Official PDA live radio thread

Fair enough, I guess I didn't grasp the depth of your frustration with PDA. I probably should not have made it sound like I think PDA has a precisely calculated plan because I believe he does not. I'm just saying that I'm willing to cut the guy some slack and give him a fair amount of time to bring a totally dysfunctional franchise back to respectability. Am I happy with Malone's firing? No, but I guess I'm not quite as offended as others on this forum about how or why it was done. If it turns out that he is truly inept I will help lead the charge to have him removed, but right now I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. BTW, thank you for taking the time to represent Kingsfans at the interview.
I was happy to represent KF.com and I hope I did an okay job with what little role I had.

And for what it's worth, I'm frustrated but also willing to see how things play out for a while before I call for PDA's head. If he's got a plan, I hope we start seeing elements of it soon.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
These should clear the air for those naive fans who thought the FO are that stupid to ignore Cousins' strength.

The most knowledgeable fan (in basketball and statistics) was right all along when he states that:


I don't think you can be wrong when Cousins, the coach, the GM, and Capt. Factorial are in agreement. The plan will for sure result to improvement in the long term.
Except, of course, they are all wrong. Just because you 'can' run, doesn't mean that you should run. To paraphrase the great American philosopher Chris Rock, you can drive a car with your feet, if you want to, but that doesn't make it a good idea.
 
Cousins is saying he agrees with the running because he's trying to be a professional in his post game interviews and say the right things. His actions on the court make it quite clear he's not happy about what's going on or the new style
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
PDA said he fired Malone because he was 2-18 without Cousins and that was Philadelphia territory and that those guys are trying to lose.

Our GM ladies and gentlemen...
why don't you fire yourself you little twitching rodent, since you are the idiot who put together the squad outside of Cousins and JT, and they are 2-18 without Cuz, and that's Philadelphia territory.
 
why don't you fire yourself you little twitching rodent, since you are the idiot who put together the squad outside of Cousins and JT, and they are 2-18 without Cuz, and that's Philadelphia territory.
my thoughts exactly. These guys in the FO are always looking for the next guy to fire (they fired tons of employees when they took over, as well as all the management that was there). How about this, FIRE YOURSELVES!
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
You seem to be misunderstanding my point. My point was that asking whether the team that is the single best team at (X) ended up winning the championship is not a good way to measure whether X has value. You wouldn't argue that defense is unimportant (nor would I), yet the single-best team at defense rarely wins the championship. Less than 20% of the time, apparently. There are better ways to measure the contribution of defense (or X).
And you are misunderstanding my point: there are rather more teams that are winning championships that are Top 10 in 'X' than there are that are Top 10 in 'Y'.
  • Number of NBA Champions in the last fifteen years to finish outside of the Top 10 in three-point attempts: 9 (2000 lakers, 2003 Spurs, 2004 Pistons, 2005 Spurs, 2006 Heat, 2008 Celtics, 2009 lakers, 2010 lakers, 2012 Heat, 2014 Spurs).
  • Number of NBA Champions in the last fifteen years to finish outside of the Top 10 in Opponent's FG%: 1 (2001 lakers)
  • Number of NBA Champions in the last fifteen years to finish outside of the Top 10 in PPG allowed: 3 (2001 lakers, 2006 Heat, 2009 lakers)
And, add to that, one more I just did the legwork on: Number of NBA Champions in the last fifteen years to finish outside of the Top 10 in PPG allowed per 100 possessions: 1 (2001 lakers)

240 is the wrong number to use because by choosing to look at teams that won two playoff series, you eliminated 180 of those 240 teams. You changed your denominator.

Let me say it this way: You stated that of 240 playoff teams, only 10 won two series AND were top-5 in three-point rate. Let's turn that around. There were 240 playoff teams, and only 50 won two series and were NOT top-5 in three-point rate. This is an exactly equivalent statement. Yet the sum of [teams that won two series and were top-5] and [teams that won two series and were not top-5] is only 60, not 240. 240 is the wrong denominator...in this case, 60 is the right one. Saying "10 of 240" improperly stacks the deck against those teams (it wrongly implies that 230 of 240 were not top-5) in the same way that saying "50 of 240" would be improperly stacking the deck against non-top-five teams (it wrongly implies that 190 of 240 WERE top-5).
FWIW, the number of teams that got out of the first round is not a number that I would categorize as significantly higher.
 
