Carmichael Dave sparks new conversation
- Thread starter Sactown ExPat
- Start date
When Vivek first took over as the face of ownership he enthusiastically threw himself into every aspect of the basketball operations from hand-picking the coach and the GM, to making the first draft pick (essentially) on his own, to sitting courtside and suggesting outside-the-box defensive strategies. He was the classic example of an enthusiastic new owner who hadn't yet realized how much he didn't know. And to his credit, after the most egregious example of him overstepping his position by either firing Mike Malone or allowing Pete D'Allesandro to fire him and endorsing the move publicly with some bizarre analogy about the transition from big band music to jazz music (which sounded daft at the time and has aged very poorly) he's receded from the spotlight and allowed the front office staff he put together to run the show. That shows me he's capable of learning from his mistakes.
Unfortunately, the lesson he learned was only half right. He learned that he doesn't know everything about basketball, despite his initial success as a high school coach (and we have Malcolm Gladwell to thank for pumping up his ego in the first place) and that listening to the fans is often a mistake as his experiments in crowd-sourcing the draft and head coaching hires both ended disastrously. That was the good part. But then he also learned to stop making split-second decisions based on measurable data (which, if you remember, is the business model he built his fortune on) and has since become reticent to make any meaningful decisions at all. After buying himself credibility by installing Vlade as the face of the front office, a fan-favorite player and respected international ambassador for the sport, he's watched Vlade drive basketball operations off a cliff and inexplicably rewarded him with a 4 year extension for his efforts.
So as much as I feel that Vivek is the consistent factor in all of the bad decisions made by this franchise in the post-Maloof era, his primary failing has been hubris and while he hasn't owned those mistakes publicly, his actions indicate that he's either admitted them to himself privately or he's lost interest. Some measure of humility on his part was needed but there's got to be a happy middle between making all snap decisions and sitting on your hands while the basketball operations staff torch the place.
Which brings me to Vlade Divac, and every time I say this his apologists swoop in from the shadows and label me as some kind of zealot so let me make it clear once again that I have a ton of respect for what Vlade has accomplished as a player. I don't know much about his career managing KK Partizan, Real Madrid, or the Serbian Olympic Committee but I don't think anyone would argue that he's played a large role in growing the popularity of basketball in his home region. So looking ONLY at his tenure as the GM of the Sacramento Kings starting in 2015, he has been the guy making the decisions and almost all of them have been bad. There's no shame in this. He's been an All-Star player, an Olympian, and for all I know he's a terrific human being but in his current position as the decision-maker in the front office his performance has been abysmal and there's no reason to believe things are turning around any time soon. Michael Jordan has been a terrible GM... Magic Johnson was a terrible GM... Vlade has been a terrible GM. They're not gods or anything, admitting their failure does nothing to diminish their stature as beloved and transcendent players.
If we just break down the facts of what Vlade has either initiated or signed off on, here's the bullet points:
*Vlade was promoted to GM after the 2014-2015 season, inheriting a squad that featured Darren Collison, Ben McLemore, Rudy Gay, and DeMarcus Cousins. Also in the rotation: Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, Omri Casspi, and Derrick Williams with notable Vivek "hobby projects" Sim Bhullar and Sauce Castillo (that's Nik Stauskas for the uninitiated) on the fringes and newly enshrined head coach George Karl transitioning the team out of a disastrous season in which they employed 3 different head coaches and won only 29 games.
*In his first off-season Vlade drafted Willie Cauley-Stein (while I quietly wept in a corner), executed the infamous Phildaelphia trade-- shedding Carl Landry and Jason Thompson's contracts along with rookie SG Nik Stauskas, a future first round pick, and two years of swap rights for cap space -- and used that cap space to sign veterans Rajon Rondo (at the request of DeMarcus), Marco Belinelli (at the request of Rondo), and Kosta Koufos (at the request of George Karl, potentially?). He also signed Caron Butler for 2 years as a veteran mentor and MVP-bro Seth Curry on a 2 year deal, and brought in Nancy Lieberman as an assistant coach in a widely celebrated move.
*The 2015-2016 season began with excitement but devolved into a full-on player revolt as George Karl evidently made enemies out of almost everyone. Caron Butler never saw the floor and was quietly bought out of his contract. Seth Curry shot 45% from the three point line in limited minutes. The two-PG lineup featuring Rondo and Collison led the league in pace and produced a ton of points but gave up even more as rumors of tension in the locker room boiled over into bizarre post-game theatrics. When the smoke cleared the team finished with 33 wins and George Karl was dismissed. We'll have to wait until his NDA expires before we find out what really happened behind the scenes. What we do know: DeMarcus and George were oil and water as personalities and the team couldn't move forward with both of them.
