Post by WigNosy on Apr 10, 2014 13:58:17 GMT -6
With all the Sturm and Drang about who should be the GM of the Year, and various parties offering up explanations as to why they should be GMOY (or someone else should NOT be), I decided to take it upon myself to try to review the 5 candidates most people are probably looking at (as I see them) and review "what have they done this year?" I did *not* take it upon myself to incorporate a look at their team record - that should be pretty obvious from the HTML index and didn't need to be repeated here. Instead. I felt it was worth looking at the job teams did in drafting, free agency, and trades. This recap will allow you to weigh things as you prepare for GMOY - I've tried to be an advocate (or a devil's advocate) for each move and finished up each with a quick summary of my feelings. In alphabetical order, by team...
HEAT (LOGPMESS) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Drafted Sam Cassell with the #3 overall pick. I don't give out points for getting high draft picks "right" (see analysis of the Mavs' pick of Penny Hardaway)
* Paid Rex Chapman (PER 16.9) the super-max in free agency. Keeping Chapman? Good. At that price? Very bad. Net negative here, for reasons we'll see shortly.
* Traded Sam Cassell for Larry Nance, Eric Murdock, and the Nuggets' 1996 first. Then traded Dikembe Mutombo and Tharon Mayes and the Nuggets' 1996 first for Hakeem. Net result: Cassell (28.0 mmpg, 19.4 PER), Mutombo (36.7 mpg, 11.8 PER), Mayes (13.8 mpg, 8.1 PER) for Nance (22.3 mpg, 13.6 PER), Murdock (28.3 mpg, 15.4 PER), Hakeem (34.8 mpg, 30.0 PER). I think this is a net positive; Nance is an upgrade on Mutombo, Murdock is an upgrade on Mayes... Hakeem is better than Cassell, but he will be MUCH more expensive going forward... but the Heat were going to have to pay up for Mutombo and Mayes after next season anyway if they wanted to keep them, so he's really only shifting cap commitments a year forward. Hakeem is only 4 years younger than Mutombo (surprise), but I honestly think this was brought on by throwing "bad money after good" - I think Tharon Mayes has more room to grow than Chapman and could have been locked up to a much cheaper deal, giving the Heat a young backcourt with a pair of defensive studs. Instead, they've gotten a lot older and a lot more expensive... but, admittedly, better. The question is, how long until Olajuwon really starts to decline.
SUMMARY: In total, I see one good move, one bad move, and one wash. The Heat made the splashiest move in the Hakeem acquisition, but it cost them a couple of great young pieces (Cassell, Mayes) and will eat up their cap space quickly. If they were in the playoff hunt, I could see that gamble paying off. They're almost certainly not going to make the playoffs this year, though, so my enthusiasm is dampened on those moves. If you like his moves, you could see him as a GMOY candidate, but if you're not convinced and wait for them to pay dividends in another season or two, we may look back on this year and think "maybe we got the GMOY wrong."
LAKERS (BALLSOHARD) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Most people don't remember it, but the Lakers traded up one spot in the draft with the Celtics (#7 plus 5 points for the #6) so they could pick Bruce Bowen. The Celtics picked Toni Kukoc. Look at Bowen's 9.5 PER and Kukoc's 18.8 PER in about the same minutes this year... this was the "wrong move" for the Lakers, at least for this year. They flat goofed on this move.
* The Lakers signed-and-traded Benoit Benjamin to the Sonics in exchange for the Sonics' 1996 first round pick. The Lakers later flipped Jayson Williams and the Sonics' 1996 pick for Duane Causwell. So the net effect here is that they traded Jayson Williams (14.6 PER) on a cheap contract and Benoit Benjamin (15.5 PER) on a large contract for a season's rental of Causewell (15.1 PER). Points for not getting stuck with Benjamin's contract, but the move of Williams for Causewell looks like a lateral move at best... and they'll have to pay Causewell in the off-season, which they wouldn't have had to do with Williams for two more years. I think this is a net negative.
