With the news that the Minnesota Timberwolves are indeed shipping off Al Jefferson to the Utah Jazz for quite literally nothing (i.e., a trade exception and two first-round picks), it's time to recap the David Kahn era. He really is a gift from the comedy gods. Since taking over operations last year, Kahn has done the following:
If NBA teams were only allowed to play point guards and small forwards, Kahn would be assembling a juggernaut. Instead, he's routinely passed on the best player available in the draft, signed redundant players to ridiculous contracts in free agency, traded for ostensibly "talented" players who have zero motivation (Darko, Beasley), and now -- in a tour de force of ineptitude -- given away his best player for not even pennies on the dollar.
And it'd be one thing if Kahn's repeated idiocy was only sending Timberwolves fans into fits of existential angst and despair -- that would be bad enough -- but his continual inability to realize that HE is the chump at the table has upset the balance of power in the NBA. As Tom Ziller points out at AOL Fanhouse:
Meanwhile, if Jefferson does make it to Salt Lake, the Western Conference will have finally gotten one massive improved contender. The Spurs have added Tiago Splitter and the Mavericks Ian Mahinmi, but Jefferson is a big fish, really bolstering a weakened Utah frontcourt.
Dynasties are built on the shoulders of idiots in the NBA. That's not to say the Jazz are suddenly legit title contenders, but just that when good teams fleece savvy-challenged GMs of good players, that it creates competitive disadvantages. Think of the Lakers and Pau Gasol -- they went from first-round exits to the NBA Finals thanks to landing an elite player without having to give up any of their core players in return.
Moral of the story: if you want to win an NBA championship, get David Kahn on the phone. Of course, Pat Riley already knows this lesson.
10 comments
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Comments
What a well thought out original post
Such a nice breath of fresh air hearing another Wolves basher put in their two cents without really doing the homework or thinking about the big picture. I hope that someday I can read wikipedia as literally as you. I bet you even go to sportspickle.com for the majority of your information.
Lets look at your post in the big picture…
*Traded Mike Miller and Randy Foye for the 5th pick in the 2009 Draft
-Not sure how trading a “shooter” that didn’t shoot (Miller) and Foye a player that was hit and miss for a top 5 pick is a bad move
*Drafted Ricky Rubio (a point guard) 5th overall, who has refused to play for Minnesota
- Pretty sure Rubio has never been quoted saying “I don’t want to go to minnesota” but the reason he didn’t come to MN was because a Blasphemous buyout at his old team which we were able to get him out of
*Drafted Jonny Flynn (another point guard) 6th overall, passing on the consensus better player in Stephen Curry
-_ This was debatable before the draft and was a toss up for most analysts. Kahn wanted a point guard and there was much debate if curry could play that position_
*Drafted Ty Lawson (another point guard) 18th overall, traded him to the Nuggets for a future first-rounder
- This can’t really be put against or for Kahn as the future 1st round pick that he got in return hasn’t been used. AND this pick was made on DENVERS behalf so Kahn didn’t make this pick
*Drafted Nick Calathes (another point guard) 45th overall, who went overseas to play in Greece before the T’Wolves traded his rights to the Mavs for a future second-rounder
- Pretty good deal if you ask me. Why don’t we talk IF Calathes comes back to the states to play and you tell me how bad this move was
*Signed Ramon Sessions (another point guard) to a four-year, $16 million deal
- This makes 2 point guards on the roster… At this time Rubio was still in flux and Kahn was pretty sure that Rubio wouldn’t be coming over that year. How many NBA teams do you know that go into the season with 1 point guard on the roster? PLUS Sessions was coming off a big season with the Bucks and this was a steal at the time.
*Signed Sasha Pavlovic (not a point guard!) to a one-year deal
- Again Sasha playing with Cleveland was a spot up dead eye shooter. He came here and was bunk. Kind of hard to predict that swing but he did fill a roster spot. No loss this year for that move.
*Traded Jason Hart (another point guard) for Alando Tucker…who was subsequently waived
- Traded a player that didn’t play… for a player that didn’t play… Hard to see where this was a bad move…. Want to explain?
