Super like.
After the 4th quarter melt down in Game 7 of the WCF, Whitsitt panicked. He'd built a championship team, with great depth and a good balance of proven veterans and hungry young players. That team was well stocked and still had room to improve.
But, one ice cold shooting 4th quarter caused him make some desperation moves that came back to bite him in the ass. Trading Brian Grant, the heart and soul of that team for a 350 lb., coked up Shawn Kemp was the worst. Kemp was nowhere near the player Whitsitt had drafted in SEA and his failure to realize that destroyed any chance that team had of winning anything.
Throw in trading Jermaine for DD, Rod Strickland, the sequel and special treatment for Detlef Schrempf destroyed team chemistry and any hope of ever advancing past the first round again. What a waste of talent. Whitsitt fell in love with the rush of making trades and signing guys we didn't need that fractured an already fragile locker room. Each move he made, made the team worse, not better.
Whitsitt was right about one thing he wasn't a chemistry major. Things were actually going well up until the all star break,. In spite of Pippen being injured, the team was cruising long. Stacy Augmon was playing the best ball of his career in place of Pippen, and while Kemp was a disappointment, he was not yet a distraction.
After the all star break the wheels fell off. There were already squabbles about playing time (Damon vs. Greg Anthony and Bonzie vs. Steve Smith), but things had not yet come to a head.
First, Pippen came back from his injury. Not that big a deal, by itself. It meant Augmon would have to move back to the bench, but at least he'd still get significant minutes, that he'd rightfully earned in Pippen's absence. But then, Whitsitt had the brilliant idea to lure Detlef Schrempf out of retirement by telling him he didn't have to practice with the team, would instantly be part of the rotation and could return to Seattle to be with his family between home games. So, Augmon went from productive starter to 3rd stringer getting zero minutes. On top of it, the guy who bumped him out of the rotation was getting special treatment.
Then Whitsitt gets the brilliant idea to sign Rod Strickland. Damon was already paranoid and whining about losing PT, especially in the 4th quarter, to Greg Anthony, and now they bring in yet another guy who has been a starting PG his entire career. It was completely unnecessary and further shattered the confidence of our starting PG.
And then, Kemp quit on the team and entered rehab. The team fell from 1st seed to 7th in just over a month and got swept in the first round. The franchise would not make it past the first round again for 14 years, when Damian Liliard hit his series winner with .9 seconds left on the clock against HOU.
I'm glad we finally have a GM that understands team chemistry and continuity. The Spurs have understood that for the last two decades. Nice to see we're catching up in that department.
BNM