* The Lakers sent Larry Johnson and their 1995 pick (lotto-protected) to the Pistons for the Nuggets' 1994 pick (top-10 protected) and Terry Catledge. The "Magic Number" of Grizzlies wins or Nuggets losses for that pick to be guaranteed to the Nuggets, regardless of what happens in the lotto, is currently... 1. So we can say with a high degree of certainty that the Nuggets' 1995 pick is what the Lakers are going to get out of this. Catledge has played 14.7 minutes per game with a PER of 12.7; Johnson has played 35.5 minutes per game with a PER north of 20. Value here depends entirely on how the Nuggets perform next season; with a top-4 pick this year, gobs of cap space to spend on Free Agents, and no draft rewards for losing next year, you have to think the Nuggets will at least jump up to a late lotto-team next year... while the Lakers will have to hope Ceballos, Bowen, and Weatherspoon make significant jumps because their cap space will go toward KJ and Pippen (who have probably peaked)... they're likely to be in the same position they are now... a team that makes the playoffs but isn't dominant... so what all of this means is that basically they traded LJ to move up about 10 spots in the draft next year (probably to about the 7 or 8 pick). I would call this a net negative.
* The Lakers did a trade-deadline deal to get Scottie Pippen (18.4 PER), giving up SG Marc Macon (13.5 PER), PG Brent Price, and PG Alvin Robertson (a guy they signed in the off-season but didn't play much). The PGs were both expiring deals, so Robertson was going to be gone anyway, and Macon only has one more year left on his rookie deal before he has to get paid... and Pippen's more productive even if he'll command a lot of money this off-season. This was a good acquisition for the Lakers; the only way to nitpick it is if you think they cost themselves the chance to bring in another star in Free Agency (but if they did, they wouldn't have been able to add Pippen as well), and I don't think they would have done much better than Pippen.
SUMMARY: With what I see as three net negatives and one net positive, the Lakers are still comfortably in the playoffs. Perhaps Balls should have gotten more consideration for this award last season? This season, frankly, has looked rough - he has been up and down with his moves in terms of accumulating more talent or setting himself up with picks/cap space. Still, if he can pull out the Pacific division with a strong finish, you could say he's re-positioned and re-shaped his team for the future without suffering a down year - something many other GMOY candidates on this list can't say.
MAVERICKS (DARTH) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Had the #2 overall pick, and got Penny out of it. I've said elsewhere that I don't believe in giving GM's a lot of credit for "picking the right guy" early in the draft when it's obvious who the right guy is. That sentiment holds here. The Mavs were horrible last year, they should have expected to get a star in the draft and they did. Call this a wash.
* Traded up from the #26 pick (Scott Burrell) to the #23 pick (Bo Outlaw) with the Hornets. Outlaw... hasn't played at all this season, while Burrell is putting up a 15.0 PER in 16.6 minutes per game. Doesn't look like Bo is better now and not sure he has a higher ceiling, either... so I would say this move kind of backfired on Darth.
* Traded the 1994 Bulls 1st and 1995 Magic 1st to the Wizards for the #8 pick, which he used to select Bryon Russell (24.8 mpg, 10.4 PER). Nick Van Exel (#11), Isaiah Rider (#13), and Dino Radja (#14) have obviously had more productive seasons than Russell... and while the Bulls' 1st is likely to be in the middle of the draft, the Magic 1st is looking like it could be pretty high. Got to score this one agains the Mavs... another backfire.
* Grabbed Robert Parish from the Bucks for the Mavs' 1996 pick and Randy Breuer. Later flipped Parish and Blaylock and the Mavs' 1996 first to the Hornets for Gheorghe Muresan, Spud Webb, and the Hornets' 1996 first. Net result: the Mavs' 1995 and 1996 firsts for Muresan (17.9 mpg, 16.8 PER), Webb (19.2 mpg, 14.2 PER), and the Hornets' 1996 first. This looks like a big win for the Mavericks - he gets two productive players now (if Webb is an expensive luxury as a backup point guard to Penny due to his contract, with all the rookie contracts the Mavs are sporting, they can afford it)... and a Hornets pick that is likely to be better than either Mavericks pick he gave up. I call this a net positive for the Mavs.
* Traded Matt Geiger (29.9 mpg, 9.6 PER) and Popeye Jones (24.3 mpg, 9.1 PER) to the Bulls for Rony Seikaly (34.6 mpg, 19.3 PER). Even if Seikaly makes 6 times the combined salary of Geiger and Jones, they're awful and he's a borderline all-star. There's no kind way to put this to the Bulls - the Mavericks won this one every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
* Signed Horace Grant (35.2 mpg, 21.0 PER) in free agency. Obvious win.
