Marty Burns: How the five head coaching openings may shake out

[Warhawk]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marty_burns/05/10/coaching.openings/index.html

The NBA coaching carousel has been stuck for a few weeks, but it might be about to start spinning again. The Raptors have begun discussions with coach Sam Mitchell, whose contract expires June 30, about a new deal. If the two sides can't reach an agreement, the Pacers, Bobcats and Grizzlies apparently intend to make their pitch to the 2007 Coach of the Year.
Mitchell's uncertain status has been part of the holdup in the league's five current coaching vacancies, which also include the Sonics and Kings. The other main factor is that some of the leading assistant coaches up for jobs -- such as Phoenix's Marc Iavaroni, San Antonio's P.J. Carlesimo and Detroit's Terry Porter -- are still working for teams involved in the postseason. They are unlikely to interview until after their playoff runs are completed.
Then there are those coaches who might become available, such as Houston's Jeff Van Gundy and Orlando's Brian Hill. The GM openings in Seattle and Memphis also have slowed down business, at least for those clubs. Add it all up, and it's easy to see why so many teams seem to be in a wait-and-see mode right now.
Here's a look at the five openings right now and where they stand, with our admittedly slightly premature best guesses as to how it might shake down:

Sacramento Kings

Outgoing coach: Eric Musselman
Best guess to replace him: Porter
Other candidates: Scott Brooks, Iavaroni, Carlisle, John Whisenant, Reggie Theus, Brown
The skinny: GM Geoff Petrie just returned from a European scouting trip, and has not commented publicly on the search, so it has been difficult to get a read on his thinking. One report had the Kings considering hiring Whisenant, GM and former coach of the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs, as a caretaker while they groomed Theus, currently head coach at New Mexico State, to take over the following season. The Maloof brothers, who own the Kings, were seen at a New Mexico State game last season, and are said to be high on Theus. However, the Maloofs have ties to the state of New Mexico anyway so it could be overblown.
Besides, all indications are that the Maloofs learned their lesson from getting too involved with the Musselman hiring a year ago and that they intend this time to let Petrie handle it. Carlisle would seem like a good fit for a veteran team, but it's doubtful he could work with Ron Artest after what happened during their stint together in Indiana. That's why Porter, a former Bucks head coach and Kings assistant who is now on Flip Saunders' staff in Detroit, might make sense.

 

[Bricklayer]

Which is a fine and solid enough analysis, but you get the feeling Burns doesn't know anything that we don't.

P.S. re: the Carlisle comment, if we come back next year with this same "veteran laden" team then flat out Geoff Petrie should be fired.

 

[Kingster]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marty_burns/05/10/coaching.openings/index.html

The NBA coaching carousel has been stuck for a few weeks, but it might be about to start spinning again. The Raptors have begun discussions with coach Sam Mitchell, whose contract expires June 30, about a new deal. If the two sides can't reach an agreement, the Pacers, Bobcats and Grizzlies apparently intend to make their pitch to the 2007 Coach of the Year.
Mitchell's uncertain status has been part of the holdup in the league's five current coaching vacancies, which also include the Sonics and Kings. The other main factor is that some of the leading assistant coaches up for jobs -- such as Phoenix's Marc Iavaroni, San Antonio's P.J. Carlesimo and Detroit's Terry Porter -- are still working for teams involved in the postseason. They are unlikely to interview until after their playoff runs are completed.
Then there are those coaches who might become available, such as Houston's Jeff Van Gundy and Orlando's Brian Hill. The GM openings in Seattle and Memphis also have slowed down business, at least for those clubs. Add it all up, and it's easy to see why so many teams seem to be in a wait-and-see mode right now.
Here's a look at the five openings right now and where they stand, with our admittedly slightly premature best guesses as to how it might shake down:

