The Worst GM in Pro Basketball is...

[JasonEvans]

...Kevin McHale.

At least that is what This SI article (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/kelly_dwyer/06/25/gm.rankings/4.html) says. It ranks every GM in the game. Amazingly, my man Billy Knight comes in at #28 (3rd worst).

The bottom 6:

#25 Isaiah - Knicks
#26 Billy King - Sixers
#27 Chris Wallace - Griz
#28 Knight - Hawks
#29 Jordan - Bobcats
#30 McHale - TWolves

Other notables:

#20 Danny Ferry - Cavs
#21 Larry Bird - Pacers
#23 Kupchak - Lakers

--Jason "the Spurs GM comes in at #1-- harrd to argue with that" Evans

[lmb]

Ferry at #20 seems a little harsh considering he's only got a couple seasons under his belt and they made the finals this year. Getting Larry Hughes seemed like a great pick-up at the time. GM's can't (in most cases) predict injuries. I'd put Ferry higher than 20.

[Classof06]

Ferry at #20 seems a little harsh considering he's only got a couple seasons under his belt and they made the finals this year. Getting Larry Hughes seemed like a great pick-up at the time. GM's can't (in most cases) predict injuries. I'd put Ferry higher than 20.

As a Cavs fan and a Duke fan, I'll say that putting Ferry at #20 is extremely harsh. Overpaying for Hughes, Damon Jones, Eric Snow and Donyell Marshall was really out of necessity; he had to prove to Lebron he was serious about building a contender before his rookie contract expired and after this year, you can't say we're not better as a result. But Ferry also got Pavlovic, Varejao and drafted Daniel Gibson. In two years, those are 3 steals of players who were all under the age of 22 when picked up by Ferry;not bad.

This leads me to my other point, that Jim Paxson, the Cavs GM preceding Ferry, was probably the worst GM I've ever seen. He was responsible for the Boozer fiasco, a mess Ferry had to clean up, which he did nicely by getting Gooden and Varejao (steal). Here's a rundown of Paxson's draft picks:

Vitaly Potapenko (played in 3 games this past season with SAC)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas (after the 4 foot surgeries it worked out--we'll let it slide)
Dajuan Wagner (need I say more?)
Trajan Langdon (a Dukie, but a terrible pick)
Derek Anderson (a great pick, but of course Paxson trades him away)
Andre Miller (see Derek Anderson)
Chris Mihm (yeah....)
Desagana Diop (drafted him at 18 right out of HS, overweight and useless)
Luke Jackson (is he even in the NBA anymore!?)
Boozer (see Derek Anderson and Andre Miller, then see below)

Here's a rundown of a few of Jimmy's trades:


Shawn Kemp (the beginning of the end)
Lamond Murray (franchise player? Haha, only Ricky Davis would be worse. Wait...)
Ricky Davis (at least he got that one triple-double)
Darius Miles (bust)
Jiri Welsch (the reason we don't have a draft pick on Thursday... and he's not even in the NBA right now. Thanks, Jim)
Carlos Boozer (how do you expect someone to NOT take $28 million more from another team!!??)

My theory is that the only reason Paxson held onto his job for so long was because Gordon Gund (Cavs owner at the time) was blind. I wish I was joking...

[dukerev]

McHale has been abysmal, and the illegal deal with Joe Smith really is enough by itself to put him in last (how do you make an illegal deal that costs your team draft picks with Joe Smith? Joe Smith?! Not KG or someone good, but Joe "I couldn't be more average if I tried" Smith!). Isaiah should be last though. After all, as bad as McHale has been, at least he hasn't made the T'Wolves a punchline like Zeke has the Knicks. Then again (sorry for the stream of consciousness), at least people talk about the Knicks. It isn't good talk, but at least its talk. Nobody even cares about the T'Wolves.

[hondoheel]

If you took every bonehead move by the other 5 worst GMs in the league, they still wouldn't add up to Isaiah's.

I agree Ferry is way better than 20th. Top 5 IMHO.

[Pistonsfan13]

woot Joe D is #3 woot. i hope he uses his "cunning" to get up higher in the draft and take a good pg (law or crittendon) and resign billups!



woot

[DukeDude]

Poor Billy King. And poor me for being a Sixers fan.

[RepoMan]

Dumars all the way at 3 despite the Darko fiasco?

Grunfeld down at 11 despite great moves for Arenas, Butler, and Jamison (and not over paying to keep Hughes and Jeffries)?


Goofy stuff

[dukemomLA]

I loved watching him as a player, but....as a GM. Disaster. So sorry to say that, but the truth will reign.

[BD80]

Dumars all the way at 3 despite the Darko fiasco?


