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Ed Stefanski Conference Call
A while back I had the opportunity to interview Sixers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski. Recently Michael Preston of the Sixers PR staff reached out to me and gave the opportunity to be on a conference call with Ed, which I gladly accepted. I was in the middle of a vacation, and was actually scheduled to drive back that day, but when the opportunity to interview the guy running the Sixers comes up, you fit it into your schedule.
The story has been very well covered by Depressed Fan, SixerSoul, TrueHoop, Passion and Pride, Recliner GM, and The 700 Level, so I won’t spend too much time on the details (even sixers.com put a piece up on it). I mainly was involved to get some quotes for a piece I’ll be doing for RealGM, and I’ll post some of my highlights, as well as the transcript which you can check out by clicking the read more link.
My main point of the post was to say how well the Sixers are doing. No, I’m not talking in terms of how good of an offseason they’re having, which to this point has been a success in every facet. That’s a given. But the media relations for the Sixers, of which Ed is certainly doing his fair share, is tremendous.
This is a town where you have Andy Reid refusing to give any insight to card carrying members of the media, much less holding a 30 minute conference call with wanna-be’s, bloggers and straight up fans. Where the Phillies regard the media as being constantly against them, and even have their manager challenging a member of the media to a fight (not that I necessarily disagree with Charlie’s desire to punch Howard Eskin). For the vast majority of the time, it seems the aggravation from front office personal is a detraction.
With the Sixers and Ed Stefanski, it’s the complete opposite.
Not once during the call did either Ed Stefanski or Michael Preston act like they were talking to the junior varsity team. They were both open throughout. Very few organizations give such guys the time of day.
I don’t necessarily expect the front office to be fully honest, in fact some times I think it behooves them to not be. So when Andy Reid purposefully gives the media nothing, it doesn’t bother me. Being open and forthright to the media (or, in this case, Joe Citizen) isn’t going to win the Sixers any games, and it doesn’t cover up for any mistakes made.
It doesn’t alter the destination, which ultimately is what we’re in it for. But it does make the ride a heck of a lot more fun and enjoyable. And, for that, I thank Ed Stefanski and the Sixers PR staff.
As for what I found most interesting:
- Ed thinks Louis Williams is a “hell of a basketball player”. Pretty strong endoresement. Here’s to hoping Ed’s right.
- When describing Thaddeus Young and his work this offseason: “His handle has gotten better, we’ll only know when the season starts if it’s gotten good enough to play the bulk of the minutes at the 3.”
- “We wouldn’t have gone that route [signing Theo Ratliff] if Jason Smith [had not gotten hurt].”
- On Marreese Speights summer league performance: “He did everything we asked of him, but it’s only summer league. But, on the flip side, if he had sucked in the summer league, we all would have been upset, and all of the guys on this call with me would have said “oh my god”…If the kid has it and wants it, the skills are there, so as I said we’re happy he had a good summer as opposed to not having a good summer.”
- On the Andre Miller contract negotiation: “He does not have any representation right now, so we’re in limbo in that respect. So once he gets representation we’ll sit down and see where their side is”.
- On Andre Miller’s age: “That’s all the things you take into consideration [his age, and whether he'll fit in when the team peaks]. Where Andre is in his career, what type of team we have. They’re all the things that once we discuss, Andre, myself and his agent, they’re all the things you have to discuss and see where his head is. There’s no doubt all those things come into play. ”
- On the last question of the press conference, he stated there are no moves currently in the works, and expects to have the team he has right now.
- Ended the conference with: “Guys, the one thing I just want to say it, be very fortunate that it worked. Because you never know, when you put a plan together, whether it’s going to be executed. Luck is involved in all of this, and it came out pretty good.”
And, of course, the humorous part of the interview:
Blogger: Ed it’s Brian from Depressed Fan.
Ed: Depressed who, from what?
Blogger: Depressed Fan.
Ed: C’mon! Get a little more excited.
[laughs]
Blogger: It’s mostlythe Yankees these days.
[laughs]
Click “Read More” for a full transcript of the interview.
