John Salmons

[Cal-Kings]

I agree wholeheartedly with this.

OK, now I know I'm not out in left field...

 

[Jerryaki]

Go ahead, make trades, develop young players, search the draft. Do all that.

Just do it behind the scenes.

do you feel that the management has been rebuilding over the past few years, or do you think they have been retooling while hoping to win?

if it's the latter, and you agree with it (regardless of whether it's visible to the public or not) because they should be trying to win, that's what i disagree with. we continue to move sideways because we're too afraid to lose, end result being we suck and don't really make any difference in the playoff landscape. i don't think they've been trying to rebuild, i think they've been trying to retool on the fly.

i gotta tell you, the attitude that i feel is emanating from the top is one of being clueless. for the past three summers, we have not prepped for free agency with cap space, ending up with mediocre role players. we've drafted three guys in similar positions, rather than trying to move up in the draft to try and fill a need. we claim that peja, brad, and bibby are our big three, and then ship peja off. this year, artest is the face of the franchise, and we'll see in a few weeks if this is another gaffe by mgmt.

now, i don't know that they're just sitting on their hands back there in their cushy offices. but then, no one knows if they're not, either. worst is probably if they are trying, but are failing in making any changes.

management's plans are failing (failing because we continue to decline year after year), so i could care less right now what they do behind the scenes, because what's going on in front of us is a train wreck. and i guess i'm the opposite of you, i don't like the shell game, i don't like them conning me with a gleaming gold 6 in front of arco and telling me everything's honky dory. we'll figure it out and don't need to be spoon fed lies, we can handle a rebuilding effort; we can't, however, handle ineptitude.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

John Salmons: A bargain at $5 million a year, in this NBA day and age. Reason being, he's young, consistant, a consumate team player, and still getting better. This was a good move made last summer by Petrie.(even in the middle of a few real BAD moves that he's made the past few seasons)

 

[Bricklayer]

John Salmons: A bargain at $5 million a year, in this NBA day and age. Reason being, he's young, consistant, a consumate team player, and still getting better. This was a good move made last summer by Petrie.(even in the middle of a few real BAD moves that he's made the past few seasons)

This is the interesting part of the whole thing, because in Philly he was anything but -- almost a pouty cancer who slouched around halfheartedly, made passive waves at his man as he flew on by him to the hoop, and got notiorious last year in particular for making stupid plays down the stretch to lose tight games. Still having a hard time entirely trusting him because I've known what he's been -- this rock solid (aside from his continued wild inconsistency at times) Salmons is a new entity. Is it a permanent change?

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

This is the interesting part of the whole thing, because in Philly he was anything but -- almost a pouty cancer who slouched around halfheartedly, made passive waves at his man as he flew on by him to the hoop, and got notiorious last year in particular for making stupid plays down the stretch to lose tight games. Still having a hard time entirely trusting him because I've known what he's been -- this rock solid (aside from his continued wild inconsistency at times) Salmons is a new entity. Is it a permanent change?

I'd probably be leaning on the 'yes' answer, as far as if it is a permanent change. I mean, when you go from playing BEHIND Allen Iverson, who butts heads with young players for most of his career, you would almost certainly have a loss of confidence. I think it was more of a confidence thing than anything else. Remember, the only team that Allen was a team player on was the squad that went to the Finals that had all VETERANS for the most part...i.e: Dikembe, Snow, Geiger, Hill, McKie, Kukoc, etc. All the teams before that, Allen...even going back to his first years, with Bradley, Stackhouse, etc...no respect. With Allen, it seems its 'you respect him and know your role' or you get beat, mentally.

 

[Sptsjunkie]

The NBA draft is a crap-shoot more than any other draft.

There is usually one to three sure things and then you're just flying blind. Typically the next big thing is a pick around 10-16 and just happens into the right situation to let them shine.

The draft is and always has been pretty suspect.

I mean, would anyone think Martin was in the teens?

Sorry Roman, but I believe exactly the opposite. You are right that the NBA draft is not sure thing. But both the MLB and NFL drafts are far more suspect. The MLB draft is a complete crapshoot. The A's have leveled that off somewhat with the Moneyball approach, but baseball is still the primary sport where nearly everyone in the 1st round can be a bust and a number of players taken after the 20th round become stars. Football is better than baseball, but suffers from a much worse bust early boom late rate than basketball.