I Love Michael Malone...

[BamBam52]

Just listening to him speak to reporters, as opposed to Keith Smart, is like night and day. We definitely have the right man for the job. It's just going to take a little bit of time!

Here it is!
http://www.nba.com/kings/video/2014/01/03/PracticeMalone1314mov-3094134

 

[Angela44]

Talk is cheap and so far, the team has underachieved. Time will tell.

 

[BamBam52]

Yes, they have underachieved, but at least Malone is honest to the point and knows what is wrong with this current personnel! Keith "Smart" kinda reminded me of Mike Singletary, with his "I gotta look at the film" approach. Idiot!!
Not calling you an idiot, Angela. Just saying, in general terms

 

[KingMilz]

I loved everything about Malone up until the Gay trade where he refuses to attempt to play Gay/Williams @SG/SF with JT @PF. I just don't know why we don't try it and stop giving Outlaw playing time over Williams other than that I like him.

 

[BamBam52]

JT needs to go! He's definitely started to wear out his welcome

 

[Tetsujin]

I loved everything about Malone up until the Gay trade where he refuses to attempt to play Gay/Williams @SG/SF with JT @PF. I just don't know why we don't try it and stop giving Outlaw playing time over Williams other than that I like him.

To be fair, there are 29 other coaches in the NBA who would also probably refuse to go insane and play a 6'9" 230 pound SF at SG. If Kevin Durant and Lebron both proved incapable of playing the two, it's a relatively safe assumption that Rudy wouldn't be able to either.

 

[KingMilz]

To be fair, there are 29 other coaches in the NBA who would also probably refuse to go insane and play a 6'9" 230 pound SF at SG. If Kevin Durant and Lebron both proved incapable of playing the two, it's a relatively safe assumption that Rudy wouldn't be able to either.

Still better than Mclemore or Thornton and he will probably do a better job defending than both those two scrubs combined, if we had a decent SG than yeah you would refuse but we don't.

What exactly can't Rudy Gay do @SG on defence anyway that any of our SG's can I don't understand? On offence Williams does the cutting role that Mclemore does I just don't see why it's such a massive adjustment. Rudy stays in his same role on offence.

 

[BamBam52]

Give B-Mac a pass! He's just a kid, absorbing his education well! Marcus, on the other hand?......Please!??

 

[Kingsfan23]

We are statistically worse in several areas including winning percentage. I don't necessarily blame him and I do feel more confident in him than I have a few of the previous coaches but too early to give him props for anything

 

[TyFreak Evans]

Just listening to him speak to reporters, as opposed to Keith Smart, is like night and day. We definitely have the right man for the job. It's just going to take a little bit of time!

Here it is!
http://www.nba.com/kings/video/2014/01/03/PracticeMalone1314mov-3094134

Keith Smart used to play the sympathy card for his guys, Malone doesn't even have that in his deck, nor should he. I love Michael Malone for the single fact that he holds his players responsible for their performance on the court.....

 

[BamBam52]

We are statistically worse in several areas including winning percentage. I don't necessarily blame him and I do feel more confident in him than I have a few of the previous coaches but too early to give him props for anything

I really think that D'Alessandro has a trick up his sleeve here soon. Don't know what it is (maybe Andre Miller to back up the Pizza Guy), but there is definitely something brewing.

 

[VF21]

We are statistically worse in several areas including winning percentage. I don't necessarily blame him and I do feel more confident in him than I have a few of the previous coaches but too early to give him props for anything

Wrong. If it's not too early to criticize, it's not too early to praise. This idea that Malone has to turn the team totally around before people are willing to give him any credit is just ludicrous.

 

[Uncia03]

Until PDA finishes getting this roster put together correctly I'm not putting any blame on Malone for who he's playing and his rotations as I do believe that the Front Office has input into who they want to see out there on the court.

Coach Malone is one of the best things about this year. And I fervently wish he had been our coach last year with new management because he would certainly have gotten far more out of a Cousins/Tyreke combo.

Malone has been consistent in what he says he wants, and what he wants is exactly what is needed to get this team where it needs to be.

 

[BamBam52]

Still can't believe that Boogie is still trailing Chandler Parsons in the voting! Not that it matters, right now, but regardless....

 

[Tetsujin]

Still can't believe that Boogie is still trailing Chandler Parsons in the voting! Not that it matters, right now, but regardless....

