Has Westphal lost this team?

rainmaker

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
Pretty straight forward question. Youth and inexperience have not been an excuse, but a reality for most of the year, which I'm fine with. That's what happens when you commit to a rebuild.

But these last few games, aside from last night, it appears the players simply aren't giving the same effort. You can't control shooting %'s, some night you'll shoot better then others. But we're simply not getting the same effort we were getting up until a few weeks ago. Do you guys also think Westy has lost the team, and the guys figure they'll just ride it out the last 1/8th of the season, because they figure he won't be back. I really have no other explanation for the all around lack of effort. The entire team seems flat, going back almost 2 weeks now. I don't mind losses. It's how we lose. The effort and intensity simply isn't there anymore.
 
The team has sucked its way through the last couple of months of the season as a regular thing lately, regardless of coach.

That's not to say that Westphal's innocent, or that those other coaches weren't pretty awful, but, aside from our enders (who are mostly playing better than the others) what do they have to play for?

The team acts lost, to be sure, but getting lost isn't that hard. I think that PW's given them help getting there, but I don't think it's all on him.
 
Hopefully the city of Sacramento can lose them too lol What a loserly franchise. They need to take their suckage to LA, the city of demons. NorCal has the 49ers, Raiders, Giants, A's, Sharks, Warriors, last thing we need is a crappy franchise with crappy owners and no history of winning. Get to steppin loserly Mal-Goofs! HAHAHAHA!
 
LaidBackLosers said:
Hopefully the city of Sacramento can lose them too lol What a loserly franchise. They need to take their suckage to LA, the city of demons. NorCal has the 49ers, Raiders, Giants, A's, Sharks, Warriors, last thing we need is a crappy franchise with crappy owners and no history of winning. Get to steppin loserly Mal-Goofs! HAHAHAHA!
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The Raiders aren't a crappy franchise with a crappy owner? How many playoff series have the Warriors won the last 16 years? Get out of here.
 
LLL, I'm going to hazard a guess that you're probably not a Kings fan? Maybe you should take your opinion somewhere other than Kingsfans.com?

I thought Westphal lost the team back in December. But with everything that's going on right now around Sacramento and the team possibly playing in a different city next year, it wouldn't surprise me if the players are a little shell-shocked themselves. That would be a huge adjustment for all of them and not knowing probably makes it even worse. Then there's the possible lockout too. There's a lot going on right now besides just basketball that might be affecting people. Especially considering there's no playoffs for this team to worry about.

Whether Westphal comes back next year or not is very far down on the priority list of issues I'm worried about right now. That's the kind of problem I'd like to have next year instead of no team. :)
 
I think a team full of youth can only handle so much. I don't think it's coincidental that Dalembert, a seasoned vet, is playing up to capacity (if not better), while everyone else, who is roughly 3 years or fewer in the league, seems worn out. Lots of close losses, three blowout losses, and two blowout wins. The only anomalous loss seems to be the one against Cleveland.
 
LaidBackLosers said:
Hopefully the city of Sacramento can lose them too lol What a loserly franchise. They need to take their suckage to LA, the city of demons. NorCal has the 49ers, Raiders, Giants, A's, Sharks, Warriors, last thing we need is a crappy franchise with crappy owners and no history of winning. Get to steppin loserly Mal-Goofs! HAHAHAHA!
Click to expand...

Did the Sharks win the Stanley cup last year? I must have missed something. You must have been born after 2002.
 
LaidBackLosers said:
Hopefully the city of Sacramento can lose them too lol What a loserly franchise. They need to take their suckage to LA, the city of demons. NorCal has the 49ers, Raiders, Giants, A's, Sharks, Warriors, last thing we need is a crappy franchise with crappy owners and no history of winning. Get to steppin loserly Mal-Goofs! HAHAHAHA!
Click to expand...


Wow...even though I'm not a Kings fan...that's just rude, dude! Buh-bye.
 
wat is up with these threads. Always see a thread like this after a bad loss, but when were winning, everyones all like oh this team just needs a couple more pieces and well be perfect.
 
I suppose its possible, but under the circumstances its also not unreasonable.

Think about it -- tail end of a tough season wiht a crapload of losses, team leader has been battling injury all year, missed the last 17 games. Guy who is next best player is a 20yr old rookie with major maturity problems that you need to lift up as often as he lifts you, and who may well be tiring. Playoffs are long gone. Then the team may be moving, and combined with the record, all the cap room etc. 3/4 of the guys really don't know if they are going to be here next year. That's just tough. And if you're a pro is it your job to ignore all that stuff? Sure. But we are one of the youngest teams in the league, and our old pros are few and far between.

