I’ve been staying out of all these discussions after the way the last season ended to give this season some time and letting things work out and see how things look after the first few games. Sad to say, very disappointing. But now I am going to put my tin foil hat on and provide my rambling rant/opinion on what has happened to the Kings. It’s just my tin foil hat opinion based on my observations and limited knowledge.
Something happened to the Kings around the All-Star break and I think it was more than just the trade for Barnes and the loss of Shump, although I think the loss of Shump had a more profound effect on the Kings than the FO anticipated. But that should have resolved itself with a little time, over just a very few games. The trade itself for Barnes filled a glaring need for the Kings, although the later contract extension may have been a bit much, but that is the reality the Kings find themselves in, having to overpay to find/keep free agents.
No, I think there was more going on behind the scenes and it boiled over at that time. I think Williams was the issue. I think he was constantly meddling behind the scenes and interfering, irritating Joerger (already a prickly personality). I don’t how much influence Bagley’s camp (his father) may have had with Williams, but I suspect they were egging him on.
Vlade should have stepped in and put a stop to Williams meddling immediately, firing him then. He should have shown Joerger that he had confidence in him, his coaching, and the plan they had jointly developed. He was more than willing to let Williams go later, why didn’t he let him go then? One of them needed to go, Joerger had led the team to its most successful season in over a decade. Firing the head coach, a successful head coach, would have had a traumatic effect on the team. Firing an assistant general manager, or whatever Williams was should have had minimum effect and hopefully provided behind the scenes stability.
Up until the All-Star break, the Kings were having a special season, exceeding all expectations, playing with passion and enthusiasm, a really fun team to watch. Vlade and Joerger seemed to have a long-term plan (they said they did) and they were sticking to it and it was starting to show the results, again exceeding all expectations. They seemed to be on the same page for the most part.
The trade for Barnes should have made the team better. The loss of Shump should have only had a limited short term effect on team morale. But for some reason, after the All-Star break, all the positive energy was just sucked right out of the team.
Again, I suspect that it was behind the scenes drama going on and I suspect Williams was the initiator. I think his meddling exasperated any areas of discontent between Vlade and Joerger. He may have even manipulated things to drive a wedge between Vlade and Joerger. I think Joerger saw the writing on the wall and knew that at the very least his contract was not going to be extended and his time was coming to an end and he was not going to be able to see the plan to completion. Even though he said the firing caught him completely by surprise, I suspect he may have known he was probably going to be let go at the end of the season. Sometimes you know something is going to happen, but you just can’t believe it really will. But knowing that, it colors everything you do until it actually happens. Just waiting for that hammer to drop.
I think all this drama came to a head around the All-Star break and spilled over into the team and led to the season ending collapse (or whatever you want to call those last 25 games). Rather than backing his successful coach, Vlade chose to back neither Joerger or Williams and let them both go after the season was over. Rumor has been that Joerger was not Vlade’s choice in the first place. Maybe he always wanted Walton. Maybe he found out around the All-Star break that Walton was going to become available after the season and it became obvious to Joerger that Vlade would use the Williams/Joerger conflict as an opportunity to get “his guy”. He certainly took no time to vet Walton or to look at anybody else.
I have had issues with some of Vlade’s decisions during his tenure but for the most part I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt and have defended him on this forum a few times. However, IMHO, Vlade has made several crucial mistakes which have really set the Kings way back after so much promise.
Ultimately, I blame him for the collapse of the team at the end of the season, he presided over that whole mess with Williams and should have gotten a handle on it before it got out of hand, firing Williams if necessary. Letting that mess fester to the point that firing Joerger seemed to be his only recourse was a big mistake.
Passing on Doncic was a really big faux pas, too (There I said it!) I know we aren’t supposed to mention Doncic anywhere but the dedicated Doncic thread, but this thread is about firing Vlade (and Walton) for his bad decisions and IMHO drafting Bagley over Doncic was a mistake. This is not a knock on Bagley, he is probably going to be a good player and is probably a good guy, although I question the influence his camp (his father) thinks they have over the Kings. But Doncic was the best player available and by all appearances is a franchise player. He was generally the consensus obvious choice for the Kings by most experts, but not Vlade. He went against the grain, had to show he knew more than the experts.
I think this was some of the conflict with Joerger, I think he wanted Doncic. But I don’t think he was being vindictive by not starting Bagley. I think he honestly thought he was doing the best thing to develop Bagley, similar to the way he brought Fox along. He gave Bagley plenty of minutes and gave him the opportunity to develop against other teams second units. I do not know that he was wrong despite what Williams and Bagley’s father seemed to think. I am not particularly pleased with what I have seen out of Bagley so far this season as far regarding his off-season improvement, but he was injured early so it is too soon to tell. But you have to wonder if he might have been more diligent in the off-season improving his upper body strength, working on the off-hand, working on his defense if he felt he needed to earn the starting role under Joerger as opposed to being handed the starting role under Walton and being vindicated about starting all along by Joerger being fired.
