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So long, David Griffin

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It's absolutely incredible when you hear this, but you're absolutely right. While I don't think Zion ever wanted to be there, Griff really gave him an out. Those poor fans will never recover from this.
They haven’t recovered from losing the Jazz to Utah and the premature decline of Pistol Pete, the greatest shooter who ever played next to Louie Dampier.
 
I think Griffin's biggest contribution to the team was as Kyrie's "psychologist"; LeBron managed Kyrie on the court, while Griffin dealt with him behind-the-scenes, providing a crucial buffer before his meltdown.

I thought Griff made some pretty shrewd moves when it came to cap management; he made some very "Morey-esque" moves by trading for/grabbing filler contracts that he'd shed to increase our cap long before Morey became noteworthy for doing so. The Shump and JR trade, particularly the latter, ended up working out brilliantly (at least at first) and made Griffin look like a seer (though LeBron obviously had a lot of input there.)

I liked the acquisition of Mozgov, as we were just bleeding points in the middle, but the dispensation of 2 1st-round pics made me squeamish at the time and still does. I hated the Korver move, carelessly tossing another 1st-round pic away for an aging shorter when we should have been looking to fortify our porous defense. The Channing trade was great.

I'll never forget the article that came out though where Griffin looked back on his time as the Cavs' GM and admitted to crying in the fetal position when news of LeBron's return broke. That was such a pitiful look, and it made me a lose even more respect for him.

Ultimately you have to give the guy a hand for having a role in our only championship. I don't like some of the moves he made and his tenure in NO lends a credence to the theory that his "success" was mostly due to Grant's asset accumulation and LeBron. I at least give him credit for constantly being proactive and trying to address our ends, even if his approach was wayward at times.

This is really a very fair and balanced assessment.

I do feel like the Lebron-Kyrie team was extremely close to going down as one of the great dynasties ever instead of a one and done plus soap opera, and can’t help thinking Griffin had a role in that (of course Durant had perhaps the biggest role). There were so many times when those teams needed one more good player and didn’t have them — perhaps 2015 was most notable.

Griff had a habit of giving away a lot for players who were good and valuable short term fixes but couldn’t grow and improve into a key additional piece over the long term. Shump, Mozgov, etc.

I think one thing that is clear about Griffin is that he’s just not a very good judge of talent, especially in the draft. This has become even clearer in NO. Koby is miles better in that department. Perhaps that’s why Griffin was willing to give away so many picks, maybe he secretly knows that about himself

But as JMoney said he won us a championship (or helped Lebron do so), and that’s hard as fuck. Plus four straight Finals appearances, a major achievement that tends to get overlooked around here because of the bitterness about the Warriors. That was mostly Lebron’s accomplishment but you do have to give Griffin credit for some of those mid-season trades that made a difference.
 
This is really a very fair and balanced assessment.

I do feel like the Lebron-Kyrie team was extremely close to going down as one of the great dynasties ever instead of a one and done plus soap opera, and can’t help thinking Griffin had a role in that (of course Durant had perhaps the biggest role). There were so many times when those teams needed one more good player and didn’t have them — perhaps 2015 was most notable.

Griff had a habit of giving away a lot for players who were good and valuable short term fixes but couldn’t grow and improve into a key additional piece over the long term. Shump, Mozgov, etc.

I think one thing that is clear about Griffin is that he’s just not a great judge of talent, especially in the draft. Koby is miles better in that department. Perhaps that’s why he was willing to give away so many picks.

But as JMoney said he won us a championship (or helped Lebron do so), and that’s hard as fuck. Plus four straight Finals appearances, a major achievement that tends to get overlooked around here because of the bitterness about the Warriors. That was mostly Lebron’s accomplishment but you do have to give Griffin credit for some of those mid-season trades that made a difference.
Those picks he traded away were pretty low picks because of our records over those years.

Mozgov is interesting because he was critically important in the 2014-15 season and through much of 2015-16 but when the Warriors adjusted in Game 4 of the 2015 Finals it was the start of the decline of players like Mozgov, who barely played in the 2016 Finals.
 
This is really a very fair and balanced assessment.

I do feel like the Lebron-Kyrie team was extremely close to going down as one of the great dynasties ever instead of a one and done plus soap opera, and can’t help thinking Griffin had a role in that (of course Durant had perhaps the biggest role). There were so many times when those teams needed one more good player and didn’t have them — perhaps 2015 was most notable.

Griff had a habit of giving away a lot for players who were good and valuable short term fixes but couldn’t grow and improve into a key additional piece over the long term. Shump, Mozgov, etc.

I think one thing that is clear about Griffin is that he’s just not a very good judge of talent, especially in the draft. This has become even clearer in NO. Koby is miles better in that department. Perhaps that’s why Griffin was willing to give away so many picks, maybe he secretly knows that about himself

But as JMoney said he won us a championship (or helped Lebron do so), and that’s hard as fuck. Plus four straight Finals appearances, a major achievement that tends to get overlooked around here because of the bitterness about the Warriors. That was mostly Lebron’s accomplishment but you do have to give Griffin credit for some of those mid-season trades that made a difference.

I think that's an unfair assessment of the Shump acquisition.

Shumpert fell off a cliff as soon as he got paid. Tough to predict that. Before the payday, he looked like the ideal perimeter pairing with LeBron and Kyrie. High flyer who was one of the best perimeter defenders in the league at the time and at least respectable from deep. When they got him, he was only 25.

I really thought he was going to unlock the team going forward similar to what we've seen Allen doing this year.
 

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