2018-2019 D720 Executive of the Year - Vote!
Aug 10, 2020 10:50:36 GMT -5
billy, Allan Houston, and 6 more like this
Post by Jackie Kong on Aug 10, 2020 10:50:36 GMT -5
D720 2018-19 AWARDS / EOTY VOTING
PM Shaq O'Neal with your votes for 18/19 Executive of the Year.
Format to follow:
Points system: 3 points for 1st Choice, 2 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd.
THEODORE DUNCAN / PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
Record: 66-16 Season (#2 West) / 6-5 Playoffs (2nd Round)
Key Additions: Draymond Green, Jakob Poeltl
RON ARTEST / LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Record: 54-28 Season (#6 West) / 11-8 Playoffs (Conference Finals)
Key Additions: Kawhi Leonard, Clint Capela
KOBE 'BEAN' BRYANT / CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Record: 67-15 Season (#1 East) / 12-5 Playoffs (Finals)
Key Additions: Klay Thompson, Marcus Smart
PENNY HARDAWAY / GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (69-13 Season, 16-3 Playoffs, D720 Champions)
SCOTT PILGRIM / PHILADELPHIA 76ERS (59-23 Season, 9-8 Playoffs, Conference Finals)
PAUL PIERCE / CHICAGO BULLS (33-49 Season)
YEEZY / DALLAS MAVERICKS (15-67 Season)
SHAQ O'NEAL / LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (27-55 Season)
BRIAN SCALABRINE / TORONTO RAPTORS (5-77 Season)
CHAMPIONRINGS / GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (D720 Champions)
JAMARIO MOON / MIAMI HEAT (17-65 Season)
So, that's all. Hope you liked the post and wish to see some votes! And if I miss to remark anyone, I apologize. I reckon I left out some great D720 GMs but there is always next season!
Nominees: Theodore Duncan (Portland Trail Blazers), Ron Artest(1x Champ) (LA Lakers), Nino Brown (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Deadline: 1 week from now.
Format to follow:
1st Choice: ------------------
2nd Choice: ------------------
3rd Choice: ------------------Points system: 3 points for 1st Choice, 2 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd.
So, 18/19 season has been a while ago which is why I will add a bit of a resume for the 3 candidates. And will take some time as well for honorable mentions!
EOTY NOMINEES
Record: 66-16 Season (#2 West) / 6-5 Playoffs (2nd Round)
Key Additions: Draymond Green, Jakob Poeltl
17-18 Runner-up for EOTY is back for some more as he remained competing at the highest level even without Season-long injured Kristaps Porzingis and DeMarcus Cousins.
18 Off-season was a bit of crossroad for Blazers because in addition to the injury list, Chris Paul, Cousins and Bjelica were hitting Free Agency. So at least 1 GM probably would have clicked the reset button then. Instead, Theo chose the one direction that could buy him time which was re-signing Paul to a 1+1 contract with a PO in the 2nd season and Cousins to a 1 year deal.
18 Draft went well as well as Blazers didn't own a 1st Pick but still managed to draft a decent prospect with Landry Shamet at #42.
Later on, Cousins was moved for a young Jakob Poeltl while Klay took his toaster to LA in exchange for Draymond Green. Initially, those two trades were seen with skepticism but Cousins didn't recover well from his injury so Poeltl was in fact a victory and Green proved to be a good fit specially in terms of making the Blazers a great defensive team. Plus, Green had a better contract than Klay.
Also, Theo was solid as usual when it came to setting the right lineup for each occasion and taking care of the day to day business (getting his players to be rated appropriately, keeping track of the FA market for hidden gems, etc). Overall, Theo did good even without Porzingod.
18 Off-season was a bit of crossroad for Blazers because in addition to the injury list, Chris Paul, Cousins and Bjelica were hitting Free Agency. So at least 1 GM probably would have clicked the reset button then. Instead, Theo chose the one direction that could buy him time which was re-signing Paul to a 1+1 contract with a PO in the 2nd season and Cousins to a 1 year deal.
18 Draft went well as well as Blazers didn't own a 1st Pick but still managed to draft a decent prospect with Landry Shamet at #42.
