Is Billy King the worst GM in league history?

[giberish]

What's shocking is that he got re-hired.

Other GM's have been as bad as he was in Philly for similar lengths of time - but once finally removed they didn't get re-hired.

There's only 30 NBA GM jobs, and lots of smart, driven, capable people want them. Why would you possibly hire someone proven (over an extended period of time, not just one bad move) to be actively bad at the position?

[irie]

Yes. Billy King traded a top 3 protected pick for Gerald Wallace's corpse last year.

and then gave up three more firsts to get rid of him.

[Juggynaut]

Billy King is basically Isiah Thomas, might actually be worse since the Nets were in a much better situation than the Knicks when Isiah got hired. He also gave away more 1st round picks.

I've just convinced myself that Billy King is the worst GM in NBA history, he's much worse than Isiah Thomas. Lol how is that even possible? Only the Nets man...

[kingkirk]

I didn't buy into the Net's hype but i also didn't expect this.

I don't know who is more at fault, King or the Russian.

You don't build success overnight. You can't buy championships. If it didn't work for the Heat in year 1, how was this ever going too?

They ever only had a 2 year window and i dare say its all but closed already. They have given away so much potential quality draft picks. Its actually sad how bad their draft scenario looks in years to come.

[boateng]

Nope. Gotta be Colangelo. I think he was actually working in the interest of other teams throughout his entire tenure. Not sure how else to explain taking Terrence Ross so that the Pistons could draft Drummond.

Drummond was considered to be a high risk pick. Most scouts/"experts" thought he would more than likely be a bust than a good player, probably due to his mediocre numbers in college despite his physical gifts, and also because of his horrific free throw shooting.

The Drummond love is overdone. He's looked like a steal because the Pistons have had low expectations and haven't made the playoffs with him. When push comes to shove, however, you cannot put a guy shooting 29% from the free throw line on the floor in a close game.

He will at some point cost the Pistons a very big game due to that free throw shooting--- hell, he already shies away from the ball in close games, limiting his worth. That handicap will ultimately make Drummond either a part time player on a good team or a big fish on a bottom feeder. Either way, it explains why so many teams passed and why they'd do so again given the opportunity. If we redo that draft, there are still teams who would think long and hard on this guy.


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You a cavs fan? If the draft was tomorrow Drummond will go No.2 after Anthony Davis. I 100% guarantee that. I think most GM's will take him over Lillard because C's are more important than PG's. There is no way the likes of Terrence Ross, Waiters, Barnes would all be picked ahead of Drummond who looks like will be an all star level center at the very least, if not superstar.

Also Just because a team passes on a player doesn't mean it was the right to do or justified. Most of the teams that passed on Drummond are trash teams and among the worst in the league (bobcats, cavs, raps) and have awful GM's.

We have seen in the history of the nba, many superstar players being passed on like paul pierce going number 10 in the draft, steph curry going number 7, yet they have proven that they should have been taken much higher. Thats the teams that passed on them's loss, and in most cases it can hold a franchise back for years...so just because Drummond was the 9th pick, doesn't mean ''there is a reason why he was picked 9th'', it just means those GM's suck.

You are probably mad that the team you support passed on him or you expected him to be a bust and he hasn't turned out to be so you mad

[MrSparkle]

He's definitely the worst GM in recent history.

Thing is, Isiah got a bad team with a loaded payroll. He basically turned aging or injured veterans into expensive "names".. but the intent was decent. He drafted well too. It backfired and became a model not to follow.

Along comes Billy King... he got a team with tons of cap-room, assets and picks, and slowly burned each asset on awful gambles. The Wallace trade was to help them make the playoffs, and they didn't. Johnson was the most laughed at contract in the NBA yet Hawks got an unprotected 1st? Celtics trade was (Please Use More Appropriate Word) for many reasons.

Worst of all, they looked at the miserable no-experience coaching hires like VDN and said "me too!" Awful. They can still make the playoffs, but they've needlessly put themselves on ice.

[DayofMourning]

Blame Prokhorov too. He came into this league wanting to make a name for himself and his team. He said that he wanted to win now, so he got Billy King to bring in a bunch of vets.

Before the season, some media and fans were handing them the Eastern Conference Finals berth. So I'm not going to pile on here. The majority of people seemed to think what they were doing was a good thing. Now they are injured and getting beat by everybody in the league. Its a hard knock life.

[TomShoe]

Not quite.

Still have to give it up for TED STEPIENNNNN

He's named the rule that keeps teams from giving up consecutive 1st round picks.

[lukekarts]

I'm going to write a little in his defence here. Not a lot, but a little.

1. He did pull off a trade for Deron Williams. Totally out of the blue as well. And remember at the time, people were thinking Deron was right with CP3 in the debate for best PG.

2. He managed to re-sign Deron.

3. He did trade what turned out to be the #6 pick for Wallace. That was bad. But in fairness, who expected Lillard to be as good? Brooklyn could have drafted him and he'd be stuck behind Deron and everyone would think he was a terrible pick. Or they could have drafted one of the other busts in the lottery (with the benefit of hindsight of course, Lillard and Drummond would be top 3). Or Deron may have left. It was lose-lose.

