Masai and Executive of the Year

[Joey]

I agree with the those above that this is RC Popovichs to lose. No question in my mind. Masai has done great no doubt, but no way has he made the best collection of moves this season.

[rightsideup]

I can see this, because it tends to be a shortsighted award. From a long-term perspective, I think what Masai did is more impressive than what Olshey did.

It's weird that a job that requires a long-term outlook has an award that rewards short-term perspective.

portlands success could be everyone as players overachieving and the bottom of the west is getting very bad

[Niagara Raptor]

i would agree with all of whats been said ... masai looks like the man to beat but you got to look at the competition and from that perspective i would agree that portland seems to be the only competition that comes to mind

of the trades, signings and drafting that have had a major positive impact on the team masai is the likely candidate to me
because of the moves he has made, Toronto has moved into a top 5 team a step below (A BIG STEP YES) Cavs, Warriors, Spurs which is a tier that hard to crack, include that with where people around the league expected at the beginning of the season indicates to me that masai ujiri is a frontrunner to win the award

[golden]

Good debate, but my reasoning is that it's easier to go from expected bad-to-good (Blazers), than it is to go from expected good-to-great (Raps). Going from great-to-historically great (Spurs/Warriors) is yet another level.

Since the Warriors technically didn't make any major moves and Myers won it last year, my EOY ranking would go: (1) Spurs, (2) Raps, (3) Blazers.

Blazers got pretty lucky, IMO, catching lightning in a bottle with chemistry and lack of injuries, coincident with a weaker west and stronger east this season. And they did lose LMA for nothing, which would otherwise have been considered bad GM'ing.

[KeonClark]

I dunno why anybody is thinking blazers for exec of the year. Exec of the year is when you spend the offseason improving your team from the year before and put them in a position to succeed and they do. Coach of the year is where blazers could win. Where you surprise and squeeze more wins than they had you on paper.

Cool thing for toronto is we could be nominated in both.

[tonious35]

It's pretty even. Denver won 57 games, were 5th in offense, 11th in defense with a +4.7 netRTG.

We're on pace for 57 wins, are 5th in offense, 11th in defense with a +5.0 netRTG (our dRTGs are exactly the same, oRTG differs by 0.3)

It's actually weird how similar these two teams are in those stats. Totally different play style on offense though.

Then that team lost Gallo in the worst possible time and way, they had an excuse to fizzle in the playoffs

[Niagara Raptor]

Good debate, but my reasoning is that it's easier to go from expected bad-to-good (Blazers), than it is to go from expected good-to-great (Raps). Going from great-to-historically great (Spurs/Warriors) is yet another level.

Since the Warriors technically didn't make any major moves and Myers won it last year, my EOY ranking would go: (1) Spurs, (2) Raps, (3) Blazers.

Blazers got pretty lucky, IMO, catching lightning in a bottle with chemistry and lack of injuries, coincident with a weaker west and stronger east this season. And they did lose LMA for nothing, which would otherwise have been considered bad GM'ing.

i must disagree with your ranking sorry
spurs were a great team last year so they attracted the best free agent and they have gone from great team to historically great but i still feel there isnt the cunning in decision making in their front office like masai did, they saw the best free agent, made their obvious case and got him and while that is great, dont think it is as great as masai did

[iblastoff]

no idea why people are praising blazers gm. they lost their franchise player for absolutely nothing. dude was there for NINE fucking years and they couldn't keep him happy?? then they tried to keep matthews and land kevin love. fail fail fail.

getting ed davis is a executive of the year move? are you fucking nuts??? yeah im sure that took a lot of savvy to get him to leave THE LAKERS. the team just reached past .500. thats hardly indicative of success.

[ebrian]

Spurs' situation is a bit unique though.. they managed to get some guys come in on very low salaries. I don't know if Buford can be credited for that, although one could argue it is his entire body of work (over the last decade) which has led to those types of discounts becoming an option for players who just want to be a part of that team.

[JWash]

Then that team lost Gallo in the worst possible time and way, they had an excuse to fizzle in the playoffs

Yeah he was arguably their best player (either him or Iggy), losing him was a massive blow.

[JWash]

no idea why people are praising blazers gm. they lost their franchise player for absolutely nothing. dude was there for NINE fucking years and they couldn't keep him happy?? then they tried to keep matthews and land kevin love. fail fail fail.

getting ed davis is a executive of the year move? are you fucking nuts??? yeah im sure that took a lot of savvy to get him to leave THE LAKERS. the team just reached past .500. thats hardly indicative of success.

