"Wait and see" still worked for me after the preposterously lopsided Stauskas deal. It worked for me after the bizarre way the George Karl ordeal played out. It barely worked for me after Matt Barnes was signed to a multi-year deal as a veteran presence. I thought I was done for sure after Vlade tried to tell me that DeMarcus was the problem and then openly admitted that he panicked and took a bad deal because he felt he had no other choice. Lucking into De'Aaron Fox bought them some time. Then we got months of George Hill being bad-mouthed in the press (and among the fans) for not living up to his $20 million a year contract and a salary dump trade which brought back nothing of substance for the prize free agency signing of last summer. I'm not capable of following this train-wreck any longer. Some of my all-time favorite players were treated like garbage by this organization under Vlade's watch and yes I hold him responsible for that. Comes with the territory. The exasperation has nearly murdered my love of basketball.
Do I know that Bagley is not a franchise player? No. Nobody has a crystal ball. But I'm pretty close to sure. If comparing notes with other teams makes you feel better I suppose that's relatively harmless. But then Ben McLemore was seen by a lot of people as the most talented player in his draft. Thomas Robinson was widely viewed as a sure-thing top 3 pick before his draft as was Jahlil Okafor. Consensus about most draft prospects is group-think. It's why things like Hasheem Thabeet second overall happen and why guys nobody has heard of (with names no one can pronounce) like Antetekuonmpo go much later than they should. I watched more tape this year than any other I can remember because we've never had a pick as high as #2 in the time I've been a Kings fan. I refused to accept that our current GM spends less time evaluating prospects than I do but the evidence seems clear on that now. At the start of the year before I'd seen him play a game in college I had Bagley #2 on my big board right after Ayton and the more I watched him the more he slipped to the point where I had him at #10 on draft day which is, coincidentally, also where I had Cauley-Stein in 2015. I knew Cauley-Stein was a mistake -- yet people here tried to tell me he was some kind of defensive savant. Whether Doncic is as good as I believe he will be doesn't really matter. There were several directions we could have gone with that pick and taking Bagley is one of the picks that convinces me once and for all that Vlade is terrible at judging talent. Nobody knew what he was thinking with Papagiannis and Richardson and both of them have been cut already so it's not like he has a stellar track record of going against the grain either. Bagley is a trap pick -- he's got flashy numbers and he can jump but can he actually play basketball? At an NBA level, sure. Because I expect him to get better. But at a superstar level? The eye test says no. He's got too far to go to get there.
Vlade Divac isn't a mediocre GM or even a poor one, he's bottom of the barrel history-making bad. He's in a class now with David Kahn, Isiah Thomas, and Billy King. And look, this does nothing to tarnish his legacy as a player. Michael Jordan has a terrible resume as a lead executive too. It happens. You just grit your teeth and move on. The only reason I felt a need to respond to this topic is that I feel bad so many good fans haven't recognized yet that this ship is sinking. The sooner Vlade is shown the door the better. I can tell you how this is going to play out over the summer. Our first round pick is gone next year which means every scrap of available cap space is going to be burned in pursuit of "win-now" veterans. Vlade has done this every summer since he got the job so that part isn't new. But we're facing a roster crunch already with 8 rookie contracts still on the books plus Bogdanovic. At the end of next season a decision has to be made on Cauley-Stein's future. Then the year after that it will be Buddy, Frank, and Skal. These players are going to start getting expensive fast and that's when those win-now veteran contracts really hurt. Just ask any Washington Wizards fan.
Hope is fine so long as it's tied to something genuine. False hope isn't helping anyone, just prolonging the misery. I don't want you to think that just because everyone who has problems with this front office has been driven away that there are no contrary opinions. I used to think guys like Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski were just misinformed about the details of what's happening in some tiny small-market franchise the rest of the nation generally ignores except when it makes for a good headline. The cloud has lifted though and it's become crystal clear that they were right all along. Our team has been hijacked. This is exactly what I told myself I wouldn't do -- monologue-ing a long list of grievances. This has already gone far too long. Both my post and the kicking down the road of the future of the Kings... just wait until next year. One more draft pick, one more free agent signing. It's coming just around the corner, have faith! I'm sorry to say this because I love this team but it's not. We have a mediocre coach, a mediocre roster, few assets with which to build, and a horrendously bad GM who has done nothing but squander opportunities since he was promoted. I feel bad for the kids on the team who, through no fault of their own, are going to become targets for the fans (just like George Hill was) once people start to do the mental calculus of squaring their unrealistic expectations with reality. I am but one voice of many so don't take my word for it. Just look around and see if anything I'm saying makes sense. I'm sticking around here only because I consider the good folks on this forum to be my friends. I'm not going to hammer you over the head with negativity. This is it, I got it all out in one fell swoop. I'm merely trying to stage some kind of intervention here in this one topic because the way this team has treated its fans is not acceptable and all the apologizing for blatant mis-management is preventing you from seeing what has become obvious to 99.9% of the world.
