GM Pete D'Alessandro SPEAKS! SF search

[jalfa]

I m not judging PDA yet, but right now i m really jealous, when i m looking at teams like NOLA, Rockets, Warriors. These franchises all fill their needs and did some spectacular moves, while as a Kings-Fan you basically sit and wait for something positive to happen.
This is the first Offseason i follow closely via all the internet stuff out there and i m starting to believe, that i should stay away from doing so or i will run in some serious health issues soon...

not to mention rebuilding teams like Utah or Phoenix doing smart things with their capspace and acquiring draft picks and assets like Eric Bledsoe.

I'm really trying to stay positive, but I'm weary, getting wearier. all of the things I had identified as problems, our miserable guard rotation, Chuck Hayes and his contract, the lack of a helpside defender in the frontcourt, remain on the roster. meanwhile, one of the positives in Tyreke was summarily dismissed because of a price I'd consider reasonable. in that timespan all these moves KingsFanGER mentioned happened and PDA...kinda did nothing. so far, the result of the offseason has been the addition of our rookies (one of them possibly great, but also kind of a no brainer), letting go of Tyreke while adding Vasquez (whom I don't mind, but whom a lot of people here are a tad too enthusiastic about) and...well, nothing.

of course it's still early and I'll hold up hope, but FA targets have been reduced to a couple of fairly unexciting players (Kiri is off the list, what with all the emphasis on shooting, I suppose) and there's quite a few question marks attached to all those high priced SFs that might be targeted in a salary dump situation.
there's health concerns in the cases of both Deng and Granger and price concerns once their contracts expire next offseason. then there's the question if Gay has been able to correct his vision problems (no joke, the guy apparently has been playing half blind for a while now) and if he's actually capable of not being an offense breaking, inefficient chucker that's actually good for anything.

should we get Wright (whom I'd have liked a whole lot better before trading Evans) and Asik, I'll be somewhat conciliated, but so far PDA appears to be approaching this team's mess in a backwards, worryingly Petriean way.

 

[roasthawg]

not to mention rebuilding teams like Utah or Phoenix doing smart things with their capspace and acquiring draft picks and assets like Eric Bledsoe.

I'm really trying to stay positive, but I'm weary, getting wearier. all of the things I had identified as problems, our miserable guard rotation, Chuck Hayes and his contract, the lack of a helpside defender in the frontcourt, remain on the roster. meanwhile, one of the positives in Tyreke was summarily dismissed because of a price I'd consider reasonable. in that timespan all these moves KingsFanGER mentioned happened and PDA...kinda did nothing. so far, the result of the offseason has been the addition of our rookies (one of them possibly great, but also kind of a no brainer), letting go of Tyreke while adding Vasquez (whom I don't mind, but whom a lot of people here are a tad too enthusiastic about) and...well, nothing.

of course it's still early and I'll hold up hope, but FA targets have been reduced to a couple of fairly unexciting players (Kiri is off the list, what with all the emphasis on shooting, I suppose) and there's quite a few question marks attached to all those high priced SFs that might be targeted in a salary dump situation.
there's health concerns in the cases of both Deng and Granger and price concerns once their contracts expire next offseason. then there's the question if Gay has been able to correct his vision problems (no joke, the guy apparently has been playing half blind for a while now) and if he's actually capable of not being an offense breaking, inefficient chucker that's actually good for anything.

should we get Wright (whom I'd have liked a whole lot better before trading Evans) and Asik, I'll be somewhat conciliated, but so far PDA appears to be approaching this team's mess in a backwards, worryingly Petriean way.

Pete D doesn't like Evans as much as the Pelicans do... that appears to be the only thing he's done "wrong" so far. It's not like Evans went to a great organization with a history of winning and evaluating talent correctly. The Pelicans suck and should not be trusted. No one else in the leauge was willing to pay Tyreke that much... that should be somewhat telling. Not one single contender even wanted to visit with him... I mean we're talking the Pelicans and the Pistons. I'm over it... I'm with Pete.

 

[ESP47]

C demarcus cousins
PF jason thompson
SF matt barnes
SG ben mclemore
PG tyreke evans

That team looks good on paper, figuratively compared to what we've had the last 8 years or so. But there's so much more that goes into it other than name recognition.

Tyreke Evans is not good at running an offense. The ball becomes stagnant when it's in his hands for too long. He's not a ball hog but he's a shot clock hog. He basically turns the 24 second clock into a 14 second clock when he has the ball. Once we're in our offensive set, if he can't get around his man, he usually winds up passing the ball off with just a few seconds left to force someone else to take a bad shot before the clock runs out. The whole idea of him running a team gives most of us wet dreams but in reality it's largely failed.

Mclemore is a rookie. Chances are he'll end up with stats more like Beal rather than Lillard. I'm all for letting him grow but there's a small chance that he'll just come out sharp shooting and playing excellent D like people here are wishing.

