Which of these NBA General Managers was the worst?

People always talk about how players can completely change a NBA franchise but they forget that GMs can change them just as much if not more. I would like to open discussion about the worst GMs in NBA history.

Let's start with Billy King

When he was hired as the GM of the Nets in 2010 he Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, two 1st rounders and 3mil. for Deron Williams. The trade didn’t look that bad but Deron was a shadow of his former self. He only had two seasons where you could say that he plays like the Jazz Deron. Every single year was a down year for him.

We all remember, in 2013 when the Brooklyn Nets tried to go all in for a championship but drastically failed. They traded Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks, Kris Joseph, Kelt Bogans, the 2014, 2016 and 2018 first rounder as well as the rights to swap the 2017 first round pick. They gave up all of that in exchange for aging Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and D.J White. The Nets finished with a record of 44-38, beat the Raptors in 7 while they lost in 5 to the Heat in the 2nd round. The guy that made that trade that cost the Nets their entire future was Billy King. Now the Nets are stuck in a position with only 1 young player, they didn’t win any championships and don’t have their 2018 first rounder.

We all remember Allen Iverson as one of the most unaccomplished players of all time. One of the main reasons for that were some of Billy Kings horrible mistakes. The 76ers were really looking to get another scorer next to AI to increase their championship hopes. With the 8th pick in the 1998 NBA draft the 76ers selected Larry Hughes who averaged 10.0 points in his first two seasons for the 76ers and was traded before his 3rd season. Just one pick after him, Dirk Nowitzki was drafted. Dirk is known as a top three power forward of all time and a top 20 player. He would’ve definitely helped the 76ers and Iverson get a ring or two but Billy messed up passing up on him. Paul Pierce was also drafted two picks after Hughes. He wasn’t as good of a player as Dirk was but is still a top 50 player of all time. With him AI would have a great shooter to spread the floor and another versatile scorer that can take the pressure of him.

In another attempt to give pair a star with Iverson, Billy traded for Chris Webber. Unfortunately that didn’t turn out that well. The Sixers acquired Weber, one of the NBA’s elite power forwards and a five-time All-Star, along with reserve forwards Matt Barnes and Michael Bradley. Philadelphia sent forwards Brian Skinner, Kenny Thomas and Corliss Williamson. Chris was a shade of his Kings self and played only two seasons for the sixers. Barnes had a bad season for them and left to GSW while Bradley retired the season after. All the players the Kings got worked very well for them.
He also traded Iverson during the 2006-07 season. At the time Iverson was still an amazing player as he averaged 31.2 points, 7.3 assists, 2.2 steals while shooting 41%FG when he played for the 76ers that year. In return they got Andre Miller who averaged 13.6 points, 7.3 assists and 4.4 rebounds on 46%FG. In return they also got two draft picks that he used to draft Daequan Cook and Petteri Koponen.

Elgin Baylor

People always say that the Clippers are the unluckiest franchise of all time because of all the stars they traded, stars they passed out in the draft and injuries that their players faced. They never talk about the man who is responsible for all the stars they've passed out on. Elgin is known for many things, his horrible finals record, his incredible scoring ability but he certainly isn't known for what he did in the front office. He was the Clippers GM for 22 years and finished with a horrible record of 607 and 1153 while making the playoffs only four times and winning just one series.

In the 1987 NBA draft the Clippers were looking for a SF and drafted Reggie Williams. Reggie ended up having a solid career averaging 12.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 46 percent from the field. But Reggie played only 2.5 of his 10 seasons for the Clippers. None of his five best seasons were on the Clippers. Pippen was selected only one pick after him. Pippen was a six time champion and is considered to be one of the best players of all time. He was also drafted before Horace Grant, Reggie Miller, Muggsy, Mark Jackson, Reggie Lewis and Šarūnas Marčiulionis.

The 1996 NbA draft is known to be one of the best draft classes of all time because of all the stars it produced. The Clippers had the 7th pick in the draft and selected Lorenzen Wright. Wright was an average player throughout the most of his career. He played his first three seasons for the Clippers and in them he averaged 7.4, 9.0 and 6.6 points, 6.1, 8.8 and 7.5 rebounds. There were a ton of players that Baylor could’ve taken that could’ve turned the franchise around. They could have picked a five time champion in Kobe Bryant who was picked 6 spots after Wright. They could’ve also selected a two time MVP in Steve Nash, a multiple time all-star in Peja Stojakovic, a multiple time all-star in Jermaine O’Neal and much more.