One thing that skews those numbers is that the Rockets still essentially have the Chinese market all to themselves. Even a small fraction of that country's population voting for a guy could result in wonkiness such as Parsons getting more votes than Cuz (no offense to Parsons)

 

[Padrino]

i may be considerably less optimistic about this team's ceiling with these particular pieces than most around these parts, but let's be honest here: this is clearly a roster in flux. after the kings' win in houston the other night, big cuz himself felt the need to point out that they're all still trying to get familiar with one another on the court...

the facts of the case are these: luc richard mbah a moute was a king just long enough to get traded for derrick williams. and williams was a starter just long enough to make way for the acquisition of rudy gay, who was acquired in a trade for greivis vasquez, who was himself a king just long enough to get traded. and ben mclemore has been a king just long enough to have no idea what he's doing out there. and carl landry began his second stint as a king just long enough to get injured for more than half of the season...

i like coach malone. he seems like a guy who should be able to get results when granted the necessary personnel (and, for the record, i'm not convinced that any of these kings outside of demarcus cousins truly constitutes "the necessary personnel"). but anybody expecting consistency or a shift in the win/loss column hasn't exactly been paying attention to the new regime's stated desire to entirely reshape this roster around demarcus cousins. it's been happening in real time, and it would appear that PDA intends to attempt additional moves before the trade deadline. such upheaval does not breed a winning team. it's a set-up year; hopefully the picture becomes considerably more clear during the coming offseason...

 

[BamBam52]

BTW...Quincy is our new Michael "The Animal" Smith. Been a long time since we've had that high-motor, kamikaze type of guy. His ferocity is infectious!!

 

[Spike]

Hold on.
Take a good, solid look at our roster. Cousins and Gay would start for most other teams. JT would start for a few. That's it.

Our bench? A shooter who has forgotten how to, a shooter who sometimes does, and the rest.

PDA's move to get Gay upgraded talent, but gutted the bench (and rightfully so). Malone is both putting lipstick on a pig AND making chicken soup with what he has. Speaking of, he's constantly preached defense with players that are as allergic to it as a gluten - free kid in a bakery, and has generally been anti-Smart in his rotations.

Malone isn't the issue. PDA needs to balance the roster.

Chillax, y'all. I think the only thing we really can judge right now is player effort, which is generally lacking on the D side.

 

[ESP47]

We are statistically worse in several areas including winning percentage. I don't necessarily blame him and I do feel more confident in him than I have a few of the previous coaches but too early to give him props for anything

Keith Smart had Tyreke Evans.

End thread.

 

[pshn80]

Wrong. If it's not too early to criticize, it's not too early to praise. This idea that Malone has to turn the team totally around before people are willing to give him any credit is just ludicrous.

Malone has already earned my confidence and praise. Let's keep expecting better play from the guys we have.

 

[Kingsfan23]

Keith Smart had Tyreke Evans.

End thread.

Ok but why would we be praising him if the team hasn't improved much statistically and off the court intangibles like "changing the culture" can't really be quantified . I'm not against others praising him, just asking

 

[ESP47]

In my opinion it has to do with two things. One is we had Tyreke and a functioning Thornton last year. This year we have Ben McLemore and a non functioning Thornton. We're getting almost zero offensive production from our SG spot and absolutely horrendous defense as well. Now we did pick up Gay, which would make you think that it's all even since we had Tyreke last year. Well the difference in Gay to Salmons at SF isn't nearly as big a difference as Tyreke to McLemore. We're playing 5 on 4 half the nights.

The other thing is Smart played a style of offense that better suited our team, but we weren't really built for that either. We ran a lot more and played more Nellie style ball. In the end, it wins 5-7 more games with this roster but what good is that? We're never going to be good enough to even sniff the playoffs if we play like that. Especially with the guys we have. We're not built to run and we're not built for the halfcourt set. The team isn't built for anything in particular. It's just a bare minimum mismatch of guys the Maloofs mainly put together to be able to legally play NBA basketball until they could move us.

Good teams have efficient offenses and good defenses. That's what Malone is coaching and it's what we've been asking for. He has high praise from a number of all star players. If he improves the defense everywhere he goes and he can't get these guys to improve on d, I'm going to assume that we just don't have the right players. Some may say he's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole but I see it as a more long term deal with him. I'd rather him prep these guys for winning basketball in the future rather than run Nellie ball and pick up a few extra wins and a worse lottery pick the way Keith Smart did.

 

[MissingThoseAdelmanDays]

I agree with all of the posters who claim it is too early to praise Michael Malone.

Regardless of what conditions he is coaching under, or what our roster looks like, I do at times find myself questioning his in-game line-ups. Now, let's be honest, none of us here have ever coached an NBA team, but it doesn't hurt to give our honest opinions.

Here is a perfect example of one of coach's decisions that I had an issue with. During the game against the 76ers, our line-up that was used to begin the fourth quarter made a small run to get us within reach. Let me rephrase that. Jimmer Fredette made some key plays there in the beginning of the final stanza. When the game got to within about 7 points, I was sure that coach Malone would substitute his starters' (Thomas, Gay, Cousins) back into the game to carry us to a win. Did he really believe Jimmer and the bench mob would be able to carry us deep into crunch time? Was our main trio desperately starved of energy in which case they needed those extra key minutes on the bench? Instead of making those substitutions while the Kings had all of the momentum, they were brought in once Philadelphia basically regained control and extended the league back to 12.

