If Walton didn't have a couple more years left on his contract I'm not sure he would still be the head coach. He wasn't McNair's hire, and despite what McNair has stated about the two of them having a good relationship, I think it has more to do with Vivek not wanting to pay yet another coach for doing nothing. Can't say I blame him, but then a lot of it has to do with him in the first place. In my opinion there's enough talent on this team to make the playoffs, although some of it doesn't quite fit properly.
I could nit pic Walton to death, but I won't waste your time with it. I think we all know basketball well enough to see his mistakes. We have a potential all star in Fox, and yet, the offense seems to fall apart if Haliburton isn't on the floor. But when Haliburton is on the floor, Fox seems to struggle finding his game. Not saying that can't be worked out, but how often do we see the two of them intentionally run plays for each other. Walton doesn't appear to have an answer, other than, it will work itself out. Really?
Harkless is a very good defender, but you can't have a SF scoring 0 to 2 points a night on a contending team. He should be coming off the bench period! I would have had Barnes and Metu in the starting lineup from the get go. I think Metu proved he's capable last season. I would cut Woodard and move King up to the parent club on a guaranteed salary. King is an NBA player and anyone who watched him play in summer league or recently in the G-League knows that.
I think playing a small lineup in certain situations can give you an advantage, but to make it a regular part of your rotation plans can make you easier to defend when game planning. We've gotten killed on the boards far too often while playing small, and too many teams have figured out how get mismatches against us. In short, were too predictable at times. As you can see most of my criticism is leaning toward Walton, who I think is probably too comfortable knowing that even if he's fired, he's walking away with two more years worth of salary. I hope I'm wrong about that.
I don't think there's any doubt that if Walton is fired the Kings will appoint someone currently on the staff to take over. That always puts the GM in a tricky situation. If your the GM this is your chance to hand pick the person you want for the job. But what if you appoint someone from within temporarily, and he turns the team around and makes the playoff's? Are you as the GM OK with that. Are you willing to give that person a 2 or 3 year contract based solely on what's left of the current season? Like I said, it's always a tricky situation..
On the whole, I think McNair has done a good job. You can't blame him for the Lakers pulling out of a trade that everyone in the entire league thought was going to happen, including the players involved. What's ironic is that that Lakers decided to go for headlines over efficiency. Buddy was the perfect fit for their team and instead they wanted the headlines to read that the Lakers had landed another all star. An all star that will shoot them right out of games, but will put up gaudy stats. The sad part is that trade would have helped both teams. But that's not McNair's fault.
I think Bagley for Bey would have been a terrific trade if true, but I don't blame the Pistons for turning that down. I would have turned it down as well. If nothing else, McNair found out Bagley's value. I think hopefully the most McNair will get for Bagley is a low first round draft pick, but even that's difficult because of Bagley's 11 mil salary. Which means we'll have to take salary back, which is why he's holding a roster spot open. In short, the whole Bagley thing is a big mess, but that mess wasn't created by McNair