Personally, I think there's many GM's worse than Thomas.
Care to name them?
He traded for Jalen Rose, taking on 34 mlllion while doing so. He traded two premium picks for the right to give Eddie Curry a huge contract. He traded Trevor Ariza (one of your hits) for Francis. He traded two more first round picks for Marbury and his massive contract AND for Penny Hardaway's massive contract.
Trevor Ariza for Steve Francis isn’t that bad of a trade. A guy you drafted in the 2nd round a year ago for a 28 year old former All-Star who you hope still has something left in the tank? That’s like if Danny trade Bill Walker for Jermaine O’Neal. It wouldn’t have worked out, but it wouldn’t be a ridiculous trade. Also Isiah went on to trade Francis for Zack Randolph, while he also didn’t work out in New York, the talent was there. Isiah was bad at fits, but not as bad as grabbing talent as everyone makes him out to be.
Really are his moves that different than Billy King? Trading for Joe Johnson's huge contract, giving Gerald Wallace a huge extension (plus trading a pick to get him). Trading picks for Pierce and Garnett, etc.
I think we can consider the GMs who failed to put good teams around Garnett, LeBron, and Dwight. It’s like those guys made one right move (or were lucky enough to have a good pick and a good player fall in their lap), and then failed to make any other good moves.
Look at Chris Wallace's time in Boston. Wasted draft picks on guys like Kedrick Brown and Joe Forte. Traded for Vin Baker and his huge contract. Traded away Joe Johnson and a 1st for nothing (that was the best asset in the trade plus a first in next years draft!). Never set up the C's for cap room.
Look at the situation Scott Layden set up for Isiah before he got to the Knicks.
It seems like every move Joe Dumars has made since he put together that championship team has been terrible.
You already mentioned Elgin Baylor (though as Moranis says maybe those moves came from Sterling, but maybe some of Isiah's moves came from Dolan).
How about we look at the Golden State collective that put together 3 winning teams in 20 years (before this current team).
The multiple GMs that offered Gilbert Arenas, coming off a 13 game season due to knee injuries, over $100m (GS offered $100m+, part of the reason why they’re included above, and Washington offered $124m!).
People get on Isiah for trading for Marbury. Marbury was an All-Star point guard at the top of his game. Bryan Colangelo traded Jason Kidd in his prime for Marbury! That was hands down a worse trade than what Isiah paid for him.
One of Isiah’s problems was he had an unlimited check book in New York. That was a big part of the problem. Isiah didn’t show that problem in Toronto (though who knows maybe he would have if he stayed longer), and we don’t know what the direction was from above. Maybe it “was we don’t want to wait 3-5 years to rebuild, spend whatever it takes to build a contender now.
Again, I will say Isiah was a pretty good drafter, who didn’t manage the salary cap, and lost a lot of gambles rolling the dice on veterans with big contracts. There’s many other GMs that we can say the same thing about, who weren’t even good drafters (I feel I’ve named several) and who didn't have the checkbook Isiah had.
Everything bad about Isiah was just highlighted and made such a big deal about because it was New York. Had he been in just about any other city (except maybe LA, Chicago, or Boston), without the open checkbook, people wouldn't consider him the worst GM ever.
Look at the list TwinTower14 gave, his worst moves are signing bench players (Jared Jeffries and Vin Baker) to deals that aren’t that unreasonable for role players (that’s like getting on Danny for signing Courtney Lee, Brandon Bass, and Jermaine O’Neal). Hiring 2 HOF coaches, trading a 33 year old, role playing vet for a 1st round pick and another young player, and trading for a current and 2x All-NBA player in Marbury, who was only 26. Those aren’t really bad moves that just about every other GM hasn’t made. I’m not saying the man hasn’t made some terrilbe moves too (Curry and James) but everything else gets exaggerated because it’s the Knicks and Isiah.
Topic: Rumor - Isiah Thomas front-runner to replace Dumars this offseason (Read 12407 times)