Goodrich: The Kings will be solid but not great

TheJoker

TheJoker

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Kings Notes: NBA TV's Goodrich: Kings will be solid, but not great

The Kings will be formidable this coming NBA season, but they might not even make the playoffs. That's the opinion of Gail Goodrich, the Hall of Famer who works as a color analyst for NBA TV and whose job is to break down and study teams in and out of season.
In the Kings, Goodrich sees a good coach replacing a very good, proven one -- Eric Musselman in for Rick Adelman -- and he said there's a clear defensive foundation with Ron Artest. Other than that, don't expect 50 wins this season. "They got a lot of work cut out for them," Goodrich said from his cell phone while plodding through New York traffic. "Ron is a tremendous basketball player, one of the top 10 players in the world. But losing Bonzi Wells really hurts. That's a big loss. He really stepped up for them and gave them what they needed inside and with rebounding.
"I think you'll see a period of adjustment with that team. I have a great deal of respect for (club president of basketball operations) Geoff Petrie. But the Kings are in sort of a rebuilding mode."
Goodrich said the Kings made solid summer additions -- drafting Rutgers guard Quincy Douby and signing free-agent swingman John Salmons and 7-foot-2 center Loren Woods. But there was no one splash addition -- unless a trade brings in new blood, Goodrich said.
"I think the Kings will be pretty much like last year in terms of finish -- the eighth seed, but that won't be easy," Goodrich said. "If you look at the other teams in the Pacific Division with the Kings, there's a lot of talent with Phoenix, the Clippers, and the Lakers are going to get better. The Kings will be OK, but it may take awhile for them to be really good again."

Bonzi watch -- Wells and his agent, William Phillips, are still waiting for a taker. Having rejected the Kings' offer of a five-year, $38 million deal earlier this summer, a move that looks to have burned them both, it appears the shooting guard will have to settle for a one-year deal somewhere. The money has dried up quickly across the NBA landscape.

Transitional talk -- Kings guard Mike Bibby said he's impressed with the fire of Musselman after talking with him several times this summer. But the veteran said he'll miss Adelman, the only coach he played for in his five Kings seasons, a period in which Bibby played his best games.

"Of course he'll be missed," Bibby said. "Rick was a great coach. But in this league, players move on, and coaches move on. You still remember them, though."

Artest clinic -- The Ron Artest Tru Warier Clinic Tip-Off Dinner and two-day clinic presented by 3rd-Degree will be held in Sacramento at the end of September. It starts with a dinner at the Hyatt Regency on Sept. 29, followed by a Saturday-Sunday clinic at Capital Christian High School for boys and girls, ages 5-17.

"I'm really looking forward to it," said Artest, who added he wants to make such events a regular occurrence in Sacramento. "The kids will have a great time -- I promise."

Also, 3rd-Degree will present a one-day Francisco García clinic Sept. 23 at the Salvation Army for children fluent in Spanish. It's a co-ed event with García teaching drills and communicating entirely in Spanish. For information on either event, contact Stephanie Nguyen, 3rd-Degree director of operations, at (916) 919-5902 or stephanie@ 3-degree.com.

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Goodrich nailed it.though he did say Kings missing the playoffs is something that can happen. but did say they they will be like this past year fighting for a playoff spot which i agree with cause i noted iin the other thread that it will be a dog fight.


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Not surprisingly, Goodrich is right on the money. Most of us look at the team in the same disappointing manner, but none of us can shoot like Stumpy.
 
I added the rest of the article as well, TheJoker. It is Kings-related stuff as well.
 
"Goodrich sees a good coach replacing a very good, proven one -- Eric Musselman in for Rick Adelman ....". That sums up the coaching change as politely as possible. Of course, one could say the same thing about some of the player exchanges. Bonzi for whom?

I was watching too much television anyway.
 
bonzi had little impact on the teams regular season record..... we actually did better when martin was starting with artest... than bonzi did....

what was our record when martin scored over 14 points while bonzi was out? wasnt it like 15-5 or something like that.... someone had it in their sig during the regular season, i forget who though... it was so long ago.... lol....
 
