Hawks GM Billy King

So Larry Brown is promoting Billy King to be the new Hawks GM. Luckily (for them), they're presently not considering adding a new BK to replace the old one (Billy Knight).

That said, I think it's important to recount that Billy King was a horrible GM. He's done a decent job of remaking his image by kissing up to ESPN and taking credit for the Sixers turnaround this year (which had a lot to do with the change in playing style and Korver trade both executed by Ed Stefanski).

Now, I think we can all agree that Billy King was a decent drafter. He drafted Andre Iguodala (though over Al Jefferson), Thaddeus Young, and great second-round finds Kyle Korver, Lou Williams and Willie Green. He also snagged Sam Dalembert late in the first round (though picked him over Tony Parker). Hindsight is 20-20 with the draft, so I don't think it's too fair to blame GMs for passing on guys. I prefer to look at where they drafted and what they got, and generally Billy King did well with that. The only caveat here is that BK has a strong aversion to European players. Every time the Sixers drafted a Euro I knew he'd be traded. This turned out well with guys like Jiri Welsch, but I don't know why we dealt Kyrylo Fesenko to the Jazz. The very fact that a team with strong Euro scouting like the Jazz or Spurs wants someone should tell you that he has a strong chance of being good. The Sefalosha-for-Carney trade on draft day was a bad one and further exhibited BK's love of college players and aversion to Europeans.

Now, BK drafted well, but he also fell in love with his players, which admittedly is easy to do. The big contracts he gave to Eric Snow and Aaron McKie after the Sixers championship run are a case in point. Those two are still collecting coin while wearing business suits in the NBA. I applauded BK at the time for his loyalty to the guys that helped him succeed, but those two were broken down and had limitations to begin with. The big deal he gave Kenny Thomas later was a joke. His signing of Willie Green to a loyalty deal after Green had sat out a year with an ACL injury was absurd. Essentially he gave Green the same deal he would've given him before he was hurt. Further, Green was a guy that few teams wanted. In the playoffs this year, Green looked good at times, but he's really not a starting NBA "2." BK freaked out and caved when Sam Dalembert threatened to try to get a contract in Atlanta. At the time, I understood the logic. Dalembert was an athletic center who had a lot of potential. In the NBA, all centers are overpaid (see: Foyle, Adonal). I think that BK was actually learning when he signed Green and Korver to moderate deals.

King's biggest failure came in trades. Specifically, he and Larry Brown traded draft picks like they were water, ruining the Sixers' chances to ever build themselves up with youth. Brown instigated a trade of a first-round-pick for Jerome Moiso (no, he's not a baseball player) and gave a pick to Golden State for the rights to take on Derrick Coleman. We even gave a pick to Atlanta for the thrilling journey that was the Glenn Robinson year. The trades for broken down, unmotivated Glenn Robinson and Chris Webber were particularly haunting. The Robinson deal was the beginning of the end. Keith Van Horn was traded in a multiple team deal, along with a first-rounder, for Glenn Robinson whom Allen Iverson immediately declared an awesome partner. Robinson proved surly, sat out a year, was often injured, and just plain quit on the Sixers. Chris Webber would soonafter do the same. The Sixers tried valiantly, after getting to the Finals, to keep it together by getting Matt Harpring (whom they stupidly didn't even try to re-sign), then trading Dikembe Mutombo for Keith Van Horn and Todd MacCulloch (which would've been a good deal had MacCulloch not turned out to have a neurological disorder and KVH not been dealt for Big Idiot).

In the end, Allen Iverson played out his last days in Philly with a broken-down and terrible Chris Webber rather than a bevy of young players who could've complimented him and Iguodala. Iverson has his problems: he's a dyed-in-the-wool one-on-one player. But the team the Sixers fielded in the first half of their championship(-losing) run that featured Toni Kukoc and Theo Ratliff suited him very well. Larry Brown ran most of those players into the ground that season as Ratliff, Tyrone Hill, Eric Snow, and Aaron McKie did not look the same after that season.

In conclusion, Billy King was a bad GM because of his bad trades and bad contract-management. He fell in love with his own players and was more concerned with being loyal to them than with executing deals that make good business sense. As much as it's great to be known as a nice guy and to maintain good relations with your players, negotiating contracts is a business matter and with the salary cap loyalty cannot be the top priority. Good NBA teams know when to cut the chord with players and know how to maintain a team by building with youth. Compare this year's Suns to this year's Pistons. Both teams have aging stars, but the Suns frittered away their draft picks and made a pretty bad deal in the Shaq trade. The Pistons have Tayshaun Prince, Jason Maxiell, and now Rodney Stuckey to build on (among others). Even the Celtics were shrewd in building through youth then knowing when to take a big deal to maximize the worth of their assets.

Though Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West, and Jeff Green for Ray Allen and Big Baby doesn't look too good right now.... But that's a story for another day....