DeMarcus Cousins: 'I still don’t feel I get the respect I deserve'

[dude12]

I think People are overstating the effect of Karl on the team because it gives them hope that they are a much better team than their record would indicate.

Oh ok Jazz fan. No ****ing clue.

 

[Blob]

See my memory of last year is much different.

1) Boogie was part of Team USA last summer and was in incredible shape during their winning run and on into the regular season.
2) Coach Karl had his team run at such a high pace that many of us knew the result would be an injury for Cousins. Karl relied on Cousins heavily and ran him into the ground.
3) So Dr. Blob IMO you are completely wrong in your statement above in red.

By the way who is a player you do like? One you consider prepares for the game the right way and takes the right approach???

I don't understand your last question (so I cannot answer it) but let me tell you what I saw in the first Team USA exhibition, of which I only saw in spurts but enough to see clearly that:

Boogie looked GREAT. He was so active. He was NOT trailing plays. He was engaged and lively and ALL over the floor. This is what Kings fans have the right to expect! It is hard to quantify, but I will say he was 30%-40% more active than a lot of last season.

By this I mean:

• going to the offensive boards
• trapping on the pick defensively
• changing ends without slacking
• defending on the perimeter then rotating and going to the glass

Boogie is health, slim, trim, lean AND mean. This is NOT the same player we witnessed most of last year. Now whether it was injury or conditioning, the point remains valid that those who critiqued his level of effort and engagement (like myself) had valid assertion. The defenders of Boogie wanted to attribute his shortcomings to system and coach. NO! The degree to which failure occurred last year were primarily on the player, but to his credit he has SLIMMED DOWN and gotten healthy, and this has made palpable difference in his effectiveness, albeit in limited sample size of one game.

And if you saw the game but did not notice a difference, I don't know what to tell you, other than observe closer.

And by the way, there is one play of note in which Boogie had dominant low post position. And he tried to "POWER" his way to the rim and got rejected. It was consistent with my perspective that Boogie lacks that low post half hook or flip shot when he needs one most!

Almost everything I saw in Game 1 of Team USA was encouraging and forebodes great things for team and player but also consistent with my analysis that the dominance of Boogie is predicated on:

• superior conditioning (he is getting there or already there)
• improved execution out of the post (work in progress)

There are those who want to attribute the failure of last season to Boogie being "misused" and that attribution is misguided. His failure and collective failure of the team was rooted in conditioning and temperament, with secondary variables related to coaching and shortcomings at other positions on the floor. The good news is Boogie has committed to getting his body where it needs to be, and this matters a lot more than the excuses the apologists want to offer.

 

[Blob]

Blob continues to work the angle that the rest of the world is composed of perfect players who are good at everything, and that the exact traits that will prevent you from ever winning (at a high level -- a new wrinkle preparing the way for retreat?) just so happen to be the exact warts which Cousins has. Odd how that works.

All of which sets up the inevitable "see! i told you so! That 0.5 less TO per game is why we are winning now!" argument if we turn things dramatically next year.

BTW, quoting Boogie's .538 TS% last season for much of anything is a steaming pile of quadruped dung. That was George Karl and the most bizarre usage of a great center, not just in modern memory, perhaps ever. As in EVER. In the entire history of great centers, of which I have 30+years of direct knowledge, nobody has EVER used one the way Karl did last year. Completely unprecedented. Its a mark of just how highly Cuz ranks amongst the all time list that he was able to achieve the things he did last year despite it. Patrick Ewing would have been a disaster played like that. Dwight Howard likely would have been benched. But unique as are Cousins skills that allowed him to put up big numbers in that system, there were still going to be consequences to efficiency and rebounding in particular.

We had one coach who ever used Cousins like a great center, Cousins' TS% for that coach was about .560 in over a year's work. Caught a scrimmage vid of Team USA, there is Coach K with Cuz right back in the post (in fact somewhat too much as it shows a certain rigidity and old fashioned approach to Coach K's offensive system). Its how you use him. But how you use Boogie goes to the question of whether you win 48 or 56 with him, not the question of whether you can break 30 with him. Not being able to even get out of the mid lottery with a player of that caliber is completely and 100% an organizational issue. Lousy GMing. Lousy misfit coaching. Its entirely a different question than if you can win a title until Cuz cleans it up.

