Eric Musselman Watch Thread

[Heuge]

Look some people wanted Webber gone and most of the same wanted Adelman gone... well... Reap it. We were 16 games over .500 averaging 103 ppg on 26 assists and somehow Webber was "slowing" the offense down. As soon as he was traded we became a .500 team and we were completely embarassed in the 1st round of the playoffs by Frickin Danny Fortson and Jerome Trash bag James for god's sake! The year before Webber went toe to toe with KG and we were in Game 7 seconds away from the WCF and Webber Couldn't even barely walk!

Ok, so then we heard the excuse these guys needed time to get to know each other and have a full training camp together... Webber was now gone and would no longer would be holding Peja(and the team) back. Sky's the limit right? Wrong, we then preceded to become one of the worst teams in the entire NBA... falling to 14th in the Western Conference! Peja hid on the bench... (now thats somehow Bibby's fault?? Mike put up career numbers that year btw) Then they finally pulled the trigger for Artest, (a trade that should have happened when Webber was still here) and all of the sudden the Kings had a much improved defense, under ADELMAN (which everyone seems to be conveniently forgeting now). Wow... imagine that... tends to happen when you bring in maybe the best defensive player in the league, and once again a player with a rough past and questionable character fits right in and flourishes(of course that had nothing to do with Adelman, must have been because of Coachie, right?).

We need Artest back, healthy and happy, without him the defense instantly sucks again, can't everyone see that now?? But even if he is healthy if we don't win and Muss refuses to turn the team over to him he is likely to go off, The Maloofs listened to too many of their idiot fans calling in to radio shows and thought they could solve everything by firing Adelman. I'm still wondering how the team could have stopped listening to him and tuned him out when they were a completely new set of players. Why would you get rid of a coach that obviously is a perfect fit with the volatile player you are trying to build your franchise around. Like I said before many people got what they wanted, Webber is gone, Adelman is gone, and the Kings are no longer that 50+ win team that can't quite make it to the Finals, but maybe with 1 new piece(Like a Ron Artest maybe???) the could make a run. No... now they are several pieces away with no leadership and Bibbys prime is ticking away, wasted.

IMO, KP wins the thread! Couldnt agree with you more.

 

[thatguy]

I'm beginning to think this Joker guy just makes these ludicrous threads to get people riled up. "The Joker." Ha, ha. Funny indeed. I mean, nobody would really think a new coach would get canned after less than 1/4th of a season with seemingly constant injuries to the starting five, right? Right?

 

[Packt]

no actually, the kings were the best team when the lakers were heavily favored and calls were made according to their forte (a close game at the end was their territory). the next year was the beginning of the downfall actually. they were still the best but were not better.

i never buy into the hype. the kings were the best because the way they were playing was how basketball was meant to be played. efficient, collective, entertaining. something stern apparently does not want, as it is not good for business. heros sell more.

as for webber going down, well, there were lessons to be taken, but the disillusion of adelman and petrie prevented them from taking any. they thought an imitation of vlade in brad would do the trick. but in the meantime, they lost hedo, wallace, peja; christie and bobby were getting old with absolutely no plan for their replacements. it eventually became bibby's team, according to the media. the kings were very strong and the best because the team was nobody's; it had its leaders, sure, but none claimed to be in the sole possession of the team. until webber opened his mouth, that is, and first declared the "with him" and "against him" players. then again, by anointing himself as the true leader and vowing to change the "happy go lucky" attitude after vlade's departure.

how is all this adelman's fault? well,
1. he put hedo into his doghouse after hedo stupidly enough claimed that he deserved the starting position and was expecting dc to come off the bench. jj was hired because hedo was injured, and the was the end of hedo in the kings uniform. that was stupid because he, adelman, chose to ride jj instead of investing into hedo.
2. he did a similar thing to wallace. he was a great hustle player. there were times where he would do great if given the chance, but one cramp coming on, marked his end. again, young ones can do mistakes; a good coach turns these mistakes into milestones of an ever developing career. adelman did not do that.
3. webber's return from injury and the infamous 2/21 game was adelman's fault. he should have made webber come gradually. instead he bowed before him and handed the control. that was an utter and complete disrespect to the rest of the team, especially to peja.
4. peja's story, i tend to believe, is like chicken and egg. games were not called for him when going went tough. the "money" game was to let bibby and webber do their "thang". that probably alienated him. an american would treat a guy in peja's shoes who is not forcing the issue as loser, which most, if not all, here did. or being soft at best. i don't buy that a single second. these guys are tough. try being a professional athlete for a change.
5. dc and bobby and webber were traded too late. webber should have brought in much more. but adelman did not phase him out; petrie did not trade him sooner. dc became damaged goods. maybe only bobby might be considered a timely trade, considering his injury was unexpected. still, there are really tons of players who could be molded into their role. they should have replaced earlier. adelman chose to play them till they could play no more with little to no trust to his bench players.
6. when webber started talking, adelman did not counter him. nothing changed in his attitude towards the guy. being a players' coach is one thing, being not able to instill discipline is another. he should not have let webber get away with all that bs. he should have seen that webber was actually pruning the branch he was sitting on.