Sacramento Kings

Outgoing coach: Eric Musselman
Best guess to replace him: Porter
Other candidates: Scott Brooks, Iavaroni, Carlisle, John Whisenant, Reggie Theus, Brown
The skinny: GM Geoff Petrie just returned from a European scouting trip, and has not commented publicly on the search, so it has been difficult to get a read on his thinking. One report had the Kings considering hiring Whisenant, GM and former coach of the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs, as a caretaker while they groomed Theus, currently head coach at New Mexico State, to take over the following season. The Maloof brothers, who own the Kings, were seen at a New Mexico State game last season, and are said to be high on Theus. However, the Maloofs have ties to the state of New Mexico anyway so it could be overblown.
Besides, all indications are that the Maloofs learned their lesson from getting too involved with the Musselman hiring a year ago and that they intend this time to let Petrie handle it. Carlisle would seem like a good fit for a veteran team, but it's doubtful he could work with Ron Artest after what happened during their stint together in Indiana. That's why Porter, a former Bucks head coach and Kings assistant who is now on Flip Saunders' staff in Detroit, might make sense.

Why would Sam Mitchell be out of the running for the Kings job?

Who is to say we're going to have a veteran team?

Who is to say we're going to have Artest?

So, Porter would make sense because he could presumably work with Artest? An Artest that will probably/hopefully be traded this offseason? Even if Artest wasn't traded, does it make anymore sense that Porter could work with him than Carlisle, or Musselman?

In Kingster's world the word, "Whisenant" would be banned from ever being typed or pronounced in reference to the Kings. We didn't even hire the guy and yet we still have to endure his being linked to the Kings coaching position.

 

[cfechter]

Which is a fine and solid enough analysis, but you get the feeling Burns doesn't know anything that we don't.

P.S. re: the Carlisle comment, if we come back next year with this same "veteran laden" team then flat out Geoff Petrie should be fired.

I agree with you on some levels here Brick, but the fact remains that the kings have some terrible contracts and the desirable ones who don't would be hard to move anyway (Artest, crazy, K-mart, too valuable).

 

[Bricklayer]

I agree with you on some levels here Brick, but the fact remains that the kings have some terrible contracts and the desirable ones who don't would be hard to move anyway (Artest, crazy, K-mart, too valuable).

a) if that were truly the case, then Geoff should be fired for doling out all those unmoveable contracts as Isiah Thomas West.

b) however, IMO we have only one unmoveable contract (Kenny), and maybe one other that would take a special situation (Brad). Everybody else is imminently moveable if you are motivated. The question is if you are as dissatisfied with the team as you should be. Geoff may not be. He built this team. He overvalued almost everyone on this roster at some point or another. So the question will be is he motivated to move them? Or is he still stuck on those initial poor evaluations? If he's motivated, and with a full summer and 29 potential trading partners out there, there is no reason for this team to remotely resemble the one from last year. None.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Brian Shaw has been given permission to interview for the Pacers head coaching job. OK, if he's willing to leave we absolutely need to get him.

 

[Bricklayer]

Brian Shaw has been given permission to interview for the Pacers head coaching job. OK, if he's willing to leave we absolutely need to get him.

Not sure about that, but if we are going young/inexperienced he has to be on our list too.

 

[Sptsjunkie]

a) if that were truly the case, then Geoff should be fired for doling out all those unmoveable contracts as Isiah Thomas West.

The difference is that Geoff amassed those bad contracts while engaging in an arms race to stay an elite contender in a stacked Western Conference (which we did for a good run), while Isiah amassed those contracts while barley sniffing the 8th seed in arguabley the weakest period in the history of the Eastern Conference.

Make any number of complaints about Geoff that he will have to answer over the next year or two, but the distance beween what he has accomplished as a GM and what Isiah has is so fast the two cannot even see each other with binoculars.

 

[Troy]

The difference is that Geoff amassed those bad contracts while engaging in an arms race to stay an elite contender in a stacked Western Conference (which we did for a good run), while Isiah amassed those contracts while barley sniffing the 8th seed in arguabley the weakest period in the history of the Eastern Conference.

Make any number of complaints about Geoff that he will have to answer over the next year or two, but the distance beween what he has accomplished as a GM and what Isiah has is so fast the two cannot even see each other with binoculars.

Nice analogies!!!

