Signing Cardinal was not one of Jerry West's good ones

Seeing Brian Cardinal flopping around out there for the Dallas Mavericks during the NBA Finals, it's impossible not to remember him as a Warrior.

Remember, he had that one good season in 2003-04 and parlayed it into a big-time contract with the Memphis Grizzlies?

It was Jerry West who was the Grizzlies general manager at the time, and it's probably considered one of the worst moves he's made in his career as an executive. The topic of Cardinal and his signing came up during a discussion with West on Thursday.

"He was a player we thought would help," said West, the Grizzlies GM from 2002-07. "He could shoot the 3-pointer, gives you great effort, and (coach) Hubie Brown really liked him. When you looked at the strengths and weakness of that team, we felt we needed a dirty-work type player, get loose balls. Make those kinds of plays."

Memphis was coming off a 50-win season and their first playoff appearance in franchise history. They were swept in the first round by San Antonio.

"(Cardinal) played great for the Warriors," West said of the 2003-04 season in which Cardinal averaged 9.6 points per game and shot 44 percent from 3-point range. "His first year he played well, and then he got hurt. To say that we were disappointed would be the truth. Then he got hurt and he never really got back to where he was.

"We thought he could contribute. He was a guy we thought could help. It didn't work out. But those are the kinds of risks you take when you're trying to get better, particularly when you're trying to get to the next level, which that team was at the time."