Marc Stein: Vlade in charge

[The_Jamal]

Even if this is just Vivek scapegoating his underlings, it shows that he (hopefully) learned from his mistake(s).

If its true that he was just led along by Mullin and PDA (which isn't all that unlikely), than we are still in good shape because one of those guys is gone and the other is on the way out.

The FO is actually saying the right things. They need to put their money where their mouth is over the summer, but for the first time in awhile I dont feel like a sucker for feeling a bit optimistic.

At this point, who the hell knows. We've literally heard the entire spectrum has to who's at fault for the Malone debacle from everyone in the FO.

To me, it all comes back to the guy signing the checks, but the advantage of signing the checks is he gets to assign blame to where he sees fit. I suspect that's part of what's going on here. While I was higher on PDA than pretty much everyone here on the board, I just want the FO changes to be done before the off-season begins. So if the plan is to fire him and let Vlade take over, have all that done before we start making draft-picks, trades, etc.

I don't think its too much to ask for our power structure to stay intact more than one freaking season.

 

[Larry David]

Also a negative in my eyes that he's apparently taking little responsibility for what's happened. I don't believe for a second this was all on PDA and Mullin. There's too much smoke suggesting Vivek meddled, from rumors of texting Malone to demanding Royce White play to the draft video and Nik and comments on the style of play he wants and what's transpired in Reno, where I posted a report strongly implying Vivek is the one who has his hands all over Reno, to this whole Sim thing. Does anyone believe it was our scouts who presented Sim to our FO, said we have to sign this guy on ability and bring him along, or would it make more sense there's something to the Indian connection and Vivek pushing for it?

So if Vivek is recognizing errors in judgement and is attempting to repair this FO, move forward, good and we'll all hope for the best. But it's also not about just cleaning out the FO, Vivek himself needs to learn to take a step back which remains to be seen.

Over the long haul, we can't loose. If Vivek is that bad, he'll drag Vlade and the franchise down no matter how good Vlade or our luck is. Because it is Vlade calling the shots, Vivek is out of disposable people to blame, hide behind or fire. He doesn't need to learn a lesson. Whether he fully understands it or not, he's completely tied himself to Vlade's ship. If Vivek helps sink that ship, he doesn't have a lifeboat. The fans and non-KHTK press will loathe and roast him.

It would suck to have to start over again and have Vlade run through the garbage in the process, but this is a fairly all-in-move for an owner on thin ice, no history to rely on, and entering year three. (Sure, Vivek ponied up the money to save us under KJ's plan, but for anything on the court related he has almost nothing to show, and he lit almost all of his savior good will on fire) If things go bad, things get thrown around in the local paper, or there is a firing, the fans will strongly and emotionally side the GM over over owner 100 times out of 100. For an owner, what he's doing is pretty aggressive.

 

[ockingsfan]

Could there be a Geoff Petrie sighting coming?

I could see Vlade turning to GP as a mentor and maybe bring him back as GM, if PDA is let go. Vlade would still have final say, but GP gives him the experience to guide Vlade.

I think GP with an open wallet and not being hogtied by having no money, may be a good voice for Vlade to lean on as he learns the ropes.

One thing also to note, IF Geoff Petrie were to come back for one more "rodeo" with Vlade and the Kings, there would be no "leaks" like we saw with PDA all the time.

GP ran a tight ship and hopefully, Vlade would do the same. IF he were to bring GP back in a FO role, hopefully thing will be done more professionally.

 

[macadocious]

At the end of the day, everyone who is asked why they want to work for the Kings, they say Vivek. So there are obviously a lot of great qualities in him that make people believe in him. What we don't know is if he can transition those qualities to running a basketball franchise. So far, the answer is no. I feel like he has two veteran presences around him (Karl and Vlade (in that order)) that will not bullcrap him or kiss his ass, because they don't need to. The moves on April 14th will be defining for this franchise.