*In his second off-season, Vlade wasted no time in hiring Dave Joerger to be his new head coach less than a month after the season ended. He swapped the 8th overall pick to Phoenix in exchange for Bogdan Bogdanovic and picks 13 (Georgios Papagiannis) and 28 (Skal Labissiere). He also swapped Belinelli to Charlotte for the 22nd pick (Malachi Richardson) and took advantage of the massive salary cap spike to splurge on multi-year contracts to Aaron Afflalo, Garrett Temple, Matt Barnes, and Anthony Tolliver. Ty Lawson was also signed to sure up the PG rotation and Omri Casspi was re-signed for 2 years. This was now unequivocally Vlade's team.
*In the 2016-2017 season the DeMarcus/Joerger bromance was on and Cousins put in the best work of his career on the court. Off the court was a different story as a night club fight involving Cousins and Matt Barnes made the rounds followed by altercations with fans and broadcasters court side. By the All-Star break Vlade decided enough was enough and traded DeMarcus to New Orleans for Buddy Hield, the expiring contracts of Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway, and two picks in the upcoming draft (10th overall and 34th overall). Omri Casspi inexplicably fell out of the rotation after blazing away from three the previous season and he was included in the Cousins trade to New Orleans. Matt Barnes, Aaron Afflalo, and Anthony Tolliver were all waived with the Kings taking a hit on their salary cap for all three. Oh yeah and the team won 32 games as evidently people keep track of these things.
*In his third off-season, Vlade was now committed to a complete re-build and finally the Kings managed a bit of lottery luck, winning the 3rd overall pick. Philadelphia executed their swap rights and the pick moved down to 5th overall but star Kentucky PG De'Aaron Fox was available there and Vlade took him. He then traded down turning the 10th pick into picks 15 (Justin Jackson) and 20 (Harry Giles). The salary cap went up again and Vlade decided to invest in a new crop of veterans, this time signing the ageless wonder Vince Carter, grit-n-grind ambassador Zach Randolph, and Gregg Popovic favorite George Hill. Bogdan Bogdanovic agreed to join the NBA for the first time signing for 3 years and $27 million.
*In the 2017-2018 season head coach Dave Joerger was now in his element with a young team to mold and a crew of respected veterans to help lead them. The pace dipped again as Coach Joerger leaned on what he knew and fed the ball to Randolph in the post. In a league gone 3pt mad, the Kings swam against the current ranking near the bottom in attempts (but notably 3rd overall in percentage) and fans openly wondered when Fox would be let loose. Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic both made good first impressions while recent draft picks Papagiannis, Richardson, and Jackson did not. In a flurry of moves Vlade unloaded George Hill to Cleveland for Iman Shumpert and filler while also parting with Malachi Richardson and Georgios Papagiannis at the trade deadline. The team won 27 games.
*In his fourth off-season Vlade faced his biggest test yet as the team moved up from 7th to 2nd in the lottery. And ...[REDACTED]... Marvin Bagley. A Garrett Temple trade set the stage for the return of Ben McLemore. Vlade decided for the first time not to spend all of his available cap space, opting for a conservative 3 year deal with Serbian superstar Nemanja Bjelica and a 2 year deal with Yogi Ferrell. This was his quietest off-season yet but with 2 seasons invested in Dave Joerger and a roster stuffed with first round picks, the stage was set for an eye-opening season.
*In the 2018-2019 season the team busted out of the gate in impressive fashion with a rebuilt offense that left the last remnants of grit-n-grind in the dust. Buddy Hield and DeAaron Fox emerged as stars while Iman Shumpert endeared himself to fans and players alike as the rare veteran mentor who fully embraces his role on and off the court. While the vibes on the court were all positive, off the court there were signs of trouble with assistant GM Brandon Williams and head coach Dave Joerger's relationship quickly devolving to the "tell him I don't want him in the same room as me" stage. It looked like the young Kings were on the verge of their first playoff berth in over a decade though and Vlade went all-in at the trade deadline moving Zach Randolph and spending a large chunk of his stock-piled cap-space to acquire Harrison Barnes. He also unloading Skal Labissierre, Ben McLemore, Justin Jackson, and Iman Shumpert... [insert record scratch here]... The Kings fizzled out and went 11-17 after the trade deadline. Much of the blame was placed at Dave Joerger's feet and he was fired the day after the Kings played their final game. Despite the poor finish, the Kings still finished with 39 wins which was their most since Rick Adelman last coached the team in 2006.
