Where do you rank Travis Schlenk as a GM/PoO

[NBASupes]

He's in my top 5. 

Masai is #1

Presti is #2

Tied for #3 is TS and James Jones

Riley at #5

Buford is #6

Meyers and Pelinka are tied at #7

Ainge would be #9 but he retired so Morey at #9

Connelly and Horst at #10

 

Masai is the best GM I've seen so far. He uses the development system flawlessly. His trades are superb. His drafting could be questionable on draft night but 3 years later, you are wowed on average. Understands team building. 

Presti probably is the best at trades of anyone in the NBA by a mile. He did have a couple a major screw up like the Harden trade and maybe this Sengun trade which isn't close to finish to know what it is yet. 

Travis and James Jones have been elite of late. Great picks, great roster building, great at trades and signings. Modern NBA GMs with elite understanding of the modern game. Some will look at Travis Luka/Trae trade negatively and some will look at the drafting of Jalen Smith to be a bad move for PHX. Both can move to the top of the list in time. 

Riley has had elite moments, bad moments and soso moments. He's been the best GM in the NBA and could do it again. When you been doing it this long, you have a lot of resume.

Buford is another who was at the top of Presidents of Operations and truthfully, he's not their GM no more like Masai isn't for Toronto. Same for Travis in Atlanta, Landry Fields. Buford has an elite resume but his recent work has been unimpressive 

Meyers and Pelinka haven't had the best of luck drafting but they have been elite at team building which is critical. Some could rank these two higher than even TS and JJ based on their criteria. 

Morey has had some amazing ups and some massive downs. This is likely his range. 

Connelly has been elite at drafting and development. His trades leave room for desire and his ceiling kinda hurts him. Horst has been on the border of top 15 but his room this year have been elite and is why his Bucks are NBA champions. An above average GM with elite balls and understanding of the game. 

[JayBirdHawk]

[Sothron]

He's the best and I don't think it is even close.

[turnermx]

Especially given the state the Hawks franchise was in when he came in he did not miss on any of the first round picks and made great trades. I think Travis is already #1 for Hawks in Atlanta history not just today. 

[REHawksFan]

1 hour ago, NBASupes said:

He's in my top 5. 

Masai is #1

Presti is #2

Tied for #3 is TS and James Jones

Riley at #5

Buford is #6

Meyers and Pelinka are tied at #7

Ainge would be #9 but he retired so Morey at #9

Connelly and Horst at #10

 

Masai is the best GM I've seen so far. He uses the development system flawlessly. His trades are superb. His drafting could be questionable on draft night but 3 years later, you are wowed on average. Understands team building. 

Presti probably is the best at trades of anyone in the NBA by a mile. He did have a couple a major screw up like the Harden trade and maybe this Sengun trade which isn't close to finish to know what it is yet. 

Travis and James Jones have been elite of late. Great picks, great roster building, great at trades and signings. Modern NBA GMs with elite understanding of the modern game. Some will look at Travis Luka/Trae trade negatively and some will look at the drafting of Jalen Smith to be a bad move for PHX. Both can move to the top of the list in time. 

Riley has had elite moments, bad moments and soso moments. He's been the best GM in the NBA and could do it again. When you been doing it this long, you have a lot of resume.

Buford is another who was at the top of Presidents of Operations and truthfully, he's not their GM no more like Masai isn't for Toronto. Same for Travis in Atlanta, Landry Fields. Buford has an elite resume but his recent work has been unimpressive 

Meyers and Pelinka haven't had the best of luck drafting but they have been elite at team building which is critical. Some could rank these two higher than even TS and JJ based on their criteria. 

Morey has had some amazing ups and some massive downs. This is likely his range. 

Connelly has been elite at drafting and development. His trades leave room for desire and his ceiling kinda hurts him. Horst has been on the border of top 15 but his room this year have been elite and is why his Bucks are NBA champions. An above average GM with elite balls and understanding of the game. 