 

[206Fan]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kevin Johnson join the kings once his term is over. The kings are headed in the right direction

 

[Larry David]

I feel like he has two veteran presences around him (Karl and Vlade (in that order)) that will not bullpoopoo him or kiss his ass, because they don't need to.

I disagree with the constant narrative here that Karl will tell Vivek that his ideas are dumb and to go to hell because he had a hot temper and a quick tongue when he was a hot coaching property in the 90s and 00. Karl badly wants to boost his win total and he's out of basketball forever when Vivek first him. He knows he's working his last job and he was most likely humbled by how long it took him to get back / where he had to go after getting canned in Denver. Plus, Malone got fired for doing what is proposed. I would except Karl to try to mold the situation to help the team with tact and politics which includes ass kissing, but I would expect him to tread pretty lightly most of the time.

______

KJ is staying in politics. If he wants an NBA job, it would probably be Adam Silver's very public right hand man or head of the NBAPA if the winds changed (right now, he seems like he's fallen out of favor.)

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kevin Johnson join the kings once his term is over. The kings are headed in the right direction

I get the feeling that Kevin Johnson is going to be running for yet higher political office when he's done as mayor. Joining the Kings is not likely a high priority for him.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I don't think its too much to ask for our power structure to stay intact more than one freaking season.

I don't either. And I put that on Vivek, personally.

 

[funkykingston]

Could there be a Geoff Petrie sighting coming?

I could see Vlade turning to GP as a mentor and maybe bring him back as GM, if PDA is let go. Vlade would still have final say, but GP gives him the experience to guide Vlade.

I think GP with an open wallet and not being hogtied by having no money, may be a good voice for Vlade to lean on as he learns the ropes.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind that. Before Malone was fired I thought it would be a great idea to see if Adelman was interested in (and if Glen Taylor would allow him to take) a Coachie like role in helping the offense become more fluid.

This is essentially the GM equivalent. Geoff's strengths have always been finding talent in the draft, running a tight ship in terms of leaks etc and small trades to upgrade the team with better fitting players, especially the 2nd unit. These are all clearly things this Kings team needs right now. I'd hated that GP almost never got creative on draft day but for all the talk from D'Alessandro the Kings have followed Petrie's playbook the last two drafts, stayed exactly in their spots, selected their guy and gone home anyway.

I'm not glossing over Petrie's missteps but on the whole how many Kings fans wouldn't take Vlade as GM with Petrie as advisor over D'Alessandro as GM with Mullin whispering in his ear?

The philosophies of Malone, Abdur-Rahim, D'Alessandro, and Mullin were vastly different. What kind of offense would they run? How fast would they want to play? What kind of player combinations should be playing? Which players would they target?

This Malone/Shareef and PDA/Mullin rift has been reported on and it has always made sense to me but I've always wondered whether SAR was siding with Malone because he embraced that style of play, or because he thought working hand in hand with the coach was the best way to succeed or because he knew the team didn't have the horses for the grand vision of D'Alessandro & co. Whatever it was that lead to Abdur-Rahim's departure, the fact that he left because he disagreed with his bosses is exhibit A on my list of reasons he should be recruited back if he has the interest.

 

[IfAt1st]

If Valde isn't up to the task, Vivek will: (1) have allowed DMC, Sacramento 1st franchise player since Webber, to get away; and (2) eventually need to fire Vlade, the most beloved player in Sacramento's history within his first 5-6 years. Based upon those two punches to the gut and this year, I cannot comprehend how Vivek could get on the right page with fans for another 4-5 years thereafter, so we'd probably be getting a new owner at some point as Vivek does the this was fun at times, I've made some money, but I don't have the touch for this and that can get expensive (fans also hate me) sale.

