What have you done for us lately?

10. Dallas re-signing Jerry Stackhouse
Paying a 32 year old non-starter $7 million a year for three years, when seemingly no one else would pay him $7 million for one year is unwise.  I know Stack has produced for Dallas, but the quickest road to mediocrity in the NBA is overpaying for role players.  Despite being the league's leading scorer earlier in his career that’s what Stack is these days. 

9. Minnesota drafting Corey Brewer
Let's see, what did Minnesota do in the past two lotteries?  Draft shooting guards (Rashad McCants & Randy Foye).  OK.  In addition to those two, the T'Wolves have two other shooting guards on the roster in Ricky Davis and Trenton Hassell.  OK.  So, on a team whose best big man not named Garnett (at the time of the draft) was Mark Blount, what does GM Kevin McHale do?  Draft SG Corey Brewer.  Obviously.  

8. Lakers resigning Luke Walton
A six-year contract for a player with the last name of Walton would be a good idea, if his first name were Bill.

7. Phoenix's  cheapness
First they sell their draft pick, Rudy Fernandez, after doing the same thing in the past two drafts.  They missed out on Sergio Rodgriguez, and more importantly Rajon Rondo because of that.  Rondo will soon emerge as one of the game's top young PGs, and both are definitely better than Marcus Banks, Nash’s current overpaid back-up.  Then, they gave away two future first round picks, just to get Seattle to take Kurt Thomas off their hands.  Giving away young players for cash is bad enough, but giving away your only defensive big man besides Amare in a year you want to win an NBA title is a confusing of priorities.  Worrying about saving a million here or there could end up costing the Suns a NBA title in the Steve Nash era.

6. San Antonio trading away Luis Scola to pay the newest star in pro European ball
Trading a guy who will immediately be a starter and likely difference maker for a team in your division that could challenge you for the Western conference crown is probably not ideal.  Scola, an important member of the Argentian team, which won the gold medal over Team USA, could haunt the Spurs for years to come.   Granted, the Spurs got something in return-- they received a 2nd round pick in '09, future considerations and the right to pay Vassilis Spanoulis $1.9 million to play for Panathinaikos.  A Greek team.  So that’s sweet.

5. Miami doing  nothing
Their highlights of the Miami off-season consisted of drafting Dequan Cook and signing Smush Parker and Penny Hardway.  Cook could be a nice bench player, in two to three years.  Lil’ Penny probably has more left in his knees than Anfernee today.   While Parker is a nice role player, for a team that got swept in the first round last year, more needed to be done.  Especially considering Shaq, Jason Williams, Antoine Walker... basically everyone besides Dwayne Wade is only going to get older, more injured and worse.  Losing James Posey and Jason Kapono will hurt too.

4. Cleveland doing absolutely nothing
After having the easiest road to the NBA finals in history and putting up an EMBARASSING challenge to the Spurs, what did you think the Cavs would do?  Try to build on their first real success in years?  Improve LeBron's supporting cast, giving him a chance to capitalize on his talent and try to win multiple titles?  Maybe you would.  Danny Ferry and the Cavs chose to sign Devin Brown.  That's it.  No draft picks, no other pick-ups.  They also failed to re-sign their other best two young players: Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao.  If those two do not return, it will be a hard fall back to the earth for the Cavs and a LONG, LONG time before LeBron gets back to the Finals.  Even with those two, given the changing dynamics of the East and LeBron’s still deficient supporting cast, it will be years before he has a chance for a title again, if  ever.

3. Orlando signing Rashard Lewis
Let me give you a list of names: Vince Carter, Yao Ming, Richard Hamilton, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki.  In that list are many multiple time all-stars, players who have advanced far into the post season, if not winning the championship outright.  Now consider that Rashard Lewis will make more than all of them next year.  He will make more than double what Josh Howard is paid.  Lewis has made one all-star and been all the way to the second round of the playoffs.  Odds are he will lead the Magic right into a first round exit for the length of his deal.

2. Orlando's hiring & firing of Billy Donovan
First off, unless the guy you hire's name is Larry Brown, former college coaches are not good choices to be NBA head coaches.  John Calipari, Kevin O'Neal and Lon Kruger are just a few of the failures.  Not only is the pro game more complex, coaching men is 180 degrees different from coaching boys.  Despite all these reasons, mainly this move made the list because the Magic let Donovan go scott free.  No penalties, no lawsuits, nothing.  Heavens no, don't punish the Florida Gators coach for signing a contract paying him millions of dollars, and then changing his mind days later.  Donovan should have been sued for millions of dollars and had his name dragged through the mud.  He behaved like a child and should have been punished.  That's what happens when you act like a child in the real world.  Instead, the Magic look like chumps, or a stronger word.  I just never get to use chumps too often in prose.         

1. Minnesota for not firing Kevin McHale
The man should have been fired years ago.  Failing to surround Kevin Garnett with any kind of a team for basically a decade is a tragedy.  An injustice even, as given his talent who knows how what Garnett could have done with a half-way decent supporting cast.  Trading Kevin for Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes. Al Jefferson, center Theo Ratliff, two probably non-lottery first-round picks and cash is beyond disgusting.  It may have been the best package he could get at the time, but that's only because McHale screwed up the whole trade process and should have moved Garnett at least a year or two ago.  This year his team will challenge the NBA’s record for futility of nine total wins.