Later on, Cousins was moved for a young Jakob Poeltl while Klay took his toaster to LA in exchange for Draymond Green. Initially, those two trades were seen with skepticism but Cousins didn't recover well from his injury so Poeltl was in fact a victory and Green proved to be a good fit specially in terms of making the Blazers a great defensive team. Plus, Green had a better contract than Klay.
Also, Theo was solid as usual when it came to setting the right lineup for each occasion and taking care of the day to day business (getting his players to be rated appropriately, keeping track of the FA market for hidden gems, etc). Overall, Theo did good even without Porzingod.
Record: 54-28 Season (#6 West) / 11-8 Playoffs (Conference Finals)
Key Additions: Kawhi Leonard, Clint Capela
2018 was the year of LA with most superstars wanting to go there for its amazing weather, the sun, the ocean, the surfing and a chance to be friends with Johnny himself meaning Jack Nicholson. The point is LA was the bomb back in 2018 and Ron Artest took full advantage of it like any good GM would do.
Acquiring a big time Free Agency might have not been Lakers' original plan as they first signed Lou Williams and traded Booker and Vucecic for Rudy Gobert with a total $27M cap hit but Gobert combined with Draymond Green positioned them as a top defensive team with defense being something that tends to help winning Playoffs game and that worked to call for big dogs' attention.
1st big Free Agent to decide that Off-Season was Lebron returning to Nuggets. Lakers probably should have made a bigger push for him but they came short to the 35% max slot that the King required. Plus, the secretary messed with the phone numbers so Lakers spent one week calling to the wrong person. True story (not).
After Lebron, next superstar available that dreamed LA was Kawhi Leonard who by the way won the title with Lebron in 2017; But with Leonard sidelined for most of the previous season and Uncle Dennis whispering in his ear there was no way to tell what he would do. Lakers though didn't have enough cap space for the 30% max and they struggled a bit to get there before The kong came knocking. Trade didn't only help Lakers get the required cap space but also pushed agents to decide that Lakers should be Leonard's next destination.
Leonard made Lakers legit but with most cap allocated for Leonard, Gobert and Williams they lacked depth to compete which is why they traded Gobert, Green and Williams in a series of moves for Clint Capela, Tobias Harris, Derrick Rose and Serge Ibaka.
Because it took some time before the right depth was found, Lakers only made it to #6 in the West but Playoffs was a different story with them making it the Conference Finals and a dramatic game 7 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Acquiring a big time Free Agency might have not been Lakers' original plan as they first signed Lou Williams and traded Booker and Vucecic for Rudy Gobert with a total $27M cap hit but Gobert combined with Draymond Green positioned them as a top defensive team with defense being something that tends to help winning Playoffs game and that worked to call for big dogs' attention.
1st big Free Agent to decide that Off-Season was Lebron returning to Nuggets. Lakers probably should have made a bigger push for him but they came short to the 35% max slot that the King required. Plus, the secretary messed with the phone numbers so Lakers spent one week calling to the wrong person. True story (not).
After Lebron, next superstar available that dreamed LA was Kawhi Leonard who by the way won the title with Lebron in 2017; But with Leonard sidelined for most of the previous season and Uncle Dennis whispering in his ear there was no way to tell what he would do. Lakers though didn't have enough cap space for the 30% max and they struggled a bit to get there before The kong came knocking. Trade didn't only help Lakers get the required cap space but also pushed agents to decide that Lakers should be Leonard's next destination.
Leonard made Lakers legit but with most cap allocated for Leonard, Gobert and Williams they lacked depth to compete which is why they traded Gobert, Green and Williams in a series of moves for Clint Capela, Tobias Harris, Derrick Rose and Serge Ibaka.
Because it took some time before the right depth was found, Lakers only made it to #6 in the West but Playoffs was a different story with them making it the Conference Finals and a dramatic game 7 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Record: 67-15 Season (#1 East) / 12-5 Playoffs (Finals)
Key Additions: Klay Thompson, Marcus Smart
Unlike his fellow nominees, Kobe joined the Cavaliers with the Season underway standing #4 in the East with a 14-8 record but he didn't lose much time as he successfully requested for a Giannis' upgrade 3 hours later.
Soon after, he made his first big trade when he moved Bradley Beal and T.J. Warren (before he was even worth cash consideration) for Klay Thompson and Marcus Smart and while trade doesn't look like a Home Run it was indeed functional in terms of fit with Klay and Smart adding elite shooting and defense respectively. Then, he also went for some much needed depth by trading for Daniel Theis and Rodney Hood.