BTW, a short list of players who would not pass Blob's newly minted A/T (1.2 to 1.5 at least!) and TS% (.555 at least!) test to even be able to break even in the NBA:

Garnett
Duncan
Mailman
Admiral
Ewing
Mourning
Shaq
Yao
Dwight
Moses
Webber
Brow

I did find 3 examples of guys who actually did reach those numbers (barely in Barkley's case):
Barkley
Dirk
Griffin

But of course none of those guys actually played any defense, which would seem to be a tad more important than having an A/T/ ratio of 1.2 as a big man.

Anyway, its all just a load of bunk. Reverse argumentation. Let's see, what does Cousins not do? Aha! Amazingly that's exactly what you have to do to win!


Some easy predictions this year:

1) Joerger will use Boogie correctly and magically his TS% will go up. There may be some lingering pull down on it from the adverse Karl training, and if his teammates do not improve it will be an interesting question whether having smart spacing teaammates will help him more than having no reliable other options will hurt him as he's swarmed. Nonetheless the TS% will climb up to a natural level in the .550 to .570 level, especially if Boogie gets a second year with him and the system. At some point in there Cuz will roll and ankle and have a down month of TS% in the .540s and .530s at whihc point I fully expect Blob to very reasonably materialize to claim that Cuz is not trying, is out of shape, is horribly inconsistent and the rest,

2) Cuz's A/T ratio will NOT be 1.2 to 1.5 or over. It will in fact be determined by two competing factors: 1) Joerger's system which may raise it up depending on use, and 2) the loss of Rondo/possible requirement for Boogie to have to do too much creating again due to lack of sufficient PG play, which would drive it down. Depends a bit on what else we do with our PG position this summer, and in any case I don't think Joerger is the sort of coach who wil let things get too fugly.

3) the Kings record this year will not be determined by all this silly nonsense about the best offensive big man in the game, this is all fundamentally ignorant blathering in the end. The Kings record will be determined BY THE DEFENSE. As it always has been in all systems of this nature. If the defense is bottom 10, then we will be a lottery team. If the defense improves, but only into the #12-#18 sort of range, we will be a .500 type team struggling to acheive more. If Joerger is able to create such a 1 year revolution that we move into the Top 10 defensively, then we will be a playoff team, and one nobody will want to play.

For years the Kings have played good enough offense to be .500 or better, to be a fringe playoff team (even with Cuz not having an A/T ratio above 1.5!!). In the last 4 years we've been 12th, 20th, 14th and 15th in OFFENSIVE efficiency, which given that there are 16 playoff teams should logically put you right there on the cusp of being a playoff team. But over that span we've been 29th, 23rd, 27th and 22nd in DEFENSIVE efficiency. And so as I've mentioned before, almost all of our arguments about how to improve the OFFENSE are wasted effort. Improve the other side of the ball, and we will absolutely start winning, no matter the TS%. In 3 years under Joerger the Grizzlies offensive efficiency was very similar to ours over that span, ranking 15th, 13th, and 19th. But they made the playoffs every year with a defense that ranked 7th, 3rd, and 19th.

My newly minted ASST:TO ratio is NOT newly minted! It is predicated on your hypothetical scenario that Kings go into next season without a valid #2 scorer. If that hypothetical scenario were to come to pass, then YES, Boogie would need to become even more efficient with the ball in his hands. That was the origin of 1.2 to 1.5 ratio. Don't misrepresent my opinion when I have been clear to the contrary. I will gladly settle for:

• 55% TS or better
• 1.0 ASST to TO or better
• consistent defensive effort

All of which would be career highs relative to the ineptitude and wild variance we have been witness to for six years. This is NOT expecting a PERFECT player. This is expecting a "franchise player" you can win with, instead of a malcontent that leads you to playoff elimination before the calendar year changes.

And I am curious as to your impressions of Game 1 of Team USA. Boogie was all over the floor. He was active. He was trapping. He was awesome!!!!

He was going to the offensive boards with relentlessness, securing superior position against inferior opponents. He was moving and efforting the way he did NOT move or effort last year. Which gives validity to those who wanted to question his level of hustle and effort. Whether it was related to effort or attitude or injury is irrelevant, when you want to assign ALL of his shortcomings and failure to COACH and SYSTEM.

