I would like to see what it is like to be a Kings fan without Geoff Petrie. I know he is sort of beloved around here but I don't truly see why. He picked up Vlade and was stubborn about not letting Webber go. I give him kudos on both counts.
That's about it. Beyond that he's been lets say a competent but not sensational drafter (Douby anyone?) maybe better in the second round than in the first. His "core of Miller, Bibby, Peja" was an absolutely epic fail. His long range strategy???? Webber for moveable parts... EPIC FAIL. Had he been truly an extraordinary strategist he'd have just gone down with the Webber ship and absorbed the contract... that certainly would have been a better path than dragging us all through the Kenny Thomas era.
Beyond that, his tenure has been extremely ordinary and I don't understand why people are so very concerned that we might lose him. It is actually not easy for me to imagine a DIFFERENT gm who would do worse since the Webber/Vlade acquisition.
I hope he does go to the Blazers and gets Adelman back... that would be nice and nostalgic and I'd root for them. But Geoff Petrie is not a mythic figure to me - he's a very very average gm who was brilliantly correct at the end of the 90's (that's a long long time ago)
How easily we discard a man's accomplishments. This is a man that inherited a team very similar to the current team in wins and losses, but with a little less talent. A team that hadn't been in the playoffs since its first year here. He drafted Brian Grant in the first round, and Michael Smith and Funderburk in the second round. And that team made the playoffs. He shocked the fanbase and was booed when he walked out on the stage and announced he had drafted Peja, instead of the fan favorite, the great John Wallace. By the way, its rumored that Petrie's first choice was a kid named Kobe Bryant, who was taken one pick before the Kings pick.
He traded to aquire Doug Christie, and made what at the time, was a somewhat unpopular trade for Chris Webber, who said he'd never tie his shoes in sacramento. In freeagency he signed an aging center that some thought was on the downside of his career. He went against the odds, and drafted a very controversal player in Jason Williams. A player that turned into a nightly highlight reel on ESPN. He then turned J. Will into Mike Bibby. He made the deal to bring Bobby Jackson to the Kings.
And yes, there was a constant turnover of support players from Jon Barry to Mad Max and Tony Delk. Along with the more permanent Scott Pollard and L. Funderburke. All of this wasn't the meanderings of an average competent GM. This was a GM with a plan, and the freedom to excute that plan, along with the capspace and the owners open wallet. Can we honestly say the same now? He did win GM of the year twice.
Yeah, I know, what have you done lately? Other than Tyreke, Cousins, and trading for Thornton, not much. Strangely enough, thats the core of our team. What an odd coincidence.
I'm not saying it might not be time for a change. Maybe it is! Maybe Petrie is tired of swimming upstream with the Maloof's. But change can mean a lot of different things, and it just might not be the change your looking for. Yeah, Petrie has made some mistakes. Name me one GM that hasn't. But compared to the GM's that preceded him in sacramento, he looks like a genius.
How about Dick Motta in 1990. He had four 1st round picks and drafted Lionel Simmons (good pick, but a no brainer), Travis Mays, Duane Causwell, and Anthony Bonner. With Bonner being the 23rd pick in the draft. He ended up with one good player in Simmons, who unfortunately suffered knee injuries a few years later. But he passed on such players as, Tyrone Hill, Terry Mills, Dee Brown, Alaa Abdelnaby, Elden Campbell, Toni Kukoc, Jud Buechler, Antonio Davis, and Cedric Ceballos. As a matter of fact, after Simmons, just about any three names on that list could have been on the Kings.
My point is, be careful what you wish for. By the way, holding up Douby as your example is ridiculous. Yeah, we get it, he was a bad choice. One bad choice! You want me to list all the good choices? Because its a long list from Brian Grant to Demarcus Cousins.