We already talked about the Clippers passing up on Dirk and Pierce and drafting Hughes. The Clippers made one movie that was even worse than that. They had the 1st pick in the NBA drafted and drafted Michael Olowokandi. Michael averaged 8.3 points and 6.8 rebounds and played five seasons for the Clippers. Mike Bibby was drafted just a pick after him. They could have drafted a two time all-star in Antawn Jamison. They could have drafted the best dunker of all time and an incredible scorer in Vince Carter. They could have drafted a top 20 player ever in Dirk Nowitzki. They also could have drafted one of the best scorers of all time and a champion in Paul Pierce.

The 1998 NBA draft is probably one of the worst in history as the best player from the draft class was Gary Payton. With the 13th pick in the draft, the Clippers selected a power forward in Loy Vaught. He averaged 10.1 points and 7.1 rebounds for his career and played eight seasons for the Clippers. In his best season he averaged 17.5 points and 9.7 rebounds. He definitely isn’t a bust but there were many players who they could have taken over him.

The next season they drafted LeRon Ellis with the 22nd pick. He played only one season for the Clippers where he averaged a point and less then a rebound and an assist, then went to play in Italy for a year. Then he returned to Charlotte for a year before playing in Spain. After that season he returned to Miami and after that season he retired.
With the 16th pick in the 1992 NBA draft Elgin selected Randy Woods before an all-star Latrell Sprewell. Woods had a short career playing three years for the Clippers and averaging 2.4 points fot them.

With the 13th pick in the 1993 draft Baylor selected Terry Dehere. An all-star, champion point guard, Sam Cassell was selected just 11 picks after Dehere. Nick Van Exel was also selected after Dehere. Dehere played 10 seasons for the Clippers and averaged 2.4 points and 1.6 assists.

With the 7th pick in the 1994 NBA draft the Clippers selected Lamond Murray before an all-star Eddie Jones. Lamond was a solid player. He played five seasons for the Clippers and averaged 11 points and 4 rebounds for his career.
He also hired bas coaches like Gene Shue, Don Casey, and Mike Schuler. The year the Clippers won their only playoff series with Baylor, 2006, he was named Executive of the Year. It’s hard to imagine that being anything other than an honor “Lifetime Achievement Award” or something like that.

Isiah Thomas

Isiah Thomas is one of the best players to ever play. No doubt about that. Despite his amazing abilities on the court he was a horrible GM. He was hired to be the Knicks GM on December 22, 2003.

His first move as GM came on January 6, 2004. He traded Antonio McDyess, Charlie Ward, Howard Aisley and a first round pick for Marbury. At the time the trade didn’t look that bad as Marbury averaged 22 points and 8 assists the year before. After the trade he had only one season that was sort of close to that. His stats and play were declining season after season. The Knicks did basically nothing with Marbury. The role players worked out well for the Suns. The pick the Knicks traded got traded multiple times and then turned into an all-star, Gordon Hayward.

In the 2005 offseason the Knicks were desperately looking for a big man. In an era where bigs were dominating the league they needed a good big in order to succeed. Isiah made a horrible move by signing Jerome James to a 5 year 30 million deal. That was a lot of money for a great player back then but was especially a lot for a player who averaged 3 points and 2 rebounds.

Isiah signed Larry Brown to the biggest coaching contract in NBA history at the tome (5 years 50 mil.), Larry was a great coach but wasn’t worth the money. The funny thing is that Isiah fired Brown after his first season of coaching the Knicks. The Knicks and Brown reached to an agreement and the Knicks didn’t have to pay Brown the full contract.

As the Jerome James experiment didn’t work out the Knicks were looking for a great big man so he traded for Eddy Curry. He traded Tim Thomas and 2 first rounders that turned into Aldridge and Noah for Curry, a first rounder that turned into Tyson Chandler and Antonio Davis. Curry had 1 good season in New York but most of his time there was ruined by injuries and off court issues. The picks they traded (Aldridge and Noah) both turned into all-stars and Noah even won DPOY.

In the 2005 NBA draft he drafted Frye over all-stars like Andrew Bynum, Danny Granger and David Lee. With all these moves they moved the Knicks were hoping to make a playoff run. Unfortunately that didn’t happen as they finished with a record of 23-59.

In the 2006 season he traded Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza for Steve Francis. Penny had an incredible career on the Magic being a multiple time all-star and Ariza is one of the best role players in the NBA. Francis played a total of 68 games for the Knicks. During that time he played bad and got traded and shortly after that he retired
After firing coach Brown he hired himself as the coach and he was a horrible coach. He also signed Jared Jeffries to a 5 year 30 mil. deal. He averaged 6 and 5 in his first 4 seasons but Isiah took a chance on him.

