No, the problem is when anyone here complains about the new regime, we're automatically assumed to be lumping them with the old. It is possible to be dissapointed with both.
Back to IT, PDA said there were chemistry issues. Color me surprised.
PDA is rodent for me atm. I'll reassess that name again at the start of this season. Hopefully he earns the name PDA again, or at least gerbil boy.
How are you not lumping them together? You talk about 10 years and expect it to be fixed in one?
Supply AND DEMAND. There has been very little demand for anything in a Kings uniform that doesn't have the #15 on the front. Our team has been crap with a capital C. If you're one of the other 29 GMs, you know you can pretty much lowball a team that only had 28 wins and isn't willing to move their only real asset.
I get that and I can buy that as a fan. But for the love of Pete, get something in return for this asset. Do it earlier if you have too...
Yes. Did they not realize these things at the trade deadline?
Made me think back to a couple of game threads where we actually discussed the apparent clash between IT and various other players. While I'm sure most of it was heat-of-the-moment stuff, it makes me wonder if the situation got to the point where it was just obvious there would be bigger problems going forward.
All pure speculation, of course.
You can swap for a young guy you like better. Get a draft pick. Package with other contracts. Yes it's easier to make these claims than to do it, but for all of the new aggressiveness of our FO, it feels like we sell low on assets.
If you are team B, would you be willing to give up a young player or 1st round draft for a player you can sign outright as a free agent?
Everytime I hear PDA talk I have less and less faith in him. He says he wants to play faster yet your cornerstone is Demarcus Cousins?
Teams do it all the time, including the kings. It's easier to resign a guy that builds some roots then to get them as FA.
Look I'm not claiming I'm sure we could have had a great deal but plenty of teams have made similar moves and few are willing to let guys walk that have value when they know they aren't going to pursue them. Especially when they lack assets.
Is IT that type of player though? I mean we spent this entire year trying to denigrate IT and portray him as a selfish, undersized chucker who freezes out star players for his own gain. Did we forget that suddenly? You think GM's are jumping over themselves to give away assets for players like that?
Everytime I hear PDA talk I have less and less faith in him. He says he wants to play faster yet your cornerstone is Demarcus Cousins? All I hear from him is speed, athleticism, how about basketball IQ? I see no vision of where this is going and apparently neither does anyone in the league. We havent made the playoffs in a decade, and I see no way of us getting back there anytime soon. We have no assets outside of Demarcus Cousins, we arent bad enough to get # 1 picks and we arent nearly good enough to make the playoffs, we look like an eternal 30-35 win team. Its just lookimg really bad for this franchise, barring something crazy we will win 30 games and Gay will leave on the first bus out of town. Hopefully im wrong but I cant see how anybody operating with a rational mind can be optimistic about this franchise.
How do you know what teams were offering IT? You don't' ! Many sources in the league have said he received offers from various sub .500 teams. If you follow IT you would know he made it clear he was not looking to move East. I'm tired of every one putting they words about what offers he got because they don't have a clue. Bottom line is he was our best shooter and we got nothing in return. Just go on a Phoenix forums.. They are laughing at us, and every article about the trade points to the tradition of bad management from the Kings. If we suck this year and Phoenix is winning..it will be clear that IT was not the problem. Hopefully this is not the cAse.We can assume that PDA and other FO people are pretty much clueless, we can assume that they do not know when to sell and what to do with our assets and even we, fans, could have gotten something serious for IT, especially at the deadline. We can assume many things. We, fans, have little to no information, we can only see the tip of the iceberg. We also can assume that FO actually tried to trade IT earlier and no team gave us anything serious, so they tried to get some return in July because sometimes it is better to let some players go in July with a chance to get something other than "trash" than to get "trash" back at the deadline. This free agency showed that IT was not a super hot commodity, nobody offered him what he actually wanted - a starter job and big $. Even though he still got a solid contract from PHO. It is great to have a player that everybody wants and you can get something great in return at any time. We can value IT as high as we want but it does not matter because we do not actually buy the product, other NBA teams do and there is a good chance that they either chose not to or gave us what we did not want. Again, we can assume whatever we want. We are fans. That's what we do.
