Minnesota Sports Forum

Wolves interviewing him for PBO from the clippers. Anyone know anything about him?

Besides it sounding like a fake name?

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2017/8/21/16180908/michael-winger-la-clippers-gm-okc-thunder

I'm surprised Winger is even on the table. Solid background and past with him successfully working under Danny Ferry and Sam Presti as he climbed up the ranks. And then you look at the job he's done under Lawrence Frank with the Clippers in just the couple of years since he took over that GM role.

Successful paper trail. Well-known and respected executives that served as mentors/models to learn by. Likely young (39) enough to place a precedence on technology, analytics, relationships, and communication.

Winger's a pretty solid candidate for the position. I'm surprised Glen Taylor's even considering him.

I'm also a little surprised Glen is considering him, however I'm more surprised he'd consider working for Glen.

Sounds like we are also interviewing Moreys right hand man

Ringer and Saunders will have a 30 year plan for the Wolves success.

Duke13 wrote:I'm also a little surprised Glen is considering him, however I'm more surprised he'd consider working for Glen.

Lol. Good one, Duke!

Here's an overview of top candidates from an article in SBNation. Based on the analysis below, I see Troy Weaver as a much better choice than Winger for the Wolves. That's because Weaver is more of a talent evaluation guys while Winger is more of a cap/business guy. The one thing the Wolves need above all else in their front office is better personnel judgment. At the end of the day, it's about good judgment in selecting players - primarily in the draft but also in free agency and in making trades. And that's what the Wolves have sorely lacked for long time. The list of Wolves' poor personnel judgments is a long one as we all know. I'd like to know what the Wolves scouts have recommended over the past 6 years and whether management overruled sound recommendations from the scouts. But in the end, it's the PBO and GM who make the final decisions and who need to be held accountable. They need to make good personnel judgments and make sure the organization has scouts who also skilled at evaluating talent.

I won't repeat the entire list of poor personnel judgments by the Wolves in recent years, but here are a few of the familiar and stark examples:

1. Trading down rather than drafting McCollum
2. Drafting Bazz instead of the Greek Freak
3. Drafting Dunn instead of Hield or Murray
4. Drafting Patton instead of John Collins
5. Trading a 1st round pick for Adrienne Payne (a guy who couldn't get any minutes for the Hawks)

I've limited my examples to decisions that I don't need hindsight to criticize. Add to that list of missteps the fact that the Wolves have never hit paydirt in the late 1st or second round pick. Cap management is secondary. It's almost entirely about identifying and getting talent.

So read for yourselves the following from that SBNation article.

1. Troy Weaver, Thunder
Weaver has the distinction, perhaps, of being the best GM prospect who hasn't gotten his chance to run a team as of yet. He's interviewed for top jobs, and the Thunder have even gone so far as to decline permission for at least one team to interview him. Weaver is the guy who recruited Carmelo Anthony to Syracuse and purportedly led the internal charge to draft Russell Westbrook. Those are two big aces to have in your pocket.

Weaver has been in NBA front offices for more than a decade, and working for such a successful franchise that has already developed an NBA GM (Orlando's Rob Hennigan) means that his shot is surely right around the corner. Weaver's more of a scouting and relationships type, as his boss Sam Presti and others in the front office (first Hennigan and now the No. 3 guy on this list) focus on cap management. So a team hiring Weaver will want to ensure he can handle that all-important end or hire someone able to do so.

2. Jeff Weltman, Raptors
Weltman nearly got the Phoenix job that went to Ryan McDonough and now gets mentioned with every opening. He's been in NBA front offices for two decades, including two long stints as an assistant GM (Denver and Milwaukee). He's now Masai Ujiri's No. 2 in Toronto, which is a great place to put the finishing touches on a resumé. Weltman is experienced, well-rounded and connected.

3. Michael Winger, Thunder
Weaver could get leapfrogged by a co-worker, again. Winger's name is golden, as he's more of a cap and contract guy than the scouting and personnel-oriented Weaver. It may not make much sense, but it appears NBA franchisees currently value legal minds over basketball minds. (That's not a statement on either end of the spectrum -- of course the lawyers who get GM jobs know basketball and the basketball guys who get GM jobs know contracts. It's just a thing that is.)

Winger has been in the NBA about a decade, having risen up in Danny Ferry's Cavaliers before jumping to the Thunder in 2010. Had Cleveland let David Griffin go at the end of the 2013-14 season after his interim stint, many believed Winger would get the call from Dan Gilbert. Alas, Griffin (who until getting hired by the Cavs would have been No. 1 or No. 2 on this list) stuck around and had one of the more interesting offseasons ever.

Winger has a J.D. and a history of process management, so he's a perfect fit for the business side of GM-ing a basketball team. The question will be about his scouting chops.

4. Shareef Abdur-Rahim
Abdur-Rahim quietly left the Kings sometime in the past few months. He spent 2013-14 running their D-League affiliate in Reno, along with assisting in a bulging front office under Pete D'Alessandro. It's unclear why Abdur-Rahim left Sacramento, but he clearly has a bright future in whatever he does in the NBA.

As he's an Atlanta native, Shareef will be an obvious candidate if the Hawks do end up dismissing Danny Ferry. People say he's a sponge with a keen eye. He might need another stop to prove his chops, but his solid playing career, brain and sterling reputation might get him in the door right now.

(Someone not on this list who probably could be: Chris Gilbert, who worked closely with Shareef in Reno and is basically taking over his role with the Kings. Gilbert spent a few years in Golden State before joining the Kings and, like his predecessor, has a great reputation.)