Isiah Thomas was a good player, but has been a horrible GM, no doubt about that!!!

I hope GP can be mentioned in the sentence as some of the elite GMs now and then...I think he can...but that was some time ago...hopefully he can work his talent for us this offseason and the Maloffs open their wallets nice and wide so we can get that talent.

 

[Widowmaker2k]

The difference is that Geoff amassed those bad contracts while engaging in an arms race to stay an elite contender in a stacked Western Conference (which we did for a good run), while Isiah amassed those contracts while barley sniffing the 8th seed in arguabley the weakest period in the history of the Eastern Conference.

Make any number of complaints about Geoff that he will have to answer over the next year or two, but the distance beween what he has accomplished as a GM and what Isiah has is so fast the two cannot even see each other with binoculars.

Yes and no. A good deal of this team has been assembled after the title run, as a last gasp to try and stay relavent...and it failed. Thomas, our worst contract, was taken on in the infamous Webber debacle (the salary is still on the books...doing nothing), we've flat out bled talent on numerous occasions (Wallace, Wells, and Mobely), we've made questionable at best free agent signings (Salmons is good, but worth what we pay him?), and we fired the best coach Sacramento ever had (and replaced him with...Eric Mussleman). After all this, surely we've at least sucked badly enough to get good draft picks? Wait...no. We were content to sniff the bottom of the playoffs for a few years, and now in our first lottery season in 8 years and one of the best drafts in a decade, we go on a pointless winning 'streak' to have the privilidge of picking 10th. (Not Geoffs fault...but still worth mentioning.) One day in the future...we'll look back on this year and be able to say "Well, Kevin Martin played pretty well..."

The team has to change as soon as possible, and we have to take risks to do it. If we stand pat with band-aid free-agencies to shore up our 'core', we'll be stuck in basketball hell for ever more. Watching this team over the last few years has reminded me of the movie Office Space...I feel like Geoff is working just hard enough not to get fired.

 

[Venom]

You guys kill me. You all whine about bad contracts, then lament the fact that we didn't sign Mobley and Wells, which would have been horrible contracts and choked off the development of Martin. Petrie "overvalued" two guys on this roster, Brad and Bibby, both of whom are far less effective in a non-Princeton system and without Webber. The case could be made that he held on to Peja too long, whose value plummeted over a two year span until he was difficult to move for a then suspended Artest. Of course, over that two year span the one name that consistantly matched value and made sense was a pre-brawl Artest. And I maintain that the Webber and Peja trades were decided on by the Maloofs and executed under duress by Petrie. We had a firesale on those guys.

There are two (or three) fanbases that really have no reason to question their general manager: Toronto, Sacramento, and Phoenix (although Colangelo is gone). We have a Princeton grad who played under Dr. Jack Ramsay and Pete Carril, won a title, is a proven talent evaluator, consistantly hits in the draft, and made a name for himself by swindling the rest of the league on every trade this side of Nick Anderson. We're in good hands. Knock of the knee jerk stuff and understand that we have been building towards this particular offseason for quite some time, although we will be in the lottery again next year. And everyone who is clamoring for a big man this year repeat after me: Kevin Love.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

You guys kill me. You all whine about bad contracts, then lament the fact that we didn't sign Mobley and Wells, which would have been horrible contracts and choked off the development of Martin. Petrie "overvalued" two guys on this roster, Brad and Bibby, both of whom are far less effective in a non-Princeton system and without Webber. The case could be made that he held on to Peja too long, whose value plummeted over a two year span until he was difficult to move for a then suspended Artest. Of course, over that two year span the one name that consistantly matched value and made sense was a pre-brawl Artest. And I maintain that the Webber and Peja trades were decided on by the Maloofs and executed under duress by Petrie. We had a firesale on those guys.