While it might seem like Kobe did not see as much action as the other 2 award candidates, his moves combined with his lineups and his dedication to get his players to be valued accordingly (both for ratings and general opinion) did not only turn the Cavaliers into the best team in the East but also the favorites to win the title. Kobe's Cavaliers just really clicked particularly on defense and offensive efficiency.
As expected, Cavaliers was unstoppable during the Playoffs as they reached the Finals having lost only 1 game (in the Conference Finals against the 76ers); And against the Warriors they presented themselves as the heavy favorites to win it all. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with Golden State sweeping the series... Some say Cavaliers' elite defense simply could not find a way to stop Stephen Curry but the fact is no one really understands how Cavs lost and by such a large margin for that matter. According to Magic GM Stuff, they just choked. Then again, 18/19 season in general felt weird so maybe guys in the Finals wanted to be consistent. Oh well.
Soon after, he made his first big trade when he moved Bradley Beal and T.J. Warren (before he was even worth cash consideration) for Klay Thompson and Marcus Smart and while trade doesn't look like a Home Run it was indeed functional in terms of fit with Klay and Smart adding elite shooting and defense respectively. Then, he also went for some much needed depth by trading for Daniel Theis and Rodney Hood.
While it might seem like Kobe did not see as much action as the other 2 award candidates, his moves combined with his lineups and his dedication to get his players to be valued accordingly (both for ratings and general opinion) did not only turn the Cavaliers into the best team in the East but also the favorites to win the title. Kobe's Cavaliers just really clicked particularly on defense and offensive efficiency.
As expected, Cavaliers was unstoppable during the Playoffs as they reached the Finals having lost only 1 game (in the Conference Finals against the 76ers); And against the Warriors they presented themselves as the heavy favorites to win it all. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with Golden State sweeping the series... Some say Cavaliers' elite defense simply could not find a way to stop Stephen Curry but the fact is no one really understands how Cavs lost and by such a large margin for that matter. According to Magic GM Stuff, they just choked. Then again, 18/19 season in general felt weird so maybe guys in the Finals wanted to be consistent. Oh well.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
PENNY HARDAWAY / GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (69-13 Season, 16-3 Playoffs, D720 Champions)
Penny was one of the most controversial GMs throughout the entire 2019 with some GMs questioning the meaning of his trades and particularly the Karl-Anthony Towns deal; And a dispute over Henry Ellenson got him replaced by Game 1 of Round 2.
All that is true and also the fact that Warriors won with an auto chart placed by Brian Scalabrini but Penny deserves some credit!
So he did trade a lot and some of his trades got rejected (I think?) but the fact is his team never lost consistency in terms of winning and that was good enough for Warriors to have the best record during Season (in a strong West I should add) and Playoffs.
And Warriors did have a good roster to begin with but they went 52-30 the previous season so there was an improvement even if it meant moving a young star like KAT. Penny's most notable transaction was when he moved Bagley, Clarkson and a protected 2022 1st for Paul George. Trade was not seen as big victory back then but George went on to have the best season of his career.
All that is true and also the fact that Warriors won with an auto chart placed by Brian Scalabrini but Penny deserves some credit!
So he did trade a lot and some of his trades got rejected (I think?) but the fact is his team never lost consistency in terms of winning and that was good enough for Warriors to have the best record during Season (in a strong West I should add) and Playoffs.
And Warriors did have a good roster to begin with but they went 52-30 the previous season so there was an improvement even if it meant moving a young star like KAT. Penny's most notable transaction was when he moved Bagley, Clarkson and a protected 2022 1st for Paul George. Trade was not seen as big victory back then but George went on to have the best season of his career.
SCOTT PILGRIM / PHILADELPHIA 76ERS (59-23 Season, 9-8 Playoffs, Conference Finals)
Off-Season for the 76ers was done by The Kong so obviously, Scott took over a team that was well built already even if before Kong there was Doc pretending to be Doctor J. Although Doc left a good team too because he did some good trades and all the terrible ones were rejected. Long Story Short, 76ers were good.