* Traded an assortment of garbage players plus the Pistons' 1995 first for Joe Dumars (28.1 mpg, 15.2 PER). The Pistons are likely to have a late first next season and Dumars is signed for another year. This one goes in the Mavs' favor.
* Repeated overuse of the words "Great" and "Greatness." Yeah, it was funny the first time. We're 20 weeks into the season, and it was old at about week 5. Net negative.
SUMMARY: So in total, I see one wash, three bad moves, and four good moves. The rest of us should be grateful the Mavs are so panicked about Jordan in the division he grabbed Russell instead of Rider... his other miss (the #26 pick for the #23 pick) was a minor one and wouldn't have affected his squad much, and he has two obvious home runs (Seikaly, Grant) this season. I'm not still sure he's a mortal lock for GMOY like I was coming out of the free agent period, but a strong candidate.
RAPTORS (SOUNDWAVE) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Picked up Bison Dele (13.7 mpg, 15.3 PER) for points. Essentially, this is getting a solid backup for free. A net positive.
* Traded out of the #24 spot (Chris Whitney - 13.1 mpg, 11.1 PER) for Chris Mills (5.4 mpg, 2.3 PER). Maybe could have gone after Scott Burrell or George Lynch, both of whom have contributed more than Mills. Generously a wash, but I'll call it a negative - guys were out there that could contribute and he punted on them.
* Trade Hubert Davis (29.8 mpg, 17.0 PER) to the Magic for... um... Magic. Later extended Magic (34.4 mpg, 23.9 PER) for a reasonable deal. He got the better player by far and isn't paying through the nose. Net positive.
* Sign Pervis Ellison (33.5 mpg, 21.1 PER) to a max. This move both hurt the division-rival Hawks and scored him an excellent player who's maybe not worth a full max, but is certainly not hurting the Raptors given his salary. Net positive.
* Re-signed Charles Oakley (12.3 mpg, 15.9 PER) to a modest deal. Again, a solid backup, and he's cheap. Net positive.
* Trade Derrick Coleman (35 mpg, 21.4 PER), the Cavs' 1st in 1995, and the Raptors' 1st in 1996 for Charles Barkley (36.1 mpg, 26.4 PER). Extended Barkley immediately. Like this move in that it took away any uncertainty in Sound's offseason, and Barkley is better - and going forward, cheaper - than Coleman. Net positive, loss of the firsts notwithstanding.
SUMMARY: It's not like Sound didn't telegraph his moves... "I covet bigs. I hoard them." Practically every move here was about getting bigger and also eliminating future bidding wars for his players. I counted one negative (and a weak one) and five positives. Makes for a GMOY candidacy that could convince voters. The Raptors ARE in danger of getting the AARP to sponsor the team, though.
ROCKETS (78) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Drafted Dino Radja at #14. He's been quite productive for them (23.9 minutes per game with a 16.3 PER) and better than several players drafted before him. Can't think of a player drafted after him that's been obviously better, either. Well done here.
* Dumped Brian Howard and their 1994 1st-round pick to the Magic to "free up salary cap space." The Magic promptly released him, taking a cap hit of... $34,686 this year, and that's it. Of course, that pick looks like it could be the last pick in the first round, so it's not that devastating. Still, giving up an asset for basically nothing is a negative.
* Signed Brian Shaw (35 mpg, 18.9 PER) in free agency. I don't think anyone's going to complain about this. He's a young star on the rise, and I'm pretty sure he had a lot of FA suitors.
* Signed Detlef Schrempf (35 mpg, 18.1 PER) in free agency. He's been productive, no doubt (when healthy) but I think even the Rockets' owner himself has started to have second thoughts about the size of that contract. Jury's out on this one - Schrempf's production means you can't call this a bad move yet, but his contract means you'll hesitate to call it a good move, either.
* Re-signed Chris Morris to the minimum (23 mpg, 11 PER). Kind of lucky Morris didn't go elsewhere? Maybe... but he took the gamble that Morris would be overlooked and he was right. Morris for the minimum looks pretty nice right about now.
* A lot of recent posts make it seem like he thinks he's already won the award and there's no debate. Just like the Mavericks' overuse of "Greatness" this kind of cocksure attitude grates after a while and could cost votes.