 

[Double-K]

One thing that skews those numbers is that the Rockets still essentially have the Chinese market all to themselves. Even a small fraction of that country's population voting for a guy could result in wonkiness such as Parsons getting more votes than Cuz (no offense to Parsons)

Just to reinforce this notion, my Chinese friends can go over and critique every single Rockets players (and add-on note from the girlfriends who barely follow basketball with their boyfriends, Chandler Parsons is good looking). While all they know about the Kings is that there's this troublemaker called Cousins.

 

[VF21]

I agree with all of the posters who claim it is too early to praise Michael Malone...

Fine. Then don't praise him. But I find it ridiculous that you would only criticize and not recognize the good. Pretty myopic way of looking at things IMHO.

If you don't give Malone credit for anything else, give him credit for getting Demarcus Cousins to buy in to what Malone wants to do. In case you haven't noticed, they're working together and it's obvious the rest of the team understands that much at least. The value of having your franchise cornerstone AND your new head coach on the same page is almost beyond measure.

That alone would be enough for me.

 

[bloom]

I like what Michael Malone is doing, I do wish he did some things better (ex: more constant rotations - but that will come in time and a changed roster) but overall, I think he’s getting this team to jell a little, and I can see some improvements (even though defense is a issue) and even though we might take a step forward one game and 2 steps back the next, I’m seeing this team get better…I was actually skeptical about him being our coach (when we hired him) but I like the direction that this team is headed with him as our coach.

 

[GoSACtown]

I agree I like Mike Malone as well. You have to realize winning isn't his only agenda. The kings are trying to make trades still and he needs to showcase the players to be traded. That is why outlaw is still getting minutes

 

[JSin]

Fine. Then don't praise him. But I find it ridiculous that you would only criticize and not recognize the good. Pretty myopic way of looking at things IMHO.

If you don't give Malone credit for anything else, give him credit for getting Demarcus Cousins to buy in to what Malone wants to do. In case you haven't noticed, they're working together and it's obvious the rest of the team understands that much at least. The value of having your franchise cornerstone AND your new head coach on the same page is almost beyond measure.

That alone would be enough for me.

Except Malone was brought on to get the team playing defense, and while Boogie has bought in to being "the guy", he hasn't bought into the idea of playing full effort defense.

 

[Mass]

Reading that some guys here are even mentioning Keith Smart is making me sick. I don't know if you remember, but Smart was the dumbest coach to ever sit on an NBA bench. By far.

Malone is doing just fine in my opinion. He looks like he will be a great coach in this league and I believe we are lucky to have him. This is what I think he has done so far:

- We have a rotation. Yes, now the players know their roles, and we are sticking with a starting lineup and a bench rotation. Last year most of the guys didn't know if they were going to play 5 or 30 minutes. Also, they are also getting the right amount of minutes. Don't you remember all the discussions last year about the dumb rotations Smart was putting out there?
- The players are playing in their right positions. No Evans or JT at the 3, or other nonsenses. Everyone is playing where he is supposed to play.
- We have an offensive system, or at least, we are starting to have one. It's not just chucking up shots like it was last year, now the guys have some rules and they are trying to run plays. The biggest improvement? Cousins is playing inside the area and he is putting up MVP numbers, not just taking shots from outside or "working on his 3 point shot" like he was last year.
- Even if we are still bad, we have some defensive rules and the players seems to at least try to follow those rules. The fact that they can't is because they are just bad defenders or they are still trying to learn how to play together. Learning a defensive system takes a lot more time than an offensive system, everyone who has played basketball at any level knows it.
- DMC has bought in. No drama, no trouble, just a monster season from a guy who was regressing under Smart. Last year he was an immature troublemaker, now he is already in the conversation for the best big in the league and a superstar in the making.

The fact that we are not winning as much as we would like is easy to explain. This team is under a complete rebuilding. The guys have been together for 10 games now, so it's clear that they still don't know each other. That's why we can still lose at home with the Sixers and beat the Heat and Rockets. It's expected. At least, this season we are competing pretty much in every game. No blowouts or game already gone after the first quarter. This is the first step for a team that's rebuilding. Next year, with some better players and more experience from our guys, we will win a lot more of these games. I really believe next season will be the season when we will see improvements in the W/L record.
So, in my opinion, coach Malone is just doing fine. Give him time to work with this guys and with the ones that will be here in the future. For the first time since Adelman we seem to have a legit coach on our bench.

 

[Siranthony]

The Jury is still out on Malone. I will say I see improvement with Cousins. That is the most important thing, to get our franchise player to live up to his potential. Otherwise the team is inconsistent.

Malone talks a good game at times. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Mike Nolan talked a great game but it did not transfer into wins. Mike Singletary also talked a lot in the media. Personally I don't see anything constructive in calling your players out in the media. I like the way Jim Harbagh always presents a message of team unity and never criticizes his players in public. I also know there is more than one way to do things and everyone is different. Time will tell.