Matt Barnes is an excellent backup SF but he hasn't been much of a starter in his career for a reason. Not to mention he's getting old himself. He's just kind of an ok outside shooter but he brings good D and can rebound. Sounds like what we wanted out of James Johnson. In this day and age, you need 3 good shooters on the floor for spacing. The only way you can get around it is if they have other elite skills like Tony Allen, Iggy and DWade have.

JT/Cousins are a black hole on defense. I'm hoping we can swing JT + package for someone like Asik or Gortat. They would be a better fit next to Cousins and give us that all important rim protection. I like JT's offense but he's not a starter on a playoff team. I guess he could be but he'd have to be surrounded by a lot more talent than we have. You just can't have two guys who can't block shots down low. People used to complain about how bad Webber and Vlade's D was early on and both of those guys were blocking 1.5+ a game. JT and Cousins barely add up to what we'd get from one of those guys.

 

[King-Da-Yah]

Pete D doesn't like Evans as much as the Pelicans do... that appears to be the only thing he's done "wrong" so far. It's not like Evans went to a great organization with a history of winning and evaluating talent correctly. The Pelicans suck and should not be trusted. No one else in the leauge was willing to pay Tyreke that much... that should be somewhat telling. Not one single contender even wanted to visit with him... I mean we're talking the Pelicans and the Pistons. I'm over it... I'm with Pete.

Did anyone else hear Grant praising PDA a week or so ago? Gushing about how he got Lawson, Faried and is just really promising. I feel like drafting two players who pan out gives you a considerable amount of clout, but we as Kings fans know how fast that can go South. After drafting Evans and Cousins, the two cornerstones of our rebuild, we followed that up with Jimmer and T-Rob.

This is by no means a bashing of Petrie, since we all know there was maloofery involved with our most recent picks. Back to my point, Petrie received vitriol for two consecutive misses in the draft by many who were either unaware of the aforementioned maloofery or were simply panicking because hey, that's what we Kings fans do best right? I don't want to beat a dead horse, but Tyreke is considered by the NBA to be a top 20 FA this offseason.

How can you not keep him here PDA? He was the most likely candidate to be in your starting lineup and be a difference maker on both sides of the ball. Cognitive dissonance is rampant on this forum lately, as people constantly seek to comfort themselves with "Oh he did not fit out new plan anyways" or "he just demanded too much money". There is no shame in admitting disappointment over this whole mess.

That being said I am willing to give PDA a shot, ain't I a generous guy?

 

[jalfa]

Pete D doesn't like Evans as much as the Pelicans do... that appears to be the only thing he's done "wrong" so far. It's not like Evans went to a great organization with a history of winning and evaluating talent correctly. The Pelicans suck and should not be trusted. No one else in the leauge was willing to pay Tyreke that much... that should be somewhat telling. Not one single contender even wanted to visit with him... I mean we're talking the Pelicans and the Pistons. I'm over it... I'm with Pete.

the Pelicans are one year into their rebuild, have already established an identity and roles and were on a clear upward trajectory even before adding an allstar point guard to their team. they've turned that team around so fast they're fans are suffering from whiplash and I don't believe that their offseason is over either. what's the worst they've done so far? whiffed on Austin Rivers. probably. not like he couldn't turn it around either. also, what contending team should've gone after him? only San Antonio had capspace and they wanted to retain Splitter and Ginobili so that they could use the MLE. not that unsound a strategy, considering that their team was 35 seconds away from a title.

and yeah, aside from the fact that he's cluttered our already immensely cluttered guard rotation up even more, while letting the one of them actually worth his salt go, that's the only thing PDA has done wrong so far. mainly because he hasn't done anything else. which I'd be fine with, if it weren't for all these pieces that I'd have liked on the Kings moving to all the other teams. I've acknowledged in my post that there's still time to turn this around, but the focus has been wrong and that disturbs me.

 

[Chupacabra]

Is Green anything outside of a freak-athlete? I hardly watched him play and if i recognized him on the court all he did was dunk on some people. I m not able to judge him at all.

In the past couple of years he's figured out how to shoot the basketball. He's a decent 3 point shooter but because of his athleticism he sometimes takes dumb shots.

 

[theclash4u5]

I really like what GM Pete has done so far, and I am excited to see what player comes in for the SF position, hopefully it isn't Dorell Wright (or if it is, to serve as a backup would be nice).
Is Kirilenko still available? he was interested in the Kings before... I'd love that move. Delfino would be interesting too, but only on a cheap deal. He made 3M last year, and might want more.
Not sure how much I'd be willing to go in on Kirilenko.

Well your wish was granted, as he has signed a 2 year deal with the Blazers.

 

[sactownfan]

well .... D. Wright just signed with the 76'ers... so scratch him. another SF off the market... hmm. im again going to show restraint here but again with each signing i get a little more anxious about our GM. At this point outside of AK47 and C.Brewer im not sure what else we can do... casspi again??? haha no.... luke walton? no.... james johnson again?? lol! the FA crop is about at rock bottom now.