SUMMARY: Total of three positive moves, two negatives, and one that really could go into either column (Schrempf). While the perception is that 78 is just lucky to have drafted Shaq last year, the reality is he's made several moves this season to surround Shaq with talent at almost every position. He is a strong GMOY candidate if you put the Schrempf acquisition as a postive... but frankly, doesn't look as good next to some of the other candidates if you put that as a negative.
HEAT (LOGPMESS) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Drafted Sam Cassell with the #3 overall pick. I don't give out points for getting high draft picks "right" (see analysis of the Mavs' pick of Penny Hardaway)
* Paid Rex Chapman (PER 16.9) the super-max in free agency. Keeping Chapman? Good. At that price? Very bad. Net negative here, for reasons we'll see shortly.
* Traded Sam Cassell for Larry Nance, Eric Murdock, and the Nuggets' 1996 first. Then traded Dikembe Mutombo and Tharon Mayes and the Nuggets' 1996 first for Hakeem. Net result: Cassell (28.0 mmpg, 19.4 PER), Mutombo (36.7 mpg, 11.8 PER), Mayes (13.8 mpg, 8.1 PER) for Nance (22.3 mpg, 13.6 PER), Murdock (28.3 mpg, 15.4 PER), Hakeem (34.8 mpg, 30.0 PER). I think this is a net positive; Nance is an upgrade on Mutombo, Murdock is an upgrade on Mayes... Hakeem is better than Cassell, but he will be MUCH more expensive going forward... but the Heat were going to have to pay up for Mutombo and Mayes after next season anyway if they wanted to keep them, so he's really only shifting cap commitments a year forward. Hakeem is only 4 years younger than Mutombo (surprise), but I honestly think this was brought on by throwing "bad money after good" - I think Tharon Mayes has more room to grow than Chapman and could have been locked up to a much cheaper deal, giving the Heat a young backcourt with a pair of defensive studs. Instead, they've gotten a lot older and a lot more expensive... but, admittedly, better. The question is, how long until Olajuwon really starts to decline.
SUMMARY: In total, I see one good move, one bad move, and one wash. The Heat made the splashiest move in the Hakeem acquisition, but it cost them a couple of great young pieces (Cassell, Mayes) and will eat up their cap space quickly. If they were in the playoff hunt, I could see that gamble paying off. They're almost certainly not going to make the playoffs this year, though, so my enthusiasm is dampened on those moves. If you like his moves, you could see him as a GMOY candidate, but if you're not convinced and wait for them to pay dividends in another season or two, we may look back on this year and think "maybe we got the GMOY wrong."
LAKERS (BALLSOHARD) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Most people don't remember it, but the Lakers traded up one spot in the draft with the Celtics (#7 plus 5 points for the #6) so they could pick Bruce Bowen. The Celtics picked Toni Kukoc. Look at Bowen's 9.5 PER and Kukoc's 18.8 PER in about the same minutes this year... this was the "wrong move" for the Lakers, at least for this year. They flat goofed on this move.
* The Lakers signed-and-traded Benoit Benjamin to the Sonics in exchange for the Sonics' 1996 first round pick. The Lakers later flipped Jayson Williams and the Sonics' 1996 pick for Duane Causwell. So the net effect here is that they traded Jayson Williams (14.6 PER) on a cheap contract and Benoit Benjamin (15.5 PER) on a large contract for a season's rental of Causewell (15.1 PER). Points for not getting stuck with Benjamin's contract, but the move of Williams for Causewell looks like a lateral move at best... and they'll have to pay Causewell in the off-season, which they wouldn't have had to do with Williams for two more years. I think this is a net negative.
* The Lakers sent Larry Johnson and their 1995 pick (lotto-protected) to the Pistons for the Nuggets' 1994 pick (top-10 protected) and Terry Catledge. The "Magic Number" of Grizzlies wins or Nuggets losses for that pick to be guaranteed to the Nuggets, regardless of what happens in the lotto, is currently... 1. So we can say with a high degree of certainty that the Nuggets' 1995 pick is what the Lakers are going to get out of this. Catledge has played 14.7 minutes per game with a PER of 12.7; Johnson has played 35.5 minutes per game with a PER north of 20. Value here depends entirely on how the Nuggets perform next season; with a top-4 pick this year, gobs of cap space to spend on Free Agents, and no draft rewards for losing next year, you have to think the Nuggets will at least jump up to a late lotto-team next year... while the Lakers will have to hope Ceballos, Bowen, and Weatherspoon make significant jumps because their cap space will go toward KJ and Pippen (who have probably peaked)... they're likely to be in the same position they are now... a team that makes the playoffs but isn't dominant... so what all of this means is that basically they traded LJ to move up about 10 spots in the draft next year (probably to about the 7 or 8 pick). I would call this a net negative.
