According to Yahoo(!) Sports, the Raps are in search for a GM to run the business for the organization. The Raps front-runners for the jobs are Ed Stefanski, Jeff Brewer, and Dennis Lindsey. Today, I will be doing an analysis on these GMs and their history in the NBA.
Ed Stefanski:
Ed Stefanski is the current GM for the Philly 76ers and was a GM in New Jersey. He was also drafted as a player in the NBA in the 1976 draft. He was drafted by the Sixers for the 10th pick. As a GM. he did a pretty good job. Even though he gave a ridiculous contract to Elton Brand, he made some good draft picks in the past few years in the mid 1st round, drafting Marreese Speights in the 2008 draft for the 16th pick, and drafted Jrue Holiday in the 2009 draft as the 18th pick. They both turned out to be great role players. One turned to be a good rebounder, giving 110% of his effort every game and gave the Sixers great size when coming off the bench. The other turned out to be a tough young PG. In his first year, he was assigned as a role player and when Andre Miller left, he was promoted to be the starting PG the next year hoping hg will be part of the Sixer's future. He also made some good trades like trading Sammy Dalembert to the Kings for Andres Nocioni and Spencer Hawes which gave them a young shooting center and a good veteran in Nocioni to learn from. The trade also gave them some Cap Space this off-season. He also made a deal that landed Darius Songaila and Craig Brackins for Willie Green and Jason Smith. Again, this gives the Sixers some Cap flexibility and gives them a big man who is cheap, works hard, and have the potential to be a good player in the league. So Ed thinks more about the Cap Space future wise. The Raps are a rebuilding team and they are looking towards improving the team using money for free agents and trades. I think Ed's brain could help this team in a big way.
Jeff Bower:
Jeff Bower was a GM for the Hornets for quite some time. Bower made changes to the franchise so they can start rebuilding. He traded away his star Baron Davis to Golden State in 2002-2003. He suddenly had family things he had to do. His daughter was born in January 2003 and he had to leave the GM spot from the Hornets in 2003. He came back at 2005 and drafted Chris Paul in the 2005 NBA draft as the 4th overall pick. The Hornets started to make a run for the playoffs in the 2007-2008 season when they acquired Tyson Chandler in a deal that sent J.R Smith to Denver. Earlier, when they were still in their rebuilding process, they signed 3-point specialist Peja Stojakovic and had a David West on the team as well. As they were jammed pack with Tyson Chandler, Peja, David West and their franchise player Chris Paul. They went on the get a 56 win season in 2007-2008 and defeated the Mavs in the first round of the playoffs. In the semi-finals, they got defeated in game 7 against the Spurs and further on, they didn't to well during 2008-2009, 2009-2010. Bower was also a head coach as they replaced Bryan Scott(fired) in 2009-2010 season for their disappointing start. Bower is the GM that can pull out those big deals that could improve the team right away. This could also help the Raps bring a Vet. all-star on the team.
Dennis Lindsey:
Dennis is the current Spurs assistant GM though I don't really think that he would be interested to run the office in Toronto. He turned down GM jobs for Phoenix and Minnesota so it would unlikely to see him in Toronto but you never know. Dennis join the Spurs in 2007 and helped R.C Buford choose some really good 2nd rounders for the Spurs. The Spurs had Tiago Splitter in the 2007 draft, George Hill in the 2008 draft and DeJuan Blair in the 2010. This year, they chose the Canadian Cory Joseph(late 1st round) which I think was a huge steal for them. Though, I wasn't happy how they traded George to Indiana for the 15th pick in the draft which turned out to be Kawhi Leonard. Though he did help out the Spurs in one decent trade getting Richard Jefferson from Milwaukee. Overall, the Spurs really just stayed with the same core group in Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. No huge trades that helped the team but the draft picks helped the team alot. I don't really know how this would really affect the Raps in a good way because of the lack of trades and moves this team did. Lindsey was also apart the Houston Rockets for 11 years as vice president of basketball operations/player personnel and personnel video coordinator/scout. Before joining the Rockets, he was an assistant coach for a certain amount of College teams. He was also a starter at the Baylor University as well as he lead them to the NCAA tourny in 1988.
Well the Raps make their final decision in the next few weeks or so? Can Bryan think about who to hire and who is the best fit for the office. We shall see during the summer.
Byes :)