Haven't studied the others in detail, so I'll yield to your knowledge on their quality.  That said, with what Travis has accomplished and built in Atlanta, I can confidently say I wouldn't trade him for anyone on the planet.  If that makes him the best, fine.  If not, so be it.  But you'd be hard pressed to convince me anyone else could do here what Travis has done.  The dude is batting nearly 1.000 on his decisions.  That's drafting, trades, contracts, team building, coaching decisions, etc....

I can probably count on 1 hand the number of Travis transactions that didn't turn up Aces for the Hawks. 

[JayBirdHawk]

19 minutes ago, turnermx said:

Especially given the state the Hawks franchise was in when he came in he did not miss on any of the first round picks and made great trades. I think Travis is already #1 for Hawks in Atlanta history not just today. 

One of these thing is not like the others:

[JayBirdHawk]

4 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

I can probably count on 1 hand the number of Travis transactions that didn't turn up Aces for the Hawks. 

I didn't like the Jeremy Lin and Evan Turner trades.

[REHawksFan]

3 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

One of these thing is not like the others:

May be the fittest that dude has ever been since.  He was immediately the one miss I thought of from the draft.  And TS then turned him into Damian Jones AND a 2nd.  So while not his finest hour, he at least got a 2nd rounder out of that pick.  

[Atlantaholic]

During the last three seasons who has done it better? No one.

[JayBirdHawk]

1 minute ago, REHawksFan said:

May be the fittest that dude has ever been since.  He was immediately the one miss I thought of from the draft.  And TS then turned him into Damian Jones AND a 2nd.  So while not his finest hour, he at least got a 2nd rounder out of that pick.  

We still have that 2nd round pick - 2026.

[REHawksFan]

5 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I didn't like the Jeremy Lin and Evan Turner trades.

I viewed the Baze / Turner deal as doing a favor to Baze by getting him to a team that, in theory, could compete for a title. As for the Lin deal, wasn't that the Cordinia trade?  Am I missing something from that.  I liked Lin as a player here so not sure I see the rub.  They ended up buying him out but that was water under the bridge of a losing team by that point.  

[sillent]

2 hours ago, NBASupes said:

He's in my top 5. 

Masai is #1

Presti is #2

Tied for #3 is TS and James Jones

Riley at #5

Buford is #6

Meyers and Pelinka are tied at #7

Ainge would be #9 but he retired so Morey at #9

Connelly and Horst at #10

 

Masai is the best GM I've seen so far. He uses the development system flawlessly. His trades are superb. His drafting could be questionable on draft night but 3 years later, you are wowed on average. Understands team building. 

Presti probably is the best at trades of anyone in the NBA by a mile. He did have a couple a major screw up like the Harden trade and maybe this Sengun trade which isn't close to finish to know what it is yet. 

Travis and James Jones have been elite of late. Great picks, great roster building, great at trades and signings. Modern NBA GMs with elite understanding of the modern game. Some will look at Travis Luka/Trae trade negatively and some will look at the drafting of Jalen Smith to be a bad move for PHX. Both can move to the top of the list in time. 

Riley has had elite moments, bad moments and soso moments. He's been the best GM in the NBA and could do it again. When you been doing it this long, you have a lot of resume.

Buford is another who was at the top of Presidents of Operations and truthfully, he's not their GM no more like Masai isn't for Toronto. Same for Travis in Atlanta, Landry Fields. Buford has an elite resume but his recent work has been unimpressive 

Meyers and Pelinka haven't had the best of luck drafting but they have been elite at team building which is critical. Some could rank these two higher than even TS and JJ based on their criteria. 

Morey has had some amazing ups and some massive downs. This is likely his range. 

Connelly has been elite at drafting and development. His trades leave room for desire and his ceiling kinda hurts him. Horst has been on the border of top 15 but his room this year have been elite and is why his Bucks are NBA champions. An above average GM with elite balls and understanding of the game. 

