He turned AD into an amazing haul and has quickly rebuilt that team into a playoff contender with or without Zion.
He did, but he didn't have an AD here. I doubt we would've gotten more for Kyrie or Kyrie would have stayed.
I like Griff, but I'm not sure he would have done any better than Altman over the past two years.
We don't really know how well Griff can draft. Wiggins was a miss overall, but he turned into Love. Osman was good, but that pick was heavily influenced by Altman. Would Griff have taken Sexton? It seems like Sexton or Shai were the best the team could do at their pick, but would Griff have reached for someone else?
Griff had AD, a desperate Lakers team, and won the lotto. Anyone could look good with that. Not knocking him. I wish him the best, but I'm not sure he would have put the Cavs in any position than where they are now.
He got us a title. He did what needed to be done. He found the pieces we needed when we needed them. And he built a team that probably would have won at least one more title if the single year cap space didn't open up for Durant to go to GSW. He should be honored for that.
But that doesn't mean he would work for every rebuild. He went to New Orleans BECAUSE it had all those chips. He didn't know #1 would come, but he knew they had a lottery ticket. He also knew he could turn AD into assets AND he also knew he'd have cap space. New Orleans is the blank slate the Cavs were not going to be after the title runs.
We like to paint Gilbert as villain, but did we ever think that Griffin asked for more than he knew Gilbert would be comfortable with so he could have his choice of gig after sitting out? I'm not sure that Griffin wanted to be locked into a contract after LeBron - and he knew the Kyrie stuff would come up and LeBron was probably gone.
He built his resume and he knew he could cash in with a team set up for success. Kudos to him, but I doubt he was ever staying.