Bee: Kings in no hurry to fill vacancy

[RaY Z]

Kings in no hurry to fill vacancy

Ex-Heat coach Stan Van Gundy still is interested in the job.
By Sam Amick - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 2:21 am PDT Saturday, May 26, 2007
Story appeared in SPORTS section, Page C1

In a week full of coaching hirings and firings, the Kings' search appears to have slowed for the time being.

Geoff Petrie has conducted seven interviews that concluded Wednesday, and the Kings' basketball president is expected to contact some candidates by phone over the weekend for follow-up talks. Additional interviews could take place at a pre-draft camp in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday through June 4.

Waiting for the postseason to end -- and, specifically, for Detroit's season to end -- appears to be a priority for the Kings. Pistons assistant Terry Porter is believed to be a strong candidate, even though his team still could be playing in the NBA Finals as late as June 20 and Petrie has said he won't conduct interviews with assistants whose teams are in the playoffs until their season is over.

A Kings assistant during the 2002-03 season, Porter was a head coach for two seasons with Milwaukee. He took the Bucks to the playoffs as the eighth seed during the 2003-04 campaign but went just 30-52 the following year when point guard T.J. Ford was injured for the season.

Porter was part of the Portland team that went to the NBA Finals twice (1990, '92) when Petrie was the Blazers' senior vice president of basketball operations. Porter was a two-time All-Star point guard who played for 17 seasons, with his teams missing the playoffs just once.

Phoenix assistant Marc Iavaroni is no longer expected to receive an interview, but former Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said Friday from his Miami-area home that he remains very interested in the Kings' position and that he and Petrie are "still talking."

Van Gundy, who already has interviewed with Petrie and turned down an offer this week from Indiana, also has expressed interest in the newly vacant Orlando job.

http://www.sacbee.com/kings/story/195028.html

 

[RaY Z]

for me its either van gundy or porter...

im just wondering though, because i havnt seen any of porter's games, such as when he was head coach for the bucks...

whats his coaching style anyway? like how does he run his offense? or how does he setup his defense?

 

[KevinSalvadori]

It's almost impossible to answer that- Porter did well his first season, but his second was racked with injuries to the team and was almost impossible to evaluate, besides that he can't coach short-handed, which is almost a universal phenomenon. His defensive preaching isn't stupendous, and you could applaud his offense until you realize that when Michael Redd is on it doesn't matter who's coaching. What he did seem to do, however, is take a disparate group of talent and form a cohesive unit from it. I don't know the general take by the wider league on Larry Harris, but I have heard that he may be a little "out there" with his decisions sometimes, and that may have played a role in his departure. Looking at how the team has performed since Porter left can be very telling as well...

 

[Bricklayer]

The Orlando thing opening up may have cost us SVG. He apparently immediately gave them a call and was very interested. Perfect opportunity for him -- its right near home (and he mentioned that his family would barely have to move), a young team on the rise with a potential superstar, etc.

Wonder why Iavaroni got axed from the interview schedule?

Anyway, at some point here you have to get a move on. If we're waiting for Porter, then I guess that's fine. But by the time he's available he may have to be the guy because the others will all be gone. Who knows, given ouor sluggish process maybe he always was the guy and the rest of this has just been window dressing. In any case by the time he is availble to interview the franchise will have been without a head coach and any idea of philosophy/style of play/preferences for some two months, and that's long enough.

 

[John Galt]

Jim Kozimor has been saying that he thinks Porter is Geoff's guy for a few weeks now. Maybe he is right.

 

[Bricklayer]

Jim Kozimor has been saying that he thinks Porter is Geoff's guy for a few weeks now. Maybe he is right.

Well, that would certainly be possible. Keeping it all in house and whatnot. Not sure whether that's a good thing or not however. Does that mean that Geoff scraps the defensive focus and goes back to attempts to build his favored Princeton teams? Porter ran a pretty good offense in Milwaulkee, but the defense was atrocious. It does begin to really look like an orderly transfer of power from Adelman to Porter at that point, with an unfortunate 1 yr delay in the middle. Of course if we were goign to do that, I would just assume stil have the master rather than the apprentice, thanks. It also beigns to look a bit like a tug of war between Geoff and the Maloofs, wiht Geoff pulling the rope back his way on this tug.

In any case, wasn't the deal though that Geoff was going to put together a short list, and then the Maloofs were going to do the final dazzle me with your power point skilz interviews?

 

[BMiller52]

From what I've heard Porter has really helped Detroit's defense. He signed on as an assistant with them this year I think, but not last year. He also switched Rip onto Hinrich in the Chicago series which let Billups defend Gordon and shut him down. I read that he had Flip make that adjustment and a few other ones. I think the main problem was that he didn't have defensive players in Milwaukee. Check out the guys Porter had there. Damon Jones played big minutes for them, so did Van Horn and Kukoc. Redd isn't really a good defender either. The only good defenders he had were Mason and Smith. Everyone else was unspectacular on D at best(Redd, Joe Smith), or atrocious on D(Van Horn, Jones, Kukoc).

 

[VF21]

In any case, wasn't the deal though that Geoff was going to put together a short list, and then the Maloofs were going to do the final dazzle me with your power point skilz interviews?

My understanding was it would be Petrie's decision to make but that the Maloofs would have input.

 

[chelle]

My understanding was it would be Petrie's decision to make but that the Maloofs would have input.

I hope that it stays that way.

 

[ParniValjak]

I get the feeling that Petrie is deciding between Stan Van Gundy and Terry Porter. If thats the case then he better hurry up a bit because the choice might be taken out of his hands if SVG ends up in Orladno which would be a perfect job for him.

Either that or it was always Porter's job to lose in which case this whole process would have been a window dressing exercise as Brick said!

 

[chelle]

I prefer Van Gundy, but would not be too upset with Porter. I want Petrie to take his time and make the best decision, but hopefully waiting too long will not hurt us.