Top 5 Forum Scapegoats

#1
Kingsfans forum, like most sports forums is 65 percent rooting for and discussing the team and 35 percent complaining about players/coaches.

Name your top 5 scapegoats in forum history?

To clarify, your list isn’t necessarily your personal view on who is to blame for King’s futility, rather who you believe has gotten the most traction on the forum as the wrong type of goat.
 
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#2
5. Karl
4. Walton
3. Cojo
2. WCS
1. Salmons

I updated my list to give WCS Points for longevity

Probably some recency bias but I’m curious what others list looks like.

who are other candidates? Jimmer? Cousins? Tyreke? Kenny Thomas? Jason Thompson? Spencer Hawes?
 
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dude12

Hall of Famer
#5
Scapegoats as in the perceived failings of the team and not my own personal feelings and also may not be proven true.

1. Vivek
2. Boogie
3. Vlade
4. Walton but with a bullet going up
5. Pete D’ Allesandro also known as Gerbil and was actually proven true....must list with Gerbil his sidekick in crime Chris Mullin
 
#6
Scapegoats as in the perceived failings of the team and not my own personal feelings and also may not be proven true.

1. Vivek
2. Boogie
3. Vlade
4. Walton but with a bullet going up
5. Pete D’ Allesandro also known as Gerbil and was actually proven true....must list with Gerbil his sidekick in crime Chris Mullin
I don't believe Boogie should be there if the Maloofs are not. The Maloofs have been proven true.

I would also put Walton ahead of Vlade simply because at least Vlade gave a damn.
 
#9
Just talking strictly about players, we seem to have a new scape goat every season.. and a lot of the times, they aren't even the difference between winning and losing.

2015: Ramon Sessions
2016: Marco Belinelli
2017: Arron Afflalo
2018: George Hill (when 36 year old Zach Randolph is your best players and all the rookies underwhelm, blame the guy your GM overpaid)
2019: Willie Cauley-Stein
2020: Trevor Ariza
2021: Cory Joseph (your backup PG is not the reason why your defense is the worst in the league)

We always end up blaming rotational players for the shortcomings of our team. I think we have to start realizing that they're nowhere near the main problem of our team.
 
#13
Just talking strictly about players, we seem to have a new scape goat every season.. and a lot of the times, they aren't even the difference between winning and losing.

2015: Ramon Sessions
2016: Marco Belinelli
2017: Arron Afflalo
2018: George Hill (when 36 year old Zach Randolph is your best players and all the rookies underwhelm, blame the guy your GM overpaid)
2019: Willie Cauley-Stein
2020: Trevor Ariza
2021: Cory Joseph (your backup PG is not the reason why your defense is the worst in the league)

We always end up blaming rotational players for the shortcomings of our team. I think we have to start realizing that they're nowhere near the main problem of our team.
Yeah people tend to blame the players but it's usually the coach who is at fault for playing said players so much.

IT turned into the scapegoat at the end of his final year. Landry got a lot of flack too.
 
#14
Just talking strictly about players, we seem to have a new scape goat every season.. and a lot of the times, they aren't even the difference between winning and losing.

2015: Ramon Sessions
2016: Marco Belinelli
2017: Arron Afflalo
2018: George Hill (when 36 year old Zach Randolph is your best players and all the rookies underwhelm, blame the guy your GM overpaid)
2019: Willie Cauley-Stein
2020: Trevor Ariza
2021: Cory Joseph (your backup PG is not the reason why your defense is the worst in the league)

We always end up blaming rotational players for the shortcomings of our team. I think we have to start realizing that they're nowhere near the main problem of our team.
Im surprised Bjelica isn’t on this list and I would put Bogi as the player last year.
 
#16
I think the true scapegoats are the ones who people criticize and seem to lay all blame on for the team's failure. I.e., if only XX was better in some way, we'd be winning. There might be lots of complaining about role players but I don't think anybody actually thinks that Cory Joseph is THE reason why we lose games.

In last 10-15 years:

Kevin Martin (Bricklayer was very anti Kmart, called him soft blablabla)
Karl
IT
WCS
Buddy
Bagley
 
#17
I think the true scapegoats are the ones who people criticize and seem to lay all blame on for the team's failure. I.e., if only XX was better in some way, we'd be winning. There might be lots of complaining about role players but I don't think anybody actually thinks that Cory Joseph is THE reason why we lose games.

In last 10-15 years:

Kevin Martin (Bricklayer was very anti Kmart, called him soft blablabla)
Karl
IT
WCS
Buddy
Bagley

This is very interesting, I wasn't very active on the forum in the Kmart days. He was way ahead of his time with the foul line being such a big part of his game. Didn't know he was a target on the forum.
 
#18
Mikki Moore, Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson are all good ones too.

All deservedly so. Although Hawes is one of the few Kings players that went on and improved after he left.
 