Damn good point.
Amazingly, after only 2 years and overwhelming goodwill incoming, Vivek may well be on his last chance as a majority owner of "our Kings".
There is simply no way to salvage the jaw-dropping mistakes this season - and Vivek was there right in the middle of all of it.
If Vivek has to throw blame on either Vlade, or Demarcus, to save himself, I just don't see how he emerges from that intact.
What Sacramento fanbase would be supporting him over the heart of the team/franchise (DMC/Vlade)?

 

[macadocious]

I disagree with the constant narrative here that Karl will tell Vivek that his ideas are dumb and to go to hell because he had a hot temper and a quick tongue when he was a hot coaching property in the 90s and 00.

I am not sure how you jumped to the conclusion I thought Karl was hot headed and would tell Vivek he is dumb and to go to Hell.

I do think that he has enough service time to politely let his owner know that some of his thoughts aren't going to work. Last night he played Sim for 16 seconds. I am pretty sure that was a not so subtle way of showing he is the coach and he is not going to play someone he doesn't think is deserving.

 

[IfAt1st]

I don't dislike Pete at all as he seems like a really genuine guy

Seriously - what more could a person do to make you think he was an ungenuine weasel?
PDA is the walking definition of a weaselly human being - a former agent, a lawyer - the guy actually said that they were doing what we longtime Kings fans wanted when they fired a defensively-oriented coach (Malone) and that we wanted more pace. (!?)
I really wish someone had made a Vine of Pete and that cringe-worthy way he said at the press conference (paraphrased) "I'm really not stupid" and that nervous laugh - oh my god, how can anyone think that guy was genuine, of all things?

 

[PurpleHaze]

Actually the slimy weasel repeatedly said, "I'm not an idiot." It was incredibly obvious he was sweaty nervous, on the defensive throughout infamous radio interview. Sooner he's gone the better - the blithering idiot!

 

[Bricklayer]

Actually the slimy weasel repeatedly said, "I'm not an idiot." It was incredibly obvious he was sweaty nervous, on the defensive throughout infamous radio interview. Sooner he's gone the better - the blithering idiot!

Perhaps on the defensive, and how could he not be when the incredulous response to his ****up was what drove him to appear in the first place. But the reps we sent there said he appeared anything but nervous.

 

[IfAt1st]

Also a negative in my eyes that he's apparently taking little responsibility for what's happened. I don't believe for a second this was all on PDA and Mullin. There's too much smoke suggesting Vivek meddled, from rumors of texting Malone to demanding Royce White play to the draft video and Nik and comments on the style of play he wants and what's transpired in Reno, where I posted a report strongly implying Vivek is the one who has his hands all over Reno, to this whole Sim thing.

I absolutely agree, and have been very concerned about how much Vivek is to blame for this mess. I believe he was integral to the mistakes this year (how could he NOT be, as a meddling owner?) and I still see this whole Vlade thing as primarily a PR move to save his reputation.
My hope is that Vlade is so good at being a leader and a good influence in any organization, that his sheer presence will turn the organization around, despite the likely still-dysfunctional group of people still in it (primarily Vivek). Yes, I'm basically having faith in Vlade's magical powers at this point.

Having said that, your list of Vivek concerns isn't that damning, other than lying about the whole "Who is Royce White?" tiff with Malone. Sim is a non-issue.
The draft video could be all PR-based mistakes (him "taking the bold lead and managing this consensus-decision group") - and I think that's where Vivek's main problem may lie - he views this whole thing as a vanity project - something to pump up his ego and prove to these more experienced career guys that his Silicon Valley management style and unconventional way of doing business can succeed in yet another arena.
I hope that ship has quickly sailed, with his NBA reputation destroyed - it's not just in tatters amongst the NBA - it's destroyed. There's no coming back from this year's debacle.
All he can hope is that with success (which will now be attributed to Vlade), he can escape the majority of the crap-stain.

The PR is the big problem with Vivek - that catastrophically-bad PR Twitter lady he had spewing his talking points all over the internet, savaging true Kings fans while shamelessly drooling over the Warriors was an absolute embarrassment - THAT is a dark area of the franchise, and it was the clearest expression of Vivek's ego and elitism, IMO.
Since she/he wisely shut down the destruction of her Twitter-verse reputation, IIRC Vivek has been remarkably silent and invisible. That bodes well for the future, him stepping back from day to day operations and credit-taking.

