If we do fire the coach, the new coach absolutely needs to be a perfect fit. I honestly don't know if it will be possible to find that at this point in the season.
If anything, I think Karl might get fired and we have an interim step up for the rest of the season. But then is there really a point? Season will be lost. Of course, at this rate the season will be lost as well.
If we can't land the perfect candidate right now, the other options suck tbh. And btw I don't believe Scott Brooks is that candidate. It might not even be Thibs.
If anything, I think Karl might get fired and we have an interim step up for the rest of the season. But then is there really a point? Season will be lost. Of course, at this rate the season will be lost as well.
If we can't land the perfect candidate right now, the other options suck tbh. And btw I don't believe Scott Brooks is that candidate. It might not even be Thibs.
I would like to know how people think the coach is getting fired? Do they have a source? I know one thing. there is only one constant over the last five years here. That is Cousins. How many coaches are going to get fired while he is here? We have tried firing coaches. The record is always the same.
Dismiss Karl now. Let Nancy be interim HC and deliver on her playoff promise. If she delivers - she gets the job. If not, you negotiate with new candidates in the off-season, with the roster on the table and with Vlade making the call.
I can actually see Nancy synergizing with this group of guys somehow... not impossible. Would sure be interesting to see. She might be more bad-ass than Karl, given the chance.
I can actually see Nancy synergizing with this group of guys somehow... not impossible. Would sure be interesting to see. She might be more bad-ass than Karl, given the chance.
If we fire karl and hire Nancy we will be the laughing stock of the NBA. The media will eat us up. Another fired coach in so many years and still going no where. Some might applaude us for hiring first female head coach but most will call it a marketing ploy or say it's another of vivek's crazy ideas and he's meddling again. I'm not saying she doesn't have qualifications but are there others more qualified? Yes. I'd prefer someone with head coaching experience or at least feel more comfortable if she was a lead asst coach in the NBA before I give her the head coaching job. Male or female.
I'll be the first to admit that Karls style does not fit this teams skill set and I'm not a real fan of his rotations and he can rub folks the wrong way. That being said...this guy has won everywhere he has gone and has had 1 losing season in his career. He was coach of the year a mere 2 years ago when he led a modestly talented DEN team to 50+ wins in a stacked west. everyone wants to blame him and some blame is warranted, but maybe the problem lies elsewhere when you have a guy who has won EVERYWHERE and yet now looks like a dunce here in Sacramento.
It's a mixture of a lot of things, but he's just not a good fit for this team. This team needs a different leader. I don't believe in trading away all our personnel to fit Karl. I don't think Karl ball will ever amount to more than a second round exit. We need a change in leadership/direction. This team can do better.
It's because his philosophy doesn't mesh with our gm or current roster. Karl has had more control over his roster in other places he's been. So there is an organizational problem. The sooner you fix it, the better. I've said it before, that the franchise has backed itself into a corner in terms of the front office/coaching and in terms of the roster/player management.
Vivek needed to be patient and diligent when he first bought the team. He had all options available and no expectations. However he was impatient and wanted to become the GSW overnight. Now that we're cornered, Vivek needs to take swift decisive action. Rip the band aid off and get on with it.
We have a lack of effective leadership from the top for 10 years now. It's destroying careers and funneling young fans to become Warrior fans because our glory days are so far gone.
Vivek needed to be patient and diligent when he first bought the team. He had all options available and no expectations. However he was impatient and wanted to become the GSW overnight. Now that we're cornered, Vivek needs to take swift decisive action. Rip the band aid off and get on with it.
We have a lack of effective leadership from the top for 10 years now. It's destroying careers and funneling young fans to become Warrior fans because our glory days are so far gone.
Yes...I believe that my 1st sentence said that...I'll be the first to admit his style does not fit the teams skill set. I know that he's not a good fit. Just a little odd that he seemed to be a good enough fit everywhere else he has coached..,at least enough so to win everywhere he's been. Just an observation. I think there are multiple problems at multiple levels at play here. It's not just Karl
It's not just DMC. Nobody is playing for Karl on this team.
