The GM Experience

First and foremost, this process was a whole lot of fun. Our community here at BE has got to be one of the best on the web, it’s hard for me to imagine another site that could have come together and made this thing happen. Thanks to everyone involved and especially Dave for playing all the e-mail tag behind the scenes.

Now, about my team… Philadelphia was interesting for me because I knew very little about them. The only times I saw them play this past season were against the Blazers and in the playoffs. I researched and found that they were most in need of some interior scoring. I didn’t want to focus exclusively on the PF/C positions though because I have always believed in taking the best player (cliche’ I know). I came up with a list on who I would most want based on who I figured could be available at #16. Here is the list with some of my thought processes behind everything:

In a perfect world:
These are guys I wouldn’t have passed up under any circumstances. They almost certainly wouldn’t be there for me at 16, but you never know.

Russel Westbrook
Eric Gordon
Anthony Randolph
Danilo Gallinari
Joe Alexander

None of these guys fell, and I wasn’t able to trade up so I moved onto the next group.

Guys who I want and have a good chance to be available:

Brandon Rush – I really thought he might be available and I would have pulled the trigger in a heartbeat even though I already have Iguodala and R. Carney. I think Rush could be a top 10 talent in this draft.

Darrell Aurthur – This guy fit my needs most because he is a big and a good scorer. He didn’t last nearly as long as I thought he would though

Donte Greene – This guy looks like a project but he has a lot of potential because he is tall and he can really shoot. A red flag for me was his inconsistent play down the stretch this year at Syracuse, but he was my highest rated guy available so I took him.

Marreese Speights

Guys I avoided because I think they will be busts:

Brooke Lopez
DeAndre Jordan
DJ Augustin

OK guys I know this was long but any comments or discussion would be cool and if you guys have questions hit me up.

This was a definate blast. I can’t wait to be back at it next year, either as an at-large/GM guy (gotta love the inside info/control), or as a team GM again. The great thing about the process for me was just really digging into the players in the draft. Honestly, I learned a LOT more about these guys than I knew before.

The first order of business was getting to know my team. Honestly, while I’m a HUGE Blazers fan, my knowledge of the league as a whole isn’t nearly what it was 5-10 years ago, so I had some catching up to do. I knew about Artest and Martin of course, but now I got to know how the Kings have like 15 power forwards under contract, all of whom are backup material. We have a rookie center backing up Brad Miller, who is solid if nothing else. But we don’t have a single point guard under contract. Sure, we are going to likely sign Beno back, but there is no guarantee, and we still need depth there. So, it seemed obvious point guard was the way to go.

The targets were Westbrook and Augustine, and I decided to take either one if they fell to me. But I didn’t think it likely, so I started looking for trade partners to move up a few slots. What I found pretty quick is that I don’t have much to offer in trade, and what I was willing to part with wouldn’t match what my target team’s needs were. I resigned myself to hope for the best and get ready to draft a power forward who might start for me in a year or two.

I did get two early offers for Ron Artest. I discounted them both pretty much out of hand, primarily for the reason that it is completely unrealistic that anyone would trade for Artest prior to July 1, given that he has until June 30 to exercise his ETO if he wants. No way a team is going to trade for a guy who can walk a week later.

There was a potential 4-way deal brewing with Portland, myself, Detroit, and Philadelphia. the deal was pretty sweet for me, and would have netted me Andre Miller and the #29 in exchange for my #12 and two of my power forwards (Mikki Moore and Sheldon Williams). I was good with it, and I think it was a good deal for Portland too, which would have netted them Stuck and Rodney Carney for Travis, McBob and the #13. I had a harder time seeing why Philly and Detroit would agree to either the original deal, or a modified one, and I think that ulitmately may have been what killed it.

Things quieted down the last few days leading up to the draft, so I just settled in with my short list of players ready to pull the trigger. While waitng for my turn to come up, I tried several times to design a trade for TJ Ford, but until his BYC comes off the books July 1, I just couldn’t make the salaries work. I threw a last second offer at Memphis for their #5 pick, but I really got that started way too late to have time to work out the details. Once Westbrook went off the board at #9, I was pretty worried about Augustine falling to me, and I proved to be right, as the Pacers snatched him up right before my pick. At that point it was an easy thing to pull the trigger on Randolph, who was clearly the best talent left in the draft, and had slipped quite a few slots. I immediately started working scenarios to trade him for the previously picked Westbrook. I thought Milwaukie was a good trading partner, because they needed a 4, and I had seems some mocks saying Randolph would fit nicely with Yi. Other than my glut of overpaid, underperforming 4s and the untradeable Artest, my only real assets to offer were my backup wings, Salmons and Garcia, both double-digit scorers last year. I like Garcia’s long term potential for my team a bit better, and Salmons had a bit more salary to offer. I contacted Milwaukie looking for the trade of picks, dangling Salmons, and saying I was willing to take back some bad contract. In the meantime, and offer came in from Orlando which was Brad Miller and the rights to Randolph for Rashard Lewis and the 22nd pick. I thought this was an absolute steal for me, and I could pick up Lawson or Chalmers at 22, or worst case go for a PF/C if both of them were gone. The salaries didn’t match though, so I offered to throw in Sheldon Williams, and still thought I was getting the better end of the deal. by that time however, my deal with Milwaukie was mostly finalized, with him sending Gadzuric back to me and me adding the #43 pick. We agreed in principal, but by that time the first round was mostly wrapped up, and the deal never really got executed.

All in all, it was a fun and educational process, and in addition to learning quite a bit, I had a great time on draft day reading the picks and the rational, and waiting for trades to come in. I was a bit disappointed that the Blazers never made any moves, but that’s the way it goes down sometimes.

I really enjoyed this process, even though my decision to trade Mayo for Love may be the second-most-maligned decision on draft day after Miami trading Beasley. Please see my comment in the Trade-evaluating post to see my reasons for making the actual trade itself.

I was contacted by every team in the top 8 except one. I was hoping Beasley would fall to me at 3, but in absence of that I was looking at a small group of players. I didn’t consider Gallinari worth the third pick, and he was really the only small forward to be considered that high, so I divided the other prospects into two groups, guards and big men.

Guards:

1. O.J. Mayo.
2. Jerryd Bayless.
3. Eric Gordon.

Big men:

1. Kevin Love.
2. Brook Lopez.
3. Anthony Randolph.

For considering team need, it is a well-known fact the Minnesota has some promising young players at the guard and small forward spots, and needs some major help up front. Al Jefferson has the size of a power forward but has been playing center (which honestly may be helping to hide his defensive ineptitude), so drafting for either position is a possibility. Randi Foye projects to be at least a solid starter if not potential star, so if those two players are considered young cornerstones of the team then whoever they draft should complement those players. Seeing that the T’Wolves already have a combo guard (Foye) and a true shooting guard (McCants), I would be much more inclined to take a true point than another combo/shooting guard. But there’s no true points worthy of the third pick. Mayo is probably the best guard available, but he’s very similar to Foye in some respects and drafting him might result in having to trade one of them in a year or two. Not a bad prospect, but not a great fit either. As for big men, Lopez is probably the safest best and has the least upside, but he was strictly a low-post scorer in college, and might not be a good complement to Al Jefferson. Randolph has potential but is really a wild-card, and might not be worth the third pick. Love, though, appears to be as NBA-ready as anyone in this range, and projects to be a decent outside shooter and passer and so might be a good high post complement to Jefferson. He might be a reach at 3 also, so I decided that the Timberwolves would target him and see if they can trade down.

In all I have a lot more respect for how difficult it is to make these kinds of decisions, and I personally think McHale gets an unfair rap.