4. Who knew Pierce and KG would drop off so much?

5. Who knew Deron would be way out of the discussion for top PG at this point?

6. RealGM expected BRK to be a contender this year. I expect King did too. Can we blame him for thinking the obvious?

[TheCage4]

Think Ted Stepien takes the cake on this one. Not only was he the cause for the rule that forbids teams to trade 1st rounders in consecutive years (since he gave so many away), he was actually banned from making moves without the league's approval. The league had to give Cleveland 1st rounders to compensate for Stepien's horrible GMing.

Some of Stepien's moves:

Traded the pick that became James Worthy to the Lakers for Don Ford

Traded four first rounders to Dallas, which eventually became Roy Tarpley, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf and Derek Harper. He got Mike Bratz, Geoff Huston, Richard Washington and Jerome Whitehead back.

Hired and fired four coaches in one season.

Overpaid everyone. Tried to give Otis Birdsong a million a year for 5 years, which was more than Bird's and about Kareem's salary. Paid Scott Wedman 800k a year.

Fired his popular play by play guy for criticizing him on air.

That's pretty much Colangelo and Billy King on steroids with a little bit of Dolan mixed in.

I had no knowledge of this. Simply amazing the idiotic moves this man made.

[defhalotones]

A while back, Chris Wallace would have definitely been in this discussion.

[dabadguy]

yes.

[theokie]

6. RealGM expected BRK to be a contender this year. I expect King did too. Can we blame him for thinking the obvious?

For many reasons, Real GMs should be better than posters on RealGM at evaluating talent and predicting the quality of their players and team. Most people on the internet think they are smarter than the guys who run their franchises, but they aren't.



Also, not everyone thought they were going to be a success. Yes ESPN hype them up like crazy this summer, but that has more to do with them being in a large market and ratings driven. Anyone who watched the 2012 Los Angeles Lakers and paid attention would have been skeptical about a team thrown together in the offseason, with old talent who had never played together. Not to mention their coached had never coached before.

[illastrate]

I'm going to write a little in his defence here. Not a lot, but a little.

1. He did pull off a trade for Deron Williams. Totally out of the blue as well. And remember at the time, people were thinking Deron was right with CP3 in the debate for best PG.

2. He managed to re-sign Deron.

3. He did trade what turned out to be the #6 pick for Wallace. That was bad. But in fairness, who expected Lillard to be as good? Brooklyn could have drafted him and he'd be stuck behind Deron and everyone would think he was a terrible pick. Or they could have drafted one of the other busts in the lottery (with the benefit of hindsight of course, Lillard and Drummond would be top 3). Or Deron may have left. It was lose-lose.

4. Who knew Pierce and KG would drop off so much?

5. Who knew Deron would be way out of the discussion for top PG at this point?

6. RealGM expected BRK to be a contender this year. I expect King did too. Can we blame him for thinking the obvious?

Yeah, I agree with the Pierce/KG sentiment. Nearly everyone was praising the Nets(myself included) for the deal and saying they were a handful of legit contenders. Who knew things would turn out this bad? Hell, everyone was begging for the Clips to trade DeAndre for KG and luckily Stern nixed it. They also wanted Pierce. Funny how opinions change in a matter of months.

[qotsa]

To answer OPS question: Easily.


Helloooooo Brooklyn loooool

[chrbal]

There was some guy that ran the cavs in the 80s that got them taken away from him by the NBA. he was that bad. Billy King sees that as "challenge accepted"

[Q00]

When you think about what he could've done with the cards he was dealt, and then look at what he actually did with those cards, its mind-boggling.

He had the 3rd pick in the 2010 draft, which he could've used on Cousins. Instead he took Favors, who he then traded along with the 3rd pick in 2011 (which he could've used on Leonard) all for Deron Williams.

He then traded the 6th pick pick in 2012 (which he could've used on Drummond) for Gerald Wallace.

That's right. The Nets could be starting a frontcourt of Drummond/Cousins/Leonard right now.

Instead all he has to show for it is Deron Williams, who rarely ever plays.

When you look at it like that, its hard to come up with a worse 3year stretch of GM'ing in history.

And when you consider the team has no capspace for the forseeable future, and realize that the frontcourt of Drummond/Cousins/Leonard would've only cost them $8 million in total capspace this season, its even more mind boggling.

[Vides990]

Garry St. Jean and it's not even close.

Oh thats a good one, most people probably don't even know that name. I still think King is worse though.

[DayofMourning]

Way too much hindsight in this post^^^

The majority of teams drafting would have taken Favors over Cousins. I liked Cousins talent a lot. His attitude, not so much. That can change entirely where someone is picked. By the way, this is the first season where Cousins' play could really be said to be better than Favors. A little too convenient.

[Slava]

Sorry Nets fans for the bump

Atlanta's two best players (Al Horford and Paul Millsap) earn a combined $21.5 million, nearly the same number that Brooklyn pays Joe Johnson ($21.47 million). Next year, the Horford-Millsap salaries stay the same while Johnson leapfrogs them ($23.18 million). Oh, and Brooklyn owes him $24.89 million for the 2015-16 season. Here's my question: Could Billy King win Executive of the Year for saving the Hawks, Blazers AND Celtics?4 How many GMs have rebuilt three teams that weren't their own? I mean, other than Isiah Thomas?

Don't forget — Portland became a contender this year partly because King traded them a top-three protected lottery pick in 2012 for Gerald Wallace. The pick became Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard.

Even Antonio Cromartie uses better protection than Billy King.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/100 ... a-e-league