There's nothing ridiculous about it. Shero was an average GM who accomplished exactly what you'd expect any other average GM to accomplish. Of course we got some good prospects and players from Shero's picks...we were literally a cellar team picking high in the draft for multiple years. Were you expecting something less than what he delivered?? What he got out of those picks is only a major accomplishment if you insist on living in an alternate universe where ownership was seriously considering keeping Lou around forever. Otherwise it's basically par for the course for any team that sucks and picks high multiple years running.
Everything else outside the draft was blah. His trademark move - acquiring Hall - bought the team a playoff spot but it didn't bring them any closer to long-term success. It simply delayed the inevitable.
There is literally nothing remarkable about what Ray did. The fact that his predecessor was horrid is irrelevant. You're clearly grading on a massive curve.
EDIT: And I'd also like to add that I don't believe for one second Ray would have remade this team the way that Fitz has. Ray wouldn't know a quality defender if it bit him in the ass.
if being a cellar team and getting multiple high draft picks is such an obvious, easy thing to do then why didn’t it happen until shero got here? which brings me back to- the moves shero DIDN’T make are just as important as the ones he did make. instead of making moves to appease a fan base and keep our wheels spinning in neutral, he positioned us to draft high and often. what a concept.
(like an average GM i suppose) he pulled off one of the most lopsided trades in recent memory, which you downplay as a consequence of chiarelli’s incompetence as if chiarelli was only shopping hall to NJ. but, as you mentioned, even bringing in a league MVP for peanuts isn’t good enough for you, nor is making the playoffs, so i’m not sure what shero could have done to get your blessing. focus more on defense? yeah that’d be great except literally every position at every level of our organization was an absolute tire fire. sorry he couldn’t fix every aspect of this team in 4 years when he started off with lou’s geriatric team of f***around rejects.
you’re goddamn right i’m grading on a curve. look at our 2015 organization, full of seneys and pietilas and other assorted garbage, then look at the organization on shero’s last day. if you still don’t understand how miraculous that turnaround is, i doubt you ever will. that is why the context of Gramps McShitdiapers’ buffoonery is critical.
