Do GMs earn their paychecks?

by clarkpojo on Jul 16, 2008 4:16 PM MDT Comment 10 comments

A couple of weeks ago Baskin-Robbins had their annual celebration giving out ice cream cones for 31 cents. My wife and I visited the restaurant twice eating a total of 8 scoops of ice cream for less than $3. The most amazing thing was that we never waited longer than three minutes to get our ice cream. I wondered where everyone else was. I figured that we would have to wait behind hundreds of other people who wanted unlimited ice cream at 31 cents a scoop, but I was wrong. Lots of people were missing out. You may even be kicking yourself right now, reading this if you didn't cash in. It was a national deal.

Tonight the Denver Nuggets gave out 31 cent ice cream cones in the form of Marcus Camby. They essentially handed him over to the LA Clippers for a measly few cents (the right to swap 2nd round picks in 2010). Which begs the question, "where was every other team?" I know that the situations of ice cream and Marcus Camby do not equate perfectly. Only one team won the Marcus Camby sweepstakes, while almost anyone could buy cheap ice cream. But I am willing to venture that a reason for missing out on both commodities is not knowing that they could be had so cheaply. How many GM's will read that headline and think "I could have offered more than a second round pick?" And this isn't a completely new phenomenon. Pau Gasol was sold for about 31 cents to the dollar by Memphis. The other reason GM's might miss out on these deals is not having the right pieces (good players with good contracts or expiring deals). But you have to think that many GM's could have done better than the Clips or Lakers. In fact, the Memphis GM has already admitted that he could have done better. Denver will be no different.

Now before I go any further, I need to mention that I am a big fan of Kevin O'Connor. I believe that he has made mostly good deals for the Jazz, which is more than 90% of the GM's can say. He helped build the Jazz team back to prominence quickly after the Stockton and Malone days with good drafting moves and aggressive free agency signings. But he whiffed big time on this one. Camby is a player that I believe could have put the Jazz over the top. He has all the dynamics we need: a low post defender, who rebounds and doesn't demand the ball offensively. And he is arguably the best player in the league in both rebounding and blocking shots. So why didn't Kevin O'Connor offer something more for him?

In an article recently written by Bill Simmons, writer for ESPN, he mentioned that Kevin Pritchard, possibly the best GM in the NBA right now, makes hundreds of calls to teams asking about the availibility of players and chances of making trades. That according to Simmons and Pritchard himself is a big reason why Portland continues to make good deals. Not only do they have one of the most talented young teams in the NBA, but they had anywhere between 30 and 47 draft picks in last month's draft. If you thought to yourself, "it seems like Portland picks every other time" during this last draft, there is a reason: they pretty much did.

What do GM's do all day? They negotiate contracts, they work with the owner of the team, they sit in meetings, they try to make trades and sign free agents. I don't know all of the intricacies, but I would guess that if they put in a full eight hour day every day, they might have 3-4 hours a day to make some extra phone calls. What would it hurt to call Denver and say "what do you want for Marcus Camby?" The worst thing that would happen is Denver would hang up the phone. So what? As fans we assume that good deals for our team won't happen because other teams aren't that stupid. But sometimes teams make bad deals or just need to clear cap space. The GM's who do their homework have a better chance of picking up the cheap ice cream. I agree that in this case Denver might have not been willing to trade Marcus Camby to us since they are in our division. But they needed to clear cap space. You can't tell me that we wouldn't have made a better offer than LA. And since we aren't under the cap like LA is, we couldn't have taken Camby's contract for nothing back. But a three way trade would have been plausible. We could have offered a lot that would have been pleasing to Denver and LA. Maybe the clips would have been interested in pairing Andrei Kirilenko with Kaman. We could have offered first round picks or cheap prospects to sweeten the deal for both teams.

So even if getting Marcus Camby wasn't realistic, there are other players in this league that would help the Jazz immensely and are available, Kevin O'Connor just doesn't know it yet. He better get on the phone and start finding out who is out there. And who knows, teams might get so tired of his inquiries that they make a bad move just to shut him up. So as bad as it might sound to become another obnoxious telemarketer, I think that O'Connor's hefty paycheck more than makes up for it.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.

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Wait

Free ice cream? Where was I on that one?

I wonder how much Kevin O’Connor really is working the phone. I was interested to read Simmons’ reference to Pritchard as well, and it is pretty crazy how the Blazers are basically working the rest of the league like a speed bag, front-office-wise. (Then again, if they end up around .500 again this year, it might not matter so much.) I dunno. I think KOC starts off at a natural disadvantage—trying to make deals to bring players to Jerry Sloan and Utah. I mean, I wonder if opposing teams use the Derek Harper “YOU go live in Utah” philosophy as a bargaining chip, to swing negotiations. I wonder if KOC basically has to pay a Utah-tax for every deal he negotiates. Maybe not. But I do think it’s probably harder for a Jazz GM to make deals than for a lot of other teams.

I'll make it.

by Shums on Jul 16, 2008 12:08 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

That's a good point

I hadn’t really thought of that scenario when it comes to trades. It occurs more often during free agency that people spurn the Jazz, but we do have Rony Seikaly and Derek Harper to show us that it is tough. It is amazing that people wouldn’t want to play for the Jazz now though. I mean, we are going to compete for the next couple years at least. I would think that Camby would be at a stage in his career that he would play for a championship rather than play in a cool city. If we had Camby instead of AK or even Okur, we would be as good as the Lake show. I believe that. But my main point was that there isn’t an excuse for knowing how avialiable every player in the league is. It just takes some homework.

