Boston Celtics
2015 Executive of the Year
Jul 22, 2015 18:31:26 GMT
Walt Frazier, Mike Krzyzewski, and 7 more like this
Post by Ian Noble on Jul 22, 2015 18:31:26 GMT
2015 Executive of the YearThis year there are only three shortlisted candidates for the 2015 Dynasty Five Executive of the Year Award! Each candidate will be announced from last to first over the next few days to see who has won the most prestigious award in the league!
Introduction: Commissioner's 2015 Address to the League
The 2014/15 Season was, in my opinion, the best we've had so far! Every year we find new ways to make the league fairer, more realistic and more entertaining and you can feel it coming together more and more each year! For instance, stopping the trading of consecutive years draft picks a few seasons ago meant that Washington were finally able to draft a First Rounder this year and they've paired up D'Angelo Russell with Al Horford and a few free agents! The league has become so popular I've had to enlist the help of others even more - Walt Frazier and Charles Barkley took over the Stock Watch full-time and are our rating change gurus doing a genuinely fantastic job. We are the envy of the internet!
Of course with all of this extra interest came more passion and there's perhaps never been more heated discussions than there have been this year, I had my plate full firing off formal warnings to a few GMs! All of this culminated in our off season, that tiny one month strip of concentrated action in which fortunes can be made or lost, and this paragraph is dedicated to the boundless passion of Vlade Divac, a true aficionado of D5, for whom the pressure took its toll. Although Vlade was banned throughout a blaze of negativity he should always be remembered for the unending contributions he brought to the league, more posts than any other non-staffer, I will miss him.
2014/15 was the season when Vlade and Walt Frazier fought it out for 8th Seed in the West (or was it 9th and a lottery chance?)! Glenn Robinson began by threatening to blow up his team but ended up Top of the East. Injuries gave everyone a whole new reason to cry conspiracy, Chicago and Miami faced off in the Eastern Conference Finals for the third year in a row, the Warriors ended the year on an 18 game win streak, becoming the first team in the history of the NBA and D5 to not lose a single playoff game, the Pelicans Jordan Adams scored 50 points in his first game, Hassan Whiteside happened, Blake Bowman broke the forum ... the list goes on!
With all of this going on it's still great to say that D5 is the best sim league around, when new leagues pop up and I check their Rules, it's always just a copy/paste of the Code of Laws we've been sculpting for 4 seasons now, and that's down to you the GMs, the Staff Team and of course yours truly, all of us being awesome!
Third place in the running for Executive of the Year will be announced soon!
2015 Executive of the Year
GLENN ROBINSON
Milwaukee BucksThe 2015 Dynasty Five Executive of the Year is awarded to Glenn Robinson of the Milwaukee Bucks!
It's a sign of a good GM when a trade is posted and everyone steps back, goes "woah", and commends the GM for making such a fine move. However I've now decided it's the sign of a truly all-time great GM when a trade gets posted and the entire league loses its mind and threatens to quit! It's the sign of a great GM when I'm not even sure whether to hand out this award to him because I'm afraid it will tear the entire league to shreds! Please welcome to the podium everyone, Mr Glenn Robinson! Let's take a look at what this General Manager/Jedi has achieved.
Over the years Mr Robinson managed to trade a 2012 #34 Pick straight up for the #17th pick and two other players. Glenn was also the guy to swoop in and grab Andre Drummond in 2012 and afterwards trade OJ Mayo for Bradley Beal! All of this to add to the fact that in 2012 the Bucks got some luck from the Draft Gods and some guy called Anthony Davis was taken at #1, who they've displayed a complete dedication towards since as the centrepiece of what can easily be described as the best rebuild in the league.
Glenn has never deviated from his rebuild throughout four seasons of D5, every move he has made has been but one facet of an over-arching picture that's still somehow taking shape and becoming more impressive as the league continues. It's not just been a series of big trades but an amalgamation of big and small deals that have constantly improved his team as Glenn has displayed a tremendous level of skill and patience in building the contender we see today.
The Bucks this season took that next step up and cemented themselves as contenders. On April 27th (March 21st in-game) we were witness to this moment as Milwaukee beat last season's champions, the Portland Trailblazers, to pass Miami for the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time in D5 History.