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why don't you fire yourself you little twitching rodent, since you are the idiot who put together the squad outside of Cousins and JT, and they are 2-18 without Cuz, and that's Philadelphia territory.
Once again, PDA is just a walking contradiction of a man.

When asked why the team is struggling now, he says something like "Cousins still isn't 100%." (paraphrase)
However, when asked why they fired Malone, he says "We were 2-18 w/o Cuz." (paraphrase)

Sooo, team is bad now = be patient. Wait until Cuz is healthy.
Team bad under Malone = fire the dude.

I really don't think he is fully self-aware.
 
As I expected, lots of spin from D'Alessandro. But what concerned me much more was that what little substance I did hear was frightening.

1) Corbin is the coach until the end of the season.
2) PDA thinks that there is a lot more talent on this roster than there really is
3) He thinks the team should be taking a lot more threes
4) There was no plan in place after firing Malone - just that his style wasn't "the kind of team we want to be"
5) He thinks the team will play the same level of defense they did under Malone for Corbin
6) He chalks up DeMarcus being upset about Malone's firing to Boogie being "an emotional guy" and not much else
7) When asked about STH not renewing he raised his eyebrows and said, "Because we fired a coach? Come on."

Originally I was thinking this was a power play or some other behind the scenes machinations. But after this morning my thought is that the guy just doesn't get it.
I missed this part earlier and still haven't (won't?) listen to the interview. Did he really respond that way to #7??

If so, I'm PISSED OFF. My ticket partner and I were SO excited to get season tickets after the team was saved. Her parents had season tickets back in the day and we couldn't wait to jump in. We're not rich people...certainly not corporate STH's. We also live in Chico, so we need to sell about half of our tickets in a season. This has been really difficult lately...sometimes we can't even give the tickets away (and they're great seats). We bought these tickets because we were buying STABILITY. It was an investment, especially with a new arena coming. We were sold by a pretty great sales pitch: priority for the new arena and the promise that these tickets would sell like crazy once the team turned around (which seemed to be happening). I know there are no guarantees of success, but the purposeful and irrational sabotage by our own front office hurts...it hurts BAD. It's personal. I feel like I helped keep this team here. When the HereWeStay campaign was rolling, I pledged that I would buy season tickets when the time came...and I did it. I came through on my end of the deal. Perhaps I don't have the stomach to be a season ticket holder. It has been great much of the time, but it has also added a lot of stress I don't need. I'm sure some would call me crazy for doing this from Chico, but I really care about the team and about the entire region. I know that life is richer in all of NorCal with the Kings around...not just the city of Sacramento. I desperately want to keep my season tickets, but it's getting harder and harder to make sense of it. And when decisions like this are made without reason, it's crushing.

So Pete, YES...it's possible that renewals don't happen because YOU fired a coach. This is OUR team.
 
I was happy to represent KF.com and I hope I did an okay job with what little role I had.

And for what it's worth, I'm frustrated but also willing to see how things play out for a while before I call for PDA's head. If he's got a plan, I hope we start seeing elements of it soon.
And therein lies the problem. Even after today's presser, we're still left with a big, fat "IF."
The only real hints at any sort of "plan," were:
a) RUN
b) Ty Corbin
c) New Arena
d) Be patient
e) "I know what I'm doing."

However, the saddening thing is that (and he prob wasn't even aware he said it) he even admitted at one point in referencing Corbin that he "doesn't know" what lies beyond this year.

If he's been GM now for 18 months or so and we still can't tell wth he's doing, that's a problem. It's no longer a "wait and see, be patient" approach OR a "well, he's inherited a Maloof mess," no, this is HIS mess now and he needs to be held accountable.
 
