TheRoyalist
G-League
Ps, having a new name (McNair) to drop for blame/wait and see goal post moving is part of the tactic lol.
Conversely he may have maxed Fox out because he’s a max playerHe maxed out Fox if reports are to be believed, under what appears to simply be the ‘small market clings to anything it can get to say yes’ logic.
Really, then explain letting Bogi walk.He maxed out Fox if reports are to be believed, under what appears to simply be the ‘small market clings to anything it can get to say yes’ logic.
So in your world the Kings leaked the deal ending up with them getting nothing..... and losing an asset for nothing. That makes a whole lot of nonsense.Thanks for the reminder - letting Bogdanovic walk for nothing, potentially while leaking it out to get the Bucks in trouble and risk Giannis not staying in a smaller market team (potentially helping the Warriors in fact in the process), was also dumb and potentially collusive, yes. Anyhoo, Fox is not a max player if Westbrook is not a max player. And more importantly, overpaying Fox early like this is out of fear and "best we can do" mentality. The Walton problem was obvious last year and still, and the Hield move was due last year, not now. But instead, salary protection weak moves that LOOK like spending when, in fact, the centrally conservative logic to the assessments and long term tie-downs are the bigger tell. Not that constant re-dos and hirings and firings are much better. But McNair is the latest "big move" by Vivek that doesn't actually change the on-court at all, not some "new era" of promise and potential. Hearing McNair speak, it's clear he has no power and no clue. He's just a numbers guy.
I'm a big fan of both Fox and Westbrook actually, as super 6th man scorers in the sort of game that works today. Westbrook certainly was a max guy at every point he was extended, Fox is obviously a player more would bet on now given youth and upside/potential for improvement. But for all the clever natural great stuff you get, he's a sort of dumb, ball dominant guy in many ways as well. When the speed wears off, it will really be a mess. That's a long ways off, so for now the point is that the Kings got handcuffed by the player.
Now look.... if Buddy Hield is getting traded soon, this can all be moot and far more manageable. Likewise, if Bagley is going soon. Supposedly Vivek was into the pace and space idea, but the team systems are not at all smart enough for that, nor is this roster (Hield seems like a good guy, but he's a chucker, not a technician like Haliburton- Fox is also reliant on athleticism and improvisation, not a deeper game plan and strategy approach). Vivek's team doesn't actually excel at what he supposedly desires to build. Bagley's an idiot predicated on athleticism, too. I like Holmes' skill set and heart though, but he's not a frontline centerpiece. Barnes is super smart and obviously can thrive in today's smarter game designs (he's a champ because of that, in fact). He's an easy mark as an overpay, too, except for how he's on a shorter deal and still plays smart ball every night.
But all the signals from the team and its apologists say they're not able to get over it and put together an actual plan. McNair is a math nerd nothing burger with no authority whatsoever lol. May as well let Dumars be the public front man at this point. Maybe it's Rico Hines making the moves. Walton and Gentry- does Vivek have anyone's number outside the Warriors rolodex and Silicon Valley squash club gab sessions? The failed retreads up and down this lost organization still, my goodness.
Some Hot Takes are on the board again. Always good entertainment
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McNair took the job he could get at the time, jumping off a sinking ship. Doubt he’s here in three years.
If this is the case, then Vivek hasn't learned anything. Remember, unlike his other hires, this one was done with an outside firm doing the vetting.
But in full disclosure, if it happened, it would not shock me. I consider Vivek the weak link, the wildcard.
In terms of him keeping the team in Sacramento, he was in the right place at the right time. The underlying story there was the battle between business elites versus political elites but that is old news and no longer relevant in any manner.That- corporate vetting hire approach- would be a tell for me. It's how the league pitched several team sales, as well. Weirdly, such handling not mentioned in many others. It's a corporate leadership optic thing. Let's hope it's a minor sign that the Vivek tenure could be in trouble, but actually it's even more likely he did this to find yet another finger to point away from him. He was hand-selected by the league BOG to take the Kings and his group was presented a really shady offer-up opportunity. Lots of "handling" in this Kings era. It would be good to sense that there's something else happening and this is not all just placeholder team prop-up stuff (Pelicans are spending a lot to never take the next step, too, but that high prices star power sure gets a lot of media love and marketing support).
Whereas, the Timberwolves' endless atrocity smells much more like organically autonomous terrible team management, as a point of comparison lol. Without checking into it, I'd be shocked if the Timberwolves' constant sale noise has ever involved an outside firm for vetting to date, but look at that: Rosas from the HOU tree as well- was he vetted? Taylor is an old school terrible old boys' club owner lol. At any rate, McNair is a classic analytics-era on-paper guy, so he SHOULD show up in a silly HR-firm approach.
