Kings Plan On Searching For New GM, Coach In Offseason

[FaStRmAn]

I try to look at the economic settings, players we have, future picks, things like that before judging the FO when it comes to improvement from say last year.

I also try to be honest about the coaching performance as well.

When you say "Karl isn't the problem" it hints at absolutes, its possible he makes a situation worse, or cannot make improvements on what we have. It's quite possible we need several things and he is rather useless in improving the situation himself.

This is what we have.

A "debatable" franchise player in Cousins, which I consider a legit franchise player but put it on the debatable level with all his critics here.
A solid role player draft pick in WCS.
A good valued contract for a "second tier guy" in Rudy
One of the best back up pg's on a cheap contract in Collison
Experienced role players in KK and Marco. KK contract is very movable, a Marco's may not be the best around but its not a lost cause either.
An expiring pg.
A underwhelming guy we've been trying to develop for a couple of years in Ben, who is at least cheap, with potential upside.

Economically we are sound, we can move just about anyone we wish without much trouble besides maybe Marco, I assume even he is, but find contract criticism there fair.

Karl has not improved anything.
A rookie GM who has not "ruined" us, and seems to of at least treated people decently and kept this place from blowing up.

All Vivek needs to do is get the GM call right this off season, who then follows up with the right coach. And he's got Vlade to help him make those calls. Vlade is a good networker, knows people, is probably talking with just about every organization he can on road trips with the team.

So the new GM should have a handle on what he has, how it mixes, some insight from Vlade to get things done right.

There is no new immanent doom now that we didn't have before, our options are more flexible now than they were before.

You could argue we wasted a year, but I'm not sure that's the case if we get the right people in the off season.

I agree that Karl is not improving anything. However we can not lay the blame 100% at his feet. If Malone had not done what he did and showed the fans that this team COULD compete, then I'd say that the coach is completely irrelevant. But the fact is that Vlade has the reigns now, and he does have options. They need to bring in new players to replace the players who are not succeeding for whatever reason. They desperately need a 2 guard who can defend his own shadow. McLemore isn't the answer (at least here anyway). Start with what you can fix. Go get a decent 2 guard and see how the season progresses. If it stays the same or gets worse, THEN make changes in the off season like stable franchises do.

 

[ninjabiscuit]

Considering previous Woj articles and how things played out I take this latest report with a grain of salt. It does make Karl a lame duck if true.

The issues that concern me are Vlade not having a contract beyond this season. Also the leaks have started again. Vlade and company ran a tight ship for the most part until the last few weeks. Then informed "sources" started up the rumor mill again. Is this calculated or just loose lips?

If this is all true how can a significant trade be made? The new Coach and GM would want to have input on the player selection. Future changes should be put on hold. Outside of a solid defensive wing in the Doug Christie mold, 6'6" defensive stud with skills, which we all agree is needed

I don't understand why things that are reported by Woj have to be considered leaks within our organization. In this case, there are two other possibilities: first, writers can make things up completely, although I don't think that's what's going on here.

The second possibility is that Woj could have talked to one or more of the people Vlade has talked with. Or Woj could have talked to a reporter who has talked to one of those people. That's just how information spreads. It doesn't have to be the fault of someone within the Kings organization, much less a malicious figure skulking around in the shadows of Sleep Train.

 

[Iced Espresso]

I agree that Karl is not improving anything. However we can not lay the blame 100% at his feet. If Malone had not done what he did and showed the fans that this team COULD compete, then I'd say that the coach is completely irrelevant. But the fact is that Vlade has the reigns now, and he does have options. They need to bring in new players to replace the players who are not succeeding for whatever reason. They desperately need a 2 guard who can defend his own shadow. McLemore isn't the answer (at least here anyway). Start with what you can fix. Go get a decent 2 guard and see how the season progresses. If it stays the same or gets worse, THEN make changes in the off season like stable franchises do.

Vlade said he wouldn't make a trade just to make a trade.

There's something to consider with that line of thought. We are flexible at the moment, you want to stay that way unless you truly can get the proper long term solution. It may or may not be possible by this deadline.

So don't make it worse.

This is the first time in probably a decade we've got an owner who will spend, and every piece of ours can be moved with relative ease.

If we have to wait until the off season so be it.

This is a critical time, we need to be potentially patient until the off season.

No deal is better than a bad deal.

 

[ninjabiscuit]

Don't be shocked if Vlade is fired at the same time Karl is. Why not? Vlade's job was to make the playoffs. He failed. That's what goes on in Vivek's mind, not mine, to be clear. Vivek fired everyone else still around to blame for hiring Karl, and Vivek is not going to fire himself.

That leaves Vlade, who one way or another, will lose his job. He might keep another one in the organization, but this season's Vlade and Karl experiment is just about over. Karl will be gone, Vlade will move into the ceremonial role most assumed he had in the first place.

