Kings interview Del Negro, Jackson and Mitchell for Head Coach position (Yahoo News)
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The only two names that should even be considered (among the most probably) are Jackson and Del Negro. Everyone else is complete garbage, notably Shaw and Mitchell.
At this point, Jackson is clearly the coach who has the highest chance to turn this team around. Turned an abysmal defense into 14th in DRTG then 4th in DRTG and during their championship season, they were first. He is an elite defensive coach which is exactly what we need.
As far as personality goes, it reminds me of Hue Jackson with the Raiders 5 years ago. Offensive genius who improved the team tremendously but had an enormous ego and threw players under the bus. Like Mark Jackson, first stint as a head coach. It's a learning experience.
And at this point the reward FAR, FAR outweighs the risk. I'm 100% on the Jackson train unless someone like Blatt for some unknown reason comes around. Jackson's defensive mind is better than anything we'll get out of Del Negro.
At this point, Jackson is clearly the coach who has the highest chance to turn this team around. Turned an abysmal defense into 14th in DRTG then 4th in DRTG and during their championship season, they were first. He is an elite defensive coach which is exactly what we need.
As far as personality goes, it reminds me of Hue Jackson with the Raiders 5 years ago. Offensive genius who improved the team tremendously but had an enormous ego and threw players under the bus. Like Mark Jackson, first stint as a head coach. It's a learning experience.
And at this point the reward FAR, FAR outweighs the risk. I'm 100% on the Jackson train unless someone like Blatt for some unknown reason comes around. Jackson's defensive mind is better than anything we'll get out of Del Negro.
What a bunch of goobledy gook. My god, most of what you wrote doesn't even make sense. I thought we were talking about the comments referring to Vlade and the new coach, whomever he may be, being on the same page. No? Wasn't that the subject at hand. If so, just what the hell does that have to do with Karl, and Vivek? One is about the future, and the other is about the past. I'm not interested in what happened, I'm interested in what's going to happen. And who said that Vlade was a guru. I believe I said he knows the game. No? He is at the moment our GM, or president of operations, or what ever you want to call him. You don't like Vlade, you don't like Cousins, and you don't like Vivek. Well that's unfortunate for you, because I suspect that all three of those people are going to be around for a while.
As to your second paragraph, its been reported that Vlade has had conversations with Pop's, Petrie, Adelman and others getting advice. So whats your problem with that. Isn't that doing just what you suggested? Your right, Vlade has never coached a game in his life, at least in the NBA. So what, he's not coaching the team. You've never coached a team in the NBA either, or been a GM in the NBA, but you seem to know how to do the job. Your certainlly willing to give him advice on the subject. Maybe Vlade should hire you. Maybe your a basketball guru. If Vlade doesn't have a vision for the team, then he should be fired. You can't be a good GM without having a vision of what you want the team to look like.
Vlade is the leader of this team whether you like it or not, and no leader, regardless of the job, can be a good leader without an objective. Without having a vision of what that objective looks like. That just a fact. And if your the GM, and your confident of your plan, or vision, then I think it makes sense that you want a coach that has a similar vision or outlook. We always say that it starts at the top, and right now, Vlade is sitting at the top. So it starts with him. And everyone else on the way down the ladder has to be on the same page with him, or it's going to fail, or at least have some serious bumps in the road. That just makes sense!
As to your second paragraph, its been reported that Vlade has had conversations with Pop's, Petrie, Adelman and others getting advice. So whats your problem with that. Isn't that doing just what you suggested? Your right, Vlade has never coached a game in his life, at least in the NBA. So what, he's not coaching the team. You've never coached a team in the NBA either, or been a GM in the NBA, but you seem to know how to do the job. Your certainlly willing to give him advice on the subject. Maybe Vlade should hire you. Maybe your a basketball guru. If Vlade doesn't have a vision for the team, then he should be fired. You can't be a good GM without having a vision of what you want the team to look like.
Vlade is the leader of this team whether you like it or not, and no leader, regardless of the job, can be a good leader without an objective. Without having a vision of what that objective looks like. That just a fact. And if your the GM, and your confident of your plan, or vision, then I think it makes sense that you want a coach that has a similar vision or outlook. We always say that it starts at the top, and right now, Vlade is sitting at the top. So it starts with him. And everyone else on the way down the ladder has to be on the same page with him, or it's going to fail, or at least have some serious bumps in the road. That just makes sense!
