Gavin Maloof: "If you have to play the veterans more to win games, so be it."

Sac.1989

Sac.1989

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Two of the three most important people in the Kings organization just put the youth movement on hold.

Geoff Petrie sort of did, at least. It's tough to tell -- as is often the case when he talks in code -- without a Petrie-to-English dictionary handy. But there were words to that effect.
Gavin Maloof definitely did.

"We're here to win games," he said a few hours ago at media day. "If you have to play the veterans more to win games, so be it."
To review: After months of transactions to acquire prospects and draft picks in a move to build for the future and nearly six months to the day Joe Maloof vented to Sam Amick that it might be in the best interest of coach Reggie Theus' continued employment to invest serious minutes in the young players, brother/co-owner Gavin Maloof said it's all about the here and now.

Petrie's comments could be a president setting the tone that his team is expected to play to win every night. That gets into semantics. It also gets into words as one thing and actions as quite another, and Petrie has traded Mike Bibby and Ron Artest since the All-Star break for cap space, picks and young players. He knows it's not about the here and now.
 
I dont think this is a big deal, the young players will give us the best chance to win games anyways .. Williams, Thompson and Hawes are all better than Mikki , who I see as the only vet we have that is getting minutes that shouldnt.
 
I think a lot of games will be won by KEEPING the young guys in the game. I can't see Theus dusting off KT to win a game. The usual suspects will be int he game if it's close i.e. Miller/Salmons/Martin/Beno and probably Moore.
 
I'm not really worrying about a comment like that because most of our team is young anyway, so if we're going to win, the young guys will get most of the credit.
 
For once there's little reason to worry about aging vets getting in the way of the youngsters because there aren't any aging vets left, with the notable exception of Brad Miller. Bobby Brown probably won't get regular playing time without an injury and Thompson is going to have to earn a starting spot like everyone else has. But with Shareef retiring and KT on continued exile, the only guy who's really hidden in the depth chart at this point is Donte Greene and he's raw, even for a rookie, so that might be for the best this year.
 
Some time ago I had already reveresed myself on which one was actually the stupider Maloof, after years of thnking Joe was the bigger doof. So this comes as no shocking surprise. Gavin has only been wrong about basically every single thing for five years now, why change now?

This only becomes a concern if:
a) Reggie, coaching for his job, insists on playing Brad, Mikki and John for 35mpg each (or roughly half of our team minutes per game -- 48x5 = 240, 35x3= 105), and is able to go to management, or more directly, to the dufuses up top to outflank Geoff. I think that's unlikley given how little the Maloofs thought of reggie by the end of last year.

or b) if Geoff, in a moment of insight, decides to clear the way for Hawes and Thompson with a midseason trade of Brad...only to have his move scuttled by Gavin.

Barring either of those sorts of problems, the main issue here is just empowering Reggie to be stupid...and ironicaally possibly to fire himself. Otherwise this could be interpreted as Gavin saying exactly what our 17 remaining season ticket holders claim they want to hear.
 
Maybe, just maybe, it is a signal to the vets that the team doesn't plan to mail in the season, and that they are expected to show up for the games and play hard.

Hope they do this, as it shall be impossible to trade them if they mail in the season before it starts. Guess we all expect Miki to play hard regardless. Brad needs to play hard and well if we have any hopes of trading him this year.
 
Does Gavin expect the Kings to be like a 70 win team or something in order for him to be happy with Reggie...
 
Whatever. Keep in mind they are still tryng to sell tickets and your average fan likes to hear about wins. Actions will speak louder than words.
 
If I had to guess mpg this year it would go like this;
Starters:
Brad 30-35
Moore 25-30
Salmons 30-35
Martin 35-40
Beno 30-35

Bench:
Garcia 20-25
Hawes 20-25
Thompson 12-18
Greene 8-12
Jackson 8-12
Brown 5-10
Williams 4-8
KThomas DNPCD-5


As for guessing who will be in at the end of the game you gotta think Martin/Beno/Miller will be in. Salmons, or Moore could be replaced by guys like Thompson/Hawes/Garcia. Perhaps Jackson could get some PT at the end of the game when we need a veteran presence in there..

But at this point I couldn't care less really... I am excited for thie team, and can't wait to see them play.
 
You never want to "mail in the season" or even let it appear as if that might be the case. If the vets go out there are play hard every night than so be it. Hopefully everyone gets a chance to play. And if the vets go out there and play hard we'll still most likely see the young guys getting plenty of garbage time anyway! haha ;)
 
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