* The Lakers did a trade-deadline deal to get Scottie Pippen (18.4 PER), giving up SG Marc Macon (13.5 PER), PG Brent Price, and PG Alvin Robertson (a guy they signed in the off-season but didn't play much). The PGs were both expiring deals, so Robertson was going to be gone anyway, and Macon only has one more year left on his rookie deal before he has to get paid... and Pippen's more productive even if he'll command a lot of money this off-season. This was a good acquisition for the Lakers; the only way to nitpick it is if you think they cost themselves the chance to bring in another star in Free Agency (but if they did, they wouldn't have been able to add Pippen as well), and I don't think they would have done much better than Pippen.
SUMMARY: With what I see as three net negatives and one net positive, the Lakers are still comfortably in the playoffs. Perhaps Balls should have gotten more consideration for this award last season? This season, frankly, has looked rough - he has been up and down with his moves in terms of accumulating more talent or setting himself up with picks/cap space. Still, if he can pull out the Pacific division with a strong finish, you could say he's re-positioned and re-shaped his team for the future without suffering a down year - something many other GMOY candidates on this list can't say.
MAVERICKS (DARTH) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Had the #2 overall pick, and got Penny out of it. I've said elsewhere that I don't believe in giving GM's a lot of credit for "picking the right guy" early in the draft when it's obvious who the right guy is. That sentiment holds here. The Mavs were horrible last year, they should have expected to get a star in the draft and they did. Call this a wash.
* Traded up from the #26 pick (Scott Burrell) to the #23 pick (Bo Outlaw) with the Hornets. Outlaw... hasn't played at all this season, while Burrell is putting up a 15.0 PER in 16.6 minutes per game. Doesn't look like Bo is better now and not sure he has a higher ceiling, either... so I would say this move kind of backfired on Darth.
* Traded the 1994 Bulls 1st and 1995 Magic 1st to the Wizards for the #8 pick, which he used to select Bryon Russell (24.8 mpg, 10.4 PER). Nick Van Exel (#11), Isaiah Rider (#13), and Dino Radja (#14) have obviously had more productive seasons than Russell... and while the Bulls' 1st is likely to be in the middle of the draft, the Magic 1st is looking like it could be pretty high. Got to score this one agains the Mavs... another backfire.
* Grabbed Robert Parish from the Bucks for the Mavs' 1996 pick and Randy Breuer. Later flipped Parish and Blaylock and the Mavs' 1996 first to the Hornets for Gheorghe Muresan, Spud Webb, and the Hornets' 1996 first. Net result: the Mavs' 1995 and 1996 firsts for Muresan (17.9 mpg, 16.8 PER), Webb (19.2 mpg, 14.2 PER), and the Hornets' 1996 first. This looks like a big win for the Mavericks - he gets two productive players now (if Webb is an expensive luxury as a backup point guard to Penny due to his contract, with all the rookie contracts the Mavs are sporting, they can afford it)... and a Hornets pick that is likely to be better than either Mavericks pick he gave up. I call this a net positive for the Mavs.
* Traded Matt Geiger (29.9 mpg, 9.6 PER) and Popeye Jones (24.3 mpg, 9.1 PER) to the Bulls for Rony Seikaly (34.6 mpg, 19.3 PER). Even if Seikaly makes 6 times the combined salary of Geiger and Jones, they're awful and he's a borderline all-star. There's no kind way to put this to the Bulls - the Mavericks won this one every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
* Signed Horace Grant (35.2 mpg, 21.0 PER) in free agency. Obvious win.
* Traded an assortment of garbage players plus the Pistons' 1995 first for Joe Dumars (28.1 mpg, 15.2 PER). The Pistons are likely to have a late first next season and Dumars is signed for another year. This one goes in the Mavs' favor.
* Repeated overuse of the words "Great" and "Greatness." Yeah, it was funny the first time. We're 20 weeks into the season, and it was old at about week 5. Net negative.
