David Griffin‘s name continues to surface when teams around the NBA make front office changes, as he was most recently identified as a potential target for the Pelicans. For now though, Griffin remains without an NBA job, allowing the former Cavaliers general manager to freely share his thoughts on teams around the league.
Griffin did just that in a conversation with Michael Shapiro of SI.com, revisiting his days in Cleveland and weighing in on the challenges facing Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, who are now the ones tasked with building a title contender around LeBron James.
Griffin made several interesting comments in the Q&A, which is worth checking out in full. Here are some of the highlights from the former Cavs GM:
On the pressure of being the GM for a team with LeBron on its roster:
“It’s not just the pressure with LeBron, it’s that the only mark of success each year was winning a championship. … It was like you’re taking care of the legacy of Babe Ruth. Nobody knows who his general manager was, and nobody really knows if that general manager was successful or not. But because the Yankees won as many championships as they did, Ruth and [Lou] Gehrig and those guys’ legacies are what they are. It was something we felt responsible for. This is the greatest player of his generation, and if you’re not delivering championships, you’re failing.”
On the idea that LeBron was the “shadow GM” in Cleveland (and now in Los Angeles):
“It’s just an asinine assertion that he was a shadow GM. LeBron was one of many people on the team who we talked to, it just so happens he’s a basketball savant. You wouldn’t be doing your job if you didn’t talk to him about the pieces you might want to bring to the franchise. And he’s going to be an alpha leader in the locker room, and if he feels comfortable with certain players you’re bringing in, his opinion matters.
“… The ‘LeBron is the GM, all-powerful, in charge of the franchise’ idea is, to me, preposterous. Now, I’m not in Los Angeles, I don’t experience anything they’re going through, but in my experience, I see a lot of the same nonsense from the media. If you are leading LeBron and you are leading your team, you’re getting incredible input from him because you asked for it.”
On what the Lakers should aim to do with their roster around LeBron this offseason:
“I think way too much is put into the idea that you have max cap space for two max players, and therefore you must land the plane on key free agents. I don’t think that’s the case, and I don’t think you need to land the plane of Anthony Davis. You need to maximize your asset value all the time, and no harm befalls you as long as you don’t use that space poorly. So it doesn’t have to have a name attached to it, their next asset doesn’t have to be Anthony Davis. If they remain flexible they’ll be able to accumulate the right assets for the good of the franchise.”
Griffin is an expert with an inside position. @Ptn says he believes experts and professionals. Will @Ptn accept this one’s testimony? Or even perceive the contradiction with his own claims.
You guys don’t like me reporting on the internet. I’ll talk to my friends all day about Robert Kraft getting busted in a prostitution ring. I have never repeated anything you guys have said outside this blog and never will. I haven’t seen a Laker game since Kobe left. I’ve passed on watching Laker games because I don’t care for LeBron or where he came from. I watch the Pacers and Celtics the most. They have players where I came from.
And in all my years I’ve never been to California, so I don’t care about the Lakers. Luke said on paper he thinks the Sixers look like the best team in the east, I agree. Common sense says until the Warriors split up, they’ll be the favorites.
You might be mixing me up with someone else. I don’t recall saying that about the Sixers (I’d rank them third or fourth among the Eastern contenders).
Congrats to both Ferry & Griffin for not jumping on the bandwagon of blaming James for everything. They haven’t but then the risk is people blaming them instead for whatever it is… What is it? Cavs dominated the EC & won a title. Suck it fans of Celts Raps Bucks Sixers Pacers and all the rest.
Definitely sounds like Griffin is a very smart guy, I love how he makes it clear that LBJ is very smart, but he never was the GM, soon enough all the haters will come & start hating on LBJ, never will understand why?
People will appreciate him once he retires. They hated on Kobe for all the years he couldn’t win another without Shaq. I also think it’s because Kobe and Bron played so close together post Jordan – Bulls era and people scoff at the idea that maybe, just maybe, you can make credible cases for why either one of them was/is better than MJ.
ive always agreed w. the idea that i think any GM would he stupid to not speak to lebron about what the team needs. hes in the trenches w. these players, he knows the players more intimately than any GM so if that makes him defacto GM… so be it.