Evaluaton of Kiki Vandeweghe's career as a GM

Posted on LakersGround.net on 5/10/06.

loseyourname wrote:

Mike@LG wrote:
Kiki at least has the huevos to pull moves that'll benefit the team despite risk.

You don't go from 27 wins to a playoff team in a short amount of time without doing so.

You're giving Kiki too much credit, Mike. In fact, I just looked at a Nuggets history page and it was actually Mike Evans, as interim GM in 2001, that traded Van Exel and La Frentz to clear all of the cap space. Kiki made one good move, trading McDyess for Camby and Nene, and inherited a team bad enough to get 'Melo and that already had a ton of cap space, which even you have to admit, he mostly wasted. Miller was a terrific acquisition, Martin was bonehead. Throwing away picks to get him was even more bonehead.

Could you show a link for the Nuggets history page. From Wikipedia.org:

On August 9, 2001; Vandeweghe was named to the Nuggets' General Manager position.

HoopsHype has his first deal on 9/25/01 and the Van Exel and LaFrentz deal on 2/21/02.

Kikki inherited a team that had gone 40-42 the year before. It's five starters were Nick Van Exel (29), Voshon Lenard (27), James Posey (24), Antonio McDyess (26) and Raef LaFrentz (24).

Almost right after he started, his best player McDyess went down with a potentially career ending injury. Kiki then blew up the team, trading away McDyess for Camby then giving away NVE and LaFrentz for scrub players and a late first round pick. The Nuggets plummeted to 27-55.

He wasted a #5 pick on Nikoloz Tskitishvili. His #7 pick Nene has shown potential, but Amare Stoudemire and Caron Butler were available and have had better careers. The Nuggets then stumbled to a 17-65 season.

Kiki drafted Carmelo over Bosh and Wade and signed Andre Miller and Earl Boykins as FA's. With Camby have his first healthy season in a long time, the Nuggets bounced back to a 43-39 and a 1-4 first round exit.

Kiki then acquired Kenyon Martin, the Nuggest collapsed, Kiki fired coach Bzdelik, fired interim coach Michael Cooper and eventually hired coach George Karl, the Ron Artest of NBA coaches. The Nuggets took off under Karl, improved to 49-33, but still lost 1-4 in the first round.

This season, the Nuggets have as their startes Andre Miller (29), Ruben Patterson (30), Carmelo Anthony (21), Kenyon Martin (28) and Marcus Camby (31). The bench is also veterans. The team was hot and cold in an easy division and struggled to a 44-38 record. George Karl has turned the team against him and the team lost 1-4 in the first round.

So, Kiki took a 40-42 team with a young set of starters and after five seasons (two of which were disasters), he has built an old 44-38 team. Not impressive in my book.