When the mystery ended, it wasn't a mystery at all: Geoff Petrie drafted a shooter. Dude loves shooters as much as parsing words in Clintonian fashion -- of speaking while saying almost nothing in public. That usually leaves Kings Nation to read between the lines with Mr. Sphinx.
So here goes: Drafting Quincy Douby, a junior out of Rutgers, on Wednesday with the 19th pick of the NBA draft affirmed that no matter what hogwash was spoken about tightening defense at Arco Arena, the Kings always thinks offense first.
And it means that Petrie remains the Kings' braintrust, no matter the speculation of Kings owners asserting more power over personnel decisions.
They have, in certain isolated cases for very specific reasons that transcended basketball. But in the science of straight hoops sans politics and publicity, the Quiet Man still speaks the loudest.
Of course, he's going to hate reading that (such is life in the public eye, Geoff), but what else can we deduce from the high-scoring Douby now a King?
Indeed, by his own admission, Douby's defense is dubious. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Rutgers of Haitian descent described himself as "skinny" on Wednesday, a relative term, considering his ancestral background.
He's not Port-Au-Prince skinny, but he is NBA skinny. He says he's eager to hit the nearest weight room in Sacramento to bulk himself up, but unless Douby hooks up with Barry Bonds' entourage, he's not going to be anybody's stopper anytime soon.
So what was all the talk about defense while Rick Adelman was being shown the door?
It was just talk, though the Kings claim you can't find defensive stoppers in the draft.
OK, if you say so. But Brad Miller hasn't met with Bonds' people either, so that little time bomb of interior defense is still left ticking.
In the meantime, the player newly in the Kings' fold seems so familiar, in the same lineage as Peja Stojakovic, Jason Williams, Hedo Turkoglu, Kevin Martin and Francisco García.
But it doesn't stop there. Douby is considered a hidden gem, just as Stojakovic and Martin were. He's touted as a smart pick, a thinking man's pick -- the potential steal of this draft.
His lack of defensive chops aside, he plays a tough-minded, straight-out-of-Brooklyn game, which could fit nicely on a team led by a to-the-bone New Yorker in Ron Artest.
He is also insurance in case Bonzi Wells demands more than the Kings are willing to pay, which seems like the more likely scenario when we heard Petrie extolling the virtues of small backcourts à la the Dallas Mavericks.
It's also easy to see how Douby could push Martin to get even better by putting the fear of God -- or losing his job -- into the willowy Martin once training camp begins this fall.
Douby didn't have the accolades of a Marcus Williams from UConn, but then Douby doesn't have Williams' rap sheet or weight problems, either.
And really, based on the film, what's not to like about him?
He scores, he slashes, he's fearless, he's hard-nosed, he works hard.
And he can shoot. He can take shooting pressure off Mike Bibby, Martin, García, etc.
"Every night he went out to play, the other team had two or three guys trying to stop him. … And it didn't happen very often," Petrie said of Douby.
But what about defense?
Petrie brushed off such questions, saying you go with the best players available and that was Douby.
Then he spoke of Douby as part of a more mobile team, a quicker team, a more athletic team. He sees Douby as part of a puzzle -- some might say jumble -- of players yearning to create more space for creative players to create.
The defensive questions will be left for another day, if they are ever truly addressed. Truth is, Adelman had worn out his welcome as far as the Kings' owners were concerned, so a change was destined to happen. The Kings' defensive shortcomings were merely the window dressing.
And when Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof pushed to get Artest when no one else would?
It was as much about getting publicity for a boring team as anything, a public relations gamble to jump start a dead battery known as the 2005-06 Kings.
But now that the Kings have become a basketball team no longer in wrenching transition, a stillness has returned to Arco Arena.
It's about players and strategy again, about Petrie again.
That's why the newest King is named Douby.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14273064p-15083242c.html
So here goes: Drafting Quincy Douby, a junior out of Rutgers, on Wednesday with the 19th pick of the NBA draft affirmed that no matter what hogwash was spoken about tightening defense at Arco Arena, the Kings always thinks offense first.
And it means that Petrie remains the Kings' braintrust, no matter the speculation of Kings owners asserting more power over personnel decisions.
They have, in certain isolated cases for very specific reasons that transcended basketball. But in the science of straight hoops sans politics and publicity, the Quiet Man still speaks the loudest.
Of course, he's going to hate reading that (such is life in the public eye, Geoff), but what else can we deduce from the high-scoring Douby now a King?
Indeed, by his own admission, Douby's defense is dubious. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Rutgers of Haitian descent described himself as "skinny" on Wednesday, a relative term, considering his ancestral background.
He's not Port-Au-Prince skinny, but he is NBA skinny. He says he's eager to hit the nearest weight room in Sacramento to bulk himself up, but unless Douby hooks up with Barry Bonds' entourage, he's not going to be anybody's stopper anytime soon.
So what was all the talk about defense while Rick Adelman was being shown the door?
It was just talk, though the Kings claim you can't find defensive stoppers in the draft.
OK, if you say so. But Brad Miller hasn't met with Bonds' people either, so that little time bomb of interior defense is still left ticking.
In the meantime, the player newly in the Kings' fold seems so familiar, in the same lineage as Peja Stojakovic, Jason Williams, Hedo Turkoglu, Kevin Martin and Francisco García.
But it doesn't stop there. Douby is considered a hidden gem, just as Stojakovic and Martin were. He's touted as a smart pick, a thinking man's pick -- the potential steal of this draft.
His lack of defensive chops aside, he plays a tough-minded, straight-out-of-Brooklyn game, which could fit nicely on a team led by a to-the-bone New Yorker in Ron Artest.
He is also insurance in case Bonzi Wells demands more than the Kings are willing to pay, which seems like the more likely scenario when we heard Petrie extolling the virtues of small backcourts à la the Dallas Mavericks.
It's also easy to see how Douby could push Martin to get even better by putting the fear of God -- or losing his job -- into the willowy Martin once training camp begins this fall.
Douby didn't have the accolades of a Marcus Williams from UConn, but then Douby doesn't have Williams' rap sheet or weight problems, either.
And really, based on the film, what's not to like about him?
He scores, he slashes, he's fearless, he's hard-nosed, he works hard.
And he can shoot. He can take shooting pressure off Mike Bibby, Martin, García, etc.
"Every night he went out to play, the other team had two or three guys trying to stop him. … And it didn't happen very often," Petrie said of Douby.
But what about defense?
Petrie brushed off such questions, saying you go with the best players available and that was Douby.
Then he spoke of Douby as part of a more mobile team, a quicker team, a more athletic team. He sees Douby as part of a puzzle -- some might say jumble -- of players yearning to create more space for creative players to create.
The defensive questions will be left for another day, if they are ever truly addressed. Truth is, Adelman had worn out his welcome as far as the Kings' owners were concerned, so a change was destined to happen. The Kings' defensive shortcomings were merely the window dressing.
And when Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof pushed to get Artest when no one else would?
It was as much about getting publicity for a boring team as anything, a public relations gamble to jump start a dead battery known as the 2005-06 Kings.
But now that the Kings have become a basketball team no longer in wrenching transition, a stillness has returned to Arco Arena.
It's about players and strategy again, about Petrie again.
That's why the newest King is named Douby.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14273064p-15083242c.html