He has had plenty of time to get these guys to play hard for him.
I don't care about wins or loses. This team does not play hard at all. There is no sense of urgency. No pride. No heart. They don't take it personal when the rest of the world is laughing at them. This is your life, your profession. When you're at the bottom, you need to be more serious than the team above you. This team f***s around and fires the ball carelessly around the court. Nobody communicates. Nobody is held responsible for their missed assignments. There was a time when a guy ****ed up repeatedly, his ass got sent to the bench. Message sent. Regardless of his pay check size.
I want Karl fired, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad for him. This is a guy who has committed his life to this game. He is a proven winner. He's done it with teams that have had what seems like less talent than what we currently have. From his perspective, he's got a roster full of spoiled brats that can do whatever the hell they want. Cousins is never held accountable. McLemore was immediately given the starting spot without having to put in any work at all. Rudy clearly takes plays off. The complaining from every single guy after every missed shot. I can handle a team being less talented and losing, I can't handle a team that doesn't give a ****. These guys from top to bottom are a disgrace to Sacramento Kings basketball.
He has had plenty of time to get these guys to play hard for him.
I don't care about wins or loses. This team does not play hard at all. There is no sense of urgency. No pride. No heart. They don't take it personal when the rest of the world is laughing at them. This is your life, your profession. When you're at the bottom, you need to be more serious than the team above you. This team f***s around and fires the ball carelessly around the court. Nobody communicates. Nobody is held responsible for their missed assignments. There was a time when a guy ****ed up repeatedly, his ass got sent to the bench. Message sent. Regardless of his pay check size.
I want Karl fired, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad for him. This is a guy who has committed his life to this game. He is a proven winner. He's done it with teams that have had what seems like less talent than what we currently have. From his perspective, he's got a roster full of spoiled brats that can do whatever the hell they want. Cousins is never held accountable. McLemore was immediately given the starting spot without having to put in any work at all. Rudy clearly takes plays off. The complaining from every single guy after every missed shot. I can handle a team being less talented and losing, I can't handle a team that doesn't give a ****. These guys from top to bottom are a disgrace to Sacramento Kings basketball.
Part of Karl's success is that he changed philosophies over time. The trapping D in Seattle was part of his success there, but it worked well with Payton and McMillan. The Bucks weren't a defensive team, but they had talented offensive guards and killed you on offense. Nuggets he eventually changed styles again and saw that the team needed to run, so they did that. Now that's all he wants to play. There's no adjustment in him. He is too old and stubborn to change and the team needs an adjustment.
I agree with this and put more blame on Divac than anyone seems to put on him for the lack of leadership and direction. One of my big problems is Divac's seemingly unendless amount of willful blindness towards Cousins behavior and impact it has on this team. When Cuz does something ridiculous (which he has on too many occasions) and coach wants to suspend him, Divac steps in and says 'no.' What is the disciplinary recourse to Cousins? It is nothing. He gets a pass 100% of the time regardless of his actions. He's the spoiled kid that the parents think is such an angel. When you have an infection (in this case, Cousins' toxic attitude and infrequent willingness to hustle) and it goes untreated, it spreads throughout the locker room, it spills out onto the court, and it shows in the standings.
They almost have to put the team in Lieberman's hands if they fire Karl. Other than Corliss, the rest of the staff seems to be Karl's handpicked loyalists. Corliss wouldn't make much of a "splash" as Lieberman, which I'm sure matters to Vivek.
On the plus side, she seems to get along with Boogie well. On the minus side, how do you fill out the rest of the coaching staff midseason?
I don't envy Vlade right now.
On the plus side, she seems to get along with Boogie well. On the minus side, how do you fill out the rest of the coaching staff midseason?
I don't envy Vlade right now.
