Malone fired
- Thread starter fursty13
- Start date
indeed. it seems as if d'allesandro, mullin, and bratz were actually envious of the moderate success malone was having with a style of play that they disapproved of. it's ideology over results, and it's no good, because it's so difficult to try and shape cornerstone talents into players that fit into a system that doesn't play to their strengths...
there's a reason that the knicks have been so terrible this season; they have selfish, isolation-oriented players without a workable on-court chemistry, and phil jackson is trying to shove them into the triangle offense. it didn't work when kurt rambis tried to implement the triangle in minnesota, and brian shaw hasn't had much luck with the triangle in denver, either. square pegs. round holes. you have to have the right kind of personnel to make any system work, so you either trade the personnel to find players who better fit the system, or you amend your ideology...
as a generic basketball philosophy, "read and react" is just fine if you have high IQ basketball talents with superior ball sharing and floor-spacing abilities. the kings have neither, and while their two best players can pass well, and can occasionally spot up away from the paint, these are not their strengths. so the logical decision would be for d'allesandro and co. to amend their ideology...
while i took issue with some of mike malone's rotation and play-calling decisions, his ability to adapt to his personnel impressed me. he knew what he had in his best players, and he put them in a position to succeed alongside each other, with an emphasis on treating demarcus like the cornerstone talent that he is; demarcus cousins makes this entire kings team "go." take that engine out of the equation, and it's like stripping a car for spare parts. there's little else of value there without cousins to keep it running properly. that's a player personnel issue, and those responsibilities surely don't fall to the coach they just fired...
in my estimation, vivek is responsible for this mess. many of us were adamant about how foolish it was first to hire a head coach before hiring a gm, and then second to hire a gm who was bound to clash with that head coach, both on ideological and hierarchical fronts. as it turns out, malone's firing was an inevitable occurrence that only validates those early concerns about vivek's acumen. it's embarrassing to see this kind of self-generated dysfunction immediately after getting out from underneath the maloofs' brand of sabotage...
pete d'allesandro is now on the clock, as far as i'm concerned. vivek backed his gm (a former lawyer and player agent) rather than his head coach (a basketball lifer who was getting competitive results from his team). so PDA's next coaching hire and his upcoming player transactions are going to be the absolute measure of his worth as a gm in the nba. if he f***s this up before the Kings open the doors to their new arena, then i'm happy to lead the calls for his dismissal...
there's a reason that the knicks have been so terrible this season; they have selfish, isolation-oriented players without a workable on-court chemistry, and phil jackson is trying to shove them into the triangle offense. it didn't work when kurt rambis tried to implement the triangle in minnesota, and brian shaw hasn't had much luck with the triangle in denver, either. square pegs. round holes. you have to have the right kind of personnel to make any system work, so you either trade the personnel to find players who better fit the system, or you amend your ideology...
as a generic basketball philosophy, "read and react" is just fine if you have high IQ basketball talents with superior ball sharing and floor-spacing abilities. the kings have neither, and while their two best players can pass well, and can occasionally spot up away from the paint, these are not their strengths. so the logical decision would be for d'allesandro and co. to amend their ideology...
while i took issue with some of mike malone's rotation and play-calling decisions, his ability to adapt to his personnel impressed me. he knew what he had in his best players, and he put them in a position to succeed alongside each other, with an emphasis on treating demarcus like the cornerstone talent that he is; demarcus cousins makes this entire kings team "go." take that engine out of the equation, and it's like stripping a car for spare parts. there's little else of value there without cousins to keep it running properly. that's a player personnel issue, and those responsibilities surely don't fall to the coach they just fired...
in my estimation, vivek is responsible for this mess. many of us were adamant about how foolish it was first to hire a head coach before hiring a gm, and then second to hire a gm who was bound to clash with that head coach, both on ideological and hierarchical fronts. as it turns out, malone's firing was an inevitable occurrence that only validates those early concerns about vivek's acumen. it's embarrassing to see this kind of self-generated dysfunction immediately after getting out from underneath the maloofs' brand of sabotage...
pete d'allesandro is now on the clock, as far as i'm concerned. vivek backed his gm (a former lawyer and player agent) rather than his head coach (a basketball lifer who was getting competitive results from his team). so PDA's next coaching hire and his upcoming player transactions are going to be the absolute measure of his worth as a gm in the nba. if he f***s this up before the Kings open the doors to their new arena, then i'm happy to lead the calls for his dismissal...
G
It was early in the season. Whole different story if it would have been mid-season. When the season starts, teams like the Clippers and even Denver (as evident by their improved record) are not at their best by any means. Be careful wqhen you put any weight into our early season success. We played well because we have a good roster when healthy albeit a weak bench, but don't exaggerate.
Just the reaction of the fans and media storm and that followed this decision has put Pete in such a hole, he's going to have to be brilliant in his next moves to save himself. Vivek has had to answer for the firing himself. That's not the position an owner wants to be in, even if Vivek is at fault as well. Marginal improvement won't cut it for PDA.
