Bad Moves
I'm glad you brought it up, many people forget that the T-Wolves missed out on three first round picks in the early 2000s. Now non of them would have been lotto picks, but missing out on the likes of Kendrick Perkins, Barbosa, or Josh Howard is no small thing. It's a pity KG spent the last couple years of his prime wasting away on a lotto team.
the timberwolves wasted so many picks on players who did nothing for them. Ndi ebi, rashard mcants, corey brewer, randy foye(he helped them get rubio but wasnt worth being picked 7th), wes johnson, derrick williams, johnny flynn. They hit with love, rubio, pek. But overall they have had terrible draft picks again and again.
Adam Morrison drafted over Brandon Roy, andrea Bargnani taken over La'Marcus Aldridge, Memphis trading Kevin love for OJ mayo on draft night, Greg Oden taken over Kevin Durant, Washington trading away their lottery picks trying to make a playoff push, David Kahn taking two point guards in the lottery, Minnesota trading Ty Lawson, Philadelphia taking Evan turner instead of Demarcus Cousins(Philly needed a big man bad not another point forward), the clippers taking Al Farouq Aminu over Paul George
The Cavs made some pretty big mistakes during the Lebron era
Trading TWO 1st round picks for Jiri Welsch leading to the Cavs not having the assets to acquire Joe Johnson when the suns decided to move him.
Drafting Luke Jackson.
Signing Larry Hughes to a 5 year contract worth 70 million SMH, and Marshall's contract was pretty generous for a role player 4 year 25 million.
Letting Boozer out of the final year of his contract
Not being able to get the Amare deal done one year and then next when again they had the chance to try and work out a deal they trade for Jamison instead.
Detroit Pistons trading Billups for Iverson. It was downhill after that.
The Pistons won their championship with team work and defence. They were a team and a family on and off the court. They traded "Mr Bigshot" for a selfish, whiney, ballhog in Iverson. That just didn't make sense. That broke the chemistry and upset a number of the pistons, most importantly it upset Rip Hamilton to see his close friend and backbone of this team gone. Throw in signing for Ben Gordon and no wonder Rip wasn't happy.
They were still one of the top teams, that just needed to add 1 or 2 more pieces. What veteran wouldn't want to play for a contender ? Instead they signed Gordon and Charlie V. At the time, Gortat and Big Baby were FA. I wanted these 2 players. You could see Gortat potential playing behind Howard
How bout the suns trading away rondo and deng away for a bag of skittles and two movie tickets? Or the fact the Knicks passed on rondo and drafted(gulp) Renaldo Balkman, hmm the lakers wasting their second round pick on a guy no one can pronounce while Isaiah Thomas was still on the board? He would've been an excellent backup/ fill in starter. How bout the fact the trailblazers took Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan? Seattle trading pippen to the bulls in what was a very lopsided trade, MJ taking Kwame brown #1, the Orlando magic signing Rashard Lewis to that ridiculous contract; Kyle singler returning for his senior year even though he would've been a lotto pick; Chicago trading away Elton Brand, the Raptors letting a VERY young TMac walk instead of resigning him, San Antonio trading away Luis Scola
Let us recap the bad moves, they traded Pau Gasol for what at the time was less than a bag of peanuts, they passed on Kevin Love and then misused Mayo for 4 years, and they picks Hasheem Thabeet over Tyreke Evans, Steph Curry, Brandon Jennings, Rich Rubio, Ty Lawson, and DeMar DeRozan. And then they went and traded him less than two years later. They doled out a huge contract to Mike Conley, and they acquired Zach Randolph at a time when he was considered a big problem. They also overpaid Rudy Gay ridiculously, and almost gave up on both Mike Conley and Marc Gasol. Imagine if they'd drafted Kevin Love, and traded for Randolph? Marc Gasol in that situation would unfortunately probably be somewhere overseas never realizing his full potential, but a Z-Bo Love front court would be amazing.
but Tyson Chandler (way too skinny and no polish at that time), Pau Gasol (great pick but Jordan was coming back for the Wizards and I'm pretty sure he didn't want to build a team around a foreign player, bad decision) then Eddie Curry (weight issue, good post moves, could care less about defense), Jason Richardson (athletic, could not shoot) Shane Battier (great guy, hard worker, non elite talent period) then Eddie Griffin (head case, drug problem, is now dead, R.I.P.), Sagana Diop and Rodney White.
Its disingenuous to call it a bad move unless you look at what the other options were. It is the opportunity cost that determines if its a bad move. What opportunity was foregone by making the pick you made. It was a terrible draft all and all.
I think we underestimate just how much "luck" plays a role in all sports. Good luck can get you a Duncan and put you in contention for a chip year in and year out, while bad luck and lead you to drafting a Kwame Brown. Duncan's draft year there was no doubt he would be that type of player, and how lucky were the Spurs to let bad luck (David Robinson's ankles breaking) into good luck with the #1 pick that year.
I want hear some of the bad moves that various teams have made in the past 30 or so years.. Obviously, most teams didnt know they were making a bad move at the time but later it looked crazy.
Some examples:
Kings trading Valade Divac for Kobe Bryant.
Wizards picking Kwame Brown with the number 1 pick.
Clippers taking Michael Olwakandi with the number 1 pick. (sp)
Wizards giving Arenas a max deal.
I know there are loads more.