*In his fifth off-season Vlade hired Liuke Walton over the phone just 4 days after firing Dave Joerger. At the press conference he was jubilant in expressing that he'd finally got his man. Within two weeks Luke Walton would be accused of sexual assault (an incident relating to his time as assistant coach of the Warriors) but the case was quietly dropped late last year. **I'm not commenting on this other than to say it happened and was a noteworthy part of the off-season.** WIth the Kings not having a first round pick last year, it was an otherwise quiet off-season. Fox, Barnes, and Bagley all participated in Team USA's mini-camp with Barnes eventually making the team and competing under Coach Popovic in the FIBA World Cup where the team finished a disappointing 7th overall. Bogdanovic and Bjelica competed on the Serbian National Team and Bogdanovic was elected to the All-Tournament team.
*Which brings us to the current season. Currently the Kings are 15-29. As I commented elsewhere, I'm mostly tuned out this year so I can't comment much on how the team looks. What I can see from the box scores is that we've fallen near the bottom in pace yet again. After 4 straight years in the top 5, our outside shooting has plummeted to middle of the road (18th currently) with only Bjelica escaping the team-wide slump. I've watched a half dozen games or so and in all of them the offense has looked like an incoherent mess. Teams can go through some ugly growing pains under first-year head coaches though and it should go without saying that half a season is far too short a time to pass judgement...
So after all of that... do I have any conclusions? Well I'll start with the positives...
POSITIVES
Vlade has engaged in a lot of the personnel moves I've been hoping to see from this team since I first starting watching the team. He stockpiled first round picks, traded expiring contracts for assets before they expired, consistently signed a better class of free agent veteran than other Sacramento GMs have managed to bring in, and avoided kneecapping the team with excessive max year contracts.
He has also avoided Pete D's mistake of being overly talkative without being completely invisible like Geoff Petrie (not that he's had much of a choice given the new internet culture). There's been a lot of PR spin applied to everything but there's never been a point where we don't know what Vlade is thinking, for better or worse. He's willing to stand up for his decisions.
I also have to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that I'm a little surprised by the big picture. Specifically, I'm surprised that it's not as bad as I made it out to be before I typed it all out. Vlade has made mistakes to be sure but he's shown a rare degree of fearlessness (for a front office executive) in correcting course as quickly as possible when the situation warranted it with little regard for any notion of keeping up appearances. Most GMs get precious about their players but if anything Vlade is too willing to ship out guys he signed just months earlier.
NEGATIVES
That draft history, as has already been pointed out, is a real problem. And this is where the double-edged sword comes in. Vlade has been equally willing to ship out struggling draft picks and veterans alike and they probably shouldn't be treated equally. If a veteran signs a three year deal and struggles, go ahead and cut them. Rookies are expected to struggle. If I can make a gardening analogy (my qualifications are poor, but I'll do it anyway) when you buy a sapping from a nursery and place it in the ground you need to give it some special attention while it's trying to root in and establish itself in its new home. If you ignore it and it dies, are you going to blame the plant for its failure? Look out how many guys Vlade has invested draft picks on only to cut them or trade them before their 4 year rookie deal runs out: Skal, Malachi, Jackson, Papa giannis, Giles. WCS stayed all 4 years but no attempt was made to re-sign him. Granted none of these guys can be seen as a big loss when they were cut but then why were they drafted in the first place?
Secondly, the off the court issues are epidemic level. Sweet Moses is this a team with a Rocky track-record. There was the great George Karl Revolt followed by the DeMarcus is out of control storyline, followed by the Dave Joerger's whole staff is not speaking with the front office fiasco, followed by the summer of "Buddy hates Sacramento". Whatever his merits in building the roster may be, its frightening how often he's allowed off the court issues to torpedo his efforts. If getting out in front of things is a skill, Vlade needs to find a Mr. Miyagi who can teach it to him.
And lastly, there's a point at which "maximum possible flexibility" skirts close to the vicinity of "having no real plan". Taken individually, almost all of these decisions make sense. I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of what was known at that time and this is what surprised me most. Vlade is a logical and dispassionate decision-maker who sometimes goes with his gut but uses reason to back it up. We needed the cap space in 2015 if we were going to make any moves and with George Karl and DeMarcus already in place there was reason to believe that sacrificing future picks for short-term flexibility would be worth it. Once Dave Joerger took over Vlade brought in a different type of veteran that fit well with his style. And the draft picks, well he's guilty of prioritizing need over BPA but that's what analytical people tend to do. His job is to build a team after all. They have to be able to play together.
But...
This is also the killer that undoes most of what Vlade has done right. Almost every season we've felt like a different team. He's cycling through looks so quickly that none of them have a chance to fail for long but there's also been no chance for any of them to grow into lasting success. After the Rondo/Gay/Cousins team imploded, or maybe because of it, his first reaction to any sign of trouble has been "you're gone". Does anyone really know why Skal and Shumpert were traded? Where was the urgency to move George Hill asap coming from? Was Staukas given any chance at all? Why not re-sign Seth Curry? Why not pick up Giles' trivially small 4th year option? And the biggest one of all: deciding that the relationship with Dave Joerger was irreparable after giving him just 2 years with a completely rebuilt roster? We are where we are right now mostly because he's made the roster a revolving door. Why should a player sacrifice anything for a team that has demonstrated it will move anyone and everyone at any time as suits their needs. As DeMarcus once said, where's the loyalty?
