Sacramento Kings

And you know we could have still had IT off the bench instead of sessions right?
Reports are not consistent about whether we could have had IT off the bench. Aaron Bruski sure seems to think so, but I always had the impression that IT wanted no part of a 6th man role. Maybe we will never know the truth about that one.
 
Stopped competing? What does that mean? To me that's akin to one of my least favorite sports platitudes, "he/they wanted it more" which often takes the place of a more nuanced or comprehensive answer for an end result.

The Kings have definitely played a much worse brand of basketball over the last few weeks. How much of that is due to a decrease in effort? I don't know, but assigning it as the primarily or even only reason seems like specious logic to me. Essentially your argument is that a team who, after 24 games, was told their coach was fired because the team wasn't playing the right way should produce exactly the same results despite having to learn a new system during the season while playing for a coach that no one expects to be back next year?

D'Alessandro said that Corbin shouldn't be judged yet because Cousins is only "60%". And yet, you're having your 60% star center (who is 6'11" and 280 lbs by the way) play more minutes per game at a significantly higher pace than at the beginning of the season when he was ostensibly completely healthy and you think that will have better results? And if the players are seeing that the new "style" is costing them wins and the style the coach they liked was fired for playing was allowing them to compete how sold on the system can they be? Even if you want to compete, subconsciously it makes it very hard to give full effort if you don't agree with the direction you're being given and/or don't have any trust in the future of the organization you're a part of.

Just as an aside, not every player in the NBA loves playing basketball. I know it seems that it should be the case, but from a few conversations I've had over the years I can tell that it isn't.
The other comment referenced the guys competing every night.

There has been a decreased in effort. The body language has changed among the players. Our defense has worsen, and 75% of defense is based off of effort and desire. The guys are not bringing 100% every night and it is showing. What's changed between Malone and Corbin? Has Corbin suddenly told the players to focus less on defense? Offense has changed a bit, but defense has not.

If Cousins is only at 60%, shouldn't that automatically be a reason why this team is on the down spiral? Instead, the blame has shifted to the "pace" and "style".

The type of effort we've seen in the first 10 games, isn't the same effort we've seen the last 10 games.

When Cousins was out with his illness, you could see the change in effort and attitude. Guys weren't bringing their A game and played like they expected to lose without Cousins. We're seeing the same thing after Malone's firing.
 
Most people could argue that a lot of Pete's "solid" moves were blind luck....

Rudy Gay? Hit or miss acquisition. And i'll give you a hint as to the two biggest reasons Rudy Gay in Sacramento has worked. One is DeMarcus Cousins, the other was Michael Malone

Dumping Isaiah and rolling with Collison? Looked like a bad move to most. Luckily for Pete, Derren fit in. But a smarter GM would probably have kept Isaiah around as the backup....

which leads me to my next point, RAMON SESSIONS. Pete brought him in. He's been horrible. Yet Pete still tries to force him on us.

Derrick Williams, Pete still insists is a great pickup...........

Letting Robin Lopez go to Portland when he could have been coming here in the Tyreke S&T. Yep, brilliant one there Pete.......

Now he's out here firing a coach that has ALL the players love/respect, most importantly the Kings 3 best players. He's handling business like a freakin amatuer (letting players find out about major team news on social media), etc

the list goes on and on. Pete has made a decent move or two, but even a broken watch is right twice a day. The guy has no track record and he's done more damage than good.
Blind luck? Seriously? Come on... what type of moves do you want to see our GM make? Trade for Lebron? Blind Luck??

He's made good moves that improved our roster.
 
Reports are not consistent about whether we could have had IT off the bench. Aaron Bruski sure seems to think so, but I always had the impression that IT wanted no part of a 6th man role. Maybe we will never know the truth about that one.
I don't think any former starter would want to be a 6th man. But look whats going on in phx he's coming off the bench, and having a very solid year. I think winning cures all
 
I feel you on a few things but giving up reke for greivis Vasquez instead of robin Lopez was a bad idea, and overpaying rudy gay was better than overpaying for reke?
And you know we could have still had IT off the bench instead of sessions right?
Tyreke was my favorite King before he was traded. I believed it was a mistake at the time, but it's proving not to be.

When you look at the bigger picture, Tyreke just didn't fit here. He's a natural PG, and I can go on and on about how much I love his game, but it just wasn't going to work here. We've seen Reke and Cuz play together for 3years, and we've never had a winning season. They don't compliment each other very well because Cousins loves to hover over the paint. As strange as it is, I've noticed Tyreke has gained more muscle and mass to fit the 3 at NO. This has worsen is finishing skills.

It's been 6 years since Reke has been in the NBA, and he still doesn't have a jumper. Reke is a PG, but I don't feel like he would've gotten the opportunity to play the point here.