So that's it. I'm done talking Kings basketball. I'll try to find other things to talk about every now and then. I wish you good luck. I'll probably be back but only after Vlade is gone. Fortunately I don't think it will take that long. This is a notoriously fickle business that demands results after all.
Do I know that Bagley is not a franchise player? No. Nobody has a crystal ball. But I'm pretty close to sure. If comparing notes with other teams makes you feel better I suppose that's relatively harmless. But then Ben McLemore was seen by a lot of people as the most talented player in his draft. Thomas Robinson was widely viewed as a sure-thing top 3 pick before his draft as was Jahlil Okafor. Consensus about most draft prospects is group-think. It's why things like Hasheem Thabeet second overall happen and why guys nobody has heard of (with names no one can pronounce) like Antetekuonmpo go much later than they should. I watched more tape this year than any other I can remember because we've never had a pick as high as #2 in the time I've been a Kings fan. I refused to accept that our current GM spends less time evaluating prospects than I do but the evidence seems clear on that now. At the start of the year before I'd seen him play a game in college I had Bagley #2 on my big board right after Ayton and the more I watched him the more he slipped to the point where I had him at #10 on draft day which is, coincidentally, also where I had Cauley-Stein in 2015. I knew Cauley-Stein was a mistake -- yet people here tried to tell me he was some kind of defensive savant. Whether Doncic is as good as I believe he will be doesn't really matter. There were several directions we could have gone with that pick and taking Bagley is one of the picks that convinces me once and for all that Vlade is terrible at judging talent. Nobody knew what he was thinking with Papagiannis and Richardson and both of them have been cut already so it's not like he has a stellar track record of going against the grain either. Bagley is a trap pick -- he's got flashy numbers and he can jump but can he actually play basketball? At an NBA level, sure. Because I expect him to get better. But at a superstar level? The eye test says no. He's got too far to go to get there.
Vlade Divac isn't a mediocre GM or even a poor one, he's bottom of the barrel history-making bad. He's in a class now with David Kahn, Isiah Thomas, and Billy King. And look, this does nothing to tarnish his legacy as a player. Michael Jordan has a terrible resume as a lead executive too. It happens. You just grit your teeth and move on. The only reason I felt a need to respond to this topic is that I feel bad so many good fans haven't recognized yet that this ship is sinking. The sooner Vlade is shown the door the better. I can tell you how this is going to play out over the summer. Our first round pick is gone next year which means every scrap of available cap space is going to be burned in pursuit of "win-now" veterans. Vlade has done this every summer since he got the job so that part isn't new. But we're facing a roster crunch already with 8 rookie contracts still on the books plus Bogdanovic. At the end of next season a decision has to be made on Cauley-Stein's future. Then the year after that it will be Buddy, Frank, and Skal. These players are going to start getting expensive fast and that's when those win-now veteran contracts really hurt. Just ask any Washington Wizards fan.
Hope is fine so long as it's tied to something genuine. False hope isn't helping anyone, just prolonging the misery. I don't want you to think that just because everyone who has problems with this front office has been driven away that there are no contrary opinions. I used to think guys like Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski were just misinformed about the details of what's happening in some tiny small-market franchise the rest of the nation generally ignores except when it makes for a good headline. The cloud has lifted though and it's become crystal clear that they were right all along. Our team has been hijacked. This is exactly what I told myself I wouldn't do -- monologue-ing a long list of grievances. This has already gone far too long. Both my post and the kicking down the road of the future of the Kings... just wait until next year. One more draft pick, one more free agent signing. It's coming just around the corner, have faith! I'm sorry to say this because I love this team but it's not. We have a mediocre coach, a mediocre roster, few assets with which to build, and a horrendously bad GM who has done nothing but squander opportunities since he was promoted. I feel bad for the kids on the team who, through no fault of their own, are going to become targets for the fans (just like George Hill was) once people start to do the mental calculus of squaring their unrealistic expectations with reality. I am but one voice of many so don't take my word for it. Just look around and see if anything I'm saying makes sense. I'm sticking around here only because I consider the good folks on this forum to be my friends. I'm not going to hammer you over the head with negativity. This is it, I got it all out in one fell swoop. I'm merely trying to stage some kind of intervention here in this one topic because the way this team has treated its fans is not acceptable and all the apologizing for blatant mis-management is preventing you from seeing what has become obvious to 99.9% of the world.
So that's it. I'm done talking Kings basketball. I'll try to find other things to talk about every now and then. I wish you good luck. I'll probably be back but only after Vlade is gone. Fortunately I don't think it will take that long. This is a notoriously fickle business that demands results after all.
There are plenty of reasons to hate on Vlade.. George Hill's performance and dumping him is not one of them. If anything, it's giving him that contract.
