Diss Guy: Masai Ujiri
The Raptors General Manager isn’t a wizard. He isn’t a bamboozler. He isn’t a hoodwinker. No, Masai Ujiri is a guy demonstrating what few seem to understand about the NBA: if ownership is committed to change and a general manager isn’t worried about losing his job, transformation arrives rapidly.
The old truism says, “there’s no untradeable contract in the NBA”, but it should really say, “there’s no amount of bad salary a committed general manager can’t move”. After somehow managing to convince the Knicks to give up three draft picks for Andrea Bargnani and the Kings to trade little long-term money for Rudy Gay, Ujiri is still at it. This time he is playing the flailing Knicks and Nets against each other in an attempt to extract a ransom for the decidedly average point guard Kyle Lowry. When all you’ve got is a sinking ship, even Kyle Lowry looks like a lifeboat.
We’re surprised every time, that a team looking at a future of 39–43 first round playoff exits can get out of contract hell, but the only obstacle to moving big money in the NBA is the desire to do so. Just this offseason the Warriors traded the combined $20 million rotting carcasses of Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson to the Utah Jazz. Five years ago, when Knicks fans still had hope, Donnie Walsh was hired with the mandate to sell, sell, sell and make the team a destination for the 2010 free agent class. They struck out on all but Amar’e Stoudemire when they got there—and probably would’ve been better off if they had struck out on him too—but the fact that they were even able to make it to the batter’s box was the important part.
Masai Ujiri is clearly very good at his job, and one of the better general managers in the league. But my advice to owners that wish they had a general manager as good as Ujiri? Empower people within your organization to make sound decisions, and free them from the shackles of a “playoffs or bust” mentality that is dooming general managers in places like New York, Brooklyn and Milwaukee.
Miss Guy: Kyrie Irving
He is destined for stardom, so what did it matter that he got a few things reserved for, you know, actual stars? A national commercial campaign with Pepsi after his rookie season. An All-Star selection over more deserving guards. An #NBARank of 8 going into this year, ahead of all but three (Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry) point guards.
This was the year he was to break through. With Anderson Varejao back from injury, Tristan Thompson having finally discovered some of the talent that made him a high lottery selection, the best backup PG in the league to let Irving to showcase some of his offball skills, the number one draft pick and a very big, very talented man in Andrew Bynum waiting in the wings, he finally had a worthy supporting cast. Throw in the comic ineptitude of the Eastern Conference, and the Cavaliers are competing for a first round playoff series with home court advantage, right? At 8–13, not so much.
To be fair, not all of the Cavaliers woes sit on Irving’s shoulders. It’s early, but Anthony Bennett looks like an early candidate to join the Hall of First Pick busts, the first since Kwame Brown. Jarrett Jack is having the worst season of his career. Dion Waiters is, uh, Dion Waiters.
But Irving is the star-in-waiting, the player that is supposed to be good enough to paper over these cracks, the player that is supposed to be good enough to drag the Cavaliers to a playoff spot on his own. Instead he is shooting 40%, and a miserable 32% from three. His rebounds, steals and blocks have all gone down, and his assists haven’t improved. It’s not fair to expect Irving to turn his teammates into offense savants, but it is fair to expect him to shepherd an offense that is better than 28th in the league, especially when their defense is nearly average and he stands out as one of the worst defenders.
Irving undeniably has the talent to be one of the best players in the league for years to come, and sometimes what he can do is literally breathtaking. But at a time when the league is as star-filled as it has ever been and the point guard position is its deepest position, let’s hold off on the anointment until he actually proves he is deserving.