That is ONE of a few possible solutions. At this point Vlade's first question is what kind of ball does he want to see and THEN get the coaches that want to play that way. If Nancy is on board with that great! The second question needs to be about players. Who do you think can work with them and who do they think they can work with. Third question is to the candidates themselves, do they want to coach that style of play and do the want the hot seat? But yeah all things being equal Nancy could be you coach for the rest of the season then we talk about anything more permanent.
There's really no proof Lieberman is a good coach, at any level. She was mediocre even in the WNBA/D-League. Your chances are realistically better with Karl himself than going those routes. Gambling on completely unproven people rather than a 1000 win coach who used to rarely miss the playoffs doesn't really seem worth the move.
I don't think there's really any point in changing coaches unless you can get a top vet to come in. But getting a top vet to come in mid-season is, as always, as risky and chaotic a move as you can make.
I don't think there's really any point in changing coaches unless you can get a top vet to come in. But getting a top vet to come in mid-season is, as always, as risky and chaotic a move as you can make.
Again, I would like to remind everyone that our beloved Coach Malone didn't exactly have the guys playing hard every game or buying into his system his first season here. Nor were we the same team in Malone's season once Cousins was out. Go back and read the game threads. Fans act like this season we're supposed to suddenly become a legitimate playoff team just because we added Rondo. Reality check - teams that have been out of the playoffs for 9 years and haven't won 30 games in 6 years or whatever don't magically turn into good teams overnight. I think we all expected us to be a playoff team by now, but unfortunately Malone got fired yadayadayada and I think Karl is getting the short end of a lot of fans' patience. It's true, if not for his reputation you probably wouldn't consider that he's done anything close to good coaching thus far this season, but it takes time. For such a young team that doesn't have many tried and tested players it's hard to say what truly works and doesn't. We're not the Mike Brown or D'Antoni Lakers. With the Lakers you had Dwight who had been a superstar in Orlando and made it to the finals, multiple time MVP in Nash, and of course Kobe with 5 rings. You knew those guys' strengths and after a couple of games together it was clear that whatever system they were trying to run wouldn't maximize their strengths. On our team? It's quite hard to say what our true strengths are, and sorry but I'm not exactly the greatest believer in a 15 game sample with a significantly different roster as the clear model for success. People clamor for Cousins in the post non-stop when that hasn't always turned out to be effective, and like to place all the blame on Karl, pretending he is running 4-guard Rudy Gay lineups every game or has Cousins camped out at the 3 point line all day long. That's simply not true if you watch the games.
Pop gets brought up a lot for his adaptability. Well ... imagine if Tim Duncan went all "I feel lost" and the players stopped believing in the system after 30 games. Part of their ability to change systems so fluidly is that it's a largely veteran team! Meanwhile we have guys who constantly dribble the ball off their feet.
For all the talk of Karl losing the team, we've been in games with tough opponents and built some pretty big leads at other times. The system needs finetuning, and I'm seeing that on a game-t0-game basis and we have Cousins down low a little more etc. We're also not switching everything on defense like we were early on. At what point does it simply become about the players having some damn pride and playing with effort on a nightly basis?
Pop gets brought up a lot for his adaptability. Well ... imagine if Tim Duncan went all "I feel lost" and the players stopped believing in the system after 30 games. Part of their ability to change systems so fluidly is that it's a largely veteran team! Meanwhile we have guys who constantly dribble the ball off their feet.
For all the talk of Karl losing the team, we've been in games with tough opponents and built some pretty big leads at other times. The system needs finetuning, and I'm seeing that on a game-t0-game basis and we have Cousins down low a little more etc. We're also not switching everything on defense like we were early on. At what point does it simply become about the players having some damn pride and playing with effort on a nightly basis?
It's not going to work with Cousins. How many times do you have to bang your head into the wall before you realize that the wall is impenetrable? If he has just the right coach with just the right system with just the right players around him he's just fine and dandy. But he's never going to have that as a King. It's wishful thinking to think otherwise. Every good player has to overcome adversity. That's not Cousins. He gets frustrated within games and that affects his play within the game. Then he has frustration within a season, which leads to the tipping point where he's done for the rest of the season. Now he's got to be frustrated about multiple seasons of losing. How do you think that's going to turn out? It may turn out well in a fairy tale, but last time I checked this isn't Wonderland.