Darko is still younger than most of the players in this draft, and is actually a desired commodity as a free agent. He just couldn't handle sitting on the bench and working hard in practice to earn minutes. I am not sold on Mello as a person, and think he might be a problem, Mello would have been behind Prince and may have reacted like Darko.

Wade would have been the best pick and Bosch would have been better than Darko, but Darko was a decent pick. Dumars has had some awful drafts, taking Rodney White ahead of Joe Johnson (but Mehmet Okur in the 2nd round) and taking Mateen Cleeves in the 1st round (but Brian Cardinal in the 2nd) come to mind. His recent picks have been good, Maxiell has shown he is ready and Amir Johnson may prove to be special. There are a couple guys developing overseas, 7 footer Cheick Samb and 6'6" guard Alex Acker.

Dumars gets props for signing Billups and McDyess, dumping Stackhouse for Hamilton, and drafting Prince so low. Dumars also took a huge risk in trading a couple of first round picks for Rasheed. Add to that his fearless firing of the Conference champion coach in Carlyle to bring in Larry Brown, and then dumping Brown when he turned on the team. He also held the line on Ben Wallace, whose contract is going to hurt the Bulls in the near future. Dumars has a assembled a team with reasonable contracts (pending resigning Billups). Dumars got really lucky in getting Ben Wallace when Grant left in a sign and trade.

Dumars has earned a reputation with the players and other GMs. GMs are willing to deal with him and free agents are willing to come. He also is willing to admit to a mistake and move on. It took some courage to dump Darko, and at least he got the #15 in this draft (it could have been much higher if the Magic hadn't finished the year so well).

[johnb]

I'd say that the GM and owner have to be some sort of combo package, somewhat like a horse and jockey. Living in NYC for 20 years, I've watched the Knicks ongoing meltdown with an evolving constellation of sentiments including curiosity/hope/befuddlement/irritation and eventual lack of interest, but I would hold their owner (who is an untalented narcissist operating at a primitive level of personality functioning) as accountable as Thomas.

[thebur]

Well I haven't seen either of these two guys in the league, but I assume they are tearing it up compared with Darko.

I know Bosch's family makes a mighty fine Belt Sander though!

[RepoMan]

Darko is still younger than most of the players in this draft, and is actually a desired commodity as a free agent. He just couldn't handle sitting on the bench and working hard in practice to earn minutes. I am not sold on Mello as a person, and think he might be a problem, Mello would have been behind Prince and may have reacted like Darko.

Wade would have been the best pick and Bosch would have been better than Darko, but Darko was a decent pick. Dumars has had some awful drafts, taking Rodney White ahead of Joe Johnson (but Mehmet Okur in the 2nd round) and taking Mateen Cleeves in the 1st round (but Brian Cardinal in the 2nd) come to mind. His recent picks have been good, Maxiell has shown he is ready and Amir Johnson may prove to be special. There are a couple guys developing overseas, 7 footer Cheick Samb and 6'6" guard Alex Acker.

Dumars gets props for signing Billups and McDyess, dumping Stackhouse for Hamilton, and drafting Prince so low. Dumars also took a huge risk in trading a couple of first round picks for Rasheed. Add to that his fearless firing of the Conference champion coach in Carlyle to bring in Larry Brown, and then dumping Brown when he turned on the team. He also held the line on Ben Wallace, whose contract is going to hurt the Bulls in the near future. Dumars has a assembled a team with reasonable contracts (pending resigning Billups). Dumars got really lucky in getting Ben Wallace when Grant left in a sign and trade.

Dumars has earned a reputation with the players and other GMs. GMs are willing to deal with him and free agents are willing to come. He also is willing to admit to a mistake and move on. It took some courage to dump Darko, and at least he got the #15 in this draft (it could have been much higher if the Magic hadn't finished the year so well).

I'm not saying Dumars is crap. Just saying it would be a pretty sad commentary if he really is the 3rd best GM The League.

[mepanchin]

After this draft I'm not sure there is any debate who is worse, McHale or Isiah...

[hondoheel]

Billy King made the worst pick (Thad Young over Al Thornton) of the draft, IMHO.

[duke74]

I'd say that the GM and owner have to be some sort of combo package, somewhat like a horse and jockey. Living in NYC for 20 years, I've watched the Knicks ongoing meltdown with an evolving constellation of sentiments including curiosity/hope/befuddlement/irritation and eventual lack of interest, but I would hold their owner (who is an untalented narcissist operating at a primitive level of personality functioning) as accountable as Thomas.

