Dysfunctional Kings and what CruzDude and Bajaden think

CruzDude

Senior Member sharing a brew with bajaden
The following is a chat dialog about the current (dysfunctional) situation with the Kings between CRUZDUDE and BAJADEN over a period of about an hour and a half This past Wednesday morning the 24th. What now follows is a condensed version since the same issues persist after theClippersgame.
***********************************************

CruzDude
Beno is right on with his comments to the Bee, both the blog and the Kings article by Jason. A leader needs, a PG like Beno needs to take charge out there. His offense benefits now outweigh his poor D.

Well Head isn't really a pt guard. He's more of a combo guard.


Add in the lack of chemistry on this team on the floor offense and the lack of time playing together, you really need a pass first PG with that kind of vision.

cunities appear, but you have first, be looking for them, and secondly, be capable of making the pass.

CruzDude
Jeter was/could be that kind PG but has to get out of the mini-doghouse, the 5ft 10in mini-doghouse

Bajaden
Jeter, in his few moments on the court was the best pt guard we had in the game.

I'm going to be honest. This all falls on the head of the coach. If this continues, he's going to lose the team. Thompson comes into the game and makes one mistake and he's jerked. I watched his body language and he was not a happy camper. He sat on the bench and for the first time I can remember he looked visibly angry. Thompson is one of the most team first players on the team. You lose him and your going to lose the team.

CruzDude
unfortunately agreee. But the coach can only coach. Some of the players have to know what is right and wrong movement. We just don't see ANY of them doing the right thing except on occasion, a la Greene. On the one hand the Coach needs to "get to them" to have them do some ritvght thingfs. But on the other hand, if they are insecure about their own movement duties then they all seem to fall back to making their own shot to make up for their deficiencies. hmmm. you follow that? ie, if you can't make an offensive set, then shoot and to hell with it.

Bajaden
I agree to a certain extent. You could blame every teams deficiences on the team. But when you have a team that on paper looks to have more talent than the year before, and yet it performs worse, the blame has to fall on the head coach. There's a reason why the Jazz perform at a high level every year. And that reason is Jerry Sloan. I had problems with Westphal last year with his constant tinkering with lineups and rotations. I've never seen, in my 50 plus years of watching NBA basketball, a sucessful team that did that. I wrote it off last year to it being his first year and his trying to get a read on his talent. I never expected to continue this year. Particularly to the extent, where players that had proven themselves to some extent last year, were now not playing at all. I really don't think he as a clue what he's doing.
 
Last edited:
CruzDude
Betcha Assnt. Coach Jim Eyen knows what to do!!!????

He's the coach that won the D-League once or twice before coming to Kings.

Very much a no-BS type who knows X's and O's

Bajaden
I think Mario Ellie would fall into the catagory as well.

CruzDude
True. Wonder if Westphal WAS out of coaching too long?

Eyen as head and Elie as Assnt Coach, not an "assistant"

But even then, is there a leader on the team that can carryout PG functions???

Bajaden
Its possible! I posted his history in one of the threads and to be short, he's been a good coach with experienced teams and a lousy coach with young teams.

CruzDude
Dilemma for Maloofs: how long to hold on to the coach who they just extended earlier this summer or make a change.

..... and how much longer to give Westphal a shot at straightening it out?

Bajaden
Last year we won 25 games with basicley Hawes at center, Thompson at PF, Greene or Casspi at SF and Tyreke and Beno at the guard positions. So one would think that if you were to put Cousins, or Dalembert at center, either one being better than Hawes is some area, and leave the rest of the starting lineup the same as last year, you should be able to improve on last year. You would at least have 4 players on the floor that have played together for a year already which should lead to some sort of continuity of play. But no! We throw any chemistry that unit might have had out the window and start over, and over, and over again. Its no mystery why this team looks like a team of individuals on the floor.

Excuse, I forgot Landry at the halfway point.

CruzDude
Don't follow your ".... throw any chemistry that unit might have....."

Bajaden
What I'm saying is last year Thompson, Greene, Casspi, Beno, and Tyreke, spent a lot of time playing together. They more than anyone else on the team know one anothers game. If you want continuity and chemistry in the offense, then use the players that have played together last year as the core of your starting unit. Then slowiy work the the new players into the flow of things. The reason good teams look good is number one, they obviously have talent. And number 2, they've played together for a while. They know each others game. They all know where the other player likes to shoot from, or where he likes to post up. They trust each other more on defense because they all know where the other player is going to be and how their going to rotate. So yeah, you can't do it with 15 different starting lineups. And thats what your getting from Westphal. It won't work!

CruzDude
Putting Greene in to start and DNP to Casspi is not good either. adding to your point. yeah, problem. But how much are we seeing and who among the young players are going to speak out. then there is "Let those among you who have not sinned cast the first stone". No stones will be in the Kings ring of shame.

Bajaden
Unfortunately thats true. The players have to take some of the blame, but ultimately it falls on the head coach. I doubt he'll last the year if this continues. I know Petrie is patient, but I don't think the Maloofs are. This is an important year for them. They need butts in the seats, and if this losing continues the nice start will turn into a bad taste in the mouth. The team needs some minimum amount of success that exceeds last year if they want to convince fans that their headed in the right direction.

CruzDude
true true. butts in seats. Now, how long to be patient with Westphal. This is the biggest at-home month of the year and they have blown it and with poor teams to boot.

Bajaden
Well I don't think there are any short team answers. I doubt they'll be a coaching change in the near future, and I'm not sure I see any real progress with the team. Quite the opposite unfortunately. I think its going to be a rough couple of weeks unless Westphal can find a way to repair some bridges that are apparently damaged and get the players to believe in him again. Because right now, I think he's losing the team. Its not a good sign when players start speakinig out.

