OK, OK, so we all agree Jerry West is still the best. Let's give him and his Grizzlies a year and then see what we've got. Old Logo is riding on his reputation now and it's a well-earned ride. But, hey, anyone could have drafted Drew Gooden. It's Cezary Trybanski that has everyone else wondering if Jerry still has his fastball.

And, sure, it's easy to single out Rod Thorn, too. We temporarily forget that we all figured he had lost his marbles when he agreed to leave the security of the league office for what then was the Bangladesh of the NBA. He's performed nothing short of a miracle in only two years. The Nets are the team to beat in the East.

But there are also some other general managers whose work of late -- good and bad -- makes them fair game.

We noted awhile back that Jerry Krause appeared to have survived the Bulls' four-year plan and was in fine shape with the addition of Jay Williams. But then he went out and got Donyell Marshall, so we'll have to put the Krause Returns To Glory story on hold.

We've been pretty hard on the beleaguered Jim Paxson, who hasn't had the best of summers in Cleveland. But, lest we forget, he is the man who was able to trade Shawn Kemp back when one coach said, simply, "They will never be able to move him because he's a human luxury tax."

But, without further ado, here are five general managers whose jobs over the past year or so have earned them the much-desired acclaim of ESPN's expert panelists. We have to ask these guys: Does it get any better than that?

	Nelson

Don Nelson, Dallas Mavericks
A few years ago, some wise guy -- OK, me -- wrote that Nellie did to franchises what Alec Guinness did to the Bridge Over the River Kwai. Well, it was true then. Honest. He was movin' 'em in and out in Dallas without any apparent plan. His first two years in Dallas saw the Mavs play inspired, 31-percent-winning basketball. Then, in the summer of 1998, Nelson made his career-defining move, even better than the deal for Shawn Bradley. He somehow convinced the general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks at the time, believed to be Neville Chamberlain, to agree to the following trade: Nelson would draft Robert Traylor at No. 6 and send him to Milwaukee. The Bucks would draft this German guy, Dirk Nowitzki, at No. 9 and send him to Dallas. Oh, and, just to make sure Nellie wasn't getting completely hosed, the Bucks agreed to throw in the rights to Pat Garrity as well. What else needs to be said? It took Nowitzki a year to get his sea legs, but he's one of the top 10 players in the league. Nelson then dealt Garrity and others of no import to Phoenix for Steve Nash. But his best break came when Mark Cuban bought the team and made Dallas a place that players wanted to go. That makes a general manager's job a lot easier. Cuban just doesn't get players for Nellie. He gets portable DVD players and HDTV sets for the towel boys. Nellie's last, big deal still hasn't panned out, but give him and Cuban a year. If it doesn't work, they'll do something else.

	Vandeweghe

Kiki Vandeweghe, Denver Nuggets
Yes, we know, the coaching search. It went a little bit like one of Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominations, but, in truth, Kiki should have probably taken the job himself because John Wooden would have a hard time getting 25 wins out of this bunch. But Kiki is all about the future because, well, the present is too hideous to contemplate. This time next year, Vandeweghe could be sitting on a pile of cash for all those needy NBA players looking to relocate. There could be a problem convincing anyone to actually want to play for Denver. The last time the Nuggets got a marquee free agent they basically had to kidnap Antonio McDyess from Phoenix. Vandeweghe's genius came in two, dashing, present-be-damned moves. The first was huge: He convinced Cuban to take four contracts drafted by Dan Issel (universally known as No. 29 among the general managers) worth more than the Denver franchise. In one fell swoop, Vandeweghe unloaded Avery Johnson, Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Raef LaFrentz and Nick Van Exel. He didn't care who he got back, although he had to take Juwan Howard to balance things. But, basically, he brushed out four players and how many of those would you want on your team? (I would have instantly said 'LaFrentz' until I saw him at the World Championships. Actually, I didn't see him because he never played -- until the last game, when he was on the floor for the United States' fourth-quarter el foldo against, um, Spain.).

