Caron Butler on his season, DMC and the future

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

It's not as if he was incapable of playing guard; there's maybe five teams in the league that really could have made us pay for playing Butler at the 2.

 

[funkykingston]

But wasn't George at least a little bit right? Where were Caron's 15-17min supposed to come from? Omri?

It's not as if he was incapable of playing guard; there's maybe five teams in the league that really could have made us pay for playing Butler at the 2.

Exactly. With the light still not coming on for Ben and with Marco never quite able to shoot his way out of a career worst slump, Butler should've been getting at least some minutes at SG.

Defensively he was no worse than Belinelli (better actually) and over the previous five seasons he's been a 39% shooter from three. Of all the weird decisions by Karl this year, his persistence in not only playing Marco but running so many plays for him is near the top of the list.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

One thing this Caron interview does is completely invalidate the BS narrative Napear and Poi-son have been trying to sell for years now -- simply because they have a personal axe to grind.

Here's a veteran player that's been around the league and played with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and Gilbert Arenas that sees no issues with Big Cuz in the lockerroom. In fact, he loves the kid's passion and willingness to listen. He's certainly one of those that "gets" Cuz and realizes that he's a good dude that just wants people to be straight with him.

We know Cuz gets along with Omri, Rondo, Willie and Curry. Now count Butler in that group. The number of possible disgruntled teammates is shrinking by the day.

This just goes to show that the angry Red Head and Witch aren't as connected to locker room as they like to believe.

 

[funkykingston]

This has always been the thing with Cousins and his emotional outbursts - if you put a winning team around him and they don't stop or get dramatically reduced in frequency then you know that's just always going to be what you have to deal with and you decide whether that's worth it or if you're better off trading him. But the Kings have yet to put a winning team around him.

With a good coaching hire and a successful offseason there's no reason the Kings can't be a winning team next year. And then I really am coming to believe that Vlade will look to trade Cousins at the deadline next season if it doesn't work out. This is one last chance for all of them (Vlade, Boogie, Vivek) to get it right.

 

[hrdboild]

This answers some questions, but it still remains a big question mark why George Karl would promise Caron Butler minutes and then fail to honor that promise without (apparently) even telling Butler that his plans had changed. I can understand doing that to a young player, it would still be unprofessional but a respected veteran like Butler should be on good terms with Coach Karl shouldn't he? Or maybe it was about trying to isolate Cousins from other influences? I still can't come up with an explanation that makes sense.

 

[VF21]

This answers some questions, but it still remains a big question mark why George Karl would promise Caron Butler minutes and then fail to honor that promise without (apparently) even telling Butler that his plans had changed. I can understand doing that to a young player, it would still be unprofessional but a respected veteran like Butler should be on good terms with Coach Karl shouldn't he? Or maybe it was about trying to isolate Cousins from other influences? I still can't come up with an explanation that makes sense.

Nothing about George Karl makes much sense.

 

[Telemachus]

One thing this Caron interview does is completely invalidate the BS narrative Napear and Poi-son have been trying to sell for years now -- simply because they have a personal axe to grind.

Here's a veteran player that's been around the league and played with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and Gilbert Arenas that sees no issues with Big Cuz in the lockerroom. In fact, he loves the kid's passion and willingness to listen. He's certainly one of those that "gets" Cuz and realizes that he's a good dude that just wants people to be straight with him.

We know Cuz gets along with Omri, Rondo, Willie and Curry. Now count Butler in that group. The number of possible disgruntled teammates is shrinking by the day.

This just goes to show that the angry Red Head and Witch aren't as connected to locker room as they like to believe.

Grant has tunnel vision when it comes to Cousins. Last week, a caller asked Grant if he thought Draymond Green would get treated more like Cousins (with his outbursts) if he wasn't on a winning team. Grant's response was that there was no comparison between Cousins and Green. This is in the same vain as him saying that he would go pick up Blake Griffin from the airport (if the Kings could trade Cousins for him), the week following Blake punching his friend in the face.

 

[hrdboild]

Grant has tunnel vision when it comes to Cousins. Last week, a caller asked Grant if he thought Draymond Green would get treated more like Cousins (with his outbursts) if he wasn't on a winning team. Grant's response was that there was no comparison between Cousins and Green. This is in the same vain as him saying that he would go pick up Blake Griffin from the airport (if the Kings could trade Cousins for him), the week following Blake punching his friend in the face.

I bet Grant would still prefer Blake Griffin over DeMarcus Cousins even if Blake punched him in the face, provided he wasn't wearing a Kings uniform when he did it. His pattern of behavior is consistent enough that it probably qualifies as compulsion.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

This answers some questions, but it still remains a big question mark why George Karl would promise Caron Butler minutes and then fail to honor that promise without (apparently) even telling Butler that his plans had changed. I can understand doing that to a young player, it would still be unprofessional but a respected veteran like Butler should be on good terms with Coach Karl shouldn't he? Or maybe it was about trying to isolate Cousins from other influences? I still can't come up with an explanation that makes sense.

I can. GK simply isn't a good coach anymore. He lost it, if he ever even had it.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Grant's response was that there was no comparison between Cousins and Green. This is in the same vain as him saying that he would go pick up Blake Griffin from the airport (if the Kings could trade Cousins for him), the week following Blake punching his friend in the face.

These two examples prove that the guy is flat out clueless. Draymond Green does everything Cousins is constantly vilified for -- complains on nearly every foul call or lack thereof, tirades in the lockerroom, earns technical fouls that hurt his team, physical cheap shots to opponents, etc. -- but he sees no comparison? The only difference is exactly what the fan pointed out. Green's doing it on a winning team and Cousins is doing it on a losing team.

As for the Blake Griffin thing --- all you can really say is "wow". Peaches just likes to dig a deeper hole for himself rather than admit hypocrisy.

 

[KingMilz]

Who's playing time was Caron going to take? Casspi/Rudy/WCS/Acy?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Who's playing time was Caron going to take? Casspi/Rudy/WCS/Acy?

It's not as if he was incapable of playing guard; there's maybe five teams in the league that really could have made us pay for playing Butler at the 2.

What are the chances that we would have been worse off taking fifteen of McLemore/Belinelli's minutes, and giving them to Butler?

 

[hrdboild]

What are the chances that we would have been worse off taking fifteen of McLemore/Belinelli's minutes, and giving them to Butler?

Both of them did end up playing a lot of their minutes at SF this year too. Also James Anderson played about 720 more minutes than he really needed to.

 

[KingMilz]

What are the chances that we would have been worse off taking fifteen of McLemore/Belinelli's minutes, and giving them to Butler?

There's no way of knowing but there's guys like Seth/Q/WCS who deserved more playing time a lot more than Butler did imo. The rotations all year were terrible but I rather as crap as Mclemore is still give him a chance than I would giving those minutes to Butler. Even Casspi would have been better @SG than Butler, if Karl got the rotations right Butler would have never been in the game neither would have Anderson and both Ben/Marcos minutes would have been cut down for Seth/Darren.