Terry vs Maledon

[KillerLeft]

Also, I'm not blaming a small market holding Presti back, I'm blaming Clay Bennet himself.  He could have easily paid the luxury tax for a chance at a title.  I think he realized it later after Durrant left when he actually paid the tax.

Ok, but it's tough to view Presti as a victim in this situation, imo. He knew who he'd be working for when he took the job, right? I'm sure financial limitations were discussed at many points, both before and during the job. 

It's not like the luxury tax snuck up on them. Part of my point is that to be a SUCCESSFUL GM one must see these things coming ahead of time and navigate unsure waters with a sense of conservative purpose. I think Nelson has made some big errors, but he has always handled this - the actual high stakes part of the job - pretty damn well, imo. 

I'll give you another thought: while I agree that the draft isn't the best part of Nelson's game, I'd argue that he's far from being anywhere near BAD at it relative to many GM's. He has had more hits than misses, tbh. I'll agree that as an organization, they've undervalued the draft a bit too often. He's culpable in that, but honestly, one could argue that this is a top down part of their identity that starts with Cuban. 

Question: if Nelson was working for an extreme small market team, such as Minnesota or OKC, don't you think the draft would be more important to him by necessity? If so, don't you think he'd be better at it?