Donnie & The GMs: Village Idiots And/Or Geniuses

  When I was in third grade, they tested my IQ. I scored a 156.

 When I was in sixth, they tested me again. I scored a 150.

 That’s a loss of six IQ points in three years. I’m now 49 and I figure at that rate my IQ is now down to 70.

    The only guys who get more stupid more rapidly than that? NBA general managers like Houston’s Daryl Morey, Orlando’s Otis Smith, Toronto’s Brian Colangelo, Portland’s Kevin Pritchard and Dallas’ Donnie Nelson.

   Those five guys have won praise and awards for being innovative basketball brains. … but we should all recognize that they are a Hedo Pull-Out away from being exposed as dolts.

    Donnie knows this drill.

   “I’m always on the hot seat,’’ he tells me. “That’s just part of the job.’’

    And that knowledge bridges the gap between the day a decade ago when Donnie secured for Dallas the rights to two future MVPs (Dirk and Nash) and it goes for the day when he allowed the words “Antoine Rigaudeau” and the words “Larry Bird’’ emerge from his mouth in the same breath.

    These other dudes? They’re learning.

    Morey was a genius on the night when the Free-Agency Shopping Period opened. He was the king of Midnight Madness, drawing all sorts of positive praise for his use of Twitter, Facebook and email crazy brain-tremor-time-machine technology to lure Marcin Gortat to Houston.

Meeting in a few w/ Gortat.Send a note to him NOW at rocketsfanslovegortat@gmail.com .He will receive.Show him how much we want him in Red!

      Why the praise was premature: Gortat didn’t fall for it. He instead signed a deal that he hoped would lead him from Orlando for Dallas. Morey was the King of the Internet when he posted that Gortat message at 10:54 p.m. on June 30, but … now …

    Tweets to get Gortat to sign with Houston? What looked like innovation that night now seems really lame.

    And here we are in mid-September. Daryl hasn’t Tweeted much since.

    Meanwhile, Donnie was deemed a genius for orchestrating the Gortat Get along with the Marion deal.

    The score at that moment:

    Donnie = Genius.

    Daryl = slipping IQ points.

    How about Colangelo? He couldn’t persuade Chris Bosh to play ball so he acquired Bosh a playmate, Hedo Turkoglu … but in doing so he stripped his team of half its rotation. … But then got some pieces back in the Marion thing that might allow Toronto to stay afloat.

    Genius/Idiot/Genius … all in the span of two weeks.

    Otis Smith? He spent money his owner hadn’t planned on spending so he could afford Gortat and Bass … their cost? About what it would’ve taken to simply retain Hedo in the first place.

    Otis Smith: Genius? Idiot?

    We all love acquisitions, the sports equivalent of presents under the tree. When Mommy gives you a new toy for Christmas, she’s a genius. When Daddy storms in and announces that she just went over the credit-card limit to do so, Mommy is an idiot.

    Genius or idiot?

    In Orlando, owner Rich DeVos will make that decision once he balances the Amway budget with the spendthrift way his GM just acquired two backup players. … and whether Gortat and Bass (not to mention the pricy Vince Carter) key another championship-level run.

    How about poor Pritchard? In Portland, fans think so highly of him that when he does a deal, they call it “being Pritch-slapped.’’ As in, “Kevin ‘pritch-slapped’ the Raptors on that one!’’

    But remember the Turkoglu-to-Portland deal? It was done. The champagne was being poured. The replica jerseys were being printed.

    And they Hedo hedon’ted and went to Canada.

    Hey, what happened with the Paul Milsap -to-Portland deal? I thought that was done? Of course it wasn’t done. It was exactly like the Gortat-to-Dallas deal. The bid was for a RFA. The original team matched. Lamar Odom to Portland? Nope. David Lee to Portland? Nope.

    End of story … but beginning of “Pritchard-is-an-idiot’’ stories.

    (Blazer’s Edge, by the way, handles this whole issue very well, specifically as it relates to KP. For the sake of Mavs fans searching for perspective, go read it.)

   Some of the fortunes of the GMs and their teams are left to fate. It’s not KP’s fault that Milsap was matched, just like there is no “fault’’ in Dallas’ Gortat bid being matched. That’s how RFA works.

     It’s all bottom-line. And bottom-line doesn’t come in July or August or September. If the Mavs, Blazers, Raptors, Magic and Rockets fall short of perceived goals, fans will have somebody to blame.

    They’ll blame the idiot GM.

    Of Daryl Morey, they will say, he oughta spend less time begging for emails on Twitter and less time with those damn fancy spreadsheets and more time getting the Rockets to the playoffs!

    One more stab at judging Morey – and the challenge of his job: Specifically to Artest/Ariza.

   I personally really like Ariza’s game. But for the sake of anti-Rockets argument. …

    Ariza averaged 8.9 points and 4.3 rebounds last season.

    Artest averaged 17.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists last season.

    The Rockets have been busy this summer. … but they haven’t gotten better.

    All these guys have Plan A’s, and Plan B’s, and Plan C’s. … and then there is Plan F, which is the grade their fans might assign them if they don’t “do something!’’

     Donnie’s in the middle of all this. Smith, Pritchard, Colangelo and Morey? They are, too. Pritchard’s done nothing but swing and miss (putting him a home run or two behind Donnie.) Otis has hits … but they might be singles, and they might be expensive singles. Colangelo’s got one guy, but is still just treading water. Morey’s master plan? He wanted Gortat and Artest.

    Instead, he’s got Ariza for the MLE, he’s got a roster that amounts to a full infirmary, and he’s got an IQ that critics will say makes him a half-wit. … just like Donnie and the rest of the GMs who live in a world where “genius’’ and “idiot’’ are fluid concepts.