Vivek prefers to fail quickly. And apparently, often. He thinks he can wipe the slate clean, and try something new each season. That's actually an improvement. He used to think he can wipe the slate clean mid season. Now it's only between seasons.

But let's all buy the local media narrative, that if we Kings' fans would just put blind faith in a GM who is not the GM and a coach who the players hate and was hired by, uh, not really sure who, it will all work out.

Let's ignore that the only reason this franchise has been remotely relevant the last 5 seasons is Demarcus Cousins and start putting blind faith in Karl and Vlade and cast that scrub all star to the curb. He makes his ever revolving cast of misfit teammates sad and stuff.

I think that if Vivek gets rid of Vlade, the other owners will do whatever they need to do to get Vivek replaced. Vlade has been the one good puzzle piece in that front office.

 

[ninjabiscuit]

There's that blind faith needed to be a King's fan.

Yeah, everything is under control. Vlade is here with mountains of experience to fall back on, all those coaching and GM searches he's done in the past. Forgot, he's got Peja! Shoot. Everything really is great.

So all he has to do is hire a GM and coach and trade multiple players demanding out while his owner demands he makes the playoffs NOW while Vlade's own contract is about to expire?

Good luck with that.

There's that endless negativity that seems to show up all the time as well. We're all going to die, there's no hope. And luckily, we have people who seem to enjoy saying so over and over on message boards. So useful!

 

[swisshh]

This isn't much a change, in regards to the GM thing. They were looking for someone to step in as the regular GM with Vlade overseeing, but settled on letting Mike Bratz handle it for this season. Petrie was President of Operations as well, with a small team under him. Expect Vlade to fill out his small team in the off-season. Cap guys, etc.

 

[chasen4r1]

This isn't much a change, in regards to the GM thing. They were looking for someone to step in as the regular GM with Vlade overseeing, but settled on letting Mike Bratz handle it for this season. Petrie was President of Operations as well, with a small team under him. Expect Vlade to fill out his small team in the off-season. Cap guys, etc.

Yup, this is exactly how I see it. If there's anything to say about this, is it's a good thing. Vlade had a great off season of pickups, has dealt with more conflict than most GMs do in a season, and now he's bolstering his staff with someone qualified to deal with Salary Cap and CBA related issues. This is a good thing, not something to worry about.

 

[ArcoKings]

If the article is true then perhaps it was Vlade that approached Vivek and told him that the GM role is way over his head. The article says that both Vivek and Vlade are searching for a new GM. I assume a GM must know most or all of the intricacies that are involved in managing a professional sports team. It's not an easy job and there are not too many openings.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I just want only Vivek players here. Then he's out of scapegoats. That's what I want.

In one way or another, there has been a great deal of rooting for failure here in Sacramento over the past several years.

Some of it makes decent sense: Root for the team to fail, so we will get a better draft pick, we will draft a better player, and we will succeed.

Some of it makes a bit less sense, but some sense nevertheless: Root for Player X to fail, so Player X will be traded or leave in free agency and we can get a better player. Root for Coach Y to fail, so that Coach Y will be fired and we can get a better coach. Root for General Manager Z to fail, so that General Manager Z will get fired and we can get a better GM.

But although this is the logical extension of it, I think it has pushed past sense: Root for Owner to fail...but we're not getting a new owner. To the extent that the owner's policies to build a team fail, the team fails. There's not a good outcome here. It's not like he's going to suddenly sell the team. Rooting against the owner really comes down to cutting off your nose to spite your face. And of course, by all accounts this year Vivek has stopped meddling so much in basketball decisions - so to the extent that his failure could serve as a lesson and cause him to trust to his basketball people...it looks like he's already doing that.

I'm not a Vivek guy by any means. While I'm grateful to him for keeping the team in Sacramento, I have a laundry list of complaints about the guy. But the fact of the matter is, he's not going anywhere in the foreseeable future. So I want him to succeed, because I want the team to succeed. I get a lot more gratification from watching the Kings win than watching Vivek fail.

 

[Jerichoholic]

I think this whole searching for a new general manager thing is way overblown. The team is not going to replace Divac, he has made good moves so far and all indications are that he gets along well with ownership and the players. All the team is probably going to do is get an assistant for him that has a background with the salary cap and dealing with contracts, a lawyer type. They already have Bratz who is more of a scouting type and Divac who does some scouting, but is probably more of the salesman, convincing players to sign here and dealing with people such as players, agents, and other general managers. The last piece of the puzzle is a numbers guy, all makes sense.

As for searching for a new coach that would be an embarrassment. If Karl is not the guy then fire him now, don't leave him out there to have to deal with a horrible second half of the year just to fire him a few months later, he deserves more respect than that. Don't tell me that the only reason Karl is still here is because he won't accept a buyout either, if that was the case his position would be no different at the end of the year than it is now so that makes no sense.