And lets get one thing clear:

Boogie's TS% will NOT go up because he is given more low post opportunities, which I assume is what you expecting to see from a Joerger system. It will go up because the said player is more primed and focused and able to execute. Sticking him in the low post is NOT where the majority of fruit will come to bear. It is NOT his game. So you are WRONG on two counts: the failure of last year and the primary cause and what needs to happen moving forward:

One, Boogie needs to maintain health and conditioning as primary variable of his dominance over opponents. Two, Boogie needs to diversify his attack inside and outside with help of system that frees him him up MORE often facing the basket than back-t0-basket. This is where the butter is spread, so to speak, and to conclude differently, is to conclude incorrectly.

I am done on this topic until the new season arrives, and ALL of the aforementioned positions will be validated. Enjoy your summer.

 

[Glenn]

Boogie has a lot more energy when asked to play half as many minutes.

 

[dude12]

Boogie has a lot more energy when asked to play half as many minutes.

Point made in a single sentence.

 

[lwc]

This is actually a quality debate between two worthwhile schools of thought. I am greatly enjoying this.

 

[King Baller]

There are those who want to attribute the failure of last season to Boogie being "misused" and that attribution is misguided. His failure and collective failure of the team was rooted in conditioning and temperament, with secondary variables related to coaching and shortcomings at other positions on the floor. The good news is Boogie has committed to getting his body where it needs to be, and this matters a lot more than the excuses the apologists want to offer.

"Misused" !!!!!!! HAH!!!!! the whole freaking team was misused all season long including most importantly DEMARCUS FREAKING COUSINS!!! The man played on sore feet most of the season because Coach Karl insisted that the team RUN, RUN, RUN, AND PLAY SMALL BALL. Karl overused the Big Man and ran him into the ground.

IMO Cousins should have sat out the second half of the season and let his feet rest and heal. Especially when the owners opted to keep Karl to the end of the season. If he had done that we might be discussing how Kris Dunn looked in Summer League playing for the Kings...................by the way that is exactly how Tim Duncan ended up playing with the Admiral.......but I digress

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I've noticed that Jazz fans are perhaps the most insecure in the league. You had your best season in years and still missed out on the playoffs in a wide open race, and as a result you have to tear down other teams to make yourself feel better. Your posting is right in line with what I've noticed from a lot of other Jazz fans on other NBA forums.

Oh ok Jazz fan. No ****ing clue.

I would say that coming here as a fan of another team, npliam has been about as fair and objective about the Kings as can be hoped. He's not going to be the guy wearing purple glasses, but the idea that he's here to tear down the Kings or that doesn't know anything about our team basically ignores the last several years of his posts.

 

[Npliam]

Oh ok Jazz fan. No ****ing clue.

Why would you think that I have no clue? I have followed the Kings pretty closely for several years.

 

[Npliam]

I would say that coming here as a fan of another team, npliam has been about as fair and objective about the Kings as can be hoped. He's not going to be the guy wearing purple glasses, but the idea that he's here to tear down the Kings or that doesn't know anything about our team basically ignores the last several years of his posts.

Thank you.

 

[dude12]

I would say that coming here as a fan of another team, npliam has been about as fair and objective about the Kings as can be hoped. He's not going to be the guy wearing purple glasses, but the idea that he's here to tear down the Kings or that doesn't know anything about our team basically ignores the last several years of his posts.

I just don't agree with you at all.

 

[mac]

Why would you think that I have no clue? I have followed the Kings pretty closely for several years.

Because he's one of the posters here who just writes people off with rash statements whenever they make points that he disagrees with.

 

[Npliam]

I just don't agree with you at all.

Based on what?

 

[KingMilz]

Oh ok Jazz fan. No ****ing clue.

WTF him/her being a Jazz fan has nothing to do with the knowledge and debatable point that the person is bringing up. Stop turning this into a group/team thing when the person in question has in fact got a decent history (as long as I have been here) in discussing the Kings and probably knows more about the Kings than most Kings fans. This us vs them mentality is horrible where ever in life.

You called him/her a typical Jazz fan before well they could just say your a typical Kings fan ignoring every other point of view (in particular if it however slightly relates badly to Cousins) while getting all emotional.......

 

[dude12]

Why would you think that I have no clue? I have followed the Kings pretty closely for several years.

What you responded to regarding Karl's effect on the team being overstated. This is what I commented on. In my opinion, it's a ridiculous statement. A statement made by someone who didnt watch the team very much most likely....or if you did watch the team, you have blinders on.

