Good GM/Bad GM

This was written by an ol' pal YCSJ.  It is a great read...so I'm sharing it to you guys:  

Good GM:   Sign Howard Eisley to a minimum deal.  A decent player, willing defender and willing teammate.  The biggest criticizms for him is that he's not the greatest shooter and that he was overpaid.  The buyout took care of the overpayment, and now you have a decent peice added tot he puzzle at very low cost.  Well done Coach Riley.  

Bad GM:   Sign Eddie Robinson to anything but the NBDL.  A complaining athlete who doesn't actually play basketball all that well.  Turned three solid months into a long term contract by Jerry Krause.  Has languished on the bench, and basically rightfully so for the chicago bulls for the last few years.  Who signs him?  WHO ELSE?!  Isiaih Thomas.  Fortunatley for Isaiah, Robinson failed his physical, so he won't have to live with the mistake he just made.  This is the second time this year Thomas went after a player in chicago while trying to change the losing ways of the knicks.  Tsk Tsk.     

Good GM:   Sign Brian Cardinal while everyone else is looking at Kobe Bryant and Erick Dampier.  Cardinal is one of the rare guys taht fits the 180 club.  Throw the fact that he's a hustle guy on the court and he's jsut a productive player to have.  Memphis has been struggling of late, but they'll turn it around, and players like Cardinal(and posey and watson previously), will be big reasons why.  Who else?  The legend himself, Jerry West gets credit for this one.    

Bad GM:   Take athletes over basketball players merely because they are athletes.  An Isaiah Thomas patented manuever.  We already mentioned the signing of the athleticly gifted Eddie Robinson.  Lets throw two other moves he's done over the past year.  First he dealt Keith Van Horn who was playing very wlel for the team, for Tim Thomas, an athletic player, who actually is a skilled basketball player, but someone who hasn't developed at all in the last 7 years, and has underachieved everywhere.  More athletic?  Yes.  Better Basketball player?  No.  Second Move.  Signing of Jamal Crawford for a 56 million dollar deal essentially making either him or Allan Houston to go to the bench.  Is Jamal Crawford a decent player?  sure.  Tremendous athlete.  Absolutely.  Better basketball player then Allan Houston?  Not a chance.  Again blinded by the athleticism.  Crawford will have the flashiest 30 point games twice a month.  Houston will get you over 20 a game for an entire season.  In Isiah Thomas's quest for athleticism, he's traded away his third best player and benched his second best player.  A few more years of this and people will be wishing for the good old days of Scot Layden.  

Good GM:   Don't overpay and Don't panic.  Two Joe Dumars trademarks.  Lost Mehmet Okur to overpayment by Utah, and alot of noise was being made by Rasheed Wallace wanting to go to NY.  Instead of trying to make an outrageous move to keep Okur, he bid him farewell and signed the better Antonio Mcdyess for much less money.  With Rasheed Wallace, he didn't overpay for fear of him leaving town, he gave him a reasonable offer, and he ended up staying.  Calm.  Cool.  Collected.  Calculating.  Joe D is the same way upstairs as he was on the basketball court.  

Bad GM:   Overpay in a flurry of deals moves and signings, just to make moves, deals, and signings:  NY wasn't exaclty in a terrific sitaution before.  It could have let go of Antonio Mcdyess's contract over this summer and been on the way to cap flexibility in a few years.  Instead it took the contracts of Marbury(worth it), and Penny Hardaway(worth it circa 1994, not anymore), signed Jamal Crawford, took Tim Thomas's contract, and this team won't see any cap movement till 2007 if that.  Crawford and Marbury are on the books til 2009 and 2011.  We're almost in what?  2005?  Will this team ever get enough flexibility to actually build around Crawford and Marbury?  Could they?  Perhaps.  Wlil they?  Who's up there... Isiaih Thomas.  Looks like another decade of mediocrity for the Knicks before they have a chance of rebuilding.    

Good GM:    Make the most out of bad situations:  Amazingly Jim Paxson gets the award for this one.  A horrible exec in his own right.  After losing out on the Carlos Boozer fiasco, pulled a sweet deal to bring Eric Snow into the lineup and then traded for Drew Gooden who's been palying himself into a long term future with the team.  Rather then get panicky and make unfair deals, Paxson evaluated his situation, and found ways to bring his team right back to if not better then the situation it was previously.  Brilliant.  Kevin O'Conner deserves a mention here for what he did with the Jazz.  

Bad GM:   Stabalize a team for years in a ruinious environment:  I could easily go mention Thomas here again, but I won't.  I'll go with Chris Mullin.  Trading players for cap space, and then obliterating that cap space for Troy Murphy, Adonal Foyle, Jason Richardson, and Derek Fisher at a combined 4 billion dollars.  Murphy and Richardson signed for a total of rumor has it(terms were not disclosed, maybe sportz knows the exact amounts), of over 100 million dollars.  Good players?  Sure.  Now would you trade Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, or Jermaine O'neal for em?  Not a chance.  Overpaying that amount for two people instead of one, still means you have that much in overpaid contracts.  Derek Fisher and Adonal Foyle need no explanation.  Between Nelson, St. Jean and now Mullin, it appears Golden State has had the worst management in pro baskteall for the last 15 years.