But from a blame perspective, it all boils down to who chose to fire Malone when they did.
And we'll likely never know.
But I'm not about to believe that Vivek was not completely involved in that decision.
I'm not about to forget that he was the person who ultimately makes all those decisions.
He can't slime away from his involvement in that, nor the blaming of DMC for their (non)pursuit of Karl.
He is to blame for much of the problems, because he hasn't come out and fixed them. All he has/had to do is come out and refute/criticize his staff for doing what they did, pledge for it not to happen again and it would be fixed.
Firing Pete won't make his failures of leadership magically go away.

 

[jcwkings]

If PDA wasnt such an idiot he could probably stay on board as the guy in the basement crunching the numbers, aside from Landry his signings have made financial sense. Unfortunately he has been given a mic one too many times and he has buried his own coffin. Goodbye weasle, you shall not be missed. I give him credit for somehow convincing an NBA team to let him be in charge of basketball operations. Must be one hell of an interview.

 

[Hadlowe]

Actually the slimy weasel repeatedly said, "I'm not an idiot." It was incredibly obvious he was sweaty nervous, on the defensive throughout infamous radio interview. Sooner he's gone the better - the blithering idiot!

I listened to the whole thing. He was on the defensive, but I don't think he was nervous.

One of the things that you have to consider about being a GM in the league is that you can't tell people the truth. From July through February of every year, you have 29 direct competitors trying to pick your pocket. You can't lie to them directly because you have to maintain a good working relationship so they will answer your phone calls, but you can't just go out and advertise "We blew it with our draft pick, can anyone hand me a functioning shooting guard?" because you will end up dealing with angry players and their agents with the result that you have to trade your sixth man of the year to Dallas for a trade exception.

So when someone like PDA gets on a fan radio station, there is a reason he has to be cagey with his answers. Parsing his language doesn't really work either, because his intent may be to mislead you with his non-answers because you aren't his audience. Daryl Morey and Jeff Schwartz are his audience.

It's part of the reason that I suspected tanking was the plan after Malone was fired and Karl wasn't scooped up right away. The GM can't come out and say that the team is tanking. The Sixers have been tanking for three years now, but their GM insists that they are fielding competitive teams. Phil Jackson insists that the Knicks should be competing every night. Losing Cousins during the softball schedule in December and falling so far behind the playoff chase in the west with the Kings' weak roster meant that Malone might take the Kings to a .450 record, lose the draft pick and come back with the same treadmill roster next year. A stathead GM might look at the odds of making an 8th seed with Phoenix, NO and OKC all fighting for the spot, and decide that tanking was the best of a bunch of bad options.

So, how do you tank with a roster as decidedly mediocre as ours (outside Cousins and Gay)? Any trade you make runs the risk of either discarding developing young talent or, worse, actually improving the team short-term. One answer is to fire the good, but not great coach and let the decidedly mediocre Corbin coach them to a 25 win season. They could have let Karl sit until the summer, except that Orlando fired Vaughan and threatened to beat them to the punch.

 

[swisshh]

Typically most front offices employ a gerbil down in the basement to check them on just such issues.

Yeah, but curious to how the set up is. I am also curious to see if they retain Dean Oliver. They need analytics guys, even if the 3.0 crew made a huge mistake.

I can see Vlade in a sort of Larry Bird role with the team.

 

[funkykingston]

Perhaps on the defensive, and how could he not be when the incredulous response to his ****up was what drove him to appear in the first place. But the reps we sent there said he appeared anything but nervous.

I listened to the whole thing. He was on the defensive, but I don't think he was nervous.

True enough. He was relaxed throughout. I really think he had complete confidence that coming on with the fans would smooth things over, at least to a certain extent. Even at the end I don't think he felt things went poorly.

