory, hiring Jenkins, acquiring Ja and Bane and Clarke, extending a couple guys on team-friendly deals, and probably some other stuff I've forgotten by now.

Based on that, it's plausible Kleiman could win either 2020-21 or 2019-20 under OP's criteria, but I would need to remember which moves came in which year for him, and also go through other execs to compare what they did.

[phanman]

Fortunately for the rest of the competition, Brad's front office experience only goes back 2 years but combining both makes him an even bigger winner. I thought he deserved it over Monty last season. That Kemba move alone to get off the 3 remaining years of his 140m contract to bring back Al Horford + parts was simply brilliant. His replacement in Ime was exactly what the team needed to develop that toughness en route to the Finals and stealing Derrick White at the deadline is one of the most savviest deadline moves in NBA history.

For my team, every move we made outside of drafting Scottie Barnes has been an utter failure. Although I like the OG trade to bring in IQ + RJ, the timing of when we decided to reboot does not need to be rehashed again. Given the uncertainty of this team and the fact that remaining pieces are still dysfunctional, Masai & Co. are extremely lucky to have won in 2019 otherwise they probably would be working elsewhere.

[Bornstellar]

I think Brian Wright has done a decent job since 2021. Would have been a spectacular job if not for some draft blunders (Primo) and bad contracts (Collins, Vassell possibly).

2021 was the last season of the DeRozan Spurs and that summer began the shift to the future. Spurs have made the following moves:

-Traded DeRozan to the Bulls for 2025 top-10 protected 1st
-Traded D. White to the Celtics for a 2022 first rounder (Malaki Branham) and a 2028 top-1 protected swap
-Traded Murray to the Hawks for lotto protected Hornets 1st, 2025 and 2027 unprotected 1sts, and a 2026 unprotected swap
-Traded Thaddeus Young to the Raptors for a 2023 1st rounder (Blake Wesley)
-Traded Poeltl to the Raptors for a 2024 or 2025 top-6 protected 1st rounder
-Traded Reggie Bullock for an unprotected 2030 swap from Dallas
-Traded for 3948338 2nd rounders

Spurs were extremely lucky/fortunate to win the #1 pick in the year they truly bottomed out to tank which admittedly makes Wright's moves look better because now we have the generational player and a bevy of assets to put pieces around him whereas if we ended up with Amen Thompson, our outlook might not look as good

Aside from overpaying Vassell (who is still not grossly overpaid by today's standards and could live up to his deal), re-signing Collins (at least it's only 2 years), and completely whiffing on the Primo pick, he's made some solid trades and stockpiled some assets while giving up none of the Spurs own picks and while still maintaining some cap flexibility. Spurs have all the tools to put some real pieces around Victor in the next 2-3 seasons

[CIN-C-STAR]

I think Brian Wright has done a decent job since 2021. Would have been a spectacular job if not for some draft blunders (Primo) and bad contracts (Collins, Vassell possibly).

2021 was the last season of the DeRozan Spurs and that summer began the shift to the future. Spurs have made the following moves:

-Traded DeRozan to the Bulls for 2025 top-10 protected 1st
-Traded D. White to the Celtics for a 2022 first rounder (Malaki Branham) and a 2028 top-1 protected swap
-Traded Murray to the Hawks for lotto protected Hornets 1st, 2025 and 2027 unprotected 1sts, and a 2026 unprotected swap
-Traded Thaddeus Young to the Raptors for a 2023 1st rounder (Blake Wesley)
-Traded Poeltl to the Raptors for a 2024 or 2025 top-6 protected 1st rounder
-Traded Reggie Bullock for an unprotected 2030 swap from Dallas
-Traded for 3948338 2nd rounders

Spurs were extremely lucky/fortunate to win the #1 pick in the year they truly bottomed out to tank which admittedly makes Wright's moves look better because now we have the generational player and a bevy of assets to put pieces around him whereas if we ended up with Amen Thompson, our outlook might not look as good

Aside from overpaying Vassell (who is still not grossly overpaid by today's standards and could live up to his deal), re-signing Collins (at least it's only 2 years), and completely whiffing on the Primo pick, he's made some solid trades and stockpiled some assets while giving up none of the Spurs own picks and while still maintaining some cap flexibility. Spurs have all the tools to put some real pieces around Victor in the next 2-3 seasons

I think the Vassell extension was one of his best moves.
It doesn't start until next season, and they locked him up for 5 seasons at $27 mil a year.
He's only 23 and just averaged 20 ppg and shot 37% from 3 (38% the year before).
What's not to like?

