While I completely disagree with your assessment I must point out, we sucked long before Petrie left. He gave us 7 years of really crapy choices before he was replaced by the worst GM ever.
You’re right. However, it’s long been my contention that Petrie’s hands became tied by the desperate and cash strapped Magoof family for numerous seasons prior to his departure.
Firing Rick Adelman wasn’t Mr. Petrie’s idea. There was friction between the coach and owners who had become more hands on and arrogant that they knew better.
Tyreke Evans was the Magoof’s draft pick — who thought they were getting the next Derrick Rose. I firmly believe Petrie would have went with Steph Curry, who perfectly fit all the attributes he coveted and focused on well before Warriors made it fashionable. Shooting, passing, BBIQ. But there’s no way to know that for sure.
Then the owners handicapped subsequent coaching hires by not allowing him to offer the amount of $$ it would take to attract a top guy. They went dumpster diving for retreads that didn’t have other options and accepted well below market value.
None of that is on Geoff Petrie.
Let’s not forget that upon being shown the door when the new regime came in, he advised to KINGS to take a hard look at Giannis Antetokoumpo — which they really didn’t do.
We’ll never know what Petrie would have done for sure, if allowed to keep his job with full control and resources restored under the new ownership group, but my belief is that Giannis would have been a KING rather than Ben McLemore. Not only do we have confirmation that he advised the KINGS to research him deeply, he fit the type of player Petrie always looked for.