*Traded Brian Cardinal for THE Darko Milicic
- _Basically got Darko for free rental for the season who came here put up pretty decent numbers for an out of shape player. _
*Drafted Wes Johnson (a small forward) fourth overall in 2010, passing on the much better and much younger Demarcus Cousins
- _Hard to make this call right now… But knowing how YOU look at things should they have taken Cousins you would have said “(another Power forward) how many do they need ie Love, Jefferson, Darko?” GOOD ONE! _
*Traded the 16th pick to the Blazers for Martell Webster (another small forward)
- _What would you choose Proven small forward in the league that puts up average of 10 points in small minutes OR unproven 3rd or 4th best small forward in the draft… _
*Drafted Lazar Hayward (another small forward) with the 30th pick
-_ Low risk high reward with the LAST PICK of the first round…. Yeah Bad call Kahn_
*Traded for Michael Beasley (possibly a small forward, maybe a power forward) for a future second-rounder, giving the Miami Heat the cap room to sign Mike Miller
- Got a 17 and 8 guy for 2 second round picks? thats free by the way if you are wondering. I HATE FREE THINGS And pretty sure Miami signing one player for 30 mil probably wasn’t the biggest move they made this summer. Plus have to fill 7 other roster spots. We STOLE beasley.
*Re-signed Darko Milicic to a four-year, $20 million deal
- Have you heard of European basketball? They throw Millions of dollars at players who are unproven. We were bidding against the Euros here and got a 7 footer for a pretty good price
*Gave away Al Jefferson for nothing two first-rounders from the Jazz and a trade exception
-I wouldn’t necessarily call that giving Al away… Sending him to Dallas for Dampier and then waiving that salary would have been for nothing. We got TWO first round picks AND the trade exception back for him opening the doors for more moves.
*Signed Luke Ridnour (another point guard) to a four-year, $16 million deal
- Hard to push this against Kahn when there is still plenty of summer left AND plenty of talk about sessions being moved. Ridnour will be a better fit for our team anyway. He at least hits free throws.
Try looking at the big picture instead of drinking the AOL Sports Cool-Aid.
by YeahYeah on Jul 13, 2010 4:19 PM EDT reply actions
Yes.
Thank you, Bill Simmons, for providing the template for mindless, clueless Wolves-bashing. You saved several AOL-SBNation-Nobodies quite a bit of work in essentially writing their articles for them! Must be nice to copy-and-paste bits of Simmons and Wojnaschnovsky and put together such a masterpiece.
Know what else is great? After every Wolves transaction, breaking the news and then… get this… typing “KAAAAAAAAHHN!” Hilarious Star-Trek reference, for one, and then you don’t actually have to have any thoughts! Must be great being a sportswriter! Keep up the work. Big fan.
by LoveTo on Jul 13, 2010 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Indeed
This stuff is getting really, really tiring. I’m by no means saying he’s done a great job, but, how to put this…….. national sportswriters don’t seem to be doing a very good job at analyzing his moves. They seem more concerned with fitting their opinions in with what they think they’re supposed to think. And that’s putting it as diplomatically as I can.
by museum on Jul 13, 2010 5:34 PM EDT reply actions
Why not look at the end result?
Sessions/Flynn
Webster/Brewer/Ellington
Johnson/Haywood
Love/Beasley
Milicic/Pekovic/Hollins
An informed writer would know that Webster will be starting at shooting guard for the Wolves. For all your huffing and puffing, the 12 Timberwolves players under the contract look awfully well balanced: 2 point guards, 5 wings, and 5 big men.
Considering that the much of the rest of the article is rife with intentional falsity (the Wolves didn’t draft PGs, then trade them; the picks were traded ahead of time, with the Wolves selecting PGs for the other team. Ridnour isn’t yet signed. Several of the bullet points are undeniably good moves being depicted as bad.), it sure seems like much ado about nothing. You sir, are a hack.
by John Doe on Jul 13, 2010 6:48 PM EDT reply actions
What do people expect Kahn to do?
Its common knowledge Al Jefferson and Kevin Love cannot play together. Love is a cheaper and more versatile asset. He stays. (Also, I went to college with the dude who sells him tons of pot in the offseason, so I always was iffy on him to begin with. I enjoy occasionally, but I don’t get paid $64 million to play hoops… Ps. Good luck finding it in Utah, Al.)
