bye bye Mully!

#94
yeah, it really surprised me. If this was really Mullin/PDA vs. Malone/Shareef from the start then I think the clock is really ticking on PDA as soon as Mullin is gone. But that would again lead to a "coach before gm" situation for Vivek and he said he wouldn't do the same mistake twice.
Interestingly, Cowbell Kingdom speculated (no facts or sources) about a return of Petrie .. maybe as an advisor to Vlade who could have been on board with the hiring of Karl from the get-go
http://cowbellkingdom.com/sunday-musings-does-a-return-of-geoff-petrie-make-sense/

Not sure what to make of this but I really seems like massive changes are coming

Carmichael Dave @carmichaeldave · 14 Std.Vor 14 Stunden
Extreme front office makeover.
Carmichael Dave @carmichaeldave · 14 Std.Vor 14 Stunden
More changes to come
Carmichael Dave @carmichaeldave · 14 Std.Vor 14 Stunden
@kwlarson: @carmichaeldave So are we going to have another “hire the coach before the GM situation”?” My guess is yes.
Dave is like our Woj
 
#95
Here's the interesting thing with D'Alessandro - I have absolutely no idea how much credit or blame to give him for ANY of the moves made during his tenure. With Petrie, it was abundantly clear when he had full control and an open checkbook. Drafting Peja? His move. Drafting JWill? His move. Dealing Richmond for Webber? His move. Signing Vlade? His move. Hiring Adelman? Absolutely his move. Dealing Corliss for Christie? His move. Trading Williams for Bibby? His move. Even the ones that didn't work out. Drafting Douby? Definitely a Petrie move. Later on the waters got murkier. Dealing JB for Mateen? That was a salary dump and hard to see it being his call. Peja for Artest? The Maloofs were said to be involved. Drafting Jimmer? I can see arguments either way but I'm sure the Maloofs had a say. Drafting TRob? I blame Geoff but his stated rationale was that he thought he was going to be forced to let JT walk and not have a starting PF. Point being, for a long stretch I knew that Geoff was to be praised or blamed for moves.

But with PDA?

Malone was hired before him.
Landry seems like a guy Malone wanted.
McLemore? Seems like his pick but hard to say
McCallum? Definitely a D'Alessandro move
The Gay trade? Seems PDA floated the idea and Vivek pushed him to do it.
Stauskas? Looking at the draft room it's hard to say it was PDA's call.
Firing Malone? D'Alessandro says it was his call but was it really?
Hiring Karl? After emphatically stating that Corbin would finish the year?

For sure the Kings front office has had some major blunders since Vivek took over but how much of that blame falls on D'Alessandro? How much on Ranadive? How much on Mullin?

I miss having a good, solid GM who was allowed to do his job.
IMO, it is Vivek's final voice in those decisions.

Vivek had always claimed he surrounds himself with smart guys and he listens to them when it comes to making decisions. So, there should not be any speculations on who makes the final decision on very important matters. But of course, he also said he listens to his men.

Regarding hiring Karl, after saying Corbin will finish the year (or the firing of the rookie coach Malone). IMO, it should not mattter and this should not be a big deal for us fans, because it was all good with Corbin and Malone. They actually have moved-on unlike us fans. You always have to be flexible for the good of the franchise.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#96
PDA is gone, or at the very least, his position is reduced to the point where he will be looking to go elsewhere, like Mullin did.

Divac is the top dog in the hierarchy, per Napier. The future is Karl and Divac, per Napier (no mention of PDA). Napier also said he expects further changes in the FO. (I wonder who that might be?) When asked about PDA, he said the obvious: PDA is the GM. (Maybe not tomorrow though). Napier went on and on and on about Divac being the communicator, Divac being the team guy, and that fact that if you're not a team player, you're not going to be with the team very long. It was a PDA epitaph as far as I am concerned.

Also, Divac has been talking to the top guys around the league - Pop, Reilly, et. al. I'm wondering if he's soliciting advice on a new GM?
 
#99
Why am I still hopeful that if Divac takes the reigns and becomes top dog that Malone comes back?

