ESPN ranked IT the best drafting GM:
1. Isiah Thomas | Toronto Raptors 1995-97; New York Knicks 2004-07
Picks: 12 | Actual EWA: 42.7 | Expected EWA: 22.0 | Net EWA: +1.7/pick (+20.7 total)
Believe it, folks. Thomas put up an outstanding hit rate in the draft, no matter where he picked. His run of lottery picks in Toronto should be the stuff of lore. He started off by getting Damon Stoudamire with the No. 7 pick in 1996. Then with the No. 2 pick in 1996 he grabbed Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Camby. The following year in 1997, he nabbed some high schooler named Tracy McGrady at No. 9.
He found some serious gems outside the lottery as well. People remember him striking out on Renaldo Balkman at No. 20, but don't forget he also got David Lee (No. 30 in 2005), Trevor Ariza (No. 43 in 2004), Wilson Chandler (No. 23 in 200) and Nate Robinson (No. 21 in 2005). All told, Thomas' average pick was the 23rd slot, but the talent he found was more like picking at 6th every year. That's an absurdly good return. The irony is that Thomas never quite grasped the value of draft picks; he couldn't wait to get rid of them despite his overwhelming success on draft day.
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Drafting was the only thing Thomas was good at. I probably would not have rated him #1, but he was definitely in the top-10 in the league over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, he could not do much else right.
Oh people are going to hate this thread!
A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Eddy Curry for Noah and Aldridge
smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
gunsnewing wrote:Eddy Curry for Noah and Aldridge
Curry was not for Noah and Aldridge. There is <2% chance that knicks would have taken Noah with that pick.
Not surprising. I think many here would have wished he was just our chief draft scout and nothing more.
mreinman wrote:gunsnewing wrote:Eddy Curry for Noah and Aldridge
Curry was not for Noah and Aldridge. There is <2% chance that knicks would have taken Noah with that pick.
Why not? Knicks needed a center. Hadn't found one since Ewing and I thought Isiah was the best drafter of ALLTIME?
LARRY BROWN NOMINATED TOP KNICKS SHORT-TERM INTERIM COACH OF ALL TIME!
Wilson Chandler and Nate Robinson are "like" #6 picks? On what planet?
Yes, boys and girls, in the postmodern world you can fly in a statistics expert from somewhere who will testify to anything.
Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
Its been Dolan. No GM has been able to talk sense into him. Isiah came in saying you couldn't rebuild in NY. That has been the absurd matra since Dolan has owned the team.
Now - how much of the talent evaluation was Isiah vs. others he had with him- debatable - but I always liked what Isiah did as a GM drafting and then as a coach.
Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
CrushAlot wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
Well he traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick for Othella Harrington. Then he traded another first round pick for Mark Jackson.
Bonn1997 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
Well he traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick for Othella Harrington. Then he traded another first round pick for Mark Jackson.
Yeah but it was Mark Jackson.
Not sure if that's sarcasm or serious
Bonn1997 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
Well he traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick for Othella Harrington. Then he traded another first round pick for Mark Jackson.
And just to point how catastrophically bad a decision that was, Jamal Tinsley, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas and Memhet Okur were available with our 2001 pick that was dealt in the Harrington deal while Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer and John Salmons were available with the 2002 pick we dealt for Mark Jackson. To be fair though, Layden was horrible at drafting and wouldn't have picked any of these players anyway. To be honest, I think Layden was the single worst executive of all-time.
NardDogNation wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
Well he traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick for Othella Harrington. Then he traded another first round pick for Mark Jackson.
And just to point how catastrophically bad a decision that was, Jamal Tinsley, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas and Memhet Okur were available with our 2001 pick that was dealt in the Harrington deal while Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer and John Salmons were available with the 2002 pick we dealt for Mark Jackson. To be fair though, Layden was horrible at drafting and wouldn't have picked any of these players anyway. To be honest, I don't think that Layden was good at anything and was easily worse than Isiah (despite plenty of people thinking the opposite).
Eh, it's tempting to conclude that Layden, Isiah, Walsh, Grunwald, and Mills were all clueless but it might be that the only real mistake they ever made was choosing to work for Dolan. I wouldn't judge anyone by how they performed under Dolan.
Bonn1997 wrote:NardDogNation wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
Well he traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick for Othella Harrington. Then he traded another first round pick for Mark Jackson.
And just to point how catastrophically bad a decision that was, Jamal Tinsley, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas and Memhet Okur were available with our 2001 pick that was dealt in the Harrington deal while Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer and John Salmons were available with the 2002 pick we dealt for Mark Jackson. To be fair though, Layden was horrible at drafting and wouldn't have picked any of these players anyway. To be honest, I don't think that Layden was good at anything and was easily worse than Isiah (despite plenty of people thinking the opposite).
Eh, it's tempting to conclude that Layden, Isiah, Walsh, Grunwald, and Mills were all clueless but it might be that the only real mistake they ever made was choosing to work for Dolan. I wouldn't judge anyone by how they performed under Dolan.
I agree and disagree. On one hand, Scott got some pretty good gigs with Utah and now, the Spurs. I think that says something about his abilities (or that Frank Layden still has alot of connections). On the other hand, in spite of their shortcomings, guys like Isiah and Grunwald still excelled in a certain niche (Isiah with drafting, even though I'm more skeptical of him in this regard than others; Grunwald with free agent waiver/low-risk-high-reward pickups). Layden had nothing that I could think of that he did well.
NardDogNation wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:smackeddog wrote:A shame he decided to piss away so many picks when picking was his only strength!
Was that Isiah? Is it just a coincidence that every GM under Dolan has thrown away so many picks? Or does Dolan not have the patience to let GMs draft and develop players?
That is a tough one. I don't remember Layden moving picks other than the horrible McDyess trade.
Well he traded a 1st and a 2nd round pick for Othella Harrington. Then he traded another first round pick for Mark Jackson.
And just to point how catastrophically bad a decision that was, Jamal Tinsley, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas and Memhet Okur were available with our 2001 pick that was dealt in the Harrington deal while Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer and John Salmons were available with the 2002 pick we dealt for Mark Jackson. To be fair though, Layden was horrible at drafting and wouldn't have picked any of these players anyway. To be honest, I think Layden was the single worst executive of all-time.
+1, although he never was able to singlehandedly destroy an entire league.
And he never qualified for the NBA commissioner's intervention program.
Isiah could pick good ingrediants but when you put them together it tasted bad.
The sum never added up for the knicks under his leadership.
