GP- Still the King!

#1
Still the King

Geoff Petrie, twice the NBA's top exec,
still has the touch. (Getty Images)

2. Item: Los Angeles Lakers center Vlade Divac, 36, herniated a disc in his back during informal drills this week and is expected to miss the beginning of training camp, at the very least. Divac signed a two-year deal with the Lakers after playing the previous six with the Sacramento Kings.

What it really means: For everyone who jumped all over astute Kings president Geoff Petrie, this is a good example of why he did not give in to Divac's multiyear contract demands and signed Greg Ostertag instead. There is no denying Divac's slick play and leadership qualities. But just as obvious has been his physical deterioration. He has never been one to exert himself conditioning-wise, and even before the injury, it was going to be interesting to see how many minutes Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich expected him to play. Now it's even more likely Brian Grant and Chris Mihm will get a lot more minutes at center than they might have expected.

source: http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/7719682

Sorry but the font size is acting up for some reason.


 
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#3
There is also a poll right now on CBS Sportsline.

"What is the Kings most pressing issue"

1) Keep Peja Stojakovic Happy
2) Keep Chris Webber Happy
3) Keep Bobby Jackson healthy

I voted for the last choice, we need healthy players not happy players. Of course this is not in our hands and is up to the basketball gods. But if there was anyone who knew how to keep players healthy they would be making millions by now, especially on our team.
 
#4
sloter said:
Right, still the King. But Hedo and Wallace are not.
If you're bringing up the absence of Hedo as a negative, keep in mind we paid one Hedo to acquire one Brad Miller. Swingman with potential who plays the same position as our top scorer vs. 2-time All-Star center to replace our 36-year old. Hmm.

As for Wallace, who else do you think we should have exposed in the expansion draft? Oh wait, I think I know... where's my rolling eye icon?
~~
 
#5
I just feel bad for Vlade...... I have herniated a disk in my back few years ago and... well, let's just say it is the most painfull thing I have ever experienced in my life.

Wishing you speedy recovery Vlade!
 
#7
Mihm is an interesting prospect, Jomama. Being motivated this year, he just might have a breakout year and surprise some "skeptical" fans. Of course, he's no Shaq, but there's only one Shaq.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#9
But he IS capable of putting up good numbers on a bad team. If Vlade suddenly developed emphezema, it wouldn't shock me at all for Mihm to be able to 12pts 7rebs or so as a starter. Maybe even a little better. If he can stay healthy. And of course ignoring his softeness/defensive issues.
 
#10
sloter said:
Right, still the King. But Hedo and Wallace are not.
Thus proving that GP is in fact, THE KING. Dumped inconsistency to acquire the future center, and dumped an underachieving player and later signed two very exciting rookies. Can't fault that.
 
G

Garliguy

Guest
#12
But he IS capable of putting up good numbers on a bad team. If Vlade suddenly developed emphezema, it wouldn't shock me at all for Mihm to be able to 12pts 7rebs or so as a starter. Maybe even a little better. If he can stay healthy. And of course ignoring his softeness/defensive issues.
Actually, the bigger issue with Mihm is whether he can stay out of foul trouble. Last year he was 6th in the NBA in fouls per minutes, and he's been foul prone his entire career. But, as Brick points out, he can do some good things. He's even a better rebounder than Brick suggests.

So Benedict Vlade hurt his back? How will he ever be able to move his wheelbarrow full of money?
 
#13
Kev.in said:
7.9ppg on 41.5% shooting in his career and you're still fretting about him being traded over a year ago?
Nope, I never said a word about Hedo being traded, although I thought that his impact of the bench and athleticism was really missed last year since the Kings had very little in both of those categories.

The point I was trying to make is that those two guys (Hedo and Wallace) are basically two wasted first round picks that were supposed to be "Petrie's gems" but turned out to be disappointments. Toss in JWill in there as well.

However, he did make up for these mistakes by good trades (except in Wallace's case). With Webber, Bibby and Christie all being well overpaid, my point is that Petrie is hardly flawless.
 
#14
The point I was trying to make is that those two guys (Hedo and Wallace) are basically two wasted first round picks that were supposed to be "Petrie's gems" but turned out to be disappointments. Toss in JWill in there as well.
Wasted picks??? How do you figure? Hedo was a major contributor while he was here, and instrumental in the trade to bring Brad here. GREAT value. JWill was just what the Kings needed at the time he was drafted, one of the key cogs in the re-birth of the Kings, traded for Mike Bibby, hmm, that one worked out well too. Wallace was drafted at a time when the Kings were flush at every position, they pretty much drafted him for his athletic potential alone. No one can deny he IS athletic, and while he did not end up developing in a way that made him suitable for the Kings, he is only 22 and may still contribute to his new team. Interesting you don't mention Peja.
 
G

Garliguy

Guest
#15
The point I was trying to make is that those two guys (Hedo and Wallace) are basically two wasted first round picks that were supposed to be "Petrie's gems" but turned out to be disappointments. Toss in JWill in there as well.

