VLADE GONE

[NewArena]

Not sure why I’m surprised by this, because Vlade - outside of the obvious - has always been a man of his word. This was very honorable of him and I’ll love him forever.

Nothing can sour my opinion of that man because he only wanted greatness for us at the end of the day. He didn’t have ulterior motives like the Maloofs and guys like Pete D’Alessandro. Now those are guys that should be catching hell and vitriol from Kings fans.

Not Vlade. Anyway, yes, I’m happy we’re moving in another direction. More than 1 thing can be true lol Vlade is a great man, but not the best GM. Period.

 

[NewArena]

Just heard the news.

I’m conflicted.

On one hand, it was deserved. On the other, I hate this pattern of instability. And starting over again and again.

I also give Vlade credit for owning up and stepping down. But we’re left with a lame duck coach of sorts with a long contract (and no #77!!!). And the new GM is bound to want their own guy.

This sucks any which way you choose to look at it.

Ehhh that aspect of it doesn’t suck to me at all.

I hope and pray the new GM has the opportunity to choose his own coach. Every GM deserves that and it’s not as if Vivek can’t afford it.

He has way more money than any Forbes report could gather. He’s a very private man, but has his hands in many things outside of sports

 

[NewArena]

Strongly disagree. Let's start everything fresh with a new GM and a new coach all squared away from the beginning. Build up the program from day 1 and develop everything together as a united front. Keeping Luke for another year or two just wastes time that we can be developing chemistry and a team that's finally all on the same page.

Exactly. Get him outta here, please. It would be a huge mistake to keep him and for so many reasons.

The players do not enjoy playing for him. It’s clear as day they aren’t having fun out there

 

[NewArena]

Literally the first guy he hired has gone on to become one of the better coaches in the league (but we let him go because Chris Mullen and the Gerbil didn’t like him)

*sigh*

That’s really the time period that set us back a few years. Vlade gets a lot of hate, but that crew right there wasn’t just bad, they were almost maliciously awful. It’s as if they wanted us to fail before eventually being ousted themselves

 

[MizzouKing]

Love Vlade. I've supported Vlade.
But I'm okay with this move.
Onward and Upward.
Go Kings.

 

[whozit]

I understand the need for change. Vlade the GM shouldn't mar Vlade the player. He was great for Sacramento as a player. As a GM, I can't shake the feeling there was much more going on behind the scenes.

There are some who have asserted (not in this thread) that Vivek learned his lessons and he was more hands-off. But was he or simply more discreet about it?

How did Vlade come to power and how was he ousted? Very similar in mannerisms. That is from upstairs and that man unfortunately isn't going anywhere.

In Vivek, I DO NOT TRUST!

 

[sactowndog]

Not sure why I’m surprised by this, because Vlade - outside of the obvious - has always been a man of his word. This was very honorable of him and I’ll love him forever.

Nothing can sour my opinion of that man because he only wanted greatness for us at the end of the day. He didn’t have ulterior motives like the Maloofs and guys like Pete D’Alessandro. Now those are guys that should be catching hell and vitriol from Kings fans.

Not Vlade. Anyway, yes, I’m happy we’re moving in another direction. More than 1 thing can be true lol Vlade is a great man, but not the best GM. Period.

both can be true. Vlade can be a good guy and a horrible GM. Which i believe is the case. I would never Boo Vlade but the change had to be made. More concerning is Vivek at the top and if Dumars keeps this job on an on-going basis.

 

[kb02]

I can’t say I feel much better after reading the latest Amick and Jones duet in the Athletic. Mullin, PDA, Divac, and now Dumars... the merry go round of advisors in Vivek's ear goes round and round, and the dysfunction continues. I don’t have the sense that the Kings front office was as good as it needed to be the last few years, but I also think the management problems begin at a higher pay grade than GM.

Hollinger has a good, balanced piece on Vkade’s tenure n the road ahead in the Athletic.

Joe Dumars scares me. Forget the Darko blunder, his moves the last few years of his tenure in Detroit were Vlade-ish. Going full dinosaur when the league was going small and emphasizing the three ball. Can a tiger change his stripes?

 

[Tetsujin]

Go ask Pistons fans how they feel about Dumars as GM. They celebrated when he was gone. He is not a good GM. He may have captured lightning in a bottle but he made way too many awful moves to be considered competent. It's mind-boggling to me how people forget history so quickly. Dumars has not been considered a good GM for a very, very long time.

Unfortunately for Pistons fans, it turned out the guys they hired to replace him were even worse.

 

[Tetsujin]

Hollinger has a good, balanced piece on Vkade’s tenure n the road ahead in the Athletic.

Joe Dumars scares me. Forget the Darko blunder, his moves the last few years of his tenure in Detroit were Vlade-ish. Going full dinosaur when the league was going small and emphasizing the three ball. Can a tiger change his stripes?

I mean, isn’t this largely what the Sixers did (even before Elton Brand went crazy and signed Horford to a max deal)?

 

[chief bromden]

This is more interesting and entertaining than any of their 8 bubble games.

 

[Jkbiker]

Sam Amick: Source also tells @The Athletic that Kings coach Luke Walton is safe. While the two were on the same contractual timeline (through 2022-23), and Vlade hand-picked Luke, there won’t be another domino falling here

James Ham: According to a team source, the Kings will allow the new GM to make a decision on the fate of the staff, including Peja Stojakovic, Ken Catanella and coach Luke Walton.

Dumars will be part of the process to name a day-to-day general manager, sources told Yahoo Sports, but he isn’t expected to operate quickly. He could take next season to evaluate the executives around the league and determine who’s the best fit to work with the franchise

Soooo one report says Luke is safe

Another report says New GM will decide luke's fate

Another says Dumars will take his time to get GM

So we are stuck with Dumars this Draft and Off season
We are stuck with Luke next year
I got a bad feeling about this - Another Lost season

 

[King Baller]

I did a bit of reading about Hinkie. First off he was the 76ers GM for 3 years. He worked for Morey in Houston and was the number 2 guy there. He is an analytics guy and he is 42 years old.

IMO he should be one of the interviews for the new Kings GM.

Here is a list of people I would inquire about and potentially interview if they are interested. I would want people to know we are serious and if you dont ask you will never know who is interested:

Jerry West
Larry Bird
Masai Ujiri
Brian Wright
Andy Elisburg
Daryl Morey
Danny Ferry
Sam Hinkie

There are others but this would be my short list.

As others have said I would want a GM with experience working where there has been a culture of excellence.

 

[pshn80]

I’m sorry to see Vlade go. I like him, I like the players he’s acquired, I like the players on the team now. I respect the decision he has made to resign. I am confident that they will choose good people to replace him and any others that might be gone. I don’t want the team to be “blown up”. I want the current group of players to form the basis of continuing to build an even better team for the future.

Best of everything for you, Vlade. Good luck,

 

[TTown Kings]

Not sure why I’m surprised by this, because Vlade - outside of the obvious - has always been a man of his word. This was very honorable of him and I’ll love him forever.

Nothing can sour my opinion of that man because he only wanted greatness for us at the end of the day. He didn’t have ulterior motives like the Maloofs and guys like Pete D’Alessandro. Now those are guys that should be catching hell and vitriol from Kings fans.

Not Vlade. Anyway, yes, I’m happy we’re moving in another direction. More than 1 thing can be true lol Vlade is a great man, but not the best GM. Period.

He wasn't going to keep his word. He got fired. They made it sound better so he could save some face.

 

[steelevt]

No his strategy was to tank till you got a franchise player cause in the nba you only contend if you have a franchise player. There’s two ways to get a franchise player through the draft or having one already and having him tamper to get others. If you don’t have a franchise player you end up in no mans land which is a team outside the bottom 5 or a team in the 7th - 10th seed. The best way to get a superstar in the draft is to be in the top 5 yes teams have gotten lucky drafting stats late but that’s pure luck. Hinkie found that out and the nba didn’t want teams tankin and doing that to get stats so he was outed.

also someone already posted all the talent he got even out side his lottery picks. Hinkie is a genius and Philadelphia would be unstoppable with him right now


wait you don’t think Ben Simmons is an all star? Lol kids better than Fox and has a higher ceiling.

You might wanna look at the players he got if you think Embiid is the only player, that’s laughable. Philadelphia is a contender off of the players Hinkie brought and only the players Hinkie got

As many stated, that strategy wouldn’t work today. And even so, we didn’t have to tank all these years like Philly to get 2 possible all stars. If vlade didn’t screw the pooch and drafted Luka, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Is hinkie a better gm? Probably. But I just don’t think tanking and gutting the team was needed. If your argument is hinkie is a better drafter, better at trades, or better talent evaluator then fine. But I wouldn’t trade our 5 years of watchable play vs 7 years of outright tanking. I’d just rather have a gm that wouldn’t pass on a once in a generation talent

 

[ppine]

Losing franchises have to make some changes in order to give their fans hope.

 

[steelevt]

He wasn't going to keep his word. He got fired. They made it sound better so he could save some face.

That’s not entirely true either. He was going to get a reduced role, basically a demotion might be the wording if you want to crap on him. But not fired. If they wanted to save face, they wouldn’t have let that info leak

 

[kb02]

I mean, isn’t this largely what the Sixers did (even before Elton Brand went crazy and signed Horford to a max deal)?

Hinkie was trying to accumulate assets, had delusions of cornering the market on elite young bigs, so he could spin them off for other assets. Unfortunately for him, Okafor and Noel were duds. While Dumars doubled and tripled down on his dinosaur strategy by building around Drummond, Greg Monroe, and Josh Smith.

 

[HebrewHammer]

That’s not entirely true either. He was going to get a reduced role, basically a demotion might be the wording if you want to crap on him. But not fired. If they wanted to save face, they wouldn’t have let that info leak

If you step down, you resign and waive your remaining salary. Vlade will keep his salary for the coming 2 seasons.

He was pushed to the side, declined the diminished role and essentially was fired; clearly all parties agreed to say that he "stepped down".

This was done in the exact same way Vlade was used to push out Pete D.

 

[Joshoua]

As many stated, that strategy wouldn’t work today. And even so, we didn’t have to tank all these years like Philly to get 2 possible all stars. If vlade didn’t screw the pooch and drafted Luka, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Is hinkie a better gm? Probably. But I just don’t think tanking and gutting the team was needed. If your argument is hinkie is a better drafter, better at trades, or better talent evaluator then fine. But I wouldn’t trade our 5 years of watchable play vs 7 years of outright tanking. I’d just rather have a gm that wouldn’t pass on a once in a generation talent

it’s not 7 years of out right tanking he literally turned Philadelphia into a contender in 3 years, 3 years. How long have we been rebuilding again that you say you’d watch smh

 

[Joshoua]

We have an owner obsessed with ex players as gm’s and he’ll go behind there back to hire there replacements. While still in place and ask them to let the new guy that stole his job to make final decisions. Moral of the story is we’re ****ed no GM is coming here and Dumars will take the job when he’s worse than vlade

 

[Hoovtrain]

No no no no no no. Stop with the nostalgia insanity already.

the guy is smart, a leader, well respected/liked, but won’t put up with crap, will hold guys accountable and most importantly you can tell by listening to him talk that he understands the X’s and O”s. I think he’s got HC written all over him. Some guys just have that IT factor. I am fully on board with Doug Christie as the HC.
see you back at the WZ

 

[Hoovtrain]

We have an owner obsessed with ex players as gm’s and he’ll go behind there back to hire there replacements. While still in place and ask them to let the new guy that stole his job to make final decisions. Moral of the story is we’re ****ed no GM is coming here and Dumars will take the job when he’s worse than vlade

I appreciate he helped keep the kings here and got the arena built, but he is an absolute train wreck as an owner. By all accounts the disarray we see now is how he operates behind the scenes.

 

[EIM86]

Vlade clearly loves the organization and did the classy move. Thank you for trying Vlade

 

[King Baller]

As many stated, that strategy wouldn’t work today. And even so, we didn’t have to tank all these years like Philly to get 2 possible all stars. If vlade didn’t screw the pooch and drafted Luka, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. Is hinkie a better gm? Probably. But I just don’t think tanking and gutting the team was needed. If your argument is hinkie is a better drafter, better at trades, or better talent evaluator then fine. But I wouldn’t trade our 5 years of watchable play vs 7 years of outright tanking. I’d just rather have a gm that wouldn’t pass on a once in a generation talent

Hinkie was GM of the 76ers for 3 years. Where is the "7 years" coming from?

 

[steelevt]

If you step down, you resign and waive your remaining salary. Vlade will keep his salary for the coming 2 seasons.

He was pushed to the side, declined the diminished role and essentially was fired; clearly all parties agreed to say that he "stepped down".

This was done in the exact same way Vlade was used to push out Pete D.

So the difference between resigning and getting fired is you keep your salary when you’re fired? Good to know.

 

[Joshoua]

Hinkie was GM of the 76ers for 3 years. Where is the "7 years" coming from?

from his ass cause Hinkie himself stated it was a 5 year plan and 3 years in he got a franchise player and a star player

 

[whozit]

So the difference between resigning and getting fired is you keep your salary when you’re fired? Good to know.

All depends on the contract.

 

[ockingsfan]

Even Hinkie got Richaun Holmes, Jerami Grant at 2nd round. What did your draft god Vlade do? Oh yes they both blow a top 3 pick in Okafor and Bagley.
To even bring those 2 in a same sentence is hilarious, Vlade left us to be a 30 win team with literally zero meaningful asset and 76er is already a 50 win team.

I never said that Vlade was a draft god. Vlade is very sub-par at drafting, just like Hinkie's drafting. That is why both are out of a job.

If Hinkie was so great at drafting with all those high picks, he would still be GM in Philly. But his repeated drafting blunders cost him his job.

You make out like Hinkie is Jerry West at talent evaluation and drafting. Hinke is good at tanking and accumulating draft picks, which he blows on players like Jahlil Okafor, Saric, MCW and Nerlens Noel. He got exactly one All-Star in all of those drafts. You mention other players he drafted like Holmes and Grant, but they are playing on other teams, not the 76ers.

Sure, Hinkie is great at tanking and trading away everyone for draft picks, but please don't make out that he built a championship team in Philly through his drafting. He never won $$%t!