 

[dude12]

WTF him/her being a Jazz fan has nothing to do with the knowledge and debatable point that the person is bringing up. Stop turning this into a group/team thing when the person in question has in fact got a decent history (as long as I have been here) in discussing the Kings and probably knows more about the Kings than most Kings fans. This us vs them mentality is horrible where ever in life.

You called him/her a typical Jazz fan before well they could just say your a typical Kings fan ignoring every other point of view (in particular if it however slightly relates badly to Cousins) while getting all emotional.......

Try reading that again......it had nothing to do with Cousins. It was talking about Karl. Did I really call Npialm a typical Jazz fan? Nope. Go back and read again.

 

[dude12]

Because he's one of the posters here who just writes people off with rash statements whenever they make points that he disagrees with.

Please

 

[KingMilz]

Try reading that again......it had nothing to do with Cousins. It was talking about Karl. Did I really call Npialm a typical Jazz fan? Nope. Go back and read again.

My apologies in regards to that that was Dimedropper I got you two confused but the first part still stands.

 

[Dime Dropper]

My apologies in regards to that that was Dimedropper I got you two confused but the first part still stands.

Not what I said either, try again.

As for Npliam, I respect that he has been here a long time and takes an interest in the Kings, but suggesting that Karl's effect on last years Kings team was exaggerated, or not huge, is a ridiculous statement. No reasonable person could argue against it. Same guy who spent about two seasons too long arguing that Favors was a better player than Cousins. Let's be honest here, Npliam has gotten a lot wrong about the Kings and continues to do so. The fact that he is a good poster otherwise and makes his arguments without being a d**k (which is more than you can often say about me) doesn't mean that he doesn't take passive aggressive shots at the franchise.

I'm not trying to say he shouldn't voice his opinions. It's always good to get perspective from other team's fans. That doesn't mean silly opinions should just be ignored (and no, not all opinions are born equal).

 

[lawlman91]

It's partly on Karl. For example, Cousins should have gotten more of these

http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/elbow/?sort=ELBOW_TOUCHES&dir=1

 

[dude12]

Not what I said either, try again.

As for Npliam, I respect that he has been here a long time and takes an interest in the Kings, but suggesting that Karl's effect on last years Kings team was exaggerated, or not huge, is a ridiculous statement. No reasonable person could argue against it. Same guy who spent about two seasons too long arguing that Favors was a better player than Cousins. Let's be honest here, Npliam has gotten a lot wrong about the Kings and continues to do so. The fact that he is a good poster otherwise and makes his arguments without being a d**k (which is more than you can often say about me) doesn't mean that he doesn't take passive aggressive shots at the franchise.

I'm not trying to say he shouldn't voice his opinions. It's always good to get perspective from other team's fans. That doesn't mean silly opinions should just be ignored (and no, not all opinions are born equal).

Agreed and said much, much better than me.

 

[mac]

Not what I said either, try again.

As for Npliam, I respect that he has been here a long time and takes an interest in the Kings, but suggesting that Karl's effect on last years Kings team was exaggerated, or not huge, is a ridiculous statement. No reasonable person could argue against it. Same guy who spent about two seasons too long arguing that Favors was a better player than Cousins. Let's be honest here, Npliam has gotten a lot wrong about the Kings and continues to do so. The fact that he is a good poster otherwise and makes his arguments without being a d**k (which is more than you can often say about me) doesn't mean that he doesn't take passive aggressive shots at the franchise.

I'm not trying to say he shouldn't voice his opinions. It's always good to get perspective from other team's fans. That doesn't mean silly opinions should just be ignored (and no, not all opinions are born equal).

Based on what, exactly? Based on Cousins' awesome 27/11 that gets quoted here ever so often? Based on Cousins making the all-star game? Based on us matching Malone's little 9-5 span? Based on WCS' awesome offensive performance in SL? Based on our highest win total in years?

What I find time and time again about some posters here is that anything that paints Cousins/Karl in a light that they do not agree with is immediately dismissed without good reason, and more often than not shots are then taken at the poster or the argument, calling them stupid or idiotic and so on. Dude12 is one of said posters in my opinion (since it's okay to talk about Npliam I guess it's okay for me to raise my opinion on dude12). There are those who can hold an argument without resorting to name-calling, who can through the actual quality of what they say bring about the conclusion that "No reasonable person could argue against [their stance]". Name-calling is a lazy practice that adds no value to discussion other than making one feel better about his or herself.

