Since his most recent stretch has been with the Grizzlies, I asked for some insights from Kevin Lipe, managing editor of Grizzly Bear Blues, SB Nation's Grizzlies blog. Enjoy.
Update: I asked similar questions to Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog. I specifically asked for some clarification on the beginning and end of Wallace's tenure in Boston, because based on the transaction history of the organization it seemed Wallace may have overlapped with the drafting of Paul Piece and the acquisition of Rajon Rondo's draft rights. I couldn't tell whether or not Wallace was involved with those choices. I also asked for some context around some moves that look pretty bad on paper.
Jeff offered the following:
It has been a while and there may be holes in my long term memory, but here are my fractured remembrances.
I don't honestly recall if he was calling the shots on the Pierce draft, but I think it was a no-brainer pick when he fell to 10 after being projected as a top 2 or 3 player in the draft.
Long before Rondo was drafted, Ainge had taken over the GM duties and Wallace had been demoted but kept on staff (much the same way he was in Memphis actually). Obviously he was seen as a valuable guy, but not the best lead man at the time.
The thing to keep in mind with Chris Wallace is that he did a lot of things right, but his legacy in Boston is unfortunately defined by two very unfortunate trades. One seemed like a decent gamble at the time and the other was forced on him by ownership.
The other big blunder was Vin Baker. I'm hazy on all the particulars, but see the last link below for a full account from Bill Simmons on that deal. I believe that it was later revealed that the cheap owner of the time was looking to shed short term money (the deal saved like a million that year) without regard to the long term cap killing nature of the deal because he was looking to sell the team anyway. So again, I think Wallace was nudged in that direction and took the fall for it.
See below for some more Bill Simmons articles mentioning Chris Wallace. Enjoy.
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It's interesting to see yet another circumstance where it's difficult to entirely separate the actions of Wallace from his ownership group. A big thanks to Jeff for his insights.
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