Donte

“Donté is the 11th or 12th man in our nine- or 10-man rotation,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it has to be that way forever. He’s a versatile young player and has a lot of ability and potential, he just has a few guys ahead of him right now.”

-_-
 
yeah I saw that. its insane. Donte won out for the starting SF spot and a week later Wesphal says he is the 11th or 12th guy in a 9 man rotation. Instead of working Thompson to guard the bigger SF's why not Donte for this matter. It makes the most sense. Rudy Gay is to quick for JT. I can see it surely Westphal isn't this oblivious.
 
Whoa, that's the most non-diplomatic statement I remember from Westphal since "Now he knows his role" on Hawes after that incident. Really wish I knew what happened with Donte.
 
Westphal is a tough coach who demands hard work from his players. Donte is in his doghouse as a result of not working hard enough and/or goofing off too much. Simple as that.
 
1 TeAm DiMe 0 said:
Westphal is a tough coach who demands hard work from his players. Donte is in his doghouse as a result of not working hard enough and/or goofing off too much. Simple as that.
Click to expand...

I don't know. If it was just the coming into camp out of shape thing, he wouldn't have started in the first game. For Westphal to make a bold statement like that, there has to be something more to this.
 
PurpleHaze said:
He must really stink it up in practice. Also, for such an inconsistent, mediocre Kings player dude sure gets a lot of threads. Mods should close this one and put it here IMO: http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?38669-Donte-Greene-3-33
Click to expand...

This.

He's an athletic 6'11 player, so I can see why people here are so enamored. But the dude really hasnt shown much on the court. He's had 3 or 4 good games in two seasons, and the defense that earned him minutes last year probably isnt up to snuff anymore with his weight gain. Donte just isnt that great. Hopefully he'll regain his quickness and earn time again, but my heart isnt broken if he doesnt.
 
gunks said:
This.

He's an athletic 6'11 player, so I can see why people here are so enamored. But the dude really hasnt shown much on the court. He's had 3 or 4 good games in two seasons, and the defense that earned him minutes last year probably isnt up to snuff anymore with his weight gain. Donte just isnt that great. Hopefully he'll regain his quickness and earn time again, but my heart isnt broken if he doesnt.
Click to expand...

So you are agreeing with starting Wright, Jackson, and Head ahead of him? You agree with Head guarding Kobe in the crunchtime? Please enlighten me how Greene got over 21 minutes a game last year WHILE we had a logjam at the wing positions. Now he is the 12th man, with a bunch of DNPS on the way.

Donte improved alot last year. His FG% jumped from .326 to .441, with his 3 point % at .377, which is pretty damn good if you ask me, while this is only his 3rd season, and he's only 21. Also, don't forget about his feetwork and defense improving. Although his rebounding and passing could get a tad better.

It's gotta be pretty demoralizing to be getting better as a player only to go to the doghouse for this team. From what i see with his show (which he only had 2 eps this offseason) it seemed like hes really great around the team, and seems like a pretty likable guy. I would rather see him play in crunch time and fail, while learning, then see scrubs be in who will fail also but won't be in our team picture in 1 or 2 years.
 
Last edited:
Nope. Head on Kobe was Kenny Natt level coaching, that isnt even debatable. But Greene stunk it up in summer league and preseason. Omri deserves the start. I'd have Cisco in front of Greene on the depth chart as well.

I think Greene has lost quickness, lost his ability to play defense. His offense has always been pretty bad.

If Greene deserved the minutes, I'd say give him minutes. Dude doesnt deserve the minutes.
 
gunks said:
Nope. Head on Kobe was Kenny Natt level coaching, that isnt even debatable. But Greene stunk it up in summer league and preseason. Omri deserves the start. I'd have Cisco in front of Greene on the depth chart as well.

I think Greene has lost quickness, lost his ability to play defense. His offense has always been pretty bad.

If Greene deserved the minutes, I'd say give him minutes. Dude doesnt deserve the minutes.
Click to expand...

Alright. Let me ask you one thing. If you had to pick a lineup, which one would you rather play.

Head/Tyreke/Garcia
Tyreke/Garcia/Greene
 
I said it during summer league, and I'll say it again. Casspi flat outplayed Greene. I know a lot of you have an infatuation with Greene. I understand that he' a chrismatic person. But he made his defensive reputation on one blocked shot on Kobe. I've watched him play with my defensive glasses on and he's always been inconsistant. Yes! He'll play outstanding defense for a quarter, and then disappear. He'll play outstanding offense for a quarter, and then disappear. The truth is that Greene has more intensity and fire waving a towel on the sideline than he does in a game at times. Its not about whether he has the ability or not, its about his bringing it to the table every night.

