We always hear a lot about how he's "always listening". Never once has their been any indication, whether subtle or otherwise, that they've ever been proactive about improving the team. The approach has always been passive until their hand is forced. Over the past ten years, how many decisions have been delayed until passivity forced us into a direction? The situation with Andrei, where every year as the trade deadline would pass we'd talk about how "oh this summer he'll be a real asset in trade," then as training camp arrives "oh, well we'll keep him until the deadline when his value will be a lot higher." Numerous red flags have been raised about numerous players in the past (i.e. Boozer) and we continue to just ride it out until eventually there is nothing left and we're forced into beggining for someone to grant us a S&T so we can get an exception. I believe Sloan's departure resulted from passivity forcing it, but that's just me. Deron became reactionary forced hand. We speak about things being set up for draft night and when camp rolls around we'll speak about how much more value Harris and Jefferson will have at the trade deadline, which will again come and pass. The only proactive moves made by the FO have been salary deals, unless you count Hart for Knight or Giricek for Korver (whether or not Sloan's feud with him forced the trade is another topic). Even regarding our free agents we take the passive approach (see CJ, Millsap, Matthews, Boozer, Korver, Marshall, etc. -- not that I'm advocating us having brought back guys like Boozer or Marshall).
I think the problem we run into is that the vast majority of the fans aren't suggesting Bell for LeBron. Most are not treating our franchise as if it were a fantasy team. Nobody's wanting a drastic change every month. However, it seems at any mention, suggestion, or question of whether or not a deal should be made and everybody gets caricaturized as being these wacky extremists and the standard response of "not going to make a deal just to make a deal" gets thrown out as if that's what the majority of fans are really wanting.
I just wish there was some indication that this franchise wasn't so passive. I wish we didn't have such a defeatist mentality when it came to improving the team. The argument that we don't see what really goes on may be true, but during KOC's tenure here very little fruit has been born that appears to have originated from being assertive on our side (the Deron Williams draft trade stands out as one of the few exceptions). For once I'd just like to see statements be made to the effect of "Well, we looked really hard. We had a few things that we thought would be pretty big for us and tremendously improved the team, but in the end we came up short. We're always actively looking to imrpove this franchise and will do what it takes to bring this franchise into serious contention for a championship while maintaining our franchise philosophy. We're confident with what we have and we're going to move forward with the future in sight." Even lipservice would be a nice gesture.
Anyone responding can feel free to pay no attention to my statements and just presume I've said "omg!!!11 tradez plz! jeffersuck 4 dwight and we resign deron!! trade everybody!"