Can the basketball philosophy supersede the player?

King Baller

All-Star
I read this article on ESPN.com written by Patrick Redford that poses a couple of questions. I think they are valid and should be asked here on the Greatest Kings Fans Basketball Forum of them all.

1) Can the basketball philosophy supersede the player?

2) Is Ranadive's basketball philosophy eccentric?

Your thoughts?

A paragraph:

"This is the orthodoxy that Ranadive thinks he can overcome, that the system can somehow supersede the player rather than simply amplify his talents. The honeymoon period he enjoyed as Sacramento’s savior is now over. With the firing of Malone, Ranadive will now be judged on his own merits, not against the Maloofs. Philosophical ambition and snappy mantras will play only as long as the Kings win basketball games. Malone’s dismissal would have been understandable if he was inadequate, but he clearly was not. The first quarter-season of 2014-15 has been the best stretch of Kings basketball since Adelman left, and Ranadive threw it away because Malone wouldn’t buy into his eccentric ideas. It’s not about basketball, because if it was, Malone would still be the coach. As Ranadive ignores the present, his futurism rings hollow. It is still early in his tenure, but right now, he looks more like an ideologue than a visionary."


Link--> http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/71578/kings-a-conundrum-under-ranadives-reign
 
I read this article on ESPN.com written by Patrick Redford that poses a couple of questions. I think they are valid and should be asked here on the Greatest Kings Fans Basketball Forum of them all.

1) Can the basketball philosophy supersede the player?

2) Is Ranadive's basketball philosophy eccentric?

Your thoughts?

A paragraph:

"This is the orthodoxy that Ranadive thinks he can overcome, that the system can somehow supersede the player rather than simply amplify his talents. The honeymoon period he enjoyed as Sacramento’s savior is now over. With the firing of Malone, Ranadive will now be judged on his own merits, not against the Maloofs. Philosophical ambition and snappy mantras will play only as long as the Kings win basketball games. Malone’s dismissal would have been understandable if he was inadequate, but he clearly was not. The first quarter-season of 2014-15 has been the best stretch of Kings basketball since Adelman left, and Ranadive threw it away because Malone wouldn’t buy into his eccentric ideas. It’s not about basketball, because if it was, Malone would still be the coach. As Ranadive ignores the present, his futurism rings hollow. It is still early in his tenure, but right now, he looks more like an ideologue than a visionary."


Link--> http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/71578/kings-a-conundrum-under-ranadives-reign

I can't really say I disagree with anything in that article. The counterexample of Pera is interesting and similar to what Cuban said last week. It can be hard but I think a new owner resisting the urge to meddle too much and/or make sweeping changes is good for the organization.

Last year was about clearing out the stink of the Maloofs. But this season there are no more boogeymen to blame. Vivek Ranadive just fired the coach having the best start to a season in Sacramento since Adelman who also happens to be the coach HE hired last year, before even starting to look for a GM. This mess, and any future messes will have his fingerprints alone on them.
 
I'm a believer that talent makes a system. A system without the fitting talent is a broken system and no matter the system, if you don't have 2-3 star players, your system for the most part will be unsuccessful.

Whether it's Pop, who constantly tailors/changes his system to the talent he has, or it was Jerry Sloan in the P&R heavy offense with Stockton/Malone, or PJax running the triangle with Kobe/MJ, MDA's Pho offense with Nash, or Rick's high-post system built around Webber/Vlade/Peja, you need star talent to build that system around and pieces which fit. Otherwise you end up being a weakass impersonator who'll have little success. What would happen is someone tried to copy out golden era system without having pieces like Webb/Vlade/Peja/Bibby? Failure, that's what.

That's really one of the dumber aspects of the verbal diarrhea PDA/Vivek keep spewing, their preference for an up and down style doesn't fit our far and away best player. Our best player isn't Steve F'ing Nash in his prime. Our best player isn't Stephen Curry. We have a single 3&D guy in Ben who's still learning, which really hurts the prospect of spacing anywhere near what SA does.

What it is is flat out incompetence. It's flat out not understanding what we have. We've got a youth girls basketball coach and a nerd stat geek running this thing. This is far from the days of an in his prime Petrie, Adelman and Pete Carril.
 
WOW! Well said guys. Really hits the nail on the head regarding Kings and Ranadive. Let's hope he is not meddling and really has the best interest of the TEAM in mind and not just his view of what he wants. I'm giving it another 10 games to see if ship is righted or not or starts to point in a worrisome direction.
 
The fact that the FO is getting serious heat for their move is telling.

How easy would it be for most outlets to ignore what is going on in Sacramento? Another year, another fired coach, right? But it isn't going that way. We have two premier players playing the best they ever have, and a punishing style that everyone around the league was noticing. In short, we were in the midst of a meteoric media rise for all the right reasons. All eyes were on Sacramento.

The FO has to know they can't hide. They have so somehow fix their bad karma with future coaches by bending over backwards with their pocketbooks for someone like Karl, or every coach will treat Sacramento like the plague. The dominoes that fall after that, well, I'd rather not go there yet.

For as business savvy as the FO likes to think themselves, they made a classic blunder. They were not thinking two steps ahead, and now they have to pay financially.

Noob ownership. I guess they have to learn just like their new players, and new coach did. Unfortunately, they've used up our patience with a rash decision of their own.
 
Damn near any system can work but you have to have the horses to run it....I was going to say small ball has still yet to win but I think Miami played small quite a bit but they had 2 of the greatest players to play the game and also a late in his career all time great in Ray Allen.

The damage is done this year by PDA and Vivek and Mullin. The important question is if they learn from it or do they dig in their heels and keep trying to justify their decision. If, and this a huge if, Vivek truly let the firing decision be PDA's and Mullin.....does he have enough balls to start questioning this decision. If he was all in on the firing, then we are kind of screwed if we don't hit a home run in hiring the next coach.
 
I wonder if a billionaire is able to admit to himself that he is wrong. If he is able to do so, at what point in the process does it happen? How many cycles of failure have to take place before the realization? I have to think that Ranadive has avoided atleast one pitfall in the past due to an ability to foresee a problem before it's too late.
 
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