Some of it was on-court philosophy, both offensive and defensive. He's pretty adamant that defense is a crucial part of the equation. He doesn't want to go "Paul Westhead" and he even thinks that Corbin is pushing the pace too much right now, though he doesn't want to micromanage him down. The numbers I believe were that under Corbin we're 4th in pace and he thinks that somewhere around 9th/10th would be better for the team. But thinking like this gives me a strong impression that they've got a real plan about what they want to do (and no, he's not sharing that, unsurprisingly). Unlike the common perception, it's not about "LEt'S GeT DUnnnkZ LOL!" like he's getting crucified for here. He believes there's a need for the team to take more three-point shots, and while the smash-mouthers around here will poo-poo that, I agree that the numbers say yes. There's a reason that the number of threes leaguewide taken has increased basically every year since they were introduced, and it's not because everybody in the NBA is dumb. Threes are simply more efficient shots, corner threes even moreso.
The Kings are a poor 3 point shooting team and that's a weakness that needs to be addressed. Simply taking more threes isn't going to help if the team shoots a terrible percentage though.

And that's part of why I asked my question after the broadcast. This team seems absolutely assembled for the style Malone was playing - half court, grind it out, play defense and rebound and attack the basket. Not counting Boogie's 1 for 2 performance from behind the line this season there are no Kings shooting over 40% from three and only three guys (McLemore, Collison and Gay) shooting over 32% from three. As a team the Kings are 22nd in 3pt% and 29th in both attempts and makes from distance.

The only two players left on the roster D'Alessandro inherited are Cousins and Thompson. Every other player has been somebody PDA brought in via draft, trade or free agency. He brought in a starting PG with a career 36.7% shooter (38.1% this year) who more importantly had never averaged more than 2.4 3pt attempts per game until this season (3.1) For reference Steph Curry takes 7.7 3pt shots per game. The numbers say Collison is a decent 3pt shooter and yet he takes a fairly low number of them. The eye test says that's because he doesn't get much elevation on his shot, doesn't have a quick release and thus can only take 3's when he has a lot of space. He's not a natural long distance shooter and is much better from midrange, especially off the dribble vs off the catch. PDA brought in a backup PG that has shot 31% for his career. Rudy Gay 34% career shooter. Derrick Williams is just under 30% from three. McLemore is a welcome surprise this year because honestly, if he's not hitting from outside this team has ZERO reliable outside shooters to consistently stretch the floor.

D'Alessandro hasn't brought in a single stretch four to play off the bench. In fact, he traded one away in Patrick Patterson who is shooting 46% from three off the bench in Toronto.
http://vorped.com/1-nba/2014-2015/player/1230/patrick-patterson/shotchart/
Again, couldn't he have forced Toronto to take Jimmer's expiring instead? Because then at least I'd say the GM values outside shooting. I just don't get it.

How can someone look at this roster - one they assembled no less - and think it should be playing at a much faster pace with less half court offense and shoot more threes? Cousins, Thompson, Landry, Evans, Gay - none of those guys are transition guys. And quite honestly neither is McLemore. He can finish, but he doesn't have the ball handling, passing or decision making (not yet at least) to have the ball in his hands on the break very often.

Hearing Pete talk today I got a much better idea of exactly what type of team he'd like the Kings to be. But that's not the team he built.

I find PDA to be sincere. I know a lot of people don't. But they weren't in the room. Maybe I'm naive, but I generally find myself a good judge of character. Yes, PDA spun and avoided a lot on the air, he told us ahead of time he was going to do that. There are things he can't say on the air, and I'm sure it's a tough job to walk that fine line he had to walk.

But I believe he's quite sincere in wanting to do what's best for this team, and I have more faith in his ability than most here.
I also think D'Alessandro really wants to build a good team. But I'm just not sure he has the ability. But we'll see. Barring 10 day contracts and the like, by the trade deadline we'll know the roster that will finish the year and hopefully that gives us some insight into what PDA actually has planned.

Because my biggest frustration is one that I didn't even realize until yesterday's broadcast. We had a team winning games and competing every night when DeMarcus was healthy. More importantly it looked like we had a GM and a coach working in lockstep. Darren Collison was a huge key to Malone being able to have his team give effort on defense the way he wanted. Omri was a great sparkplug. Even the Landry signing looked much better this season. I was giving PDA a lot of credit for the moves he made BECAUSE of the way the team was playing under Malone. I eased up my criticism of him and started thinking that maybe we DID have a front office and coach that could grow together like RC Buford and Pop or Sam Presti and Scott Brooks.

