Thanks for playing all season ladies and gents.
Our theme tonight: HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?
Artest ( B- ) -- missed his own shots, but really helped grease the early offenive explosion with 5 first quarter assists. Kobe was in posterize mode early on the other end, and threw down some big dunks going through Ron or anyone else who got in his way. Finally scored on open court dunk after a scramble play (started when he poked the ball away), but wrapped upt he first half wiht a roleplayer's support numbers. Was in there throughout the third, apparently determined to play every bleeping second of every bleeping menaingless garbagetime game -- and this after he spent much of the seaosn taking time off for various lingering back and knee issues. And was really starting to fire them up too in that period, including a tough left handed finish over 6'11" Kwame Brown -- determined to bless us with one more woss it seemed. Thought we had finally shut him down for the season when he did not start the last quarter -- and then was blindsided when he THEN BLEEPING RETURNS WITH 6 MINUTES TO GO. Good lord. Shoo. Go away. Talk to you next year. Maybe.
DOUG CHRISTIE TRADED -- this one was the real beginning of the breakup of our old title core, coming 6 weeks before the Webber fiasco. The core holdovers including Webb, Doug, Bobby, Mike, and probably after some serious arm twisting, Peja, had even gone so far as to take out an ad in the paper before the season thanking the fans and restating their determination to make another push. But was not to be. The intial trade, for Cat Mobley, did not look that bad. Doug was fading, and we got the better value in return. But then the summer rolled around, and we were unable to either retain Cat, or sign and trade him for anyone (we took a shot at moving Cat for Nene, and damn if that wouldn't have helped -- as predicted he's getting helathy and turning into a very good big). So in the end we basically tore out part of our heart for no return.
Reef ( C- ) -- had room to maneuver inside in the early going, and used it to convert on a couple of spinning post hoops. Came out in the third and that room seemed to have evaporated (and having Justin Williams out there with him rather than Brad to stretch the defense and open the lane may have been part of the reason). Reef struggled, could not finish, got one of his turnovers. Think I may have been rooting for him to stay in there at some point to assure that we got this one in the L column.
GERALD WALLACE LOST TO EXPANSION -- and I've harped on this one before. We lost Gerald due to nothing more than lack of planning. The expansion draft was coming up, everybody knew that you would have to expose one veteran with a guaranteed contract, and we gave the guy that we should have exposed, Anthony Peeler, an opt out clause allowing him to leave us, and force us to expose somebody else. That somebody becoming Gerald, who this season only put up a cool 18.2pts (.502 .319 .694) 7.2rebs 2.6ast 2.0stl 1.0blk. Compare that to Ron: 18.8pts (.441 .357 .743) 6.5rebs 3.3ast 2.1stl 0.6blk. Might have been kind of handy to have around, no?
Miller ( INC ) -- hit little jumpers early, and even threw down a dunk on the break. But also had most of our first quarter turnovers, no rebounhds, and was a spectator as Kwame Brown and pals were holding adunk competition in the paint. And just like that, it was over: his game, his season, maybe his tenure as a King, we;ll see. Never returned after half, presumablky wiht the foot, and Justin started the second half for us. Which again raises the question of why ofh why were we continuing to force feed minutes to this aging pivot with a chronic foot condition through the final weeks of the season? Let him rest already. In any case, if this is it, happy hunting Brad.
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CHRIS WEBBER TRADED -- for "flexible pieces" no less. Don't want to hear it. Not playing diplomat here: this was an asinine trade. And a huge blow to this franchise. Trading Chris Webber indicated panic. But still could have been a possible move at that stage, if you had gotten back ending contracts, kids, picks, whatever. Trading him for what we did......asinine. We'll likely never know whether it was primarily Geoff's idea or the Maloofs' to make this deal, although I have my suspicions. And we apparently get to be reminded of it every day for the next forever as Kenny Thomas lights up the whole room with his cheerful demeanor.
Martin ( C+ ) -- very slow start, barely even looking at the hoop in the face of Mike's crazy first quarter. Not terrible, just largely a bystander. Was headed for one of his lowest scoring outputs of the season unitl he briefly got into a little back and forth with Kobe in the late third -- started when he drew a rare 4pt play on a Kobe foul at the 3pt line, and then after Kobe returned fire, Kevin went back at him and drew a foul (or two?) forgot. Anyway, definite little competitive thing. Of course would have been more impressive if Kobe weren't guaarding Kevin while we had Keivn hidden off in a corner while Salmons checked Kobe on our end, but still. Last, brief little flicker. Still ended up with another poor statistical night for Kevin. Not sure how that's going to effect his MIP chances. Fairly irrelevant of course -- Kevin still had a breakout year whether he wins the award or not, but it would still be a nice capper. Just a lot of competition.
BONZI WELLS WALKS -- the bump to Artest's thump, and a duo which was impossible to matchup with. Also our saving grace on the glass, as this season we got a firsthand look at what we were without a guard rebounding like a PF. We can argue until the cows come home who's fault this was, whether it was intentional, unintentional, whatever, but this was never a list just of our screwups, but a list of the things which have collectively laid a 60 win franchise low and turned it into a 30 win franchise in 4 years. Of course there is also the "we're better off without him" argument, but all I have to say is "scoreboard!" -- we came back with almost exactly the same team we had last year, with improved kids, a full training camp, better health, + Salmons, and yet we got much, much worse. At the point you are looking up from a 33-49 train wreck, time to evaluate clearly and ask what changed. And the only non-speculative factors that changed were the loss of a tough veteran off guard last seen terrorizing the defending champion Spurs, and a veteran Top 20 all time winning coach. Also of course meant that, like Doug, we essentially ended up trading away Bobby for no long term return either.
