Post by Ian Noble on Jul 28, 2013 14:03:17 GMT
2013 Executive of the Year
ALEX ENGLISH
Denver Nuggets
The 2012/13 Dynasty Five Executive of the Year award goes to Alex English of the Denver Nuggets!
This year our Executive of the Year candidates have been graded in the different areas of their activities, on Trading, Signing, Drafting and Planning. Signing players is about persuasion, situation and cap flexibility. Drafting is about talent evaluation with the aid of the real-life NBA draft to help you out. But really what puts GMs head and shoulders above the rest is the foremost of those categories: Trading, and that's what Alex English turned into a science this season, one from which we can all learn.
Mr English demonstrated an almost unfair ability to seek and destroy in trading. Never before have so many promising, young superstars been assembled in D5 that have such assured places as franchise-players of the future. Alex managed to cherry-pick the best players, from a variety of up-and-coming NBA organisations, to compile a roster destined for future success as an amalgamation of those individual parts.
We can look back to last season when the trend began when upcoming superstar James Harden was acquired whilst still sitting on the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder in real life. Three months later and Harden was dealt to the Rockets and began his breakout season into superstardom. Alex English had inked his first young franchise player.
English's next devastating trade, moving into the 2012/13 season, was to trade bencher Xavier Henry, Orlando's 2014 2nd Rounder and the 2012 7th Pick (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) for the new cornerstone of the real-life Indiana Pacers, Paul George! Kidd-Gilchrist (20), being the only valuable piece in the deal, played through a season that left more question marks than exclamation points whilst Paul George, at 23, nearly led the Indiana Pacers to the real-life NBA Finals, falling short only to Lebron and the Heat!
After this there was the trade that brought Al Jefferson to Denver that then put the Nuggets in place to land Chris Bosh as the Miami Heat's only jettisoned member of the Big 3. The only average trade for the Nuggets came when Mr English foresaw the chain to cap-inflexibility that is Chris Bosh's contract and moved the 29 year old for Brook Lopez (25) which, with a few other cap-creating moves, generated $25m of cap space which can be used on this year's bumper crop of big name Free Agents.
If that was not enough though, to top it all, there was the official Most Famous Trade of the Year in which the Nuggets somehow managed to persuade the Lakers to ditch superstar point guard, Kyrie Irving, as well as serviceable Power Forward, Carl Landry, in exchange for some above-average pieces which has drastically changed the trajectory of the Lakers and Nuggets organisations. The trade has earned reverence and respect for the Nuggets and is continually referenced as a milestone in trading in D5.
The cherry on top of already mountainous ice cream fudge sundae, topped with blackjack and hookers, of incredible GMing comes when you consider Denver's draft pick situation. In most cases GMs are "marked down" a few notches for trading away their own draft picks but Denver did the insanely intelligent thing of trading his first rounders whilst they were highly rated, whilst his team was weaker, to get more in return and build a team that is all but assured championship contention for the foreseeable decade of competition, thereby subsequently de-valuing his picks after having moved them.
If that wasn't enough, by what can only be described as a stroke of luck that has every other GM foaming at the mouth with envy, the Nuggets quietly acquired San Antonio's 2014 1st Round Pick a mere 2 months after the league started, in 2012, whilst the Spurs were leading the Western Conference. Fast forward a year and the Spurs are cellar dwellers whilst Alex English sits atop a team stacked full of franchise-player talent with a draft pick in his hand that is the more likely to land him Andrew Wiggins than any other pick out there. What more needs to be said?
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:
Runner Up
Milwaukee Bucks - Glenn Robinson[/b][/size]
Third Place
Portland Trail Blazers - Clyde Drexler[/b][/size]
Honorable Mentions
Troy Bolton - for resisting temptation and not trading Lebron or DWade, and then winning a championship.
Billy King and Vlade Divac - for pulling off the biggest team-changing, single trade in the history of D5.
ALEX ENGLISH
Denver Nuggets
The 2012/13 Dynasty Five Executive of the Year award goes to Alex English of the Denver Nuggets!
This year our Executive of the Year candidates have been graded in the different areas of their activities, on Trading, Signing, Drafting and Planning. Signing players is about persuasion, situation and cap flexibility. Drafting is about talent evaluation with the aid of the real-life NBA draft to help you out. But really what puts GMs head and shoulders above the rest is the foremost of those categories: Trading, and that's what Alex English turned into a science this season, one from which we can all learn.
Mr English demonstrated an almost unfair ability to seek and destroy in trading. Never before have so many promising, young superstars been assembled in D5 that have such assured places as franchise-players of the future. Alex managed to cherry-pick the best players, from a variety of up-and-coming NBA organisations, to compile a roster destined for future success as an amalgamation of those individual parts.
