Nickagneta,
You're talking solely about decisions instead of decisions and non-decisions. It's the non-decisions that are killing several of those teams (like Utah and Detroit).
These non-decisions are about opportunity. Teams that have opportunity (Utah) get judged harsher than teams who have limited opportunity (Boston). By opportunity we talk about their draft pick, their cap space and room to maneuver in free agency, and the trade assets they are able to part with.
Phoenix Suns
This was their last hurrah with Nash, Shaq, Grant Hill and Raja Bell. This was a team with a huge amount of flaws and they had to put everything on the line to fix them. They had no other choice ... and they did not do this.
In the draft I wanted to see them do one of two things (1) Draft a ready made contributor (2) Draft someone with high potential who can take a major role when as the Suns rebuild, so Amare has at least someone by his side.
Who do they draft? Robin Lopez. You can go down to the 35th pick in the draft with DeAndre Jordan and talk about guys with better potential. So he has to be ready to play right? No, not at all. This was a wasted opportunity.
Then the Suns go and make it worse in free agency. They say Robin Lopez is our backup center, our defensive presence, and that he's the right guy for the job. So they decide not to sign another backup big man and also decide to let Brian Skinner go. For those keeping score, Brian Skinner is a better player than Lopez and is out-performing him. Robin Lopez is one of the worst backup big men playing regular minutes in the NBA.
It isn't even a surprise that he's struggling. Lopez was outrebounded by DeAndre Jordan in college despite playing 25% more minutes ... yet he has a rep as rebounder and Jordan doesn't. Lopez is ready to play but Jordan isn't? Lopez will be a Varejao type because of his rebounding+defense and not because of his hair. This whole situation was off from the day they picked him up. How many 7 footers get drafted in the middle of the first round and can be a defense changing contributor big man off the bench for a contender? This had disaster written all over it back on draft day.
The Suns also decided to overpay Goran Dragic and pronounce him the answer to their backup point guard slot. Again failing to sign someone competent and again ignoring better options on the market in favour of Dragic. Well he played about 19 games and has been put on ice since because he's been a disaster and one of the worst backup guards in the league.
Then they choose to sign Matt Barnes. I have no idea why someone would think Matt Barnes is the answer to better defense but he absolutely has not been for Phoenix, in fact he's made them worse. That's why he was dropped from the starting lineup and why Phoenix's D has been playing better since that date. The Suns are 4.6 points better off with Barnes off the court defensively. By the way, Matt Barnes is having the best season of his career and he's still hurting the Suns.
It's not like this is new information with Barnes, he's been eaten alive defensively for most of his career. He's too slow on the perimeter and too small in the paint. He can't guard the three spot or the four spot, any spot for that matter. Barnes is simply a weak defender.
All of these items where clear back in the summer.
Let's go back to their defense because with Phoenix it's only about two things (1) Defense (2) Bench. They were a middle of the road defensive team with the worst pick and roll defense in the league. They had to improve here in order to be a legit contender. What improvements did they make? None. They brought in guys that made them worse. How about the bench, did they improve the bench? You mean by adding one of the worst backup guards and backup big men in the league? No. Barnes is a lateral move from Giricek.
This is a team with one final shot at a title and they blew it. This is why they're one of 6-9th best teams in the West and not a frontrunner for a title ... because their GM blew his summer.
The Phoenix Suns had an awful summer and it's cost them hugely. They had an awful summer without me even talking about Mike D'Antoni, and that was also an awful mistake.
Phoenix don't even have a chance to correct these mistakes (unlike a Utah Jazz who have several years ahead of them) so these mistakes are far more costly to them than most other contenders.
Anyway ..... It would take to long to go through each team.
Nickagneta, look at the teams where you say all they did was re-sign Kwame Brown or add Kosta Koufos ... the all they did part is the problematic area.
I believe the top six teams on my list all had substantially worse summers than the Celtics. I think the only way people fail to see that ... is if they don't spend enough time looking at those teams from their positions, what they needed, what they were able to do, and then what they ended up doing. I think once people do that they'll agree each of those teams had a far worse summer than Boston.
The seventh team on my list was the LA Lakers and I believe they're a judgement call. Personally I added them onto the list, and ahead of Boston, because I felt they could guaranteed themselves a title by trading Lamar Odom for a top small forward (as much as one can guarantee themselves a title in July).
I felt they missed an opportunity and as a consequence have allowed themselves to be overly vulnerable throughout this season. This team is a judgement call, and I find it perfectly understandable with those who disagree with the above point of view. Outside of this one element to the Lakers summer, they had an excellent offseason (limited opportunity outside of an Odom trade due to cap and draft) .... I just feel this one element is important enough to override the rest.
Actually, now that I think of it, Phoenix was probably the longest. I should have picked someone else. Dang it!
Topic: Did Ainge Have the Worst Offseason (Read 18809 times)