I have yet to be shown irrefutable evidence that Karl's effect on last year's Kings team was huge, and so I cannot agree with you that no reasonable person could make an argument against it. The points I brought up earlier are of course tongue-in-cheek, but I believe that they go far enough to show that the argument isn't as clear cut as some make it out to be. I dare say that no reasonable person would argue that we underperformed based on expectations, but that's different from saying it was (or was not) primarily due to Karl, and the extent of underperformance is also questionable.

For the record, if memory serves me correctly Npliam hardly argued that Favors was better than Cousins, and if he did it was mostly at the start. The argument was always more along the lines that Favors did more for the Jazz than Cousins did to help the Kings win games.

 

[CelticsFan]

Karl had the most Kings wins since 2008-2009
Boogie had the best season of his career last year while Karl was the coach

If the Kings take a step back this season is it Joerger fault or is it the talent? Blaming Karl is just another way to not hold players accountable.

 

[twslam07]

Karl had the most Kings wins since 2008-2009
Boogie had the best season of his career last year while Karl was the coach

If the Kings take a step back this season is it Joerger fault or is it the talent? Blaming Karl is just another way to not hold players accountable.

They also had the most talented roster since 2008-2009.

And no, Cousins didn't have the best season of his career last year. That was the year before. He took a step back if you look at efficiency and defensive effectiveness.

 

[mac]

Karl had the most Kings wins since 2008-2009
Boogie had the best season of his career last year while Karl was the coach

If the Kings take a step back this season is it Joerger fault or is it the talent? Blaming Karl is just another way to not hold players accountable.

Look, anyone who followed the team closely would know that there was clearly conflict going on between Cousins and Karl as well, so it wasn't only a matter of not having sufficient talent. There's also a fair and strong argument that Cousins should have been used all the way out at the 3 point line much less - the caveat then is that one shouldn't claim Cousins was misused in an uptempo system but still hold 27/11 as a mark of his true production value. Personally I tend to agree that Cousins was not in a system that overall maximized his strength, but disagree with some that Karl also misused the likes of Belinelli and WCS or was the reason for Gay's subpar season etc. Karl definitely shares in the blame, but where I am hesitant to make bold predictions is in saying "replace Karl with Coach X and we'd make the playoffs", or something like that. Claims that Cousins got injured because of Karl's system are also somewhat suspect.

 

[dude12]

Based on what, exactly? Based on Cousins' awesome 27/11 that gets quoted here ever so often? Based on Cousins making the all-star game? Based on us matching Malone's little 9-5 span? Based on WCS' awesome offensive performance in SL? Based on our highest win total in years?

What I find time and time again about some posters here is that anything that paints Cousins/Karl in a light that they do not agree with is immediately dismissed without good reason, and more often than not shots are then taken at the poster or the argument, calling them stupid or idiotic and so on. Dude12 is one of said posters in my opinion (since it's okay to talk about Npliam I guess it's okay for me to raise my opinion on dude12). There are those who can hold an argument without resorting to name-calling, who can through the actual quality of what they say bring about the conclusion that "No reasonable person could argue against [their stance]". Name-calling is a lazy practice that adds no value to discussion other than making one feel better about his or herself.

I have yet to be shown irrefutable evidence that Karl's effect on last year's Kings team was huge, and so I cannot agree with you that no reasonable person could make an argument against it. The points I brought up earlier are of course tongue-in-cheek, but I believe that they go far enough to show that the argument isn't as clear cut as some make it out to be. I dare say that no reasonable person would argue that we underperformed based on expectations, but that's different from saying it was (or was not) primarily due to Karl, and the extent of underperformance is also questionable.

For the record, if memory serves me correctly Npliam hardly argued that Favors was better than Cousins, and if he did it was mostly at the start. The argument was always more along the lines that Favors did more for the Jazz than Cousins did to help the Kings win games.

Is your argument that Karl didnt have any negative affect on the Kings?

 

[andjel]

Karl had the most Kings wins since 2008-2009
Boogie had the best season of his career last year while Karl was the coach

If the Kings take a step back this season is it Joerger fault or is it the talent? Blaming Karl is just another way to not hold players accountable.

This year (baring Cuz injury) could be the big tilt to one side or the other for the people that play the blame game.
If Joerger gets lets say order of 5+ wins with this team (with our without another PG, unless it is Bledsoe type), than Karl's picture as a main culprit gets very very strong.
On the other hand, staying at the same wins total or less.... sorry Cuz, you seem to be the one.