I actually hate making this post, because I like Greene. But he screwed up and now he's paying the price. If he wants to regain Westphal's trust, then he has to prove his worth in practice. He has to bust his butt. Come early and stay late. Thats if he really wants it. I don't know what happened, but it had to be significant. For Westphal to say he's the 11th or 12th man, is like saying your not going to see the floor unless its garbage time. Thats sending a big time message. I hope he can come back. I still have hope for him. But I'm not going to make excuses for him either.
 
yea I absolutely agree with other guys in here - doesnt make any sense whatsoever on westphaul's part to start him ina first game giving him like 35+ minutes and then not playing him at all for 3 games in a row
 
bajaden said:
But he made his defensive reputation on one blocked shot on Kobe. I've watched him play with my defensive glasses on and he's always been inconsistant. Yes! He'll play outstanding defense for a quarter, and then disappear. He'll play outstanding offense for a quarter, and then disappear. The truth is that Greene has more intensity and fire waving a towel on the sideline than he does in a game at times. Its not about whether he has the ability or not, its about his bringing it to the table every night.
Click to expand...
I agree with this.

We fans see a lot of potential in Greene. But upto now all Greene has shown are occasional highlights of those potential, most notable of which is that block on Kobe Bryant. He never really showed the consistent effort to play intensely in games.

And I agree that Greene has consistently shown more intensity and fire waving a towel at the bench than he does in a game. I also think he's got more love on his mini-show "Horacio" than his job as a basketball player. This is what it seems he likes doing. Let coach Westphal give it to him.

GREENE'S LACKLUSTER APPROACH TO HIS NBA CAREER IS JUST TOO JUVENILE.

How old is he now anyways?

And WTF are you waiting for Donte?!!!!

You are so frustratingly stubborn !
 
Last edited:
I'm really shooting in the dark here, but maybe in the pre-season the coaching staff actually thought(like all of us) that Donte gained weight in the form of muscles? so they figured he might worked at the summer in a wrong way, but still gave him the credit for working, but after they realized the truth is exactly the opposite, that his gain of weight was because of slacking off, they decided to send him to the doghouse...am i making sense?
 
bajaden said:
I said it during summer league, and I'll say it again. Casspi flat outplayed Greene. I know a lot of you have an infatuation with Greene. I understand that he' a chrismatic person. But he made his defensive reputation on one blocked shot on Kobe. I've watched him play with my defensive glasses on and he's always been inconsistant. Yes! He'll play outstanding defense for a quarter, and then disappear. He'll play outstanding offense for a quarter, and then disappear. The truth is that Greene has more intensity and fire waving a towel on the sideline than he does in a game at times. Its not about whether he has the ability or not, its about his bringing it to the table every night.

I actually hate making this post, because I like Greene. But he screwed up and now he's paying the price. If he wants to regain Westphal's trust, then he has to prove his worth in practice. He has to bust his butt. Come early and stay late. Thats if he really wants it. I don't know what happened, but it had to be significant. For Westphal to say he's the 11th or 12th man, is like saying your not going to see the floor unless its garbage time. Thats sending a big time message. I hope he can come back. I still have hope for him. But I'm not going to make excuses for him either.
Click to expand...

While I great with a great deal of your post, to suggest that Greene got his defensive reputation because of one block on Kobe is just strenching it a fair bit!

Greene's defence last year was not 4 quarter consistent BUT he was showing a great deal on that end. He made Kobe REALLY work for his points whenever he was on him. Kobe got his points but at bad efficiency and by taking bad shots and plenty of them. Greene also had some GREAT defensive games on Carmelo last year. He was really starting to take a great deal of pride in his defence to the point where the coaching staff gave him the toughest assignments every game.

Greene's potential (especially defensive potential) is off the charts but what he really needs to do is pull his finger out and really work his backside off for it. If he had Casspi's intensity and desire, he would be an all star in 2 years time.
 
Čarolija said:
While I great with a great deal of your post, to suggest that Greene got his defensive reputation because of one block on Kobe is just strenching it a fair bit!

Greene's defence last year was not 4 quarter consistent BUT he was showing a great deal on that end. He made Kobe REALLY work for his points whenever he was on him. Kobe got his points but at bad efficiency and by taking bad shots and plenty of them. Greene also had some GREAT defensive games on Carmelo last year. He was really starting to take a great deal of pride in his defence to the point where the coaching staff gave him the toughest assignments every game.

Greene's potential (especially defensive potential) is off the charts but what he really needs to do is pull his finger out and really work his backside off for it. If he had Casspi's intensity and desire, he would be an all star in 2 years time.
Click to expand...