Indeed even after four seasons in the role of General Manager the pursuit of dominance actually picked up pace for the Bucks in the last year as Glenn outperformed even his usual high standards, so let's now take a look at how this year pushed them to yet another plateau of achievement: To begin with after re-signing Jrue Holiday last off season Glenn was able to make the move for Jeff Teague who now sets the offense for the Bucks in a move that further solidified Milwaukee's championship calibre roster. Robinson then pounced when the Pelicans decided Brandon Bass and Randy Foye were worth nothing in return as the two were acquired for what will be two extremely weak second round picks in a move that showed the Bucks were strengthening their bench for the Playoffs.
The really jaw-dropping action came in the form of two moves that occurred this off season. As Vlade Divac's Kings self destructed, All Star and veteran big-man Marc Gasol joined the Bucks in the single most controversial player acquisition of all time. That Marc Gasol signing thread got more replies than the entire 2012 Rookie Draft! It was a deal that will re-write the rulebook this off season when I look into how Off Season Free Agency is handled.
It was the next day, July 10th, that we awoke bright eyed, stumbling into the morning light to be faced with this. A non-bird-rights Andre Drummond, devalued even further because everyone knew Glenn was forced to trade him as a result of the Gasol signing, for two of the most impressive looking rookies this year and a hugely strategic future Lakers 1st that sits a year after Kobe Bryant is expected to retire. It might be the greatest trade of all time and the envy and noise of other GMs should not detract from it. It might even go down as being bigger than this trade, it was certainly recognised to be more of a steal at the time. What's even more impressive was that it was a trade with Mr Brian Scalabrine, who I had shortlisted for this prize and who rarely makes such a leap of faith. How did Glenn Robinson manage to get so much in return? He might be the best trader in the league, and/or a Jedi, that's how.
The Milwaukee Bucks have ascended from a fledgling mediocre treadmill team, led by Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings, into an already championship calibre squad that just replenished itself with yet more stunning rookie talent that will lead the team to the top of the East for a long, long time to come. Only the newly introduced Hard Cap will restrain them. Whole hearted congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks and this year's Executive of the Year, Mr Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson!
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:
Original Team
Andre Drummond
Anthony Davis
Chandler Parsons
Bradley Beal
Jrue Holiday
Current Team
Marc Gasol
Anthony Davis
Chandler Parsons
Bradley Beal
Jeff Teague
Andre Drummond
Anthony Davis
Chandler Parsons
Bradley Beal
Jrue Holiday
Current Team
Marc Gasol
Anthony Davis
Chandler Parsons
Bradley Beal
Jeff Teague
Second Place
Minnesota Timberwolves - Walt FrazierSecond place in this year's Executive of the Year race is awarded to a former winner, Walt Frazier of the Minnesota Timberwolves!
Minnesota started the 2014/15 season in much the same way they have done since the start of Dynasty Five; with Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio running the show. 13 games into the season though and Minnesota looked set for another low-playoff-seed season in the West and Walt decided to blow it up!
Walt, Charles Barkley and Vlade Divac combined to make what is perhaps the trade of the season, instantly catapulting the Rockets lineup into the stratosphere, setting the scene for Minnesota's rebuild in a trade that many questioned for the Timberwolves, but which I already knew I'd be looking back upon when judging Executive of the Year. Either for the Rockets or TWolves.
Despite having made the trade the Timberwolves remained a low-seed-playoff-team and somehow the Rockets actually came back down to Earth, dropping from the top of the league where they'd stood at the start of the season. Walt stayed put for another four months before he followed up with a cap space trade and then waited for the off season during which most of the damage would be done to his competitors.
So it was that six months after pushing the Rockets into a tricky cap situation Walt pounced upon Eric Bledsoe in free agency on the same day he moved Nicolas Batum and his contract for DeMarre Carroll on the best contract in the league. The next day he re-signed Derrick Favors and two days after that he fulfilled his promise to Bledsoe and completed the trade of face-of-the-franchise, Ricky Rubio to complete the turnaround of his entire team.
All of this combined to give the Timberwolves an excellent future but nowhere was Walt Frazier more devastatingly effective (and also lucky!) than during the 2015 Draft! The Lakers surprised many in real-life and picked D'Angelo Russell #2, the Timberwolves surprised nobody when they filled the gaping hole at Center with possibly the best player in the draft, somehow incomprehensibly falling to #3, they completed their lineup with none other than Jahlil Okafor and his God-Tier Low-Post game to complement Derrick Favors's defense, following that up with Willie Cauley-Stein at #10 and adding some scoring off the bench with Kentucky's Devin Booker at #19!
