Just a general thought here. Dan Gilbert has gotten a ton of crap for never committing to a GM until he finally granted an extension to Koby. I'm not trying to be a Dan apologist, as I know the man has certainly not been the perfect owner, but could it be fair to say that for the most part, he was right to let previous GMs go?
I actually liked Ferry, and was a little bummed to see him go. In particular, that one trade deadline that landed us Delonte West, Joe Smith and Ben Wallace was an incredible haul, given what he had to work with.
Grant was pretty damn good at bending desperate GMs over when it came to trades, but I'm sure that also made him not well-liked in the GM fraternity which may have come back to bite him in the ass if he was ever desperate to make a deal himself sometime in the future. I could have lived with that if his drafts weren't such horseshit.
And then we had Griffin, a likeable dude who will likely always bring back fond memories, but his ability to manage assets was piss fucking poor. He had some nice trades and generally had a good feel for the pulse of the locker room. We don't have much to evaluate his drafts off of because he handed out all of the picks he had like candy.
And now we have Koby. I don't think many of us would argue that he's been killing it, but I do feel that he has demonstrated a reasonable amount of competence across the board. I've been ok with his drafts, despite the questions about whether the pieces will fit. The Kyrie trade sucked, but his more recent trades have been pretty decent. The Love extension was a major fuckup, but I'm hoping he's learned since then not to hand out future-crippling contracts.
I think a reasonable argument could be made that of the previous GMs that Dan has plowed through, Koby may be the only one that actually deserved an extension.
I actually liked Ferry, and was a little bummed to see him go. In particular, that one trade deadline that landed us Delonte West, Joe Smith and Ben Wallace was an incredible haul, given what he had to work with.
Grant was pretty damn good at bending desperate GMs over when it came to trades, but I'm sure that also made him not well-liked in the GM fraternity which may have come back to bite him in the ass if he was ever desperate to make a deal himself sometime in the future. I could have lived with that if his drafts weren't such horseshit.
And then we had Griffin, a likeable dude who will likely always bring back fond memories, but his ability to manage assets was piss fucking poor. He had some nice trades and generally had a good feel for the pulse of the locker room. We don't have much to evaluate his drafts off of because he handed out all of the picks he had like candy.
And now we have Koby. I don't think many of us would argue that he's been killing it, but I do feel that he has demonstrated a reasonable amount of competence across the board. I've been ok with his drafts, despite the questions about whether the pieces will fit. The Kyrie trade sucked, but his more recent trades have been pretty decent. The Love extension was a major fuckup, but I'm hoping he's learned since then not to hand out future-crippling contracts.
I think a reasonable argument could be made that of the previous GMs that Dan has plowed through, Koby may be the only one that actually deserved an extension.
