Is Magic Back To Run The Show Again? (Ramona Piece)

It was discussed around here the shift of GM responsibilities from Kupchak to Ryan West... It might happen sooner than expected.

 

That was an easy read as it's well written and had me gripped, but at the same time it was a very tough read. More revealing about Mitch than anything I've read before. I'm not one to read a single article and jump to "fire him!" mode right away, I've said Jim and Mitch need more time these past few years, but this article is the final push for me. This has been building for a while now and now I'm convinced Mitch needs to be replaced. His style as described here makes total sense on why we don't get certain FAs, and reading that list of guys we missed out on while waiting on Melo and Aldridge angers me all over again.

We are in for some serious decisions coming up as pointed out on our rookies next contracts, with the trade deadline, and what moves we make or don't make could be huge for this rebuild. The Deng and Mozgov deals are stinging more and more every game, and I would love to hear what they tell Magic was the reason for those. Those deals alone I believe could be grounds now for both Jim and Mitch to be replaced.

 

^Wasn't it Walton (and to some degree Shaw) who pushed for the Mozgov signing? I'm not clear about the Deng situation...

 

I remember reading that, but if true I'd think as a long time GM you don't immediately give your rookie 36 year old coach a player he asks for if the player isn't good and will cost a lot. Maybe if Luke meant to sign Mozgov for a couple years for a cheaper price, ok, but throwing him a 4 year deal at 12:01 day 1 or free agency, yuck. I don't know, if Luke asked for Mozgov he isn't blameless, but the actual deal is still on management.

 

I maintain that both deals are palatable, even given current circumstances, if they're for 3 years with a team optioned 4th. Between the two, Deng's is still by far the least palatable and least capable of defense.

 

I'm not trying to argue the "value" of those 2 deals, I've seen it argued round and round in circles in other threads already. It's been my opinion from day one that that Mozgov deals was horrible, and that remains my opinion. I initially liked the Deng deal, but I didn't know his game was gonna fall off a cliff in year one. These are both role players that have very little impact on our team and we're stuck with them for 3-4 years like an anchor around our necks. As I've said before, my issue isn't so much that we finally paid some mediocre players, it's that we passed on really solid players for years trying to get a star, and then when we did throw money at role players, it was for old, crappy ones. We had chances for years to sign some damn good 2nd tier players and we didn't, and as the article points out after saving money for this last offseason for years, Kobe being off the books, we wasted our cash on these guys. It bugs me, it really does, all that waiting for us to finally make some long term bigger money deals and it's these guys that have now been benched.

 

Sorry to hear that Weez. I think it's been proven that Mozgov, while not a sexy signing, is literally the exact cost he should have been price-wise. The only really hard part of it is the 4th year which if we look around the league, most everyone got. Mahinmi, Noah, and Ryan Anderson all got the 4th year guaranteed too. Even players like Evan Turner, Allen Crabbe, Chandler Parsons, and JR Smith got 4th years. Mozgov's contract isn't even the one that'll truly hold us back, it's Deng's that will.

Either way, we agree that change is needed. Mitch's antiquated way of approaching FAs and their agents is just unacceptable in today's NBA. His lack of connection to the landscape is just inexcusable really.

 

I think the approach was more PR. They chose to have a "big" signing vs a PR disaster of going after a superstar and striking out (again) and being left with nothing. At least this way they could say they got the player they wanted. And it was a big contract, but not when compared to other contracts thrown around.

 

Lucky us! We got 2 of the 4 worst players (based on contracts) this past off-season.

 

Good article, thanks for posting it.

I've always been a Mitch guy. But, I don't like ignoring reality for the sake of loyalty in a competitive context.

Things a GM must excel at in order to be an excellent GM: (not necessarily in order of importance)
1. Cap management
2. Leadership communication (bridge between ownership & coach)
3. Negotiation skills (dealing with rival GMs)
4. Player connection / persuasion skills (managing team trouble & FA attraction)
5. Talent evaluation (drafting, FA signings)
6. Inside Information control

Based on what I can tell, Mitch excels at 1, 3, 6 and falls seriously short on 2, 4, and gets a split grade on 5.

Does that make him a bad GM? No. Should he be removed. Maybe. His mentor excelled at all six. Certain things are trainable skills, while others like #4 are really personality based and Mitch will never have that personality.

So, I see two options:

Move Mitch into a Team President role, promote Ryan West to the GM and bring Dad in as Special Advisor to be Ryan's training wheels.

Keep Mitch as GM but delegate his role in Free Agency to whoever can excel there (Magic, Ryan, Luke or ideally a combo of all three).

Either way, the brewing changes bode better than maintaining the status quo.