1 commentThe Best laid plans of Mice and Men
originally published at sixers.realgm.com.
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Ed Stefanski Interview
Earlier this week I got the chance to interview Sixers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski for RealGM. As I’m sitting here after the fact, there are definitely some questions I wish I had asked. There were some I wanted to ask, but chickened out on (thoughts on Gilbert Arenas’s comments about Iguodala he made on his blog, and whether extracurricular stuff like that would effect his interest in a free agent, for example), stuff I wanted to ask and forgot (His views on restricted free agency, whether or not he feels it’s a fair compromise with regards to players/interested teams getting their interest stifled because they’re afraid of tying up their cap space for 2 weeks. Whether he felt the team could compete for a title with Andre Iguodala as his best offensive player. Whether Andre Iguodala’s apparent body language had an effect in the clubhouse. How important it is to have stability in the coaching staff, particularly with young players. etc).
Overall though, it was definite a positive experience, and I think there were some interesting tidbits. Particularly about the details of the Korver pick (which I didn’t see the protection explained in detail by any Philadelphia writer), his views on the drafting process, and whether or not he felt comfortable with the cap space he had. In fact, that was the one part of the interview that really surprised me.
I’d really like to thank Ed for taking the time to sit down with me. We were scheduled to have a 5-10 minute chat, but it ended up lasting well over 20 minutes. He was a pleasure to talk to.
The article about the interview can be found here:
sixers.realgm.com.
Korver trade good start to rebuilding, but no guarantee
Let me start this off by saying that I liked Kyle Korver. He provided a valuable skillset that virtually all teams need, whether that team’s offense is based around a low post threat, dribble penetration, or a transition game. There isn’t one good team in the league that couldn’t use a Kyle Korver coming off their bench.
He got the most out of his abilities and always played hard. He also seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and a good teammate who enjoyed playing on this team, and for this city. While ultimately you look at a trade and base whether it was good or bad on how it affects the talent level of your club, it’s also impossible to take the human element out of it completely. It definitely felt odd watching Kyle playing for the Jazz, and you could see Kyle seemed a little shaken about it himself.
In a perfect world, Korver would have been a guy you would like to keep. Ideally Korver would be here when this team is back to competing, and at 26 years old, he has plenty of basketball left in him.
All that being said, this was a move that made sense. Kyle Korver was a nice role player, and somebody who could have been an asset in years to come. But you don’t let a role player get in the way of your rebuilding. Cap space is tantamount to rebuilding.
Sure, it would have been nice to have cleared cap space without moving Korver. Kyle Korver’s contract was not a mistake that had to be moved. He only had 2 years left, and less than the league average salary. But it was a contract that could be moved. That’s a very big distinction, and ultimately the reason he’s no longer a member of the team.
I would have preferred that Korver be packaged with another long term salary, such as Evans or Green, but finding a team willing to take back more salary may have been impossible.
Would the Sixers have preferred to move Reggie Evans to clear the cap space while keeping Korver? Probably. The problem is it takes two to tango, and that deal was likely never presented.
The pick received is not likely something you can count on, as it’s more than likely to be in the 20’s, and picks that late in the draft are very hit or miss. The success of the trade really comes down to whether or not the Sixers are able to make use of their cap room. At $10 million, their work certainly isn’t done.
Word has been coming out that Ed Stefanski is done shopping his players around, and that while he’s willing to talk, he’s not actively pursuing anything. That would be a very big mistake. Yes, it’s true the Sixers have more projected cap room than anyone in free agency next year. Getting more cap room than anyone else isn’t enough. The Sixers are competing against a free agents prior team more than anything.
If you look at potential free agents who have a player option, they’re not likely to exercise their option if nobody in free agency is going to be able to bid against their current team and drive up their value. Likewise, if they’re trying to pull restricted free agents away from their teams, the less money you have, the more likely it is their prior team will match an offer. The Sixers need to clear enough to offer free agents a max contract before they really become players in free agency. They’re not there yet, and failing to do so could limit their options in the summer.
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