After Artest arrived we finished the season 26-14 which at that time was like a top 5 record for the 2nd half of the season for both conferences. Bonzi was hurt for 30 games, and we still managed that winning % which would easily lead us to over 50 wins over the course of a whole season. So how is a team who took a defensive minded approach, got immediate results, all of the sudden going to be fighting to make the playoffs? We had to fight last year, because we were 8 games under .500 prior to Artest. We will make the playoffs this year, and no analysts is going to stop me from knowing, thinking, or believing that fact.
 
Kings2805 said:
After Artest arrived we finished the season 26-14 which at that time was like a top 5 record for the 2nd half of the season for both conferences. Bonzi was hurt for 30 games, and we still managed that winning % which would easily lead us to over 50 wins over the course of a whole season. So how is a team who took a defensive minded approach, got immediate results, all of the sudden going to be fighting to make the playoffs? We had to fight last year, because we were 8 games under .500 prior to Artest. We will make the playoffs this year, and no analysts is going to stop me from knowing, thinking, or believing that fact.
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I agree, it seems as if people forget how bad we stunk prior to Artest. Once we got him, we played like one of the best teams in the league. Add in the fact that most of the contenders in the West didn't get any better, and I don't see a scenario in which we miss the playoffs. I think the record with Artest last year was no fluke and we coast to the five seed.
 
Kings2805 said:
We will make the playoffs this year, and no analysts is going to stop me from knowing, thinking, or believing that fact.
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I'm with you on this one! I don't see how the Lakers and Clippers got that much better.
 
My feeling is we are the same as we was last year after we got artest (which we had the 3rd best record in teh league after the break) Martin is very capable of filling Bonzi's spot as he showed last season. Plus we filled to holes with Salmons backup point and Wright backing up the center spot. i feel we got better were most others stayed the same i.e. Lakers and Clippers. Phx is hoping Amare is back to form because if he isn't they bleed some talent.

Bonzi and Kevin were taylor made to be NBA starters therefore we lost last year with both being on the team. Salmons is taylor made to be a NBA backup so i feel he will fill that role better than Martin did last year. Not to mention baring unforseen injurys like last year we wil not go months with a rookie as our sole 2/3 backup like we did last year when Peja was traded and Bonzi was hurt and only Garcia and Hart for the back up roles at 1/2/3 spots and Nothing outside of SAR at the backup C spot and he was coming of an energy and stamina draining injury were he lost close to 20 pounds. Now I am not an idiot I know the Spurs are a great team but age is becoming more of a factor every year with Duncan. If you take Duncan off that team then the are not better than any other team in the NBA. Now Dallas is a different story but as with Duncan they revolve around Dirk take Dirk off that team and you got the Atlanta Hawks. I know having a superstar is great but if that superstar gets hurt then you are crap. We saw that with Webber. Chicago saw it when Jordan retired the first time. We have a team with talent from 1-10 some more than others but a very capable of overcoming an injury to a starter.
 
TheJoker said:
He's still right though so just because he was a Laker does not make his comments any-less wrong.
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Why is he right? Because you agree with him?

Sorry, but he hasn't really given ANY kind of basis for his rationale.
 
VF21 said:
Why is he right? Because you agree with him?

Sorry, but he hasn't really given ANY kind of basis for his rationale.
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Because he brings up up the fact, that A) This current roster will have a tough time making the playoffs - B) He Brings up the fact that Bonzi Wells was a big lose and it's gonna hurt them and that's so true. and last but not least he brings up the fact that John Salmons and Loren Woods were signings that won't solve there problem.
 
VF21 said:
Why is he right? Because you agree with him?

Sorry, but he hasn't really given ANY kind of basis for his rationale.
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I agree. You can make a case that the Clippers got worse during the summer and alien is getting old. Steve Nash isn't getting younger and the Suns are relying on Amare to be like before, which might not happen. The lakers, picked up Radman, but that won't do any good when he never gets the ball. The Lakers IMO, are worse than us and we can hang with the Suns as well as the Clippers (sweep again?).
 