I think Rudy>Tyreke at the 3.
 
Reports are not consistent about whether we could have had IT off the bench. Aaron Bruski sure seems to think so, but I always had the impression that IT wanted no part of a 6th man role. Maybe we will never know the truth about that one.
Just based off of speculation, I think IT felt like he solidified his starting position with the Kings. IT probably wouldn't have wanted to come off the bench here..especially to Darren Collison. It seems like IT isn't fully sissified with coming off the bench at Phoenix either.
 
Blind luck? Seriously? Come on... what type of moves do you want to see our GM make? Trade for Lebron? Blind Luck??

He's made good moves that improved our roster.
His only good move that has worked out so far was trading for a guy that was disgustingly overpaid and turned his previous two teams into contenders by simply not being on those teams anymore.....

Other than that what has he done, Drafted Nik Stauskas? Signed Sessions? Signed a backup PG as our starting PG? WHOOOOOOOPEEEE!
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I don't think any former starter would want to be a 6th man. But look whats going on in phx he's coming off the bench, and having a very solid year. I think winning cures all
Well he's not happy about it, and there he is behind Dragic and Bledsoe with a strong willed coach.

Trying to keep him pinned behind Collison on what he considered "his" team would have likely gone like trying to keep him behind Greivis, Brooks, even Tyreke. Losing IT was losing talent. Losing his selfish ego was a blessing.
 
Tyreke was my favorite King before he was traded. I believed it was a mistake at the time, but it's proving not to be.

When you look at the bigger picture, Tyreke just didn't fit here. He's a natural PG, and I can go on and on about how much I love his game, but it just wasn't going to work here. We've seen Reke and Cuz play together for 3years, and we've never had a winning season. They don't compliment each other very well because Cousins loves to hover over the paint. As strange as it is, I've noticed Tyreke has gained more muscle and mass to fit the 3 at NO. This has worsen is finishing skills.

It's been 6 years since Reke has been in the NBA, and he still doesn't have a jumper. Reke is a PG, but I don't feel like he would've gotten the opportunity to play the point here.

I think Rudy>Tyreke at the 3.
I think he is more of a 2 guard the offense becomes to one dimensional with him at the 1.
As far as reke and cuz, we never had a chance to see the offense ran through them because of IT looking for his own shot, I remember reke having one of his best games against the bulls when IT got benched for foul trouble.
Rudy is better offensively but as a defender and playmaker reke is a few steps ahead
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
I think he is more of a 2 guard the offense becomes to one dimensional with him at the 1.
As far as reke and cuz, we never had a chance to see the offense ran through them because of IT looking for his own shot, I remember reke having one of his best games against the bulls when IT got benched for foul trouble.
We also never saw Cousins and Evans playing together under a competent coach.
 
His only good move that has worked out so far was trading for a guy that was disgustingly overpaid and turned his previous two teams into contenders by simply not being on those teams anymore.....

Other than that what has he done, Drafted Nik Stauskas? Signed Sessions? Signed a backup PG as our starting PG? WHOOOOOOOPEEEE!
I think Pete has been very active in a lot of trades.

I was a huge fan of both Elfrid Payton and Stauskas. However, I posted here that Stauskas may have been a mistake because of how deep the SG position is overall
 
I think Pete has been very active in a lot of trades.

I was a huge fan of both Elfrid Payton and Stauskas. However, I posted here that Stauskas may have been a mistake because of how deep the SG position is overall
Exactly honestly we should've drafted Payton and signed marshon brooks, who is a proven scorer in this league. He lit it up during his summer run with us
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Blind luck? Seriously? Come on... what type of moves do you want to see our GM make? Trade for Lebron? Blind Luck??

He's made good moves that improved our roster.
The interesting thing is when you get down to it, his one big deal was made with his old boss in Denver. A deal with a friend. beyond that, we won 28 games last year amongst all the mucking, same as 2 years ago, we started doing better and he promptly scuttled us in his 2nd season here. Guys he's dumped are the starting center for a contender in Portland, the #2 guy helping make Anthony Davis a MVP candidate in Portland, and a 6MOY candidate for Phoenix. How much have we improved exactly if you factor out Boogie's improvement? Because he keeps getting better, and we keep not getting better despite it.

Actually if Pete gets himself fired via all this he completely deserves it. It appears it was blind luck that a coach he did not hire had managed to weld his mistakes into a competitive roster. You wouldn't have called them mistakes until Pete exposed how little he knew his own roster and canned a coach getting more out of it than anybody (but Pete and Vivek obviously) thought was possible before the season started. So obviously that wasn't the plan.
 