We can look back to last season when the trend began when upcoming superstar James Harden was acquired whilst still sitting on the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder in real life. Three months later and Harden was dealt to the Rockets and began his breakout season into superstardom. Alex English had inked his first young franchise player.
English's next devastating trade, moving into the 2012/13 season, was to trade bencher Xavier Henry, Orlando's 2014 2nd Rounder and the 2012 7th Pick (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) for the new cornerstone of the real-life Indiana Pacers, Paul George! Kidd-Gilchrist (20), being the only valuable piece in the deal, played through a season that left more question marks than exclamation points whilst Paul George, at 23, nearly led the Indiana Pacers to the real-life NBA Finals, falling short only to Lebron and the Heat!
After this there was the trade that brought Al Jefferson to Denver that then put the Nuggets in place to land Chris Bosh as the Miami Heat's only jettisoned member of the Big 3. The only average trade for the Nuggets came when Mr English foresaw the chain to cap-inflexibility that is Chris Bosh's contract and moved the 29 year old for Brook Lopez (25) which, with a few other cap-creating moves, generated $25m of cap space which can be used on this year's bumper crop of big name Free Agents.
If that was not enough though, to top it all, there was the official Most Famous Trade of the Year in which the Nuggets somehow managed to persuade the Lakers to ditch superstar point guard, Kyrie Irving, as well as serviceable Power Forward, Carl Landry, in exchange for some above-average pieces which has drastically changed the trajectory of the Lakers and Nuggets organisations. The trade has earned reverence and respect for the Nuggets and is continually referenced as a milestone in trading in D5.
The cherry on top of already mountainous ice cream fudge sundae, topped with blackjack and hookers, of incredible GMing comes when you consider Denver's draft pick situation. In most cases GMs are "marked down" a few notches for trading away their own draft picks but Denver did the insanely intelligent thing of trading his first rounders whilst they were highly rated, whilst his team was weaker, to get more in return and build a team that is all but assured championship contention for the foreseeable decade of competition, thereby subsequently de-valuing his picks after having moved them.
If that wasn't enough, by what can only be described as a stroke of luck that has every other GM foaming at the mouth with envy, the Nuggets quietly acquired San Antonio's 2014 1st Round Pick a mere 2 months after the league started, in 2012, whilst the Spurs were leading the Western Conference. Fast forward a year and the Spurs are cellar dwellers whilst Alex English sits atop a team stacked full of franchise-player talent with a draft pick in his hand that is the more likely to land him Andrew Wiggins than any other pick out there. What more needs to be said?
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:
Original Team
Marcin Gortat
Kenneth Faried
Ersan Ilyasova
James Harden
Goran Dragic
Current Team
Brook Lopez
Carl Landry
Paul George
James Harden
Kyrie Irving
[/center]Marcin Gortat
Kenneth Faried
Ersan Ilyasova
James Harden
Goran Dragic
Current Team
Brook Lopez
Carl Landry
Paul George
James Harden
Kyrie Irving
Runner Up
Milwaukee Bucks - Glenn Robinson[/b][/size]
Perhaps more so than any other GM in the league, Glenn Robinson's strategy has materialised as a single minded drive in a planned direction, a direction that begins with rebuilding. Every move the Bucks have made has pushed them further towards building a dynasty that will last until we're all grandparents![/center][/blockquote]
Former Bucks centrepieces Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis were unceremoniously jettisoned for draft picks, expiring contracts and youth early on as Mr Robinson sought to move all the pieces he had available in preparation for the 2012 draft and beyond.
And it was the 2012 draft that became the canvas upon which the Bucks lineup really began to be drawn up. The Bucks had all the luck as they moved up four spots to take #1 position in the draft lottery. Milwaukee proceeded to land the jewel of the 2012 draft, taking Anthony Davis with their #1 pick, a stroke of luck that not only makes their lineup vastly more impressive on paper but which also has given Glenn Robinson the opportunity to show he takes nothing for granted by staking up barbed-wire fences made of razors, guarded by rabid tigers, around the tantalisingly dominant Power Forward and refusing to trade him for anything other than all the riches in America's Top 5 banks.
Not satisfied with taking the #1 player in a deep draft Glenn then made two further trades that cemented the Bucks lineup we know today: after acquiring OJ Mayo whilst moving Brandon Jennings, Mr Robinson then made a mid-draft trade that traded Mayo to the Rockets for a package that included newly drafted Bradley Beal and Tiago Splitter. Splitter has continued his journey as a stalwart for the championship contending Spurs in real life and Bradley Beal (20) shows just as much promise as the eventual ROTY Damian Lillard who's already 23.
A few question marks might appear when retrospectively assessing Glenn's trade that moved the 2012 13th, 23rd picks as well as San Antonio's 2013 1st Round pick in exchange for Andre Drummond, even when there was no knowing that the Spurs would end up with the #1 pick in 2013, but Drummond's rookie season played out to be hugely impressive and the 2013 draft will go down as the year when not a single frontrunner dominated analysts mock drafts. In the end the deal broke down as #13 (John Henson), #23 (Jae Crowder) and #1 (2013, Victor Oladipo) for Andre Drummond, not bad as I'm sure Glenn can tell you.
