I think Monte built this G roster and supposedly had an idea of how it can work. Lets see it. As far as winning? We'll know within about 2 weeks whether tagging Gentry as Lukes leftovers kills the season dead from then on regardless. This is a gunky roster where all of it's key primary assets sit at PG/SG. Losing and using them right will at least sustain some value there. Benching in favor of FA to be role players is the kind of thought process that got them in this mess in the first place.
I don’t understand why I keep seeing this take over and over again. We all know it is embalanced and has its weaknesses but there is legitimate talent on this roster:
-one of the fastest PGs in the league and best at getting to the bucket
-one of the best volume 3 point shooters in the league
-one of the most efficient bigs in the league
-Barnes is an excellent well-rounded player, the type of starter you don’t question or have serious concerns about
-Davion has the potential to be one of the best guard defenders in the league
-Tyrese, like Barnes, is a solid contributor and, current struggles aside, is great at facilitating and should be used as an x-factor to help glue together some mismatched talent
You build around the first three components / players. You have ingredients with the next three players that help fill the gaps and can compliment the strongest pieces of the roster. This isn’t ever going to be a contending team but it’s nowhere near G-league, the fact it’s looked that way is on Walton being totally unable to make anything out of the top 6 dudes work
As for Gentry, his background with the Suns and Warriors is the top-line in terms of coaching fit. For this roster to work you need tons of movement and speed. You look for open 3s for Buddy and Halliburton, open lanes for Davion and Fox, and action moving towards the basket with Holmes. We know that works but it’s never been a team philosophy to make those the first and last pieces the offense is based around. I expect Gentry to move us in that direction
MOST IMPORTANT I think we are gonna see a big change in culture. For a long time it’s been widely known that the Kings haven’t had a functional professional culture. From the Cousins years and Karl with constant backstabbing and preferential treatment for stars, something that continued thru Vlade’s tenure with organizational mismanagement and firing Joerger to replace him with a go-along get-along coach who’s selling point was that he’s easy going and players like him. Gentry is professional and well-respected (as a coach rather than a sycophant). He’s been an interim head coach many times (Hollinger called him the GOAT interim head coach which is both funny and weirdly necessary). He will put in a professional culture and do his job, I don’t think there’s gonna be any drama with him and I assume he knows why he’s here. Woj tweet that contractually he’s got the job this year and can compete for next says he knew the deal coming in, and I have no doubt he’s gonna be happy to do his job and part ways in the offseason if that’s how things go. Of course everyone will be ecstatic if he really gets things firing on all cylinders and we have a barn burner year and he stays around too
For an off-ramp from Vlade/Luke this is as good as we can have hoped for. If Vivek was being mercurial about firing Walton over the offseason, then the front office “managed up” in the best possible way. Brought in a GSW tied pro assistant, sat pat and waited for Vivek to pull the trigger himself, slid in Gentry with zero drama. We have professionals in charge at every level without going thru an insane leakfest to get here.