Our theme tonight: HOW DID IT COME TO THIS?
Artest ( B- ) -- missed his own shots, but really helped grease the early offenive explosion with 5 first quarter assists. Kobe was in posterize mode early on the other end, and threw down some big dunks going through Ron or anyone else who got in his way. Finally scored on open court dunk after a scramble play (started when he poked the ball away), but wrapped upt he first half wiht a roleplayer's support numbers. Was in there throughout the third, apparently determined to play every bleeping second of every bleeping menaingless garbagetime game -- and this after he spent much of the seaosn taking time off for various lingering back and knee issues. And was really starting to fire them up too in that period, including a tough left handed finish over 6'11" Kwame Brown -- determined to bless us with one more woss it seemed. Thought we had finally shut him down for the season when he did not start the last quarter -- and then was blindsided when he THEN BLEEPING RETURNS WITH 6 MINUTES TO GO. Good lord. Shoo. Go away. Talk to you next year. Maybe.
DOUG CHRISTIE TRADED -- this one was the real beginning of the breakup of our old title core, coming 6 weeks before the Webber fiasco. The core holdovers including Webb, Doug, Bobby, Mike, and probably after some serious arm twisting, Peja, had even gone so far as to take out an ad in the paper before the season thanking the fans and restating their determination to make another push. But was not to be. The intial trade, for Cat Mobley, did not look that bad. Doug was fading, and we got the better value in return. But then the summer rolled around, and we were unable to either retain Cat, or sign and trade him for anyone (we took a shot at moving Cat for Nene, and damn if that wouldn't have helped -- as predicted he's getting helathy and turning into a very good big). So in the end we basically tore out part of our heart for no return.
Reef ( C- ) -- had room to maneuver inside in the early going, and used it to convert on a couple of spinning post hoops. Came out in the third and that room seemed to have evaporated (and having Justin Williams out there with him rather than Brad to stretch the defense and open the lane may have been part of the reason). Reef struggled, could not finish, got one of his turnovers. Think I may have been rooting for him to stay in there at some point to assure that we got this one in the L column.
GERALD WALLACE LOST TO EXPANSION -- and I've harped on this one before. We lost Gerald due to nothing more than lack of planning. The expansion draft was coming up, everybody knew that you would have to expose one veteran with a guaranteed contract, and we gave the guy that we should have exposed, Anthony Peeler, an opt out clause allowing him to leave us, and force us to expose somebody else. That somebody becoming Gerald, who this season only put up a cool 18.2pts (.502 .319 .694) 7.2rebs 2.6ast 2.0stl 1.0blk. Compare that to Ron: 18.8pts (.441 .357 .743) 6.5rebs 3.3ast 2.1stl 0.6blk. Might have been kind of handy to have around, no?
Miller ( INC ) -- hit little jumpers early, and even threw down a dunk on the break. But also had most of our first quarter turnovers, no rebounhds, and was a spectator as Kwame Brown and pals were holding adunk competition in the paint. And just like that, it was over: his game, his season, maybe his tenure as a King, we;ll see. Never returned after half, presumablky wiht the foot, and Justin started the second half for us. Which again raises the question of why ofh why were we continuing to force feed minutes to this aging pivot with a chronic foot condition through the final weeks of the season? Let him rest already. In any case, if this is it, happy hunting Brad.
CHRIS WEBBER TRADED -- for "flexible pieces" no less. Don't want to hear it. Not playing diplomat here: this was an asinine trade. And a huge blow to this franchise. Trading Chris Webber indicated panic. But still could have been a possible move at that stage, if you had gotten back ending contracts, kids, picks, whatever. Trading him for what we did......asinine. We'll likely never know whether it was primarily Geoff's idea or the Maloofs' to make this deal, although I have my suspicions. And we apparently get to be reminded of it every day for the next forever as Kenny Thomas lights up the whole room with his cheerful demeanor.
Martin ( C+ ) -- very slow start, barely even looking at the hoop in the face of Mike's crazy first quarter. Not terrible, just largely a bystander. Was headed for one of his lowest scoring outputs of the season unitl he briefly got into a little back and forth with Kobe in the late third -- started when he drew a rare 4pt play on a Kobe foul at the 3pt line, and then after Kobe returned fire, Kevin went back at him and drew a foul (or two?) forgot. Anyway, definite little competitive thing. Of course would have been more impressive if Kobe weren't guaarding Kevin while we had Keivn hidden off in a corner while Salmons checked Kobe on our end, but still. Last, brief little flicker. Still ended up with another poor statistical night for Kevin. Not sure how that's going to effect his MIP chances. Fairly irrelevant of course -- Kevin still had a breakout year whether he wins the award or not, but it would still be a nice capper. Just a lot of competition.
BONZI WELLS WALKS -- the bump to Artest's thump, and a duo which was impossible to matchup with. Also our saving grace on the glass, as this season we got a firsthand look at what we were without a guard rebounding like a PF. We can argue until the cows come home who's fault this was, whether it was intentional, unintentional, whatever, but this was never a list just of our screwups, but a list of the things which have collectively laid a 60 win franchise low and turned it into a 30 win franchise in 4 years. Of course there is also the "we're better off without him" argument, but all I have to say is "scoreboard!" -- we came back with almost exactly the same team we had last year, with improved kids, a full training camp, better health, + Salmons, and yet we got much, much worse. At the point you are looking up from a 33-49 train wreck, time to evaluate clearly and ask what changed. And the only non-speculative factors that changed were the loss of a tough veteran off guard last seen terrorizing the defending champion Spurs, and a veteran Top 20 all time winning coach. Also of course meant that, like Doug, we essentially ended up trading away Bobby for no long term return either.
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