I think this basically comes down to conflict in ideals between PDA/Mullin(or Mullens 
) and Malone.
PDA: Well how about getting out and running more
Malone: We have Cousins, we are going to run things in the high and low post and pick our spots to run
PDA: (we gotta get rid of this guy...)
) and Malone.PDA: Well how about getting out and running more
Malone: We have Cousins, we are going to run things in the high and low post and pick our spots to run
PDA: (we gotta get rid of this guy...)
Malone wanted to keep the defense and mindset right and then evolve the offense in a functional way over time.
There is no reason to throw Malone out with crap Corbin as a placeholder now ... except that
* PDA and Malone were going to have repeated arguments over the future of this team with the owner, with both saying the other was wrong. This would eventually lead to one of them going away.
* Malone's way was starting to work. And they flew to Vegas while we were winning!
PDA and sold Vivek that if they replaced Malone with Corbin we would stay about as good as we are now and the defense and improved culture Malone install would remain (this was Vivek's point in the New10 interview) and the team could go to "Phase 2" by keeping all the good, while throwing out the bad. That is non-sense. When this team falls out of shouting distance from OKC and they are tired of their babysitter, the bad habits of crappy teams will come back. This was a rookie GM in a power struggle with his rookie coach, and the owners go to guy is friends with the GM. PDA hurt this team to save at least his vision and probably his own ass.
and that's how it should be when you execute a firing with as much hubris as was on display in the last few days. in professional sports, results matter. winning matters, especially when you're a team more than eight years removed from its last playoff appearance. before big cuz was lost to meningitis, the kings were winning, and they were competitive in most of the games they were losing, with most of those wins and losses coming against tough western conference opponents. i certainly quibbled with malone's decision-making in both the wins and losses, but the fact remains that a team coming off two 28-win seasons is going to have to learn how to win, and that extends to a young head coach like malone. give him the opportunity to grow with his team, though, and perhaps you've secured a future in the win column...
but the front office decided that exceeding early expectations wasn't enough. they canned malone before he could prove much of anything at all, and now they're actually claiming that they know better than everyone else, that there will be long-term dividends for firing mike malone without knowing who his long-term replacement will be. beyond such a move representing exactly how you don't conduct yourself in the nba (which, unlike most of the corporate world, sees its business regularly aired out in public, with countless millions watching), i find it an embarrassingly amateur display of peacocked egoism. the kings' brass is strutting and preening about with their mindf***ingly vague and banal proclamations about what kind of team they want to build while paying little attention to what actually gets the job done in the nba today...
the warriors have been transformed this season on the defensive side of the ball, and that is why they are championship contenders. the grizzlies are a defensive powerhouse, and that is why they're right behind golden state in the brutally competitive west. when big cuz was healthy, mike malone had his starters playing defense at that high of a level. will that continuity continue without him? with the likes of corbin or karl or jackson or mullin? it remains to be seen...
but the front office decided that exceeding early expectations wasn't enough. they canned malone before he could prove much of anything at all, and now they're actually claiming that they know better than everyone else, that there will be long-term dividends for firing mike malone without knowing who his long-term replacement will be. beyond such a move representing exactly how you don't conduct yourself in the nba (which, unlike most of the corporate world, sees its business regularly aired out in public, with countless millions watching), i find it an embarrassingly amateur display of peacocked egoism. the kings' brass is strutting and preening about with their mindf***ingly vague and banal proclamations about what kind of team they want to build while paying little attention to what actually gets the job done in the nba today...
the warriors have been transformed this season on the defensive side of the ball, and that is why they are championship contenders. the grizzlies are a defensive powerhouse, and that is why they're right behind golden state in the brutally competitive west. when big cuz was healthy, mike malone had his starters playing defense at that high of a level. will that continuity continue without him? with the likes of corbin or karl or jackson or mullin? it remains to be seen...
There is NOT a plan. They are figuring it out right now. As we speak. They have no ****ing clue what to do next.
They've admitted as much. Just cause you see a billionaire and think he must be smart, doesn't make it so. He's not. He has no clue how to run a basketball team. He's just doing whatever people tell him to do. At least that's his excuse. Vivek doesn't take accountability for anything.
They've admitted as much. Just cause you see a billionaire and think he must be smart, doesn't make it so. He's not. He has no clue how to run a basketball team. He's just doing whatever people tell him to do. At least that's his excuse. Vivek doesn't take accountability for anything.
Vivek passed the buck pretty smoothly I thought. He clearlty put this on Mully and Petey.
If Corbin doesn't succeed, we may find ourselves with a new FO next season. All the pressure is on the GM now. You think these guys can play jazz ball? Well, the coach who wouldn't do it is gone. Let's see it. If it works worse than what Malone was doing as I strongly suspect, later Petey.
If Corbin doesn't succeed, we may find ourselves with a new FO next season. All the pressure is on the GM now. You think these guys can play jazz ball? Well, the coach who wouldn't do it is gone. Let's see it. If it works worse than what Malone was doing as I strongly suspect, later Petey.