I'm not sure what Vlade's not firing Karl with 30 or so games left has to do with blaming Karl? If you blamed him for the first 50 games, the only thing Vlade did was give you an opportunity to blame him for the next 30. Vlade doesn't equal blaming Karl. I can blame Vlade for making me sit through 30 more games of Karl though.
It's pretty easy to determine who was available in the hindsight. And while Koufos, Rondo and even Bellinelli were reasonable signings, Vlade passed on quite a few opportunities to improve the team.
We aquired some vets, but where do we go from there? We have a big man trio that's somewhat redundant and requires WCS to get his jumpshots to fall asap. We have no wing defender and maybe the weakest guard line of th entire league. Even worse we have no upside outside of WCS.
Now take a look at Detroit for example. Stan van Gundy has completely revamped their roster, while getting rid of misfits like Smith and Monroe. That's an impressive season for a GM. Vlade on the other hand did a solid job, but just because he is better than Pete it doesn't necessarily mean he is great at his job.
Detroit is rightfully regarded as an up and coming team. We on the other hand are close to our peak with our current assets, dven though a new coach might get a few more wins out of this roster.
Is this all Vlade's fault? No of course not. He isn't responsible for our missed lottery picks and the bad contracts we handed to Landry and Jt.
But he is our GM and we need more than just solid work to dig ourself out of the hole we are in. We need to be smarter than everybody else and find players below their market value, that can help us. So far Vlade missed a couple of good opportunities to do that.
Therefore I'm not entirely convinced yet, that Vlade is the right guy moving forward and that he is the right guy hiring a new coach.
I'm patient and I know he deserves more time than one season, but I don't feel the need to sugarcoat anything just because hevis part of the best team the Kings ever had.
We aquired some vets, but where do we go from there? We have a big man trio that's somewhat redundant and requires WCS to get his jumpshots to fall asap. We have no wing defender and maybe the weakest guard line of th entire league. Even worse we have no upside outside of WCS.
Now take a look at Detroit for example. Stan van Gundy has completely revamped their roster, while getting rid of misfits like Smith and Monroe. That's an impressive season for a GM. Vlade on the other hand did a solid job, but just because he is better than Pete it doesn't necessarily mean he is great at his job.
Detroit is rightfully regarded as an up and coming team. We on the other hand are close to our peak with our current assets, dven though a new coach might get a few more wins out of this roster.
Is this all Vlade's fault? No of course not. He isn't responsible for our missed lottery picks and the bad contracts we handed to Landry and Jt.
But he is our GM and we need more than just solid work to dig ourself out of the hole we are in. We need to be smarter than everybody else and find players below their market value, that can help us. So far Vlade missed a couple of good opportunities to do that.
Therefore I'm not entirely convinced yet, that Vlade is the right guy moving forward and that he is the right guy hiring a new coach.
I'm patient and I know he deserves more time than one season, but I don't feel the need to sugarcoat anything just because hevis part of the best team the Kings ever had.
On this board Karl is the main reason for our lack of success. There seems to be a strong believe, that this roster should be a lot better than what we managed to achieve. I personally am not entirely convinced that's true.
This roster has some serious weaknesses. And even though Karl certainly wasn't a great coach, Vlade decided to count on him. Why should Vlade as Karls superior be excluded from the responsibility?
I'm not advocating for Vlade's dismission, but I can understand those among us whose trust in Vlade isn't unlimited anymore.
This roster has some serious weaknesses. And even though Karl certainly wasn't a great coach, Vlade decided to count on him. Why should Vlade as Karls superior be excluded from the responsibility?
I'm not advocating for Vlade's dismission, but I can understand those among us whose trust in Vlade isn't unlimited anymore.
I'm inclined to give Vlade a season or two with a coach he hired and his own roster. If this team is not in the playoffs in two seasons, I'll say Vlade has inherited a mess that even he couldn't fix. In his first season, this is the most talented roster that I can remember since the last playoff team. He has made the team better that fast.
Just think, we know this team tanked a few games, had some injuries, and had a 2-3 game player revolt. Yet, they won 33 games and finished 8 games out of the playoffs. That tells me this is a playoff roster. Take away the revolt and the tanking alone and they would have at least been competing with the Jazz and Rockets for 8th. Have the team fully healthy and even with Karl they make the playoffs.
