New GM Offseason Grades

[garbageman]

It's a brand new season, and one of the most exciting parts to me is that we have 4 very new GMs who have come out of the gate with more activity than most of their respective teams have seen in sim years. The Clippers, Knicks, Thunder, and Warriors all have GMs who have made offseason moves to try and better their teams. However, being a new GM is never easy, and it takes some time to really acclimate to a league that has so many wrinkles and added complexities.

With round 3 of UFA in the books, all the controllable parts of the offseason are over. TC will happen, and players will die, but there's nothing any GM, young or old, can do about that. So let's take a look at what the 4 teams helmed by new GMs did, both right and wrong, this offseason.


GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

Overview
Former GM BowToTheBill was the king of swings...going from tanking one year to championship contendership the next. Unfortunately, school and real life ate up a lot of Ben's time, and his return to put together a wing heavy squad with Gordon Hayward, Paul George, and Jayson Tatum didn't pan out in any deep playoff runs. He since disappeared, leaving the team in a little bit of a bind after losing Tatum to RFA apathy and leaving the team in the tax.

Draft
Unfortunately for Samsonian, the Warriors had traded their draft pick away before he took control of the team. That's a setback for a new GM because that pick jumped to 3rd overall, landing the Magic the immensely talented Boban Marjanovic. If I remember correctly, that trade ended up, at least partially, getting them Antetokounmpo after a chain reaction of trades. They were able to get some good value for him.

Trades
As I just mentioned, the Dubs parted ways with Giannis Antetokoumpo and received a nice haul in return including Ramsay Bolton, 10 points, and 2 picks from the Toronto Raptors. This also gave them plenty of cap space to play with in UFA. Eventually, the Raptors picks won't be much good, but I am guessing either the 2024 or 2026 results in at least one green potential player. Bolton might be on the weaker side of the blue potential scale, but it's a really nice haul for a contract so large. It's a good trade for both teams.

Free Agency
The Warriors made four signings over Free Agency. Here they are:

1. Irvin Benjamin, $37,080,000 over 3 years: I like Benjamin as a player, but I don't think he's going to be a difference maker for the Warriors. $12 million a year is a slight overpay, and the three year contract drops his trade value for another team. However, if the Warriors can get rid of Kanter and get a future player of Bolton-esque quality in return, he's a good complementary player.

2. Bismack Biyombo, $51,000,000 over 2 years, team option: Bismack Biyombo is a nice day 2 pickup for the Warriors. One of only 3 blues remaining, they made a strong over with only the first year guaranteed. He's already up on the block, so the Dubs have the right idea here.

3. Kevin Koval, $37,080,000 over 3 years: See Irvin Benjamin. Multiply by Irvin Benjamin.

4. Joshua Swan, $10,150,000 over 2 years: This is a nice contract for Swan. He's an athletic player who doesn't really excel at any particular skill, but in this league, athleticism goes a long way. He won't be on the team once the rebuild is really in action, but this is the kind of contract I expected Swan would get in RFA.

Overall Grade
I'm giving the Warriors a solid B+. The Antetokounmpo trade really shines brightly in their free agency, and if they can get value for Kanter and Biyombo, the Warriors will be in good shape in a couple seasons.



LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

Overview
The Clippers have been somewhat headless since the departure of aburns211. Brief, inactive stints by trillotto and Clipsrback didn't cause much long term damage, but also left kind of a wasteland for new Clips GM TheHollywoodClipShow

Draft
At #6, the Clippers drafted SF Phil Brooks...a combo wing in a portion of the draft where there were a lot of SG/SF hybrid players available before talent dropped off. No fault in this pick, but with Emmitt McNiel looking like the only bright spot on the roster, they could've taken a look at Simon Phoenix, a big man (albeit an undersized one) with 2-way potential. No harm, no foul. Neither one was the wrong answer.

Trades
None.

Free Agency
The Clippers only made one signing during free agency in Derrick Rose. It was $21,525,000 over 2 years with a player option, so 36 year old Derrick Rose will be returning to LAC most likely in 2024, making his contract hard to trade even if he survives TC. With only 30,000,000 on the books, they could have made some much stronger moves, and they're going to have to be pretty proactive in taking on bad contracts for points.

Overall grade
As the least active of the teams, I'm going to give the Clips a C- here, and that's being a little generous. Hopefully, the solo signing isn't a sign of things to come. Aside from that, the books are fairly open next year, too, so hopefully taking another stab at righting the Clip ship is a reason enough to stay.



NEW YORK KNICKS

Overview
Walking into handling the team with the best record in the league is pretty much akin to walking into the best player in the league, and people still talk about Wombataholic and Anthony Davis with a little bit of an axe to grind. The stewards did the next Knicks GM even more of a solid by saving them from a ridiculous repeater tax bill, so it's all reset for new GM DrKavarga with 3 all league players.

Draft
The Knicks didn't have their own draft pick, but they acquired pick 13 from the Pelicans which they used to acquire dry funnyman Steven Wright. Wright was one of the better players around at pick 13, so they were solid to pick him (and not trade that pick away for Ricky Rubio).