 

[Darth Divac]

AK47 is still out there...c'mon Pete...please????

 

[Mass]

not to mention rebuilding teams like Utah or Phoenix doing smart things with their capspace and acquiring draft picks and assets like Eric Bledsoe.

I'm really trying to stay positive, but I'm weary, getting wearier. all of the things I had identified as problems, our miserable guard rotation, Chuck Hayes and his contract, the lack of a helpside defender in the frontcourt, remain on the roster. meanwhile, one of the positives in Tyreke was summarily dismissed because of a price I'd consider reasonable. in that timespan all these moves KingsFanGER mentioned happened and PDA...kinda did nothing. so far, the result of the offseason has been the addition of our rookies (one of them possibly great, but also kind of a no brainer), letting go of Tyreke while adding Vasquez (whom I don't mind, but whom a lot of people here are a tad too enthusiastic about) and...well, nothing.

of course it's still early and I'll hold up hope, but FA targets have been reduced to a couple of fairly unexciting players (Kiri is off the list, what with all the emphasis on shooting, I suppose) and there's quite a few question marks attached to all those high priced SFs that might be targeted in a salary dump situation.
there's health concerns in the cases of both Deng and Granger and price concerns once their contracts expire next offseason. then there's the question if Gay has been able to correct his vision problems (no joke, the guy apparently has been playing half blind for a while now) and if he's actually capable of not being an offense breaking, inefficient chucker that's actually good for anything.

should we get Wright (whom I'd have liked a whole lot better before trading Evans) and Asik, I'll be somewhat conciliated, but so far PDA appears to be approaching this team's mess in a backwards, worryingly Petriean way.

I know it's hard to see other rebuilding teams making good moves, and it seems like we are doing nothing other than losing Tyreke. But, some of the things you mentioned are not PDA's fault. Hayes' contract is pretty much impossible to trade. He was already here when PDA joined the team.
Personally, I'm not willing to judge him now, it's too soon and it would be unfair. If Vivek decided to hire him, he must have seen something. Just give him a little time. At least a year. And as long as DMC is the future of this team, I won't call for his head.
Maybe some of you thought we were going to be contender next year. Vivek was clear from the beginning. They are trying to change the culture of this team now, and in the next months. I don't expect the Kings to win more than 35 games next year. But it's fine with me, I want to see a real system on the court, not the mess we've seen in the last years, and improvements from our players.
I mean, Vivek just saved the Kings, and PDA was his choice, I think he deserves some credit. I know that we, as fans, have the right to criticize our FO. But if it wasn't for Vivek, we would have nothing to discuss now. I remember before the BOG vote, some people here were saying that they were ok with years of 25 wins teams, all they wanted was their Kings to stay in Sacramento. Now, 6 days into free agency, we already want PDA's head. Relax, there will be Kings basketball for the next years, a new arena will be done, thousands of jobs etc. Cousins is still here and I believe he will be for the next years. Let PDA do his work, if next year we'll lose Cuz, then it will be time to panic.

 

[kingwin]

i hope we get corey brewer....or petes got some genius trade hes working on clearly some guards and getting a nice SF ? or hes just sitting on his hand because he has no idea what hes doing...

 

[hrdboild]

time to evolve? i don't understand this argument from anybody i've seen it from. what time do the kings have, exactly? demarcus cousins is heading into the final year of his rookie contract. if the kings have any hope of extending him before he hits the free agent market, then he has to buy into the team's vision. and if they do manage to extend him, and the losses are still piling up in the next couple of seasons, then how long until the big man gets cranky, gets surly, upsets the locker room, wants out altogether?

the reason i am so upset about watching tyreke walk for nothing more than a no-defense PG with the fool's gold of high assist numbers is because the most efficient way to build a winner was to begin with a core of cousins/evans/mclemore, and surround it with defensive-minded roleplayers, some of whom can share in spot-up-shooting responsibilities, and others who can share in handling/moving the ball...

C demarcus cousins
PF jason thompson
SF matt barnes
SG ben mclemore
PG tyreke evans

i've posted the above lineup four or five times already. it was a doable lineup this offseason, a realistic lineup, one that's versatile, and most importantly, one that plays some defense, y'know, the new head coach's calling card. that team might have won some games. instead, we've got this:

C demarcus cousins
PF jason thompson
SF ?
SF ben mclemore
PG grievis vasquez

instead of a trio with lockdown defensive potential in barnes (or kirilenko, potentially)/evans/mclemore, the kings are staring down the barrel of another season in which penetration exposes the weaknesses of a cousins/thompson frontcourt. i'd like to see the kings acquire a player up front who can cover some of DMC's deficiencies, but until we find a defensive big, i was seriously expecting to see a defensive upgrade at SF, but all i hear from PDA is talk of passing and shooting. even if barnes or kirilenko decide to come to sacramento, who's gonna score besides cousins? "signing" such roleplayers in my mock-starting units was contingent and complementary on evans' presence (and his ability to score at the rim). without him, what happens when big cuz is in foul trouble, and the defense has taken away the rookie's jumper? you need a player that consistently penetrates on offense, and you need a team that plays at least passable defense...