SUMMARY: So in total, I see one wash, three bad moves, and four good moves. The rest of us should be grateful the Mavs are so panicked about Jordan in the division he grabbed Russell instead of Rider... his other miss (the #26 pick for the #23 pick) was a minor one and wouldn't have affected his squad much, and he has two obvious home runs (Seikaly, Grant) this season. I'm not still sure he's a mortal lock for GMOY like I was coming out of the free agent period, but a strong candidate.
RAPTORS (SOUNDWAVE) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Picked up Bison Dele (13.7 mpg, 15.3 PER) for points. Essentially, this is getting a solid backup for free. A net positive.
* Traded out of the #24 spot (Chris Whitney - 13.1 mpg, 11.1 PER) for Chris Mills (5.4 mpg, 2.3 PER). Maybe could have gone after Scott Burrell or George Lynch, both of whom have contributed more than Mills. Generously a wash, but I'll call it a negative - guys were out there that could contribute and he punted on them.
* Trade Hubert Davis (29.8 mpg, 17.0 PER) to the Magic for... um... Magic. Later extended Magic (34.4 mpg, 23.9 PER) for a reasonable deal. He got the better player by far and isn't paying through the nose. Net positive.
* Sign Pervis Ellison (33.5 mpg, 21.1 PER) to a max. This move both hurt the division-rival Hawks and scored him an excellent player who's maybe not worth a full max, but is certainly not hurting the Raptors given his salary. Net positive.
* Re-signed Charles Oakley (12.3 mpg, 15.9 PER) to a modest deal. Again, a solid backup, and he's cheap. Net positive.
* Trade Derrick Coleman (35 mpg, 21.4 PER), the Cavs' 1st in 1995, and the Raptors' 1st in 1996 for Charles Barkley (36.1 mpg, 26.4 PER). Extended Barkley immediately. Like this move in that it took away any uncertainty in Sound's offseason, and Barkley is better - and going forward, cheaper - than Coleman. Net positive, loss of the firsts notwithstanding.
SUMMARY: It's not like Sound didn't telegraph his moves... "I covet bigs. I hoard them." Practically every move here was about getting bigger and also eliminating future bidding wars for his players. I counted one negative (and a weak one) and five positives. Makes for a GMOY candidacy that could convince voters. The Raptors ARE in danger of getting the AARP to sponsor the team, though.
ROCKETS (78) MOVES ANALYSIS:
* Drafted Dino Radja at #14. He's been quite productive for them (23.9 minutes per game with a 16.3 PER) and better than several players drafted before him. Can't think of a player drafted after him that's been obviously better, either. Well done here.
* Dumped Brian Howard and their 1994 1st-round pick to the Magic to "free up salary cap space." The Magic promptly released him, taking a cap hit of... $34,686 this year, and that's it. Of course, that pick looks like it could be the last pick in the first round, so it's not that devastating. Still, giving up an asset for basically nothing is a negative.
* Signed Brian Shaw (35 mpg, 18.9 PER) in free agency. I don't think anyone's going to complain about this. He's a young star on the rise, and I'm pretty sure he had a lot of FA suitors.
* Signed Detlef Schrempf (35 mpg, 18.1 PER) in free agency. He's been productive, no doubt (when healthy) but I think even the Rockets' owner himself has started to have second thoughts about the size of that contract. Jury's out on this one - Schrempf's production means you can't call this a bad move yet, but his contract means you'll hesitate to call it a good move, either.
* Re-signed Chris Morris to the minimum (23 mpg, 11 PER). Kind of lucky Morris didn't go elsewhere? Maybe... but he took the gamble that Morris would be overlooked and he was right. Morris for the minimum looks pretty nice right about now.
* A lot of recent posts make it seem like he thinks he's already won the award and there's no debate. Just like the Mavericks' overuse of "Greatness" this kind of cocksure attitude grates after a while and could cost votes.
SUMMARY: Total of three positive moves, two negatives, and one that really could go into either column (Schrempf). While the perception is that 78 is just lucky to have drafted Shaq last year, the reality is he's made several moves this season to surround Shaq with talent at almost every position. He is a strong GMOY candidate if you put the Schrempf acquisition as a postive... but frankly, doesn't look as good next to some of the other candidates if you put that as a negative.