There are two (or three) fanbases that really have no reason to question their general manager: Toronto, Sacramento, and Phoenix (although Colangelo is gone). We have a Princeton grad who played under Dr. Jack Ramsay and Pete Carril, won a title, is a proven talent evaluator, consistantly hits in the draft, and made a name for himself by swindling the rest of the league on every trade this side of Nick Anderson. We're in good hands. Knock of the knee jerk stuff and understand that we have been building towards this particular offseason for quite some time, although we will be in the lottery again next year. And everyone who is clamoring for a big man this year repeat after me: Kevin Love.

Agreed, and I think that with the shoestring budget(if you want to call it that)he has had to work with the past couple years, due to those big contracts(and people, dont start screaming about how big Mike and Brad's contracts are, because you know that a couple years ago you were screaming hallalujah that that we had them, and I'm not disappointed that we signed them either, we wouldnt have gotten alot of what we had before without Mike, especially in 2002) Anyways, back to my point...I think that Geoff has actually done a damn admirable job in keeping salaries low...we're sitting at around $54 million, which puts us at about the 26th highest salary in the league, not too bad...good starting place for Geoff. He has ALOT of work to do, we know this, but we know he HAS done it before, and with alot of us going 'huh' after he's done a few thing(i.e.eja draft, etc) Dude is smart, he just has to really sit down and 'sculpt' something new and be the artist that he is. It might take a couple more years, but hey, I've been around since day one, I can take WAY more than this, as long as their's some sort of positive direction, I have no problem. Oh, and btw, I've seen a couple of videos on Kevin Love, he kind of reminds me of like a quicker Kevin McHale of sorts...not dominating, by any sense, but hey, he's still in high school, and he'll probably grow some more, so he wont only be 6'9/235 by the time he comes out of college.

 

[Widowmaker2k]

You guys kill me. You all whine about bad contracts, then lament the fact that we didn't sign Mobley and Wells, which would have been horrible contracts and choked off the development of Martin.

I didn't necessarily want them resigned, but losing them for nothing hurt. I guess it helped us cut salary.

Petrie "overvalued" two guys on this roster, Brad and Bibby, both of whom are far less effective in a non-Princeton system and without Webber.
The case could be made that he held on to Peja too long, whose value plummeted over a two year span until he was difficult to move for a then suspended Artest. Of course, over that two year span the one name that consistantly matched value and made sense was a pre-brawl Artest. And I maintain that the Webber and Peja trades were decided on by the Maloofs and executed under duress by Petrie. We had a firesale on those guys.

I don't think Bibby was overvalued. He's a damn good point guard who had a bad year (not that surprising considering the coach he was playing under). I am against dumping Bibby to shake things up, I'd like to keep him around longer and see if he can't return to form. It's a risk for sure, if he doesn't, he'll be very hard to trade, but if he does, we won't want to trade him. I agree with the points about Brad, he played about as well as an athletically challenged forward could, but just doesn't seem to have it anymore. He is now over-paid. But the long term contract was part of the reason he signed here, and it was the right move at the time.

There are two (or three) fanbases that really have no reason to question their general manager: Toronto, Sacramento, and Phoenix (although Colangelo is gone). We have a Princeton grad who played under Dr. Jack Ramsay and Pete Carril, won a title, is a proven talent evaluator, consistantly hits in the draft, and made a name for himself by swindling the rest of the league on every trade this side of Nick Anderson. We're in good hands. Knock of the knee jerk stuff and understand that we have been building towards this particular offseason for quite some time, although we will be in the lottery again next year. And everyone who is clamoring for a big man this year repeat after me: Kevin Love.

Kevin Martin will shoot the lights out and fill a much needed scoring roll on this team, but he isn't going to average 10 rebounds and 2 blocks a game. He was an excellent draft pick, and I don't fault Petrie for his draft picks, but if we want to have serious championship aspirations at some point in the future, we need a post presence, and this draft is chock full of them. I don't want to turn into the Mavericks. (Post players are good.)

Geoff has done great things in the past, and was the best GM in the league until it became clear to everyone else that the Kings were no longer championship caliber. Since then, the whole idea of patching holes and rebuilding without losing has cost us, and prolonged our stint in mediocrity. As losing teams go, there really are two kinds:
1. A young inexperienced team on the way up.
-and-
2. A team of aging veterans who either don't care any longer or no longer possess the ability to win.