I agreed with a lot of your post but I wanted to call out these two bits and respond.

So when someone like PDA gets on a fan radio station, there is a reason he has to be cagey with his answers. Parsing his language doesn't really work either, because his intent may be to mislead you with his non-answers because you aren't his audience. Daryl Morey and Jeff Schwartz are his audience.

Which is why having a GM that is so open and communicative with the fans isn't a great thing. If things are going great, the fans don't really need to hear anything. And if things are going poorly you can't give them any real answers so it just makes them more frustrated, which is exactly what we saw happen. David Kahn was really open and communicative with fans and if anything that only hastened his exit. It puts a highlighter on your moves, especially the bad ones.

So, how do you tank with a roster as decidedly mediocre as ours (outside Cousins and Gay)? Any trade you make runs the risk of either discarding developing young talent or, worse, actually improving the team short-term. One answer is to fire the good, but not great coach and let the decidedly mediocre Corbin coach them to a 25 win season. They could have let Karl sit until the summer, except that Orlando fired Vaughan and threatened to beat them to the punch.

I still don't believe the intent was ever to tank. Of everything I took away from that morning at KHTK the biggest was that D'Alessandro really believed that Malone was holding this team back and they would be better under Corbin and even better when he had a full offseason to select exactly the right coach. Now it could be the case that tanking really was his plan and he's just that good at talking out of both sides of his mouth but I didn't get that sense. I think he (and assumedly Mullin) just really believed that Malone's ugly offense was what was keeping the roster he assembled from making the playoffs.

LAST season would have been the one to tank, clear capspace, accumulate picks etc to rebuild the team. Not a year later when guys have had experience in the coach's system, DMC is another losing season into his career and after you traded for Rudy Gay making $20 million.

 

[EJF]

Never liked PDA so I'm happy to see him go.

But as far as Vlade, does he have what it takes to be a GM? Looking at his experience, I'm not really impressed. Seems like a major leap for him. I love the guy and Im happy PDA will soon be gone, but what gives people any hope that hes a solid choice?

 

[gunks]

Good, Valde is calling the shots and they plan to get him somebody that can do the nuts and bolts GM work at the minimum and perhaps even an outright GM with Valde calling the shots above him.

If all goes well, we'll be well run and can make a case to DMC that we: are now a playoff team; and made some early mistakes but now Vivek has the right people in place an his hands off basketball operations.

If Valde isn't up to the task, Vivek will: (1) have allowed DMC, Sacramento 1st franchise player since Webber, to get away; and (2) eventually need to fire Vlade, the most beloved player in Sacramento's history within his first 5-6 years. Based upon those two punches to the gut and this year, I cannot comprehend how Vivek could get on the right page with fans for another 4-5 years thereafter, so we'd probably be getting a new owner at some point as Vivek does the this was fun at times, I've made some money, but I don't have the touch for this and that can get expensive (fans also hate me) sale.

Sure, there are lots of possible landing spots in the middle, but most likely this move goes really really well or really really really bad in the next 2-4 years. It's going to get a lot better, or hold onto your hat if you think we are near the bottom. Since we've been stuck in mediocrity and poor management for a long while, I'd love some success and competence but could also accept a broken structure finally burning down to the ground in the hopes that one day we'll be well owned.

Dang.... way to rain on the parade by plotting out ten more years of pain and suffering in Kingsland!

Although, I suppose with a handle like Larry David, one would expect you to.....curb your enthusiasm! Heyo!

 

[rainmaker]

Never liked PDA so I'm happy to see him go.

But as far as Vlade, does he have what it takes to be a GM? Looking at his experience, I'm not really impressed. Seems like a major leap for him. I love the guy and Im happy PDA will soon be gone, but what gives people any hope that hes a solid choice?