5. Mike Zarren, Celtics
Danny Ainge's analytic guru has become more well known thanks to The Wheel, a lottery reform Zach Lowe has written about extensively. He was an analytics pioneer and remains someone who is close to the metrics community, which works in his favor. He also works the cap and has learned from one of the league's most respected personnel bosses in Ainge.

But the jury is out on analytic-gurus-as-GMs: the Rockets under Daryl Morey have not fulfilled their promise, and judgment will wait on Sam Hinkie's Sixers for at least another couple of seasons. Will a third analytics GM get hired with that record? I'm skeptical, though doubting Zarren is typically a bad move.

6. Tommy Sheppard, Wizards
Sheppard has interviewed for a few GM jobs. Like Weltman, he has a substantial NBA history (19 seasons) with varied responsibilities. He seems to now focus on cap management and contracts, but has scouting experience as well.

The Wizards' rebound certainly helps his status. Washington effectively rebuilt a team under the watch of Sheppard and GM Ernie Grunfeld, which should give a rebuilding team hope Sheppard can do it again.

7. Bobby Marks, Nets
Being Brooklyn's cap wizard is something serious. The Nets have so thoroughly flouted salary cap restrictions with clever maneuvering and smart strategic planning that Marks surely deserves an award of some sort. Instead, he'll probably get a GM job sometime in the near future. He might want to stick in Brooklyn, though. If GM Billy King survives a few more years, contracts will starting peeling off the cap sheet, making for some really interesting opportunities for a retooling on the fly. If Marks is happy in Brooklyn, the Nets' cap sheet is going to be mighty interesting the next few years.

8. Kenny Smith or Reggie Miller, TNT
Some team will do it, and it might not even be a horrible idea. Smith was a candidate of some level of seriousness for the Kings' opening a year ago, and Miller has been mentioned a few times. There is a painful dearth of former players on this list because former players aren't getting a ton of front office opportunities. (Or, they aren't seeking them.) But Smith and Miller, as players-turned-media, could follow in the footsteps of Steve Kerr, Mark Jackson and Doug Collins and get work based on their public personas.


And as if there is any question, I would hire Smith over Miller in a heartbeat.

9. Brian Pauga, Spurs
You would think "The Next Spurs Front Office Prospect" would rate higher by rule, but the list is deep. Pauga is San Antonio's director of scouting and runs the D-League's Austin Toros. That's obviously a key position in the Spurs organization. He's worked his way up R.C. Buford's ladder since 2007, which means other teams will soon be clamoring to poach him. Thanks to the Spurs' mystique, he could easily be the next guy hired off of this list. That said, there's a certain timing issue with major hires and teams that constantly play deep into the postseason. It's more an issue for coaches, but it could cost Pauga an interview at some point.

10. Mark Hughes, Knicks
Hughes is New York's director of pro personnel and has a coaching background. Like the scouting types on this list, he'll have to prove he can navigate the complex cap. But as a former NBA player and someone who won a national championship in college (Michigan, 1989), he has a strong traditional background to get looks. His reputation is also excellent.

11. Travis Schlenk, Warriors
Schlenk has been around, working in Orlando during the Chuck Daly era and now in Golden State. He has a good mix of experience with both scouting and analytics and a strong reputation within a strong front office that should breed a few future GMs. (It seems like a foregone conclusion that Kirk Lacob, a ridiculously young assistant GM, will eventually run the team for his father, managing partner Joe Lacob.) Schlenk was mentioned for the Kings' and Pistons' openings.

12. Gersson Rosas, Rockets
Rosas was actually hired away by the Mavericks to work under Donnie Nelson last year. Apparently, Rosas didn't have the role he thought he'd have, so he moseyed back to Houston, where he runs scouting and helped recruit Dwight Howard. He'll have to answer questions about the bizarre Dallas situation, certainly. But the fact that the Houston native was willing to leave the Rockets in the first place means he wants a position of real power and will go elsewhere to find it. He just needs a team to hire him.

A cap wizard and he's working under the GOAT GM, I'm impressed. Which means Glen will hire someone else instead.

BloopOracle wrote:A cap wizard and he's working under the GOAT GM, I'm impressed. Which means Glen will hire someone else instead.

BloopOracle wrote:A cap wizard and he's working under the GOAT GM, I'm impressed. Which means Glen will hire someone else instead.

If his claim to fame is cap wizardry, then I hope Glen passes on him. Again, this organization's problem has been poor talent evaluation leading to bad draft picks and poor player personnel decisions. Even the decision to sign Wiggins to a max deal wasn't a cap-management problem. It was a failure to recognize Wiggins for what he is based on his poor ballhandling and lack of competitive drive. It was poor judgment about a player. It never should have come down to whether the Wolves should give Andrew a max contract. The Wolves front office, seeing Wiggins up close for so long and knowing more about him than other teams, should have had the good judgment to trade Wiggins while he still had some positive market value.

Cap management is the easy part. The top teams acquire talent. If they become title contenders, they end up paying the luxury tax. If not, they cut their losses and start a new rebuild. As Kevin Prichard once said in describing his role as PBO, "I'm in the talent acquisition business." That's the hard part - evaluating player talent, figuring out how to get that talent, putting together the right blend of complementary players, identifying and hiring the right coach for the talent you've assembled. Those are the ingridients of a wining team. Cap management is just knowing the rules and simple math.