Sure Malone had his warts as a coach and some things he needed to grow into. But PDA also missed out on Robin Lopez, got nothing for IT, gave up a promising piece in Patterson when Toronto was giving away Gay, has built a bench that can't score etc. He's made plenty of mistakes too. But they all could have grown together and seen where it went.

I could at least envision that path to success. I have no idea what the pathway is now, if indeed there is one.
 
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I missed this part earlier and still haven't (won't?) listen to the interview. Did he really respond that way to #7??
Yes, and it really caught me off guard. He then went on to talk about being patient, that the Kings management would deliver a winner etc etc. But his initial reaction was that he thought anyone being that upset was a total overreaction on their part. At least that's how I took it.

And to be clear, he (1) said this after the broadcast and (2) was making it as a kind of "true fans need to stick it out" type statement. It seems clear that he truly believes he's going to deliver a winning team in Sacramento. Obviously I hope he's right.
 
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The Kings are a poor 3 point shooting team and that's a weakness that needs to be addressed. Simply taking more threes isn't going to help if the team shoots a terrible percentage though.

And that's part of why I asked my question after the broadcast. This team seems absolutely assembled for the style Malone was playing - half court, grind it out, play defense and rebound and attack the basket. Not counting Boogie's 1 for 2 performance from behind the line this season there are no Kings shooting over 40% from three and only three guys (McLemore, Collison and Gay) shooting over 32% from three. As a team the Kings are 22nd in 3pt% and 29th in both attempts and makes from distance.

The only two players left on the roster D'Alessandro inherited are Cousins and Thompson. Every other player has been somebody PDA brought in via draft, trade or free agency. He brought in a starting PG with a career 36.7% shooter (38.1% this year) who more importantly had never averaged more than 2.4 3pt attempts per game until this season (3.1) For reference Steph Curry takes 7.7 3pt shots per game. The numbers say Collison is a decent 3pt shooter and yet he takes a fairly low number of them. The eye test says that's because he doesn't get much elevation on his shot, doesn't have a quick release and thus can only take 3's when he has a lot of space. He's not a natural long distance shooter and is much better from midrange, especially off the dribble vs off the catch. PDA brought in a backup PG that has shot 31% for his career. Rudy Gay 34% career shooter. Derrick Williams is just under 30% from three. McLemore is a welcome surprise this year because honestly, if he's not hitting from outside this team has ZERO reliable outside shooters to consistently stretch the floor.

D'Alessandro hasn't brought in a single stretch four to play off the bench. In fact, he traded one away in Patrick Patterson. Again, couldn't he have forced Toronto to take Jimmer's expiring instead? Because then at least I'd say the GM values outside shooting. I just don't get it.

How can someone look at this roster - one they assembled no less - and think it should be playing at a much faster pace with less half court offense and shoot more threes? Cousins, Thompson, Landry, Evans, Gay - none of those guys are transition guys. And quite honestly neither is McLemore. He can finish, but he doesn't have the ball handling, passing or decision making (not yet at least) to have the ball in his hands on the break very often.

Hearing Pete talk today I got an idea of what type of team he'd like the Kings to be. But that's not the team he built.



I also think D'Alessandro really wants to build a good team. But I'm just not sure he has the ability. But we'll see. Barring 10 day contracts and the like, by the trade deadline we'll know the roster that will finish the year and hopefully that gives us some insight into what PDA actually has planned.
Not sure how anyone, especially PDA ,can refute this, which is what makes this whole thing so bizarre.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
And you are misunderstanding my point: there are rather more teams that are winning championships that are Top 10 in 'X' than there are that are Top 10 in 'Y'.
Please go back and read through what I have been saying again. You have entirely missed the point I was trying to make. I never once said three pointers were MORE important than defense. In fact I said the opposite. And the dispute here is not about defense anyway.

The whole thing started when I said (implied, really) that three-pointers are good.

You challenged this by making an argument based on NBA champions and #1 teams in three-point rate. This is a small sample size of statistical outliers, and really shouldn't be used to draw serious conclusions.

I responded by making a nice plot to show you that there is in fact a correlation (and a pretty good one) between how good of an offensive team you are and how many three pointers you take. This is a better way to measure the value of the three point shot than your argument.

You dismissed this and reiterated your "championship" argument.