Which are we? Is it Petrie's fault? Maybe, maybe not, but either way, it's his job to reverse our fortunes.

 

[VF21]

I didn't necessarily want them resigned, but losing them for nothing hurt. I guess it helped us cut salary.



I don't think Bibby was overvalued. He's a damn good point guard who had a bad year (not that surprising considering the coach he was playing under). I am against dumping Bibby to shake things up, I'd like to keep him around longer and see if he can't return to form. It's a risk for sure, if he doesn't, he'll be very hard to trade, but if he does, we won't want to trade him. I agree with the points about Brad, he played about as well as an athletically challenged forward could, but just doesn't seem to have it anymore. He is now over-paid. But the long term contract was part of the reason he signed here, and it was the right move at the time.



Kevin Martin will shoot the lights out and fill a much needed scoring roll on this team, but he isn't going to average 10 rebounds and 2 blocks a game. He was an excellent draft pick, and I don't fault Petrie for his draft picks, but if we want to have serious championship aspirations at some point in the future, we need a post presence, and this draft is chock full of them. I don't want to turn into the Mavericks. (Post players are good.)

Geoff has done great things in the past, and was the best GM in the league until it became clear to everyone else that the Kings were no longer championship caliber. Since then, the whole idea of patching holes and rebuilding without losing has cost us, and prolonged our stint in mediocrity. As losing teams go, there really are two kinds:
1. A young inexperienced team on the way up.
-and-
2. A team of aging veterans who either don't care any longer or no longer possess the ability to win.

Which are we? Is it Petrie's fault? Maybe, maybe not, but either way, it's his job to reverse our fortunes.

Prolonged our stint in mediocrity?

Do you have any idea how many teams have actually been mired in mediocrity for years? Look at the Warriors, for example. They hadn't been to the playoffs in something like 13 years... THAT'S being mired in mediocrity, or worse.

While I do agree with the majority of your comments, that one phrase just stuck out like a sore thumb. I fear more than anything else that a lot of Kings fans just don't realize that it's going to take a while to put this team back on the right track.

 

[Widowmaker2k]

Prolonged our stint in mediocrity?

Do you have any idea how many teams have actually been mired in mediocrity for years? Look at the Warriors, for example. They hadn't been to the playoffs in something like 13 years... THAT'S being mired in mediocrity, or worse.

While I do agree with the majority of your comments, that one phrase just stuck out like a sore thumb. I fear more than anything else that a lot of Kings fans just don't realize that it's going to take a while to put this team back on the right track.

I think you misunderstood me somewhat. My point is that I don't want us to be the Warriors. What I'm getting at is that we should have given up and rebuilt a little sooner then we have, and now that we are doing it, we should do it right. There are countless examples of teams which get stuck in the rebuilding (or building) process, and I want the managment to have a well defined strategy on how to avoid that. So far, I haven't seen that. When Geoff built this team the first time, it was obvious that he had a plan. He got the right players paired up with the right coaches, and we made a serious run at the championship. This time around, it hasn't been so obvious. Apart from Martin, which young guy on this team is worthy of being a core member on a championship team? Francisco, Price, and Williams would make excellent role players, but from what I've seen so far, I don't think want them to be my starter. (Unless we had at least one super-star along side them.) Sorry if I was confusing.

Edit for more clarity: I accept the fact that we have to be bad before we can be good again. We may have to be bad for quite a while before that happens, so it stands to reason that the better we are at being bad, the less time we will have to spend doing so. Right now, I feel like Geoff Petrie is the Dirk Nowitzki of general managers. Certainly one of the best at his position, but we really need him to come through for us, and so far, it hasn't happened. (But, he deserve more chances, I'm not at all advocating we cut him loose.)

 

[ParniValjak]

I think people need to realise that this thing went pear-shaped once Maloofs tried to mingle into the Basketball Operations. Webber sent of for crappy pieces. Artest trade. Salary cuts from year to year. Only having MLE to work with in the last how many years and even then, the agenda is to avoid luxury tax.