I guess the main reason to be proactively frustrated here is one I insincerely painted over a bit before:
Letting a FA walk is a GREAT power move, if that's your actual plan, and even if DiVicenzo is a super interesting piece. But it's not being presented in a way that could help anyone discern an actual strategy or philosophy from McNair. He's just- ON PAPER- the polar opposite of Divac/Dumars. Nothing else stands out at all. Bogdanovic is the better piece over Hield in a better balanced team and spreadsheet. Bjelica is of interest- minor interest- to contenders because of what he can do in a smarter team play scenario. He's been atrocious for sure this year because 1. The thing is done for him in SAC, his closest team culture connection gone to ATL, and 2. The team's approach is not a good fit for him anyway now. I'm sure his agent wants to get him paid and that helped Vivek close up shop long before McNair even got into town in Fall 2020 (come on folks- he hadn't even moved to SAC at all until, what, New Year's? There's no relationship here).
But my guess: Bjelica's agent talked contract for him, too, didn't get the answer he wanted, and so you then saw his other client on the team, Bogdanovic, taken away from Kings control right away to secure the bag for his guy. ATL isn't a better winning opportunity at all, and that GM is just trying to show up other teams with his FA gets and ride the media darling crap ball Trae Young's FT technique to incremental steps... while letting the talented young big, Collins, go in a wash of bad blood because the actual team culture can't sustain big personalities the way champs have to. But Bogdanovic could definitely get paid. Like McNair landing here, it ws the most lucrative option in a very weird, tough year for professional development and financial decisions.
That all spells only one thing: Vivek's dirty hands and failure to build any actual league relationships off the spreadsheet/outside his fantasy land of coaching his kid's basketball team "that one time." Not to salvage the agent at all here- he's got a bad rep and whatever.
But if it was never going to be possible to roll with Haliburton and DiVicenzo and shift some major scoring focus to a wing and a running big due to the Fox investment, this shines light on all the other roster pieces that go next. Sean Deveney ran a tough piece a couple weeks ago in Forbes on McNair's company man, optimistic hire-date talk and how the cupboard is, in fact, quite bare. Cory Joseph may just be a piece the team is stuck with for the duration. Barnes, too. Bagley could be dumped, but Vivek is too stubborn and McNair can't do anything about it. No idea what you do with Hield now, but any expiring would do at this point. And then there's Walton: lame duck extraordinaire.
Tank. Cut bait. Except no one seems to be making moves in this very weird year, even though the money is all fractional per actual revenue. Luxury tax profits, therefore, will be next-to-nil and teams that count on that share are trying to move guys like crazy from the sound of it.
Nah, Blob at least had a consistent pattern of being a self proclaimed oracle, one of self-greatness. Not a meandering river with viscous undercurrents.Wondering if Blob changed his screen name.
This seems to be devolving into commentary on posters, which is a commonplace in some of these communities, I know.
Look, McNair is a nothing burger- Rosas is worse- but apparently was the right sort of optics hire with which to treadmill indefinitely.
Walton somehow lucked into three cushy high paying California jobs in a row and has very little to show for it overall.
Same guy at the top for all of this, as you know.
The consistent take here is that the league is "handling" team sales, arena development expectations, and more in several clear cases and has ineffective leadership at all of those same spots with the clock running and all the excuses in the world- from various angles, flexible to suit the underlying apologism as needed- baked in already.
Show us the wins. Show us the change. Show us they're not just Washington Generals "entertainment" props. Silver floated some expansion noise and numbers, and it's really clear that the Wolves can't be moved because they won't come in at the right price tag for the collusive shell game being run by the BOG, whose brand is gambling revenue, merchandise sales, and "It's a Business" asset pump and dump games, not the most competitive basketball possible across the entire league.![]()
He impressed me with the draft. I liked his signings (which is to say most were clearly done to get us through a season of little importance where he can make big moves next year). I never expected him to hire a coach out of the gate but no GM would ever take a job with a losing team without the ability to pick a coach so I trust he has a plan. I can't give him a grade because I think his work is only getting started but I am just flabbergasted at some posts. Especially the one about Fox being 6th man material. Maybe in a 20 team NBA where 1 million dollars was a top salary. That was 40 years ago though.
He impressed me with the draft. I liked his signings (which is to say most were clearly done to get us through a season of little importance where he can make big moves next year). I never expected him to hire a coach out of the gate but no GM would ever take a job with a losing team without the ability to pick a coach so I trust he has a plan. I can't give him a grade because I think his work is only getting started but I am just flabbergasted at some posts. Especially the one about Fox being 6th man material. Maybe in a 20 team NBA where 1 million dollars was a top salary. That was 40 years ago though.