It's actually a pretty decent resume Vlade has. From the article:

Divac's front-office work to date has been mostly overseas. In addition to working as a European scouting liaison for the Los Angeles Lakers upon retiring as a player in 2005, Divac has served as an adviser for Spanish club power Real Madrid as well as president for the club in his native Serbia (Partizan Belgrade) where he rose to prominence.

Divac also had a lengthy run as president of the Olympic Committee in Serbia and has served as a FIBA board member for the sport's world governing body.

Also recently sat down with Pop and given advice. Doesn't mean he can and will identify talent and build a roster successfuly at the NBA level, we'll have to wait and see but his actual experience on the business side of the game is more expansive than a number of NBA GMs. As with anything in life, successes and failures come from all walks. There's failures who've graduated from Harvard and successes who dropped out of junior college. To an extent, you can't prove yourself until you're actually in a position to do so.

 

[gunks]

So..... PDA got advice from Mullin.. and Vlade is getting advice from Pop.

That's an improvement right there!

 

[Sac.1989]

he needs a mentor. I love Vlade but him as GM and shot caller isnt going to do bode well. We need to field a call to GP and given how stupid Vivek is we literally need Vlade to realise that his time at the top will come but he needs do his time learning and ask Vivek for a mentor.

Basically Vlade needs to facilitate his own learning as Vivek doesnt have the forsight to implement such a regime.

 

[EJF]

It's actually a pretty decent resume Vlade has. From the article:

Divac's front-office work to date has been mostly overseas. In addition to working as a European scouting liaison for the Los Angeles Lakers upon retiring as a player in 2005, Divac has served as an adviser for Spanish club power Real Madrid as well as president for the club in his native Serbia (Partizan Belgrade) where he rose to prominence.

Divac also had a lengthy run as president of the Olympic Committee in Serbia and has served as a FIBA board member for the sport's world governing body.

Also recently sat down with Pop and given advice. Doesn't mean he can and will identify talent and build a roster successfuly at the NBA level, we'll have to wait and see but his actual experience on the business side of the game is more expansive than a number of NBA GMs. As with anything in life, successes and failures come from all walks. There's failures who've graduated from Harvard and successes who dropped out of junior college. To an extent, you can't prove yourself until you're actually in a position to do so.

I've read about his administrative career on wiki and I'm just trying to gauge his experience and track record at assembling teams or bringing in players. His wiki isn't very imformative.

I don't know in what capacity he was involved in the Lakers euro scouting department. What was his responsibility and did he bring in quality players?

The Real Madrid job Vlade had was nothing more than a figure head. Hes quoted as saying as much. No big deal, it is what it is.

The Serbia administration job, I'm a little confused about that. Was he building the Serbia Olympic team?

I don't have a problem with guys getting profession GM jobs in non traditional ways. I'm a huge Broncos fan as well, and seeing John Elway come up through the arena league and then jump to GM in the nfl....worked. But he was still in charge of player aquistions and had success with it.

I honestly don't know anything about Vlades post career than what I've read to today. I just hope that hes had experience building teams, in some capacity, and that he's been successful at it. If not, then I'm a little worried.

There's a chance he could do just fine when given the oppurtunity, but if he's inexperienced at team building, I'll be addimitly worried. And considering how many rumors there are about Viveks meddling, there's the possibilty that Vlade was brought in for image and little more.

Not trying to be a downer at all, just trying to understand what specifcally qualifies Vlade for the job.

 

[captain bill]

It's good that he's been in Sacramento for weeks without any sort of formal leaks until this one. This is what a smooth transition looks like, and it's what we need. Slowly shuffling out Pete now is great, rather than to fire him in the off season and bring in an outside hire. This is a natural transition.

I expect we will start mining Europe for talent. I'm sure there is a good amount of players who went undrafted and could likely make an impact in the NBA but don't want to make the jump for a slim shot at a serious pay raise. There's a 6'5 Serbian PG who has turned down some NBA teams to stay in Russia, but I don't know anything about him or whether that's something to be excited about. But if Vlade can work his network to identify good players and convince some NBA talent to come over, that could be a huge source of talent for a franchise that doesn't have very many tools to acquire good players otherwise.

