Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesMy Fansided colleague, Drew Decker, wrote a post last August on basketball website Sir Charles In Charge listing who he felt were the league's 10 worst general managers.While I agreed with most of his list, I took exception to a couple of namesmost notably, the Milwaukee Bucks' New York Giants jersey
John Hammond.Decker and I exchanged opinions until we agreed to disagree. My contention was based on what I perceive to be a general manager's No. 1 priority, and that's doing what his owner asks of him.At the time that Hammond traded Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for expiring contracts there were rumors that Bucks owner Senator Herb Kohl was planning to sell the team.So while the trade wasn't great in terms of basketball sense it did remove the last two seasons of Jefferson's monstrous deal from the team's payroll in exchange for just one more season of expiring contracts.My point being that Hammond was only doing what he was ordered to do and therefore was either doing a good job or it was too soon to judge him.It got me thinking about the criteria that should be used to determine the performance of a GM. Is it winning or putting a culture of winning in place that can be sustained over time? Is it solely about obeying the wishes of the owner? Is it in how he drafts, trades, and signs free agents?Does the criteria change depending on the market size and/or legacy of a particular team?Looking back on the moves Hammond has made you can't help but think he no longer deserves to be on anyone's list of the worst GMsas Decker even admits to in his follow-up piece on Pacman Jones posted this past week.He hired Scott Skiles as the team's head coach. He drafted Brandon Jennings, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Jodie Meeks. He signed Andrew Bogut to a 5-year, $72 million extension right before his breakout season. He brought Ersan Ilyasova back from Europe and he traded for Carlos Delfino and John Salmons.Those are the good things.Hammond is also the man responsible for selecting Joe Alexander with the eighth overall pick in the draft.But Hammond's Bucks finished the season 10 games above .500 and are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2006.In addition, Hammond has positioned them to be major players in 2011-12 when the contract of Michael Redd finally comes off the books.Decker still docks Hammond points for his unwillingness to trade Michael Redd when he had the chance. But as was the case with Jefferson, there weren't a lot of teams looking to add a big-money contract. Most teams are either trying to trim payroll in anticipation of this summer's free agent bonanza or are cutting expenses because they're losing a ton of money.Forget for a second that Jefferson hasn't really worked out in San Antonio as well as New York Jets jersey
some, including myself, expected.What I told Decker at the time was that the Bucks were so excited that someone was willing to take Jefferson's contract from them that Hammond probably wasn't going to keep exploring his options and take a chance that the Spurs would change their mind and go after Vince Carter instead.As for Redd, I can't imagine teams were itching to trade for the right to pay a guy coming off of knee surgery $35 million over the next two seasonsand that was before his most recent season-ending knee injury.The rest of Decker's original list of the league's worst GMs is as follows. Keep in mind that Decker made his list before the season started and approached it with a "What have you done for me lately" mentality.10) Sam Presti9) Joe Dumars8) Danny Ferry7) Jeff Bower6) Geoff Petrie5) Ed Stefanski4) John Hammond3) Mike Dunleavy2) David Kahn1) Chris WallaceYou can't argue with Stefanski, Kahn, and the since-fired Dunleavy. But there are other guys on the list that don't deserve to be there.And that brings me back to my original premise.What makes a good GM?In breaking down the league's general managers it isn't fair to lump them all onto one list because each of them has different objectives depending on the current state of their team.Therefore, it's best to put each GM in one of five categories and see where they rank accordingly.The categories are:1) Those who are trying to position themselves for free agency and/or rebuild right now.2) Those who wish they could rebuild right now but can't.3) Those who are trying to win championships now.4) Those who are trying to win championships within economic constraints.5) Those who have their nucleus in place and are just positioning themselves to try to win a championship within the next two-three years.These rankings are based solely on how these GMs have performed in trying to achieve each stated goal and not on their careers as league executives.While many of the guys on this list don't necessarily have the title of general manager, they are the men responsible for player personnel decisions.Those Who Are Trying To Rebuild Right Now (From Worst to Best) These are the teams that have their sights set on this summer's draft and/or the plethora of free agents who will be available. Their main objective over the past two years has been to trade for expiring contracts and acquire draft picks for a draft that is considered to be deep due to the threat of a work stoppage next year.7) Neil Olshey, Los Angeles ClippersOlshey is the Clippers' interim GM in the wake of the team's firing of Dunleavy and will most likely be replaced before next season.It's tough to put any of the blame for another dismal Clippers season Oakland Raiders jersey
on him, but unlike the other teams on this list the Clippers had high expectations for this season.Olshey is just keeping the space warm for whomever inherits one of the worst jobsif not the worst jobin sports.6) Ernie Grunfeld, Washington WizardsSpeaking of high expectations, before the start of the season the Wizards were thought by many to be the clear-cut fifth-best team in the Eastern Conference.Even before Gilbert Arenas decided to hold a gun show in the Wizards' locker room the team had greatly underachieved.So what did Grunfeld do? He traded Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson for Al Thornton, expiring contracts, and draft picks and will now try to lure free agents to a team that has Arenas' league-worst contract and not much else.Good luck with that.5) Rod Thorn, New Jersey NetsThorn has spent the past two years trying to shed payroll and acquire guys on rookie contracts with his sights set on this summer's free agent class. So out went Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, and Vince Carter, and in came Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Yi Jianlian, Courtney Lee, and Terrence Williams.While Thorn has done an excellent job in shedding contracts and replacing them with low-cost talent his team still flirted with the worst record in league history.So even though Thorn should be able to acquire some talent with all of that cap space he will be hard-pressed to get any of the A-list free agents to sign with a team that won 12 games. It wasn't that long ago that some considered the Nets the biggest threat to steal LeBron James from the Cavs.Notice how nobody even talks about it anymore despite James's status as lapdog to Nets co-owner, Jay-Z.4) Geoff Petrie, Sacramento KingsAs for Petrie, nobody really knows what he's trying to do.
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