In previous seasons under previous regimes, players would leave here and be out of the league. I'm sure that at least 9 of our players would be on virtually every roster (DMC, Gay, Rondo, Collison, Marco, Koufos, Acy, Willie, Curry) [I am unsure about Ben and Caron. Someone may give Ben a shot because they think a change of scenery may help. Someone may give Caron a chance because of his experience and the fact that he played well in his very limited minutes here]
In summation, Vlade has a built-in excuse for me because of the mess he was handed but also he will have to take responsibility in two seasons: good or bad.
Just think, we know this team tanked a few games, had some injuries, and had a 2-3 game player revolt. Yet, they won 33 games and finished 8 games out of the playoffs. That tells me this is a playoff roster. Take away the revolt and the tanking alone and they would have at least been competing with the Jazz and Rockets for 8th. Have the team fully healthy and even with Karl they make the playoffs.
In previous seasons under previous regimes, players would leave here and be out of the league. I'm sure that at least 9 of our players would be on virtually every roster (DMC, Gay, Rondo, Collison, Marco, Koufos, Acy, Willie, Curry) [I am unsure about Ben and Caron. Someone may give Ben a shot because they think a change of scenery may help. Someone may give Caron a chance because of his experience and the fact that he played well in his very limited minutes here]
In summation, Vlade has a built-in excuse for me because of the mess he was handed but also he will have to take responsibility in two seasons: good or bad.
True - this is the best team in years. But it's also been years since the Kings were actively trying to win, so there is that...
I really doubt this team would compete for the 8th during a usual season in the West. This year a lot of teams struggled due to age, injury or chemistry issues and we still couldn't compete for the 8th while poorly coached but also relatively healthy.
Yes most of our players have a place in this league. But for me it's not so about the players Vlade signed, but more about those who he didn't sign or who he didn't trade for. It's about the general makeup of the roster, which is rather old fashioned and which main weak spots don't allow us to compete with most of the successful NBA teams.
I'm completely on board with giving Vlade more time. We'll see where we are at in a couple of seasons.
I really doubt this team would compete for the 8th during a usual season in the West. This year a lot of teams struggled due to age, injury or chemistry issues and we still couldn't compete for the 8th while poorly coached but also relatively healthy.
Yes most of our players have a place in this league. But for me it's not so about the players Vlade signed, but more about those who he didn't sign or who he didn't trade for. It's about the general makeup of the roster, which is rather old fashioned and which main weak spots don't allow us to compete with most of the successful NBA teams.
I'm completely on board with giving Vlade more time. We'll see where we are at in a couple of seasons.
I'm still skeptical of Vlade, but I'll give him this season to prove what he can do. He already did his "roster turnover". All of the guys on the roster are his guys now. He got rid of JT, Stauskas, and Landry. He brought in Belinelli, Kofus, Rondo, WCS, and Curry.
If he fails, there are no excuses. These are HIS guys now with HIS coach.
I honestly don't know how anyone could argue about Vlade's lack of qualifications. He's never been a part of any NBA FO. The most he's ever done, is MAYBE scout for the Lakers overseas. The guy is unproven, why can't we just all admit that?
Even with this being said, I'm a bit excited to see what he will do. Hopefully he picks out a good coaching candidate from this ugly list. Del Negro, Jackson, Mitchell....really? These are coaches the Kings shouldn't even consider at this point. Due diligence is really bs, and the Kings would be wasting their time.
If he fails, there are no excuses. These are HIS guys now with HIS coach.
I honestly don't know how anyone could argue about Vlade's lack of qualifications. He's never been a part of any NBA FO. The most he's ever done, is MAYBE scout for the Lakers overseas. The guy is unproven, why can't we just all admit that?
Even with this being said, I'm a bit excited to see what he will do. Hopefully he picks out a good coaching candidate from this ugly list. Del Negro, Jackson, Mitchell....really? These are coaches the Kings shouldn't even consider at this point. Due diligence is really bs, and the Kings would be wasting their time.
If ownership threw a fit about firing Karl at mid-season imagine how it would have been last off season. Vlade knows he needs a better starting 2 guard and a wing defender. I submit if Matthews and Prince Moute were on this team it is a border line Playoff caliber squad even with Karl coaching on his last legs.
Non-Vlade guys: McLemore, Collison, Gay, Casspi, Cousins. I'm not saying any of those guys will be moved, but that's the list of guys that Divac did not bring in. I think Cousins and Casspi will be on the roster for sure next season. The other three? Not so much. I think Collison might have the best chance of returning but I think the Kings will work the phones to see what they can get for Rudy & Ben.
