David Griffin and Plesty, Championship Manager and Uncrowned King, who will you pick?

Qing Yang said

2024-04-25 19:04Posted in Anhui Sports Creators

Today, the Thunder defeated the Pelicans 124-92, leading 2-0, showing the dominance of the first place in the West.

Facing the Pelicans, who are missing the Fat Tiger and Ingram was also knocked out today, their path to promotion looks unusually smooth.

Behind the battle between the two youth armies is actually the "battle of routes" between two excellent general managers, David Griffin and Sam Plesty.

One is a champion trader, who single-handedly created the championship in James' "Cavaliers 2.0" period, and then was invited by the Pelicans to operate in 2019.

One is a Spurs-produced draft pick maniac. When scouting time, he urged Popovich to take the little-known Tony Parker, and after he took the helm of the Thunder, he selected Durant, Westbrook, and Harden for three consecutive years. Now the Thunder not only plays first in the West, but also holds the most draft pick resources in the league, which can be called an alternative legend of management.

And this time, it seems that the Thunder and Presti are superior.

Both teams actually started rebuilding at the same time.

In 2019, the Thunder sent away Wei Shao + George, in exchange for seven first-rounders and swaps in one go, and then sent away the former courtiers Jeremy Grant one by one.

The Pelicans sent away the big boss for many years, and a year later, they sent away the second leader Holiday and also received a lot of first-round picks.

Even, the Pelicans have a much higher starting point than the Thunder.

After the thick eyebrows left, Zion quickly took over, and there were also two top names of Yingge and Brother Qiu, as well as high-quality blue-collar workers like Hart.

And the Thunder only got Paul Sr. to take Alexander for a year and immediately sent him away, starting a new era of self-reliance.

Griffin is a relatively traditional general manager. He hopes to build a strong team based on "Fat Tiger + Yingge".

During this time, they let go of Randle, got Big Valan, let go of Brother Ball, and traded for McCollum. At the same time, he selected such high-quality young people as Herbert Jones (5th pick in the second round in '21), Trey Murphy III (17th pick in the first round in '21), and Dyson Daniels (8th pick in 22'2) in the draft.

There is even a "sixth" Alvarado who has slipped through the net, and it can be said that after several years of operation, especially after the young coach Willie Green took over, the development of this Pelican team has always been thriving.

Of course, the biggest problem holding them back is always injuries.

This may have been predestined when they selected Fat Tiger in 2019, a unique and talented champion.

He played only 85 games in the first three years of his career, and the Pelicans never really began to rebuild. Last season, he led the team to compete with the Nuggets and Grizzlies for the top three in the West, but Zion was injured again in the middle of the game, and the team's record immediately began to dive.

He played a rare 70 games this season with a career-high attendance rate, but he won 40+11 in the play-off match with the Lakers, but left the game with an injury at the last minute, and sat on the wall again in the playoffs.

This is not the first time he has been absent in the playoffs, and in the 2021-22 season, the Pelicans also finished eighth in the West through the play-offs, and also met the Suns in the first round in the West.

Although Ingram made a big show in that series and helped the Pelicans win two games, it was still a regrettable loss in the end, and at that time someone said, "If Zion is on the court, can the Suns still advance?"

Now this question has been thrown again, but this time the "beneficiary" has become Thunder.

It's hard to imagine that the core of a young team that hasn't achieved an inch can be burdened by injuries so often, and if it's not his mistake, it's only the Pelicans' wrong choice.

If you keep rebuilding the team and choose the wrong core of your team, then no matter how many right decisions you make in the future, it will be useless.

On the contrary, Presti relied on draft picks to accumulate exaggerated trial and error space for himself, and "giving the Thunder a special draft meeting" was just a joke, and the real foundation for their success now was in the '19 George trade, when the Clippers sent Alexander away as an add-on.

Years later, not even too long. If Pepper's Clippers end up dismantling without a championship, or if Alexander wins a championship for the Thunder.

This may be the biggest blot in Jerry West's career:

Just imagine how terrifying it would be if the current Clippers replaced George with Alexander.

Since coming to the Thunder in 2019, Alexander has made significant progress step by step.

In the first year, he averaged 19+6+3 per game, and he was still the younger brother next to Paul and played with Schroder, but he was already the vanguard of the Thunder.

The following year, Paul left, playing only 35 games, averaging 24+5+6 per game, and he used the time he was out of injury to polish his shots.

In the third year, there are no adults in the family, the eldest brother is like a father, with an average of 24+5+6 per game, but there are a lot more weapons in the offensive end, and he has become the real big brother of the Thunder.

Last season, when the young people around him gradually matured, and there was Jalen Williams, who was also a handsome man, he averaged 31.4 points per game and was out of control and did not enter the playoffs, but it did not affect him to be put in the league for a while.

This season, with Holmgren's entry into the ranks, the complete Thunder came out for the first time, winning first in the West with 57 wins, and he averaged 30+5+6 per game, just like the Thunder teammates made noise in the interview after the game today

"This man is the MVP of the season!"

Low-key and down-to-earth, hard-working and selfless, he is an old-fashioned leader in this era of drunkenness.

It is precisely because of Alexander's backing that Presty's many operations are rational and confident

When he goes crazy and eats into the stinky and long contracts of veterans such as Gallinari, Horford, Campa Walker, Oladipo, Favors, etc., fans and owners can put up with it. It's okay, we have Alexander, he's still growing.

When the Thunder were bloodied by fellow youth Army Grizzlies with an exaggerated score of 152-79 (December 3, 2021), they could still endure it. It's okay that we still have Alexander, our time is destined to come.

When Presti is like a Gu breeder, absorbing a large number of newcomers, Beazley, Bokusevsky, Earl, Robbie, Trey Mann and other young people have all been abolished, they can still be relieved. Don't you see the pressure mountain has been 30+ seasons, and we're going to rise soon.

So in 2022, after eating Holmgren and Jalen in one go, the Thunder's happiness exploded.

Few people remember that before that they sent away Quickley (the Raptors' lightning guard), Shin Kyung (now the Rockets boss), McDaniels (Timberwolves, one of the league's best wing defenders) and so on.

It's just the price you have to pay when you grow up.

Now no one is too harsh on Presti for this, since the "Thunder Double Less" more than a decade ago, he once again brought new glory to the Thunder with his aggressive and lucky operation.

People will forget about the little mistakes in his massive operations, and they will forget that he once let go of Harden in order to save $8 million, and for the time being, they will not remember that after taking the helm of the Thunder, they have not brought a championship to the team so far.

After all, not every NBA team will only regard the championship as the only criterion for success like the Lakers and Celtics, and not every team will be like the Warriors and Clippers who pay a sky-high luxury tax every year and become a beneficiary, let alone every team has stars such as Kuchai Tang, Brother Alphabet, and the Great who are regarded as failures if they don't win the championship.

Wouldn't it be satisfying if you, as a Thunder fan, could witness such a journey from scratch, climb hard, and regain glory?

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