Exclusive Blazers 10 GM's: Worst to Best

[Chris Craig]

https://www.blazersland.com/blazers-10-gms-worst-to-best/

 

[ripcityboy]

https://www.blazersland.com/blazers-10-gms-worst-to-best/

Damn Chris. You're getting good at this. I am so proud of the work the S2 board does in generating content. Makes up for that sports blog sludge over at Blazer's Edge.

 

[wizenheimer]

good write-up CC, and for the most part, I'd agree with it. Maybe a couple of quibbles and of course, quibbling is the lifeblood of the internet

I've never been clear on just how much credit KP should get for the 2006 draft. He certainly wanted credit for it, but KP was always blowing his own horn...there might be video of it on another type of website

maybe an honorable mention for Chad Buchanan? He was the interim GM who traded Crash for the draft pick that brought Dame to Portland, and he was in charge of scouting when 'reportedly' the Blazers zeroed in on Lillard as the primary target

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

I'm not disagreeing, but it's depressing our 2nd best GM on this, drafted Sam Bowie and not some other dude...

 

[Pinwheel1]

Harry Glickman was great, but Moses Malone was not the only fuck up. Picking LaRue Martin over Bob McAdoo was pretty bad as well. But to be fair his hands were tied because of finances. I believe negotiations were not going well between McAdoo and the Blazers so they went with LaRue instead. In those days they were bidding against the ABA too.

 

[ripcityboy]

I'm not disagreeing, but it's depressing our 2nd best GM on this, drafted Sam Bowie and not some other dude...

Look at the roster sizes of NBA teams and look at how handicapped small market teams are in acquiring talent. That's if big market teams don't steal it first. People remember the mistakes from small market teams because their is so little player movement. The Celtics passed up Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash. Does anybody give a shit? No. Because they are the Celtics. If your team has like two or three options to get better every year and that's it... you aren't to be lie a red headed step child. What? "You made a mistake... you ALWAYS make mistakes."

 

[oldmangrouch]

I'll offer the same comment I did on the coaches - times have changed, and not for the better.

Petrie and KP were given 4 years and 3 years respectively. Olshey is already at 7 with no end in sight. Allen either just gave up, or was too focused on the Seahawks.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Look at the roster sizes of NBA teams and look at how handicapped small market teams are in acquiring talent. That's if big market teams don't steal it first. People remember the mistakes from small market teams because their is so little player movement. The Celtics passed up Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash. Does anybody give a shit? No. Because they are the Celtics. If your team has like two or three options to get better every year and that's it... you aren't to be lie a red headed step child. What? "You made a mistake... you ALWAYS make mistakes."

No people dont care what the Celtics did because they have 17 championships. People wouldnt care as much about the Blazers missing KD or MJ, Or Barkley, if they had more trophies.

 

[BBert]

No people dont care what the Celtics did because they have 17 championships. People wouldnt care as much about the Blazers missing KD or MJ, Or Barkley, if they had more trophies.

Didn't most of their championships occur when there were only 8 teams in the entire league?

 

[Chris Craig]

good write-up CC, and for the most part, I'd agree with it. Maybe a couple of quibbles and of course, quibbling is the lifeblood of the internet

I've never been clear on just how much credit KP should get for the 2006 draft. He certainly wanted credit for it, but KP was always blowing his own horn...there might be video of it on another type of website

maybe an honorable mention for Chad Buchanan? He was the interim GM who traded Crash for the draft pick that brought Dame to Portland, and he was in charge of scouting when 'reportedly' the Blazers zeroed in on Lillard as the primary target

I gave Pritchard credit for the 2006 draft, are you saying he doesn't deserve it.

Thanks for pointing out Chad, I had those tidbits in my note, oh so many notes in my research for this article, forgot to include him as interim after Cho, fixed that!

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Didn't most of their championships occur when there were only 8 teams in the entire league?

Yes many of them are from a long time ago, but there's a difference in the level of criticism that gets levied at what is looked at as a successful franchise vs what's looked at as an unsuccessful one.
I get that every team has "failed" at one point or another, whether it's in the draft, a trade or FA.

 

[ripcityboy]

No people dont care what the Celtics did because they have 17 championships. People wouldnt care as much about the Blazers missing KD or MJ, Or Barkley, if they had more trophies.

Small market teams have won like 12 championships in the entire history of the NBA. And the Spurs have like five of those. So I'm not holding my breath for that type of acclaim.

 

[hoopsjock]

I gave Pritchard credit for the 2006 draft, are you saying he doesn't deserve it.

Thanks for pointing out Chad, I had those tidbits in my note, oh so many notes in my research for this article, forgot to include him as interim after Cho, fixed that!

I've heard from the other GM's of the teams they traded with (Boston, Minnesota, and Chicago) that they dealt with Pritchard on the phones for those deals. Patterson tried to take credit for the draft though after the fact.

 

[hoopsjock]

No people dont care what the Celtics did because they have 17 championships. People wouldnt care as much about the Blazers missing KD or MJ, Or Barkley, if they had more trophies.

Yeah, I was talking with a Pistons fan about how Atlanta (and Phoenix and Sacramento) must feel watching Doncic. I brought up that I know exactly how that feels as a Blazer fan.

He was like "me too, we took Darko over Melo, Bosh, and Wade." I said that doesn't count because they won the championship that season. You can't claim hardship when you won it all that same year.

 

[BBert]

Yeah, I was talking with a Pistons fan about how Atlanta (and Phoenix and Sacramento) must feel watching Doncic. I brought up that I know exactly how that feels as a Blazer fan.

He was like "me too, we took Darko over Melo, Bosh, and Wade." I said that doesn't count because they won the championship that season. You can't claim hardship when you won it all that same year.

Yes, but you can claim stupid management and missed opportunities

 

[BBert]

As has already been pointed out, every team in the league has made those kind of mistakes. But the Blazers are probably the number one team that gets dumped on for every error.