Isiah Thomas might be the worst GM in professional sports. I can’t believe this guy still has a job. It isn’t enough that he did a horrible job with the upstart Raptors, then goes and ruins the CBA…no-he has to get a GM job with New York. Under Isiah’s regime…let’s look at the Knicks payroll and what he has done to them. (I realize that some players were signed before he got there, but really only Houston) He has peppered the roster with mediocrity and inflated contracts, getting players that all are overpaid and have glaring weakneses in their overall games. Here is the roster/cost next season: PG: Marbury/Robinson- ($16mm total) SG-Crawford/Houston/Hardaway ($41.35mm Total) SF-Richardson/Thomas ($21.55mm total) PF: Rose/Sweetney/Taylor/Williams ($24.3mm Total) C: James ($6mm total) For the same price, Isiah could have C: Ben Wallace PF: Elton Brand/Rasheed Wallace SF: Paul Pierce/Quentin Richardson PG: Stephon Marbury/Nate Robinson SG: Tracy McGrady/Kobe Bryant/Corey Maggette (If Houston is cut from NYY…just take Kobe’s name off list) Now I realize this lineup is impossible to get, but it is just proof of how dumb Isiah is. Now go pay a coach 10-12 MM who isn't even sure he can coach all year and who is 64.
Maybe Elgin Baylor. But Zeke is way up there with the "best" of them. Honorable mention.......Weisbroad.
Last year, the Poenix Suns team payroll was $32.3 million... ... the Rockets team payroll was $57.8 million... ... the NY Knicks team payroll was $94.1 million!!! (that's more than Houston and Phoenix combined!
Elgin Baylor is not a bad GM, you can't win with the worst owner in sports. EDIT:: I never really cared much about Elgin Baylor but the other day I read a really good point about him, his job is to bring in talent, it's the coaches job to coach them, and the owners job to keep them. Look at the 2002-2003 Clipper team he assembled. Elton Brand, Michael Olawokandi, Andre Miller, Kenyon Dooling, Quinten Richardson, Marko Jaric, Lamar Odom, Corey Maggette, and Erik Piakowski That's TALENT! The next season Lamar Odom, Andre Miller, Michael Olawokandi, and Erik Piakowski were gone. Replaced with Bobby Simmons and Chris Kaman. Then they let go of Quinten Richardson and replaced him with Kerry Kittles. This offseason they've already let go of Bobby Simmons and replaced him with Cuttino Mobley. The same thing happened to the old Clipper teams that went to the playoffs, Baylor assembled a talented group of players and then they were never resigned. Blake, Rasheed starts in front of Brand. ::EDIT
I agree that Thomas is bad GM but Layden may be worst. He signed Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley, Weatherspoon, Glen Rice, traded for Van Horn and some other too some big contracts.
ummm...i may be wrong but didn't nash ($10mil), marion ($13m), and richardson ($8m) add up to $31m already? How did you get $32.3m total?
You're all going to be eating some serious crow when Zeke and the Knicks win the NBA championship next year.
This begs the most important question facing the Knicks. How much longer 'til New Yorkers at the draft start chanting HIRE Layden?
Isiah is probably the BEST GM in the league. Without the Mo Taylor trade, Houston doesn't get Stro Swift. Without the Marbury trade, Phoenix doesn't get Steve Nash AND QRich (who they later trade...TO THE KNICKS to get Kurt Thomas), and they don't get to give Joe Johnson more playing time (because Penny was above him if you remember) and Phoenix probably doesn't do anything this year. He's basically rebuilt TWO teams! ......... Sarcasm over, if Isiah nails 2/3 on this draft (and Nate Robinson is pretty much a definite HR at this point), people can at least admit he has a good eye for talent (McGrady, Ariza, basically re-built the Pacers w/ Donnie Walsh, though I give more credit to Walsh). In terms of making trades (why on Earth did he trade for Mo Taylor, he's made basically a bunch of lateral moves), he isn't very good.
Well, he was a Piston. We all saw how rudy T dismantled the lakers in less that a few weeks. thing of beauty. I expect no less of Isiah Thomas. Although his project is less considerable than Rudy T's.
Scott Layden was the worst GM in recent history. Isiah's not far behind. Elgin Baylor is better, simply because he doesn't tend to make terrible mistakes. He plays it safe. He lets people walk more than he tries to bring in FAs. The Mobley signing was somewhat surprising in this regard. He did make the nice Chandler for Brand move. And when you think of the guys the Clips have been roasted for letting go as FAs (Mo Taylor, Dereck Anderson, Darius Miles, etc), Lamar Odom may be the only big fish they let go. In fact, I'd argue that coaching has been they're biggest need since Larry Brown was there; and they refuse to pay for anyone above a B-class coach. The Hawks have been absolutely directionless since the Lenny Wilkins days. Constant lottery picks and money under the cap, but what do they have to show for it? Ever? Pete Babcock, Billy Knight, what are you trying to do? Most trades simply help other teams (Rasheed to Detroit, Walker from Dallas and later to Boston, etc) and they get next to zero in return. Piss-poor. Ainge might get his share of mud thrown at him, but he's actually got a team full of young guys that look solid. If he moves Pierce to help facilitate things, he could have a real contender in a couple years. Evan
If there's any pity out there for New Yorkers (and that's doubtful), consider they also had Scott Layden.
My favorite quote about Isiah came from Charles Barkeley this year during the playoffs. "I want to congratulate Isiah on building a championshiip-caliber team. The only problem is that it's in San Antonio."