 

[dude12]

Karl had the most Kings wins since 2008-2009
Boogie had the best season of his career last year while Karl was the coach

If the Kings take a step back this season is it Joerger fault or is it the talent? Blaming Karl is just another way to not hold players accountable.

Karl also won coach of the year with Denver and was immediately fired. There is a reason for that and we found out that reason last year. Seems hard to not justify the negative affect he had on the franchise.

 

[CelticsFan]

Karl also won coach of the year with Denver and was immediately fired. There is a reason for that and we found out that reason last year. Seems hard to not justify the negative affect he had on the franchise.

Yup that was after he won 57 games. Since Karl left, Denver has won 36,30 and 33 games. I'm not arguing that Karl didn't rub people the wrong way I'm just saying lets not act like Joerger is the missing piece that's going to turn it around THIS season.

I think the Joerger singing was a good one but he has never turned a NBA team around. He took over a good team that just went to the conference finals the year before and was never able to get them to that level again.

 

[twslam07]

Yup that was after he won 57 games. Since Karl left, Denver has won 36,30 and 33 games. I'm not arguing that Karl didn't rub people the wrong way I'm just saying lets not act like Joerger is the missing piece that's going to turn it around THIS season.

I think the Joerger singing was a good one but he has never turned a NBA team around. He took over a good team that just went to the conference finals the year before and was never able to get them to that level again.

I don't think that's a good analogy. That team was really at it's peak. There wasn't really much more room for improvement. Their defense was already stellar and the team played well together. Maybe Pop would have been able to improve that team, but really it's pretty unfair to use that as a benchmark of the improvements we can expect via Joerger.

Besides, Joerger isn't taking over a team that is comparable to the Grizzlies. He's taking over a team that was at the bottom of the league and has a lot of improving to do. Comparing a situation that is a good coach taking over a team that was a well oiled machine and at it's peak to a good coach taking over a bottom dweller is really not a fair nor logical comparison.

EDIT: Let me try to put your argument into an analogy to really show how illogical it is. This is like saying that Pepsi just hired a new CEO who has a great resume. Let's say that 95% of the people in the US have heard of Pepsi before the new CEO took over. A year later, let's say that awareness of the brand dropped to 94%.

Now let's say Big Tim's Cola (a very small soda company) was somehow able to steal away Pepsi's new CEO. Let's also say that only 46% of the US are aware of Big Tim's Cola at the time of the new hire. Would you expect this new CEO to have little impact on Big Tim's Cola awareness because he couldn't impact the remaining 5% of the US population to be aware of Pepsi? Or do you think he would be able to make some decent moves that would raise the 46% to say 60% or 70%?

This is essentially the point you are aruging between Joerger, the Grizzlies, and the Kings, and it really needs to be squashed.

 

[CelticsFan]

I don't think that's a good analogy. That team was really at it's peak. There wasn't really much more room for improvement. Their defense was already stellar and the team played well together. Maybe Pop would have been able to improve that team, but really it's pretty unfair to use that as a benchmark of the improvements we can expect via Joerger.

Besides, Joerger isn't taking over a team that is comparable to the Grizzlies. He's taking over a team that was at the bottom of the league and has a lot of improving to do. Comparing a situation that is a good coach taking over a team that was a well oiled machine and at it's peak to a good coach taking over a bottom dweller is really not a fair nor logical comparison.

EDIT: Let me try to put your argument into an analogy to really show how illogical it is. This is like saying that Pepsi just hired a new CEO who has a great resume. Let's say that 95% of the people in the US have heard of Pepsi before the new CEO took over. A year later, let's say that awareness of the brand dropped to 94%.

Now let's say Big Tim's Cola (a very small soda company) was somehow able to steal away Pepsi's new CEO. Let's also say that only 46% of the US are aware of Big Tim's Cola at the time of the new hire. Would you expect this new CEO to have little impact on Big Tim's Cola awareness because he couldn't impact the remaining 5% of the US population to be aware of Pepsi? Or do you think he would be able to make some decent moves that would raise the 46% to say 60% or 70%?

This is essentially the point you are aruging between Joerger, the Grizzlies, and the Kings, and it really needs to be squashed.

My point is assuming Joerger comes in and makes this team a playoff team because Karl forgot how to coach is unfair to Joerger. You still need talent to win