so, yes, to answer questions posed by others, "passing and shooting" are bad things if they come at the expense of defense. it's exactly what we saw from maloofs/petrie/smart. bring in shooters. start IT. move the ball. but don't play an ounce of defense, and the team will still lose. it infuriates me to see poster after poster after poster parroting people like ailene voison or grant napear, trotting out the tremendously lazy argument that, because the team never more than 28 games with tyreke evans, then he must be the problem. that's a false equivalency of the highest order, considering how poorly the team has played defensively across the last seven years...

tyreke was one of the team's best defenders, and has the potential and physical gifts to be a great defender. i was hoping to see mike malone harness that talent on the more important side of the ball. instead, i'm gonna get to watch grievis vasquez rack up assists while giving up endless ground on defense. it's not a useful trade-off when you're a team that must improve defensively if it's ever gonna climb outta the western conference's basement. "time to evolve"? yeah sure, i suppose if you don't mind watching the kings collect lottery pick after lottery pick for another five years...

i was thinking that maybe i'd see the kings develop from within, which is the surest path to building a winner, instead of the hope-and-a-prayer strategy that you'll be able to trade mediocre talent (thornton, thompson, thomas, etc.) for all-star potential, or that you'll be in a position to draft andrew wiggins, or that quality free agents will want to come to sacramento, an undesirable destination that is home to seven straight losing seasons...

It's like we share the same brain. Thank you for making me feel sane again.

 

[Agent23]

well .... D. Wright just signed with the 76'ers... so scratch him. another SF off the market... hmm. im again going to show restraint here but again with each signing i get a little more anxious about our GM. At this point outside of AK47 and C.Brewer im not sure what else we can do... casspi again??? haha no.... luke walton? no.... james johnson again?? lol! the FA crop is about at rock bottom now.

I think you meant he signed with the Trailblazers bro

 

[Capt. Factorial]

not to mention rebuilding teams like Utah or Phoenix doing smart things with their capspace and acquiring draft picks and assets like Eric Bledsoe.

I'm not sure Utah did a smart thing with their capspace. (OK, I'll drop the niceties - I'm convinced they did a dumb thing with their capspace.) They just spent $24M on three players who are washed up or coming off of severe injury and they got two mid-20s picks for that. That's $12M per pick for two lousy picks. That's just really not at all good value. These are the kind of picks that you can buy for a couple of million on draft night.

Had they gotten Golden State to throw Barnes in on the deal, I'd have been of a completely different mind on it. Really, if I were Utah, I'd have tried to leverage that situation a lot more. You want cap space to sign Iguodala? You Don't Get It For Free. It Costs Barnes. Otherwise, try shopping with somebody else. Utah probably would have been better served to spend up to the cap floor by overpaying on one-year contracts than what they did. Either way they have capspace next summer, but they'd field a more competitive team in the meantime. (I know, I know, #riggin4wiggins...doesn't make it a smart move.)

 

[sactownfan]

I think you meant he signed with the Trailblazers bro

yeah he played with the 76'ers ... irrelevant who signed him... he aint coming here thats for sure

 

[RussoTuristo]

People, calm down. You want everything and everything now. This franchise was the biggest mess in NBA just a couple of months ago and actually was in this condition for a very long time. New ownership and just recently hired FO inherited a dysfunctional org, unbalanced roster that was created with absolutely no strategy, bad reputation, a little cap space for such a bad team etc. It will take a little bit more time to fix that. Be patient, we are in transition on each and every level. And we are also a small market, remember that too. Oh, I know, we have been suffering for so long and I guess Vivek and PDA owe us a playoff caliber team this year already ... upps, sorry, not this year, right now, on July 6th. If so, you need to wake up and drink a cup of reality. This team won't change overnight and it was/is even theoretically impossible taking into consideration our situation. And we don't need just changes, we basically need a complete re-branding. That's why they fired old employees and brought new blood, they let some players ago (see Tyreke). They just started. We all wanted change but there are many people who are afraid of change because they envisioned it differently. One thing fore sure, change needs time. Unfortunately, we cannot just release our bad players (and we have a lot of them) and bring perfect free agents (it is a two-way road and G*d knows it will take time to make Sacramento a serious player in a free-agent market).

Remember, just two months ago we were about to lose our team for good and now we actually have a team, we have a new owner who actually cares about winning, we have a new coach, new active GM. We got a very talented SG. They are not gonna be perfect, they will make mistakes, just like any org in any pro sport league. Just give them some freaking team to actually do something and they will need all the time and luck in the world to turn this franchise around.