Even in figurehead and administrative or PR roles, he's still building the connections to scout, coaches, and agents abroad, which is a positive.

 

[Chubbs]

Always figured Mullin turning the coaching job down had to put V on notice. A guy with no experience but being a bad gm gets offered a head coaching job, and he says, "nah, I don't like the circumstances I created."

I think Mully was just waiting to see if the St. John's job became available.

Vivek must have been incredulous. The BFF relationship was in trouble.

What's a billionaire to do when he loses his BFF? He finds another one! He even let Vlade take Mully's sideline seat and made Mully sit somewhere else. Hilarious stuff.

I must say, the offices at sleep train arena must have been very tense when Vlade showed up to replace the guys that were still here at the time. Good stuff vivek. I'm sure no one had any idea what was going on.

I wonder if Vlade just ominously piled his stuff, piece by piece, outside PDA's office when PDA wasn't looking, then stood there whistling when he was spotted.

This wasn't exactly hard to see coming. But thank goodness it has. My fandom was on life support.

Seeing PDA get emasculated in public is pretty satisfying.

 

[Kingster]

It's not news that Vlade is the top dog in the organization. It's was reported at least a week ago. What is news (at least to me) is:

Sources say, however, that the Kings have already launched a search to add another front-line basketball executive to work alongside Divac whether D'Alessandro stays or departs.

The question is: What's the position entail? GM? A "mechanic" who knows how trades work, how the salary cap works? Of course, PDA knows that stuff. But every indication is that PDA is burnt toast, and once again Napier on his show intimated as such. Vlade has spoken recently to Popovitch and Reilly, as well as other notables around the NBA. About what? About who would be good as a GM? About the structure of the organization? About who takes over the accounting chores of capology? Who knows, maybe it's all of the above. But Vlade is doing his research, which from this vantage point seems to have been sorely lacking up to now. From listening to Napier, Vlade has taken on the lead managerial role, which means to put together the strongest organization possible. Maybe Vlade doesn't make the decisions on Kings personnel via the draft or FA or trades. Maybe he's just the director of the organization and is looking to make sure he's got the best personnel possible to make those decisions going forward.

 

[kingsboi]

Never liked PDA so I'm happy to see him go.

But as far as Vlade, does he have what it takes to be a GM? Looking at his experience, I'm not really impressed. Seems like a major leap for him. I love the guy and Im happy PDA will soon be gone, but what gives people any hope that hes a solid choice?

the hope that he isn't any worse than Pete maybe?

 

[Chubbs]

It's not news that Vlade is the top dog in the organization. It's was reported at least a week ago. What is news (at least to me) is:

Sources say, however, that the Kings have already launched a search to add another front-line basketball executive to work alongside Divac whether D'Alessandro stays or departs.

The question is: What's the position entail? GM? A "mechanic" who knows how trades work, how the salary cap works? Of course, PDA knows that stuff. But every indication is that PDA is burnt toast, and once again Napier on his show intimated as such. Vlade has spoken recently to Popovitch and Reilly, as well as other notables around the NBA. About what? About who would be good as a GM? About the structure of the organization? About who takes over the accounting chores of capology? Who knows, maybe it's all of the above. But Vlade is doing his research, which from this vantage point seems to have been sorely lacking up to now. From listening to Napier, Vlade has taken on the lead managerial role, which means to put together the strongest organization possible. Maybe Vlade doesn't make the decisions on Kings personnel via the draft or FA or trades. Maybe he's just the director of the organization and is looking to make sure he's got the best personnel possible to make those decisions going forward.

The bolded is my favorite part of this.

When they were openly courting Karl while Corbin was coach, that was bad, dirty business.

Openly looking for a guy to do PDAs job before firing him?

That's karma.