However, he did make up for these mistakes by good trades (except in Wallace's case). With Webber, Bibby and Christie all being well overpaid, my point is that Petrie is hardly flawless.

I agree 100%. Instead of Hedo, Wallace, and J Will, we could have had Michael Redd, Tony Parker, and Dirk Nowitzski. But you are exactly right: Petrie's strength is not in never making mistakes. Often times, it's in rectifying his mistakes (for example, getting rid of J-Will and Brick Anderson for Bibby).

BTW, love the Borat photo.

Hedo was a major contributor while he was here
Huh? If Hedo was a major contributor, what was Joe Kliene? The cornerstone of our franchise?
 
#16
So, you think Hedo contributed nothing in his time here? I disagree. His last season here was rather disappointing, as he made very little progress, maybe even regressed a bit, but he was a definitely a cog in the run to the WCF's. Not a total failure, by any means.
 

Ryan

I like turtles
#17
Alacron said:
If you're bringing up the absence of Hedo as a negative, keep in mind we paid one Hedo to acquire one Brad Miller. Swingman with potential who plays the same position as our top scorer vs. 2-time All-Star center to replace our 36-year old. Hmm.

As for Wallace, who else do you think we should have exposed in the expansion draft? Oh wait, I think I know... where's my rolling eye icon?
~~
It should be required that everyone reads this.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#18
Hedo and Wallace, and JWill for that matter, were all good picks for where they were drafted. Not great ones or perfect ones. But good ones. There is not a single GM in the league who comes close to always picking the best player left on the board -- if there were he would be a complete genius and his team would win the title every single year. But we are talking about a career starter in JWill (also one of the guys who helped put us on the map, and long desired by the other GM genius in the league Jerry West) at #7, a career rotation player 6th/7th/8th guy in Hedo at #14 (he's turned out at a very similar level to Mo Petersen and Desmond Mason who were the other consensus options at that time, and also was a player desired by both Larry Brown and Gregg Popovich (two pretty decent basketball minds themselves)), and a 4th year player in Wallace, which is a very respectable length of time to be in the league as a #26(?) pick or whatever.

The drafts have been solid, if not spectacular.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#21
bibbyweb said:
Didn't we have anyone else to give up in the expansion draft?
No.

Besides which, Wallace didn't do very well here and there was absolutely no reason to believe he would all of a sudden start to shine...

While he is athletic, he has yet to show that he has what it takes to be even a good role player on a top elite team, let alone anything more.

The best thing that could have happened for him is to go to the Bobcats, where he's gonna have a real opportunity to prove whether he's worth all the faith people have shown in him...
 
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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#23
If you look at the roster, you tell me who would have been a better choice than Wallace. Keep in mind that Jabari had completed a one-year contract and wasn't on the roster any longer and Vlade, Massenberg and Peeler were free agents, making them ineligible. Had we put any of the free agents up we also would have had to expose a NON-free agent.

That left:

Bibby
Christie
Jackson
Webber
Miller
Songaila
Peja
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#24
bibbyweb said:
Why was that? How abt Smith and Tony Massenbury or someone else.
Nope. We had no choice with Wallace. Nobody else was under contract. And there WAS a bit of a minor blunder by Petrie -- because of the structure of Peeler's contract we could not expose him either. Woold have thought we would have considered that before signing him given that we knew the expansion draft was coming up.
 
#26
Bricklayer said:
Nope. We had no choice with Wallace. Nobody else was under contract. And there WAS a bit of a minor blunder by Petrie -- because of the structure of Peeler's contract we could not expose him either. Woold have thought we would have considered that before signing him given that we knew the expansion draft was coming up.
unless, of course, he was already planning to throw wallace into the expansion draft at that time. ;)

i honestly dont understand why so many fans are so sad to see wallace go. he is a young, athletic player with mad hops and a lotta potential. but he's a poor finisher around the basket and lacks any sorta consistent jump shot. not to mention a defensive liability. im not saying he cant improve in all those areas and more, im jus sayin there was never a chance of that with the kings, considering we were (and i still believe we are) championship contenders, and the playing time for him jus wasnt there. potential dont win chamionships, ladies and gentleman. wallace is better off in charlotte, and the kings are better off putting their faith in our newly acquired rookies, imo.
 
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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#27
bibbyweb said:
Orlando Magic seem to like Hedo well enough to pay him some pretty decent money. He wasn't too bad for SAS or even for us.
What does Hedo have to do with anything? He played for us in 2003, he played for SAS in 2004 and now he's playing for the Orlando Magic. That's not the footprints of a premiere player in the NBA...
 
#28
Here's an interesting Petrie article focusing mainly on the draft. I think it's pretty fair. Petrie's greatest skill is not in drafting the next big star, but in forming the best team of NBA players possible.
---------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Beyond the Hype: The Myth of Geoff Petrie, Draft Wizard

You discover one perennial all-star toiling in Greece and your reputation as a draft wizard is cemented, at least in the case of Sacramento General Manager Geoff Petrie. Petrie obviously has done well to construct a winning basketball team in a former basketball Armageddon, but his skill has been raiding other teams' rosters and making very lopsided trades, not building a team through the draft.

