McHale: Garnett's Salary Kept Wolves From Adding Other Stars

[The J Rocka]

Via Wiretap: http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... her_stars/

I think it goes further than this. Despite his contract, some boneheaded decisions were made. Thoughts?

[Krapinsky]

Not exactly a revelation...

[funkatron101]

I mentioned this to PeeDee in a convo, but I think KG is being shortsighted here.

I bet you if you told a 20 year old KG. "Hey, we can sign you to this large contract and you will be obscenely wealthy. OR we sign you to this very good, but moderate deal, and you can win a title." The 20 year old KG picks the money 10 out of 10 times.

but to be honest, if Taylor and Mchale didn't **** up the Joe Smith deal, they could very well have accumulated the talent needed.

[mark blunt]

[TrentTuckerForever]

In other news - sky blue, grass green. Details at 11.

Seriously, what else is he going to say? It is true that KG's salary was a limiting factor. It is also true that the Wolves retaining him (under the previous CBA, which had no max limit if I remember correctly) brought the only period of prosperity in Wolves' history.

Hitting on some of those draft picks (and not giving away 4 1st for @#$%#$ Joe Smith) might have helped there, Kev.

[Slum_Dillinger]

GOAT

[collin_k41]

I really hate this back and forth between KG and the FO. After all Kevin Garnett has done for this franchise Glen had to go out and say he tanked the end of a season....if there was one guy you would never question because of his drive it'd be KG. It was very uncalled for but Garnett's retaliations weren't any better. We took a chance on a skinny highschool kid and had faith in him and paid him well and did what we could to put talent around him but stuff just didn't work out.

Bottom Line: Kevin Garnett is the most beloved Timberwolf ever and I highly doubt that will ever change. Can't we just move on??

[casey]

Not exactly a revelation...

...or accurate.

[Timberpuppy]

I dunno... the big 3 of KG, Cassell and Sprewell was nice! Phil Jackson said in his book "The Last Season" if Cassell was healthy for the 2003-2004 Western Finals the Wolves would've beat the Lakers... the Shaq, Kobe, Mailman & Glove squad!! What do you have to say about that McHale?

In McHale's defense... KG's contract DID change the NBA!!!

[Krapinsky]

Not exactly a revelation...

...or accurate.

It wasn't a factor?

[casey]

Factor? Yes. But a pretty small one. Saying that it kept us from adding other stars is a big exaggeration.

[Krapinsky]

Factor? Yes. But a pretty small one. Saying that it kept us from adding other stars is a big exaggeration.

Depends on how broadly or narrowly you want to construe McHale's comments. Who cares though?

[Esohny]

Thanks for all the memories, Kevin.

[casey]

Factor? Yes. But a pretty small one. Saying that it kept us from adding other stars is a big exaggeration.

Depends on how broadly or narrowly you want to construe McHale's comments. Who cares though?

People reading this thread probably, considering that's what it's about.

[Krapinsky]

Factor? Yes. But a pretty small one. Saying that it kept us from adding other stars is a big exaggeration.

Well, what did he REALLY say:

"That's always a tough thing," said McHale. "He signed that huge contract, and that huge contract was somewhat prohibiting the team from going out and finding other people (due to Garnett eating up so much of the salary cap). So it was a two-way street. He did the right thing. The money was offered. He took it. It was right before the new collective bargaining agreement."

Despite our reading, we really don't care. We just have nothing better to do.

[jade_hippo]

I think McHale took a pretty high road that'll make himself look better. KG took the blame game, McHale said they were both at fault. Win-win on his part, KG looks like the elephant in the room.

[casey]

Terrible wiretap headline then, which is quite usual.

[moss_is_1]

sure his salary made things hard...but our draft picks, and free agent signings were terrible. too many wasted picks during kgs time.

[Harry10]

McHale is just know for making bad decisions and having a very low basketball IQ, especially when it comes to player evaluation. this is the guy who thought that

Marbury is better than Allen;
Szczerbiak is better than Rip, Andre Miller, Marion;
Ebi is better than Perkins, Barbosa, Josh Howard;
McCants is better than Danny Granger

this is also the guy that thought that going under that table with Joe was a good idea.

McHale is dumping the blame on KG about not getting quality players, but he had not just a few, but multiple opportunities to draft all star players. McHale's player evaluation is just horrible. if McHale was respectable, he would man up and take the blame for not building a team. Just look at the Spurs, they paid Duncan and then used their low draft pick to get a couple of all stars in Manu and Parker. LA paid Shaq and then draft Kobe and Fisher. Suns signed Nash and draft Amare. Boston paid Pierce but was still able to draft Jefferson, Rondo, and Perkins.

lets all be honest, and we all know that if KG signed a small contract and McHale had cap space, he would have found a way to screwed that up, probably give a max contract to Larry Hughes, KMart, Eric Dampier, or Richard Jefferson.

[shrink]

You knew this headline would bring back casey.

The way I see it, KG's deal was undoubtedly a factor, because it reduced the margin for error.

When KG signs a 6-year, $126 mil contract, he uses a big chunk of your payroll. Now say your #2 option uses another good chunk. You don't have a lot of payroll left to add talent to your other 13 roster spots. Then, when your #2 goes down (Brandon ($10.2) Szczerbiak ($9), Sprewell ($14.6), you better hope you didn't fill your roster with MLE mistakes Hudsons, etc.

Bottom line is that no one can argue that KG's monsterous deal didn't affect our acquisition of talent, but we spent money on so many other bad choices that when our #2 got hurt for the play-offs, we were stuck without the talent to put next to KG. KG was worth every penny of that contract, but the contract was obviously a factor.