Post by ucfinfan86 on Aug 1, 2024 15:00:44 GMT
Phoenix Suns
Gabe, F
Verysilentone (interim), N/A
Another short lived GM with Gabe. VSO took over somewhere around year 2 or 3. Wasn’t able to exactly nail down when the transition occurred. I found this stat hilarious that both the Hornets and Suns won 232 games in the first 5 years. VSO surely is consistent! At 46.4 average wins, the Suns have the 4th highest winning percentage in the West. They’ve had some real success with a Finals loss in 2024 and 3 seasons of 48+ wins. They’ve always had a nice trio of bigs with Ayton, Poeltl and Nurkic. Not great, but solid with depth. Booker has always been the best player on the team and he’s improved his PPG all 5 seasons before topping out at 31. The real revelation has been Dennis Schroeder, who has been the starting PG all 5 seasons. He’s actually been pretty solid with a 17/6 average on good percentages and only 2.2 TOs, much better than I would have expected from him. Overall though, not much movement in Phoenix. Basically run it back each year with some slight tweaks and an interim GM.
Golden State Warriors
Cappa, F
Cheddar, B
Rinse and repeat the failed short lived GM. I was able to recruit Cheddar back sometime around the 2025 season and he’s been a good addition (re-addition?). The first year the Warriors were solid on the back of Steph Curry as he carried them to a conference finals loss before riding off into the sunset. After that cappa kind of disappeared and the team was old and struggled. When Cheddar came on board he embraced the rebuild. His first big move was drafting Cameron Boozer #1 overall, who looks like he could become one of the best PFs in the league. In 2027 he started to cash in some of the chips he stock piled and acquired Jalen Green, Scoot Henderson, Dereck Lively and Cameron Boozer. They made the playoffs but I think weren’t as good as Cheddar was hoping. It’s still a young core and probably need one of the aforementioned youngsters to really pop. I think Cheddar has them going in the right direction and they have a bright future.
Sacramento Kings
A Silver, A
Consistency. That’s how you describe Silver’s tenure with the Kings so far. One of only 2 (carlos) GMs to make the playoffs every season so far and he’s been capable of winning a championship 4 of the 5 seasons and lost in the finals to 76ers twice. Fox and Sabonis were the staples for these 5 years with Fox even winning an MVP. He’s been one of the best players in the league since the start. Sabonis has his warts, but was a solid running mate and a good rebounder. The rest of the roster allowed Fox to do his thing with Murray providing good defense and rebounding as he grew his offense each year and pairing Caruso in the backcourt with Fox. My favorite version of their team was probably 2027 with Claxton added on to give them a low post defender that they didn’t have before. Overall a very solid job by Silver and probably the 2nd best first 5 years behind Carlos.
Oklahoma City Thunder
Carmelo115, B
Looking at Melo’s run it was better than I remembered, but still disappointing all things considered. Melo had the #1 pick in the team draft and went to a loaded young team in OKC. He started off with SGA, Giddey, and Holmgren who are all some of the best players at their respective positions. Now the Thunder aren’t as good as their NBA self as Jaylin Williams, Dort, Wallace, etc. never panned out but regardless they had 3 young superstars. SGA really hit the ground running but Holmgren took a season or 2 and Giddey like 3 or 4 to hit their peaks. The Thunder made the playoffs 4 out of 5 seasons, but one of them was at 40 wins. They only had 2 seasons above 50 wins and have never reached the conference finals. Considering what they started with, I think Melo has to be disappointed with the outcome. Still, 4 playoffs in 5 years is an accomplishment, and 2 of the years they were a top 4 seed. Aside from what they started with, they also at points over the years had some real talent with the likes of Trae Young, James Harden, Jayson Tatum, Kawhi Leonard, Jalen Brunson, Paolo Banchero and Lauri Markkanen. They’ve made some major moves, some of which I liked and some I didn’t. My least favorite one was trading Tatum at his peak to Blazers for Ron Holland and 2 picks.
Los Angeles Lakers
SpikeLee14, A-
I like a lot of what Spike has done in NBN3. He tanked year 1 after being handed a pretty blah roster. He’s won 48+ for 4 years in a row and had 2 conf finals loses to the Kings in that time. He’s peaked at 59 wins, which is a huge accomplishment and has the 3rd most wins in the western conference over the 5 years. I think the best move that he made was acquiring Ja Morant from me early on. I had issues with Morant’s TOs, but they’ve come down over the years and he’s one of the best scorers in the league. The Morant/Reaves duo has also been the best. I’m surprised to see how good Reaves has become. He’s probably been 1A or 1B with Ant Edwards as the best SG in the league. My main issue with the Lakers is they just haven’t really been able to put great pieces around the duo. JHS was probably their next best success story, but he had to play out of position for most of his tenure. They failed to find a legit SF. They’ve also failed to find a legit superstar big man. Kessler has probably been the best and he’s a real nice defensive big, but hard to compete against the Embiid, Jokic, Zion, etc guys that most of the title contenders have. I’m also just not a fan of Porzingis. On the bright side, having guys like Kessler/Capela have allowed the ball to be in Morant/Reaves hands more. Overall it’s been a huge success in LA, but I just wish they were able to make one more move at some point in time for either a legit SF or a top tier big man.
Portland Trailblazers
Mcmuslim, F
Yourkers15 (interim), N/A
It sucks, mcmsulim is one of my favorite GMs when he’s here, but he always comes and goes in this league so it’s not a huge surprise. I am surprised that mcm chose the Blazers #2 overall in the team draft. They had a pretty bad roster, but had a potential superstar in Scoot. They tanked the first couple of seasons before he got a sweetheart deal from Melo to acquire Jayson Tatum. He also made a move for Donovan Mitchell, Porzingis and Zubac and had a very solid starting 5. The problem was the depth was non existent. Shortly after putting the roster together is also when he went MIA. The team was good, winning 48 games but then yourkers took over on an interim for the next few seasons. Yourkers tried to make moves but was handcuffed as an interim and ultimately took a rebuilding route as that’s the way the league wanted it to play out. Scoot never developed into the allstar that was hoped, but he’s a solid PG. They hit a HR with their 2026 lotto pick with Dame Sarr who looks to be one of the bright young SFs in the league.
Los Angeles Clippers
Bigman, C-
Bigman is one of the new GMs who has actually stuck around, although his activity level waivers. Unfortunately though, the Clippers have been very bad. They’ve failed to have a winning record in 5 years, although they did inexplicably make the conference finals with 39 wins in 2027. Their 29.2 win average is the 2nd lowest in the league. In year 1 they smartly sold off the veterans to embrace a rebuild. They drafted Alexandre Sarr #1 overall, who turned into a solid player, but you would have hoped for a lot more from a top pick. Year 2 they drafted Dink Pate #4 overall who isn’t even a starter at this point. In 2026 they didn’t have their pick and I couldn’t’ find out why but I’m assuming that wasn’t a good move. In 2027 they drafted DaRon Holmes, which has probably been their best move to date (or maybe the signing of Ron Holland in FA). They never really took advantage of their cap space to acquire assets. They for some reason carried Trae Young as their starting PG for 2 seasons during a rebuild. Overall it’s been a pretty poor job, but atleast they have a GM who is around.
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