I know it's easy to blame, we have been searching for answers for a long time now. My position now is the same as it always has been, this is a players' league and the problems fall on the players. We will continue this same pattern of getting talented players or players with good potential, them playing their worst basketball, then leaving for a new team where they play better basketball. If we trade Koufos and/or McLemore they will play well and the players we get will not play well. We will either blame Divac for a bad trade or we will blame Karl for not coaching them correctly. However I know that Divac has made good moves and I know that Karl can coach based on his career. We will only get better when major moves are made.

The only other alternative I see a team with Cousins and Gay as your best scorers is if we slow down to an incredibly slow pace. That way they can play isolation basketball and the team doesn't have to run as much and get beat in transition. This team does not have the players to run a high pace, wrong skill sets, low effort, and low energy.

 

[FaStRmAn]

Vlade said he wouldn't make a trade just to make a trade.

There's something to consider with that line of thought. We are flexible at the moment, you want to stay that way unless you truly can get the proper long term solution. It may or may not be possible by this deadline.

So don't make it worse.

This is the first time in probably a decade we've got an owner who will spend, and every piece of ours can be moved with relative ease.

If we have to wait until the off season so be it.

This is a critical time, we need to be potentially patient until the off season.

No deal is better than a bad deal.

I agree NO deal is better than a bad deal.... That Victor Olidipo deal I see floating around looks VERY appealing. Good player, good defender... 2 guard...

 

[Ryan]

What's Geoff Petrie doing nowadays? Does he consider himself happily retired? Maybe one last rodeo in his mid-60s? Does he still live in Sacramento area?

I am 100% okay with this move.

 

[Glenn]

I guess I just never heard that the plan was for Vlade to be the GM for just 1 year. Was this common knowledge or are there other people like me who thought the GM duties for the future were Vlades?

Somewhere I read a quote of Vlade that he said he took the position as a favor to the Kings. It didn't seem like something he was totally comfortable with. As far as I am concerned, he has done far more than I thought possible.

 

[Sac.1989]

Vivek you know how you make this right once and for all.

1) you give Masai Ujiri a 300-400% raise on his current remuneration and add heavy incentives based on performance to bring him to us from Toronto
2) you get out of his way - you have hired him to do a job, you do not unduly influence him
3) you have him mentor Vlade

It all starts at the top and this hire is the foundation of our success for the next few decades - are you listening Vivek - you cant screw this up

the GM hire is huge. points 1 (whoever it may be) and point 2 and what will give us future success.

 

[Bricklayer]

Vivek you know how you make this right once and for all.

1) you give Masai Ujiri a 300-400% raise on his current remuneration and add heavy incentives based on performance to bring him to us from Toronto
2) you get out of his way - you have hired him to do a job, you do not unduly influence him
3) you have him mentor Vlade

It all starts at the top and this hire is the foundation of our success for the next few decades - are you listening Vivek - you cant screw this up

the GM hire is huge. points 1 (whoever it may be) and point 2 and what will give us future success.

Oh jesus no.

The Denver architect is not what we need.

I'm perfectly fine with what Vlade is doing frankly. We don't need anything splahsy or revolutionary. Just an experienced technician. Hopefully one with no smallball roots whatsoever. If Karl is done this summer, now is the chance to kill the pace is king thinking once and for all. The Spurs crank out an endless parade of assistant coaches and front office people to populate the league. Go hire one of them.

 

[Sac.1989]

Oh jesus no.

The Denver architect is not what we need.

I'm perfectly fine with what Vlade is doing frankly. We don't need anything splahsy or revolutionary. Just an experienced technician. Hopefully one with no smallball roots whatsoever. If Karl is done this summer, now is the chance to kill the pace is king thinking once and for all. The Spurs crank out an endless parade of assistant coaches and front office people to populate the league. Go hire one of them.

I like what Masai has done however a Spurs disciple would be great. Lock one up in the FO and one as coach.

I do feel like Vivek will be looking for a name here though - as much with Karl he wants an established name coming into the fray here.

 

[kingsboi]

Kings will search for a new GM tells me they plan to assign Vlade back to his original position and that is strictly being a President of Basketball operations and having a GM to decide together on the transactions. Let's just hope this time around the GM comes before the head coach does. The team can play fast paced for all I care this season as long as the losses continue to stock pile. Talent is a necessity on this roster.

 

[NewArena]

I didn't get that at all from the article. I read it as Vlade remaining President of Basketball Operations and hiring a GM whose role will primarily be managing the cap, working the numbers and doing a lot of the legwork while Vlade remains the head decision maker.

Now if that's not the case and Vivek really is so impatient that he'd fire both Karl and Vlade this offseason then the minority owners are right and he needs to be ousted from the position of principal owner.

