West wins executive of year award

[Lurker]

West Wins NBA Executive of the Year Award
May 18, 1:20 PM (ET)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Grizzlies president Jerry West was selected NBA Executive of the Year by the Sporting News on Tuesday after transforming the lowly franchise into a playoff team.
West got 16½ of the 35 votes cast by fellow league executives.

He finished ahead of Minnesota general manager Kevin McHale, who had five votes, and Utah senior VP of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor, who had three.

"This is not an individual award. It is an organizational award," West said in a statement.

The Grizzlies went 50-32 this season but were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. The franchise's best previous record was 28 wins.

 
West shared credit for the award with Hubie Brown, who won the league's Coach of the Year award.

The 65-year-old West also won the award in 1995, when he was general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers.

After 40 years with the Lakers as player, coach and executive, West came out of retirement to become president of basketball operations for the Grizzlies in April 2002.
 

[Guest_Randy]

I can understand West and would agree with the choice.  I can also understand the TWolves -- but someone PLEASE help me understand why the Jazz GM got third in the voting.  ALL the props in Utah belongs to Jerry Sloan, IMO!  Oh, perhaps he got the mention because they didn't resign Malone?  Yeah, that's it!   :unsure:  

[westkoast]

Im glad to see the Grizz get some kind of awards after a break-thru year.  Would have been nice to see them get to the 2nd round but really they had the worst first round opponent for a virgin team.  Hopefully these awards will at least keep the guys on the team from being down after getting slapped around by the Spurs.

Im also glad to see that West shared the award with Hubie who was just as important as West in getting this team to compete.

Im pretty sure our message board was right on just about every award that was to be given out.  Cant beat that with a baseball bat  :cheers:

[Derek Bodner]

The Grizz had a great year, but....
what moves did they make this year to propel them to their record?

IMO it was more of a culmination of moves they made LAST YEAR coming together with great coaching.

Yeah, bringing in Posey and Bonzi helped, but that doesn't win GM of the year.

Maybe he should win a retroactive GM of the year award for last year?

[westkoast]

The Grizz had a great year, but....
what moves did they make this year to propel them to their record?

IMO it was more of a culmination of moves they made LAST YEAR coming together with great coaching.

Yeah, bringing in Posey and Bonzi helped, but that doesn't win GM of the year.

Maybe he should win a retroactive GM of the year award for last year?

Teams need time to gel and the move to get Bonzi made more of a difference than most people would like to admit.  He found the right pieces to put together and after they got some time to play together, teamed up with Hubie's coaching abililties, they became one of the top 8 or 9 teams in the whole league.  This argument has came up a few times before.....from people who watch alot of basketball.  There is not a single GM in the league who can take a team from dead last place, make a few moves, and get them to be a winning team in half a season.  Players need time to get to know each other and how they fit together.  At the end of the day the personal changes were all West so he deserves to be recognized for what he did.

Please tell me who deserved the award over Jerry this year.

[Derek Bodner]

He found the right pieces to put together and after they got some time to play together, teamed up with Hubie's coaching abililties, they became one of the top 8 or 9 teams in the whole league. This argument has came up a few times before.....from people who watch alot of basketball. There is not a single GM in the league who can take a team from dead last place, make a few moves, and get them to be a winning team in half a season. Players need time to get to know each other and how they fit together. At the end of the day the personal changes were all West so he deserves to be recognized for what he did.

I don't disagree with any of that.

All I disagree with is what the award stands for.

I agree that West is probably the league's best GM.  and I'll agree that you can't measure a GM's performance in a matter of months.  But I believe this award is clearly based on moves made in the past year, from the time of the draft.  And there lies the problem.

Maybe they should simply vote on the "Best GM", or change the award to Most Improved team, which would take into consideration that things take time.

But in this construct, I think the team that has seen the most dividends from their moves from the draft have been either the Miami Heat (adding Wade, Odom and Haslem) or the Denver Nuggets (adding Carmelo, and all those role players that worked perfectly together.