Originally Posted by
N.O.Bronco
A decision he was forced into due to ownership which you refuse to acknowledge. But want to use the result of that forced choice to hang over his head as a negative despite one of the best W/L records over the period since. Put Presti in GS and that decision is never made. Put him in SA, LA, NY, Houston, Dallas, or any other non-stingy ownership market and the big 4 is still together. And of course you will say, "well it was made" and that is true, but then since then he has maintained one of the best teams since. Better then all his peers facing similar exoduses of talent.
EDIT: I see you are saying you haven't really thought out who should be ranked and where. Which makes it a bit odd for you to be going on about how Presti is not elite when you haven't managed to really delve into how his peers have performed over the same period. Or managed to set a baseline of what elite is and seen if his peers actually fit it. I think what you are going to find and struggle with, is trying to actually fill out that list without conceding pretty much everyone not named Buford or Myers is subject to knocks as bad or worse then Presti. Which would mean conceding Presti is likely right there in the upper echelon after those two.
There is not a single GM this decade that has managed to keep his franchise afloat as strongly as Presti has that had to be forced or be subject to losing a core star.
Since 2010, the Thunder have the second best combined record in the league. Second only to the Spurs. Not the Warriors, not the Cavs, not the Heat, not the Celtics, not the Lakers, not the Rockets, the Thunder. And made the playoffs in all but one season, which was injury plagued.
I don't think Presti is perfect, and I actually agree that in isolation he has made some bad decisions, but in the larger context of the league and his peers, he is batting right there with the best of them.