07-01-2021, 04:56 PM
(07-01-2021, 04:37 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: "Nico is clueless, and a babe in the woods in such matters"
I do think it's quite possible (far from the "truth" that is quickly being adopted as fact, but possible) that the quoted portion above is not entirely accurate. I totally agree that we can expect that he has much learning to do, but I think it's possible he is not starting from as close to scratch in the talent area as you seem to confidently believe.
Then again, you might be absolutely right.
My take comes from what Nico himself is saying, not from trying to intuit what he might can do. He says he brings no particular skill in any of the areas we have talked about; he mentioned things like basketball talent evaluation, development, negotiating, roster planning, etc as not being skills he has - and that his past was about building relationships essentially, and nothing that really has to do with being an NBA GM.
He's been touted as being smart and creative, with a college basketball background. So somewhere in time, with the right tutor, he might be able to progress from raw material to someone who can excel.
But imo, at this time, this is the guy you bring in to be a Gilbert Rosas in Houston, or a Sean Marks in San Antonio, a guy who you want to train and teach the ropes of GMing, hoping they can pick it up. He's clearly expecting to be the trainee, not the trainer. I find that problematic in many ways.
The more we learn about Nico, the weirder the hire seems, frankly. As poorly prepared as he is to step in right now, it certainly could give even more support to the idea that he was brought in as just a different front man for a shadow GM.