Respect to your analysis but Travis is number 1 hands down. This isn't just my bias as a fan but I've always been an aspiring GM. 

Of course I'm limited to something like 2K but I've been ahead of the curve on many GM's in my opinion. 

I was creating 5 out floor spacing 3 & D teams since guys like Lamar Odom was a rookie.

I've watched the league adopt my obvious style of play with the drive and 3 game. I still feel like I'm ahead of most but Travis has taught me something that's been missing from my bag particularly at the free agency of last year. 

His understanding not only of finding talent but how those collective pieces fit is incredible. 

What's even more incredible is he's completely rebuilt a team in pretty much 3 yrs.

The 1st yr he spent watching then breaking down the fractions of a 60 win team. We have absolutely none of those players remaining on this team.

He's drafted well, hired well (even Lloyd Pierce was a great hiring for our beginning stages). He took on expiring contracts at perfect times to keep us in positions we needed in order to secure our picks/core.

He's eliminated all weak links from yr to yr so we don't continue to carry players we'd consider to be baggage.

He is making his competition look like middle schoolers compared to a college graduate. He doesn't look deficient in any manor of GMing whether it's drafting, salary cap, understanding chemistry (not losing/trading key players at key times).

None of the trades made drastically hurt the team or fan base (atleast not so far).

We are a team that's so young and so good right now that the league doesn't know how to judge and rate us even though they see all the potential in front of us. The reason for that is because they've yet to see a team built like this, so fast without a major screw up (like trading James Harden) or a major (unnecessary) trade for an elusive superstar.

Besides Giannis, KD and LeBron (even they are questionable fits now) I don't see a superstar or anyone worth trading our young core for which speaks volumes on just how well we've drafted and developed. 

I know he hasn't had the longest stint with us and 2 of those yrs were semi wasted letting Bud feel comfortable but Travis has done an excellent job.

I remember the Warriors saying they were miles ahead of the rest of the league a few yrs back when Travis was still apart of their organization. Ever since Travis left they look like they've been more on stall and needed KD like changes instead of natural progression. They're following suit again now but we look like the team that is miles ahead.

We have a core of atleast 8 that are 23 and younger (meaning we could be good/great for awhile) and are only in position to keep getting better.

I'd take Travis over all those GM's mentioned above. They are good but have clear flaws and I think in hindsight people will be talking about Travis as the man to beat.

[JayBirdHawk]

11 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

I viewed the Baze / Turner deal as doing a favor to Baze by getting him to a team that, in theory, could compete for a title. As for the Lin deal, wasn't that the Cordinia trade?  Am I missing something from that.  I liked Lin as a player here so not sure I see the rub.  They ended up buying him out but that was water under the bridge of a losing team by that point.  

I don't mind the favor to Baze, it was thinking that Turner was an adequate backup PG. 

Regarding the Lin trade, I would have rather taken Faried and Arthur and a 1st round pick from the Nuggets in a salary dump as opposed to the Lin trade.

[kg01]

@NBASupes fallin for the banana in the tailpipe in Oklahoma I see.

[JayBirdHawk]

29 minutes ago, kg01 said:

@NBASupes fallin for the banana in the tailpipe in Oklahoma I see.

I will give Presti credit for getting great value in terms of picks for the players he traded, but it remains to be seen what he does with the plethora of picks and how those players picked translates to wins. I wasn't impressed with his draft after having so many picks.

[NBASupes]

34 minutes ago, kg01 said:

@NBASupes fallin for the banana in the tailpipe in Oklahoma I see.

He's still the only GM to draft 3 MVPs. His trades have been massive wins for the most part outside of the one he really didn't want to make but had to because of ownership. We know what that means from our ASG days. I don't see how you can put anyone outside of Masai ahead of him.

[NBASupes]

1 hour ago, sillent said:

Respect to your analysis but Travis is number 1 hands down. This isn't just my bias as a fan but I've always been an aspiring GM. 