#19
Kingsfans forum, like most sports forums is 65 percent rooting for and discussing the team and 35 percent complaining about players/coaches.

Name your top 5 scapegoats in forum history?

To clarify, your list isn’t necessarily your personal view on who is to blame for King’s futility, rather who you believe has gotten the most traction on the forum as the wrong type of goat.
Nice post. And a sign of the times as the "the dreaded offseason" and "the season" are now indistinguishable and are now known as "the dreaded season".

1. Gotta be Petey D. And should be for the foreseeable future, as the still the single greatest mistake of the modern Kings era was firing Malone.

2. Maloofs a close second.

3. Going with a darkhorse here... Grant. Dude just emitted a toxicity that poisoned the air (literally) for years.

4. John Salmons, the quintessential "good" player on a bad team that made him think he was an all star. The fan hate was actually medicinal in his case, to bring him back down to reality.

5. WCS. Having the worst hands in the history of basketball has a way of turning the fans against you.
 
#20
My number one is IT because he was such a good player. He left all he had on the floor. But a lot of people here hated him. He left and made a run in the playoffs. Unfortunately he got hurt and he is out of the league.

Unfortunately this Kings season is just like all the others.
 
#21
1) Maloof's (Anaheim, Seattle, Virginia Beach - Big Lie exposed)
2) Napear (Maloof's sycophant, two-faced liar)
3) Divac (way in over his head)
4) Vivek (inexplicably hired Divac plus other F.O. errors)
5) Kenny Natt (among multiple head coach busts but Natt's .190 all-time lowest Sac era)

Note: Not any Kings players unless top 10 or top 20 list. Merely professional NBA hired hands. Mainly who hired them and who coached them.
 
#22
I think he has matured a bit since his NBA 3.0 days.
There was a period that I had hoped so, that hope has become a distant memory. I do think he has become more adept at staying in the shadows but I have become concerned that his fingers are tipping the scales in regards to personnel decisions.

And no, no owner is totally hands off.
 
#23
This is very interesting, I wasn't very active on the forum in the Kmart days. He was way ahead of his time with the foul line being such a big part of his game. Didn't know he was a target on the forum.
There have been a number of vocal long time/old members who like hard-nosed basketball, preach defense wins championships, championships are won by big men etc. Nothing wrong with that, just setting the context, and for sure I'd agree that today's NBA has swung way too much to the other side. But point being, you can see how Kmart (more a finesse guy, looks to draw cheap fouls, not a good defender) would get flak, and likewise Karl got a whole lotta flak for essentially getting Cousins out on the perimeter dribbling and shooting 3s, which has since become the norm for superstar bigs. But again, not about defense and posting up so BAD.

Not quite sure I understand a lot of the responses so far - they seem more like legit bad rather than scapegoats overly/unfairly blamed for the team's shortcomings.
 
#24
.......

Not quite sure I understand a lot of the responses so far - they seem more like legit bad rather than scapegoats overly/unfairly blamed for the team's shortcomings.
Trickle down economics, wealth trickles while pain pours ........

You have a good point, most listed are management and above. And most are very legit. The one in the management category that fits overly/unfairly blamed would be Adelman. That was a man that took more than his fair share and that was during the glory days.
 
#26
My number one is IT because he was such a good player. He left all he had on the floor. But a lot of people here hated him. He left and made a run in the playoffs. Unfortunately he got hurt and he is out of the league.

Unfortunately this Kings season is just like all the others.
IT was the first to come to mind for me too. The original pizza guy, he had all the competitive fire of a Holmes albeit in smaller package.

I am 100% on board with him at the end of our bench and being a firecracker to spell Guy or DQJ, assuming we ditch Cojo somehow.
 
#27
IT was the first to come to mind for me too. The original pizza guy, he had all the competitive fire of a Holmes albeit in smaller package.

I am 100% on board with him at the end of our bench and being a firecracker to spell Guy or DQJ, assuming we ditch Cojo somehow.
That could be fun having IT back. His pizza commercials where good. Not like the current one.
 
#28
There have been a number of vocal long time/old members who like hard-nosed basketball, preach defense wins championships, championships are won by big men etc. Nothing wrong with that, just setting the context, and for sure I'd agree that today's NBA has swung way too much to the other side. But point being, you can see how Kmart (more a finesse guy, looks to draw cheap fouls, not a good defender) would get flak, and likewise Karl got a whole lotta flak for essentially getting Cousins out on the perimeter dribbling and shooting 3s, which has since become the norm for superstar bigs. But again, not about defense and posting up so BAD.

Not quite sure I understand a lot of the responses so far - they seem more like legit bad rather than scapegoats overly/unfairly blamed for the team's shortcomings.
Was thinking about this after I posted. Scapegoats are definitely Bagley and Buddy. They don't consistently play to their strengths and perform, but they aren't why we suck.