[Slimjimzv]

Sam Presti - No notes. Happy with everything he did. Even the 'mistake' of trading for Gordon Hawyard will result in a ton of cap space when we need it. If you want to claim he should have taken Senguin. . . well, then he likely couldn't have drafted Chet. May have even missed out on Jalen Williams. Trey Murphy of Tre Mann? Same issue.

Draft
2023: Cason Wallace (first round, 10th overall) out of Kentucky
2022: Chet Holmgren (first round, second overall) out of Gonzaga
2022: Ousmane Dieng (first round, 11th overall) out of France
2022: Jalen Williams (first round, 12th overall) out of Santa Clara
2022: Jaylin Williams (first round, 34th overall) out of Arkansas
2021: Josh Giddey (first round, sixth overall) out of Australia
2021: Aaron Wiggins (second round, 55th overall) out of Maryland

Free agent
March 2, 2024: Mike Muscala, signed contract with OKC after being waived by Detroit
Feb. 10, 2024: Bismack Biyombo, signed with OKC one month after being waived by Memphis
Oct. 16, 2022: Isaiah Joe, signed three-year contract with OKC after being waived by Philadelphia
Feb. 10, 2022: Lindy Waters III, signed two-way contract out of Oklahoma State
July 6, 2019: Luguentz Dort, undrafted free agent out of Arizona State

Trade
Feb. 8, 2024: Gordon Hayward (via Charlotte for Davis Bertans, Tre Mann, Vasilije Micić, cash and two second-round picks)
Nov. 23, 2020: Kenrich Williams (via New Orleans in a four-team trade that included Steven Adams leaving OKC)
July 10, 2019: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (via L.A. Clippers with Danilo Gallinari and multiple draft picks for Paul George)

[Bornstellar]

I think Brian Wright has done a decent job since 2021. Would have been a spectacular job if not for some draft blunders (Primo) and bad contracts (Collins, Vassell possibly).

2021 was the last season of the DeRozan Spurs and that summer began the shift to the future. Spurs have made the following moves:

-Traded DeRozan to the Bulls for 2025 top-10 protected 1st
-Traded D. White to the Celtics for a 2022 first rounder (Malaki Branham) and a 2028 top-1 protected swap
-Traded Murray to the Hawks for lotto protected Hornets 1st, 2025 and 2027 unprotected 1sts, and a 2026 unprotected swap
-Traded Thaddeus Young to the Raptors for a 2023 1st rounder (Blake Wesley)
-Traded Poeltl to the Raptors for a 2024 or 2025 top-6 protected 1st rounder
-Traded Reggie Bullock for an unprotected 2030 swap from Dallas
-Traded for 3948338 2nd rounders

Spurs were extremely lucky/fortunate to win the #1 pick in the year they truly bottomed out to tank which admittedly makes Wright's moves look better because now we have the generational player and a bevy of assets to put pieces around him whereas if we ended up with Amen Thompson, our outlook might not look as good

Aside from overpaying Vassell (who is still not grossly overpaid by today's standards and could live up to his deal), re-signing Collins (at least it's only 2 years), and completely whiffing on the Primo pick, he's made some solid trades and stockpiled some assets while giving up none of the Spurs own picks and while still maintaining some cap flexibility. Spurs have all the tools to put some real pieces around Victor in the next 2-3 seasons

I think the Vassell extension was one of his best moves.
It doesn't start until next season, and they locked him up for 5 seasons at $27 mil a year.
He's only 23 and just averaged 20 ppg and shot 37% from 3 (38% the year before).
What's not to like?

Looking beyond a marginal jump in PPG, he didn't really take much of a step from 2023 to 2024, if anything he somewhat regressed. His offense is too Kobe-esque (he frequently works himself into and relies on taking difficult shots) and his defense has completely fallen off a cliff after his promising rookie campaign.

I'm not a Vassell hater or anything, and like I said he can definitely still live up to that deal, I just feel it was a bit premature and he hasn't earned it based on his play thus far. I was honestly disappointed with his play this season, especially when Victor was out or not on the court, he did not step up like you'd expect from a 130m+ player. He did not take a big leap this season like many of us expected him to

[jazzfan1971]

Guys. This is an award for ONLY 2020/2021

[Bornstellar]

Guys. This is an award for ONLY 2020/2021

Ahh...I thought you mean since 2020/2021

I'll see myself out