So this post ended up in a very different place than it started. I initially thought Vivek needs to get on with it and fire Vlade before this get worse but now I'm not so sure. In my view Vlade is mostly guilty of doing too much with the roster, of lacking patience. Sam Hinkie tried to game the system in Philadelphia and it kindof worked but it also got him fired. I don't think Vlade needed that Process but he needed a process. Or rather he needs one if he's going to continue in his current position. If we fire Vlade now we also have to fire Walton so the new GM can handpick their coach. There will be roster turnover. Is that a better decision than sticking with these guys?
I don't know. But I also think there's significant evidence that we, the fans, need to take a chill pill and stop leaning on the front office to make these "just do something already" types of moves. Vlade is giving us what we want, for the most part. He's made one unforgivable sin as a GM, and other GMs have been fired for less, but if my chief criticism of Vlade is that he needs to work harder on building bridges, establishing loyalty, and allowing players the leeway to learn from their mistakes and get better because of them than maybe the same is true for us. Stop worrying about who is to blame and just worry about establishing a culture that elevates people.
Unfortunately, the lesson he learned was only half right. He learned that he doesn't know everything about basketball, despite his initial success as a high school coach (and we have Malcolm Gladwell to thank for pumping up his ego in the first place) and that listening to the fans is often a mistake as his experiments in crowd-sourcing the draft and head coaching hires both ended disastrously. That was the good part. But then he also learned to stop making split-second decisions based on measurable data (which, if you remember, is the business model he built his fortune on) and has since become reticent to make any meaningful decisions at all. After buying himself credibility by installing Vlade as the face of the front office, a fan-favorite player and respected international ambassador for the sport, he's watched Vlade drive basketball operations off a cliff and inexplicably rewarded him with a 4 year extension for his efforts.
So as much as I feel that Vivek is the consistent factor in all of the bad decisions made by this franchise in the post-Maloof era, his primary failing has been hubris and while he hasn't owned those mistakes publicly, his actions indicate that he's either admitted them to himself privately or he's lost interest. Some measure of humility on his part was needed but there's got to be a happy middle between making all snap decisions and sitting on your hands while the basketball operations staff torch the place.
Which brings me to Vlade Divac, and every time I say this his apologists swoop in from the shadows and label me as some kind of zealot so let me make it clear once again that I have a ton of respect for what Vlade has accomplished as a player. I don't know much about his career managing KK Partizan, Real Madrid, or the Serbian Olympic Committee but I don't think anyone would argue that he's played a large role in growing the popularity of basketball in his home region. So looking ONLY at his tenure as the GM of the Sacramento Kings starting in 2015, he has been the guy making the decisions and almost all of them have been bad. There's no shame in this. He's been an All-Star player, an Olympian, and for all I know he's a terrific human being but in his current position as the decision-maker in the front office his performance has been abysmal and there's no reason to believe things are turning around any time soon. Michael Jordan has been a terrible GM... Magic Johnson was a terrible GM... Vlade has been a terrible GM. They're not gods or anything, admitting their failure does nothing to diminish their stature as beloved and transcendent players.
If we just break down the facts of what Vlade has either initiated or signed off on, here's the bullet points:
*Vlade was promoted to GM after the 2014-2015 season, inheriting a squad that featured Darren Collison, Ben McLemore, Rudy Gay, and DeMarcus Cousins. Also in the rotation: Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, Omri Casspi, and Derrick Williams with notable Vivek "hobby projects" Sim Bhullar and Sauce Castillo (that's Nik Stauskas for the uninitiated) on the fringes and newly enshrined head coach George Karl transitioning the team out of a disastrous season in which they employed 3 different head coaches and won only 29 games.
*In his first off-season Vlade drafted Willie Cauley-Stein (while I quietly wept in a corner), executed the infamous Phildaelphia trade-- shedding Carl Landry and Jason Thompson's contracts along with rookie SG Nik Stauskas, a future first round pick, and two years of swap rights for cap space -- and used that cap space to sign veterans Rajon Rondo (at the request of DeMarcus), Marco Belinelli (at the request of Rondo), and Kosta Koufos (at the request of George Karl, potentially?). He also signed Caron Butler for 2 years as a veteran mentor and MVP-bro Seth Curry on a 2 year deal, and brought in Nancy Lieberman as an assistant coach in a widely celebrated move.
