The difficult thing about evaluating GMs as fans is that we have incomplete information. We don’t know about the offers that were not accepted, the alternative moves that were contemplated but rejected, much less the pressure and constraints from players, agents, or ownership. GMs should be evaluated on process as much as, if not more so, than results, but as fans we pretty much only know the results.
For example, there has been a lot of criticism of “running it back” after Beam Team I. There was a lot of smoke—sudden creation of cap space, rumors of Kyle Kuzma, Draymond, or Beal, and then it’s just a re-signed Barnes and a Sabonis extension. It’s hard to know what the options were, but frankly “running it back” gets blown out of proportion if it really came down to Kuzma or Barnes (and Beal perhaps was a bullet dodged).
There are a number of moves that while maybe I wasn’t 100% in agreement with, at least I understood. The one that was puzzling at the time, and also gets a lot of attention, is the Davion pick. One thing I think we can glean from Monte’s process is that he was focused on too much on value and flexibility with each piece, winning every trade and picking BPA, but not enough on making additional moves to ensure that the pieces fit. The Davion pick gets held out as an example of maybe taking BPA to a fault, and not risking a swing on a wing. The funny thing is, though, the team picking after the Kings did that exact thing. They took a swing on Zaire Williams, who of course is no longer on their team either. And now Davion is looking like an actual piece for Miami.
Of course, results matter at the end of the day, and one playoff appearance in five years isn’t going to cut it. I do think the team is in a better place than when Monte was hired, but it’s hard to feel excited about their direction. Unlike when Monte was hired, tough, it’s hard to feel excited now that the direction is going to improve any time soon.