Oh, and btw... Hallelujah! No hard feelings and best of luck to Chris Mullin in his next job! That really is the dream job for him though. I can see him really building a legacy there.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Why am I still hopeful that if Divac takes the reigns and becomes top dog that Malone comes back?

Oh, and btw... Hallelujah! No hard feelings and best of luck to Chris Mullin in his next job! That really is the dream job for him though. I can see him really building a legacy there.
Because you're delusional? :p

We have a contract with George Karl, who will be selecting his own assistants. I cannot imagine a scenario under which it makes any sense at all to bring Mike Malone back.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I cannot imagine a scenario under which it makes any sense at all to bring Mike Malone back.
This 1/3 a season causes George Karl to realize that physically coaching an entire NBA season is just going to be too much anymore, and with a nice cushy GM job opening up right above him, he takes the promotion and enjoys watching the season from a nice cushy office chair. Meanwhile Boogie, tired of the constant ridiculous coaching chaos says that's it, he doesn't want to have to start over again with yet another new coach, bring back Malone or I'm walking. And Vivek, who has canned Mullin and PDA after feeling woefully misled on them on the Malone thing, and the resulting months of heat, agrees to Cuz's demands figuring at least this way he doesn't have to pay yet another coach simultaneously to the previously fired ones.

There ya go. There's your scenario.


Don't challenge my ingenuity. :p
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
PDA is going to get what he deserves. That makes me happy. Chris Mullin is gone. That makes me happy. Vlade is in the front office as a voice of reason. That makes me happy. More changes in the front office to come (Bratz gone?, a new GM?). That makes me happy.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
This 1/3 a season causes George Karl to realize that physically coaching an entire NBA season is just going to be too much anymore, and with a nice cushy GM job opening up right above him, he takes the promotion and enjoys watching the season from a nice cushy office chair. Meanwhile Boogie, tired of the constant ridiculous coaching chaos says that's it, he doesn't want to have to start over again with yet another new coach, bring back Malone or I'm walking. And Vivek, who has canned Mullin and PDA after feeling woefully misled on them on the Malone thing, and the resulting months of heat, agrees to Cuz's demands figuring at least this way he doesn't have to pay yet another coach simultaneously to the previously fired ones.

There ya go. There's your scenario.


Don't challenge my ingenuity. :p
I've challenged many things of yours over the years. I'm pretty sure, however, that ingenuity hasn't been one of them. ;)
 
Mullins accepting the St. John's coaching job (good luck with it, by the way), and with Vlade established as the top dog on the basketball side even without any GM experience (yes, vivak, you have to sell those season tickets), I envision Vlade being the voice of reason between Vivak and PDA with maybe an advisory voice (Petrie?) whispering good things in Vlade's ear. Perhaps Vlade is searching for a new GM, who knows. However, I do think that this will be an exciting summer for the Kings. The PF and SG situation will be addressed, either through improvement over the summer or trades/free agency, the bench will be much improved, and the Kings will make a run for a playoff position. Yes, the glass is half full. GO KINGS!!!!!
 
And what GM experience does he have? Is he good at contracts or negotiations?
Contract negotiation skills are SO overrated as a GM skillset.

If you create a good team with a good coach and have people wanting to play for you... you just pay market value for guys. Not hard. Salary cap management can be done (and should be done) by assistants. Those are like saying the DA should be writing legal memos and drafting court documents. It's important to know about , but no. The DA comes up with the overall strategy based on his intimate knowledge of the game and the league, and evaluates talent.
 
There isn't one. We don't know who leaked that, but there is a tendency on this board to jump to conclusions that reinforce the preconceptions on the incompetence of the front office.
No leaks under Petrie.

Just saying.

Someone, somewhere has to take RESPONSIBILITY for that OBVIOUS incompetence. If it happened once... PDA should have shut it down and/or canned whoever did it. That is the real incompetence.
 

