As part of the NBA offseason/lockout, SBNation decided to rank the general managers for each team in the NBA. The whole story can be read here. The entire post is quite interesting for any basketball fan, but you can read the portion about the Cavaliers below.
15. Chris Grant, Cleveland Cavaliers (last year: N/A)
STYLE: Too early to tell.
THE GOOD: Grant correctly determined that the value of an additional first-round pick, even in a weak draft, is worth taking on a bad contract, even one as bad as Baron Davis. This would have been true even if that pick didn't turn into Kyrie Irving.
THE BAD: It's early, but picking Tristan Thompson at No. 4 over Jonas Valanciunas may be a decision Grant will rue going forward.
BOTTOM LINE: The beginning of a rebuild is always the easiest part, but Grant is off to a good start turning the Cavaliers around.
As you can see, SBNation's Mike Prada ranks the Cavaliers' GM as the 15th best in the league. If you can't do simple math, that is perfectly average. According to the article, Chris Grant is the most average GM in the NBA. He outlines the good and the bad of Grant's relatively short time with the organization and I cannot say that I disagree with his assessment. Grant was given an incredibly difficult task to bring the Cavs back to relevance after losing LeBron James to free agency. A series of trades has led to significant turnover for the Cavaliers' roster, but the ship seems to be headed in the right direction.
It is apparent that Chris Grant's job is not close to being complete, but he has certainly done a good job thus far. It remains to be seen what other moves he can make once the lockout is resolved to put together an opening night roster. To this point, Chris Grant has been satisfactory, but he must continue to make shrewd trades and free agent signings in order to complete this rebuilding process.
Another interesting aspect of the post is that Prada ranks Grant directly ahead of Geoff Petrie, the general manager of the Sacramento Kings. The two GMs recently engaged in the last minute trade that sent J.J. Hickson to the Kings in return for Omri Casspi and a conditional draft pick. I'm not saying that the opinion of Prada or anybody else is definitive, but it is worth noting. The idea that the Cavaliers won the Hickson-Casspi trade ought to make Cavs fans feel even better about the rebuilding process. It appears that the franchise is in good hands with Chris Grant at the helm. Hopefully next time the rankings come out, Chris Grant's squad is boasting a winning record and catapults into the top ten.