 

[jalfa]

I know it's hard to see other rebuilding teams making good moves, and it seems like we are doing nothing other than losing Tyreke. But, some of the things you mentioned are not PDA's fault. Hayes' contract is pretty much impossible to trade. He was already here when PDA joined the team.
Personally, I'm not willing to judge him now, it's too soon and it would be unfair. If Vivek decided to hire him, he must have seen something. Just give him a little time. At least a year. And as long as DMC is the future of this team, I won't call for his head.
Maybe some of you thought we were going to be contender next year. Vivek was clear from the beginning. They are trying to change the culture of this team now, and in the next months. I don't expect the Kings to win more than 35 games next year. But it's fine with me, I want to see a real system on the court, not the mess we've seen in the last years, and improvements from our players.
I mean, Vivek just saved the Kings, and PDA was his choice, I think he deserves some credit. I know that we, as fans, have the right to criticize our FO. But if it wasn't for Vivek, we would have nothing to discuss now. I remember before the BOG vote, some people here were saying that they were ok with years of 25 wins teams, all they wanted was their Kings to stay in Sacramento. Now, 6 days into free agency, we already want PDA's head. Relax, there will be Kings basketball for the next years, a new arena will be done, thousands of jobs etc. Cousins is still here and I believe he will be for the next years. Let PDA do his work, if next year we'll lose Cuz, then it will be time to panic.

I'm not sure how much of your post is directed at me, but regardless: I'm not passing judgement, just noting that I'm uneasy about what has happened so far. I'm also not the least bit clamouring for instant gratification. an offseason where we'd have resigned Tyreke, got some journeyman SF and maybe dropped a bit of salary by trading it with the pick would've been absolutely fine by me. it was PDA that talked about being aggressive and owing it to the fanbase to do something big. not necessarily what I was looking for, but cool, if you think you can do something, bring it on. he hasn't, though, aside from bringing in more guards, diminishing what little trade value those we already have might've had in the process. the free agent market, meanwhile, has dried up to the point that we're now apparently in talks with Darren Collisson, possibly, in what I can only consider to be a bad joke and there's just about not a single interesting FA left.

again, all this can easily be turned around, but the focus appears to have been on the wrong things. I don't mind shooting. like it a great deal more than others apprehensive about the way things are going, in fact. however, shooting is absolutely and entirely not a problem that needs fixing. the personnel we had was fine offensively and I could easily have seen it being a pretty damn good offense, once sensible roles were established and that whole everybody take his turn thing was abolished. I thought we had taken care of that simply by substracting Smart and adding Malone (who last coached under Mark Jackson and Monty Williams, two coaches very much capable of discerning which players should be allowed to do what on offense). what desperately, desperately needs fixing, however, is the god damn defense and we absolutely must improve the personnel on that side of the floor. however, aside from that Iggy debacle, I haven't seen a single player associated with the Kings that is not a liability defensively. I just don't like the signs so far that is all.

of course, we might add Asik tomorrow and I'll happily shut up. let's just hope for that.

I'm not sure Utah did a smart thing with their capspace. (OK, I'll drop the niceties - I'm convinced they did a dumb thing with their capspace.) They just spent $24M on three players who are washed up or coming off of severe injury and they got two mid-20s picks for that. That's $12M per pick for two lousy picks. That's just really not at all good value. These are the kind of picks that you can buy for a couple of million on draft night.

Had they gotten Golden State to throw Barnes in on the deal, I'd have been of a completely different mind on it. Really, if I were Utah, I'd have tried to leverage that situation a lot more. You want cap space to sign Iguodala? You Don't Get It For Free. It Costs Barnes. Otherwise, try shopping with somebody else. Utah probably would have been better served to spend up to the cap floor by overpaying on one-year contracts than what they did. Either way they have capspace next summer, but they'd field a more competitive team in the meantime. (I know, I know, #riggin4wiggins...doesn't make it a smart move.)

I've gone into this some in the other thread, but: I'm not convinced that these draft picks aren't going to turn out to be worth more then you'd expect. Golden State's fortunes hinge mightily on the health of two fairly fragile players, more than ever now that they can't fall back on Jack or Landry anymore. a bad sprain for Curry, some strong wind knocking down Bogut and that team doesn't look all that good anymore. they'll most likely be fine, but who knows. as for the 2017 pick, nobody knows how GS might look then. many of their key players might be breaking down at that point and the team could very well be on a downward trajectory then. in any case, a firstrounder is a firstrounder and the Jazz have a lot of them now. they also have quite a bit of volume as far as expiring contracts are concerned. if any team decides midseason that this might just be the year to turn on the tank (and they will, by god, they will) then they can still turn those assets into an actual impact player.

could they have gotten more in that deal with GS than a couple of picks and Brandon Rush? possible, who knows. but I still like this in a semi-tank kind of way.

 

[rainmaker]

well .... D. Wright just signed with the 76'ers... so scratch him. another SF off the market... hmm. im again going to show restraint here but again with each signing i get a little more anxious about our GM. At this point outside of AK47 and C.Brewer im not sure what else we can do... casspi again??? haha no.... luke walton? no.... james johnson again?? lol! the FA crop is about at rock bottom now.

