Grades v. Suns 02/05/10

[CWebb85]

-"Martin ( F ) -- F. F. F. This one damaged my calm. I mean what the hell? Did someone spike his water? Is he clinically depressed? It was like some extra from Dawn of the Dead shuffled on into our lineup, and the thing was, the kids out there knew it. After a while they seemed to just want to pretend Kevin was invisible and went out there and tried to play 4 on 5. Kevin had about 6 minutes of moderate energy to give us -- maybe he ate half a power bar before the game or something. Hit his first outside jumper, got in for a near nice tip on the o-boards, but missed it and then missed on a runner. As soon as Dragic came in to guard him he instantly took him off the dribble for a running jumper -- basically the only moment of aggressiveness he could muster for the entire game. He would miss his next three, the last one trying to draw a foul, and after jumping into Dragic to draw a rather sad foul to close the first quarter and hit 1 of 2 FTs, that was it. The end of his scoring. The end of any contribution at all. And damn if it wasn't bad enough it might not lead to the eventual end of his tenure here as well. Was back in after a few minutes and missed a three. Just disappeared therafter and finally sat with just 5 pts on 2-7 with 3 minutes to go in the half. Halftime did absolutely nothing to fix anything. Casually threw up a bricked three in the mid 3rd that didn't even look like he wanted to take it, almost like an afterthought. Another three brick and finally FINALLY taken out with 3 minutes to go in the third and a -31 +/- in 26 minutes. There was absolutely nothing good to take from this. In fact its hard not to see it as a disaster. Kevin didn't look like he wanted to be out there. His teammates didn't look like they wanted him out there. And the crowd didn't sound like they wanted him out there. Even Westphal's constant parade of excuses for these performances was reduced to a no comment. Its probably a good thing we are going out on the road now to get away from at least some of it."

Again, I agree with that grade, but to answer your question about Donte, I probably think the only 6-11 guy that maybe have the same skill set of Donte, would have to Lamar Odem, which is not a bad player to imitate.

 

[CWebb85]

Honestly, I was in the trade kevin camp from the beginning, and still am. BUT, I think we are all being way too hard on him. Basketball players are human, and when a player knows that his team (and probably his teammates as well) doesn't really want him, and wants him to play well JUST so he can up his trade value, it's really hard to perform even close to your potential. Just like Omri and other players were frustrated and confused upon Kevin's return because they didn't know their role, Kevin is in a similar situation. He knows he's going to get traded. He knows the franchise and his teammates don't see him as part of the future of this team, and I don't know any person in the world who would not be affected in a negative way by this kind of situation. I don't know if there is a solution to this situation but dumping all the Kings problems on Kevin is not the answer IMO.

-But If the player is making more money than anyone else on the team, and is your only veteran player who has been on the team the longest, our expectations should be high.

 

[Sluggah]

i feel like theres more of a correlation between the team's poor play and thompson's slump than the team's poor play and martin's return

 

[Tetsujin]

Even my 5 yr old was screaming at Martin...among others...

edit: Mr. Martin deserves an F- for a performance grade, and a G- for effort.

I think we generally try to reserve the G grades for Nocioni

 

[gunks]

Again, I agree with that grade, but to answer your question about Donte, I probably think the only 6-11 guy that maybe have the same skill set of Donte, would have to Lamar Odem, which is not a bad player to imitate.

Except, Odom can rebound...

I'm starting to buy into the Greene hype though. And just last season I was thinking he'd be nothing more than a 3 jacking scrub who'd bust out of the league after his rookie contract was up....Mmmm, delicious crow.

 

[est.1999]

Hilton Armstrong= FAIL

 

[Gary]

why the hell is everyone bagging on petrie? This team aint gonna win this year. What do you expect. Patience people. just because you want K-mart traded RIGHT NOW doesnt mean its the right thing to do. Theres a reason Petrie is a GM and we are just fans on a messege board. I dont really like to question, or think im smarter than any GM (unless its Brian Sabean )

Kind of puts things in perspective when the message board fans out "GM" the GM that's paid millions.

 

[Gary]

Hilton Armstrong= FAIL

I could have told you that a few years ago yet for some reason Petrie wanted to take a look at the guy.. So I would lump Petrie into the FAIL group too.

 

[ElRey]

Kind of puts things in perspective when the message board fans out "GM" the GM that's paid millions.

You should put in an application for Kings GM. You can put "die hard Kings fan" as your qualification on your resume.

