Jim Paxson, the well-gelled gentleman you see at left, is now a "consultant" for baby brother John in the Chicago Bulls organization, but Marty Burns at cnnsi.com seems to think Jim is the cat's meow, at least as far as this Cavs Finals team is concerned.While Burns is right in crediting Paxson for dumping Shawn Kemp (with a huge assist from Wayne Embry working the phones), he conveniently leaves out such brain busters as drafting DeSagana Diop, Dajuan Wagner, Luke Jackson, and Trajan Langdon in THE LOTTERY. He whiffed on the opportunity to sing Paxson's praises for trading a lottery pick for the legendary Jiri Welsch, and as he fluffs Paxson for recovering from the Boozer fiasco he conveniently leaves out that Paxson created the situation in the first place! That's 4 major acquisitions who are currently out of the NBA. Impressive.
This is not meant to pile on Jim Paxson, who has been through tough personal times since he left the Cavs. He is actually a pretty nice guy, we've had the chance to meet him and he ain't so bad. The fact of the matter, though, is that Paxson is widely regarded as one of the least capable GM's not named Matt Millen in recent sports memory. His "due" is very limited as it relates to this team's success, so Marty Burns...what the hell are you talking about?
Clevelanders know the score when it comes to Paxson, we just don't want to see others outside Cleveland pumping him when he doesn't deserve pumping. I guess this is what it comes to when you suck so bad through 2 games. Coming up with incidental stories...
(Thanks to Mike for turning us onto this blockbuster)
3 comments:
I agree whole heartedly with the analysis of the Paxon era at the Gund (I met him multiple times and he really is a good guy, but a not good GM for the record), but maybe him getting big ups around the league is not such a bad thing. If the current status of the GM position in the league is any indication, Paxon will grab another job elsewhere as the main GM and will help make jiri welsch trades a main stay for some other franchise (preferably an eastern conference foe). Maybe Jim will rub off on John and slow down the pace with which the Bulls are coming back to eastern conference prominance (ps. if Danny Ferry doesn't get creative and continue to work on this squad, chicago will blow by this Cavs team very soon).
We can only hope Jim's poo-poo touch will rub off on the Bulls and derail them with a quickness. And you're right, Jim will undoubtedly get another job in a league where guys like Randy Wittman (who Paxson hired in C-town, by the way) get second chances.
Oh, and Ferry needs to make a splash. So far, Boobie has been a revelation, but Hughes, Marshall and DJones are an unimpressive lot as far as acquisitions go. Was Susie McConnell-Serio unavailable?
I think susie has about 8 more kids, but she still can run the show.
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