Fans: does it bother you?

[hrdboild]

If Maloofs had wanted to trim payroll, it makes no sense that they'd open up their wallet to bring back JT. Furthermore, even if the FO were instructed to trade the player soon after drafting him, it still doesn't relieve the need to draft the best player available. Afterall, the better the player, the easier to trade. Also, the better way to trim salary is to package the #5 with a contract or two (say #5 + Chuck Hayes) for a lower pick and one of those partially guaranteed contract. They could still trade the lower pick rookie during the season; this let them save even more money.

If they really thought Robinson was NBA ready, they wouldn't have re-signed JT. That's the key, the fact that they brought back JT shows the Kings were not at all sold on TRob. They basically treated him like a roster filler, like you'd an Art Long type instead of the #5 pick. And then they essentially gave up on him in less than a season. This is how a team treats a player whom they don't care for much - plays him sparingly and then discard him. Needless the say, that's highly unusual treatment for a #5 pick. There is a disconnect here. The only explanation is that the Kings didn't know who they were drafting and was disappointed with what they got.

Yes, the TRob saved them some money, but I think it only came into play after the disappointment with TRob.
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First of all -- you're basically making my point for me. The Kings treated their #5 pick like roster filler as soon as they drafted him. If they believed in Robinson's talent on draft day, they wouldn't have immediately blocked him with a 5 year deal for Thompson. The JT extension came before Robinson played a single NBA game. It's hard to paint that as a reaction to a failed pick. Because of summer league? Does anyone take summer league that seriously that they would watch 5 games and then decide they needed to sign Jason Thompson to a 5 year deal? Thomas Robinson had 15 points and 16 rebounds in his last summer league game. These two things are unrelated. At this point in time, the Maloofs overruled Petrie on everything because they were the ones cutting the checks and they couldn't have cared less about the basketball product because they already knew they were selling.

Also, I said it was a decision made mostly with the financial backend in mind, not that it was a smart decision on those terms. Drafting Jimmer and trading for John Salmons was also a business decision that didn't make any sense at the time (or in retrospect) but there's no other explanation. Jimmer Fredette was a national phenomenon who we expected to help sell tickets. There was very strong buzz before the draft that we weren't even considering anyone else. I hated that pick from day 1 because it was a terrible basketball move. There were 5 or 6 prospects that were obviously better NBA prospects. We had Beno, Tyreke, Dalembert, and Cousins -- we needed a SF badly or an upgrade at PG and Jimmer was neither so he didn't fit a need either. Even worse, we took back more salary in the Beno for Salmons trade just so we wouldn't have to go out and buy a SF in free agency.

As a whole the decision-making here was terribly short-sighted and contradictory. There was very little effort put into building a winning basketball team because the owners were broke and were forced to cut costs in every way possible. Eventually they had to admit that they couldn't keep the team and then tried to make sure we couldn't keep it either. If they were smart businessmen, they wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with.

 

[beb0p]

First of all -- you're basically making my point for me. The Kings treated their #5 pick like roster filler as soon as they drafted him. If they believed in Robinson's talent on draft day, they wouldn't have immediately blocked him with a 5 year deal for Thompson. The JT extension came before Robinson played a single NBA game. It's hard to paint that as a reaction to a failed pick. Because of summer league? Does anyone take summer league that seriously that they would watch 5 games and then decide they needed to sign Jason Thompson to a 5 year deal? Thomas Robinson had 15 points and 16 rebounds in his last summer league game. These two things are unrelated. At this point in time, the Maloofs overruled Petrie on everything because they were the ones cutting the checks and they couldn't have cared less about the basketball product because they already knew they were selling.

In that case I don't know what your point is. My point is that TRob was drafted without sufficient homework, as a replacement for JT but with a lot of uncertainly from the Kings' FO.

Another poster said Petrie drafted TRob because the former believe the later can replace JT, which I disagree.

You seem to be saying now it's the Maloofs who overruled Petrie on the TRob pick. Which I haven't heard before. Is that your point? And how is that relevant to what I'm saying?

Also, I said it was a decision made mostly with the financial backend in mind, not that it was a smart decision on those terms. Drafting Jimmer and trading for John Salmons was also a business decision that didn't make any sense at the time (or in retrospect) but there's no other explanation. Jimmer Fredette was a national phenomenon who we expected to help sell tickets. There was very strong buzz before the draft that we weren't even considering anyone else. I hated that pick from day 1 because it was a terrible basketball move. There were 5 or 6 prospects that were obviously better NBA prospects. We had Beno, Tyreke, Dalembert, and Cousins -- we needed a SF badly or an upgrade at PG and Jimmer was neither so he didn't fit a need either. Even worse, we took back more salary in the Beno for Salmons trade just so we wouldn't have to go out and buy a SF in free agency.

