By: Stephen Patterson
Mr. David Kahn, please stand up. No, not because you won NBA Executive of the Year. You have qualified for another award entirely actually: the first Annual Isiah Thomas Trophy (or ITT) for worst GM in the NBA. Sadly, this isn't a real award handed out by the NBA or Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Kahn would be a lock to win it. He has single handedly written the book of "How Not To Be a GM". He not only earned the ITT for the 2009-10 season, but he has also taken a massive head start for the 2010-11 award.
Since being given the job by Wolves owner Glen Taylor on May 22, 2009, Kahn has beaten out all 29 other NBA executives for this award and it has been a landslide. He has completely messed up both seasons in the draft, has yet to bring anyone of serious meaning to the team, and failed entirely to make the team even remotely competitive. Below are some of the "accomplishments" Kahn has had on the job to win the ITT:The first and main reason Kahn blew past the competition for the ITT has been his drafting abilities. In 2009, with consecutive selections at 5 and 6, Kahn chose Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn, both point guards. With the teams third selection, he took Ty Lawson, yet another point guard. Never before have I seen a GM draft that many players at the same position so soon in the draft. I feel like it's safe to say no other GM has in fact been this idiotic. Rubio is a great player, young and not very experienced, but he was highly scouted and a projected Top 10 pick. But knowing he was already under contract to his Spanish team and knowing it was clear he wanted to be in a city like New York, Kahn selected him anyway. Guess who hasn't even suited up yet? Guess who isn't going to this season either? Good choice. Knowing this will never work out with Rubio, he still overvalues him as a trade piece and has refused to part with him. Flynn and Lawson weren't terrible selections, but Kahn handed Lawson to Denver for a future protected, and likely late, first round pick. Possibly the best of his 3 choices, Lawson was dealt for next to nothing and the point guard that will likely never play a game for Minnesota is still there.
This season for the draft, Kahn was dead set to overshadow his massive blunder of the 2009 Draft. Overall during the night, he selected or acquired FOUR, count them FOUR, small forwards: Welsey Johnson, Martell Webster, Lazar Hayward, and Nemanja Bejelica. At most, if you have a position that is by and far the most glaring need on your roster and you are dead set on solving it via draft, you might pick two guys at that one position. But why in the world would you select four when your team could use help at pretty much every position on the floor? Johnson will likely be a solid 15 5 3 guy in the league, and Webster has already proven he's a decent player, but why do you need to pick two other guys to be third and fourth stringers that more likely than not will be busts in the NBA? I wish I could have seen Kahn twindling his thumbs, probably thinking to himself "What an amazing job I'm doing right now, no one would ever expect me to do THIS", while he squandered two potentially useful picks.
Even having a decent amount of cap space will mean absolutely nothing to Minnesota this offseason because no major players like James, Wade, Bosh, or any other top level guy will even consider the Timberwolves. The franchise has always had trouble helping out their stars (just ask Old Man Garnett why he has bad knees), and David Kahn is on pace to fail more epically than any of Minnesota's former GMs at this. Since arriving on the job, the best free agent he has been able to lure to help out franchise power forward Kevin Love has been Ramon Sessions last summer. Take a wild guess what position he plays at? Yet another point guard for the roster.
This summer, Wolves fans should be thrilled if their team can even keep Darko Milicic onboard, atleast according to Kahn. For some reason beyond my comprehension, Kahn finds Darko to be an amazingly promising center, and has even said he will try even harder to deal PF/C Al Jefferson (roughly translated as "I'll finally stop overvaluing Al and his bum knee and bloated $42 million/3 year contract and pull the trigger on a meaningful deal if you'll stay with the team."). This may be the dumbest thing Kahn has done to date if he indeed deals Jefferson solely to hold onto Darko. Milicic has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt he is one the biggest busts in one of the most stacked drafts in the history of the NBA (2003 Draft, 2nd pick. He was chosen by Detroit over Carmelo Anthony, Wade, and Bosh).
Through his blunders to date, Kahn has failed to make the Wolves a competitive team, especially in a deep Western Conference. His best player, Kevin Love, is young and doesn't have much NBA experience. He also isn't the type of player I see leading a team. He's more of a Pau Gasol, skilled and a good player, but he needs someone better to follow. The second best player on the team, Jefferson, plays the same position as Love. Neither player is a very good center, creating problems when they're on the floor together. Picking up Johnson and Flynn were pretty good moves it seems so far, but beyond that Kahn hasn't done much to help Love.
General Managers aren't nearly as important as coaches, locations, and money on a free agents priority list, but you can't help but wonder if Kahn doesn't scare away free agents. It's pretty obivous he has no clue what he is doing with the team, and why would a player willing want to go to that situation other than to sit around and collect a check? Until Kahn shows he can build the team and keep them competitive through drafting and trading, no top level free agent will ever consider the Timberwolves as a serious destination. It's going to take some serious effort for Kahn to avoid being a repeat winner of the Isiah Thomas Trophy for single handedly destroying a franchise.
