Call OKC and offer Sam Presti the farm. Bring him back home.
Presti is very good, but doesn't he have the same question marks that Danny has had since 2009? He's very good at accumulating assets, but seemed incapable of getting over the hump. Plus, he should have a permanent black mark for trading Harden:
October 27, 2012: Traded by the Oklahoma City Thunder with Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to the Houston Rockets for Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, a 2013 1st round draft pick (Steven Adams was later selected), a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Álex Abrines was later selected) and a 2014 1st round draft pick (Mitch McGary was later selected).
Yes, but the Harden trade was pretty much demanded by ownership, who refused to be a tax team at the time and wouldn’t give Harden a max extension.
The Presti criticisms are not unfounded, but it’s really hard to get a team over the hump without three real stars. It’s hard to draft 3, and Presti was forced to trade one. Ainge got his 3, but one got hurt in game 1, and by the time the J’s became stars, another had aged and the third bolted, and then Kemba hasn’t been healthy either.
I do give Ujiri credit for investing in some players not seen as stars that actually had that potential (Lowry and Siakam most notably), so that he could make his move to get his biggest star in Kawhi, but even that only lasted a season, and they’ve had worse finishes than the Celtics in each of the last two seasons, and 4 of the last 5. Not saying he’s not a great executive, and he’d probably be at the top of my list, but it’s so hard to build a title team if you aren’t some combination of incredibly lucky or playing with different resources.
Topic: Danny Stepping Down / Brad To Lead Front Office / New Coach (Read 43285 times)