[MJBrownParticipant]

What NBA GM would you want to start your brand new franchise?

I really like Buford in San Antonio a lot. He gets no credit, yet, every year at the end of the first round or somewhere in the second round, he gets quality players (Parker, Blair, Ginobilli to name a few), and furthermore, when he has an opportunity to make a trade, he does so and usually wins the trade (snagging Kawai Leonard in the middle of the first round this year).

There are a bunch of GM’s that do a great job around the league, but Buford has a long history of success, and I’d entrust him with my team. I know it may not be the sexiest choice, but  you can’t deny that he gets the job done.

[Harbinger]

 Kevin pritchard easy he drafted top notch talent ,keep the right talent , signed the hidden gems. Im in the mist the reason"s" he was fired. He passed on durant but franchise bigs are harder to come by then franchise scorers.Almost everyone thought oden was the next best thing and if ever healthy he will make a 7 foot impact.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Did Kevin Pritchard do the Brandon Roy and Aldridge draft trades? Those were both great. 

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

Considering where the Spurs draft year after year,they have done a great job of selecting talent…But it seems to me that Buford took alot of gambles and won..They’ve drafted guys like John Salmon (traded to 76’ers on draft day), & Beno Udrih in the 1st round,when most scouts said they were 2nd round picks..

Alot of teams were high on Parker,but were afraid to take him that high..

Teams loved Blair,but were afraid of his knee injuries..

Teams love Ginobilli but were afraid he’d never come over..

They’ve also took some gambles and lost ,selecting talented but troubled high schooler Leon Smith in the 1999 draft..In 1998 Selecting high school sensation Felipe Lopez..And the jury is still out on Splitter..

 

But When other teams werent willing to take chances ,Buford did and sometimes it paid off and some times it did not…

 

 

 

[MJBrownParticipant]

you can’t expect every second round pick to work out for you. I don’t know if you can say his draft selections were taking chances, maybe he just did his research better than the rest and therefore had  more confidence in his late selections.

[Bmore_DCParticipant]

Right now theres no question its Sam Presti for OKC…

They are the model of what every re-building team is trying to do…they hit on their draft picks, their top 3 scorers are under 23 years old…

Bufords great too but it seems like in San Antonio its not so much the GM as it is the system in place (scouts, etc)…theyve had many GMs before him do great as well (and im a huge spurs fan)…

if i was an owner my list would go:

1 – Presti

2 – Buford

3 – Pritchard 

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

MJBrown,you dont consider drafting a injury plagued guy with bad knees not taking a chance? Or drafting Ginobilli when other teams felt he’d never come over,not taking a chance?

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

People overrate Pritchard.

I’d go with Buford. He drafts well AND understands when/how to make moves to build a championship contender. I can probably count the amount of bad moves he’s made on one hand.

[MJBrownParticipant]

Fair enough Rudeboy. You can call it taking a chance; there is going to be risk/reward with all draft picks. My point is that Buford takes risks that often reward him — and in terms of second rounders/late first rounders — he seems to pick the right guy for his squad more often than not. I love the quality regarding how SAS challenges for a championship for such a long period of time

[MJBrownParticipant]

From 2001-2009 all of the SAS first round picks have become quality NBA players. That’s an incredible feat over that period of time considering that they always pick at the end of the first round. Furthermore the number of 2nd round picks that they have made who have contributed on NBA teams, is probably superiorly disproportionate to the rest of the league over that time period. Running the numbers would be an interesting meta-analysis

[PabloFiascoParticipant]

Buford w/o a doubt….Jerry Colangelo lost all credibility after what he did with Toronto

[chevilicousParticipant]

I always sing bufords praise, dude is an absolute beast and i think well deserving of being ranked the top GM. But also Give Kevin Oconnor some love who drafted Paul Millsap and  Mo Williams out of the 2nd round, also Picked up an undrafted Wes Matthews. Not to mention a guy who immediately after losing stockton and malone, got a team back in and competing a year after losing 2 Hall of famers, where most other teams would have been in the lottery for a good 6 years. Brought in talent to surround Deron Williams, whom were either on the end of the bench in certain situations, or under appreciated on their current teams, and made them legit contendars in the west for a good 5 years. Not to mention has done it yet again, while losing his entire starting roster of 2-3 years ago in Boozer, Okur,Williams, Kirilenko and Brewer, has got a completely new roster out and competing for a playoff spot in the west, if thats not brilliance i dont know what is.

[torontoraptors10Participant]

I think you mean Bryan Colangelo, Jerry is his dad.

I think Bryan is a good job, he did a decent job with Phoenix. For example, drafting Stoudemire and trading Marbury to sign Steve Nash. In his time in Toronto, he has done a mediocre job and has learnt from his mistakes. I think he is only getting better and he made a really good draft choice in the past 3 years (DeRozan, Davis and Valanciunas). The Raptors are entering the Top 10, possibly top 5, in the draft and I can see them improving drastically. Even though he had some mess ups in Toronto, I feel like he is getting better and better.

[HitsterParticipant]

I’d agree with the consensus of Burford, Pritchard and Presti plus maybe Daryl Morey from Houston just behind them. Burford is great at evaluating talent whilst Presti built a team manly via the draft and Kevin Pritchard was always great at doing draft day deals.

I was never a huge fan of Portland but I grew to like them because of Kevin Pritchard but if I had to choose one GM then I’d go for Ric Burford.

[BasterdInABasketParticipant]

I’d be my own GM, go the Cuban-Jerry Jones way. Just surround myself with a strong cast of financial and scouting personnel.

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

I would say Sam Presti.  He drafted Durant, Harden, Ibaka (when nobody knew who he was), traded for Jeff Green, "reached" for Westbrook and apparently he was the leading hand in drafting Tony Parker.  He also landed Perkins and Sefolosha.

And if I remember correctly, he nearly got Tyson Chandler a couple of years ago for almost nothing, except Chandler failed his physical.  (Joe Smith, aged 33 and Chris Wilcox)

[Author]

Posts