Thats OK but when you try to do cost cutting in so many areas, you will fall. Last year before the Artest trade, I saw somewhere online, a snippet on Maloofs going to one of our games, and in the limo ride, Joe flat our said that he doesn't believe in getting worse to get better. OK that tells me their bluprint for this team was to remain a play-off team and rebuild on the fly. Maybe Petrie has influenced their thinking in this. Maybe its their agenda with all the Arena talks. Who knows.

Blaming Petrie alone or blaming Maloofs alone is not the way to go. Every one of them had some sort of input in all this. Petrie will make the moves that he thinks are right based on the agenda he is given. If Maloofs want to continue to rebuild on the run then thats what Petrie will try to do.

I certainly hope that Joe has changed his mind and now believes that for us to get better, we need to get worse. If thats their plan, then I have the utmost confidence in Petrie to get it done. Its not a one off-season job. It will take 2 pr 3 years to right the direction of this ship.

 

[kennadog]

I certainly hope that Joe has changed his mind and now believes that for us to get better, we need to get worse. If thats their plan, then I have the utmost confidence in Petrie to get it done. Its not a one off-season job. It will take 2 pr 3 years to right the direction of this ship.

I hope Joe and Gavin have realized they don't know as much about the actually running of an NBA basketball team as they seemed to think last year. I cringed a bit last year when they said they thought they had a pretty good idea about how to run a team since they'd "been around" for quite a few years. Yikes...let Petrie do his job.

Their actions/words so far seem to indicate some lessons may have been learned. Only time will tell. It was their decision to go into major salary-cutting mode after the 2002-03 year. However, I can understand that. In this small-market, nearly corporate headquarterless city with an arena losing economic feasibility with every breath, the high salary the team had was not likely to be sustainable.

 

[VF21]

I think you misunderstood me somewhat. My point is that I don't want us to be the Warriors. What I'm getting at is that we should have given up and rebuilt a little sooner then we have, and now that we are doing it, we should do it right. There are countless examples of teams which get stuck in the rebuilding (or building) process, and I want the managment to have a well defined strategy on how to avoid that. So far, I haven't seen that. When Geoff built this team the first time, it was obvious that he had a plan. He got the right players paired up with the right coaches, and we made a serious run at the championship. This time around, it hasn't been so obvious. Apart from Martin, which young guy on this team is worthy of being a core member on a championship team? Francisco, Price, and Williams would make excellent role players, but from what I've seen so far, I don't think want them to be my starter. (Unless we had at least one super-star along side them.) Sorry if I was confusing.

Edit for more clarity: I accept the fact that we have to be bad before we can be good again. We may have to be bad for quite a while before that happens, so it stands to reason that the better we are at being bad, the less time we will have to spend doing so. Right now, I feel like Geoff Petrie is the Dirk Nowitzki of general managers. Certainly one of the best at his position, but we really need him to come through for us, and so far, it hasn't happened. (But, he deserve more chances, I'm not at all advocating we cut him loose.)

Thanks for clarifying. I think I'm pretty much on the same page you are.

 

[fnordius]

I think that Geoff has actually done a damn admirable job in keeping salaries low...we're sitting at around $54 million, which puts us at about the 26th highest salary in the league, not too bad...

Whoa! It would be $54M if we were going to let Ronnie and Justin walk, decline our draft pick, and ignore the FA market. Of course, we'd only have 9 guys on our roster, and the collective bargaining agreement requires us to have a minimum of 13, and that could be a problem.

If all we do is to give Ronnie and Justin $1M contracts, pay our draft pick the required amount, and hire some undrafted guy to fill the vacancy left by Corliss (to meet the CBA requirement), we'd be looking at almost $60M, which is only $3.5M below where we are now. And where we are now is very middling -- 17th highest in the NBA.

Anyway, I'd strongly advise waiting until the end of the preseason before estimating our payroll. No way of knowing what it will be, but it almost certainly won't be $54M.