Of course I'm limited to something like 2K but I've been ahead of the curve on many GM's in my opinion. 

I was creating 5 out floor spacing 3 & D teams since guys like Lamar Odom was a rookie.

I've watched the league adopt my obvious style of play with the drive and 3 game. I still feel like I'm ahead of most but Travis has taught me something that's been missing from my bag particularly at the free agency of last year. 

His understanding not only of finding talent but how those collective pieces fit is incredible. 

What's even more incredible is he's completely rebuilt a team in pretty much 3 yrs.

The 1st yr he spent watching then breaking down the fractions of a 60 win team. We have absolutely none of those players remaining on this team.

He's drafted well, hired well (even Lloyd Pierce was a great hiring for our beginning stages). He took on expiring contracts at perfect times to keep us in positions we needed in order to secure our picks/core.

He's eliminated all weak links from yr to yr so we don't continue to carry players we'd consider to be baggage.

He is making his competition look like middle schoolers compared to a college graduate. He doesn't look deficient in any manor of GMing whether it's drafting, salary cap, understanding chemistry (not losing/trading key players at key times).

None of the trades made drastically hurt the team or fan base (atleast not so far).

We are a team that's so young and so good right now that the league doesn't know how to judge and rate us even though they see all the potential in front of us. The reason for that is because they've yet to see a team built like this, so fast without a major screw up (like trading James Harden) or a major (unnecessary) trade for an elusive superstar.

Besides Giannis, KD and LeBron (even they are questionable fits now) I don't see a superstar or anyone worth trading our young core for which speaks volumes on just how well we've drafted and developed. 

I know he hasn't had the longest stint with us and 2 of those yrs were semi wasted letting Bud feel comfortable but Travis has done an excellent job.

I remember the Warriors saying they were miles ahead of the rest of the league a few yrs back when Travis was still apart of their organization. Ever since Travis left they look like they've been more on stall and needed KD like changes instead of natural progression. They're following suit again now but we look like the team that is miles ahead.

We have a core of atleast 8 that are 23 and younger (meaning we could be good/great for awhile) and are only in position to keep getting better.

I'd take Travis over all those GM's mentioned above. They are good but have clear flaws and I think in hindsight people will be talking about Travis as the man to beat.

I love this post. That said, I think a strong smart fan like yourself in another fanbase can make a tremendous post explaining why their guy is the current best with the top 13 guys including Sean Marks who I mistakenly left off. 

That said, I see what you are saying 100%.

[kg01]

57 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

He's still the only GM to draft 3 MVPs. His trades have been massive wins for the most part outside of the one he really didn't want to make but had to because of ownership. We know what that means from our ASG days. I don't see how you can put anyone outside of Masai ahead of him.

And lost each of them for pennies.  Didn't do much with them either.

I give him tremendous credit for Harden and Westbrook.  Durant could've been drafted by someone who's never seen basketball before.  Took no insight to do that.

Has now entered the 'kick the can down the road game' to distract from the fact that he's run that franchise into the ground.

By the time he's done, they'll be racing the PeliCan'ts to get moved to Seattle to bail them out.

[kg01]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I will give Presti credit for getting great value in terms of picks for the players he traded, but it remains to be seen what he does with the plethora of picks and how those players picked translates to wins. I wasn't impressed with his draft after having so many picks.

It's not feasible to use all those picks, either on players or in trades.  It's a shell game and people are falling for it.

[parfait]

@NBASupes What has been the influence of Landry Fields? He was touted for his relationships around the league, when he was brought in. Have these relationships contributed to trades and Free Agent wooing? If Travis had a weakness, at least early on, it was his trades, starting with his weak-sauce means of offloading Dwight Howard.

But he seems to have improved considerably when it comes to value exchange in his trades.

You don't hear much about Fields, so I was curious as to whether you had some insights on him.