*The 2015-2016 season began with excitement but devolved into a full-on player revolt as George Karl evidently made enemies out of almost everyone. Caron Butler never saw the floor and was quietly bought out of his contract. Seth Curry shot 45% from the three point line in limited minutes. The two-PG lineup featuring Rondo and Collison led the league in pace and produced a ton of points but gave up even more as rumors of tension in the locker room boiled over into bizarre post-game theatrics. When the smoke cleared the team finished with 33 wins and George Karl was dismissed. We'll have to wait until his NDA expires before we find out what really happened behind the scenes. What we do know: DeMarcus and George were oil and water as personalities and the team couldn't move forward with both of them.
*In his second off-season, Vlade wasted no time in hiring Dave Joerger to be his new head coach less than a month after the season ended. He swapped the 8th overall pick to Phoenix in exchange for Bogdan Bogdanovic and picks 13 (Georgios Papagiannis) and 28 (Skal Labissiere). He also swapped Belinelli to Charlotte for the 22nd pick (Malachi Richardson) and took advantage of the massive salary cap spike to splurge on multi-year contracts to Aaron Afflalo, Garrett Temple, Matt Barnes, and Anthony Tolliver. Ty Lawson was also signed to sure up the PG rotation and Omri Casspi was re-signed for 2 years. This was now unequivocally Vlade's team.
*In the 2016-2017 season the DeMarcus/Joerger bromance was on and Cousins put in the best work of his career on the court. Off the court was a different story as a night club fight involving Cousins and Matt Barnes made the rounds followed by altercations with fans and broadcasters court side. By the All-Star break Vlade decided enough was enough and traded DeMarcus to New Orleans for Buddy Hield, the expiring contracts of Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway, and two picks in the upcoming draft (10th overall and 34th overall). Omri Casspi inexplicably fell out of the rotation after blazing away from three the previous season and he was included in the Cousins trade to New Orleans. Matt Barnes, Aaron Afflalo, and Anthony Tolliver were all waived with the Kings taking a hit on their salary cap for all three. Oh yeah and the team won 32 games as evidently people keep track of these things.
*In his third off-season, Vlade was now committed to a complete re-build and finally the Kings managed a bit of lottery luck, winning the 3rd overall pick. Philadelphia executed their swap rights and the pick moved down to 5th overall but star Kentucky PG De'Aaron Fox was available there and Vlade took him. He then traded down turning the 10th pick into picks 15 (Justin Jackson) and 20 (Harry Giles). The salary cap went up again and Vlade decided to invest in a new crop of veterans, this time signing the ageless wonder Vince Carter, grit-n-grind ambassador Zach Randolph, and Gregg Popovic favorite George Hill. Bogdan Bogdanovic agreed to join the NBA for the first time signing for 3 years and $27 million.
*In the 2017-2018 season head coach Dave Joerger was now in his element with a young team to mold and a crew of respected veterans to help lead them. The pace dipped again as Coach Joerger leaned on what he knew and fed the ball to Randolph in the post. In a league gone 3pt mad, the Kings swam against the current ranking near the bottom in attempts (but notably 3rd overall in percentage) and fans openly wondered when Fox would be let loose. Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic both made good first impressions while recent draft picks Papagiannis, Richardson, and Jackson did not. In a flurry of moves Vlade unloaded George Hill to Cleveland for Iman Shumpert and filler while also parting with Malachi Richardson and Georgios Papagiannis at the trade deadline. The team won 27 games.
*In his fourth off-season Vlade faced his biggest test yet as the team moved up from 7th to 2nd in the lottery. And ...[REDACTED]... Marvin Bagley. A Garrett Temple trade set the stage for the return of Ben McLemore. Vlade decided for the first time not to spend all of his available cap space, opting for a conservative 3 year deal with Serbian superstar Nemanja Bjelica and a 2 year deal with Yogi Ferrell. This was his quietest off-season yet but with 2 seasons invested in Dave Joerger and a roster stuffed with first round picks, the stage was set for an eye-opening season.
*In the 2018-2019 season the team busted out of the gate in impressive fashion with a rebuilt offense that left the last remnants of grit-n-grind in the dust. Buddy Hield and DeAaron Fox emerged as stars while Iman Shumpert endeared himself to fans and players alike as the rare veteran mentor who fully embraces his role on and off the court. While the vibes on the court were all positive, off the court there were signs of trouble with assistant GM Brandon Williams and head coach Dave Joerger's relationship quickly devolving to the "tell him I don't want him in the same room as me" stage. It looked like the young Kings were on the verge of their first playoff berth in over a decade though and Vlade went all-in at the trade deadline moving Zach Randolph and spending a large chunk of his stock-piled cap-space to acquire Harrison Barnes. He also unloading Skal Labissierre, Ben McLemore, Justin Jackson, and Iman Shumpert... [insert record scratch here]... The Kings fizzled out and went 11-17 after the trade deadline. Much of the blame was placed at Dave Joerger's feet and he was fired the day after the Kings played their final game. Despite the poor finish, the Kings still finished with 39 wins which was their most since Rick Adelman last coached the team in 2006.
