 Billy King Loves Billy King
I saw this article on Slam Online and got a chuckle out of it. Billy is taking a lot of credit for the current run the Sixers are enjoying, and while I don't completely disagree with him, I do think he goes a little overboard.
King's drafting skills have been proven out, to a point. Iguodala, Dalembert, Thad Young, Rodney Carney, Lou Williams, Willie Green, Jason Smith. They're all rotation players of varying levels of import, and King either drafted each of them, or pulled off draft-day trades for them. He built the core of this team, so he gets some credit. However, that's where the credit ends. This team is in excellent position going into the Summer because Ed Stefanski came in, saw an opportunity to unload one bad contract King signed (Kyle Korver) and gently nudged Mo Cheeks into playing the young players on his roster. If King was still here, Korver would still be getting serious minutes, and more importantly, his $4.77M salary would still be on the books this Summer. Instead of having between $10M and $14M in cap space, they'd have between $5M and $9M. There's one more thing to take into consideration. The contracts King negotiated (Korver, Willie Green, Dalembert) have all been very bad from a cap perspective. This offseason the Sixers need to renegotiate with Andre Iguodala and Lou Williams. Are you confident King wouldn't have gotten fleeced again? Me neither. Billy King did indeed build this roster, but this Summer has to be about recovering from the cap damage he did to the team, and spending money wisely. I trust Stefanski to do this, I don't think there's a chance King would've accomplished it. The Slam Online article links to a Daily News story which says King could find his way to NYC to take over for Isiah. As a Sixers' fan and noted Knicks' hater, I really, really, really hope this happens. Seriously, if King is given control in NY you just know David Lee is getting a max contract after next season, Nate Robinson is probably somewhere in the $55M/5 year range. Balkman gets $40M. Marbury is traded for late first-round draft picks. He uses the #3 pick to take O.J. Mayo. God, I'd love that.
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Oh Billy...Billy, Billy, Billy. You know, it's funny how convenient and selective memories can get. Yes, he made the decision to draft and trade for some of these players. But alot of that credit goes to the sixers scouting staff too. From what I gather Tony Dileo deserves alot of the credit. However, I seem to remember a plethora of horrid contracts to some pretty non descript players. Greg Buckner, Steven Hunter, Kenny Thomas, Brian Skinner, Derrick Coleman (when he was washed up)...last but not least let's not forget the beginning of the overpayment era - Deke and Aaron Mckie's respective contracts. Because of the salaries he sanctioned he was always forced to trade for garbage every summer. Plus, after Larry left to coach Detroit, he didn't exactly handle the coaching situation glowingly. Paying people NOT to be a part of his organization was a yearly occurence. I'm positive I've missed a few more foibles...but I digress.
My biggest problem with Billy? Just look to last summer's draft. It's a microcosm of Billy King being Billy King. Had Seattle, Milwaukee, or Minnesota caved last summer and traded with him you just know he would have overpaid in trading to get Yi, Corey Brewer, or Jeff Green (Yi being the one he coveted). How did taking Thad work out? I'm not saying I saw Thad coming. Far from it. But I was screaming NOT to trade for Yi. ANYTHING but Yi. I just didn't want the chinese shawn bradley. Sorry, been there, done that. So, he really just stumbled onto Thad if you think about it.
The man had 11 years(5 without Larry). His time was up.
It would take a lot of ink to list all the bad contracts he signed. Excellent point on Thad too, he gets some credit for making the pick, but loses some for desperately trying to trade up for Yi.
Can you imagine the mess he would make in New York? I mean, he'd be going into the worst situation in sports, but he could really compound the damage greatly. I'd love to see it.
King as GM of the Knicks would be awesome. For his first move, Isiah will get a 5 year extension and part ownership.
I think that was the first time I have ever heard the word "foibles." Good post. I would have to say that sums up Billy's tenure pretty well.
If we had gotten Yi, it would be AI all over again in my mind. Another guy who's worth is entirely business.
Do us Knicks fans really deserve to go from Isiah Thomas to Billy King? What, is Kevin McHale too busy "rebuilding" in Minnesota?
Sigh.
Billy King is a joke and the article confirms it
he did a very good job drafting (even if we can't say how much it was on him and how much on Di Leo, so he should at least share the praise) and was garbage at everything else
fortunately Max & Brian saved me a lot of typing, reminding all his HORRIFIC contracts/extentions. My fav one is still Greg Brickner, a 6 yrs deal for a less-than-marginal role player that was bought out after what, two seasons? the 3 yrs extention to a 36 y/o and washed up Derrick Coleman comes second, and you gotta love also the 7 yrs deal to Kenny Thomas, that Kings fans would like to trade for Amundson or Jeff Ruland right now
You guys forgot the remarkable Randy "juicy face" Ayers signing and the JOB signing + firing
Drafting Thad maybe it was more luck, he desperately tried to trade up, and failed of course, so we was stuck with the 12th pick
To sum it up, King was good only at cleaning the mess he did before (putting us in cap hell ---> clearing cap space, signing crap players ---> trading them etc)
btw in the Sixers board of Philly.com there are a couple of King apologists, busting their balls is one of my fav hobbies