2026 NBA draft thread

[F Gump]

You are trolling the idea that the right GM can make a major difference. But I think you're trying to use a water pistol to fight against a fire hose of evidence that demonstrates that roster-building is part skill, part art, and luck is not that much of a factor when you have a superior level of skill and art to surmount the choices that have degrees of chance in the mix. 

The fail is in a focus on any single decision. The reality is that each team is made up from the results of layers of processes, with hundreds of decisions, with each player representing MULTIPLE choices (skill, contract, fit, cost to acquire, etc) and the best GM will give himself way more chances to get the roster right than the crappy one will. 

One other major point. In Dallas we have been handicapped by INFERIOR GM-ing for decades. If any of us observers can't see that the Mavs have been fighting with their hands tied due to the GM job being manned by someone who is not as skilled as others, we aren't looking. (And the answer to that is not "any ole GM will do" but rather "this time, finally, let's get the very best GM there is.") Cuban thought he could GM just as good as anyone else, but he was pantsed with lots of regularity, sad to say. And he hired someone even worse, to take the reins - someone with no skills and no experience. Ugh. How stupid. And why wouldn't you hire the best for the job that sets your course year after year, rather than a trainee?

Presti, please.

To add a followup note, which I just saw on X after posting the above:

The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly looking at names like Sam Presti and Brad Stevens to run the team, per @SIChrisMannix

“I’m told that Patrick Dumont, the team’s governor, is aiming high. Among the names on Dumont’s wish list, per league sources: Oklahoma City executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti, Minnesota president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and Boston president Brad Stevens. Cleveland top exec Koby Altman’s name is also in the mix, a source said.” 

Dumont gets it. Those are the cream of the crop in the NBA. The fact that they are employed by someone else isn't an impossible barrier, and in fact, the NBA's BEST GM is going to be doing his thing for someone. If you are going to have a $5-Billion company whose fortunes will rise or fall on the skill of one key person, and if the guy you hire will be competing with the NBA's best who will try to rape him and the team any way they can (see Harrison, N) in competitive ways, you better hire THE BEST.  Dumont gets it. 

Presti, please.