 

[Kingsguy881]

I could have told you that a few years ago yet for some reason Petrie wanted to take a look at the guy.. So I would lump Petrie into the FAIL group too.

You go on the 'fail' wagon too buddy, don't forget your offseason of Tyreke hatred.

 

[VF21]

I could have told you that a few years ago yet for some reason Petrie wanted to take a look at the guy.. So I would lump Petrie into the FAIL group too.

So, what's your point?

Petrie, in desperate need to find someone/anyone with some height and shotblocking ability, took a chance with Armstrong. It's not like we're paying him tons of money for a long period of time or anything.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

So, what's your point?

Petrie, in desperate need to find someone/anyone with some height and shotblocking ability, took a chance with Armstrong. It's not like we're paying him tons of money for a long period of time or anything.

If the reports at the time were correct, we're paying him nothing at all. The Hornets gave us the money to cover the contract because it brought them within sniffing distance of the luxury tax line (which they later got under with another deal).

On a related note directed backwards in the thread, armchair GMming as a pastime can be fun. You get to form opinions about players and try to dream up ways to improve the team. But when you start to believe that YOU are the one who could make these things happen and the guy actually in charge is an incompetent fool who sits on his thumbs all day, carelessly not even attempting to improve the team, that's when you need a cold, hard shot of reality. Unless you have a magic wand and a crystal ball, in which case maybe you actually should be the GM.

 

[est.1999]

My fail comment was towards his steal attempt at the end of the game

 

[Prince_XY]

why the hell is everyone bagging on petrie? This team aint gonna win this year. What do you expect. Patience people. just because you want K-mart traded RIGHT NOW doesnt mean its the right thing to do. Theres a reason Petrie is a GM and we are just fans on a messege board. I dont really like to question, or think im smarter than any GM (unless its Brian Sabean )

It is because PETRIE IS THE GM who assembled this mess and he needs to fix it ASAP. If you don't pressure Petrie, he won't make a move - ever.

I really wish there would be some fans who will hold some placards in games telling the lazy Petrie to pick up the phone and work his a** for a meaningful trade. He is getting paid millions by the Maloofs and all he can come-up for the fans is a dysfunctional team for several years now.

 

[mac]

It is because PETRIE IS THE GM who assembled this mess and he needs to fix it ASAP. If you don't pressure Petrie, he won't make a move - ever.

I really wish there would be some fans who will hold some placards in games telling the lazy Petrie to pick up the phone and work his a** for a meaningful trade. He is getting paid millions by the Maloofs and all he can come-up for the fans is a dysfunctional team for several years now.

For all we know he may be doing that, but there may not be a good enough offer or other teams aren't willing to make a trade that he deems acceptable for our team. I don't think it's fair to fault Petrie for trades that we think should happen not happening. Bad signings, bad draft picks, not protecting Gwallace, things like that it's pretty fair to put the blame on him because it's all on him, there's no other party involved.

 

[vistacruza_kings]

It is because PETRIE IS THE GM who assembled this mess and he needs to fix it ASAP. If you don't pressure Petrie, he won't make a move - ever.

I really wish there would be some fans who will hold some placards in games telling the lazy Petrie to pick up the phone and work his a** for a meaningful trade. He is getting paid millions by the Maloofs and all he can come-up for the fans is a dysfunctional team for several years now.

I apoligize in advance, but I thought Kings fans were more knowledgeable than this. IT SEEMS LIKE EVERYONE ON THIS BOARD HAS A CASE OF THE KNEE JERK REACTIONS! "Trade Martin!!" "Petrie is an Idiot". I consider this our first year in actual rebuilding, these guys have only played half a year together. Things take time. We are a small market team, viturally no free agents we comeing here, and trading will most likely just get you a rental player. We have to build through the draft, and that will take a bit longer, but i do know Petrie can pick talent through the draft so im confident in him and YOU should be too.

Correct me if im wrong but wasnt it like 2-3 months ago everyone was praising GP, and praising the extenstion he recieved this year.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I really wish there would be some fans who will hold some placards in games telling the lazy Petrie to pick up the phone and work his a** for a meaningful trade.

I really wish that fans who accuse Petrie of being lazy would follow him around for a week, logging every phone call he doesn't make, logging every meeting he doesn't attend, logging every scouting report he doesn't read, every tape he doesn't watch, every spreadsheet he doesn't crunch, every decision he doesn't make so we can see exactly how lazy he is instead of being exposed to all this speculation.