*In his fifth off-season Vlade hired Liuke Walton over the phone just 4 days after firing Dave Joerger. At the press conference he was jubilant in expressing that he'd finally got his man. Within two weeks Luke Walton would be accused of sexual assault (an incident relating to his time as assistant coach of the Warriors) but the case was quietly dropped late last year. **I'm not commenting on this other than to say it happened and was a noteworthy part of the off-season.** WIth the Kings not having a first round pick last year, it was an otherwise quiet off-season. Fox, Barnes, and Bagley all participated in Team USA's mini-camp with Barnes eventually making the team and competing under Coach Popovic in the FIBA World Cup where the team finished a disappointing 7th overall. Bogdanovic and Bjelica competed on the Serbian National Team and Bogdanovic was elected to the All-Tournament team.
*Which brings us to the current season. Currently the Kings are 15-29. As I commented elsewhere, I'm mostly tuned out this year so I can't comment much on how the team looks. What I can see from the box scores is that we've fallen near the bottom in pace yet again. After 4 straight years in the top 5, our outside shooting has plummeted to middle of the road (18th currently) with only Bjelica escaping the team-wide slump. I've watched a half dozen games or so and in all of them the offense has looked like an incoherent mess. Teams can go through some ugly growing pains under first-year head coaches though and it should go without saying that half a season is far too short a time to pass judgement...
So after all of that... do I have any conclusions? Well I'll start with the positives...
POSITIVES
Vlade has engaged in a lot of the personnel moves I've been hoping to see from this team since I first starting watching the team. He stockpiled first round picks, traded expiring contracts for assets before they expired, consistently signed a better class of free agent veteran than other Sacramento GMs have managed to bring in, and avoided kneecapping the team with excessive max year contracts.
He has also avoided Pete D's mistake of being overly talkative without being completely invisible like Geoff Petrie (not that he's had much of a choice given the new internet culture). There's been a lot of PR spin applied to everything but there's never been a point where we don't know what Vlade is thinking, for better or worse. He's willing to stand up for his decisions.
I also have to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that I'm a little surprised by the big picture. Specifically, I'm surprised that it's not as bad as I made it out to be before I typed it all out. Vlade has made mistakes to be sure but he's shown a rare degree of fearlessness (for a front office executive) in correcting course as quickly as possible when the situation warranted it with little regard for any notion of keeping up appearances. Most GMs get precious about their players but if anything Vlade is too willing to ship out guys he signed just months earlier.
NEGATIVES
That draft history, as has already been pointed out, is a real problem. And this is where the double-edged sword comes in. Vlade has been equally willing to ship out struggling draft picks and veterans alike and they probably shouldn't be treated equally. If a veteran signs a three year deal and struggles, go ahead and cut them. Rookies are expected to struggle. If I can make a gardening analogy (my qualifications are poor, but I'll do it anyway) when you buy a sapping from a nursery and place it in the ground you need to give it some special attention while it's trying to root in and establish itself in its new home. If you ignore it and it dies, are you going to blame the plant for its failure? Look out how many guys Vlade has invested draft picks on only to cut them or trade them before their 4 year rookie deal runs out: Skal, Malachi, Jackson, Papa giannis, Giles. WCS stayed all 4 years but no attempt was made to re-sign him. Granted none of these guys can be seen as a big loss when they were cut but then why were they drafted in the first place?
Secondly, the off the court issues are epidemic level. Sweet Moses is this a team with a Rocky track-record. There was the great George Karl Revolt followed by the DeMarcus is out of control storyline, followed by the Dave Joerger's whole staff is not speaking with the front office fiasco, followed by the summer of "Buddy hates Sacramento". Whatever his merits in building the roster may be, its frightening how often he's allowed off the court issues to torpedo his efforts. If getting out in front of things is a skill, Vlade needs to find a Mr. Miyagi who can teach it to him.
And lastly, there's a point at which "maximum possible flexibility" skirts close to the vicinity of "having no real plan". Taken individually, almost all of these decisions make sense. I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of what was known at that time and this is what surprised me most. Vlade is a logical and dispassionate decision-maker who sometimes goes with his gut but uses reason to back it up. We needed the cap space in 2015 if we were going to make any moves and with George Karl and DeMarcus already in place there was reason to believe that sacrificing future picks for short-term flexibility would be worth it. Once Dave Joerger took over Vlade brought in a different type of veteran that fit well with his style. And the draft picks, well he's guilty of prioritizing need over BPA but that's what analytical people tend to do. His job is to build a team after all. They have to be able to play together.