This year is so hard to predict -- there is a lot of talent on this team despite what the pessimists say, and they could either be really good or really mediocre. Who knows what Artest we'll get. Who knows how good of a coach Musselman will be. Who knows how much Martin will improve or whether he'll improve at all.

I really think all the people making bold predictions about how this team will be next year are just posturing. There's really nothing to base a prediction on.
 
Entity said:
My feeling is we are the same as we was last year after we got artest (which we had the 3rd best record in teh league after the break) Martin is very capable of filling Bonzi's spot as he showed last season. Plus we filled to holes with Salmons backup point and Wright backing up the center spot. i feel we got better were most others stayed the same i.e. Lakers and Clippers. Phx is hoping Amare is back to form because if he isn't they bleed some talent.

Bonzi and Kevin were taylor made to be NBA starters therefore we lost last year with both being on the team. Salmons is taylor made to be a NBA backup so i feel he will fill that role better than Martin did last year. Not to mention baring unforseen injurys like last year we wil not go months with a rookie as our sole 2/3 backup like we did last year when Peja was traded and Bonzi was hurt and only Garcia and Hart for the back up roles at 1/2/3 spots and Nothing outside of SAR at the backup C spot and he was coming of an energy and stamina draining injury were he lost close to 20 pounds. Now I am not an idiot I know the Spurs are a great team but age is becoming more of a factor every year with Duncan. If you take Duncan off that team then the are not better than any other team in the NBA. Now Dallas is a different story but as with Duncan they revolve around Dirk take Dirk off that team and you got the Atlanta Hawks. I know having a superstar is great but if that superstar gets hurt then you are crap. We saw that with Webber. Chicago saw it when Jordan retired the first time. We have a team with talent from 1-10 some more than others but a very capable of overcoming an injury to a starter.
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You meant Woods - right?
 
TheJoker said:
Because he brings up up the fact, that A) This current roster will have a tough time making the playoffs - B) He Brings up the fact that Bonzi Wells was a big lose and it's gonna hurt them and that's so true. and last but not least he brings up the fact that John Salmons and Loren Woods were signings that won't solve there problem.
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Those are more opinions than facts. Losing Bonzi will hurt, but not as much everyone makes it to be. salmons does solve problems -- a backup PG,SG, and SF. Woods is our backup center and he is better then Potapenko.
 
TheJoker said:
Because he brings up up the fact, that A) This current roster will have a tough time making the playoffs - B) He Brings up the fact that Bonzi Wells was a big lose and it's gonna hurt them and that's so true. and last but not least he brings up the fact that John Salmons and Loren Woods were signings that won't solve there problem.
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Sorry, but those aren't facts. Facts are things that are KNOWN to be true. They are not opinions.

Your example above are OPINIONS.

A) That is nothing close to a fact. NO ONE knows how the season will go.

B) Bonzi Wells may or may not have been a big loss. We don't know all the circumstances around his not agreeing to accept a bona fide offer by the Kings. We do know that our new shooting guard, Kevin Martin, actually did pretty good stepping in for Bonzi and there's every reason to believe he's going to continue to improve.

C) We don't know for sure how John Salmons and Loren Woods are going to perform for the Kings. We aren't even sure what role they will play.

Here are some FACTS:

1. The Kings will play 82 games.
2. The team that scores the most points in each of those games will win.
3. Teams that win enough games will go to the playoffs.

See the difference?
 
VF21 said:
Sorry, but those aren't facts. Facts are things that are KNOWN to be true. They are not opinions.

Your example above are OPINIONS.

A) That is nothing close to a fact. NO ONE knows how the season will go.

B) Bonzi Wells may or may not have been a big loss. We don't know all the circumstances around his not agreeing to accept a bona fide offer by the Kings. We do know that our new shooting guard, Kevin Martin, actually did pretty good stepping in for Bonzi and there's every reason to believe he's going to continue to improve.

C) We don't know for sure how John Salmons and Loren Woods are going to perform for the Kings. We aren't even sure what role they will play.

