No, GM's don't miss on 95% of their picks. What a ridiculous statement to pull out of your ***. Unless by "miss" you mean don't find a superstar. Of course not every pick is going to be a star. But you hope to fill a roster with decent rotational players. And if you find a player like that in the late 1st or 2nd, that's definitely a hit, not a miss.
Almost every GM has home runs on their resume, or great trades or free agent signings. What separates the good or great GM's from the average/below average ones are the "non-sexy" moves. Lindsey has been cheap with the bench. And it's come back to bite him. Neto, Niang, Udoh, Sefolosha...all scrubs. Allen - likely another wasted pick like Bradley. How many failures does Lindsey need before someone else screams. "the Emperor has no clothes?"
When I compared the Jazz' situation to that in the 80's and 90's, I never said Utah should have been expected to find a star in the 20's. But draft after draft brought the Jazz players who contributed little, if anything. Those are the picks you need to hit on with solid rotation players. What does Dennis have to show for all the losing? He has Dante. Every other pick likely could have been made had the Jazz made the playoffs every year and drafted in the early 20's. Oh, Lyles, I guess, may not have been there. He was projected in the teens. But Lindsey could have still had Gobert, Hood, etc.
It's the non-signings and moves around the fringes where Lindsey has failed. Why can't he make good trades? Because the cupboard is bare. Lindsey kept the payroll at the bottom of the league for years instead of signing FA's. How many times has he used the "financial flexibility so we can be players" line? And every summer is the same old thing...the cost was too high, he didn't find anyone he liked, etc. This past summer he did NOTHING, despite many decent players signing 1 year contracts around the league.
Four years ago the conversation was about spacing with Favors and Gobert. It still is. He traded a 1st for Hill without any assurance of an extension. STUPID, STUPID. He drafted a PF who couldn't shoot in college to be a stretch 4. I, like a few others, was hopping mad at that pick. more so than the hatred over the Bradley pick. For the most part, he's failed to find decent bench players. All those extra picks he got for tanking and taking on salary in year 1? By and large wasted or traded for cash.
Utah doesn't have a miraculous player development program. But he's managed to sell that and fool most of you. EVERY team develops their players. And the few that don't get GM's and coaches soon fired. Lindsey's success - or failure - all comes down to the deadline and summer. He's cleared payroll for a max FA. Failing that, he'll re-sign Favors and Neto, and use Thabo's and Ekpe's salary slots to promote Naz and add the draft pick. And then sip margaritas by the pool while the Jazz board deposits payroll into his account.
I'll bump this post when that happens. And if a SIGNIFICANT trade or signing happens, I'll gladly tip my hat to Dennis, even if it turns out to be wrong. Because running it back and remaining stagnant ain't gonna work, no matter how much Dennis talks about team chemistry and internal development.