I think he is more of a 2 guard the offense becomes to one dimensional with him at the 1.
As far as reke and cuz, we never had a chance to see the offense ran through them because of IT looking for his own shot, I remember reke having one of his best games against the bulls when IT got benched for foul trouble.
Rudy is better offensively but as a defender and playmaker reke is a few steps ahead
I disagree with you. We've all seen Tyreke play the 1 in his rookie year and that was when he was the most effective. Imagine if we had a content coach who decided they would leave Tyreke at the 1 and actually develop his passing and PG skills?
I have no doubt in my mind that he would've been a top 5 PG in the NBA IF the Kings actually developed his skills. Tyreke is a good creator for his teammates and is very effective around the basket. PLUS, he's a great defender. 6'5 and could've dominated ALL of the PGs in the NBA.

I love Tyreke's game as a PG, and it's a shame we couldn't let him develop at the 1. I honestly believe that the Kings messed up Tyreke's development. Again, he was my favorite King before he was traded.

Like you said, Reke had one of his best games when IT got benched. I bet you Reke was playing the point... I still hate the Magoofs for messing up a talent like Tyreke.
Tyreke is best when the ball is in his hands. He can create and score. If you play him off the ball, that's when he becomes MOST ineffective. It's why he couldn't play next to a ball hogging IT. Pair that up with a ball dominant C like Cousins, that's the worst possible scenario that Reke could've been in.

Reke should have been our starting PG with Isaiah Thomas coming off the bench, but that was too much to ask for.
 
I disagree with you. We've all seen Tyreke play the 1 in his rookie year and that was when he was the most effective. Imagine if we had a content coach who decided they would leave Tyreke at the 1 and actually develop his passing and PG skills?
I have no doubt in my mind that he would've been a top 5 PG in the NBA IF the Kings actually developed his skills. Tyreke is a good creator for his teammates and is very effective around the basket. PLUS, he's a great defender. 6'5 and could've dominated ALL of the PGs in the NBA.

I love Tyreke's game as a PG, and it's a shame we couldn't let him develop at the 1. I honestly believe that the Kings messed up Tyreke's development. Again, he was my favorite King before he was traded.

Like you said, Reke had one of his best games when IT got benched. I bet you Reke was playing the point... I still hate the Magoofs for messing up a talent like Tyreke.
Tyreke is best when the ball is in his hands. He can create and score. If you play him off the ball, that's when he becomes MOST ineffective. It's why he couldn't play next to a ball hogging IT. Pair that up with a ball dominant C like Cousins, that's the worst possible scenario that Reke could've been in.

Reke should have been our starting PG with Isaiah Thomas coming off the bench, but that was too much to ask for.
I think we would've seen that if we let Malone have a chance with him, hes like james harden but a better finisher instead of a shooter
 
The interesting thing is when you get down to it, his one big deal was made with his old boss in Denver. A deal with a friend. beyond that, we won 28 games last year amongst all the mucking, same as 2 years ago, we started doing better and he promptly scuttled us in his 2nd season here. Guys he's dumped are the starting center for a contender in Portland, the #2 guy helping make Anthony Davis a MVP candidate in Portland, and a 6MOY candidate for Phoenix. How much have we improved exactly if you factor out Boogie's improvement? Because he keeps getting better, and we keep not getting better despite it.

Actually if Pete gets himself fired via all this he completely deserves it. It appears it was blind luck that a coach he did not hire had managed to weld his mistakes into a competitive roster. You wouldn't have called them mistakes until Pete exposed how little he knew his own roster and canned a coach getting more out of it than anybody (but Pete and Vivek obviously) thought was possible before the season started. So obviously that wasn't the plan.
#2 Guy making Tyreke a MVP candidate? Tyreke excels with AD because AD hovers around the perimeter. Cuz loves to hover around the paint because he's a C. The two combo just didn't fit unless Tyreke was going to play the point.

I think Pete's good moves have not been outweighed by the negatives. OKC letting Harden go was a bad move. The Kings letting Tyreke go was not a bad move.

IT situation has a lot of question marks around it. We have no clue what was going on behind the scenes, but it's really strange if your teammates have no communicated with you at all during the offseason. Especially with the sour grapes that've come afterwards especially on twitter. Lots of Q marks around the entire situation
 
I think we would've seen that if we let Malone have a chance with him, hes like james harden but a better finisher instead of a shooter
I agree with you on the James Harden comparison, but at Houston, he gets the keys to that franchise. Here in Sac, he's had to play behind Cousins ever since we've drafted him. I think Malone was in love with Thomas. I doubt he would've let Tyreke play at the point.

If you personally ask me who I would've built the franchise around, I would've picked Tyreke.... no disrespect to the arguably best Center in the NBA, but I love Reke and his game. Him at the point could've been wow. BUT the stupid Magoofs messed it all up..
 
