Everything Masai Ujiri

[Jclaw]

BetRiver has the over under on Raptor wins at 36.5, holy crap. Now I'm taking the over but that's eye opening.

yeah....(although I bet the over last year as well)....hard to believe we will be 4 losses worse. On the Sportsnet site for some reason there's a link to a guy making some picks (not odd that it's a link to gambling but odd that the headline is "take the under"). Basically, the guy's inside info is that we have some free agents to be and after losing Fred, we'll probably trade them and tank. Don't think that's the plan

[MixxAOR]

[golden]

Lol. None of that means a hill of beans if they don’t hit the unexpected jackpot with Jokic … a guy even the Nuggets passed over in the first round.

[Primer]

Lol. None of that means a hill of beans if they don’t hit the unexpected jackpot with Jokic … a guy even the Nuggets passed over in the first round.

That's a pretty lazy take from what he said. You still need to build a championship team around Jokic, which he did.

Like duh, you need an MVP level player to win it all, but having one does not guarantee you win it all, hence why Jokic has 1 ring.

[golden]

That's a pretty lazy take from what he said. You still need to build a championship team around Jokic, which he did.

Like duh, you need an MVP level player to win it all, but having one does not guarantee you win it all, hence why Jokic has 1 ring.

Yeah, but you get these GMs that inherit the MVP level superstars and win champioships, then start getting all the credit, like: Pelinka, Horst, Booth, Myers etc... Not disagreeing that GMs can definitely screw up teams that have a superstar in place, and that even formerly great GMs can have a period of sucking badly. Tim Connelly probably deserves 90% of the credit for being the GM who drafted Jokic and Murray and building most of the Nuggets roster, but then he immediately proceeds to cough up a warchest for Rudy Gobert as his signature first move for the T-Wolves.

And Booth's "gems" are also a pretty lazy take: "I look for high IQ, high character guys with size and no weaknesses". lol. There's another "duh" for you.

The reality is that a lot of GMs are basically lucky, like RC Buford tanking for Duncan and Masai almost trading Lowry. The GMs in recent memory who have won championships where they really built the team from the ground up, were Riley (drafting Wade + recruiting Lebron & Bosh) & Ainge (bringing in KG & Ray Allen). I guess you can give Masai credit for being the GM to actually bring in the true superstar, Kawhi.... but Masai was lucky that a dumber franchise rejected getting Lowry, because they wanted to keep Iman Shumpert.

[SkywalkerAC]

Raps measure out pretty well by those pillars. More (shooting, pullup especially) skill deficiency than you'd like but otherwise we fit that philosophy pretty well.

[MixxAOR]

Raps measure out pretty well by those pillars. More (shooting, pullup especially) skill deficiency than you'd like but otherwise we fit that philosophy pretty well.

Raptors don't see overlap as a weakness though

[MixxAOR]

Booth’s philosophy is built on four key pillars: basketball IQ, character, positional size, and the absence of skill deficiencies. All of the players the Nuggets target must meet at least three of the criteria, but ideally all four. The first three are fairly self-explanatory, but the latter means a player must be proficient at the typical skills for his position (a wing must be able to defend multiple positions, a center must be able to rebound, etc.). So, at 6-foot-10, it was especially vital for Porter to improve as a defender and rebounder, which he has. If he didn’t, or performed like a guard in those areas, the position would be considered a weak spot.

full quote goes into it more.

[MixxAOR]

Malone said Braun will fill Brown’s former role, and he could be even better after working all summer to improve his spot-up jumper and his ballhandling when bringing the ball up the floor. Braun himself thinks Peyton Watson could also be in for a big season after watching from the bench for most of last year: “[Watson] is gonna shock a lot of people with how good he really is,” Braun said. Watson brings tone-setting defense and a high IQ on offense. He is 6-foot-7 with a wingspan of over 7 feet, and he put on 20 pounds of muscle since the beginning of last season, when he weighed in at 200 pounds.

“Some of these teams were trying to get Bruce, trying to make it worth it; it’s like, just be careful what you wish for,” Booth said about the rivals that pursued Brown. “Peyton’s bigger. He’s longer. He’s more athletic. He guards better. He passes better. He doesn’t have the experience, and he’s not as good offensively yet, but we need defense more than we need offense on our team.”

will be curious to see how it'll work out. Not many teams can repeatedly replace their players

[golden]

Booth didn’t bring in Jokic, Murray, Gordon or MPJ. It’s like the mechanic who changed the tires trying to make it look like he was the master design architect of the race car. Connelly did the heavy lifting and even Masai got the pick swap they used for Murray.