The league sentiment on Al was that he was offensively talented but defensively flawed and an injury risk. Its possible Utah will be able to nicely resurrect his once promising upside, but that was NOT happening here, Mr. O’Brien. If they do, good for Al and Utah. What else were we being offered? Kahn isn’t doing anything to hurt these guys’s value. It is what it is.
We’re younger, faster, better shooting, and WAY under the salary cap then we were at the beginning of last season’s 15 win nightmare. We’re not contending for a title, surely. But we have a plan, and we’re actually going there.
Which as a Minny fan is a helluva lot more comforting than Kevin McHale’s method of trading First Round picks for Marko Jaric and Troy Hudson signings.
Maybe our expectations are too low for the great sports blog minds of today, but I’ll take a plan and a chance at a 30 win season to get Ricky here for some Euroball.
Maybe Ricky comes, is a sensation then all of a sudden you have a destination. The Twin Cities area is not Milwaukee or OK City. It’s cold, but its still a metropolitan area with many things to keep a young man quite entertained.
The blueprint may be for a split level house right now, but it beats the ketchup scribbled stick figures on napkins of our past administration.
by TajMcCall on Jul 13, 2010 7:30 PM EDT reply actions
Do you know anything about basketball
First of all Ricky Rubio will never be a good basketball player… He is an overpaid euro gaurd like fernandez and many others who are not up to par with the NBA you might as well call him sergio rodriguez now, because that is all you have to look forward to a quick gaurd with no offense other than pass the ball… How do you guard that let him jack those terrible shots up… what a threat you must be excited to be getting him… 2nd Love is no way better or more versatile than Al Jefferson… If you think that youll probably love my friends in the Portland area who think that Batum is a future all star… its a joke. And to try to make it better somebody says his college friends sell him drugs… Puh-lease dont lie to make you and your fellow wolves fans feel better about there move… It takes much less than an idiot to know that a big time pro baller wont be using some college goons to get his drugs. The only 3 decent players on that roster are beasly flynn and love. Beasly and love are good 6th men or role players but not true NBA starters, and flynn has potential but steph curry is a way better baller. The way it looks the wolves are on the fast track to make the New Jersey nets look like the all star team. Sorry but dont take it the wrong way your gm and staff are a bunch of idiots… Try and pick up Pritch and Penn they are great and allen in more stupid than Kahn for letting them go
by Runner17 on Jul 14, 2010 3:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Yes. I do.
And you seriously can take or leave my anecdotal story about him being a giant pot head in the off-season, but its totally true…and kinda hilarious. But i’ve probably said too much already.
Anyhow, you throw out all these projections about young players that will take time. I’m pretty sure if you read my comment you’d realize all I said is that we at least have the outline of a plan. Sadly, thats refreshing.
While I believe Kahn has made some very strange, and rigid moves in the name of his (read: Rambis’s) love of the mighty triangle…at least is doing what he promised. He is rehauling the roster to fit a scheme, and he’s gonna do it in 3 years, apparently.
Now…will it work, who knows. But hey, we’re Wolves fans, man. All we got is time.
by TajMcCall on Jul 14, 2010 4:41 AM EDT up reply actions
Last time I checked, the David Kahn era...
Is little more than 14 months old… he took over a terrible team, had a terrible team in his first year, and now has made a significant upheaval from those teams to try to get better. If this was his 4th year after 3 terrible years, then go ahead, bash him. But two months into his 2nd year?
You can certainly disagree with Kahn (as I have on certain moves) but you are a Grade A jackass for thinking you are such a great basketball mind as to call someone an idiot with so little a sample size. Thanks for making me aware to avoid your posts in the future so as not to waste my time on mindless drivel.
by San Diego Viking on Jul 13, 2010 7:45 PM EDT reply actions
Agree with bullet #10
not on the rest
Matt, you’re showing your stupidity on this one. Look at the rest of the comments. Very lazy, uninformed posting.
by Django Z on Jul 14, 2010 3:26 AM EDT reply actions
Kahn is like an NBA fantasy owner, in charge of an actual team
They’ll be lucky to win more than 15-20 games next season. And the next. They’re the new LA Clippers. Sorry T-Wolves fans. Kahn could use some tips from Geoff Petrie and the Kings or Sam Presti and the Thunder. That’s how you rebuild a team.
“Darko is the best passing big man since Vlade.” What a joke.
by amack10 on Jul 18, 2010 9:44 PM EDT reply actions
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