Every year there are these "national media is so unfair to us" threads. Maybe the national media has some solid arguments on why they are so negative towards us? I mean, 13 years worth of garbage, why would anyone give us the benefit of the doubt?
Due to a copywright rules I have to summarize the article but the original link is in here:
https://theathletic.com/1278703/201...s-golden-state-warriors?source=shared-article
He said that Kings "mistook their first big step forward in a rebuild for the ending" and commited to a vet acquisition mode. He also said that we were much farther from the finish line that we realized.
-Completely true. We thought we were ready for a serious playoff push by just adding some vets like Ariza, Joseph, Dedmon. We were wrong and Hollinger was right.
He said that it was a mistake to trade for Barnes and another mistake to pay him as he was a great sf (85mil) when he actually is "league average 4".
-Again, trading for Barnes and paying him a huge salary was a mistake. Hollinger knew it before the season and we whined how unfair the national media is to us.
"He said we used a huge amount of cap for average backups (37mil/year). He said these are the type of guys you sign "late in the building process using exception money" and not early in the rebuild when you need to add core talent"
-This is 100% correct what he wrote. Ariza and Dedmon are out of here, 25mil of cap with nothing to show for it.
He complemented WCS for his rim running, playmaking (4.1 assist per 100) and his big role in transition offense that masked their horrible half court offense last year.
-WCS being a big part of the fast pace offense is true. WCS as a talent might be replaceble but he fit the extremely fast paced Kings better than well.
He said that Fox and Hield is a quality backourt but thats basically it. He said that Bagley really struggled with his shooting and defense last year.
-Again, spot on. Fox and Hield is a quality backourt, Bagley still had shooting and defensive difficulties this year.
He said our additions would drop Giles out of rotation which would be stupid since "the Kings should focus on players like him, not on random 30 year olds. Also said that Holmes was a decent player.
-Yeah, Giles got so lost on this rotation that we didnt even pick up his option. Last sentence is so correct: "but he's also 21; the Kings should focus on players like him, not on random 30-year olds.
He complemented JJ and ridiculed us for not having our own 1st round pick.
-JJ has shown some promise, sadly some washed up vets like Bazemore are playing before him atm. Also a tragedy that we didnt have our own 1st.
-His prediction:
Prediction: 30-52, 5th in Pacific, 14th in Western Conference
-As a prediction this was a quite fair assesment of the situation. Also with hindsight it looks to be quite correct. Still it generated posts like these and these are just couple of many others:
"This is the dankest pile of horsecrap reasoning I've ever smelled. His utter cowardice to acknowledge the Kings might be good this year, and will definitely be better, causes him to contort his mind into an absolutely ridiculous position. He came up with 30 wins and then tried to find a way to justify it. The opposite of insight"
"I still can't get through a paragraph of my thoughts on this without it turning into a sarcasm laden snarkfest. Hollinger truly is an idiot and his take is a steaming pile of turd."
Again, maybe there isnt any conspiracy against us by the national media. Maybe we've just done stupid decisions for the past 13 years as the results indicate?
Ps: I have no strong feelings about Hollinger as a gm but at least he could see these things before they happened. A gm candidate? Possibly but at least the podcast with him and Nate Duncan is very informative for us fans