AK and Brewer are not any longer what we need. And I love AK and he's been a top target of mine for a few years but we now no longer need a role playing SF, we need a legit star talent who can create and get his own, since we no longer have a perimeter player who can create 1v1 and we need someone who can do that aside from Cuz.

Right now if a defense loads up on Cuz and sticks to MLM, where can we go? If Cuz is in foul trouble or resting, where do we go? We need another 1v1 option who can get to the rack and/or create off the bounce and draw doubles, get the defense switching/moving. And if PDA doesn't have that player lined up, this move was terrible.

If PDA is hoping Vasquez can fill a Curry type role in GS and we can just surround him with roles players/off the ball shooters and Vasquez will dance and create as Curry does, boy is he in for a rude awakening.

 

[jalfa]

People, calm down. You want everything and everything now. This franchise was the biggest mess in NBA just a couple of months ago and actually was in this condition for a very long time. New ownership and just recently hired FO inherited a dysfunctional org, unbalanced roster that was created with absolutely no strategy, bad reputation, a little cap space for such a bad team etc. It will take a little bit more time to fix that. Be patient, we are in transition on each and every level. And we are also a small market, remember that too. Oh, I know, we have been suffering for so long and I guess Vivek and PDA owe us a playoff caliber team this year already ... upps, sorry, not this year, right now, on July 6th. If so, you need to wake up and drink a cup of reality. This team won't change overnight and it was/is even theoretically impossible taking into consideration our situation. And we don't need just changes, we basically need a complete re-branding. That's why they fired old employees and brought new blood, they let some players ago (see Tyreke). They just started. We all wanted change but there are many people who are afraid of change because they envisioned it differently. One thing fore sure, change needs time. Unfortunately, we cannot just release our bad players (and we have a lot of them) and bring perfect free agents (it is a two-way road and G*d knows it will take time to make Sacramento a serious player in a free-agent market).

Remember, just two months ago we were about to lose our team for good and now we actually have a team, we have a new owner who actually cares about winning, we have a new coach, new active GM. We got a very talented SG. They are not gonna be perfect, they will make mistakes, just like any org in any pro sport league. Just give them some freaking team to actually do something and they will need all the time and luck in the world to turn this franchise around.

this just grates on me. why is everybody that's skeptical about the way things are going accused of wanting instant gratification? I don't. don't see many of the others that are critical of the moves so far demanding playoffs, either. most of us are just weary of the fact that all the changes so far seem to only be looking at the offensive side of the floor, when we've been a terrible, terrible defensive team for an eternity. it's not even so much the results, it's the process that's troubling.

 

[Padrino]

D

That team looks good on paper, figuratively compared to what we've had the last 8 years or so. But there's so much more that goes into it other than name recognition.

Tyreke Evans is not good at running an offense. The ball becomes stagnant when it's in his hands for too long. He's not a ball hog but he's a shot clock hog. He basically turns the 24 second clock into a 14 second clock when he has the ball. Once we're in our offensive set, if he can't get around his man, he usually winds up passing the ball off with just a few seconds left to force someone else to take a bad shot before the clock runs out. The whole idea of him running a team gives most of us wet dreams but in reality it's largely failed.

Mclemore is a rookie. Chances are he'll end up with stats more like Beal rather than Lillard. I'm all for letting him grow but there's a small chance that he'll just come out sharp shooting and playing excellent D like people here are wishing.

Matt Barnes is an excellent backup SF but he hasn't been much of a starter in his career for a reason. Not to mention he's getting old himself. He's just kind of an ok outside shooter but he brings good D and can rebound. Sounds like what we wanted out of James Johnson. In this day and age, you need 3 good shooters on the floor for spacing. The only way you can get around it is if they have other elite skills like Tony Allen, Iggy and DWade have.

JT/Cousins are a black hole on defense. I'm hoping we can swing JT + package for someone like Asik or Gortat. They would be a better fit next to Cousins and give us that all important rim protection. I like JT's offense but he's not a starter on a playoff team. I guess he could be but he'd have to be surrounded by a lot more talent than we have. You just can't have two guys who can't block shots down low. People used to complain about how bad Webber and Vlade's D was early on and both of those guys were blocking 1.5+ a game. JT and Cousins barely add up to what we'd get from one of those guys.

again, it's always offense, offense, offense with this team and its fanbase. that's all anybody ever talks about around here. "we need more passing" or "we need outside shooters" or "tyreke eats up too much shot clock." i'm kinda aghast by the fact that there are so few at kf.com who aren't concerned about how little PDA seems to value the need for defensively-oriented personnel, as if offense has ever been the kings biggest problem. the kings' defense has been at the bottom of the nba's barrel for seven straight years, people. that is why they've missed the playoffs in each of those seasons, not because "tyreke won't pass the ball" to teammates who are less talented and efficient with their offense (yeah, cuz the likes of omri casspi and chuck hayes needed the ball more. kings fans love to inflate the utility of mediocre role players, and also love to underestimate just how ineptly the previous regime built their team around cousins and evans)...

