No, but it does probably listen to Mullins, Richmond and PDA. This was waiting to happen, they just needed an excuse. I don't agree with it, but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm not shocked by it. Long term, if they get it right, and that's a big if, it could be a good thing. Short term, I see in appearance at least, chaos. Look, I'm not a fan of isolation basketball, and apparently neither is the front office. And that's what you were getting with Malone. like it or not. This is what happens when you rush to put your team together. All the parts aren't going to fit properly. Anything done in haste,is going to have a lot of loose parts laying around, and your eventually going to trip over some of them. And that's what happened when Vivek bought the Kings, and personally micro-managed the construction of the front office and the coaching staff in the few weeks preceding the draft.
I'm willing to cut Vivek some slack here. Easy to sit on the outside and criticize. But you have an owner who is smart, and has probably been hands on in all his business enterprises. In a perfect world, he would have had more time to think, and make these decisions. More time to get advice from other owners, and basketball knowledgeable people. There's a reason teams hire their GM's first, and coaches second. Reason number one being, the GM is a buffer between the coach and the owner. He takes all the blame. Just ask Petrie. Vivek has a vision for how he wants the team to play, and by all accounts, Malone didn't share that same vision. It wasn't in his basketball background. That doesn't make Malone a bad coach. Just a bad fit, at least from ownerships point of view. Vivek hired a coach that's old school, and a GM that came out of the Warriors, Nuggets system. That's mixing oil and water folks. It doesn't burn effectively, and you can't drink it.
So I suspect that after last season, Vivek knew he had made a mistake. His mistake, not PDA's mistake. He was caught in a quandary of his own making. His vision of how basketball should be played, rightly or wrongly, wasn't being represented on the court by the team he owned on the court he owned. So it was only a matter of time. I suspect that Vivek is an impatient man who likes to see results. And I suspect that got the better of him. He saw this current losing streak, despite not having Cousins due to illness, as a logical excuse to fire Malone. While I personally didn't like the type of offense Malone was running, the timing of his firing couldn't have come at a worse time. It is Christmas for gods sake, and tuesday is supposed to be Peja's day. This is a PR nightmare. And once again, a self-inflicted one.
Vivek needs his own Jerry West. An experienced basketball mind that he respects, and everyone within the organization respects. Bad basketball decisions, like all bad business decisions can have lasting results. When he bought the team, the one thing needed more than anything else, was a solid foundation on which to build. This team needed effective longevity in its front office, and with its coaching staff. Its difficult to attract top talent when your ownership, front office, and coaching staff project the stability of a third world country. Constant change is the enemy of a successful franchise. I think any new owner is allowed a few early mistakes. Sort of comes with the territory. I'm sure Vivek is bombarded with differing ideas on a regular basis. And he's out of his element. He needs to find someone he respects, and who has been successful over a long period of time to help him with his decisions. Someone who can look him in the eye, and tell his idea is nonsense, or not.
On a personal level, I suggested Bricky, but as yet, I haven't heard back from the Kings.