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.

by clarkpojo on Jul 16, 2008 12:57 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

I was more dumbfounded that they got him for just a pick.

Not even a pick. The right to maybe trade 2nd round picks? We all know this as a salary dump on Denver’s part. And LAC was the only team really with cap room to take them on. Doesn’t seem like they should be able to do this though. But I guess if you can find someone to take on your salary, then so be it. I’ve been reading about all kinds of trade, sign and trade scenarios and something like this didn’t even occur to me.

As far as Harper and Seikaly go, shouldn’t there be something in the CBA to prevent this? If you’re under contract, you don’t really have a choice. You could argue that if they don’t want to be here, then maybe we don’t want them anyway. I was just surprised that they could say they weren’t going to report and force the issue.

by Basketball John on Jul 16, 2008 1:04 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Denver was dumping, but they could have received more

For the Jazz to be involved in getting Camby, it would have had to be a three way deal. But we could have offered both teams better deals, I think. We could have offered LA Kirilenko or Okur and a future first round pick and we could have offered Denver cap space and a really cheap prospect of their choosing (Fes, Koufos, Tomic). The Clips and Nuggets would both improve in that deal and we would have Camby. Is anyone upset by that deal?

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.

by clarkpojo on Jul 16, 2008 1:18 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

I

wouldn’t give up Okur. Especially not if if you’re also giving up Fes and Koufos.
That leaves you with a 5-spot rotation of Camby (aging, etc.) and Flop (crap).

The Utah Jazz. The Jazz... duh.
The best NBA team in Utah... no doubts about it!
Playing For Pride. Pirates, Utes, Panthers, and more...
Because, in the end, only one team can "win it all".

by UtesFan89 on Jul 16, 2008 2:17 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was just about to write a post on this...

But Clark beat me to it.. and I must say I couldn’t have said it better…
I love hearing everyday about how everyone in the West continues to get better while the Jazz just stand pat. Now the Hornets are getting Posey for 4 years? Denver trades away one of the best, if not THE best, defensive big in the league in Marcus Camby to the Clips for a future 2nd rounder? Think if we had Camby, or someone like him, and all we had to give up was a future 2nd round pick. We’d be on the fast track to a title. It’s so frustrating to see players like that, who could put the Jazz on the next level, get traded away for pennies on the dollar.. Especially when you know the Jazz could’ve offered the Nuggets something better. KOC better have something up his sleave. By not taking a step forward, the Jazz are moving backwards, especially with all the improvement going on in the already-ultra-competitive West.

by neff on Jul 16, 2008 4:54 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree with this.

Standing pat is stupid, and is equivalent to taking a step back because everyone else is leaping forwards.

But I don’t see any minor moves being the answer, for 2 reasons.
1- The Jazz aren’t in the spot to make minor moves in FA. They like having an empty spot (adios, CJ?) and already have 14 players under contract. Simple. And they really don’t seem interested in buying out Hart or Flop or anyone.
2- Minor deals. Who are you going to trade? No one wants Flop or Hart. The team won’t trade Korver or Harpring (stupid, this choice is). Price is our back-up PG… Sloan likes his back-up PGs. 2 of them in fact. And then you get to guys like Brewer, Almond… youngsters with upside that can/will contribute (see Brewer last year). If you trade them, what are you looking for? And can Almond replace Brewer adequately? Trading Almond for a proven piece might be hard.

You could try a bigger deal (AK, Booze)... in fact, it would probably take that to make any sort of impact on the team (because Sloan has his core guys, and everyone else is in the doghouse no matter what). But then you’re totally blowing the team up… do you want to do that if you’re so “close” to the Finals?

Yeah… the team is stuck.

The Utah Jazz. The Jazz... duh.
The best NBA team in Utah... no doubts about it!
Playing For Pride. Pirates, Utes, Panthers, and more...
Because, in the end, only one team can "win it all".

by UtesFan89 on Jul 16, 2008 5:34 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

unfortunately..

This is true.. The team is pretty much stuck. I’ll never understand what J-Slo sees in Harpring. I know he plays hard, and he can get under the skin of opposing players. But there’s something to be said about ability. Harpring used to have that along with his hard work ethic, but his knees gave out, and now he is merely a shadow of his former self. In a perfect world we could get rid of him, Collins, and Hart.. Free up some space to get a quality FA. But no one is taking Collins or Hart.. at least until the trade deadline approaches. And the Jazz refuse to part ways with Harpring. At this rate, Matt will have his statue standing alongside John and Karl’s, and So. Temple will be renamed “Matt Harpring Way.”

by neff on Jul 16, 2008 5:59 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

A Harpring statue

might lead to the downfall of the Jazz.
No way he deserves a statue. Or his jersey retired. Or anything of the sort.
Maybe the fans can chip in and help him get a new knee in exchange for his promising that he’ll stop playing.

The Utah Jazz. The Jazz... duh.
The best NBA team in Utah... no doubts about it!
Playing For Pride. Pirates, Utes, Panthers, and more...
Because, in the end, only one team can "win it all".

by UtesFan89 on Jul 16, 2008 6:27 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs