Monte McNair Introductory Press Conference, Weds. Sept. 23, 11:30 AM PT

D

dude12

Hall of Famer
#31
#31
Just reading the breakdown of talking points from Iced Espresso and others above, here’s what sticks with me

Aggressive but disciplined in building roster....seems like it’s acquiring young talent before striking for big time player
Effort day in and day out......he’s done his homework, it’s been missing
Draft pick is essential for small market.....has been my biggest worry, he gets it, he has to deliver on this
He likes Fox
He recognizes the Hield skill set

Maybe he can get Walton to pull his head out
 
M

mac

All-Star
#32
#32
dude12 said:
Just reading the breakdown of talking points from Iced Espresso and others above, here’s what sticks with me

Aggressive but disciplined in building roster....seems like it’s acquiring young talent before striking for big time player
Effort day in and day out......he’s done his homework, it’s been missing
Draft pick is essential for small market.....has been my biggest worry, he gets it, he has to deliver on this
He likes Fox
He recognizes the Hield skill set

Maybe he can get Walton to pull his head out
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The problem I have is you can't expect the same roster and the same coach to just change approach all of a sudden because the GM changed. There's just no credibility if suddenly Walton re-inserts Buddy into the starting lineup, changes our offense, has him handling the ball less etc. It just doesn't make sense. I don't know why we're sticking to Walton other than to save money, seriously. Either the core players were not good - so you make a change, or the coach was dumb and didn't know how to use his players AT ALL. If he needs his GM to tell him how to use them, he's not a very good coach, and we should not be keeping him around.
 
L

Livinthedream

All-Star
#33
#33
mac said:
The problem I have is you can't expect the same roster and the same coach to just change approach all of a sudden because the GM changed. There's just no credibility if suddenly Walton re-inserts Buddy into the starting lineup, changes our offense, has him handling the ball less etc. It just doesn't make sense. I don't know why we're sticking to Walton other than to save money, seriously. Either the core players were not good - so you make a change, or the coach was dumb and didn't know how to use his players AT ALL. If he needs his GM to tell him how to use them, he's not a very good coach, and we should not be keeping him around.
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The impression I got listening to McNair is that the reason he took the job is because he saw something he could improve on this team immediately. In other words, the team was underperforming. That and he thinks Fox is legit.
 
J

Joshoua

All-Star
#34
#34
kb02 said:
Thanks for the heads up. Listened to it:

1. Again, the only player McNair mentions without any prompt is Fox. In fact, Fox was the only player that he mentioned in the entire interview.
2. He's much more relaxed in this interview than the press conference. As Amick said, he's a dude.
3. Mentions being aggressive in all aspects--on and off the court.
4. Mentions Houston and high quality shots--translation, shots at the rim and 3 pointers.
5. Mentions flexibility. Translation, only way a huge contract like Harris or Horford comes over is if Philly sends a ton of picks.

My take: get ready for a lot of wheeling and dealing. All players, except Fox, are on the table.
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Ya if Fox is the only king who’ll be here in two years barring a miraculous turnaround by bagley
 
M

mac

All-Star
#36
#36
Livinthedream said:
The impression I got listening to McNair is that the reason he took the job is because he saw something he could improve on this team immediately. In other words, the team was underperforming. That and he thinks Fox is legit.
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Agree, sounded like it - but the question then becomes how do you make it better if you don't change the coach? Put yourself in Fox or Buddy's shoes from this season - frustration, no defined roles (or defined roles that frankly don't work); how do you just go to next season and trust that the same coach is suddenly going to put you in a good spot? Like I said, what does it say to Buddy and the rest of the team if overnight Walton re-inserts him into the starting lineup and has him playing off the ball more just because there's a new GM? Would you really trust this guy to coach you in tight clutch situations?
 
D

dude12

Hall of Famer
#37
#37
mac said:
Agree, sounded like it - but the question then becomes how do you make it better if you don't change the coach? Put yourself in Fox or Buddy's shoes from this season - frustration, no defined roles (or defined roles that frankly don't work); how do you just go to next season and trust that the same coach is suddenly going to put you in a good spot? Like I said, what does it say to Buddy and the rest of the team if overnight Walton re-inserts him into the starting lineup and has him playing off the ball more just because there's a new GM? Would you really trust this guy to coach you in tight clutch situations?
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Obviously keeping Waltonhas been made by Vivek. It’s a money saving move. I think Walton is terrible. For me this is a year of roster adjustments
 
SacTownKid

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
#38
#38
mac said:
The problem I have is you can't expect the same roster and the same coach to just change approach all of a sudden because the GM changed. There's just no credibility if suddenly Walton re-inserts Buddy into the starting lineup, changes our offense, has him handling the ball less etc. It just doesn't make sense. I don't know why we're sticking to Walton other than to save money, seriously. Either the core players were not good - so you make a change, or the coach was dumb and didn't know how to use his players AT ALL. If he needs his GM to tell him how to use them, he's not a very good coach, and we should not be keeping him around.
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Walton must have said the right things. The problem I have is he literally said them ALL OF LAST YEAR. Then he didn't do any of the changes he said he would. He clearly knew every single issue but when the time came he sat and waited to spout the "We'll have to watch the tape" routine after putting Buddy out there as a backup PG. Indeed the only hope now is that the players don't come in pissed and Walton was being told how to play, who to play, and where. But yes, there was something majorly wrong and the problem that McNair probably doesn't realize yet is that it didn't end well this year in the locker room. He says Bogdan is important then talks about being flexible. Uh, did he look at the cap sheet? That flexibility is ticking away every second.

Like always, most of this is blah, blah, blah with the exception of Walton. Which was THE major issue heading in. Now they have to smooth things over. Vlade was always good at that, and they need that now more than ever. We'll see if that move was wise fairly soon as well because this is the kind of setting where they give themselves all of about 15 iffy games to start the season to find themselves in a heap of trouble. It will be interesting to see either way. As long as McNair brings that Houston type of game, and Walton buys into it and doesn't overthink his roster and/or rely on the Cory Josephs of the world to take down the Luka's and Brons then there is still hope. Not a lot of rope to go with that hope though.
 
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SacTownKid

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
#39
#39
mac said:
Agree, sounded like it - but the question then becomes how do you make it better if you don't change the coach? Put yourself in Fox or Buddy's shoes from this season - frustration, no defined roles (or defined roles that frankly don't work); how do you just go to next season and trust that the same coach is suddenly going to put you in a good spot? Like I said, what does it say to Buddy and the rest of the team if overnight Walton re-inserts him into the starting lineup and has him playing off the ball more just because there's a new GM? Would you really trust this guy to coach you in tight clutch situations?
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Success solves everything. And this dog is starving so any bone will do for awhile. Like I posted above though, there won't be a lot of room for any gaffes for sure. The question that hangs over this all is what does McNair do if and when the locker room goes full boom goes the dynamite? Is this is a players GM, or an office GM? Walton appears to at least be a players coach and not an A-hole so personality wise he can possibly smooth some things over before the season.
 
L

Livinthedream

All-Star
#40
#40
mac said:
Agree, sounded like it - but the question then becomes how do you make it better if you don't change the coach? Put yourself in Fox or Buddy's shoes from this season - frustration, no defined roles (or defined roles that frankly don't work); how do you just go to next season and trust that the same coach is suddenly going to put you in a good spot? Like I said, what does it say to Buddy and the rest of the team if overnight Walton re-inserts him into the starting lineup and has him playing off the ball more just because there's a new GM? Would you really trust this guy to coach you in tight clutch situations?
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It does take some authority away from Walton. The way Vlade should have taken care of it was to trade Bogi. It's really what McNair should do too. I'm not saying this because I prefer one over the other. It's that once you gave Buddy a starters contract, the decision was made. The franchise that is not a playoff team should not be paying a starter salary to a backup. Both Buddy and Bogi want their money, but you can't start both for defensive reasons. Really curious how McNair handles this.
 
M

mac

All-Star
#41
#41
Livinthedream said:
It does take some authority away from Walton. The way Vlade should have taken care of it was to trade Bogi. It's really what McNair should do too. I'm not saying this because I prefer one over the other. It's that once you gave Buddy a starters contract, the decision was made. The franchise that is not a playoff team should not be paying a starter salary to a backup. Both Buddy and Bogi want their money, but you can't start both for defensive reasons. Really curious how McNair handles this.
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Well you can't start both and expect to be great defensively, but that doesn't mean you can't win a bunch of games by virtue of your offense alone. I do think we need to be very clear on what kind of team we want to be and what it means to play to our strengths. Sure, everyone wants to be a team that pushes the pace and is great defensively. Saying that in today's NBA is as good as saying nothing. In reality, you need to figure out where exactly in that balance you want to be, and where your personnel excels in. I can tell you instinctively that a team with Fox and Buddy Hield and Bogdan should not be trying to be a great defensive team before it tries to be a great offensive one.

You do outline a possible solution to restore credibility though - trade Bogi. Then it becomes Buddy as starter and playing off-ball by default rather than an "admission" by Walton that he didn't know how to use his guys.
 
kb02

kb02

All-Star
#42
#42
Livinthedream said:
It does take some authority away from Walton. The way Vlade should have taken care of it was to trade Bogi. It's really what McNair should do too. I'm not saying this because I prefer one over the other. It's that once you gave Buddy a starters contract, the decision was made. The franchise that is not a playoff team should not be paying a starter salary to a backup. Both Buddy and Bogi want their money, but you can't start both for defensive reasons. Really curious how McNair handles this.
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Regarding Buddy, McNair and Walton should buy him this: Iggy
 
T

Turgenev

Starter
#47
#47
Imagine if McNair was around last year during one of the teams longer losing streaks. He would've been able to sit down with him and say something like 'data says if Buddy dribbles more than twice it's a turnover' and Luke may have been able to claim credit to an extra couple of wins. Give them a year together to see if they're suited to one another. If not, Walton can go and McNair can find his guy.
 
T

Turgenev

Starter
#49
#49
Listened to the radio spot. I guess the key words that they wanted to get out of the way early were aggressive and innovate. On replication of the rockets, he said small ball worked well for them and then they took it to the extreme but the Kings roster is a bit more versatile so the approach will be slightly different.
 
Warhawk

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
#55
#55
I don't know if this was mentioned/asked before, but I wonder if the reason McNair was the selection was because he was willing to work with Walton for at least a year?

Listen, I don't know McNair, or Gupta, or the other names that were out there. And I assume they are probably all pretty well qualified given their time working as assistants, etc., and the reported good stuff they did in those positions. But maybe that was what put McNair over the top with Vivek? I mean, I HOPE it didn't come to that. But while Walton seems to have a good rapport with the players I sure haven't been overly impressed with the job he's done.

I guess we will see how it all plays out. Seems like a good hire from what Gupta said, etc. Crossing fingers and hoping for the best! :)
 
S

Sactown ExPat

Starter
#56
#56
Warhawk said:
I don't know if this was mentioned/asked before, but I wonder if the reason McNair was the selection was because he was willing to work with Walton for at least a year?

Listen, I don't know McNair, or Gupta, or the other names that were out there. And I assume they are probably all pretty well qualified given their time working as assistants, etc., and the reported good stuff they did in those positions. But maybe that was what put McNair over the top with Vivek? I mean, I HOPE it didn't come to that. But while Walton seems to have a good rapport with the players I sure haven't been overly impressed with the job he's done.

I guess we will see how it all plays out. Seems like a good hire from what Gupta said, etc. Crossing fingers and hoping for the best! :)
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No, Luke had zero bearing on the candidate list. Fox is the star, Fox likes Luke—therefore Luke stays until the GM can convince Fox to get a different coach, or Fox is traded. All these guys understand the game within the game. Plus, look at the conference next year—all these guys were going to tank anyway unless a big time star becomes available via trade. And if that happens, and you talk to New Star & Fox about bringing in Gentry or somebody midseason, the world is your oyster.

Vivek and Joe, and not much else, impacted the candidate list.
 
Warhawk

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
#58
#58
Sactown ExPat said:
No, Luke had zero bearing on the candidate list. Fox is the star, Fox likes Luke—therefore Luke stays until the GM can convince Fox to get a different coach, or Fox is traded. All these guys understand the game within the game. Plus, look at the conference next year—all these guys were going to tank anyway unless a big time star becomes available via trade. And if that happens, and you talk to New Star & Fox about bringing in Gentry or somebody midseason, the world is your oyster.

Vivek and Joe, and not much else, impacted the candidate list.
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I didn’t say candidate list. I said ultimate selection.
 
M

mac

All-Star
#59
#59
Sactown ExPat said:
No, Luke had zero bearing on the candidate list. Fox is the star, Fox likes Luke—therefore Luke stays until the GM can convince Fox to get a different coach, or Fox is traded. All these guys understand the game within the game. Plus, look at the conference next year—all these guys were going to tank anyway unless a big time star becomes available via trade. And if that happens, and you talk to New Star & Fox about bringing in Gentry or somebody midseason, the world is your oyster.

Vivek and Joe, and not much else, impacted the candidate list.
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Does Fox really like Luke?
 
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