D'Antoni != Pioneer

Believe it or not I'm going to quibble over something. I won't say my view on this is the correct one(as I roll my eyes) but I will say it's valid. On March 8th ESPN's Daily Dish podcast interviewed one Kiki Vandeweghe(if that is his real name). In this podcast Mr. Vanda...Vandu...Vanwd...Kiki. In this podcast Kiki said, and I quote (5:48), "Mike D'Antoni, almost all by himself has started a new type of style that's more fun for players and people really enjoy playing on his teams - seems to be the way to win right now." As the Teacher said in Ecclessiates:

Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

If you want to talk about fast paced wide open offensive basketball in the modern NBA you have to talk about one man, The Don, Dynamite, Don Nelson. Who can forget the Run TMC days from his first stint with the Warriors? Who can forget how crazy good the Mavericks were on offense when he came to Dallas? According to Dean Oliver's book Basketball on Paper the 2002 Dallas Mavericks were the most efficient offense in the history of the NBA as of 2004. How did they do it? By having the fewest turnovers ever by an NBA team in a season and by having three fantastic players in Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash. Take a look at that last name there...Steve Nash. I'd like to ask two questions:
Would Mike D'Antoni's system be what it is today without Steve Nash?
Would Steve Nash be the same player he is now if he hadn't spent those several years under Don Nelson?
My answer to both of those questions is no. I think Mike D'Antoni is a great coach. D'Antoni fine tuned the Nelson system so that it's geared for the playoffs and not just the regular season. As a Mavericks' fan I'm terrified of what the Suns might do in the playoffs if they get hot with a healthy team. But their system, I think, owes a great deal to Big Nellie. It didn't start in the desert.

Well I'm the GM all you utha GM's can...

Get a load of this. According to Forbes magazine, Kevin McHale is the top GM in (American)pro sports. What? How can anyone on theTimberwolves' staff be considered tops in the league in something? I'm not saying they have the worst front office, but the best? How can they be the best when they have a once in a era player like KG and have oneconference finals appearance to show for it. Let me emphasize I'm not putting this on #21. That guy plays hard every single game. But the fact remains that other than that one run to the conference finals in they have never gotten out of the first round. It doesn't add up.

The Forbes list bases a large part of their rankings on improvements based on the previous GM. This doesn't work for me. It should be based upon your peers currently, not the guy you replaced. Being better than the guy that got fired doesn't say that much for the replacement's performance at work. You're supposed to be better than the previous guy. If I compare my coding skills to the average ten year old then on the charts I look great (the above average ten year old might take me out).

Number two on the list is Billy King...are you kidding me? Sure they had the final's appearance (and AI) but the Sixers have the 3rd highest payroll in the league this year. Heck, the Sixers still owe Jamal Mashburn $10,850,000. And don't get me started about the Chris Webber deal. I'll let one of my Philly brethren sound off on that if they feel so inclined (real quick, FG% with the Sixers:38.7%, with Detroit:an all star-esque 52.1%). It does not matter if they make the playoff's this year. Eighth in the playoffs is first to get bounced. But, despite all this the Sixers do have three first round picks in what should be a great upcoming draft. If Mr. King puts those to good use then lots (not all, this is Philly) will be forgiven.

Another factor that is not taken into account is the owner. If you have an owner that's tighter than a duck's butt (Donald Sterling, I'm looking in your direction) then how can you make the right moves as a GM? Let's say you had an owner like...hmm...I don't know...let's say Mark Cuban. Now you have a chance to acquire guys and keep them. The notable exception being the two(three?) time MVP of the league (hey, you can't win them all).

The first GM on the list that makes sense is John Paxson. The Bulls are still middle of the pack but they are on the way up with their big three. Did they over pay for Big Ben? Maybe, but again that's the owner too. They are better with him, it's just a question of will it be worth it. Ask Paxson in 2010 after all $60,000,000 of that contract has been paid out. But even with the Big Ben paycheck the Bulls are just barely over the salary cap (3rd lowest payroll in the league). They may be under the cap. I'm not sure how the mid-level exception fits into what hoopshype shows on their website. Read more salary caps here if you are having trouble sleeping.

I could go on but talking about GM's but I won't. I'm tired of it. You can find the list of just NBA GM's here. It's worth checking out some of the profiles Forbes has on NBA teams. There are some interesting things to be found. For instance, did you know the Sonics might move to OKC?