I referred to the Laker game, because that seems to be the one that everyone remembers and brings up. As I said, I know he's capable. The problem is that he'll play very tough defense on Kobe, or whomever it is he decides to play hard against, and then he'll get burned by someone else of lesser abitlities. He's still young, and in a sense, he's just starting his career, at least I hope so. I'm just not sure what his goals are as a player. JT states his goals all the time. So does Casspi. That doesn't mean that they'll acheive those goals, but at least they have a brass ring they're reaching for.

While I admire Greene's enthusiasm on the sidelines, I'm not sure thats something he should aspire to.
 
This is not surprising news if he really has fallen off in the rotation this badly. I am sure he deserves this and that's all I'm really going to say on this topic, enough about Donte. He put himself in this position and he has to face the consequences. I stopped feeling sorry for him a couple of days ago when I realized he isn't going to be seeing any significant playing time anytime soon.
 
I don't think Donte will be the team's Scottie Pippen. I don't think we're starving a potential star.

I do think that Donte is a NBA player who has shown where he can be useful. He can have scoring outbursts and he can play some D.

The question isn't why is Donte not getting more minutes, but why is Donte not getting any minutes. This question has gotten to the point of there being "you must play Donte now" situations and it isn't happening.
 
swisshh said:
The question isn't why is Donte not getting more minutes, but why is Donte not getting any minutes. This question has gotten to the point of there being "you must play Donte now" situations and it isn't happening.
Click to expand...

For once, I agree with you completely.
 
kingsboi said:
This is not surprising news if he really has fallen off in the rotation this badly. I am sure he deserves this and that's all I'm really going to say on this topic, enough about Donte. He put himself in this position and he has to face the consequences. I stopped feeling sorry for him a couple of days ago when I realized he isn't going to be seeing any significant playing time anytime soon.
Click to expand...

I agree.

This totally reminds me of the Justin Williams craze a few seasons ago. Some of us were gaga over the kid's potential and fuming at his lack of PT, then there were those who scratched their heads over the JW love. Its funny, I was on the Williams bandwagon back then...Now I'm pretty cynical regarding Donte.

Dude showed up waaaaaaay overweight in the summer. And honestly, I'm wondering if him saying he was "bulking up" to bang with PFs wasnt some kind of spin. Donte is a goofball. It makes him an endearing player. I want him to succeed just as much as anyone else in this thread. But his goofyness also makes you wonder how seriously he's taking things. Especially whens he's showing up to camp sluggish and overweight.

Dude was never that great to begin with. At least Justin Williams rebounded.
 
gunks said:
I agree.

This totally reminds me of the Justin Williams craze a few seasons ago. Some of us were gaga over the kid's potential and fuming at his lack of PT, then there were those who scratched their heads over the JW love. Its funny, I was on the Williams bandwagon back then...Now I'm pretty cynical regarding Donte.

Dude showed up waaaaaaay overweight in the summer. And honestly, I'm wondering if him saying he was "bulking up" to bang with PFs wasnt some kind of spin. Donte is a goofball. It makes him an endearing player. I want him to succeed just as much as anyone else in this thread. But his goofyness also makes you wonder how seriously he's taking things. Especially whens he's showing up to camp sluggish and overweight.

Dude was never that great to begin with. At least Justin Williams rebounded.
Click to expand...

Yeah but seriously. JT at the 3 over Donte? No minutes even when Head and Wright are out? That's a bit much don't you think? Freaking Devin Ebanks gets more minutes on the Lakers than Donte does with us. Are we really THAT deep?
 
I have no idea what Donte did, but it clearly was serious and probably not basketball related. Doesn't look like he'll get in a game unless there's an injury and not enough bodies in uniform. Watever Donte did is bad enough Westphal won't consider playing him, and it's now hurting the team. If this is in fact Donte's doing, which I don't know for sure if it is, but if it is, then he's letting the team down. We needed him the last two games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Y
[Rumor] Warriors could acquire $36 million Kings forward via win-now Jonathan Kuminga swap
Replies
3
Views
285
Tetsujin
Tetsujin
S
[Trade] New Blockbuster Three-Team Trade Proposal Sends Jaylen Brown to Sacramento, Hawks Get Key Celtics Reserve
Replies
6
Views
360
Joshyjosh31
J
Tetsujin
  • Locked
  • Poll Poll
[Game] Kings vs. Timberwolves 10/24/2024 7pm Pacific 10pm Eastern
18 19 20
Replies
574
Views
15K
joemama
J
twslam07
  • Poll Poll
“THE” Trade Deadline Move to Make…
2 3 4
Replies
110
Views
9K
The_Jamal
T
Spike
  • Poll Poll
NBA Power Rankings, Week of 11/28
Replies
0
Views
200
Spike
Spike
Back
Top