So I tried to point out - using your own argument against an aspect of basketball that you like (defense) - that your argument against an aspect of basketball that you don't like (three pointers) was not a good argument. This was obviously a mistake on my part because 1) the magnitude of how bad the argument is when used against defense is not as large as the magnitude of how bad the argument is against three pointers (precisely BECAUSE defense is more important, by the way), and 2) it led you to think I was arguing against defense when I was doing no such thing. The strategy I used to try to point out why your argument wasn't good, well, that strategy wasn't good. My fault.

At any rate, defense and three pointers are of course not mutually exclusive. We can have both defense AND improve our offense. (In fact, we'd better do both if we want to win.)
 
Heard the first 10-15 min on way in to work..and that was all I needed to hear. I've always had my doubts about this FO and now my doubts are no longer doubts.
 
Once again, PDA is just a walking contradiction of a man.

When asked why the team is struggling now, he says something like "Cousins still isn't 100%." (paraphrase)
However, when asked why they fired Malone, he says "We were 2-18 w/o Cuz." (paraphrase)

Sooo, team is bad now = be patient. Wait until Cuz is healthy.
Team bad under Malone = fire the dude.

I really don't think he is fully self-aware.
Have you ever tried to juggle literal bull crap?

It gets all over the place.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
And therein lies the problem. Even after today's presser, we're still left with a big, fat "IF."
The only real hints at any sort of "plan," were:
a) RUN
b) Ty Corbin
c) New Arena
d) Be patient
e) "I know what I'm doing."

However, the saddening thing is that (and he prob wasn't even aware he said it) he even admitted at one point in referencing Corbin that he "doesn't know" what lies beyond this year.

If he's been GM now for 18 months or so and we still can't tell wth he's doing, that's a problem. It's no longer a "wait and see, be patient" approach OR a "well, he's inherited a Maloof mess," no, this is HIS mess now and he needs to be held accountable.
You forgot:

f) I'm a lawyer
g) nervous laugh
h) I'm no idiot
 
Yes, and it really caught me off guard. He then went on to talk about being patient, that the Kings management would deliver a winner etc etc. But his initial reaction was that he thought anyone being that upset was a total overreaction on their part. At least that's how I took it.

And to be clear, he (1) said this after the broadcast and (2) was making it as a kind of "true fans need to stick it out" type statement. It seems clear that he truly believes he's going to deliver a winning team in Sacramento. Obviously I hope he's right.
Sounds like he's taking the loyal fan base for granted, thus taking advantage of fans who have unfortunately proven they will put up with quite a lot. It's probably not even something he sees as much of a gamble. Enough people will stay. They always have.
 
I particularly enjoyed how Pete kept talking about cuz, gay, collison like they were the next big 3. To act like our record should be do much better when it's gay and collison covering for Cuz's absence shows how out of touch PDA is with the reality of the roster he built.
 
So basically PDA wants to follow the trend of the league right now - early offense, ball movement, decent outside shooting, defense.
What's wrong with that? To me this sounds like the right vision moving forward.
I'm not a stats guy, but the way I watch the contenders play right now, is focused around these points PDA made.

I'm not frustrated by the vision but by the poor execution. the coaching change did nothing to improve our weaknesses and messed up our defensive effort.
We are still a selfish, turnover prone team and rely on Cousins post presence too much, not even trying to giveBen or Nik more shots.
As already mentioned the roster moves PPDA made, didn't fit this vision at all.
 
This whole situation is farcical.

Honestly never in sport have I ever been in a situation where I have no idea what to do next... how do we even (realistically) move forward in this situation?!? How did everything go south so quickly???
 
So basically PDA wants to follow the trend of the league right now - early offense, ball movement, decent outside shooting, defense.
What's wrong with that? To me this sounds like the right vision moving forward.
I'm not a stats guy, but the way I watch the contenders play right now, is focused around these points PDA made.

I'm not frustrated by the vision but by the poor execution. the coaching change did nothing to improve our weaknesses and messed up our defensive effort.
We are still a selfish, turnover prone team and rely on Cousins post presence too much, not even trying to giveBen or Nik more shots.
As already mentioned the roster moves PPDA made, didn't fit this vision at all.
To establish early offense, ball movement and outside shooting PDA would have to make roster moves that add quality passers and shooters to the roster. All PDA did by firing Malone was destabilize the situation and set the defense back.
 