truth be told, i don't give two ****s that tyreke evans isn't a pass first guard of any kind. he's an efficient scorer, a good rebounder (another team weakness), a solid playmaker, and an above average defender. oh, and he was the only king outside of DMC that could force an entire defense to change their strategy due to his elite rim attack (and, despite the wrong-headed opinions of so many, 'Reke was still regularly beating defenses at the rim to the tune of 64%, which puts him at the top of the league among guards, alongside dwayne wade and tony parker). pair him with players who can also handle the ball and share in the responsibilities of passing (a team-wide problem hardly confined to tyreke), and it matters not an ounce that tyreke isn't as interested in passing as someone like grievis vasquez, who, for the record, will rarely force a defense to do anything at all as an individual talent. he has to react to them, rather than the other way around. unless PDA swings a trade for, say, rudy gay (who is considerably less efficient than tyreke), the kings will not have an adequate second scoring option on top of being a weaker team, defensively. hardly a recipe for the playoffs, wouldn't you say?

 

[Entity]

I know we didn't want him but Omri agrees with rockets. SF's are flying off the shelf.

 

[Padrino]

this just grates on me. why is everybody that's skeptical about the way things are going accused of wanting instant gratification? I don't. don't see many of the others that are critical of the moves so far demanding playoffs, either. most of us are just weary of the fact that all the changes so far seem to only be looking at the offensive side of the floor, when we've been a terrible, terrible defensive team for an eternity. it's not even so much the results, it's the process that's troubling.

indeed. there's a massive canyon between urgency and impatience, in this instance. a small market franchise like the sacramento kings can be mired in a losing culture for decades without reprieve. such an organization must be wise with its assets. and, when defensive improvement is the priority to begin building a winner around DMC, you don't first seek passing and shooting while all the quality defensive talent is signing elsewhere. you especially don't trade an efficient scorer who plays defense for an inefficient scorer who doesn't play defense, and i don't care how many assists the latter player averages...

 

[roasthawg]

i hope we get corey brewer....or petes got some genius trade hes working on clearly some guards and getting a nice SF ? or hes just sitting on his hand because he has no idea what hes doing...

This.

 

[kingsfan101]

I'm not sure Utah did a smart thing with their capspace. (OK, I'll drop the niceties - I'm convinced they did a dumb thing with their capspace.) They just spent $24M on three players who are washed up or coming off of severe injury and they got two mid-20s picks for that. That's $12M per pick for two lousy picks. That's just really not at all good value. These are the kind of picks that you can buy for a couple of million on draft night.

Had they gotten Golden State to throw Barnes in on the deal, I'd have been of a completely different mind on it. Really, if I were Utah, I'd have tried to leverage that situation a lot more. You want cap space to sign Iguodala? You Don't Get It For Free. It Costs Barnes. Otherwise, try shopping with somebody else. Utah probably would have been better served to spend up to the cap floor by overpaying on one-year contracts than what they did. Either way they have capspace next summer, but they'd field a more competitive team in the meantime. (I know, I know, #riggin4wiggins...doesn't make it a smart move.)

I thought so too. Sure they got something, and as long as the owner is willing to pay, why should the fans care. Just thought they could have gotten more.

That said, that's a good use of space. They got something out of it, while keeping their cap for next year.

Coming back to us, I really hope the team identifies a direction, and sticks to it. At the beginning of FA, they probably wanted to make a splash, and went after AI with big money, and even spoke of retaining Reke. That would have improved the team significantly, and indicated a win now approach, potentially endangering our 2014 pick.

Now, we are in the exact opposite position, having lost our second best player, and pulling out of AI sweepstakes. Plus, we are sitting on huge capspace, but the FA market is drying up fast. Moreover, we are talking about trading some of our big contracts (which I actually support).

Needless to say, most of our big contracts have very little value around the league. At this point, the team might probably be best served by committing to another year of rebuild: suck for another year; keep our draft pick; see development of the rookies, Vas, and even Cuz; see if the coach is able to instill some discipline and defense, and hopefully, raise the trade value of some of our guys; use the cap space to help some other team to reduce their LT burden, and pick some assets in the process, and so on.

We the fans, shall be the victims. However, I would much rather take another year of suffering, rather than one or more big, bad contracts that might cripple us for years. But before they do that, they should sign DMC to an extension, and tell him, that this is the plan.

 

[Double-K]

this just grates on me. why is everybody that's skeptical about the way things are going accused of wanting instant gratification? I don't. don't see many of the others that are critical of the moves so far demanding playoffs, either. most of us are just weary of the fact that all the changes so far seem to only be looking at the offensive side of the floor, when we've been a terrible, terrible defensive team for an eternity. it's not even so much the results, it's the process that's troubling.

