But would Rick be able to make mike, artest, and Brad not struggle as much as they did shooting the ball and make them stop shooting when they are died cold?
Yes. With the possible exception of Ron.
Rick is one of the preeminent offensive coaches of the last 20 years in the NBA. Peopel can whimper all they want about defesne or whatever, but he absolutely insisted on offesnive execution and intelligence, and it was reflected in his teams.
Would Rick somehow teach everybody other then Artest to play D and rebound? Would these guys be able to make a damm freethrow when it counted?
Nope, but he had the widsom last year to annoint Ron as the team leader and let RON dirve the guys to defend better and with more energy. Was never about Rick. About hsi ability to step out of the way and let leaders emerge amongst his players.
Would corliss even get playing time when he got none last season?
Doubtful. And it would not matter much if the guys ahead of him weren't all underacheiving. Corliss plays well or does not play well = no real difference in wins/losses. He's playing well this season and we are losing more games than we ahve at any point since the last time he played well.
Would he be able to surpass the 10, 11 teams who are pretty much better then the kings?
There aren't 10, 11 teams better than the Kings talentwise out West. There are a good clear 6-7 now though. And what you have is 10, 11, 12, 13 teams PLAYING better than the Kings. But that's an entirely different equation. In any case, we would do no better than get the #7 or #8 and get squished again, but that's the talent. But thsi team went 26-14 under Rick with basically the current lineup. Its now 17-26 under Muss, and that's with a full training camp.
