thedoctor
Years ago

Garnett's Own Fault?

Reading this article about Tim Duncan's new contract extension:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3086623

Made me think about the long struggle of Garnett in Minnie. The point that stood out in the article is that Duncan reportedly signed for significantly less than "market value" to allow the Spurs to build around him.

I understand that Garnett was one of the highest paid players in the league for years at Minnesota (and still is at Boston). Could it be that when he signed for the max a few years back he crippled any chance of Minnie putting a decent support crew around him?

Much is made of the incompetence of McHale and previous front office crew at Minnie, but were their hands tied to an extent?

Are there any die-hard Minnie fans out there who can comment? Are there any other players that have brought a similar fate on themselves? Maybe Kobe?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Read this on basketbawful today:



"Here's one sidenote to the McHale-as-GM Era. Garnett's defenders like to point out that the "only" time McHale gave KG some quality teammates -- specifically Sam Cassell and Latrell Spreewell -- the team won 58 games and made it to the Western Conference Finals.

Somehow, this has become Exhibit A in the Case of Kevin McHale Sucks As A GM. But here's the thing: Cassell and Spreewell were around the next season, too, and the team won only 44 games and failed to make the playoffs. That was because Sam and Spree were upset the team didn't immediately offer them lucrative contract extensions, and so they basically sandbagged the whole season.

How exactly was that McHale's fault? And why doesn't anybody remember it?"

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I was thinking the same thing when i read the article. there's no difference between $51m and $40m. I really can't see why Lebron for example, with all his endorsement deals, can't get small contract and let the team sign a few big name players. But he is doomed to pass to daniel gibson and drew gooden for the next 3 years. oh well.

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DJ  
Years ago

Maybe they like being the 'stars' of the team. Guaranteed to see the ball x amount of times, is there really any pressure on a superstar when he is surronded by role players? Always over-achieving.

If someone offered you $1 million to do your current job or your current salary and bring in an assistant, surely most people would take the $1 million and give it a shot? If it doesn't work out we'll re-asses and maybe bring in an assistant later.

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thedoctor  
Years ago

The difference is my job's success is not measured by the winning of NBA championships, whereas LeBron's is.

By locking up the Cav's money in his contract he starves the rest of the roster of any decent players.

Another reason why Duncan is the MVP of the league.

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olskoolgamer  
Years ago

I was a 'sota fan... Yeah they won 58 games that year and went to the Conference finals. It was a good year, Garnett MVP. The next year people ALSO don't remember that Cassel was injured most of the season and could hardly play when he was on court. And Cassel was their game-breaker and leader on the floor. He was the one with balls who would pull them out of the fire when they were losing. So its not accurate to say the two years were the same at all. Sprewell did have a winge, but he still played okay.

Until now Duncan has always taken pretty much max. This is the first extension he has taken MUCH less, at the moment he is still on the same as Kobe, close to 20 mil. So I don't think its that Garnett took too much cash, more that the supporting cast is willing to play for less. C'mon, they had Parker and Manu playing for much less than they deserved, plus a heap of awesome defensive role players. They also have Pop, from seeing the Pistons Cavs series this year it showed how poor Flip Saunders coaching was.

'Sota had Olowokandi, Hudson, Hoiberg in 04, Spurs have HEAPS better role players on the same kind of cash.

So I still say it's McHale's fault. He could have taken care of the contracts so people played harder, and could have drafted better and could have not lost 5 years of draft picks because of that Jo Smith dodgy deal.

Garnett probably could have taken four or five mil less a year, but I don't think it would have made a difference, McHale would have just used it to sign Vin Baker again or something.

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Melvin Corpuscle  
Years ago

Also, Garnett maxed out when there was no restriction on the max, whereas Duncan and Kobe maxed out under the new deal - so got much less. This means the lakers and spurs had more money to throw at other players than 'sota.

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123abc  
Years ago

NBA players are paid alot more than they really should be and many a greedy for money and "stardom" and then complain why that they can't win a championship because they can't have players built around him...

Welldone Duncan on taking a paycut so us San Antonio supporters can continue watching a successful team.

LeBron James has fame, money, endorsements... why not cut some money to get a good enough team around him to win a championship? Even with a team with greater players, he could still star and look good, just in a championship aswell.

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Isaac  
Years ago

The money is there to be earnt. If not the players actually out there playing 82 games a year, would you rather the owner just collect it all?

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thedoctor  
Years ago

I think the point is the money should be spread around the team to allow quality players 8 and 9 deep on the bench. The "franchise" player has a lot to say in whether or not that happens.

The Spurs would have given Duncan the max. He chose not to take it. Like Robinson in his later years, he took a cut to allow better role players to be recruited like Horry/Kerr/Rose and even Kevin Willis to an extent. (Willis' D on Shaq in 2003 is something to see)

Had Robinson demanded the max for his last contract one or two of those guys would not have been able to sign. I think Duncan is looking at the next few years in the same way.

Let's hope he goes down with an injury next year, Bowen/Horry/Finley retire, Spurs go lottery and get the #1 pick and they three-peat the last 3 years of Duncan's contract with Parker and Ginobili being named joint MVP's

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Isaac  
Years ago

Not disagreeing with that, was just responding to "NBA players are paid alot more than they really should be".

Aren't Boston showing that KG can still get a good deal, add a couple of stars, and have a few other decent young players?

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thedoctor  
Years ago

Was thinking the same thing - but Boston did trade away 8 or 9 players in the Garnett/Allen deals. They are very thin past the starting 5. Their Centre is questionable, and their PG unproven. If Allen goes dow, their back to scraping in to the playoffs. I would have thought Juwan Howard would have been a good fit, but he's at Dallas.

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