But...
This is also the killer that undoes most of what Vlade has done right. Almost every season we've felt like a different team. He's cycling through looks so quickly that none of them have a chance to fail for long but there's also been no chance for any of them to grow into lasting success. After the Rondo/Gay/Cousins team imploded, or maybe because of it, his first reaction to any sign of trouble has been "you're gone". Does anyone really know why Skal and Shumpert were traded? Where was the urgency to move George Hill asap coming from? Was Staukas given any chance at all? Why not re-sign Seth Curry? Why not pick up Giles' trivially small 4th year option? And the biggest one of all: deciding that the relationship with Dave Joerger was irreparable after giving him just 2 years with a completely rebuilt roster? We are where we are right now mostly because he's made the roster a revolving door. Why should a player sacrifice anything for a team that has demonstrated it will move anyone and everyone at any time as suits their needs. As DeMarcus once said, where's the loyalty?
So this post ended up in a very different place than it started. I initially thought Vivek needs to get on with it and fire Vlade before this get worse but now I'm not so sure. In my view Vlade is mostly guilty of doing too much with the roster, of lacking patience. Sam Hinkie tried to game the system in Philadelphia and it kindof worked but it also got him fired. I don't think Vlade needed that Process but he needed a process. Or rather he needs one if he's going to continue in his current position. If we fire Vlade now we also have to fire Walton so the new GM can handpick their coach. There will be roster turnover. Is that a better decision than sticking with these guys?
I don't know. But I also think there's significant evidence that we, the fans, need to take a chill pill and stop leaning on the front office to make these "just do something already" types of moves. Vlade is giving us what we want, for the most part. He's made one unforgivable sin as a GM, and other GMs have been fired for less, but if my chief criticism of Vlade is that he needs to work harder on building bridges, establishing loyalty, and allowing players the leeway to learn from their mistakes and get better because of them than maybe the same is true for us. Stop worrying about who is to blame and just worry about establishing a culture that elevates people.
I am very displeased with this season. I guess that is an understatement, despite trying to be optimistic. If you look at the first 3 seasons or so, the team was a disaster under Vivek. I do think we got on the right course - and last year had us light the fire and it looked like we turned a corner. There was tons of reason for optimism coming into the season. And I think there still is, unfortunately we've had a lot of injuries and haven't been able to field a consistent starting lineup for more than a week straight. That is a huge problem that is going to bury even the best teams.
We really need to get healthy before we do anything rash that will have long term implications. Yes it really sucks that this is happening right as we appeared to be on the come up. But you really have to figure in where we were last year and acknowledge the role injuries have played in building on last season and act rationally here.
We really need to get healthy before we do anything rash that will have long term implications. Yes it really sucks that this is happening right as we appeared to be on the come up. But you really have to figure in where we were last year and acknowledge the role injuries have played in building on last season and act rationally here.
This team was winning games with guys out. This is the NBA. Any time can beat most if they play with fire, intensity, and effort. Look at how productive Holmes has been based on that alone. It isn't just that this team is losing, but how. They've regressed from last year, but it isn't just injuries. It's a complete reversal of pace, no effort, no passion, no urgency, no intensity. That speaks to a team that lacks motivation, isn't buying into the effort and direction, and that's on the coach. The coach is on the GM. The same GM that ruined a playoff appearance by trading for Barnes the previous year. I have little hope things will suddenly get better when guys are healthy.
But we're trying to work in a new system, particularly on defense, which I do believe means dropping the pace a bit until everyone gets it. And it is hard for everyone to get a new system if you can't keep the same lineup on the court. This isn't say a case of Golden State or Portland who have long tenured coaches with multiple injuries derailing the season. And yet both of those teams are also performing below the lowest possible expectations.
The India trip amidst a coaching change was a terrible, terrible decision. In any year it is questionable, but this year just sucked. I assume it was planned long in advance, so bad timing.
I am not by any means suggesting all is well. But when we fired Joerger, we probably had to take a step back to take two steps forward. And unfortunately all the injuries have amounted to taking 2-3 steps back before we can move forward. I think making a move right now is like selling all your stock after the crash. We have a lot of good investments but there has been a dip in the market.
The India trip amidst a coaching change was a terrible, terrible decision. In any year it is questionable, but this year just sucked. I assume it was planned long in advance, so bad timing.
I am not by any means suggesting all is well. But when we fired Joerger, we probably had to take a step back to take two steps forward. And unfortunately all the injuries have amounted to taking 2-3 steps back before we can move forward. I think making a move right now is like selling all your stock after the crash. We have a lot of good investments but there has been a dip in the market.
