Rob Babcock
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Rob Babcock (born ca. 1953) is an assistant general manager with the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA. He is most notably remembered as the former general manager of the Toronto Raptors. Brothers Pete and Dave also are employed by the NBA.
Babcock has 17 years of NBA management experience. On June 7, 2004, he was named to head the Raptors' basketball operations.
Babcock earned his master’s degree in secondary education and psychology from Arizona State University in 1977. He received an undergraduate degree in 1974 from Grand Canyon with a bachelor of arts in education and social studies.
Prior to working in the NBA on a full-time basis, he was head coach at Phoenix (Arizona) College, where his teams advanced to the ACCAC playoffs twice and were the regional runners-up in 1986. He joined the NBA in 1987 as the director of scouting for the Denver Nuggets. He has also held part-time scouting positions with the Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Diego Clippers and Indiana Pacers before joining the Nuggets staff.
Babcock then completed a successful tenure with the Minnesota Timberwolves after 12 seasons. The last two as the team’s vice-president of player personnel. He served as the director of player personnel from 1994-2002 and two seasons (1992-94) as a fulltime scout.
Babcock left Minnesota to accept the Raptors' GM position, which was vacated after the firing of longtime GM Glen Grunwald. Raptors star Vince Carter had preferred Julius Erving as General Manager instead. Despite Carter's personal friendship with MLSE Chairman Larry Tanenbaum, they decided to go with Babcock instead.
Babcock's first move as GM was drafting center Rafael Araujo 8th overall in the 2004 NBA Draft, a widely criticized move from the onset, considering highly touted Andre Iguodala was drafted with the next pick. Araujo's disappointing play has fueled the criticism of Babcock. As well, prior to the 2004-05 season, Babcock signed mercurial point guard Rafer Alston to a 5 year deal. The move backfired, with Alston reportedly threatening to retire after repeated altercations with rookie head coach Sam Mitchell.
On December 17, 2004 Babcock traded a then disgruntled Vince Carter to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Alonzo Mourning, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams and two first round draft picks. He has come under fire from Raptor fans for this trade, which was regarded as one of the most lopsided deals in NBA history. Mourning never played a game for the Raptors, and his contract was in fact bought out shortly after the trade, supposedly due to career-threatening injury. However, Mourning signed on with the Miami Heat shortly thereafter. The two Williamses play limited minutes for the Raptors. However Joey Graham, drafted with one of the picks acquired from New Jersey, had a very solid rookie season. Babcock's Raptors were voted as having the best overall draft that year by RealGM.com. His two second round picks, Uros Slokar and Roko Ukic, have drawn a lot of international scouts. Surprisingly, Toronto's record improved after the Carter trade, managing almost a 0.500 percentage.
The departure of Carter from Toronto opened the door for emerging star, Chris Bosh, to take the leadership role of the team. Another positive from this highly criticized trade was the enormous cap space created by getting rid of Carter's long, massive contract. Bryan Colangelo took full advantage of all this cap space when he took command after the 2005-06 season. Without the Carter trade, the Raptors would not have had the cap space to sign Anthony Parker, Jorge Garbajosa, or Fred Jones, because Carter is currently making around $17million for the Nets.
Wayne Embry had originally been hired for the 2004-05 season as the Senior Basketball Advisor to Babcock. With MLSE citing a lack of confidence in Babcock's abilities, Embry was elevated to Senior Advisor to MLSE President and CEO Richard Peddie, bypassing Babcock in the chain of command.
In the 2005 NBA Draft, Babcock again defied experts by drafting Charlie Villanueva with the 7th overall pick, a move roundly criticized throughout the NBA. However, Villanueva has been a pleasant surprise, earning NBA Rookie of the Month honors in December 2005. Villanueva also scored a rookie season high 49 points against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Babcock made two other surprising moves which earned him praise within the NBA. They including the signing of Jose Calderon from Spain, and the trading of Alston to the Houston Rockets for point guard/shooting guard Mike James on October 4, 2005. James outperformed Alston in the 2005 season by a significant margin.
Babcock took a lot of heat when a false report claimed that Babcock said the team would be worse this year than the last. However, even though being a misinterpretation, the headline only fueled the media to point more fingers. The Raptors began the 2005-06 season losing their first 9 games and 15 out of their first 16. The team improved in December, but continued to struggle in January.
On January 26, 2006, just one and half years after being hired, Babcock was relieved of his duties as the General Manager of the team by Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment President and CEO Richard Peddie.
Shortly afterwards, Babcock returned to the Minnesota Timberwolves organization as a consultant. On September 14, 2006, Babcock along with Fred Hoiberg were both hired as assistant general managers for the Timberwolves.