Of course. And that's how it should be. But what constitutes failure? Because barring injury I think there's very high odds that this team improves next year. But how much improvement is needed to say that Vlade is doing his job well?
I don't think anyone will argue that Vlade has no front office experience. He obviously doesn't. The divide is that many of us just don't see that as a big deal. I think Divac definitely needs a salary cap/CBA expert on staff but honestly I don't think qualifications and experience mean a lot in that position unless you're a guy coming from a top notch organization like the Spurs. Golden State's GM is a former agent with zero FO experience. Joe Dumars put together a championship roster and was executive of the year with zero experience. David Kahn and Pete D'Alessandro have very impressive resumes - none of which means anything when putting together a team. Likewise I can understand what Morey and Hinkie have been trying to do with the Rockets and Sixers respectively but for all the analytics and forward thinking it's still really just about getting stars, surrounding them with the right pieces and making good decisions. We'll see whether Vlade ends up being a good or poor GM, but in my mind it really has little to do with whether or not he was an assistant GM first.
I'm not thrilled with the current list either but Thibs & Brooks apparently weren't interested in interviewing with the Kings, McHale is reportedly on the fence, Walton, Messina, Udoka, Larranaga etc are all assistant coaches on teams in the playoffs right now and David Blatt seems to be waiting to see how serious the Knicks are.
Hopefully we see reports of other guys interviewing soon.
Of course. And that's how it should be. But what constitutes failure? Because barring injury I think there's very high odds that this team improves next year. But how much improvement is needed to say that Vlade is doing his job well?
I don't think anyone will argue that Vlade has no front office experience. He obviously doesn't. The divide is that many of us just don't see that as a big deal. I think Divac definitely needs a salary cap/CBA expert on staff but honestly I don't think qualifications and experience mean a lot in that position unless you're a guy coming from a top notch organization like the Spurs. Golden State's GM is a former agent with zero FO experience. Joe Dumars put together a championship roster and was executive of the year with zero experience. David Kahn and Pete D'Alessandro have very impressive resumes - none of which means anything when putting together a team. Likewise I can understand what Morey and Hinkie have been trying to do with the Rockets and Sixers respectively but for all the analytics and forward thinking it's still really just about getting stars, surrounding them with the right pieces and making good decisions. We'll see whether Vlade ends up being a good or poor GM, but in my mind it really has little to do with whether or not he was an assistant GM first.
I'm not thrilled with the current list either but Thibs & Brooks apparently weren't interested in interviewing with the Kings, McHale is reportedly on the fence, Walton, Messina, Udoka, Larranaga etc are all assistant coaches on teams in the playoffs right now and David Blatt seems to be waiting to see how serious the Knicks are.
Hopefully we see reports of other guys interviewing soon.
I don't think I have any significant disagreement with what you wrote. Except my approach is different. Vlade can learn many things doing a lot of coaching interviews. That information is valuable in making decisions. Since the Kings were not getting Thibs I see no reason to be in a hurry to hire a Coach. The last two Coaching hires were hurried. The first was Vivek wanting lock up Malone before another team hired him. The second was from Fans and Owners yearning for Karl and his record of guaranteed playoffs. Which turned out to be fools gold. I am not overly concerned about Vlades level of NBA experience. Ainge, Bird, Ferry, West and many others went from Playing to Front Office work without to many issues. I would like to see Morway or Ferry in a Kings Front Office role.
I agree with your excitement on who is chosen as Coach, what is done with the Draft Pick. What Free Agency and Trades can do to transform the Kings. I have been watching the NBA Playoffs when I can and it is exciting! I would love for the Kings to be in it.
I agree with your excitement on who is chosen as Coach, what is done with the Draft Pick. What Free Agency and Trades can do to transform the Kings. I have been watching the NBA Playoffs when I can and it is exciting! I would love for the Kings to be in it.
GMing is not a true profession. There is no established feeder line, no standard career progression, no standardized tests, licensing, accreditation. If we had hired a guy who was "more qualified" we would have no way of knowing if it were true. The "qualified" guys look like PDA. 2 years as a scout here, 3 years as an assistant something here, 1 year as a director of something there, then voila! GM. Vlade Divac has been around the NBA since the 1980s(!). He has rubbed elbows with dozens of legendary figures. He's nobody's amateur, and now he's also been an NBA GM in an incredibly tough environment for a year, which gives him right there a better GMing resume than every would be PDA on the market.