So then, why is Scott mentioned in here? Well, he took a good team and made it his own and even better than it originally was for that matter. For one, he became one of the best GMs at setting lineups but also, he stood up when was needed to defend Harden's rating getting results that for example an experienced GM like Kevin Garnett couldn't with Bradley Beal passing ability. Also, he did a couple of trade that required for him to send Draft picks but got him some much needed depth to compete up high like they finally did.
Would have nice though if he didn't end up paying tax over less than a minimum contract. Tried to beat the system and the System Checked. Classic Rookie mistake but it wasn't Check Mate as 19/20 would prove. That however is a story for another day.
So then, why is Scott mentioned in here? Well, he took a good team and made it his own and even better than it originally was for that matter. For one, he became one of the best GMs at setting lineups but also, he stood up when was needed to defend Harden's rating getting results that for example an experienced GM like Kevin Garnett couldn't with Bradley Beal passing ability. Also, he did a couple of trade that required for him to send Draft picks but got him some much needed depth to compete up high like they finally did.
Would have nice though if he didn't end up paying tax over less than a minimum contract. Tried to beat the system and the System Checked. Classic Rookie mistake but it wasn't Check Mate as 19/20 would prove. That however is a story for another day.
PAUL PIERCE / CHICAGO BULLS (33-49 Season)
Loser #1. This is where the mentions get weird because GMs who missed the Playoffs shouldn't make this list plus PP did his best not to make it to 8th seed in the East so this one even comes with a bit of shame. With that said, Pierce deserves recognition for giving identity to a team that had none before 2018. In particular, he did 3 trades that transformed his team with the 1st involving Zach Lavine, 2nd with Lavine going for Booker and 3rd that brought Karl-Anthony Towns with last 2 involving the Warriors. Also, Bulls finished 10th in the East but they had enough luck for shame to turn into the #3 Pick!
YEEZY / DALLAS MAVERICKS (15-67 Season)
Loser #2. Yeezy picked Luka #1 in the Draft and while that might seem obvious now, it wasn't then so that alone deserves a mention. Other than that, Mavs spent the entire year making rebuilding moves that led to an interesting complementary player such as Kelly Oubre, a solid financial situation, a fair amount of picks and high lottery odds that turned into #1 (again...) meaning Zion.
SHAQ O'NEAL / LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (27-55 Season)
Loser #3. Just like Yeezy, Shaq made a significant effort to improve a team that was originally in a weird spot with a lack of picks and multiple bad contracts; Except Shaq took the Clippers by Mid-Season so what he did with the little he had as a rookie GM is remarkable. In his early days, Shaq was best know for getting an extra 2nd at the last second of trade negotiations.
BRIAN SCALABRINE / TORONTO RAPTORS (5-77 Season)
Loser #4. Tank and Auto-Chart master Scalabrine would be without doubts the winner of the award if this was about breaking losing records. So, this isn't it but Brian still deserves credit for trusting the process with patience. Plus, he had a good draft that included drafting Mo Bamba, Miles Bridges and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at 6, 13 and 14 respectively and later on, he acquired a legit star in Bradley Beal to start winning.
And by Mid-Playoffs, Brian did suffer an identity crisis when he moved to the Warriors but that didn't last long and yet it was enough to make a difference by auto-charting the Warriors to the title.
And by Mid-Playoffs, Brian did suffer an identity crisis when he moved to the Warriors but that didn't last long and yet it was enough to make a difference by auto-charting the Warriors to the title.
CHAMPIONRINGS / GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (D720 Champions)
Won the title. Period. Don't know what else to say. Was forced to include him; Oh yeah, and it was a bot but still managed to be more active and make more posts than last Warriors' GM Odin.
-1 MENTION (BONUS TRACK)
JAMARIO MOON / MIAMI HEAT (17-65 Season)
No GM will be remembered more from the 18/19 Season than Jamario Moon and that time he tricked Kings GM Walt Frazier to trade him the #2 Pick in the Draft under the false promise that he would not draft DeAndre Ayton. Moon will also be remembered for getting fired after he agreed to make a trade but went missing for over 10 days after it was posted.
So, that's all. Hope you liked the post and wish to see some votes! And if I miss to remark anyone, I apologize. I reckon I left out some great D720 GMs but there is always next season!
Miami Heat
Toronto Raptors
Orlando Magic
Detroit Pistons
Portland Trail Blazers
Houston Rockets