	Bass

Bob Bass, New Orleans Hornets
How does he do it? He's got the Eastern Conference equivalent of Donald Sterling for a boss and yet he still manages to shuffle the deck to the point now where he may have the most talented team in the conference. (We're going to overlook the Vlade Divac-Kobe Bryant deal here. That falls under Jerry West, Genius.) If Jamal Mashburn had been healthy last spring, I'm not sure the Hornets wouldn't have come out of the East. He's healthy now and, if Baron Davis ever recovers from the trauma of getting burned by Marko Jaric and Manu Ginobili, the Hornets will be fine. Bass has been an architect whose plans are, shall we say, fluid? You can go way back to Alonzo Mourning. Owner George Shinn wouldn't sign him so instead of letting Zo walk, Bass sent him to Miami for Glen Rice and Matt Geiger. He then dealt Rice to L.A. for Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell and, when he couldn't (or wouldn't) offer Jones the maximum to re-sign him, sent Jones to Miami, along with Police Blotter Player of the Year Anthony Mason. In return, he got Mashburn and P.J. Brown. The point is, the Hornets keep losing stars and keep getting new ones and now, it appears, they're finally in sync. Except, of course, for their new digs. But by re-signing Davis to a new contract -- think the sweet deal in New Orleans helped there? -- the Hornets now have all their key guys under contract for awhile. Now, if they just can stay healthy, the good people of New Orleans may finally have something to see. If not, there's always the French Quarter.

	Popovich

Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs
He very likely is going to do what many thought impossible -- convince Tim Duncan to stay in San Antonio and make his career there. And Pop is not going to do it once. He's going to do it twice. We understand that technically, R.C. Buford is the general manager and it was Buford who was scurrying around Conseco Fieldhouse last weekend when Ginobili, his newest signee, went down with a bum ankle. But the Spurs' rise to prominence, while starting with a lucky bounce of the Ping Pong balls, has continued in no small part due to Popovich. He has, after Shaquille O'Neal, the most valuable commodity in the league in Duncan. The two apparently work well together. Popovich understands that to lose Duncan would make the Spurs Cleveland South. What he has done is keep San Antonio competitive over the last three years while simultaneously working his payroll so that he'll be able to add two quality players next summer from the most desirable free agent class in six years. And with Duncan as a recruiting centerpiece, along with a new building, San Antonio might be a very attractive place for someone to go. But he's not tanking it in the meantime. The addition of Ginobili gives the Spurs a quality backcourt player who has been a stalwart in international play for Argentina. (They also have the rights to burly Argentine center Luis Scola.) The Spurs should again be among the top four teams in the Western Conference and then should be able to make a quantum upgrade next summer. There may not be a more unassuming guy in the business. But don't let the façade fool you. He knows what he's doing and he does it well.

	Dumars

Joe Dumars, Detroit Pistons
He faced a choice with Jerry Stackhouse -- live with him this year and then have to say 'no' next summer when Stackhouse makes his expected pitch for a huge salary. Or get rid of him before the confrontation ever occurred and let someone else deal with it. Replacing Stackhouse with Rip Hamilton might not be an even swap, but it's enough of a scorer-for-scorer trade that it shouldn't hurt the Pistons all that much. And, if Hamilton does have a terrific year, Dumars can then deal with his contract demands at that point. Plus, Hamilton is four years younger than Stackhouse, and, lest we forget, Stackhouse basically disappeared against the Celtics for the final four games of their playoff series last spring. Dumars has built the Pistons into the mold of the "Bad Boys" and that worked well last year. They came out of nowhere to win the Central Division, in no small part due to Dumars' acquisitions of guys like Cliff Robinson and Jon Barry. Plus, he rolled the dice with Rick Carlisle, a guy who paid his dues in full and was a Coach of the Year-in-waiting. He then went out and upgraded his point guard position by signing Chauncey Billups. What does it say about Dumars and Detroit that Billups got calls from around a dozen teams but visited only one? Dumars has shown himself to be a bit of a gambler in remaking the Pistons and, to date, he has money in his pocket. How Hamilton will adjust to the Pistons' defensive mindset is a challenge for Carlisle. But, as we saw last spring, you also have to put the ball in the basket to win. Hamilton can do that. Billups can do that. It's still too early, but Trader Joe may just have done it again.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.