This says a lot:
The Kings’ basketball think tankers – Pete D’Alessandro, Chris Mullin, Mike Bratz – began lobbying Ranadive for a coaching change several weeks ago. According to the owner, D’Alessandro and Mullin flew to Las Vegas eight days ago, where he was attending a software conference, and persuaded him to change coaches, partly to change the culture but mainly to start scrapping the old offense. The push was on to replace the isolation plays and sluggish tempo with a faster pace, ball and body movement, quicker decisions, smaller lineups, and in essence, a more creative, free-flowing system.
“When they both flew in on the earliest flight that morning and wanted to meet with me,” Ranadive added, “I knew they were pretty serious. This was different. I told Pete to do what he thought best.”
The next phase – what D’Alessandro refers to as Phase II of the Kings’ development – begins, of course, with the selection of Malone’s replacement. And in the course of the hour-long conversation Tuesday evening, Ranadive confirmed and revealed the following:
While Corbin will be the head coach for the remainder of the season, other more established candidates will be considered and possibly approached. Though he declined to cite names, George Karl is held in high regard by Ranadive, coached the uptempo-loving Mullin decades ago in Golden State, and is respected immensely by D’Alessandro and Bratz, among his former bosses in Denver.
Ranadive, D’Alessandro and Mullin discussed the possibility of shifting the Hall of Famer from the front office to the bench, but bagged the idea for two reasons. One, Mullin’s interest in coaching fluctuates, and, two, he has no desire to step into the role in the middle of a season, without the benefit of an offseason and the time to assemble an experienced staff.
Though internal discussions about changing coaches transpired at the end of last season, the sentiment within the organization was that Malone deserved a chance to select a lead assistant and become more sympatico with the front office.
The goal is to hit a “home run” with the next head coaching hire, “but I don’t know who that home run is yet,” Ranadive adds. “ ... We need time to research. We want to get this right.”
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article4544925.html#storylink=cpy
Well, flying to Vegas after lobbying for a coaching change a few weeks ago and starting this discussion back then puts the time frame prior to our slide. That's during our hot start. So even back when we were one of the surprises of the league and were knocking off big time teams, PDA/Mullin/Bratz were more concerned with our style than the success which was actually happening on the court, which was our best ball since the Rick era with Cuz out there.
That right there scratches the argument by a few that this had anything to do with the recent slide. This was in motion pre-meningitis. This is also on top of PDA saying even if we were 19-6, he'd still have given Malone the boot.
Furthermore, in my latter bolded section you'll see that Vivek says I don't know who the replacement is yet and "we need time to research". Really? You research
before you can the coach and blow up this season. This also negates the argument of a few that there's a plan in place. They fired Malone and
now are putting together a plan for a replacement. It's not in place. It wasn't thought through. This is self-admission they're making it up as they go. How does anyone with a plan for a more up-tempo, up and down style not already have a plan in place for who Malone's predecessor will be?
BTW, in the defense of Vivek and Malone a few seem oblivious to this likely making our head coaching position quite unattractive. This isn't happening in the Sac bubble. Everyone around the league is taking notice. It's far from attractive to sign on to a franchise with back-stabbers running the FO who'll go behind your back and campaign for your firing no matter your on-court success, at any time, whether or not they've even thought of who your replacement might be. This shows incredible instability and a true lack of foresight. Any coaching candidate has to now acknowledge if he's not enough of a "Jazz director", he too could be fired at any time. If I'm an unattached coach, waiting for Monty to get fired and throwing my hat in the ring for the NO job would be considerably more attractive.
) and Malone.