Neil Olshey has only been the Blazers GM since 2012. And the LMA situation was extremely unpredictable. Just the season before LMA had publicly said he plans to re-sign with the Blazers. Then the Wes Matthews injury hit, Batum's level of play dropped and they struggled in the playoffs last year, so LMA left.

They brought in high quality role players that have helped the team play well and support the Lillard-McCollum attack. You're poking fun at guys like Ed Davis, Plumlee and Aminu being good moves, but those are the kind of low-key, smart role-player pickups that help teams improve. Non-Raptor fans probably look at the CoJo and Biyombo moves the same way so I don't really get the attitude you have towards those players.

Anyway it doesn't matter because Buford is going to win the award.

[iblastoff]

Neil Olshey has only been the Blazers GM since 2012. And the LMA situation was extremely unpredictable. Just the season before LMA had publicly said he plans to re-sign with the Blazers. Then the Wes Matthews injury hit, Batum's level of play dropped and they struggled in the playoffs last year, so LMA left.

They brought in high quality role players that have helped the team play well and support the Lillard-McCollum attack. You're poking fun at guys like Ed Davis, Plumlee and Aminu being good moves, but those are the kind of low-key, smart role-player pickups that help teams improve. Non-Raptor fans probably look at the CoJo and Biyombo moves the same way so I don't really get the attitude you have towards those players.

Anyway it doesn't matter because Buford is going to win the award.

Uhh except the team DIDNT improve. They clearly got worse, despite having a few outstanding performances this season. They beat the Warriors once and all of a sudden everyone's fawning over them.

"Low key, smart role player moves" are great when you don't LOSE YOUR ENTIRE STARTING LINEUP all at once.


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[DanH]

I've always thought that to some degree a team could have a COY candidate or an EOY candidate but not both - rare is the occasion that significant improvement is because of BOTH the players changing and the coach maximizing the talents of the players. Certainly it is not easy to separate the two factors to give credit to one for some things and the other for other things.

POR's coach is in the COY running because his lineup LOOKS like it should suck. So, no, the EOY should not be in play for them.

For me, Ujiri did a pretty fantastic job this summer, so I'd lean more to EOY than COY for the Raptors, but Casey has actually been much better overall this year (with of course some of the same pretty significant flaws). I could see us being borderline picks for both awards but not much chance of winning either - sort of like when a team has two great players (like Durant/Westbrook) and it is hard for either to win MVP - hard to credit one side without detracting from what the other side is doing.

The exceptions being when you've got truly incredible things happening like in SAS and GSW this year. SAS in particular should be a front-runner for both awards. GSW probably more for coaching just on the strength of how few moves they made making it difficult to credit the front office much for sticking with a winning formula (smart, but not award winning).

[KeonClark]

I've always thought that to some degree a team could have a COY candidate or an EOY candidate but not both - rare is the occasion that significant improvement is because of BOTH the players changing and the coach maximizing the talents of the players. Certainly it is not easy to separate the two factors to give credit to one for some things and the other for other things.

POR's coach is in the COY running because his lineup LOOKS like it should suck. So, no, the EOY should not be in play for them.

For me, Ujiri did a pretty fantastic job this summer, so I'd lean more to EOY than COY for the Raptors, but Casey has actually been much better overall this year (with of course some of the same pretty significant flaws). I could see us being borderline picks for both awards but not much chance of winning either - sort of like when a team has two great players (like Durant/Westbrook) and it is hard for either to win MVP - hard to credit one side without detracting from what the other side is doing.

The exceptions being when you've got truly incredible things happening like in SAS and GSW this year. SAS in particular should be a front-runner for both awards. GSW probably more for coaching just on the strength of how few moves they made making it difficult to credit the front office much for sticking with a winning formula (smart, but not award winning).

Exactly. People seem to be confusing the 2 awards and just blending them together. If your roster got significantly worse from one season to the next (like portlands), youre out of the running for exec of the year. Now if that roster that went from good to shit manages to keep it's head above water (like portlands), then you're in the running for coy. As Dan said, we could/should probably be nominated for both, and win neither.

[JawsGT]

Would things like getting a Dleague team or a successful hosting of all star weekend have any influence? Or hiring a new coach(es)? Basically, are there other factors outside of roster additions/subtractions and of course, success of the team that play a factor for this award?