To establish early offense, ball movement and outside shooting PDA would have to make roster moves that add quality passers and shooters to the roster. All PDA did by firing Malone was destabilize the situation and set the defense back.
Yes i think, we all agree about this. There is no visible improvement. So in the short term those moves didn't work. Maybe it pans out in the long term.
 
So basically PDA wants to follow the trend of the league right now - early offense, ball movement, decent outside shooting, defense.
What's wrong with that? To me this sounds like the right vision moving forward.

I'm not a stats guy, but the way I watch the contenders play right now, is focused around these points PDA made.

I'm not frustrated by the vision but by the poor execution. the coaching change did nothing to improve our weaknesses and messed up our defensive effort.
We are still a selfish, turnover prone team and rely on Cousins post presence too much, not even trying to giveBen or Nik more shots.
As already mentioned the roster moves PPDA made, didn't fit this vision at all.
because "trends" come and go, they're entirely dependent on the talent available to a given roster, and they're predictable to defend. under mike malone, the kings were playing a hard-nosed style of basketball that rival coaches, executives, and players described as "tough." before demarcus cousins contracted viral meningitis, the kings' starting five was one of the strongest defensive units in the entire nba. for the first time in almost a decade, the kings were tough to beat because they beat up they're opponents with defense and with a relentless low-post oriented offense. they don't shoot lights out from beyond the arc. they don't whip crisp passes around the court. but they were tough, and tough is a proven way to get yourself wins in the nba...

the memphis grizzlies shoot approximately 16 threes per game, and they hit approximately 36% of them. the kings shoot approximately 15 threes per game, and they hit approximately 34% of them. more to the point, the memphis grizzlies offensive pace factor is 94, good for 27th in the nba. they're a slow, grind it out team that doesn't lean very heavily on outside shooting, yet they're 25-9 (.735) and currently 3rd seeded in the mighty western conference (oh yeah, and with years of playoff success in tow despite using a slow, grind it out style)...

now, this isn't to invalidate the trendy nature of offensive philosophy spreading across the nba. this is simply to say that there's more than one way to skin a cat; you can win in the nba without running all over the court. you can win in the nba without tossing threes at the rim all game long. you can win in the nba without an abundance of assists. perhaps most importantly, you must win in the nba with the roster you have, rather than the roster you wish you had...

here's a simple question: does the make-up of the kings' roster (the very same roster that pete d'allesandro has assembled in its entirety outside of demarcus cousins and jason thompson) more closely resemble the golden state warriors or the memphis grizzlies? mike malone knew the answer to that question. hell, mike malone understood the nature of the roster that PDA assembled better than PDA himself understands the nature of the roster he assembled. malone knew how to inspire legitimate, sustainable culture change in his team through strong defensive principles and a punishing low-post oriented attack. he got his team to play with "grit and grind." he got his team to win, and to believe that they were winners (they were downing western conference heavyweights left and right before viral meningitis took the kings' legs out from under them)...

what has pete d'allesandro managed to inspire in this kings team since he fired mike malone? confusion? apathy? anger? all of the above? what has pete d'allesandro managed to inspire in kings fans since he fired mike malone? confusion? apathy? anger? open revolt? all of the above?
 
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gunks

Hall of Famer
why don't you fire yourself you little twitching rodent, since you are the idiot who put together the squad outside of Cousins and JT, and they are 2-18 without Cuz, and that's Philadelphia territory.
+100.

I was saying this a month ago in the fire Malone thread. PDA is inept and arrogant.

I brought up a quote of his from around the time of our 5-1 start, the gist of it was that PDA felt our roster s was complete.

Scary thing is, these recent quotes of his make it seem like he STILL thinks his roster is complete.

We have one pissed off star, one heavily flawed star, two decent guards that would probably be benchers on contending teams.... And that is it.

