Layups: SBNation GM Rankings
Posted by Neil Paine on July 23, 2010
For all of the front-office watchers out there: yesterday, Mike Prada of SBNation.com rolled out a huge post that ranked every NBA General Manager from 1-30... Check it out, it's a must read.
And yes, you saw that correctly -- poor David Kahn can't even win the "Worst GM" derby.
(H/T: BDL.)
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Prada of all people should know the only correct choice for #30 is Grunfeld.
July 23rd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
A little disappointing in seeing a list wth Mitch Kupchak ranked 13th! How can the GM of the back-2-back champions not "better than average".
I can't really think of a single bad move Mitch made over the last 3 years.
Traded Brian Cook and Maurice Evans for Trevor Ariza
Acquire Gasol in a heist
Brought back Derek Fisher
Signed Ron Artest
Resigned Odom and Kobe
Now with little money available he strengthens what was one of the worst benches in the league by getting Blake, Barnes, and Ratliff along with two very solid picks for the 2nd round.
July 23rd, 2010 at 7:55 pm
I'm with you, Walter.
Also don't see how RC Buford is so low. Riley so high because of the trio choosing to come for less? Credit, sure..but what else has he done. His drafting has been sub-par and trades haven't really worked out. Both Mitch and RC should be ahead.
And apparently Baron Davis wasn't a significant FA signing for the clippers. huh?
I'm sure if Webber had a vote, Kahn would be last.
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Looks like the key to winning championships is to have the 13th best GM, a "superstar" who is not even in the same area code as Lebron James and is the second best player on his own team, and a leading 5-man unit with chemistry rating of 0.
Unfortunately the Lakers don't pay attention to advanced stats and keep winning championships.
Next year we'll see more stat geeks scratching their heads trying to figure out how the Lakers won so many games despite mediocre advanced stats, while attempting to explain why the Heat won way fewer than 68 games that their models predicted. It'll be fun.
July 24th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
"Unfortunately the Lakers don't pay attention to advanced stats and keep winning championships."
They still have an amazing group of talent. I don't think anyone is surprised by their success. And Kobe is in LBJ's area code, just not his zip code.
July 24th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
i do believe the lakers org pays attention to advanced stats, fwiw. They just don't talk about it openly.
Kobe receivers synergy style data/video for his opponents as well.
July 24th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
@Daniel
"Looks like the key to winning championships is to have the 13th best GM"
That was an opinion piece, from another website, and it wasn't based on statistical analysis.
"a "superstar" who is not even in the same area code as Lebron James and is the second best player on his own team"
He may not be the best player on his team, and his advanced stats aren't really close to James... but his stats are still very, very good as are Gasol's. "Stat geeks," as you say... all recognize the power and talent of that duo.
"and a leading 5-man unit with chemistry rating of 0."
That chemistry rating, as far as I can tell... seemed to be mostly be just an experiment. No one claimed its results should be taken as gospel. Just something interesting to play with and see what happens.
"Unfortunately the Lakers don't pay attention to advanced stats and keep winning championships."
lol... I doubt there's a single team that doesn't pay attention to advanced stats at least a little.
Basically what you posted is just a series of strawman arguments. Its the same type of thing Joe Morgan does... misrepresenting ideas to make them look silly to people who don't know much about them.
July 24th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Lakers had a 4.8 efficiency differential in the regular season, then beat teams with differentials of 4.2, 4.9, 5.8, and 4.3 in the playoffs. I'm not seeing the failure of advanced stats in this case, and that's before accounting for regular season injuries and the fact that the Lakers had an efficiency differential of about 8 in 2008-09.
July 25th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
"Next year we'll see more stat geeks scratching their heads trying to figure out how the Lakers won so many games despite mediocre advanced stats, while attempting to explain why the Heat won way fewer than 68 games that their models predicted. It'll be fun."
Here are my predictions:
1) The stat geeks and their laptops will predict x number of wins for the Lakers and Heat
2) The Lakers and Heat (and all the other teams) will win about the same number of games as predicted, barring extreme circumstance
3) You won't be around to spout excuses and platitudes