I agree. Living in NYC for 54 years, it is clear Dolan is the worst owner in sports (or at least right up there). While Isiah has pulled bonehead moves (Stevie F, for example), he really has done a decent job in the draft, without really good draft positions. David Lee at 30 in 2005, Balkman and Collins last year, etc. I hope Chandler is another rabbit out of the same hat. And the Kentucky kid (loophole sign last year) would probably have been close to a lottery pick.

Still little hope for greatness in 2007-8 due to cap problems, but at least he's trying. Where are Clyde, Pearl, Dollar Bill, Dave DeB and Willis when we need them most??? Or even Dave the Rave and Mike (killer fouls) Riordan.

[dukeimac]

Not sure how someone can just pass judgments like this. I think you need to make some clarrifications; like those GMs that have been doing their job for 5 years or 7 years, etc.

Knocking Danny Ferry after 2 years is foolish. Many GMs and coaches get contracts for 4 to 5 years to turn a team around so it is very poor to rate a guy after 2 years of trying to turn a troubled organization around.

The 76ers image is so badly damaged from AI that it will probably take 10 years to repair it, thus I don't think you can blame that situation on anyone but the owner and GM who took on that guy and pampered him, at the expense of other players.

An example, take the GM for the Texas Rangers. Do you think after three years from the A-rod trade to NY that organization should be on top of the world? Texas was still paying part of that guys salary 3 years after he left Texas and that hurts their ability to go out and pay for new guys.

Or how about the GMs that have gone through the Vikings organization. The guy that made the deal for the Hershel Walker messed things up so bad, giving away 3 years of draft picks, that it took them about 6 years and 2 GMs to get "descent" team again.

Wow, a team gets to the finals and their GM is one of the worst GMs, that would mean there is only 1 good GM. Then what is your basis for rating the Clippers GM so good?

Are you a UNC fan?

[DukeDude]

Billy King made the worst pick (Thad Young over Al Thornton) of the draft, IMHO.

I am not sure this pick was worse than the bucks picking Yi. I wonder if they would take Young and Jason Smith for the big "E" once he refuses to report to Wisconsin.

The Young pick has way too much risk for a team with only 2 solid NBA starters (Iguodala and Miller). Thornton would have helped them much more this year, but I think Billy likes going to the lottery. :mad:

[jkidd31]

As a Cavs fan and a Duke fan, I'll say that putting Ferry at #20 is extremely harsh. Overpaying for Hughes, Damon Jones, Eric Snow and Donyell Marshall was really out of necessity; he had to prove to Lebron he was serious about building a contender before his rookie contract expired and after this year, you can't say we're not better as a result. But Ferry also got Pavlovic, Varejao and drafted Daniel Gibson. In two years, those are 3 steals of players who were all under the age of 22 when picked up by Ferry;not bad.

This leads me to my other point, that Jim Paxson, the Cavs GM preceding Ferry, was probably the worst GM I've ever seen. He was responsible for the Boozer fiasco, a mess Ferry had to clean up, which he did nicely by getting Gooden and Varejao (steal). Here's a rundown of Paxson's draft picks:

Vitaly Potapenko (played in 3 games this past season with SAC)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas (after the 4 foot surgeries it worked out--we'll let it slide)
Dajuan Wagner (need I say more?)
Trajan Langdon (a Dukie, but a terrible pick)
Derek Anderson (a great pick, but of course Paxson trades him away)
Andre Miller (see Derek Anderson)
Chris Mihm (yeah....)
Desagana Diop (drafted him at 18 right out of HS, overweight and useless)
Luke Jackson (is he even in the NBA anymore!?)
Boozer (see Derek Anderson and Andre Miller, then see below)

Here's a rundown of a few of Jimmy's trades:


Shawn Kemp (the beginning of the end)
Lamond Murray (franchise player? Haha, only Ricky Davis would be worse. Wait...)
Ricky Davis (at least he got that one triple-double)
Darius Miles (bust)
Jiri Welsch (the reason we don't have a draft pick on Thursday... and he's not even in the NBA right now. Thanks, Jim)
Carlos Boozer (how do you expect someone to NOT take $28 million more from another team!!??)

My theory is that the only reason Paxson held onto his job for so long was because Gordon Gund (Cavs owner at the time) was blind. I wish I was joking...


As a Cav's fan as well....I agree completely with what Class06 had to say, not to mention the fact that Paxson could have matched the Utah's offer sheet to Carlos but choose not to.

I also add that Trajan was playing well until John Lucas became coach, then he somehow never got off the bench. Hind site being 20/20 Corey would have been a great choice at that pick. Not to mention Shawn Marion was taken with the pick after Andre Miller.

[jaimedun34]

Poor Billy King. And poor me for being a Sixers fan.

I feel your pain.

King isn't a terrible GM, though. He's good at recognizing talent, he just doesn't do a good job of judging a player's value in FA.