Hubris, thy name is Gerbil.
 
because "trends" come and go, they're entirely dependent on the talent available to a given roster, and they're predictable to defend. under mike malone, the kings were playing a hard-nosed style of basketball that rival coaches, executives, and players described as "tough." before demarcus cousins contracted viral meningitis, the kings' starting five was one of the strongest defensive units in the entire nba. for the first time in almost a decade, the kings were tough to beat because they beat up they're opponents with defense and with a relentless low-post oriented offense. they don't shoot lights out from beyond the arc. they don't whip crisp passes around the court. but they were tough, and tough is a proven way to get yourself wins in the nba...

the memphis grizzlies shoot approximately 16 threes per game, and they hit approximately 36% of them. the kings shoot approximately 15 threes per game, and they hit approximately 34% of them. more to the point, the memphis grizzlies offensive pace factor is 94, good for 27th in the nba. they're a slow, grind it out team that doesn't lean very heavily on outside shooting, yet they're 25-9 (.735) and currently 3rd seeded in the mighty western conference (oh yeah, and with years of playoff success in tow despite using a slow, grind it out style)...

now, this isn't to invalidate the trendy nature of offensive philosophy spreading across the nba. this is simply to say that there's more than one way to skin a cat; you can win in the nba without running all over the court. you can win in the nba without tossing threes at the rim all game long. you can win in the nba without an abundance of assists. perhaps most importantly, you must win in the nba with the roster you have, rather than the roster you wish you had...

here's a simple question: does the make-up of the kings' roster (the very same roster that pete d'allesandro has assembled in its entirety outside of demarcus cousins and jason thompson) more closely resemble the golden state warriors or the memphis grizzlies? mike malone knew the answer to that question. hell, mike malone understood the nature of the roster that PDA assembled better than PDA himself understands the nature of the roster he assembled. malone knew how to inspire legitimate, sustainable culture change in his team through strong defensive principles and a punishing low-post oriented attack. he got his team to play with "grit and grind." he got his team to win, and to believe that they were winners (they were downing western conference heavyweights left and right before viral meningitis took the kings' legs out from under them)...

what has pete d'allesandro managed to inspire in this kings team since he fired mike malone? confusion? apathy? anger? all of the above? what has pete d'allesandro managed to inspire in kings fans since he fired mike malone? confusion? apathy? anger? open revolt? all of the above?
Well i dont think I can convince you or any of the posters here, that are calling for the head of PDA. I don't like the way the way we are playing lately and i don't disagree with your opinion on our playstyle under Malone.
But the basketball the Kings played under Malone is not even close to the basketball the Grizzlies play under Joerger or at least it isn't as far as i can judge it. I don't buy this comparison and i don't think PDA wants us to play like the Warriors.
I get that you are posting stats, but those stats just don't fit with the basketball I watch every Grizzlie game.
The Grizzlies move the ball as well as the Wizards or Hawks, they run every time they get a stop, they actually get into their offense early and wait for Gasol to catch up, if there is no quick shot available, they run multiple Pick&rolls on and off the ball and they rely more on Conley than on Randolph when it comes to scoring or running the offense. Their role players get a lot of open shots and everyone has the green light to shoot the ball.
The Kings offense under Malone was a slow, iso-heavy approach relying totally on DMC and to a lesser extent Gay. The Kings didn't move the ball well, they had countless turnovers on simple plays, they were slow to get into the offense, they didn't play the pick&roll game successfully and their role players were getting almost no easy baskets. And keep in mind that the moment DMC was out of the game our whole offense simply collapsed.


I believe you hit the point, that you have to work with the roster you have available. I believe you hit the point with the bond between Malone and the players. And I don't think that PDA did a good job up to now, in particular with Malons successor and the short term improvement of our playstyle.
But trends in the NBA are there for a reason. This doesn't mean that one must follow every trend 100%, but it will be difficult to succeed in the NBA, if you are taking the completely opposing approach. There are reasons, why the Grizzlies added Carter, Udrih and Lee. There are good reasons that most teams are in love with the 3point shot. There are good reasons that most teams don't rely on isolation plays. And there are good reasons that most teams try to get into their offense as early as possible.

And adjusting to the current trends doesn't turn neither the Grizzlies nor the Kings into the Warriors.
 
why don't you fire yourself you little twitching rodent, since you are the idiot who put together the squad outside of Cousins and JT, and they are 2-18 without Cuz, and that's Philadelphia territory.
There were a number of moments yesterday that I really wanted to be able to followup on things PDA said especially when they seemed completely contradictory, and that was absolutely one of them. Unfortunately the format didn't allow it. But I actually threw out the questions I'd composed to followup when he said that part of Malone's firing was the team's record without Boogie and yet he wanted to be patient with Corbin because DeMarcus was only at "60%". Lots of moments like that, where the contradictions didn't make sense to me.

