Jerry Krause was a great general manager

[Lebron23]

He drafted Horace Grant, traded for Scottie Pippen. Signed Toni Kukoc from europe, drafted BJ Armstrong, traded Oakley for Bill Cartright, drafted Elton Brand, Ron Artest, and signed Jamal Crawford as a player. Only mistaked of him as a gm was he traded Elton Brand to the Clippers.

[8Ball]

Yup.

Stood up to Jordan. His best trait.

[Roundball_Rock]

Yup. The thing that most exemplifies it to me is after the Bulls lost to Orlando not only did he not stand pat, in 95' he went out and get a third HOF player (no other team had 3 HOF players) who was the best player possible to fill their biggest need post-Grant: rebounding (the main reason they lost to Orlando).

Compare that to his peers. What did the Knicks, Pacers, Blazers, Cavs, Jazz, etc. do after losing? Not much. They would tinker around the edges. None of these teams swung for the fences like Krause did with Rodman, who was considered a cancer at the time and was a big risk because of that (which is why the Bulls were able to get him for a backup center).

Stood up to Jordan. His best trait.

Jordan wanted Joe Wolf and Kenny Smith instead of Pippen and Grant. Can you imagine if Krause listened to MJ?

[STATUTORY]

locked up Pippen to a very long and team friendly contract

absolutely milked him, gotta appreciat GMs who can do that. it's not always about big flashy trade, but getting value on the margins

[Phoenix]

The Rodman acquisition was major. By 95 he was considered more trouble than he was worth and could be had for a bag of chips ( which in basketball terms amounted to Will Perdue). That was an all or nothing deal, and the best possible outcome occurred.

[BigtimeNBAFan]

He was a good GM, not a great one. Also something you didn't mention was his great hiring of coaches. Jordan hated him, but loved the coaches he hired; Phil Jackson, Tex Winters and Johnny Bach were all loved by Jordan.

He can't be considered a great GM when the Bulls were so bad from 99-04. Yes he made a few good moves and had some bad luck, but overall he had time to build at least a playoff level team and couldn't do it.

[Phoenix]

He was a good GM, not a great one. Also something you didn't mention was his great hiring of coaches. Jordan hated him, but loved the coaches he hired; Phil Jackson, Tex Winters and Johnny Bach were all loved by Jordan.

He can't be considered a great GM when the Bulls were so bad from 99-04. Yes he made a few good moves and had some bad luck, but overall he had time to build at least a playoff level team and couldn't do it.

Every GM and team is gonna go through a lull period like that, though. I don't think a 5 year period of mediocrity detracts from the 15 years before that.

[8Ball]

Yup. The thing that most exemplifies it to me is after the Bulls lost to Orlando not only did he not stand pat, in 95' he went out and get a third HOF player (no other team had 3 HOF players) who was the best player possible to fill their biggest need post-Grant: rebounding (the main reason they lost to Orlando).

Compare that to his peers. What did the Knicks, Pacers, Blazers, Cavs, Jazz, etc. do after losing? Not much. They would tinker around the edges. None of these teams swung for the fences like Krause did with Rodman, who was considered a cancer at the time and was a big risk because of that (which is why the Bulls were able to get him for a backup center).



Jordan wanted Joe Wolf and Kenny Smith instead of Pippen and Grant. Can you imagine if Krause listened to MJ?

Jordan hated Kukoc ala The Last Dance. Imagine if Krause listened to Jordan and dump Kukoc for picks?

No 2nd 3 peat.

[BigtimeNBAFan]

Every GM and team is gonna go through a lull period like that, though. I don't think a 5 year period of mediocrity detracts from the 15 years before that.

That is why he is a good GM. He inherited Jordan, but was good enough to put the pieces around him and the coaching staff that won 6 rings. I have no objection to him getting a banner in the rafters at the United Center which he has.

Hard to call him great though. A great GM would have been able to build it back up. I'm not even talking winning another championship. In the 6 years after Jordan the team was garbage. The closest he came to making the playoffs was 12 games out. He was the GM for 5 of those years and built the team in that 6th year. During that time the best season was 30-52. Tim Floyd is one of the worst coaches in NBA history and he gave him 4 years. He made some good draft picks such as Brand and Artest, but then traded them away before he could reap the benefits. Hard to defend his record during that time.

[guy]

That is why he is a good GM. He inherited Jordan, but was good enough to put the pieces around him and the coaching staff that won 6 rings. I have no objection to him getting a banner in the rafters at the United Center which he has.

Hard to call him great though. A great GM would have been able to build it back up. I'm not even talking winning another championship. In the 6 years after Jordan the team was garbage. The closest he came to making the playoffs was 12 games out. He was the GM for 5 of those years and built the team in that 6th year. During that time the best season was 30-52. Tim Floyd is one of the worst coaches in NBA history and he gave him 4 years. He made some good draft picks such as Brand and Artest, but then traded them away before he could reap the benefits. Hard to defend his record during that time.

He was a good GM for the moves he made.

Trading for Scottie Pippen was an all-time great move.

Hiring Phil was good, maybe great - that team was on their way anyway so I'm not sure hiring him honestly made that significant of a difference vs keeping Doug Collins or having 6-7 coaches in his place.