Another pick was acquired when New Orleans decided Ed Davis was more valuable than any wing player available and moved the 12th pick, which ended up being Jeremy Lamb, to get him. Lamb again has a high upside but is still a question mark in real-life as he struggles to get into the rotation for the Thunder.
Milwaukee's dedication to acquiring only the best young talent can be shown when he surprisingly moved some of his youth for an expiring Jose Calderon, to free up nearly $10m in cap space, merely because Luc Mbah A Moute and Tiago Splitter did not show enough promise to make it long-term on the Bucks roster.
The Bucks can be admired because, as well as the trades mentioned here, there have been swathes of small trades innumerable that will go unmentioned, all of which however has counted towards the final product, all of which is an exhibit for the exceptional dedication and enthusiasm that Glenn Robinson has for GMing and all of which shows he was really the only guy who could contend for #1 spot for EOTY.
With a young core comprised of some of the finest players to emerge onto the NBA stage in the last year, accompanied by an enormous chunk of cap space ($40m), the Bucks have set themselves up for as many free agency plays as they feel like making, whenever they want to make it. There's absolutely no hurry because their core wont be matured until it's 2020! Anthony Davis's face in the lineup in Milwaukee evokes memories of a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Glenn Robinson's devotion to the prospect must surely have fans queueing at the gates early to catch every game they can.
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:Original Team
Timofey Mozgov
Ed Davis
Tobias Harris
Anthony Parker
Brandon Jennings
Current Team
Andre Drummond
Anthony Davis
Chandler Parsons
Bradley Beal
Brandon Knight
Third Place
Portland Trail Blazers - Clyde Drexler[/b][/size]
Drexler glided in under the radar this season, the dark horse in not only the EOTY race but also the hunt for a championship, quietly establishing the Trailblazers as a serious championship contender and only really getting noticed after picking up Luol Deng in the final month of the season and then going on to nearly reach the Dynasty Five Finals![/center][/blockquote]
The Trailblazers moves were quite few and far between but every move was clearly orchestrated masterfully, manoeuvring the Blazers, on step at a time, towards championship contention.
The most controversial move in Dynasty Five history landed Tim Duncan in a Portland Trailblazers uniform and at an extremely low salary at that, immediately shimmying the Blazers up a rung in the West's Power Rankings and bringing that championship winning expertise alongside Lamarcus Aldridge.
Throughout the rest of the 2012/13 season, Drexler continued to amass established talent at the expense of unproven pieces. In April Clyde the Glide moved Wesley Matthews for Jason Richardson showing his dedication to a "win-now" strategy.
As late as May, perhaps the biggest trade in the Blazers D5 history saw Rudy Gay and Jeremy Lin leave town in exchange for John Wall, David West and filler, but left some commentators scratching their heads. For a month Portland played with Jason Richardson at Small Forward and Jordan Crawford in the lineup at SG and, as such, their lineup on paper didn't display the heavy hitter calibre of a championship contender.
One of the most famous trades of the season brought it all together though as Portland made their final play, on the trade deadline, to acquire Luol Deng from the league leading Chicago Bulls in exchange for Portland benchers Matt Barnes and David West! The Chicago trade had been a timebomb waiting to go off around the league and all the vultures had been circling for months! Chicago had to make a trade or would lose superstar and league MVP Chris Paul to free agency, which meant trading one of their other big contracts to make space.
Most of the vultures therefore saw the opportunity for easy pickings and went straight for the juiciest piece on offer: Joakim Noah. Mr Drexler however, with his already touted All Star frontcourt, instead pursued Luol Deng, who the Bulls were far more amenable to move, and the Blazers won out on the contract-shedding sweepstakes taking Deng in exchange for Barnes and West.
The Blazers lineup slotted into place like a long-piece in a Tetris puzzle and the rest is history: Portland beat out the Nuggets in Round 1, the West-leading Thunder in Round 2 and won two games of the Conference Finals against the Clippers before finally bowing out. Clyde Drexler is not done though, and with his win-now attitude no doubt has much more moves up his sleeve.
Trading:
Signing:
Drafting:
Planning:Original Team
Nikola Pekovic
LaMarcus Aldridge
Kawhi Leonard
Wesley Matthews
Raymond Felton
Current Team
Tim Duncan
LaMarcus Aldridge
Luol Deng
Jason Richardson
John Wall
Honorable Mentions
Troy Bolton - for resisting temptation and not trading Lebron or DWade, and then winning a championship.
Billy King and Vlade Divac - for pulling off the biggest team-changing, single trade in the history of D5.