Billy Knight article by David Aldridge at nba.com

[coachx]

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/david_aldridge/11/16/morning.tip/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1

[jerrywest]

thanks for posting.

[prolific25]

It was a nice fluff piece but I did a quick search of the article and didn't find Acie,Shelden,or Claxton mentioned. The reality is that two of Knights lottery picks are already established "trade filler" around the league and he used about 9 million in capspace on Speedy Claxton and Lorenzan Wright. You'd have to be insane to give this guy another shot as a GM.

[AHF]

I don't think BK was as bad as a lot of people do. I think he is a flawed GM but has had some success as well. I would hire him in the middle range of GMs around the league - not at the bottom, not at the top. He deserves criticism because he didn't get any homeruns and busted some with his highest picks but on the plus side he also got some solid picks out of that bunch and hit way above average with his first round picks outside the lottery. He was split on FAs with Zaza (great), Speedy/Wright (terrible), and a bunch of low $$ fodder. On trades, the Harrington trade was excellent, JJ trade was good, and others were mixed but led to some positive results (Terry bad, Wallace great result, etc.). He didn't impair the team with bad contracts but lucked out on not landing Kenyon Martin and Erick Dampier when he made lucrative offers that were rejected.

There is no perfect GM so anyone who expects a clean sheet is being unrealistic. I would not be overly optimistic or upset if I was a fan of a team like the Bobcats and I saw them hire BK. Actually, compared to what the Bobcats have seen from management, he would be a step up, IMO.

Edited November 16, 2009 by AHF

[DjGrizz]

It was a nice fluff piece but I did a quick search of the article and didn't find Acie,Shelden,or Claxton mentioned. The reality is that two of Knights lottery picks are already established "trade filler" around the league and he used about 9 million in capspace on Speedy Claxton and Lorenzan Wright. You'd have to be insane to give this guy another shot as a GM.

Yeah, you get that many lottery picks in consecutive years, you're bound to make some good moves.

[Plainview1981]

I don't think BK was as bad as a lot of people do. I think he is a flawed GM but has had some success as well. I would hire him in the middle range of GMs around the league - not at the bottom, not at the top. He deserves criticism because he didn't get any homeruns and busted some with his highest picks but on the plus side he also got some solid picks out of that bunch and hit way above average with his first round picks outside the lottery. He was split on FAs with Zaza (great), Speedy/Wright (terrible), and a bunch of low $$ fodder. On trades, the Harrington trade was excellent, JJ trade was good, and others were mixed but led to some positive results (Terry bad, Wallace great result, etc.). He didn't impair the team with bad contracts but lucked out on not landing Kenyon Martin and Erick Dampier when he made lucrative offers that were rejected.

There is no perfect GM so anyone who expects a clean sheet is being unrealistic. I would not be overly optimistic or upset if I was a fan of a team like the Bobcats and I saw them hire BK. Actually, compared to what the Bobcats have seen from management, he would be a step up, IMO.

The only thing that is truly hard to forgive is the drafting of the Williams. Watching Shelden, I don't know where Billy ever got the idea that he was worth a top 5 pick. Shelden will never be anything more than a decent bench player.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I don't think BK was as bad as a lot of people do. I think he is a flawed GM but has had some success as well. I would hire him in the middle range of GMs around the league - not at the bottom, not at the top. He deserves criticism because he didn't get any homeruns and busted some with his highest picks but on the plus side he also got some solid picks out of that bunch and hit way above average with his first round picks outside the lottery. He was split on FAs with Zaza (great), Speedy/Wright (terrible), and a bunch of low $$ fodder. On trades, the Harrington trade was excellent, JJ trade was good, and others were mixed but led to some positive results (Terry bad, Wallace great result, etc.). He didn't impair the team with bad contracts but lucked out on not landing Kenyon Martin and Erick Dampier when he made lucrative offers that were rejected.

There is no perfect GM so anyone who expects a clean sheet is being unrealistic. I would not be overly optimistic or upset if I was a fan of a team like the Bobcats and I saw them hire BK. Actually, compared to what the Bobcats have seen from management, he would be a step up, IMO.

I don't use the +/- feature to rate posts often, but I had to give you a +1 for this post. This is exactly how I view BK. He definitely made his mistakes, but he made some good moves as well. I mean, to think that guys like Royal Ivey and Solo are still in the league, and are actually getting PT in other places, shows how decent of an eye he has for talent . . . even if he doesn't make the best possible pick at that time.

He was unlucky on the Speedy deal, because he hardly played. He did commit to Speedy for too many years though. And his other questionable and bad moves have been discussed ad nauseum.

He'd get a B- from me, if I were to give BK a letter grade. It is definitely some other teams in the league that would be better off with BK at GM.

[Duff_Man]

At the very least, the Bibby trade was gold.

[DrReality]

I don't know how bad he was . . . . . but the way he presented himself was that bad. Shot himself in the foot. Probably why he hasn't gotten hired?

[mrhonline]

[sillent]

Looks like I'm not the only one giving Kudos when I see how the back end of a project turns out. As a player/fan I understood his plans and the only one's I really didn't care for was the Jacque Vaugn's and Tyron Lue's but they are more of Woody requested players. Law was a "crowd" pleaser (point guard hungry crowd) and Shelden was suppose to be Horford (oops). Other than that their were not too many flaws in his mystifying plans( All athletes around 6'9 that can play multiple positions and do multiple things on the court which makes/made our switch defense so effective and we can outrun taller players).