Goodbye Kevin McHale

Kevin McHale finally left the Minnesota Timberwolves. To be clear, Kevin McHale makes Isaiah Thomas look like a genius. As reported by ESPN:
McHale was haunted by several bad contracts given to the likes of Marko Jaric, Troy Hudson and Mike James; draft-day blunders like Ndudi Ebi, Rashad McCants and the trade of Brandon Roy for Foye; and an illegal under-the-table deal with Joe Smith that ultimately cost the team three first-round draft picks.
Many of those picks would have gotten an average GM fired. The one that’s always bothered me the most was the illegal deal with Joe Smith. I think it’s one of the reasons Kevin Garnett was never able to win a championship in Minnesota. The Timberwolves would have had the 17th pick in 2001, 23rd pick in 2002, and 29th in 2004. Here’s a few people they could have taken:

Year Available Players
2001 Gerald Wallace, Samuel Dalembert, Tony Parker, and Gilbert Arenas
2002 Nenad Kristic, Roger Mason, and Carlos Boozer,
2004 Anderson Varejao and Chris Duhon

Now, I don’t assume that McHale would have necessarily found any of these players, and 2004 was a weak year in terms of late draft talent. But if any of these players were chosen, Kevin Garnett’s championship ambitions may have come to fruition while he was still in Minnesota. Imagine, however, if McHale had been lucky, and we’d have seen a Tony Parker, Carlos Boozer, or Chris Duhon on a team with Kevin Garnett.
This should also be a lesson to the Suns who can’t sell draft picks fast enough. While there may be a short-term benefit to minimize cap space by eliminating draft picks, they seriously diminish a team’s ability to win a championship in the long-term.