5. A troubled star is shipped off to Portland.
Isaiah Rider was taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the fifth overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. In the early years of the franchise, Rider became one of the more consistent offensive threats for the young squad. Isaiah averaged 18.8 points per game over his three-year tenure with the Timberwolves.
Rider was good on the court but he always seemed to find his way into legal trouble. So when Kevin McHale joined the Timberwolves as General Manager in 1995, the first thing people assumed he wanted to do was ship the embattled star elsewhere.
Those people were right.
One of the first big McHale era trades came to fruition in July of 1996. The Timberwolves sent Isaiah Rider to the Portland Trailblazers. In return, the Trailblazers sent James Robinson, Bill Curley, and a draft pick that would later become Paul Grant.
Moving Isaiah wasn’t the issue here but moreover what the Timberwolves settled for. The value that the team added for a player of Isaiah Rider’s caliber was way below average.
When looking back at this trade we can now clearly see that adding the players that Kevin McHale did, ended up being an awful judgment call.
James Robinson averaged 8.3 points per game and departed the team one year after joining it. Next, Bill Curley suffered a knee injury the next season and missed the whole year. Lastly, Paul Grant ended up being another in a long list of prospects gone bust.
Meanwhile, Rider averaged 16.9 points per game over the next three seasons with Portland.
Moving Rider wasn’t the overall issue here but one would assume that a better return on assets could have helped the team a lot.