From Breton's article
The Pistons were more aggressive. They attacked the basket, got to the free-throw line. They wanted it more than the Kings. That has been happening repeatedly this season as the Kings have been out-hustled, out-worked, and out-thought by teams good and bad.
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That pretty much says it all.
For the record, though? Marcos Breton has, for most of his career, adopted an anti-King attitude. This tine, though, he seems to have put that aside and done a pretty good job.
The Pistons were more aggressive. They attacked the basket, got to the free-throw line. They wanted it more than the Kings. That has been happening repeatedly this season as the Kings have been out-hustled, out-worked, and out-thought by teams good and bad.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
That pretty much says it all.
For the record, though? Marcos Breton has, for most of his career, adopted an anti-King attitude. This tine, though, he seems to have put that aside and done a pretty good job.
Is there something in the league bylaws that we’re not allowed to have a professional staff or any semblance of sustained success? I am tired of all the Eeyore nonsense. I am not going to get into the city-data type measuring contests that seem to be so popular amongst NBA fans, but there are far less desirable cities that have much better organizations than we do. We invested a lot of money into the NBA and we deserve the same product that every one else has an opportunity to have.
If someone takes over from Vlade, which isn't something I want, but:
- They wouldn't be taking over a team disabled by bad contracts that are difficult to move
- They wouldn't be walking into an awful locker room like VD did with Cousins and Karl or something that could have manifested with BW and DJ
- The team will not lack young talent or be limited to only one player with upside
- They will have the normal amount of first round picks and a large number of 2nds available (I think)
Not too bad really. Only issue will be the win loss column.
- They wouldn't be taking over a team disabled by bad contracts that are difficult to move
- They wouldn't be walking into an awful locker room like VD did with Cousins and Karl or something that could have manifested with BW and DJ
- The team will not lack young talent or be limited to only one player with upside
- They will have the normal amount of first round picks and a large number of 2nds available (I think)
Not too bad really. Only issue will be the win loss column.
I think the contracts for Barnes, Hield, and Dedmon are all bad - maybe not to the point of being immovable, but definitely overpayments that make it difficult to get value back, especially without sacrificing future draft picks that the Kings are going to need to build the roster - since they can’t seem to consistently acquire quality “pieces” via free agency. Sacramento’s “young talent” is intriguing but largely unproven, with Fox being the most developed and promising thus far. Bagley is an unknown quantity at this point - he could be great or he could be a disappointment. Besides those two, I’m not seeing many other young prospects currently in our system that are destined to be NBA starters - solid contributors, perhaps - but not star material.
My thoughts:
The Kings on the day the Maloofs sold: .341, 1410 elo
On Vlade's first day as GM: .406, 1412 elo
Now: .341, 1412 elo
When a business or enterprise consistently performs below average, one has to look at their business model. Is it healthy and realistic? If not, the owners may find it unsustainable. If it is, the blame falls on management for not getting it done. I could take the darkest view of it, and conclude that Sacramento's just not a place where one can have a good NBA team, but I did see it go from "welcome to hell" to championship contention before, and I don't think the environment's all that different from the late '90s. That leaves management, and a variation on the question of whether one can draw good people to Sacramento: can one get really good people to come work for the Kings franchise, as of right now? Owners can be scary if they're meddlesome or cheap, but lately Vivek's been hands off. Vlade I'm not so sure about. Maybe he's out of his depth or maybe not, but if a lot of the league thinks he is, the result may be similar. A winning season or two without semi-open war in the FO would do wonders for his rep, but that's kind of a Catch 22, and I'm not sure it's a hole he can dig himself out of.
The Kings on the day the Maloofs sold: .341, 1410 elo
On Vlade's first day as GM: .406, 1412 elo
Now: .341, 1412 elo
When a business or enterprise consistently performs below average, one has to look at their business model. Is it healthy and realistic? If not, the owners may find it unsustainable. If it is, the blame falls on management for not getting it done. I could take the darkest view of it, and conclude that Sacramento's just not a place where one can have a good NBA team, but I did see it go from "welcome to hell" to championship contention before, and I don't think the environment's all that different from the late '90s. That leaves management, and a variation on the question of whether one can draw good people to Sacramento: can one get really good people to come work for the Kings franchise, as of right now? Owners can be scary if they're meddlesome or cheap, but lately Vivek's been hands off. Vlade I'm not so sure about. Maybe he's out of his depth or maybe not, but if a lot of the league thinks he is, the result may be similar. A winning season or two without semi-open war in the FO would do wonders for his rep, but that's kind of a Catch 22, and I'm not sure it's a hole he can dig himself out of.