Here are some FACTS:

1. The Kings will play 82 games.
2. The team that scores the most points in each of those games will win.
3. Teams that win enough games will go to the playoffs.

See the difference?
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Those are natural facts. sometimes opinions are facts and thats the case right now.

Facts are:

We did nothing this off-season to improve our holes

-

Our off-season has been nothing to brag about but hope they perform well on the court.

i'll have the wait & see approach but i'm not sure expecting anything but a squeeze to the playoffs is wrong.

we still have no idea how fast Eric Musselman is gonna adjust to his system and how fast the players adjust to HIS system.

but it's not hard to say that we did infact lose alot of ground and we haven't done much to solve it.
 
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Muss will have this team playing with a fire we've never seen before.
 
walker60 said:
I agree, it seems as if people forget how bad we stunk prior to Artest. Once we got him, we played like one of the best teams in the league. Add in the fact that most of the contenders in the West didn't get any better, and I don't see a scenario in which we miss the playoffs. I think the record with Artest last year was no fluke and we coast to the five seed.
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There are plenty of scenario's in which we could miss the playoff and i don't think we will coast to the 5th seed. In my opinion the clips will get that spot even thou we beat them all the time last year. To me the clips just look like a strong team and well balanced. I really think it will be a dogfight and there is a real good chance we might miss the playoffs.
 
TheJoker said:
Those are natural facts. sometimes opinions are facts and thats the case right now.

Facts are:

We did nothing this off-season to improve our holes

-

Our off-season has been nothing to brag about but hope they perform well on the court.

i'll have the wait & see approach but i'm not sure expecting anything but a squeeze to the playoffs is wrong.

we still have no idea how fast Eric Musselman is gonna adjust to his system and how fast the players adjust to HIS system.

but it's not hard to say that we did infact lose alot of ground and we haven't done much to solve it.
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Natural facts? As opposed to artificial facts?

An opinion is one person's SUBJECTIVE belief about a certain topic or topics. They are not facts, regardless of how much you might want them to be. And that's not even debatable.

A lot of people agree with Goodrich's OPINION about the Kings but that doesn't make them facts either.

We didn't lose a lot of ground. Instead of arguing semantics, you could try and address the contrary views. And you'll have a lot of help. There are numerous people who firmly believe their opinion about this year's off-season acquisitions is the right one. BUT, again, that's not fact either.

Goodrich supports your allegations so you want to call his selling points facts. We all like to reinforce our opinions with the opinions of others to add strength to our argument. That's all well and good - but it doesn't make any of those opinions fact.

:)
 
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OldSchoolKing said:
Uhh.............we needed a backup point, we got Salmons. We needed a backup C, we got Woods.
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Is potato any different then Woods? if Woods is slighty better would it actually make a difference? plus my problem with the John Salmon signing is not because we got him it's because we OVERPAYED for his services.

Basically Salmons is our replacement for Bonzi and i expected much more then that.
 
Here is a fact no one can deny..................
















I am pumped up for this season!!!
 
OldSchoolKing said:
Muss will have this team playing with a fire we've never seen before.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about Muss's ability to inspire tremendous fire in his Golden State troops during those championship years. :rolleyes:

The article is pretty much dead on.

We're anywhere from a #5 to a #12, and in a massive dogfight with the Lakers (added Vlad), Clippers (replaced Vlad with Thomas, get Maggette back), the Grizzlies (Swift + the rook replace Wright+Battier) and then a stack of teams who missed the playoffs last year but could be right there: Houston (all it takes is health + already added Battier), Utah (health + very solid top 5), Hornets (improved as much as anybody anybody in the offseason), Minnesota (added Mike James and a good looking rook), and Seattle (like us, finished the season hot and +.500 after the break). Any or all those teams could be at 40 wins+, and until the injuries hit teams there are virtually no easy automatic win type dates in the Western Conference for us.

I think we make it, just based on our history as much as anything. But that does not have to be at all given all the playoff contenders this season, and our "history" is increasingly just that. All of 1 player and no coaches left from our prime years now, and so its all a crapshoot.
 
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