Spike

Subsidiary Intermediary
Staff member
Mullins accepting the St. John's coaching job (good luck with it, by the way), and with Vlade established as the top dog on the basketball side even without any GM experience (yes, vivak, you have to sell those season tickets), I envision Vlade being the voice of reason between Vivak and PDA with maybe an advisory voice (Petrie?) whispering good things in Vlade's ear. Perhaps Vlade is searching for a new GM, who knows. However, I do think that this will be an exciting summer for the Kings. The PF and SG situation will be addressed, either through improvement over the summer or trades/free agency, the bench will be much improved, and the Kings will make a run for a playoff position. Yes, the glass is half full. GO KINGS!!!!!
MULLIN!







....VIVEK!
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
Contract negotiation skills are SO overrated as a GM skillset.

If you create a good team with a good coach and have people wanting to play for you... you just pay market value for guys. Not hard. Salary cap management can be done (and should be done) by assistants. Those are like saying the DA should be writing legal memos and drafting court documents. It's important to know about , but no. The DA comes up with the overall strategy based on his intimate knowledge of the game and the league, and evaluates talent.
Isn't building the good team with a good Coach the hard part? And you need negotiations for that.
 
Actually, I would like to see someone hired in the FO (should PDA leave) that is an expert in contract negotiation and all things legalese. IMO, in addition to strong talent evaluation, this skill is what gave Sam Presti the upper hand when rebuilding the Thunder - he made trades, acquisitions and contract exceptions that had never been seen nor done - and ultimately expedited the rebuilding process. In today's NBA, you need a combination of money and excellent talent evaluation as well as strong contract negotiation, analytics and understanding of CBA rules.

One of the unfortunate hallmarks during Petrie's latter years was both getting hosed in trades and overpaying for talent. For all his faults, PDA has done a relatively good job at this (Rudy Trade + reasonable extension, DMC extension, Collison contract), but his organization hasn't shown the best eye for talent nor enough acumen to upgrade or offload it's weak assets.

I'd hope Divac has the eye for talent that we think he has, as well as hiring folks "much smarter than him" in areas of legal/contracts/CBA etc in order to keep pace with today's NBA GMs.
 
Actually, I would like to see someone hired in the FO (should PDA leave) that is an expert in contract negotiation and all things legalese. IMO, in addition to strong talent evaluation, this skill is what gave Sam Presti the upper hand when rebuilding the Thunder - he made trades, acquisitions and contract exceptions that had never been seen nor done - and ultimately expedited the rebuilding process. In today's NBA, you need a combination of money and excellent talent evaluation as well as strong contract negotiation, analytics and understanding of CBA rules.

One of the unfortunate hallmarks during Petrie's latter years was both getting hosed in trades and overpaying for talent. For all his faults, PDA has done a relatively good job at this (Rudy Trade + reasonable extension, DMC extension, Collison contract), but his organization hasn't shown the best eye for talent nor enough acumen to upgrade or offload it's weak assets.

I'd hope Divac has the eye for talent that we think he has, as well as hiring folks "much smarter than him" in areas of legal/contracts/CBA etc in order to keep pace with today's NBA GMs.
That's supposed to be a specialty of PDA. What he may lack are how to build a team and how to manage the personalities and politics involved.
 
Presti rebuilt the Thunder by acing the draft. The Jruy isn't really our on PDA talent evaluation, even though we know for sure Nik was Viveks pick. It's way to early in Ben and Niks careers to be the judge of that, OKC/Seattle didn't win straight away with Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka in 08-09.

But they did do it the right way, they didn't go into "win-now" mode like we are striving so hard to do. And they were able to keep it up. Harden, Bledsoe, Goodwin, Adams, Jones and Pondexter have all turned into decent or better talents. They've never had to fall back on FA to get what they want, they draft their trade assets.

"We want to be the Spurs but exciting" is probably the most retarded crap I have ever read Vivek say. We need to bunker the **** down and stop crowd sourcing our drafts and hire some experienced scouts, and stop letting all our guys walk or trading them away for peanuts.

What do you guys think of Joe Dumars? Besides the Darko pick in 2003 his drafts have been pretty solid for having mostly late rounders, also assembled the 2004 Pistons champioship squad.