Walt's lineup got younger and even more deadly this year, he switched things up at just the right time and all the pieces fell into place for him. There's some luck there, there always is, but Walt's once again masterful orchestration of a lineup in need of a fine-tuning will pay dividends until Jahlil Okafor's ready to retire.
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:
2014 Team
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Love
Nicolas Batum
Kevin Martin
Ricky Rubio
Current Team
Jahlil Okafor
Derrick Favors
DeMarre Carroll
Victor Oladipo
Eric Bledsoe
Tyson Chandler
Kevin Love
Nicolas Batum
Kevin Martin
Ricky Rubio
Current Team
Jahlil Okafor
Derrick Favors
DeMarre Carroll
Victor Oladipo
Eric Bledsoe
Third Place
Charlotte Hornets - James KayThird place goes to a relative newcomer, James Kay of the Charlotte Hornets!
Although the Executive of the Year Award is given annually I do feel it's important to take into account a GM's entire career to-date. Mr Kay did not make any major moves after the season began but the sum of his efforts should not continue to go unrecognised as he commanded possibly the stealthiest rebuild in the league into the first round of the Playoffs this year!
With the first move of his career, hours after being inducted as GM, James Kay drafted Nerlens Noel when noone else would, at #3 back in the 2013 Draft, which should be noted was a slight reach at the time and is clearly a move that has paid off, although nowadays Charlotte is such a good team Nerlens sits on the bench!
Eric Bledsoe spent a stint with the Hornets after what was, at the time, considered quite a poor trade for the Hornets as a non-Bird-Rights Bledsoe arrived from Indiana in exchange for what would essentially end up being 2014 draftees Gary Harris and Rodney Hood. However before Bledsoe's contract expired he was sent with no Bird Rights to Houston for Julius Randle and Bruno Caboclo, adding yet more rookie talents to their roster. In retrospect a non-BR Eric Bledsoe for the five-star upside of Julius Randle seems like a pretty damn good swap as Randle got back on the court after his real-life injury during this year's Summer League for the Lakers.
Luck landed Charlotte what looks to be their centrepiece of the future in Andrew Wiggins when they leaped from #4 to #1 in the 2014 Draft Lottery. In the space of one season the Hornets had become a team filled with at least three All-Star calibre upsides. Wiggins would go on to lead the team into the 2015 Playoffs and win Rookie of the Year!
After making a splash in the Draft the Hornets were able to use their newly impressive lineup to pick up one of the steals of free agency, whittling away an amazing 11 other suitors to net Serge Ibaka, adding some emphasis on an off season that would even be the envy of even the 2013 Golden State Warriors (who picked up Dwight Howard in free agency and rookie-of-the-year-to-be Michael Carter-Williams in the Draft).
Throughout the 2015 season James Kay didn't hastily pull the trigger on any big-value deals except to shed some cap space and recently re-sign Khris Middleton but the foundations are clearly in place for a perennial championship calibre team of the future. With a front court of Robin Lopez, Serge Ibaka, Nerlens Noel and Julius Randle complemented by Andrew Wiggins, Khris Middleton and led by Mike Conley, the Charlotte Hornets would be the envy of real-life owner, Michael Jordan.
The East may be weak currently but with GMs like James Kay at the helm of the Hornets it wont be for long!
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:
2014 Team
Robin Lopez
Nerlens Noel
Khris Middleton
Eric Bledsoe
Mike Conley
Current Team
Robin Lopez
Serge Ibaka
Andrew Wiggins
Khris Middleton
Mike Conley
Robin Lopez
Nerlens Noel
Khris Middleton
Eric Bledsoe
Mike Conley
Current Team
Robin Lopez
Serge Ibaka
Andrew Wiggins
Khris Middleton
Mike Conley
Charlotte Hornets
I think the Hornets could be doing a lot worse. 
Cleveland Cavaliers
New Orleans Pelicans
Chicago Bulls
Minnesota Timberwolves
Brooklyn Nets
Milwaukee Bucks