CruzDude
again, unfortunately all true. Bad for us fans but at least we'll get a first hand look at the bench personality in less than 2 weeks to see what is going on there. Really a pisser with such a good team on paper and no floor chemistry. Attitude needs to change then maybe a lineup change back to what tho? Coach obviously likes Landry but even Landry is sucking. JT just too inexperienced yet to equal Landry but JT can be better rebounder.

ahhhh...........enough for this morning. got a headache from all this. catch ya later.

Bajaden
I need a drink after all this. Too early though. I think I'll go eat worms.. Later!!
**********************************************
 
Last edited:
Cruzdude
how'd the worms go this morning?

Bajaden
Duuuuude.

Cruzdude
uh oh

Bajaden
Duuuuude, like stop shouting.

Cruzdude
uh, sorry. Been at it since this morning?

Bajaden
I like worms. Do you like worms?

Bajaden
Worms is pretty.

Cruzdude
uhm I was thinking of maybe posting our conversation about the Kings this morning to KF...

Bajaden
I like the worms that float in bottles. They look sooooo happy.

Bajaden
Happy little wormsies!

Cruzdude
I wanted to see if I had your permission?

Bajaden
Sailing, sailing over the bounty main...

Cruzdude
er, Bajaden...

Bajaden
Hey! I know somebody named that too!

Cruzdude
That's you you sop.

Bajaden
Wait...that's me! What a coin...coin..seedents. You know what this means?

Cruzdude
no

Bajaden
I know myself!

Cruzdude
sigh

Bajaden
Its like that greek thingie.

Cruzdude
Listen Bajaden, I'm kinda in a hurry...

Bajaden
Do you know that greek thingie?

Cruzdude
no

Bajaden
Guess!

Cruzdude
olives

Bajaden
Not olives silly! Like know thyself and stuff!

Bajaden
The greeks were cool.

Cruzdude
Bajaden, if you could just give me permission to post that conversation I'd leave you to it...

Bajaden
Uh oh!

Cruzdude
What now?

Bajaden
I went poopie!

Cruzdude
Just say yes.

Bajaden
Yes!

Cruzdude
Good. Bye. Have fun.

Bajaden
Bye Duuuude!
 
Last edited:
Dont forget we also acquired DMC, Dalembert. and Jackson and lost Hawes in the frontcourt. then we lost nocioni in the SF spot, and have a healthy Cisco and an overweight donte. Im not so surprised at all the odd lineups and constant fussing. Last year, our guard spots were a bit tailored towards Reke's 20-5-5 so there werent much room to find out who should play what position. This year is sort of a new start with new players and a new focus into actually building our team. We're taking quite a bit of time, but at least coach has seemed to lay out who our starters are.
 
Dally is a 1 year rental unless he wants to re-up for 5 mill or less a year. Jackson is a non guaranteed contract till Jan 6 2011 then he is only guaranteed to the end of the year. Landry is in his last year and only making a couple million so will be looking for much more going forward... Write Head are 1 year contracts and Jeter has a Team option for next.

All this to say we have already lost any chance we have baring a made for tv movie comeback to turn this into a play off year. What we can do this year though is get our young core to gel together on defense and offense and grow together. Maybe you could win a few more games if WP could find that perfect mix of lineups to make us an offensive and defensive juggernaut or maybe we could move some of our non expiring contracts for a rental this year and eak out a couple more wins at the cost of the future but I think it would be a disservice to the pieces we have lined up.

We are playing Jackson over Whiteside. I don't care how many people quote the cliche oh he needs work, well lets put him to work. As long as we don't run him next to dally then he can swat a few balls rack up a few fouls and start learning now instead of some mythical free time we will have in the future and we will decrease his overall learning curve by giving him a few minutes a game.

As a team we need to specify our priority we need to tell our youngs what we want them to do and then stick to that wish and we need to change the offensive scheams to take into account our current personnel then teach our guys to run them correctly. All the while urging the extra output of energy on the defensive end and if we have to limit guys minutes to make it work we have 10 or 11 deep all within the same magnitude of talent right now even if some have the potential well above that.


edit
We have a complete rotation from last year baring the 5 spot. and we have people at the 5 that can move out to play 14+ feet from the rim like we had last year so we have no excuse for such poor offense. We don't have as many new people as it sounds aside from roster fillers and 1 year rentals.
 
Last edited:
Good input from Tyndel, thanks. Lets hope the next 10 games or so begin to show offensive progress assuming the defense holds as they have the past 2 games. Getting assists up above 20 and TO's down to 10-14 will add 5-10 pts a game. Then the FT's. Thats an individual thing requiring focus and attitude, two team weak points right now. But 3-4 more made FT wins a couple of games the past 2 weeks.
 
Dont forget we also acquired DMC, Dalembert. and Jackson and lost Hawes in the frontcourt. then we lost nocioni in the SF spot, and have a healthy Cisco and an overweight donte. Im not so surprised at all the odd lineups and constant fussing. Last year, our guard spots were a bit tailored towards Reke's 20-5-5 so there werent much room to find out who should play what position. This year is sort of a new start with new players and a new focus into actually building our team. We're taking quite a bit of time, but at least coach has seemed to lay out who our starters are.

I agree with this view andit should be added that our 20-5-5 guy depended on his driving to get what he did and now I believe his ankles have taken that away from him for the moment. All your factors plus Tyreke's problem have compromised what we had last year. I still don't think there is a clear path for Westphal despite all the offerings we make.
 
You can tell Tyreke is not right. He has no lift (which even when he did it wasn't a high jumping variety, more of a long jumping variety), he is making his layups much harder than they have to be and he has no legs on his jump shot (and because of the way he fades he needs his legs to be under him and strong to get that awkward shot off).
 
Back
Top