Without a doubt.

in 4 years we've gone from what SHOULD have been a Reke/Thornton/Beno/IT backcourt to a Collison/Mclemore/Stauskas/?Sessions or McCallum backcourt through nothing more than stupid leadership. This is not advancement.
It seems like we've gotten younger.

I personally would MUCH rather have Reke/Thornton than Collison/McLemore or IT/McLemore.

If we had left Reke at PG all 4 years, he'd be one of the best PGs in the NBA. I think a lot of what Thornton did for us was really under appreciated.
 
It seems like we've gotten younger.

I personally would MUCH rather have Reke/Thornton than Collison/McLemore or IT/McLemore.

If we had left Reke at PG all 4 years, he'd be one of the best PGs in the NBA. I think a lot of what Thornton did for us was really under appreciated.
That reke and Thornton backcourt was lethal. I think reke went down with plantar fasciitis and it got the start and that's when it went downhill
 

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
There has been a decreased in effort. The body language has changed among the players. Our defense has worsen, and 75% of defense is based off of effort and desire. The guys are not bringing 100% every night and it is showing. What's changed between Malone and Corbin? Has Corbin suddenly told the players to focus less on defense? Offense has changed a bit, but defense has not.
Yes and no. I'm sure Corbin wanted to see the team playing the same type of defense that they did to start the season. But when you're trying to put in new sets and wrinkles in the middle of the season that's what you spend your limited practice time on. Under Malone they would have kept working on the same things instead of learning a new system. And Corbin HAS changed the defense. Look at the approach our bigs now take on the pick and roll. Point being that I believe the defense has suffered because it isn't the same point of emphasis in practice that it was previously.

If Cousins is only at 60%, shouldn't that automatically be a reason why this team is on the down spiral? Instead, the blame has shifted to the "pace" and "style".
The person who mentioned "pace" and "style" was D'Alessandro since he used them as reasons for Malone's firing. And the bit about Cousins only being 60% was part of a comment by D'Alessandro imploring Kings fans to be patient with Corbin even though he only won one more game in his first 10 games than Malone did in his last ten despite having Cousins playing in nine of them.

And my point is that if we're looking for why this team is struggling, I'd say taking your franchise player, a guy that you say is far from being back to normal healthwise, and making him play more minutes and do a lot more running each games strikes me as a terrible plan and part of the reason for the decline in play.

The type of effort we've seen in the first 10 games, isn't the same effort we've seen the last 10 games.
So if the Kings were giving very good effort under one head coach and are now not giving good effort under the replacement head coach, isn't that a pretty clear sign that (1) the first coach was doing a much better job and (2) that it was a mistake to fire him in the middle of the season?
 
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funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
OKC letting Harden go was a bad move.
For the Thunder the issue was going to be that they could only afford to keep one of either Harden or Ibaka after they signed Durant and Westbrook to extensions.

Harden is the better player but with Durant/Westbrook in place Ibaka is the much better fit.
 

Capt. Factorial

ceterum censeo delendum esse Argentum
Staff member
Yea terrible trades that only a fool would partake in. Such as Derrick Williams, Josh Smith, Derron Williams.
One might note that of the three trades you listed as terrible, two did not actually happen.

Although there were initial reports that we were after Deron Williams, later reports suggested we were in fact after Mason Plumlee. It sounds to me as if it were the Nets, not the Kings, who were interested in including Deron Williams in that trade. Note that we did not trade for Deron Williams.

As far as Josh Smith goes, despite reports we can't have been too hard after him. The Pistons just cut him for absolutely nothing. Don't you think that if they could have sent him to us for something like Derrick Williams and either JT/Landry they would have? If nothing else it would have saved them money. Yet, that didn't happen, and the Pistons took about $40M and lit it on fire. Obviously if we were after Josh Smith, our asking price was pretty darn steep, because the Pistons preferred to light $40M on fire.

So far it looks like "Didn't trade for Deron Williams" and "Didn't trade for Josh Smith" fall onto the positive side on the ledger.
 
It seems like we've gotten younger.

I personally would MUCH rather have Reke/Thornton than Collison/McLemore or IT/McLemore.

If we had left Reke at PG all 4 years, he'd be one of the best PGs in the NBA. I think a lot of what Thornton did for us was really under appreciated.
Please, not Thornton,n it was difficult but a glorious day when we finally traded him away. Don't ruin that good by wrecklessly making a wish like that.
 
It seems like we've gotten younger.

I personally would MUCH rather have Reke/Thornton than Collison/McLemore or IT/McLemore.

If we had left Reke at PG all 4 years, he'd be one of the best PGs in the NBA. I think a lot of what Thornton did for us was really under appreciated.

Oh good lord... No way, no how.... He isn't even a PG and you think if we kept him where he didn't belong then he would be one of the best in the NBA? Yikes...