Trades
To get that draft pick, the Knicks sent their 2024 1st and 10 points to the Pelicons for Kris Middleton. I think that Steven Wright is going to pan out better than whomever the Pelicans get with that 2024 Knicks pick (unless Jokic goes Brokic). 10 points probably could've been talked down since Nick was trying to shed salary, but it takes some time to figure out the value of points in this league since there's no real conversion chart. Still Middleton gets a starter in a position of need, and in most of my TC simulations, he doesn't die. Not a tremendous trade, but a fair trade. Especially with the Pels on the other end of that deal.

Free Agency
The Knicks signed about 100 vet mins in free agency, so I'm not going to go over them all. Instead, I'll just touch on the two non-min contracts, although I will note that the Knicks were able to retain some contributors like Tim Locklear and Louie Thomas with the early bird offers they were willing to dish out.

Aside from the depth though, the Knicks found a way to spend big. First and foremost, the Knicks supermaxed Chet Dooley. He's an important piece, especially this year, but he'll be 34 by the time that last year of the contract kicks in. As a new GM, it takes some time to get contract value down over time. James is going to have to move that contract as soon as he can to avoid financial duress that could send them down Bobcat Boulevard, as getting value back for it might come tougher than imagined. Still, it's probably better than losing Dooley would have been.

Next, the Andrew Aleman contract used up the Knicks MLE. It was a feel good signing, because it's nice to get a target in RFA, but that Wig didn't even try to play the sign and trade game should be telling to the contracts' fit.

Knicks have great depth, and

Overall Grade
Knowing the GM balances out the grade at a B- for me. I would tend to not be as lenient with a GM as confident as Varga is, which is why I've remained a little more hands off of a referrer. However, he was the most active of the GMs, and I didn't warn him too hard about ALL of the pitfalls he might run into. It'll be a learning experience, but I felt his efforts couldn't warrant a grade as low as the C range, but the risk the Knicks find themselves in right now will lead to some tricky navigation in the next few seasons to keep risk from becoming a reality.




OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Overview
There was a huge drought in make_it_rain's career where the Thunder were basically unhelmed and unchecked for seasons and seasons. Now, AngryBanana takes over a team with a clean slate and a few promising young rookies (at least one of whom was auto-picked after another basement year for the Thunder).

Draft
With the 2nd pick in the draft, the Thunder selected Pete Maravich, a 6'7 point guard who will be dominant at his position due to his height and his athleticism. Though he's not the traditional point guard, he's an archetype that has had success in PBSL past. It's not a bad pick, but I had Boban Marjanovic higher on my board. The more I look at the Thunder's young roster, however, the more I like the Maravich pick.

Trades
None, but the Thunder have made it known that they're willing to take on your bad contracts.

Free Agency
The Thunder didn't have a PERFECT free agency, but they signed a handful of good players at reasonable contracts. Let's take a look:

Jamey Brown: 3 years, $32.5m, player option
I think this contract is a little hefty, and I would've prefered a team option to a player option here. Brown is an undersized big sho whould be able to score, get some boards, and be a presence in the paint, but his poor athleticism leads to a lot of fouls.

Nikola Vucevic: 1 year, $5m
Vucevic is a solid choice at C here. 5m is low risk, and it's a contract that can be traded to a competing team pretty easily for assets in return. Given the longevity of big men, who don't need athleticism as much as wings or guards, I like this signing. Not a major impact, but a good signing nonetheless.

John Wall: 2 years, 17.5m, player option
AngryBanana sure likes those player options. He'll have to learn that these are only a tool you use to screw someone over in Free Agency or try to steal a player in UFA who's undoubtedly a max/supermax contender. Wall's still got a lot of great skills at his age, and for less than the MLE per year, aside from the player option, it's a good contract that, at worst, could be moved for a few points.

Jrue Holiday: 2 years, 24.6m, player option
One last player option, Jrue is a very solid signing at 12m a year. So solid, in fact, that he might opt out if he survives TC. At 6'4, Jrue still has the speed to play the PG, but if he loses that, he could make a fine SG. It might behoove the Thunder to try to move him instead of Wall if the return is nice. If not, it'll at least be nice to see a Thunder team with more combined wins than they've had in the last 3 years.

Overall Grade
I'm giving the Thunder an A here. For a new GM, they offered some good contracts and made a solid draft choice at #2. The Thunder are in much better shape than they were at the end of last season due to some direction, and aside from some player options, I think they've put together a solid enough team with pieces they can move alongside pieces they can grow towards a bright future.

[Darth Vegito]

Nice breakdown of the new GMs' moves Josh! I hope they took away some good points from this.

Point Czar awards you 7 pts! Word Count: 2052

[Samsonian]

The Warriors can confirm that they enjoyed this.

[drkavarga]

The Knicks enjoyed this as well

[AngryBanana]

The Thunder also enjoyed this and blushed at the earning an A grade. We as an organization also understand this might be the highest achievement we have achieved in maybe 10 years...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk