The Worst GM in Basketball
Listed in: BasketballAfter reading Ben's piece about Isiah Thomas, I realized that when it comes to chronicling bad general managers in basketball, someone's name doesn't come up nearly that often. You can have Thomas, or Billy King, or Danny Ainge. I'll take my guy any day of the week and twice on Draft Day.
My pick for the worst GM in basketball? Kevin McHale. On the surface, there are some similarities between he and Thomas: both were great players in the 80s, both are Hall of Famers, and both have utterly crippled their franchises through a series of bone-headed maneuvers. But at least in Thomas' case, he both inherited a mess and has added a couple of good players via the draft. McHale? Not so much.
It's strange, too, because McHale's tenure started off on a great note. His first major move after being promoted to GM in 1995 was to draft a tall, skinny kid out of Farragut Academy in Chicago by the name of Kevin Garnett. That's worked out ok for the Timberwolves. After that point, however, things start going down hill.
The next year, McHale dealt the fifth pick in the draft (Ray Allen) and a first round pick in 1999 or 2000 for the fourth pick (Stephon Marbury). Marbury's play was inconsistent, as was to be expected from a kid who spent just a year in college. The Coney Island native never adjusted to life in Minneapolis and was shipped out after just a few years with the team. Still, at least Marbury was an impact player at one point, even if the T-Wolves would have been much better off with Allen and an additional first round pick.
In 1997, the Wolves drafted Paul Grant. I don't know who he is either. But it's the 20th pick, you say, how much can rightly be expected? Fair enough. In 1998 the Wolves took Rasho Nesterovic. Again, a decent player, though a guy like, say, Rashard Lewis (not to mention Al Harrington, Nazr Mohammed, or Cuttino Mobley) might have helped them a lot more than the massive, virtually immobile Nesterovic.
The 1999 draft should have served as the foundation for a championship contender for years to come. With the 5th and 14th picks, the Wolves could add a pair of talented players to team with Garnett as they challenged the Spurs and Lakers for the Western Conference title. Instead, the Wolves added a one-dimensional scorer in Wally Szczerbiak (who wasn't even that good a scorer) and a point guard who flat out sucked in William Avery. Imagine how much better they'd have been if they'd drafted Rip Hamilton and Ron Artest instead. Or or Andrei Kirilenko, or Andre Miller, or Shawn Marion, or Jason Terry, or Corey Maggette, or Manu Ginobili. This draft, as much as anything up to this point, is the reason why the Wolves have had one good season with Garnett. Sure, drafting isn't a science. But to whiff so badly on two picks has to speak to McHale's ability somehow. Plus, he later decided to sign Szczerbiak to a big contract extension even though it was clear he was a marginal starter in the first place.
If 1999 was a bad year for McHale, 2000 was even worse. The team didn't have a first round pick thanks to the Marbury deal, meaning that for another year they were unable to infuse their team with young talent. But that pales in comparison to what happened when McHale got busted by commissioner David Stern for trying to make deals under the table with Joe Smith. Basically, Smith signed a series of one-year deals with the team with the understanding that when more money became available, he'd sign a multi-year deal for more money. First of all, McHale was an idiot for breaking the rules. But second of all, this was Joe Freakin' Smith! He's not worth breaking the rules for! If McHale had been busted paying Garnett under the table in order to keep him in Minnesota, I could at least understand the rationale. But not for Joe Smith. As a penalty, the Wolves lost their first-round picks in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Considering how poorly McHale did in the draft, I suppose that's not as crippling a blow as otherwise, but still, it deprived the team of young, cheap talent that again might have helped lift them to contention.
2003 was another bad year to be Kevin McHale. He used the team's first first-round pick in three years on high schooler Ndudi Ebi, who played a grand total of 15 games in the league. Taken almost immediately after Ebi? Leandro Barbosa and Josh Howard, who are key players on the two best teams in the league. Beyond that, guys like Jason Kapono, Luke Walton, Steve Blake, Willie Green, Zaza Pachulia, and Kyle Korver have all gone on to have impact in the NBA. As if that wasn't bad enough, McHale also signed former top pick Michael Olowokandi to a massive contract despite the fact that the Kandi Man was already considered one of the biggest busts in NBA draft history.
2004 is the one year that stands out. By adding Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell (though more because of Cassell) the Wolves emerged as one of the top teams in the league. For the first time in franchise history they won a playoff series before falling to the Lakers in the conference finals. Yet even with Garnett in the prime of his career (he was the 2004 NBA MVP), that success was short-lived as Cassell was cast off and the T-Wolves failed to make the playoffs.
Now, the Wolves are once again a fringe playoff team despite Garnett having another great year. At some point it seems inevitable that either Garnett will request a trade or the Wolves will decide that they're better off getting young talent back for KG while he's still got immense trade value. Of course, if McHale is still in charge than you can fully expect the team to either deal him way too late or get way too little in exchange.
The reason I think McHale is the worst GM in basketball is because with Garnett he's already got way more to work with than guys like Thomas, Ainge, and King. If he had just kept Ray Allen the next year we might be talking about the Wolves as winners of multiple championships. Instead, the team hasn't come close to a player of Allen's talent in the draft, they've mostly crapped the bed in free agency, and they've wasted the prime of one of the all-time greats. For that, McHale gets the coveted nod for Sportszilla's Worst GM in Basketball.
Comments
Lmao, crapped the bed. That was funny. But you are right. Kevin McHale should have been replaced by now. He has wasted KG's career, and honestly how hard of a sell is it to get some decent players to join KG? It can be done, but not when you have a bunch of crap players eating up salary space, like Marko Jaric, Trenton Hassell, and Mark Madsen. Yuck.
Posted by: Luka | July 21, 2007 2:40 AM