Earlier today the New York Knicks hired Glen Grunwald as Vice President to assist Isiah Thomas in th [...]…

Billups was so awful his rookie season (and for several seasons and a several teams thereafter) that getting such a high pick for him at that time was considered a very good trade.

He came into his GM job like a lion and did a terrific job rebuilding a very dire situation and revitalizing a bitter fan base almost immediately. (The Raps were in the middle of 16-66, Isiah had just quit under his usual cloud of controversy and the team star D.Stoudamire had asked to be traded. It’s no understatement to call it a very bad situation). Watching that situation as a Raptor fan, making moves for immediate improvement and getting rid of some players he did were absolutely necessary during the summer of ’99.

I agree that his biggest strength was in the draft (two all-stars in Carter & Bosh + MoPete at #21). His biggest mistake was misreading the TMac situation and then basically losing him for nothing. Obviously no team can afford to watch a young player of his ability walk for nothing. But in his defense, TMac absolutely lied about wanting to re-sign in Toronto and then bolted his first opportunity.

GG also painted himself into a cap-corner by handing out and trading for too many unnesessarily long contracts which ultimately led to his (at the time deserved) dismissal. In the trade market he actually made a lot of solid deals that turned out very well when the team was on the rise but seemed to make too many band-aid type deals near the end of his tenure when he should have been pulling the plug and rebuilding the ship. Personally, I think that the Hakeem deal, although it didn’t ultimately work out, was a worthy risk at the time that he gets unnessarily bashed for today. Hakeem wasn’t the same guy but was still an asset during his 1 season.

But it should also be noted he was basically working alone all those years in Toronto which made his job considerably more difficult than the average GM. Due to a tight budget by the owners, he had no assistant, no president/upper management advisor who knew basketball (only a meddling president/boss who was counterproductive) and only a small, mediocre scouting crew at his disposal. Neither of his 2 successors were not forced to work with the same bare-bones cupboard.

All in all I think that he’s a fairly smart (but by no means exceptional) basketball man but his strengths and weaknesses might be too much of a mirror to Isiah’s for this to be a really good fit in NY.

ROFL

“I can see the two arguing over which overpaid injury prone PF they should aquire, Chris Webber or Kenyon Martin.”

Still ROFL

At least we still have our sense of humor. ^_^

“Lock and load, Glen!”

The question I’d be asking is would Grunwald want to reign in Isiah’s excesses? He seems to be cut of the same gib as Isiah – overpay for mediocrity.

I can see the two arguing over which overpaid injury prone PF they should aquire, Chris Webber or Kenyon Martin.

well, the pool of executive talent willing to work with isiah on what is potentially a one-year contract can’t be all that deep. (i’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that there won’t be many women in said pool.)

the interesting question–and i’m not sure anyone has an answer–is, to what extent does grunwald challenge isiah? is he a yes man rubber stamp, or have there been times when he has been able to reign in some of isiah’s excesses?

huh?

It’s a parody of a character on Entourage who talks like that.

And the reference is to the Knicks having the #1 pick in the 2007 draft due to having the worst record in the NBA, giving the Bulls the rights to the #1 pick and drafting the fellow that everybody believes is the next franchise player in the NBA, Greg Oden.

The problem with that situation, though, is that last year’s Knicks played WELL below their talent level, and STILL didn’t get the #1 draft pick, so it’s unlikely that this year’s team will.

So the Bulls will most likely have to settle for a different lottery pick.

Thanks, Kevin, that’s an important point.