All right, rumor heard at summer league today. It dumped Cousins on twitter as soon as his trade went through.
No, I don't have a source.
Chemistry may have definitely been an issue. Who are.you going to keep between Cousins and IT? (That's a rhetorical question. )
It was clear Rudy had a problem with IT not passing, too.
Found this comment to be very interesting
(he is an ex Sports 1140 employee)
@JDJohnDickinson
Isaiah Thomas was a poser in Sacramento. Played up to community/fans in an attempt to get paid & start. Kings brass saw through act quickly
3:58 PM - 11 Jul 2014
I looked through Collison's splits and here's a couple of notes:While that is a bit of kicking a guy on the way out, I have intimated in the past that I saw IT as a political animal, worming his way in and ingratiating himself with Keith Smart and the media. Its a weak weak organization that allows that to happen. My dissatisfaction with the entire IT experience runs at least as much to poor coaches, fawning media, and fans losing perspective as it does to IT himself. Its to gerbil's credit if he saw through that. But of course that still doesn't answer how he could then allow IT to put up big numbers, price himself out of the market, and play it all the way down to the point where we got nothing back for him. You don't believe in him, dump him for something you do believe in.
Here's the irony, make me god emperor of the Kings beginning 3 years ago, and I, noted non-IT fawner/lover, would have saved IT as a King and currently still have IT on my roster as a 6th man. I would have accomplished that by being smarter, by having a distinct plan, by not being a sycophant. IT would have been playing for me, in a role I knew he was suited for. Not me, the franchise, or the fans playing for him. And the first time I caught Grant or Jerry going through the laundry bin looking for one of his jocks to sniff, I would have canned their ass. Instead we got "love me some pizza guy" "ooh IT! IT!", do whatever the hell you want little guy, here's the ball, have fun! And we lost him because of it, probably lost Reke because of it as well, and managed to do all this with no tangible results in the win column. You wonder why I sound arrogant and drip with disdain when talking about the Kings decisionmakers over the years? Insects.
Now what is done is done. I have half an inkling we could get a little better here if Stauskas pans out as a fill in the blanks starter ala a Chandler Parson type guy. Collison, who BTW has far too much IT in him for my own preferences, may still as a lower usage guy allow a guy like Nik to breath in a way IT never would. Doesn't mean the new regime's mishandling of IT/Reke has been anything other than ridiculous.
Completely agree. I think they got so blinded by the thought they needed a "veteran" presence (because of what was a disastrous locker room when they took over), and Malone had a great experience with Landry in GS, that they completely ignored the obvious great fit that Lopez would been. So, this summer we seem rumors they are searching for a shot blocking big to play next to cousins, you don't think they realize the extent of their error on the Lopez/Landry decision? I'm guessing you corner PDA on that decision and he would regret it. I can get on board with everything else they have done (not saying all those moves have worked out, but they are defendable).I've got one major gripe with PDA. Letting Robin Lopez go to Portland for nothing in the Tyreke sign and trade and using the space to sign Landry. Reverse that single move and I'd like our roster a lot more right now. All the other moves were debatable at the time.
I'm curious as to what people think we could have gotten back for IT that would have improved the team. We don't even know how other teams valued IT. The Suns could have very well overpaid for IT. IT visited one team and received one offer that we know of. All from Phoenix. They could have been bidding against themselves.
At the very least, you get a pick or two for him. It's beyond pathetic that they let him go for TP(e).
Found this comment to be very interesting
(he is an ex Sports 1140 employee)
@JDJohnDickinson
Isaiah Thomas was a poser in Sacramento. Played up to community/fans in an attempt to get paid & start. Kings brass saw through act quickly
3:58 PM - 11 Jul 2014