https://sports.yahoo.com/the-danny-a...222824265.html
The twitter reaction to this has been hilarious. Mostly the hysterical whining from a couple of SpursTwitter personalities who about everything and want the Spurs to trade for every disgruntled star there is a rumor about.
SpursTalk (at least parts of it) are much more cerebral - so what are your thoughts?
Interesting when you look at the way it's calculated because Wright really hasn't done anything spectacular, but he also hasn't made giant blunders which keeps his averages up. He keeps the ball in play with just about every at bat.
I'm thinking he's more Rod Carew than Barry Bonds.
lots of interesting strike outs in the draft category, including Wright's abysmal 2021 draft. wemby was rightfully excluded but if he turns out to be a HR, that would certainly increase Wright's slugging percentage. but, as mentioned in the article, would have been more luck than anything else-with the exception of setting up the tank at the right time.
I think the two most over rated were Ainge and Presti. If you look at Ainge's Ks, he had a LOT of bust first rounders, and even with all of the good picks, BOS only made it to the Finals once, and didn't win. Presti is still coasting off of his troika of consecutive high first rounders, KG, Russ, Harden, but they were all top 4 picks, and like BOS, OKC only made one Finals and didn't win. That was all VERY long ago, too. KG was drafted in 2007.
Did not expect to open SpursTalk and read the name Rod Carew one of my all time favorites
Lists like this are so stupid (leaves out context, like S bag screwing the Spurs and Craptors falling ass backwards into the luckiest trade in history) and only serve to reinforce this false premise or narrative that being a POBO and/or GM is mostly about basketball intelligence, when it's really about luck.
Last edited by TD 21; 08-29-2023 at 04:18 PM.
If Wemby is as advertised, the guy is going to get easy high scores. He's traded good players for real assets; he's drafted well except for Primo; and we haven't signed any real free agents, so no albatross contracts. But what will be the most telling is what he does over the next 4 years, not the last 4 years.
I prefer RC Buford, but let's see what Brian Wright does. So far he's let go of our developing players (White and Murray). I don't see Keldon being a fit for this team either. We'll see what he does.
Didn’t like the evaluation at all. Getting jokic in the second round counting the same as Durant with a second pick is stupid. It also penalizes smaller markets for free agent signings and leaves out context on trades, not just players forcing trades to bigger markets, but also long term implications (the player could be great for a year and then the wheels fall off).
Overall the pretty terrible way to evaluate.
As long as we don't have any more Marcus Morris or DeMarre Caroll or Luka Samanic or Josh Primo incidents...
I know Wright wasn't completely to blame for all those but we had a pretty bad stretch for a while there
Exactly. You have to weight the picks. Presti made three obvious top 4 picks in 2007,2008,2009 and is still coasting off of that.
He got off to a brutal start absolutely but perhaps he was following orders to get veterans and help Pop get the record. And then once that was done he got to rebuild and that's when he's really shined. That's my theory. Now, the Primo pick seems all him but my guess Luka was RC's guy.
Since he's gotten the green light to tank, Wright has made numerous shrewd moves. But one of the reasons why the team got the green light to tank is because Wright couldn't find a way to make the talent they had on the roster already work. I think he's a good GM, and clearly the Spurs are in an enviable position now. But I also think the Spurs could've been way more aggressive in the transitional era while likely still being in this position now. I wonder if Wright will be able to put it together. We'll probably get a sense next off-season as the team starts to try to build a core around Wemby rather than just collect players with some talent. A person talented in pulling salvage out of old vehicles isn't necessarily talented in building new ones.
Isn't that Pop's job? We'll have to disagree on this, because I think that there was no way to salvage that team once Nephew forced his way out the door. DD and LMA were an odd pairing, and LMA fell off a cliff very shortly afterwards, which I didn't see coming.
In hindsight, the Kawhi trade was a lot better than it looked. Nephew, Green, and a later acquired SRP for DD, Poodle, and a late FRP turned into 3 solid years of DD, 4 solid years of Poodle, Keldon, another FRP from CHI for DD, plus Thad, who with that earlier mentioned SRP turned into yet another FRP (Malaki) from TOR, and a top 6 protected FRP for Poodle.
Agree, Ainge busted with a huge haul from Brooklyn, although shaking down Minnesota counts for a lot. Can he really put together a team? Presti nailed semi-gimmies with Durant, Harden, and Westbrook. Then he had years of being rather bad. Now, he's done well again although it's mostly SGA who was gifted to him.
As for the rankings, I think they shift considerably in the next couple of years.
Zach Collins is not a 1B hit. Devin Vassell could very well be better than a 2B. Jeremy Sochan in my mind is absolutely not a 1B. And I think Malaki Branham is also absolutely not a BB.
Collins is being slept on. Sochan imo will be a star. Branham is going to be torching teams, a steal at #20.
he's been solid. not without error of course. though, lucking into Wemby is going to make anyone look good tbh
I agree about Collins. I've said several times that he was the best player on the Spurs after the Poeltl trade. When he was first signed I admit I was skeptical, but he has remained relatively healthy and really came on the end of last season. I think the Spurs made a mistake in not working out an extension for him over the off-season. I believe he is going to have a break out year and is going to cost a pretty penny to re-sign next year. I am looking for big improvement from him, Vassel, Sochan and Branham this year. I think Sochan will have a much improved outside shot which is probably the biggest thing the Spurs could wish for outside of Wemby's skillset level.
Did Presti do anything to earn the 2,4,4 picks in consecutive drafts? No, OKC was just bad. When you get the high picks, you still have to make the right one. BW picking Alien isn't any different from Presti getting 3 consecutive top 4 picks, pretty lucky.
I believe that the Spurs may have worked out extensions for both Collins and Vassell, but they will be in the form of new contracts next summer to save cap space. Both of their cap holds are far less than any new contract they might sign.
The fact that he managed to pick 3 players that ended up being MVPs in consecutive drafts is pretty noteworthy. Look at the history of the draft and see how many top 10 picks busted after a couple years. Wright lucking into the most consensus #1 pick since LeBron is not the same as finding three MVPs in consecutive seasons without the #1 pick. Not slobbering Presti by any means but to act like he hasn't proven himself to be a better GM than Wright and to act like taking the players he did was a given (sans Durant) is just silly. Put some respect on his name
That may be true will Vassell, but they could have paid Collins more this year and really front-end loaded it to reduce the cap hit. But I hope you are correct.
Collins won't be an extension because his contract will be up. His cap hold is $14.63M; imo that's pretty close to what he would get in a new contract, depending on how well he plays this season of course.
I agree regarding Vassell. His cap hold is $17.66M and his next contract should start well above that if he continues to improve at the rate he has shown so far.
Branham didn't impress in summer...let's see if he fixes it by start of season
Presti has definitely made some mistakes - specifically the Harden trade and essentially choosing Ibaka over him -- but not only did he nail those three straight MVP draft picks, look how he's rebuilt that franchise after Durant bailed. He absolutely screwed the Clippers over for SGA and all those picks. Giddey and Williams look like hits. The jury is out on Holmgren but he doesn't look like a bust, either. The way he used his cap space to parlay vets and contracts into more picks while they rebuilt was masterful. They have one of the most promising young rosters in the league, the biggest war chest of draft picks, and gobs of cap space. He did all that and their team was only non-compe ive for two seasons.
I'm not an OKC fan, but he's got to be considered one of the best GMs in the league.
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