I'm sure the topic of jersey sales came up but I am also sure it is in the context of, "Jimmer will be a good player and he's a fan favorite, let's draft him." NOT, "I don't think this Jimmer is any good but he sells jerseys, let's draft him anyway." Even the Maloofs know that scrub players don't sell jerseys. The bottom line is that the Kings must have considered talent in addition to jersey sales, I highly doubt they put jersey sales above all else. And yes, you and I both didn't like the pick.

As a whole the decision-making here was terribly short-sighted and contradictory. There was very little effort put into building a winning basketball team because the owners were broke and were forced to cut costs in every way possible. Eventually they had to admit that they couldn't keep the team and then tried to make sure we couldn't keep it either. If they were smart businessmen, they wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with.

But they did open up their wallet - they signed JT and they offered AK47 a lucrative contract. Both of those action contradict the narrative that the Maloof were money pinching. And it somehow cast Petrie in a better light when I think he is the biggest culprit. The Maloofs were evil but they mostly relied on Petrie for basketball decisions. I blame the Maloofs for the moving fiasco and I blame Petrie for the basketball decisions.
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[hrdboild]

In that case I don't know what your point is. My point is that TRob was drafted without sufficient homework, as a replacement for JT but with a lot of uncertainly from the Kings' FO.

Another poster said Petrie drafted TRob because the former believe the later can replace JT, which I disagree.

You seem to be saying now it's the Maloofs who overruled Petrie on the TRob pick. Which I haven't heard before. Is that your point? And how is that relevant to what I'm saying?



I'm sure the topic of jersey sales came up but I am also sure it is in the context of, "Jimmer will be a good player and he's a fan favorite, let's draft him." NOT, "I don't think this Jimmer is any good but he sells jerseys, let's draft him anyway." Even the Maloofs know that scrub players don't sell jerseys. The bottom line is that the Kings must have considered talent in addition to jersey sales, I highly doubt they put jersey sales above all else. And yes, you and I both didn't like the pick.




But they did open up their wallet - they signed JT and they offered AK47 a lucrative contract. Both of those action contradict the narrative that the Maloof were money pinching. And it somehow cast Petrie in a better light when I think he is the biggest culprit. The Maloofs were evil but they mostly relied on Petrie for basketball decisions. I blame the Maloofs for the moving fiasco and I blame Petrie for the basketball decisions.
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It's a subtle nuance perhaps but my point was that nobody on our team believed in Thomas Robinson to begin with. We had no scouting department, very few players would even agree to come in for a workout. So yeah it was both insufficient homework and quite frankly, disinterest. The whole thing was a giant shoulder shrug from our front office. Going through the motions. It doesn't make much sense to me to say they did a poor job scouting the draft that year when the truth is they didn't even do the job at all.

I'm not trying to absolve Geoff Petrie of blame. I came to dislike his draft strategy well before the Jimmer and TRob picks. While most of Kings' fandom was still singing his praises. I just think there's no point lamenting a draft pick that was the victim of bad circumstances. Geoff pulling Lillard out of his hat with no scouting department to speak of and no team resources devoted to evaluating talent would have been a small miracle. Who's to say the Maloofs wouldn't have screwed that up on their way out the door anyway? We kept our team. That's better than any draft pick anyway isn't it?

 

[hrdboild]

I'm sure the topic of jersey sales came up but I am also sure it is in the context of, "Jimmer will be a good player and he's a fan favorite, let's draft him." NOT, "I don't think this Jimmer is any good but he sells jerseys, let's draft him anyway." Even the Maloofs know that scrub players don't sell jerseys.

Which is why owners shouldn't get involved in choosing draft picks. None of them have a clue about identifying talent. Most GMs don't even get it right and those are people with a lifetime of experience in basketball. Petrie should have told them to take a hike but it doesn't really work that way does it? Once your boss sticks their nose in you pretty much know where you stand. See also Stauskas. He reminded Vivek of his buddy Chris Mullin...

What I said at the time was that Petrie should just fall on his sword so to speak. Say "this wasn't my decision -- these guys are a massive joke, peace out" Sure he would have been fired, but he would have at least left with his reputation intact.