Trading for Rodman was good, but no one else wanted him and everyone around the organization is pretty open about the fact that they were only comfortable because they had the strongest leadership of the entire league in place - and given the fact that all they had to give up was Will Perdue meant it wasn't that risky of a move anyway.

All the other moves mentioned by the OP were role players moves - not moves that were so hard to replicate with other role players in place.

However, his terrible personality and how he approached negotiations and how he was literally openly contemplating breaking up the dynasty for years even before he eventually actually did it probably negates alot of the good he did and makes him an average / possibly below average GM. I can't recall any GM actively trying to seemingly sabotage his team to the degree he did.

And as was mentioned, he was terrible after the dynasty and a big reason the Bulls couldn't attract free agents during that time and possibly TO THIS DAY as has been mentioned by players fairly recently is because of how the organization, primarily Krause, treated the leaders of the dynasty.

[light]

Of course he was great. He's in the hall of fame.

Firing Michael Jordan, after tolerating years of bullying from him, had to he the most satisfying moment of Krause's career.

[Roundball_Rock]

The Rodman acquisition was major. By 95 he was considered more trouble than he was worth and could be had for a bag of chips ( which in basketball terms amounted to Will Perdue). That was an all or nothing deal, and the best possible outcome occurred.

Yeah and how many GM's from that era would have had the stones to make that move? You saw so many teams from that era lose and do little or even nothing in the offseason (e.g., what was the Knicks' "big" move? Charles Smith? ). Krause swung for the fences and the results were an all-time great team for the next two seasons.

Every GM and team is gonna go through a lull period like that, though. I don't think a 5 year period of mediocrity detracts from the 15 years before that.

Yeah, he won 6 chips and he did revamp the team in the mid-90's. Pippen and Jordan were the only constants during the entire run..

Jordan hated Kukoc ala The Last Dance. Imagine if Krause listened to Jordan and dump Kukoc for picks?

No 2nd 3 peat.

True.

He also kept his emotions in check. He hated MJ and Pippen. Pippen received a lot of trade offers but he wouldn't give him up unless he got a king's ransom in exchange. Many GM's would simply unload the guy below his value due to hate.

I'm not even talking winning another championship. In the 6 years after Jordan the team was garbage.

The team was strong enough to contend even without Jordan (with a scrub replacing him) in 94'. That is a testament to Krause. Even in 95' losing Jordan and Grant the core still had the 2nd best SRS in the East before MJ returned.

Yeah, he didn't have success after 98' but that is splitting hairs. There aren't 10 GM's all-time who had more success than Krause did.

[Phoenix]

He was a good GM for the moves he made.

Trading for Scottie Pippen was an all-time great move.

Hiring Phil was good, maybe great - that team was on their way anyway so I'm not sure hiring him honestly made that significant of a difference vs keeping Doug Collins or having 6-7 coaches in his place.

Trading for Rodman was good, but no one else wanted him and everyone around the organization is pretty open about the fact that they were only comfortable because they had the strongest leadership of the entire league in place - and given the fact that all they had to give up was Will Perdue meant it wasn't that risky of a move anyway.

All the other moves mentioned by the OP were role players moves - not moves that were so hard to replicate with other role players in place.

However, his terrible personality and how he approached negotiations and how he was literally openly contemplating breaking up the dynasty for years even before he eventually actually did it probably negates alot of the good he did and makes him an average / possibly below average GM. I can't recall any GM actively trying to seemingly sabotage his team to the degree he did.

And as was mentioned, he was terrible after the dynasty and a big reason the Bulls couldn't attract free agents during that time and possibly TO THIS DAY as has been mentioned by players fairly recently is because of how the organization, primarily Krause, treated the leaders of the dynasty.

IIRC Wade was seriously considering the Bulls in 2010 ( a return home for him) and was put off by this.

[guy]

IIRC Wade was seriously considering the Bulls in 2010 ( a return home for him) and was put off by this.

Yup. KG mentioned this too.

[Roundball_Rock]

IIRC Wade was seriously considering the Bulls in 2010 ( a return home for him) and was put off by this.

Yeah, and this is something AK and Eversley will have to turn around. A lot of it is Krause but Krause has been gone for a decade and a half. Reinsdorf is the one who signed off on what he did. He could have forced Krause to act differently or fired him.

The other issue the Bulls have is a reputation for being cheap and they already have shown they can get Reinsdorf to pay by hiring Donovan and several expensive scouts.

Trading for Rodman was good, but no one else wanted him and everyone around the organization is pretty open about the fact that they were only comfortable because they had the strongest leadership of the entire league in place - and given the fact that all they had to give up was Will Perdue meant it wasn't that risky of a move anyway.

The fact that they were able to get him for a backup center tells you how risky it was: he had no trade value because he was so toxic, even though you would get a HOF player for a scrub. It could have blown up in their face with them being forced to cut him, which would leave them exactly where they were in 95' without Grant. The easier route would have been to go after another PF who, while not a HOF player like Rodman, could do the job of rebounding and defense like Grant did. The Bulls had 5 players on their list for that purpose in the offseason. Probably 80-90% of GM's at that time would automatically cross Rodman off.