If anything, I think the single BEST recommendation for Westphal, other than his seeming tendency to settle on starting lineups the second half of seasons after destroying chemistry the first few months with stupid fiddling, is that he DIDN'T lose the team a long time ago. As I've mentioned elsewhere we have played more close games, and in particular against more elite teams, than any other bad team, and its by a wide margin. If finally here on the home stretch the wheels have finally gotten wobbly and the engine has started to backfire, its really nothing more than often happens to teams with records like ours far far earlier in the year. It can often turn into a debacle. But until just recently we've been competitve. You can feel the sag now, but I think Westphal's best accomplishment as coach might have been holding it off so long given everything going on. And hopefully Tyreke's return can help us muster one more burst of enthusiasm for these last dozen games before we head into an offseason as uncertain as I can ever remember in every way.
 
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Grant Napier interviewed Donte Greene prior to yesterdays game. Typical interiview until the end. Grant mentioned that it had been a rough year for Greene with his starting and then not starting to lately not playing at all in some games. And yet Greene was always the biggest cheerleader on the sidelines despite all of that. Greene's response was, and I paraphrase, I love my teammates and I always cheer for them. They're not the one's responsible for me not playing.

A subtle, but well aimed shot at Westphal. And one can't blame him. No one has been jerked around more than Greene. I'll be the first to admit that he's been far from being the pillar of consistency. But one does have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he would have started to overcome that, if he had just been allowed to play as a regular part of the rotation. I suspect that we'll never find out.
 
bajaden said:
Grant Napier interviewed Donte Greene prior to yesterdays game. Typical interiview until the end. Grant mentioned that it had been a rough year for Greene with his starting and then not starting to lately not playing at all in some games. And yet Greene was always the biggest cheerleader on the sidelines despite all of that. Greene's response was, and I paraphrase, I love my teammates and I always cheer for them. They're not the one's responsible for me not playing.

A subtle, but well aimed shot at Westphal. And one can't blame him. No one has been jerked around more than Greene. I'll be the first to admit that he's been far from being the pillar of consistency. But one does have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he would have started to overcome that, if he had just been allowed to play as a regular part of the rotation. I suspect that we'll never find out.
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One of the biggest disappointments this season has been that neither Greene or Casspi has stepped up and improved. Westphal may be partly to blame for a chaotic rotation, but chaotic situations are often the best environments to step up and take ownership of a position. There was no status quo or beloved established vet to replace. The opportunity was there. Both guys missed a big opportunity IMO.

Thornton hasn't had a problem stepping up on a brand new team. Dalembert hasn't had a problem stepping up once Landry's minutes were cleared out. Bottom like is that Greene nor Casspi showed any significant improvement when they had the chance. All one of them had to do was become 12-14 pt / 4-5 reb guy and their youth/size would have gotten them the starting spot for next year. Hell...that's all Batum did this year and he's gotten this untouchable status with half the league after him. Now they are in danger of being replaced by a top 5 pick or FA. It's going to get harder for them next year, not easier.
 
I have to disagree with you sidney. You do not develop young minds by putting them into chaotic situations....stable, repetitive,consistent and time are require if you want them to learn. Once the fundamentals and experience are established is when you put them into tougher situation. Don't get me wrong, I believe there are few that can handle chaotic situation as a young player but more often than not, it will only bring chaos.

I don't think you can compare Thornton as he is new, doing well for now, similar to all our young players last year who played very well with lots of potential. What happen when he suck for a month next season? Boot out of the rotation? I think WP hadn't got to him yet.. ;). Dalembart is a vet and could very well be playing for contract...not playing for the coach.

It's harder for them next year because they hadn't learned anything. (Base on earlier this season, as I hadn't watched any Kings game for a while due to school, work and family.)

I was one of the few that defended him last year for the erratic rotation because he was new, but this year I expected him to know his player and whom to play consistently. Not juggling players in and out of rotation.
 
bajaden said:
A subtle, but well aimed shot at Westphal. And one can't blame him. No one has been jerked around more than Greene. I'll be the first to admit that he's been far from being the pillar of consistency. But one does have to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he would have started to overcome that, if he had just been allowed to play as a regular part of the rotation. I suspect that we'll never find out.
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I don't have a problem with how Westphal played and is playing Greene. I do have a problem with the team not winning more games. Could Westphal have done anything different to result in the Kings winning more? I don't know. I don't know if Westphal is a significant part of the problem or if he is part of the problem at all. For my part, the team management should focus on the players it fields. This year our talented new duo of Evans and Cousins have been a huge contributors to our current record, one way or another. Hopefully, it will be worth it in the future.
 
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