Malone wasn't doing a phenomenal job as coach (too much isolation and not enough movement, and his end of game plays were maddening) and PDA wasn't doing a phenomenal job as a GM (limited bench, lack of outside shooting, no shotblocking etc) but I felt like they were working hand in hand and building a foundation they could both move forward with. Malone needed the team to cut down on turnovers while increasing ball movement. PDA needed to tweak the roster to have a more effective bench and better shooting and weakside defense. Vivek should have told the two of them to work it out.

Well i dont think I can convince you or any of the posters here, that are calling for the head of PDA. I don't like the way the way we are playing lately and i don't disagree with your opinion on our playstyle under Malone.
But the basketball the Kings played under Malone is not even close to the basketball the Grizzlies play under Joerger or at least it isn't as far as i can judge it. I don't buy this comparison and i don't think PDA wants us to play like the Warriors.
I get that you are posting stats, but those stats just don't fit with the basketball I watch every Grizzlie game.
The Grizzlies move the ball as well as the Wizards or Hawks, they run every time they get a stop, they actually get into their offense early and wait for Gasol to catch up, if there is no quick shot available, they run multiple Pick&rolls on and off the ball and they rely more on Conley than on Randolph when it comes to scoring or running the offense. Their role players get a lot of open shots and everyone has the green light to shoot the ball.
The Kings offense under Malone was a slow, iso-heavy approach relying totally on DMC and to a lesser extent Gay. The Kings didn't move the ball well, they had countless turnovers on simple plays, they were slow to get into the offense, they didn't play the pick&roll game successfully and their role players were getting almost no easy baskets. And keep in mind that the moment DMC was out of the game our whole offense simply collapsed.


I believe you hit the point, that you have to work with the roster you have available. I believe you hit the point with the bond between Malone and the players. And I don't think that PDA did a good job up to now, in particular with Malons successor and the short term improvement of our playstyle.
But trends in the NBA are there for a reason. This doesn't mean that one must follow every trend 100%, but it will be difficult to succeed in the NBA, if you are taking the completely opposing approach. There are reasons, why the Grizzlies added Carter, Udrih and Lee. There are good reasons that most teams are in love with the 3point shot. There are good reasons that most teams don't rely on isolation plays. And there are good reasons that most teams try to get into their offense as early as possible.

And adjusting to the current trends doesn't turn neither the Grizzlies nor the Kings into the Warriors.
If PDA doesn't have the roster he wants now and we cut him the slack to say that he's still working on building it then why wouldn't we cut Malone slack and say that the team isn't playing the way it should but he's still working on it?

The Kings took a giant leap forward on defense this season and that's always been Malone's first priority. Isn't it reasonable to expect that he'd later focus more on improving the offense once the defensive foundation was fully in place?

I was frustrated to hear PDA call for patience in letting every young player develop but a complete lack of patience with his first time coach.
 
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These should clear the air for those naive fans who thought the FO are that stupid to ignore Cousins' strength.

The most knowledgeable fan (in basketball and statistics) was right all along when he states that:


I don't think you can be wrong when Cousins, the coach, the GM, and Capt. Factorial are in agreement. The plan will for sure result to improvement in the long term.
Actions > Words.
 
If PDA doesn't have the roster he wants now and we cut him the slack to say that he's still working on building it then why wouldn't we cut Malone slack and say that the team isn't playing the way it should but he's still working on it?

The Kings took a giant leap forward on defense this season and that's always been Malone's first priority. Isn't it reasonable to expect that he'd later focus more on improving the offense once the defensive foundation was fully in place?

I was frustrated to hear PDA call for patience in letting every young player develop but a complete lack of patience with his first time coach.
Yes you are right. The firing of Malone was premature. I won't argue that.
I just won't agree with the assumptions, that PDA wants to turn us into Golden State Vol. 2 and that there were no reasons at all to fire Malone.
After all the Kings look like a poorly run franchise, but for me this includes the work of Malone to some degree.