| 30 August 2010
No wonder Kenny "Jenny" Thomas was all smiles on July 16, 2003: he had just signed a contract with the Sixers for a reported 7-year/$ 50 M.
While I'm not sure why Sixers' GM Billly King (right) was laughing. Maybe he was thinking about making it twice to The Jon Koncak Commemorative Awards series (see also Greg Buckner, below this).
Or maybe he already knew he would have shipped the bum to Sacramento only a couple of seasonss later, leaving the Kings the questionable "honour" of paying Thomas around 38 of those 50 millions. Sacto finished to waste those $ only in the summer of... 2010, yes.
The signing of then-restricted-free-agent Kenny Thomas would easily crack the Top 10 in a "Worst GM decisions of all time" in terms of money/production ratio, as this post will demonstrate.
Per team policy, Sixers don't reveal terms of their deals: we can say it's a pretty smart decision, given the stunning amount of retarded moves the franchise made in the last decade (for a quick recap see the final part of the Buckner post). That's why you can find some sites reporting the Thomas deal at 7-year/ $ 40 M. For the purposes of this article, it really makes no difference. Here is why.Kenny Thomas came to Philly from Houston in December 2002 in a three-team trade that involved also the Nuggets: Sixers moved Art Long and Mark Bryant, but they also gave up a first round pick in the deal.
A 6-7 pure (?) power forward, Thomas was the prototypical tweener, too small to face the tons of talented players at that spot in those years, especially on defense (Duncan, Garnett, Wallace, Nowitzki, Boozer ecc), not skilled enough to play small forward. In fact his game facing the basket was limited, not to mention his non-existent outside shot.
Imagine Malik Rose (great player, btw) with less intensity, or, to mention another guy in this "niche" category, a taller Chuck Hayes.
Thomas had indeed a great instict for rebounds, and - of course only before signing that contract - showed an encoraging intensity and willing to play defense. In his best years, the dumbest bravest analysts, and the most optimistic Sixers fans, were comparing him to Dennis Rodman - I'll save you all the transvestite jokes I could make.
Unfortunately "Jenny" (the nickname he quickly earned AFTER signing the deal) progressively proved he was more Jason Maxiell than Dennis Rodman, meaning a role player that simply can't/shouldn't start in a good team.The problem is he was given starter's money throughout those seven years.
After a very good first season, in which he averaged a double-double (2003/4, 13.6 ppg + 10.1 reb on 47%), in 2004/2005 his production already decreased, to a more fitting 11.3 and 6.6 on 45% FG.
In Feb 2005, in a classic garbage-for-garbage/six-player trade, Sixers sent him to Sacramento, along with Corliss Williamson and Brian Skinner, in exchange for Chris Webber, Matt Barnes and Micheal Bradley. (Funny how in the following years one of the throw ins turned out to be the best player of the pack, of course not as a Sixer. But this is another story).
The Webber trade was one of the countless "Let's-pair-Iverson-with-another-superstar" moves by the Sixers, to be added to a mighty list that could already count on Tony Kukoc, Glenn "Big Puppy" Robinson, Keith Van Horn... What? You think they all sucked? You are biased.
To be absolutely fair with (the idiot of) Billy King, I still think trading those three stiffs for Webber was pure genius. Yes, Webber didn't do much in Philly, but at least he helped the team making the playoffs in 2005 and had a 20+10 season the year after, ending his stint as a Sixer in January 2007, with an unglorious buy out.
To get him, anyway, Sixers lost nothing, getting rid of dead weight/salaries. Had they kept Barnes, the move would have been even awesome.
In fact the funniest part of the story is that Webber's contract, heavy indeed at 20+ mill per year, was expiring TWO YEARS BEFORE Thomas'. Meaning Billy King, once in his life, took a decision that made sense also financially for our franchise (* big applause*). The problem is he was simply cleaning the mess he made, one more time.
While I have aboslutely no clue why Kings accepted to add Thomas' long-lasting contract on their payroll. Yes the $-per-year was significantly lower, but Jenny's production was WAY below the money he was owed. Evidently the situation with Webber was so deteriorated that Sacramento was desperate to unload him.
Thomas' 5 1/2 years with the Kings look like a calvary: note how the numbers drop, while the salary raises...
2004/2005 (26 games with Sacto): 14.5 ppg - 8.7 reb - 49% fg (salary at $ 6 M) - Good, even excellent. Did he/they fool us? Looks like a steal !
2005/2006: 9.1 ppg - 7.5 reb - 50% fg ($ 6.5 M) - Uhm, from 'good' to 'ok'.
2006/2007: 5.3 ppg - 6.1 reb - 48% ($ 7.1 M) - Let's downgrade it to 'bad'.
2007/2008: 1.4 ppg - 2.7 reb - 42% ($ 7.8 M) - Ouch !! T-e-r-r-i-b-l-e.
2008/2009: 0.8 ppg - 1.9 reb - 37% fg ($ 8.5 M) - Jeez, and I thought it couldn't get worse... dude is 32 y/o, not 42 !!!
2009/2010: 1.6 ppg - 3.3 reb - 48% fg ($ 8.7 M) - Gotta love that "player option" on the seventh year, uh?
I'll do some maths for you: from 2007 to 2010 Kings paid Thomas $ 25 million to play 655 minutes in 57 games (11,4 mpg), and he rewarded them by producing a combined 36 field goals (on 81 attempts, 44%), 29 assists, 12 blocks, 7 free throws (on 17) !!!
Remember, it was Sacramento paying him, but the contract was signed when he was a Sixer. And the player option for the last year was the icing on the cake, again.
According to Basketball Reference, King basically is accountable for 50 of the 54 millions Thomas earned in his NBA career.
And another time, Sixers' former GM was “excited to re-sign", better, overpay, a bum.
"I think he has a tremendous upside. I look forward to Kenny building on the energy he brought to the team at the end of the season and during playoffs”.
How about waiting for another team to make him an offer, and then match, since he was a RESTRICTED free agent in the summer of 2003? No way, it wasn't Billy's style !! Probably King thought someone could have offered Thomas more (...) and was even proud of himself because he saved money by signing him immediately.
I'll end this deservingly long post with an excerpt from an article by Bill Simmons, a good friend of Billy King and his signings:
I just can't reward any team that signs Greg Buckner for six years and $18 million, then follows that beauty one year later by giving Kenny Thomas $50 million over seven years.
Fifty million dollars for Kenny Thomas???? Are you KIDDING me? When Philly made that offer to Thomas's agent, do you think he started glancing around the room looking for Ashton Kutcher and the "Punk'd" cameras?
After I heard about the contract, I immediately called my buddy Joe House. Keep in mind, House follows pro hoops with the best of them. Anyway, here was our exchange:
Me: Did you see how much Kenny Thomas signed for with Philly?
House: How much?
Me: Guess.
House: I dunno ... three years, $10 million?
Close.