Booth brought in KCP and Bruce Brown… that’s hardly elite level GM’ing where you can now preach to the unwashed masses. And he just lost Bruce Brown.

[G____Deane]

Yeah, but you get these GMs that inherit the MVP level superstar is in place and win champioships, then start getting all the credit, like: Pelinka, Horst, Booth, Myers etc... Not disagreeing that GMs can definitely screw up teams that have a superstar in place, and that even formerly great GMs can have a period of sucking badly. Tim Connelly probably deserves 90% of the credit for being the GM who drafted Jokic and Murray and building most of the Nuggets roster, but then he immediately proceeds to cough up a warchest for Rudy Gobert as his signature first move for the T-Wolves.

And Booth's "gems" are also a pretty lazy take: "I look for high IQ, high character guys with size and no weaknesses". lol. There's another "duh" for you.

The reality is that a lot of GMs are basically lucky, like RC Buford tanking for Duncan and Masai almost trading Lowry. The GMs in recent memory who have won championships where they really built the team from the ground up, were Riley (drafting Wade + recruiting Lebron & Bosh) & Ainge (bringing in KG & Ray Allen). I guess you can give Masai credit for being the GM to actually bring in the true superstar, Kawhi.... but Masai was lucky that a dumber franchise rejected getting Lowry, because they wanted to keep Iman Shumpert.

I agree with most of what you said but not sure how Riley gets credit for "building the team from the ground up" when the winning move was Lebron and Bosh taking less money than they could have in order to play with another superstar for what they thought was an easy "not one, not two, not three". Same for Ainge attempting to build another unbeatable superteam, no different than lebron recruiting/lobbying for Kyrie or Davis or Kawhi telling the Clips to get PG so he wouldsign there.

I give GM's jusdt above zero credit for building these teams "from the ground up" other than having someone on staff to manipulate the cap.

[golden]

I agree with most of what you said but not sure how Riley gets credit for "building the team from the ground up" when the winning move was Lebron and Bosh taking less money than they could have in order to play with another superstar for what they thought was an easy "not one, not two, not three". Same for Ainge attempting to build another unbeatable superteam, no different than lebron recruiting/lobbying for Kyrie or Davis or Kawhi telling the Clips to get PG so he wouldsign there.

I give GM's jusdt above zero credit for building these teams "from the ground up" other than having someone on staff to manipulate the cap.

"Ground up", was a poor choice of words on my part.... because it only implies draft. I wouldn't fixate on that.

I don't care how the GM gets the superstar on the team... I give them full credit for just frickin' getting it done. It can be by draft, FA or trade.

Riley & Ainge stripped their teams down to the essential parts (which I also consider a ground up approach)..... and then built them back up, lightning quick, through trade or FA. That's an even more impressive rebuild (or retool)... it doesn't have to be slow. Just like Masai bringing in Kawhi.

[G____Deane]

"Ground up", was a poor choice of words on my part.... because it only implies draft. I wouldn't fixate on that.

I don't care how the GM gets the superstar on the team... I give them full credit for just frickin' getting it done. It can be by draft, FA or trade.

Riley & Ainge stripped their teams down to the essential parts (which I also consider a ground up approach)..... and then built them back up, lightning quick, through trade or FA. That's an even more impressive rebuild (or retool)... it doesn't have to be slow. Just like Masai bringing in Kawhi.

Got it, thx.
I still don't give a GM a ton of credit for signing guys who orchestrated their own way to a preferred destination and played for less than their market value to get it done.

[golden]

Got it, thx.
I still don't give a GM a ton of credit for signing guys who orchestrated their own way to a preferred destination and played for less than their market value to get it done.

Lebron & Bosh almost went to the Bulls. And if they could've gotten off Deng's contract.... Bulls could've snagged Wade, also.

[G____Deane]

Lebron & Bosh almost went to the Bulls. And if they could've gotten off Deng's contract.... Bulls could've snagged Wade, also.

Right, so the players investigated where they could all get together and went where the money/players/situation fit. I don't see how that's great GM'ing. Other than Wade being already there, the weather and the agreement to pay the three of them each ~20M, it took a great GM to hold the pen for them to sign