Current:Home > Contact-usThink your job is hard? Try managing an NBA team to win a championship-LoTradeCoin
Think your job is hard? Try managing an NBA team to win a championship
View Date:2024-12-24 20:58:05
Whatever stress-free summer NBA general managers and basketball operations execs had, it’s over.
Time to win games and compete for titles. Time to develop players. Time for short- and long-term plans to take more shape.
Even championship seasons are in the rear-view mirror, and Denver Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth turned from holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy to figuring out how to replace key players from a title team and win a second consecutive championship − not an easy task in an ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Let’s take a look at NBA front-office execs who are under pressure as the season opens:
Daryl Morey: Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations
Daryl Morey starts the season with a problem. James Harden wants a trade and Morey tried to accommodate the request but did not find a deal beneficial to the Sixers and their championship goal. Harden is unhappy, called Morey a liar and said he would never play for Morey, leading to a $100,000 fine for Harden from the NBA. Morey fired Doc Rivers as coach, hired Nick Nurse, who Milwaukee fired, and the Sixers are trying to win a title with 2022-23 MVP Joel Embiid in his prime. Morey has one unhappy player, and if the Sixers can’t make progress in the playoffs (nothing better than a second-round exit since 2001), Embiid could be the next player who wants out of Philadelphia.
Tim Connelly: Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations
Tim Connelly went to Minnesota with great fanfare: a five-year, $40 million contract that included ownership equity. Plus great expectations. And in his first major player personnel move, he acquired Rudy Gobert from Utah for five first-round picks, including 2022 first-rounder Walker Kessler. The move didn’t work the way Connelly had planned. Gobert didn’t provide the necessary lift, and the Timberwolves lost four more games last season than they did in 2021-22 and had another first-round playoff exit. Let’s see what a healthy lineup of Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards can do along with offseason moves that appeared to improve the roster.
MAKING WAVES:Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday and the ripple effect that will shape the 2023-24 NBA season
Jon Horst: Milwaukee Bucks general manager
Two seasons removed from a title, the Bucks still have championship aspirations with Giannis Antetokounmpo, but they enter the season with a warning from him. In essence, he said if the Bucks aren’t contending for a title, he won’t sign an extension and will look elsewhere to play. That means Horst needs to deliver an atmosphere and roster that convinces Antetokounmpo. Horst is off to a good start by acquiring Damian Lillard from Portland. Horst and his staff are methodic with roster moves, and the Bucks' ability to compete for a title is a significant story line this season.
David Griffin: New Orleans Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations
Let’s be clear: Griffin has put together a roster centered on Zion Williamson, and it’s not Griffin’s fault Williamson has spent so much time off the court with injuries. When Williamson plays, the Pelicans have one of the West’s best teams. That just hasn’t been often enough. Sometimes, the exec takes the fall.
Arturas Karnisovas: Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations
This comes with a caveat. Bulls ownership is patient, and like the Pelicans, the Bulls have had injuries (namely Lonzo Ball’s debilitating knee problems) that are out of Karnisovas’ control. The organization is budget conscious and does not like to pay more than one person for the job even if the attempt at a rapid rebuild has yielded just one playoff appearance (first-round loss) in Karnisovas’ three seasons.
Joe Cronin: Portland Trail Blazers general manager
Cronin was on this list in the summer and as recently as late September. But just before training camps opened, Cronin traded his star player, Damian Lillard, who had asked for a trade in July. It took Cronin the entire summer and a few days into fall to find the deal he liked for the franchise moving forward. It's a rebuild focused on a youth movement, and trading Lillard is just another step. Cronin then traded Jrue Holiday, who the Blazers acquired from Milwaukee in the Lillard deal, to Boston. In the trades, Portland acquired Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, Toumani Camara, three first-round draft picks and the right to swap draft picks with Milwaukee in 2028 and 2030. Cronin has been entrusted to make this rebuild work.
Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on X @JeffZillgitt
veryGood! (425)
Related
- Jon Gruden joins Barstool Sports three years after email scandal with NFL
- Assistant school principal among 4 arrested in cold case triple murder mystery in Georgia
- Alabama follows DeSantis' lead in banning lab-grown meat
- AP Investigation: In hundreds of deadly police encounters, officers broke multiple safety guidelines
- Rafael dissolves into a low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico after hitting Cuba as a hurricane
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation Declared a Delinquent Charity
- Mike Tyson, Jake Paul meet face to face in New York ahead of July 20 boxing match in Texas
- Gov. Kristi Noem banished by 2 more South Dakota tribes, now banned from nearly 20% of her state
- Bill on school bathroom use by transgender students clears Ohio Legislature, heads to governor
- Horoscopes Today, May 12, 2024
Ranking
- Hurricane forecasters on alert: November storm could head for Florida
- Mike Tyson, Jake Paul meet face to face in New York ahead of July 20 boxing match in Texas
- Final Hours Revealed of Oklahoma Teen Mysteriously Found Dead on Highway
- Q&A: How the Drug War and Energy Transition Are Changing Ecuadorians’ Fight For The Rights of Nature
- What that 'Disclaimer' twist says about the misogyny in all of us
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Gee Whiz
- Summer movie deals for kids: Regal, AMC, Cinemark announce pricing, showtimes
- Kansas’ governor vetoes a bill for extending child support to fetuses
Recommendation
-
Early Week 11 fantasy football rankings: 30 risers and fallers
-
Proposed settlement is first step in securing Colorado River water for 3 Native American tribes
-
Primaries in Maryland and West Virginia will shape the battle this fall for a Senate majority
-
Michael Cohen to face bruising cross-examination by Trump’s lawyers
-
Eva Longoria Shares She and Her Family Have Moved Out of the United States
-
Whoopi Goldberg Reveals She Lost Weight of 2 People Due to Drug Mounjaro
-
Blinken visits Ukraine to tout US support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s advances
-
I've hated Mother's Day since I was 7. I choose to celebrate my mom in my own way.