No he doesn't have NBA experience except for scouting, he does have experience running teams.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlade_Divac#Administrative_career
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlade_Divac#Administrative_career
That's what I was going to say. Vlade confirmed that he never offered a deal to Ellis.
Vlade went after the best 3&D SG on the market (even though he didn't get him), drafted an athletic, defensive 7 footer, signed a true floor general, signed a shooter from a the best organization in basketball and a big bodied defensive center.
Whether the moves worked out or not, I saw the logic in them.
Contrast that with D'Alessandro letting Tyreke walk, going after Iguodala (whose fit was questionable), signing Landry, trading for Derrick Williams and then for Rudy, drafting back to back SGs, letting IT walk, signing Collison, signing Royce White etc. Some of PDA's moves worked out and some didn't but I never really got any sense of what kind of team he was trying to put together. And I think in hindsight that he wasn't trying to build a team as much as he was trying to accumulate assets, especially buying low on guys and hoping they panned out/returned to form.
I'm cautiously optimistic that Divac will have a good offseason because from what I've seen so far I really think he gets it.
Vlade went after the best 3&D SG on the market (even though he didn't get him), drafted an athletic, defensive 7 footer, signed a true floor general, signed a shooter from a the best organization in basketball and a big bodied defensive center.
Whether the moves worked out or not, I saw the logic in them.
Contrast that with D'Alessandro letting Tyreke walk, going after Iguodala (whose fit was questionable), signing Landry, trading for Derrick Williams and then for Rudy, drafting back to back SGs, letting IT walk, signing Collison, signing Royce White etc. Some of PDA's moves worked out and some didn't but I never really got any sense of what kind of team he was trying to put together. And I think in hindsight that he wasn't trying to build a team as much as he was trying to accumulate assets, especially buying low on guys and hoping they panned out/returned to form.
I'm cautiously optimistic that Divac will have a good offseason because from what I've seen so far I really think he gets it.
IMO, Vlade is unfairly being lumped into the years of poor decision making by this franchise. He didn't even hire the coach that he just fired, yet did his best to make it work.
The guy hasn't been on the job long enough for anybody to know whether he's going to be good at the job or not. While some of the FA pick ups haven't worked out as everyone had hoped, I think most believed (and still do) that he did a fair job in free agency. And, so far, his only draft choice looks really solid and promising. The only move really worthy of negative criticism is the salary dump/ draft pick swap trade with Philly. And that even might work out better than expected.
The guy hasn't been on the job long enough for anybody to know whether he's going to be good at the job or not. While some of the FA pick ups haven't worked out as everyone had hoped, I think most believed (and still do) that he did a fair job in free agency. And, so far, his only draft choice looks really solid and promising. The only move really worthy of negative criticism is the salary dump/ draft pick swap trade with Philly. And that even might work out better than expected.
If Vlade had hired Karl, I'd agree with you, but he didn't. He inherited him. So what was he supposed to do? Karl had not yet had the opportunity to have a training camp and implement his system. Was Vlade supposed to fire him after Karl had only coached 30 or so games the season before. Talk about the Kings being the laughing stock of the league. How do you think that would have went over. Vlade had to have good reasons to fire Karl, and those reasons surfaced as the season progressed. Then it was just a matter of when.
Personally, I would have preferred that Vlade fire Karl at the all star break. But then he would have to appoint a temporary coach. What happens if the team suddenly turns around and wins two thirds of the remaining games. Do you fire the temporary coach, or do you decide to make the position permanent? I think that Vlade didn't want to take that risk. He wanted to pick the next head coach. So, painful as it might have been to watch the rest of the season play out, I can understand why Vlade didn't fire Karl sooner. The situation was already a mess, so why make it any worse.
Personally, I would have preferred that Vlade fire Karl at the all star break. But then he would have to appoint a temporary coach. What happens if the team suddenly turns around and wins two thirds of the remaining games. Do you fire the temporary coach, or do you decide to make the position permanent? I think that Vlade didn't want to take that risk. He wanted to pick the next head coach. So, painful as it might have been to watch the rest of the season play out, I can understand why Vlade didn't fire Karl sooner. The situation was already a mess, so why make it any worse.