In the 2006 NBA draft he drafted Ronaldo Balkam a spot ahead of Rajon Rondo. Balkam would end up having a really short career. That’s not that bad considering many other teams passed out on Rondo too.
He traded away Steve Francis and Channing Frye for Zach Randolph. Randolph was a good player but didn’t really help the team that much.

David Kahn

David Kahn was the Timberwolves GM from 2009-2013. He made several bad moves and decisions and really hurt the franchise. As soon as he got fired the franchise started looking better as they drafted KAT and Wiggins and traded for Jimmy after he got fired.

The Minnesota Timberwolves held the 5th and 6th pick in the 2009 NBA draft. With the 5th they selected Ricky Rubio. There are people probably saying that that was a horrible move because they could have drafted Steph but at the time Rubio was considered a top 3 pick but fell to 5 so it was a no brainer to take him. But what was horrible is that Kahn took Flynn at number 6. He took Johnny Flynn in 2009 ahead of Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, Ty Lawson and Jrue Holiday. Hell, even Jordan Hill is better than Flynn. He also drafted Ty Lawson in that draft but then traded him.
Darko Milicic said that he didn’t want to play basketball anymore and that he was unhappy with the sport but Kahn still decided to sign him to a big contract. With the 4th pick in the 2010 draft they selected a much needed PF in Wesley Johnson. There were many other SFs in the draft that would have been way better for the Wolves. For example PG13 or Gordon Hayward. Kahn didn’t even let Williams develop well because he signed Michael Beasley and moved Williams to the two.

The other thing he did was that he traded their star, All Jererson for Kosta Koufos and 2 first rounders.
In the 2011 NBA draft he drafted Deron Williams with the 2nd pick ahead of guys all-stars like Kemba Walker, IT4, Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard. Deron was actually expected to go number 2 overall and there were even some people who thought he was better than Kyrie.

Kahn’s biggest mistake was gross mishandling of super star Kevin Love. He refused to re-sign Love to a max contract, even though Love deserved it with his play and for even wanting to stay in Minnesota at all. But Kahn refused, not wanting to spend the money, which enraged Love so much he demanded to be traded years later.

Phil Jackson

Unlike all of these GMs, Phil has a reputation of ruining the Knicks even though he should be remembered for his amazing coaching.

The Knicks traded Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to the Mavericks for Samuel Dalembert, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington, Jose Calderon and two second-round picks. Jackson shipped off a valuable defensive piece in Chandler and got little in return. Ellington has developed into a solid role player but never played a game for New York. Dalembert, Larkin and the two second-round picks, which were used on Cleanthony Early and Thanasis Antetokounmpo, aren’t on NBA rosters, and Calderon has bounced around the NBA since the trade. Chandler was overpaid, but Jackson should have (and could have) fetched more for a player who would average a double-double the season following the trade.

In the summer of 2014 Phil Jackson hired Derek Fisher. The Fisher era was a disaster. Forget about the Matt Barnes incident, Fisher just wasn’t fit to be an NBA coach. That wasn’t really a surprise considering the fact he had no prior coaching experience. The Knicks went 40-96 under his watch.

The Knicks traded J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cavaliers for Lance Thomas, Lou Amundson, Alex Kirk and a future second-round pick. Once again, Jackson traded away good role players for little in return. Shumpert and Smith have helped the Cavaliers reach three consecutive NBA Finals, playing integral roles along the way. Meanwhile, Amundson and Kirk are out of the league. Thomas has been a decent contributor off the bench.

The Knicks sign Joakim Noah to a four-year, $72 million contract. It had been two years since Noah had last averaged at least 10 points, but that didn’t stop Jackson from giving him a big-money deal in the offseason. The former Bulls center had dealt with numerous injuries and looked washed up even when he was healthy. Unsurprisingly, injuries and poor play marred Noah’s debut season in New York. He played just 46 games and averaged five points a game. Currently Noah plays in the G-League.

The Knicks signed Carmelo Anthony to a five-year, $124 million extension, which included a no-trade clause. NBA teams don’t typically give out no-trade clauses, but Jackson did when he extended Anthony last offseason. The deal itself isn’t all that bad — even if Anthony is unlikely to play up to it — but the no-trade clause prevented the Knicks from blowing things up and starting over. New York couldn’t just hunt out the best deal. It had to find a spot that Anthony would agree to, which left them very few options. They had trouble trading him for good value because of the ntc so they traded him to OKC for Kanter and McDermot.

All of these GMs were horrible and ruined their franchises but which one was the worst?