That's one of their best arguments. Among the others like, "Why are you upset that we broke apart our 28 wins team?", "Our scoring was among the last in the league, if Evans was good enough he would've brought us back up all by himself.", "This team is Cousins now and Evans doesn't match with his play style. Isn't 4 years a big enough sample for you to see that?"

1: It's hard to perform, offensively and defensively, without a system established on the top.
2: Whether or not you think he fits, Evan was a more-than-capable scorer and very capable defender, and our FO let him walk.
3: We bring back a pass-first PG (among the top of the league on assist, not a small feat) who's not necessarily fast enough to play D.

Those are all facts and that's what we are skeptical about. All of you who said "Oh you haven't seen the whole picture yet. Give the FO a chance." are all based on an unseen future, regardless of how realistic you think that future might be. While we (who are skeptical) are just talking about what has happened.

Apologize for being off-topic a little bit... Carry on!

 

[jalfa]

That's one of their best arguments. Among the others like, "Why are you upset that we broke apart our 28 wins team?", "Our scoring was among the last in the league, if Evans was good enough he would've brought us back up all by himself.", "This team is Cousins now and Evans doesn't match with his play style. Isn't 4 years a big enough sample for you to see that?"

1: It's hard to perform, offensively and defensively, without a system established on the top.
2: Whether or not you think he fits, Evan was a more-than-capable scorer and very capable defender, and our FO let him walk.
3: We bring back a pass-first PG (among the top of the league on assist, not a small feat) who's not necessarily fast enough to play D.

Those are all facts and that's what we are skeptical about. All of you who said "Oh you haven't seen the whole picture yet. Give the FO a chance." are all based on an unseen future, regardless of how realistic you think that future might be. While we (who are skeptical) are just talking about what has happened.

Apologize for being off-topic a little bit... Carry on!

yeah, that one bothers me a lot, too. if you want to break up that team, fine! go ahead! take a sledgehammer to it, be my guest. just maybe stay away from the two good players and start where the team is actually hurting. see the little guy chucking, not playing defense and not doing anything else, for instance? yeah, I know there's three of those that's the problem. maybe get rid of one or two. might be nice change of pace, considering that their place in the NBA seems to be...well, out of it, mostly.

 

[rainmaker]

The real worrying aspect is that if PDA doesn't have someone lined up, and it's looking that way and it's more hoping he can entice someone to come, and if it turns out that we did trade Reke for Vasquez+ hope, and I'll refer to cap space as hope as it pertains to this market, then it would be strong evidence PDA is a terrible judge of talent which I'm not sure is something which can be fixed.

If we have Rudy Gay or someone of that ilk lined up, that's different and we'll see that in the next few days.

 

[Double-K]

The real worrying aspect is that if PDA doesn't have someone lined up, and it's looking that way and it's more hoping he can entice someone to come, and if it turns out that we did trade Reke for Vasquez+ hope, and I'll refer to cap space as hope as it pertains to this market, then it would be strong evidence PDA is a terrible judge of talent which I'm not sure is something which can be fixed.

If we have Rudy Gay or someone of that ilk lined up, that's different and we'll see that in the next few days.

All we can really bank on is this new regime as an attraction. Vivek is probably willing to spend money to make the team better. PDA (according to the report when we first hired him) is well respected in the league. Malone was the crucial part of improving the GSW defense and overall in general.

We'll just have to hope that those are enough for this free agency period. If not, we still got the trade deadline to prove that we have gotten better and we are also aiming for the top. (Hopefully through Coach Malone's work, we'll become a cohesive unit and be more competitive. Or at least have a culture of competitiveness, an identity of a tough team to play, maybe just missing a few pieces to get into the mix, that kind of team.)

 

[SacTownKid]

Bout to pop off in here, and not in a good way.

 

[RussoTuristo]

this just grates on me. why is everybody that's skeptical about the way things are going accused of wanting instant gratification? I don't. don't see many of the others that are critical of the moves so far demanding playoffs, either. most of us are just weary of the fact that all the changes so far seem to only be looking at the offensive side of the floor, when we've been a terrible, terrible defensive team for an eternity. it's not even so much the results, it's the process that's troubling.

Good that you do not. I did not wrote that post for you or thinking about your position. I do not even know what you think and honestly I do not care. It was for everybody, just a general post.

Answering your message, what's "the process" you are talking about? 2-2.5 a half week process? What they did - 1) drafted Ben (ok defender, good D potential); 2) let Tyreke go (believed he was a bad fit with this roster and did not like his cost); 3) brought Vasquez (bad defender, no question, but he is a better fit for Ben and DMC and Tyreke could not bring you a good passer and defender, hey only one team really wanted him); 3) tried to acquire Iggy (great defender) and Calderon (good passer to help Ben first of all and also DMC). They work in a do-what-i-can mode, not a do-what-i-want one. It's been just days and you already know "the process". Give Vivek and PDA at least one full offseason or better one year to do their thing.