(12-13-2020, 03:03 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: 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.Yes he has more margin for error being apart of the Mavs and the relationships primarily Mark has developed with agents over the years. But no I don't think he would be a better evaluator of talent at the lower end of the draft.
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?
Through out his years of drafting for every Luka, Dirk, Josh Howard, ect there would be fifteen Justin Andersons, Moe Agers, Nick Fezekas, Jarred Cunningham, Shane Larkins, Shane Fosters, Nick Calathas, Amand Nevins.
Its always been too feast or famine with Donnie. Donnie is like the baseball player known to be a homerun hitter but his batting like .200 when it comes to hitting.