A quick look at the Kings' roster shows 2 players (Peja and Jabari Smith) who were drafted by Sacramento. Vlade Divac was signed as a free agent; Chris Webber was acquired in a trade; Brad Miller was acquired in a trade; Anthony Peeler signed as a free agent; Mike Bibby acquired in a trade; Doug Christie acquired in a trade; Rodney Buford signed as a free agent; and Bobby Jackson signed as a free agent. Petrie's skill is not talent evaluation of college players, but proper ealuation of current players who are devalued by their own team, but who fit the Kings' system perfectly.

Over the last five years, Petrie has been ordinary at best on Draft Day, with his best move probably the trade of two future second round draft picks for Darius Songalia on the day before the 2003 NBA Draft.

In the 1999 Draft, the Kings selected Ryan Robertson with the 45th pick. Ordinarily one would not expect much from a mid-second round pick, but, at the end of the 1999 Draft (#57), the San Antonio Spurs selected Manu Ginobili, a future star. The Kings also passed over current King Rodney Buford who was selected 53rd by Miami.

In 2000, armed with the 16th pick overall (in a fairly weak draft), the Kings made a promising selection in Hedo Turkoglu, who ultimately helped the Kings acquire Brad Miller. Overall, Hedo was a good selection. However, the subsequent three picks were Desmond Mason, Quentin Richardson and 2004 All-Star Jamaal Magloire. While Hedo has yet to get off the bench and establish himself as a starter in the league, Mason, Richardson and Magloire are starters and considered better players at this point in their career, despite Hedo's tantalizing potential. The biggest draft mistake made by almost all 29 teams was failing to draft Michael Redd, who lasted until the 43rd pick in the draft and today stands as one of the top 3 players from the 2000 draft class, along with Kenyon Martin and Stromile Swift, who were selected first and second.

In the 2000 2nd Round, the Kings made a good selection, drafting Jabari Smith at 45. While Smith has not contributed much to the Kings, he is still on the roster, which is more than can be said of those drafted after Smith, with the exception of the 49th pick, Jason Hart. However, Hart was cut a few times before surfacing as a valuable reserve for the Spurs this season.

In 2001, the Kings selected Gerald Wallace (#25), an exciting pick that seemed like a great selection. However, while Wallace struggled to get on the floor, the following three picks have excelled: Samuel Dalembert (26), Jamaal Tinsley (27) and Tony Parker (28). The Kings also skipped over two players selected in the second round who have already made an impact on the league: Gilbert Arenas (31) and Mehmet Okur (38), while Brian Scalabrine (35) is a player who would fit the Kings' system as well.

The Kings also had a second round selection, #55, and selected Maurice Jeffers, an otherwise forgetable pick, as were the three players selected after Jeffers at the bottom of the second round.

In 2002, the Kings selected and traded Dan Dickau with the final pick of the first round, ignoring players like Carlos Boozer, Dan Gadzuric, David Andersen, Ronald Murray, Milos Vujanic (whose draft rights were an important part of te Stephon Marbury to New York trade) and even Darius Songalia, among others. With the draft's final selection, the Kings selected Corsley Edwards.

The Kings did not have a pick in the 2003 Draft, as I believe the 1st round pick was dealt to Memphis as part of the Mike Bibby trade and the 2nd round selection was part of the trade for Darius Songalia.

In the end, it isn't so much that the Kings drafted poorly; it is that the Kings, over the last five years, have had ho-hum drafts, not exactly the stuff of wizardry. Petrie has still done an excellent job building a franchise through trades and free agents, and looking at a draft in hindsight is very easy compared to actually drafting players who will make or break one's franchise, but, overall, Petrie, considered by many to be a draft "guru" would probably grade around a C+ for his efforts in the last five years.

Brian McCormick

http://highfivehoopschool.blogspot.com/2004/06/beyond-hype-myth-of-geoff-petrie-draft.html
~~
 
#29
Bricklayer said:
The drafts have been solid, if not spectacular.
I would say that all the draft choices since Pedja have been disappointing, but the trades that Petrie made to make up for them have been spectacular.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#30
sloter said:
I would say that all the draft choices since Pedja have been disappointing, but the trades that Petrie made to make up for them have been spectacular.
Disapointing only if you have inflated expectations. Not disappointing at all given where they were drafted. Not a flop for their draft position amongst them. In fact about what you would expect for each of them -- mid-lottery pick = career starter, not star, mid-round picks = rotation players, late round picks = hang in the league. That's all you can realistically expect. Great to find a gem somewhere, but that's relatively rare.

I think the article above is right that Geoff has been solid but not spectacular as a drafter and actually earns his accolades by superior assessment of already known entities in the league.