NBA Exec of the Year - Pritchard gets ZERO votes

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/05/03/executive/index.html

1.) Mark Warkentein - Denver
2.) Danny Ferry - Cleveland

no votes: Kevin Pritchard - Portland

What? No love for the guy who's put together the best young team in the league? Is everyone just bitter about how Pritchard seems to take someone to the cleaners on Draft Day every year? Are all the other execs pissed that they didn't fork over a little money to Phoenix to get Rudy Fernandez in their house? Are they all just rolling their eyes at the dumb luck Portland managed, to have the choice of drafting either Kevin Durant or Greg Oden?

I don't really care about this award, but I think it's telling that Pritchard didn't get a single vote this year, after the incredible young team he put together won 54 games, and managed a competitive series against a far more experienced Houston team.

Does Pritchard get no respect from the execs around the NBA? Or, does he inspire so much bitterness and annoyance that no GM is going to give him the satisfaction of even coming close to winning an award that he clearly should either win, or be in contention for...?

 

Good thing success in the NBA isn't predicated on a popularity contest.

I'll remain content that he's our GM of the Year

 

I can see why Warkenstein, Ferry, Paxson, Kupcake, and Morey got votes. But I don't understand how the Utah guy, the OKC guy, and the second Denver guy (WTF) got votes.

 

Pritchard sent out that nasty email or message...lost all respect with that

 

I'm fine with Warkenstein winning the award. The Iverson for Billups trade was one of the trade heists of this decade. Admittedly, it was abetted by Dumars' willingness to dump salary, but it's still one of the biggest disparities in player values that I can recall recently. Plus, adding Birdman turned out to be a rather inspired move. He turned his team from uncertain playoff participant to 2 seed.

Pritchard should have been a significant vote-getter, though. I guess his chances were hurt by his 2008-09 impact spread over two years. Oden and Rudy were acquired the year before. Bayless (who didn't really make an impact this year) and Batum were this year. Even though they were all the same rookie class, they weren't all acquired the same year.

 

I hadn't thought of that. It was technically Kevin's boss, Larry Miller, but I hear you - the other GMs probably didn't take too kindly to being told who they could and couldn't sign.

And I agree that the "annual" nature of the award means it's all about "what did you do this year?" With Portland, actually getting Fernandez out of Spain, getting Oden healthy, drafting Jerryd Bayless, and drafting Nicolas Batum, were all very significant moves for anyone who's paying attention, but they weren't game-changers like the Denver-Detroit trade. But I agree with the Bulls' fan below - there were some very questionable vote earners, once you got past the top few spots.

Really, this matters very little in the broad context. But I think it demonstrates that Pritchard might not be that well-liked around the league. Right, PD, tell us something we didn't know.

 

Warkentein was really great when he was with this organization. If the Blazers had listened to him, we'd have Al Jefferson and... there were a couple others that he wanted that we passed on.

 

Pritchard didn't really do anything THIS year that warranted him winning the award....

 

100% agree. The only thing KP did this year was stand pat with the great players he had. He didn't make a huge trade on the deadline, he moved up like three spots in the draft to take Bayless, bought a pick to get Batum... but other than that, this year, he didn't do much else. Denver's GM on the other hand, turned a franchise around that owed a ton of salary to inconsistent players (Camby/Iverson), and turned Denver into a team that would have been lucky to make it out of the first round into the #2 seed.

 

Most of Pritchards moves are appreciated years later, not the year that he makes them.

 

That's not necessarily true.

 

It's probably based on what the GM did THIS year. And what did Prichard do this year? He drafted Batum and Bayless. Those were good moves, but they did not affect the team this year like Billups did for Denver. I think if they had a vote for GM of the last 3 years, KP should win it.

 

Why would you give the award to the guy who made some minor, albeit astute, moves on draft day, and then sat on his hands?

These awards really have no meaning anyway. Now, if there was some reward, such as extra draft picks, then I would worry about it!

 

I found that odd as well. Rex Chapman got a vote even though he isn't the GM, or the primary decision maker? Weird voting. But I kind of agree that KP hasn't done anything that great this past season. We're just seeing the team he put together the past two years mature.

 

Isn't his boss Paul Allen, the owner?

 

It's probably because our lottery pick was Bayless and he didn't get to see much actions. His stats will say he averages under 2 points a game, and people will think "bust" when it's really just a matter of playing time. Batum hasn't been getting much national attention either despite us all knowing he's the steal of the draft from watching him all season. And aside from drafting them, Diogu for Ruffin now looks kinda bad considering how well Diogu is playing despite the fact that it got us a trade exception.

So yeah, he didn't do much to deserve anything really.