musselman is in no danger of losing his job...yet. even if the kings miss the playoffs...he might not be in danger of losing his job. the maloofs fired the winningest coach in sacramento kings history--as well as one of the top winningest coaches in the league in terms of record--and placed their vote of confidence in musselman. it'd reflect very badly on them to dump their guy so quickly and so assuredly. depending on how well or how poorly this season goes, we could be looking at change sometime down the road next season.
but that's all beside the point. while muss is in no danger of losing his job in the immediate sense, he does need to stop ****ing around at some point. these lineups are getting ridiculous. the kings were doomed from the start in the phoenix game, but it doesn't look so good to lose in such convincing fashion, especially when a good portion of the blame rests on the coach's shoulders. people gave him a lot of **** for it, but one thing rick adelman had a great grasp on was the use of a consistent rotation that really only varied when injuries occured. perhaps he could have been more flexible when concerning specific matchup issues, but i have trouble holding that against a coach who was so successful in his approach. we have the opposite working right now. muss is all over the place, and at some point he needs to wake up and realize that the starting five needs to be the five guys that mesh the best together on the court. when he got here, those five guys were mike bibby, kevin martin, ron artest, kenny thomas, and brad miller. injuries aside, nothing has really changed in that regard. and when a guy does go down with an injury, his backup takes his place. simple as that. there's obviously wiggle room to work with as matchups dictate the flow of games, but last night's game was taking that idea a bit far.
what muss is in danger of right now is drawing heavy criticism from the media and from fans alike who all had it much better than they realized under rick adelman. stepping into the shoes of a winner like adelman is tough, and muss is of course doomed to comparisons with adelman, but at this point, muss is also dooming himself to comparisons with those coaches that "might have been." we're currently not playing defense worth a damn, but at least with a guy like don nelson i would have the security of knowing that the offense would rarely stagnate. with a guy like don nelson i would have the security of at least putting up a fight with a small ball lineup. with a guy like don nelson i would have the security of knowing that the kings would compete for a legitimate playoff spot. now, i'm not saying that i want don nelson to coach the kings, but i am saying that, through 17 games, i think we'd be better off. point being that musselman needs to figure out what this team is supposed to look like a lot faster than he claims it will take. 50 games? yeah, right muss. the playoffs may be a recurring dream by that point.
my biggest criticism of muss is this: if he's such a great x's and o's guy, then why are the kings struggling so mightily on the offensive end? guys miss shots, and i understand that, but what's with all of the isolation play? pass the ball! and even if you wanna play some iso, there are ways to swing the ball around to better set up a guy for an isolation move, rather than a single pass and shot. nobody uses these specific words, but rick adelman was a great x's and o's coach. along with pete carril, those guys knew how to get their players dancing around the defense. they could coach defense as well, though maybe it wasn't their greatest strength...or maybe it was just the personnel. so here muss is, an x's and o's coach who can't get his guys to execute more than a few successful plays a game, who's also a defensive minded coach stuck with personnel who can't play defense. what's the real issue here? if you guessed "the kings just aren't that good"...then you're right on the money!
) this is just like you to create this thread.