I'd like to think that he's smart enough to learn from his mistakes and that he's realized that outside of perhaps Mark Cuban (who did win a title) the best owners are the ones who put their basketball people in a position to succeed and then stay out of the way. IMO Ranadive has done a very good job on the non-basketball side of running the Kings but he needs to stay out of the basketball side of things.

i agree with every word of this. hiring a GM doesn't take away Vlade's power

 

[Bricklayer]

I like what Masai has done however a Spurs disciple would be great. Lock one up in the FO and one as coach.

Not as coach. They are antithesis to how we are constructed. I just want a teamwork pro with experience in a good culture to slide seamlessly into the front office and never be heard from in an individual capacity.

The coach I want to be stylistically compatible however.

 

[NewArena]

Kings will search for a new GM tells me they plan to assign Vlade back to his original position and that is strictly being a President of Basketball operations and having a GM to decide together on the transactions. Let's just hope this time around the GM comes before the head coach does. The team can play fast paced for all I care this season as long as the losses continue to stock pile. Talent is a necessity on this roster.

I think Vlade will still handle transactions but the GM will act as an adviser in terms of salary cap and what'll make sense for long term

Of course its all speculation right now though, this yahoo article included

 

[HndsmCelt]

Not as coach. They are antithesis to how we are constructed. I just want a teamwork pro with experience in a good culture to slide seamlessly into the front office and never be heard from in an individual capacity.

The coach I want to be stylistically compatible however.

Reminds me of something a corporate mucky muck once told me. He said the best managers are the guys you completely forget even exist.

 

[steelevt]

I think Vlade will still handle transactions but the GM will act as an adviser in terms of salary cap and what'll make sense for long term

Of course its all speculation right now though, this yahoo article included

Isn't that what bratz or whoever the assistant gm is for?

 

[King Baller]

The only other alternative I see a team with Cousins and Gay as your best scorers is if we slow down to an incredibly slow pace. That way they can play isolation basketball and the team doesn't have to run as much and get beat in transition. This team does not have the players to run a high pace, wrong skill sets, low effort, and low energy.

This along with a great defense is what I would love to see. I agree a slow pace is the way to go with Cousins and Gay.

 

[Bricklayer]

Appears the Nets are scooping my idea, and have already offered newly minted Spurs assistant GM Sean Marks their GM spot.

For all the neato stability we always try to perceive in Spursland, they are practically a farm factory for the rest of the NBA anymore, with a constant churn of guys they come up with, and 2-3 years later somebody takes them. Then they groom another one. Endless cycle.

 

[Sac.1989]

Appears the Nets are scooping my idea, and have already offered newly minted Spurs assistant GM Sean Marks their GM spot.

For all the neato stability we always try to perceive in Spursland, they are practically a farm factory for the rest of the NBA anymore, with a constant churn of guys they come up with, and 2-3 years later somebody takes them. Then they groom another one. Endless cycle.

go get a job there Brick. Take the reigns here in 3 years

 

[Npliam]

Our GM is a Spurs guy and I am pretty happy with the direction of the franchise. To be fair though, I was pretty happy before we hired him though.

 

[ParniValjak]

Appears the Nets are scooping my idea, and have already offered newly minted Spurs assistant GM Sean Marks their GM spot.

For all the neato stability we always try to perceive in Spursland, they are practically a farm factory for the rest of the NBA anymore, with a constant churn of guys they come up with, and 2-3 years later somebody takes them. Then they groom another one. Endless cycle.

Part of the problem leaving everything to the off-season is that we as an organization are missing out on potential candidates. Not that Marks was on our shortlist but still it's one less available candidate.

 

[randymoss1881]

Some of you actually think Vlade won't be here next year. Comical

 

[Siranthony]

Looks like there has been more the the Kings situation than most people know. We did not have the front office personnel to handle the complexities of the NBA? How does that happen really? It sounds like the season was kind of doomed from the beginning. Here everyone was blaming Cousins and Karl and getting rather upset about the situation.

I'm also curious why they are willing to take a bath on Karl's contract? I saw that Karl has a bad knee. He plans on having a knee replacement after the season. I'm sure that could affect his coaching. If he is in pain and/or on medication definitely. So if his knee was bad prior to the season then it seems silly to sign a four year contract. If his knee went bad after then why hold the team to a contract when you are not physically capable of performing your duties? It seems like we signed a very bad contract for someone who has had prior health issues.

I sure hope we can get a real GM and proper front office in place. We need a team that we can have pride in.

I was looking forward to some possible improvements in defense. Seems like a lost cause with Karl being a lame duck. Season is over. Why did they need to tell everyone? Why keep him and then take away any leverage he may have had?

 

[Flopi]

Open letter from Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov : http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-u-...the-owner-of-the-brooklyn-nets-011805013.html

Lessons 2 and 3 should be printed and posted up in Vivek's office...