some might be speculation on my part, but that is part of the deal here: being not privy to insider information, on some issues the most one can do is to make educational guesses. the others are not speculation and facts.

Hedo had the same problems in San Antonio of all places. They had to sit Manu so they could get decent minutes out of him. When it came to a contract, they let him go. Christie was assigned to opponents best perimeter player from Marbury to Kobe, and was your best defender on an offensive laden starting line-up. The situation would've played out the same with any coach and team in the league. Hedo sulked and JJ was playing good and contributing, why shouldn't he get minutes over Hedo. How would he know JJ wasn't going to be a part of the team long-term.

As far as Wallace, he was playing behind Peja. I would've hated to see what the reaction would be if Adelman started sitting Peja for Wallace. He's averaging over 30 minutes with Charlotte, cut the minutes down to 15 or less and it's not as impressive. He would've looked sporadic and inconsistent, exactly liked he did. He even had one year where he could show he was worth keeping, too bad Peja had a career year and kept him on the bench or some would say it was his own doing.

The only position that could’ve been handled better as far as developing talent was the SG position. Doug shouldn’t have been traded for what ended up a revolving door, and should've been kept to help develop the youngsters.

I’m not going to touch the Webber stuff since that’s already been talked to death. But I’ll say one thing, only one person on that team was or could’ve been alienated by that article.

 

[VF21]

I'm beginning to think this Joker guy just makes these ludicrous threads to get people riled up. "The Joker." Ha, ha. Funny indeed. I mean, nobody would really think a new coach would get canned after less than 1/4th of a season with seemingly constant injuries to the starting five, right? Right?

Ding! Ding! Ding! I think we have a winner...

 

[BawLa]

Look some people wanted Webber gone and most of the same wanted Adelman gone... well... Reap it. We were 16 games over .500 averaging 103 ppg on 26 assists and somehow Webber was "slowing" the offense down. As soon as he was traded we became a .500 team and we were completely embarassed in the 1st round of the playoffs by Frickin Danny Fortson and Jerome Trash bag James for god's sake! The year before Webber went toe to toe with KG and we were in Game 7 seconds away from the WCF and Webber Couldn't even barely walk!
.

Yeah, that's what happens when you sell your soul.

Totally agree with everything you said too.

 

[nbrans]

Definitely agree that we lost our soul in the beginning, but that was the start of rebuilding and rebuilding is painful. It's maybe even more frustrating for Kings fans because it hasn't looked like a rebuilding process. It's looked more like mediocrity, and the ground wasn't laid by the Kings organization to prepare the fan base for lesser expectations. Then Artest came along and people got excited again and those expectations went back up.

But still, if you were a Martian and you landed on earth and didn't know the histroy and where the Kings had been in 2002-2004, I sitll think the Martian would look at this Kings team and say it's a promising situation. You have a lot of players just entering their prime, you have some emerging young players and Petrie can continue to add to the team through the draft, free agency and trades. Three of your top players have struggled through injuries and haven't remotely played like they can, and you're still around .500.

So yeah. When Webber was gone things were inevitably going to go down in the short term. You don't make a trade like that thinking it's going to make you immediately better. You just hope that a few years down the line you're in a better place because of it. Given where Webber is right now in his career and where the Kings are, with $10 million coming off the books and with it the opportunity to improve the roster, I sitll think, yeah, it's painful right now, but that doesn't mean there's no room for optimism about the future.

Of course, I think the Martian brought Musselman with him.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Of course, I think the Martian brought Musselman with him.

HAHA!! NICE!! E.T. bring Muss!!