Malone didn't have the team in tune at the start of his first year. He had them getting it together by the end of that year and were tight by the start of the next year. That roster just lacked bench players and leads evaporated under Ramon Sessions wild, skying floaters and wooops defense.
While a lot of the roster is new, it's not inexperienced. Karl had the end of last season to do things. He spent the first two or three of this regular season weeks experimenting like it was pre-season still. Things finally settled down into more of a regular rotation after that. If Karl is behind on reaching guys and teaching systems then that has a lot to do with his own choices.
The Kings going to Cousins in the post has been more effective than everyone by the 3pt line. Spacing really isn't all that great with that set up to be honest. When they do post up Cuz, they don't really have a smart post up offense. Way too many turnovers on forced lobs, and way too little cutting off the high post. Even when they spread out, Cousins isn't diving enough and I am not sure why. Is that his choice or the directive he's been given? I cannot tell, but their offense is entirely predictable. At times, they're stuck 2-3 ft beyond the 3pt line with no real shot opportunity. Everyone digs on their drives because the Kings wings are not the greatest ball handlers.
Their defensive philosophy only works when they go super small ball and then the rebounding goes to crap.
Sometimes I wonder if the team is playing like there's no goal because they see no light at the end of the tunnel as long as they're running these systems.
The team does need a defensive wing. I think all agree upon that. However, that doesn't solve the other 11 roster/system issues.
While a lot of the roster is new, it's not inexperienced. Karl had the end of last season to do things. He spent the first two or three of this regular season weeks experimenting like it was pre-season still. Things finally settled down into more of a regular rotation after that. If Karl is behind on reaching guys and teaching systems then that has a lot to do with his own choices.
The Kings going to Cousins in the post has been more effective than everyone by the 3pt line. Spacing really isn't all that great with that set up to be honest. When they do post up Cuz, they don't really have a smart post up offense. Way too many turnovers on forced lobs, and way too little cutting off the high post. Even when they spread out, Cousins isn't diving enough and I am not sure why. Is that his choice or the directive he's been given? I cannot tell, but their offense is entirely predictable. At times, they're stuck 2-3 ft beyond the 3pt line with no real shot opportunity. Everyone digs on their drives because the Kings wings are not the greatest ball handlers.
Their defensive philosophy only works when they go super small ball and then the rebounding goes to crap.
Sometimes I wonder if the team is playing like there's no goal because they see no light at the end of the tunnel as long as they're running these systems.
The team does need a defensive wing. I think all agree upon that. However, that doesn't solve the other 11 roster/system issues.
If NOT getting a decent vet gives us the results of last night, there will be a riot. The fans were booing for good reason. It's a very tough situation for us. There are no easy answers. I thought Karl could adjust but after reading the quotes posted last night and this AM, he can't. That is mind blowing.
I can hardly wait for TDOS.
I can hardly wait for TDOS.
Yes... BUT... I am just petty and spiteful enough to make dam sure he does not further pad his resume on our backs. More importantly IF his coaching philosophy is not in line with that Vlade wants then even a place holder who who shares his philosophy is a start in the right direction. 99 times out of 100 I'd agree that a mid-season switch is a bad idea but I just want to see Karl packing boxes now.
Well, it sucks that this is going down just as I predicted. 
One thing needs to be said, though -
I believe this team would play better and much harder if they removed George Karl and replaced him with a coke machine.
Seriously.
The "relationship" between Karl/system and the players seems so toxic that if they announced Elmer Fudd as the Interim Sacramento Kings coach, this team could very likely go on a tear and get into the playoffs.
One thing needs to be said, though -
I believe this team would play better and much harder if they removed George Karl and replaced him with a coke machine.
Seriously.
The "relationship" between Karl/system and the players seems so toxic that if they announced Elmer Fudd as the Interim Sacramento Kings coach, this team could very likely go on a tear and get into the playoffs.