You have now called McNair a nothing-burger twice now. He may end up being just that but showed himself proactive with Bogdanovic. I don’t know what powers he does or does not have. A mark against him is what he described and what is being played on the court are not one and the same. A mark for him is the lack of leaks. Even if that is frustrating.This seems to be devolving into commentary on posters, which is a commonplace in some of these communities, I know.
Look, McNair is a nothing burger- Rosas is worse- but apparently was the right sort of optics hire with which to treadmill indefinitely.
Walton somehow lucked into three cushy high paying California jobs in a row and has very little to show for it overall.
Same guy at the top for all of this, as you know.
The consistent take here is that the league is "handling" team sales, arena development expectations, and more in several clear cases and has ineffective leadership at all of those same spots with the clock running and all the excuses in the world- from various angles, flexible to suit the underlying apologism as needed- baked in already.
Show us the wins. Show us the change. Show us they're not just Washington Generals "entertainment" props. Silver floated some expansion noise and numbers, and it's really clear that the Wolves can't be moved because they won't come in at the right price tag for the collusive shell game being run by the BOG, whose brand is gambling revenue, merchandise sales, and "It's a Business" asset pump and dump games, not the most competitive basketball possible across the entire league.![]()
Thanks for the reminder - letting Bogdanovic walk for nothing, potentially while leaking it out to get the Bucks in trouble and risk Giannis not staying in a smaller market team (potentially helping the Warriors in fact in the process), was also dumb and potentially collusive, yes. Anyhoo, Fox is not a max player if Westbrook is not a max player. And more importantly, overpaying Fox early like this is out of fear and "best we can do" mentality. The Walton problem was obvious last year and still, and the Hield move was due last year, not now. But instead, salary protection weak moves that LOOK like spending when, in fact, the centrally conservative logic to the assessments and long term tie-downs are the bigger tell. Not that constant re-dos and hirings and firings are much better. But McNair is the latest "big move" by Vivek that doesn't actually change the on-court at all, not some "new era" of promise and potential. Hearing McNair speak, it's clear he has no power and no clue. He's just a numbers guy.
I'm a big fan of both Fox and Westbrook actually, as super 6th man scorers in the sort of game that works today. Westbrook certainly was a max guy at every point he was extended, Fox is obviously a player more would bet on now given youth and upside/potential for improvement. But for all the clever natural great stuff you get, he's a sort of dumb, ball dominant guy in many ways as well. When the speed wears off, it will really be a mess. That's a long ways off, so for now the point is that the Kings got handcuffed by the player.
Now look.... if Buddy Hield is getting traded soon, this can all be moot and far more manageable. Likewise, if Bagley is going soon. Supposedly Vivek was into the pace and space idea, but the team systems are not at all smart enough for that, nor is this roster (Hield seems like a good guy, but he's a chucker, not a technician like Haliburton- Fox is also reliant on athleticism and improvisation, not a deeper game plan and strategy approach). Vivek's team doesn't actually excel at what he supposedly desires to build. Bagley's an idiot predicated on athleticism, too. I like Holmes' skill set and heart though, but he's not a frontline centerpiece. Barnes is super smart and obviously can thrive in today's smarter game designs (he's a champ because of that, in fact). He's an easy mark as an overpay, too, except for how he's on a shorter deal and still plays smart ball every night.
But all the signals from the team and its apologists say they're not able to get over it and put together an actual plan. McNair is a math nerd nothing burger with no authority whatsoever lol. May as well let Dumars be the public front man at this point. Maybe it's Rico Hines making the moves. Walton and Gentry- does Vivek have anyone's number outside the Warriors rolodex and Silicon Valley squash club gab sessions? The failed retreads up and down this lost organization still, my goodness.
You strike me as another of those posters that pops up claiming to be a Kings fan, and then criticizes everyone in the organization from the owner down to the last player sitting on the bench. I immediately wonder how you can call yourself a Kings fan when you don't seem to like anyone related to the team. There's a name for that, it's called a troll. Don't bother responding to my post, because I'm putting you on my block list. Your post by the way is total nonsense and a lot of it defies logic. Have a nice day!
Wouldn't it only be slander if it's untrue?It is waaaaay too early to judge McNair.
I’m here for the Vivek slander though!
The spot I'll float some optimism is that recent games with weird starting lineup changes or playing time suddenly for guys who hadn't been getting as much signals it's coming up on actual trade and decision making time.
This is what we get for making fun of Kyrie thinking the earth is flat.Some Hot Takes are on the board again. Always good entertainment