 

[Kingster]

You guys kill me. You all whine about bad contracts, then lament the fact that we didn't sign Mobley and Wells, which would have been horrible contracts and choked off the development of Martin. Petrie "overvalued" two guys on this roster, Brad and Bibby, both of whom are far less effective in a non-Princeton system and without Webber. The case could be made that he held on to Peja too long, whose value plummeted over a two year span until he was difficult to move for a then suspended Artest. Of course, over that two year span the one name that consistantly matched value and made sense was a pre-brawl Artest. And I maintain that the Webber and Peja trades were decided on by the Maloofs and executed under duress by Petrie. We had a firesale on those guys.

There are two (or three) fanbases that really have no reason to question their general manager: Toronto, Sacramento, and Phoenix (although Colangelo is gone). We have a Princeton grad who played under Dr. Jack Ramsay and Pete Carril, won a title, is a proven talent evaluator, consistantly hits in the draft, and made a name for himself by swindling the rest of the league on every trade this side of Nick Anderson. We're in good hands. Knock of the knee jerk stuff and understand that we have been building towards this particular offseason for quite some time, although we will be in the lottery again next year. And everyone who is clamoring for a big man this year repeat after me: Kevin Love.

On many of your points I agree with you - Kevin Love, especially. And yes, we will probably be in the lottery. Yes on the Petrie's draft picks, yes on Peja - Petrie did wait too long. Bonzi was dumb luck for Petrie - he wanted to give him $35 mill. My main complaint against Petrie is that he didn't bite the bullet 2 years ago and demolish this team then. He has held out this naive hope that he could rebound on the fly - rebuild without the demolition. Even his past quotes indicated that he wasn't sure it would work. So now we've paid the price - time. We've waited now for 2 years for him to take action. In the meantime, Miller's and Bibby's salaries have gone up, making them even more difficult to trade. So yes, some of us are just a little impatient, to say the least. I guess what really grates is that Petrie talkes/implies about taking his time. Well, he's been taking his time for 2 years now. It's time for Petrie to not take his time.

 

[gman23]

Which is a fine and solid enough analysis, but you get the feeling Burns doesn't know anything that we don't.

P.S. re: the Carlisle comment, if we come back next year with this same "veteran laden" team then flat out Geoff Petrie should be fired.

Amen.

 

[Smills91]

Whoa! It would be $54M if we were going to let Ronnie and Justin walk, decline our draft pick, and ignore the FA market. Of course, we'd only have 9 guys on our roster, and the collective bargaining agreement requires us to have a minimum of 13, and that could be a problem.

If all we do is to give Ronnie and Justin $1M contracts, pay our draft pick the required amount, and hire some undrafted guy to fill the vacancy left by Corliss (to meet the CBA requirement), we'd be looking at almost $60M, which is only $3.5M below where we are now. And where we are now is very middling -- 17th highest in the NBA.

Anyway, I'd strongly advise waiting until the end of the preseason before estimating our payroll. No way of knowing what it will be, but it almost certainly won't be $54M.

And the other 29 teams would be doing similiar things...we may not be #26 any longer, but we'd be in the bottom third tier in the league in terms of actually salary next year.

 

[ParniValjak]

And the other 29 teams would be doing similiar things...we may not be #26 any longer, but we'd be in the bottom third tier in the league in terms of actually salary next year.

That would entirely depend on what we do this off-season

 

[fnordius]

And the other 29 teams would be doing similiar things...we may not be #26 any longer, but we'd be in the bottom third tier in the league in terms of actually salary next year.

Other teams will be doing similar things, but that includes contract expirations they'll have, too. The Knicks will be having over $50M coming off their books this summer, and will still have 14 players left. Even freespending Dallas will be doing fairly well this year; after they get their 2 draft picks, and pay them, they will have 14 players and $10M lower payroll. At the other end of the Spectrum, Charlotte is shedding 1/3 of their payroll this summer; they will only have 11 players after the draft, and will have to recruit 2 more players, but pay will drop to about $30M + whatever they pay their couple of FAs. After draft night, our neighbors in Portland will have $12M off their books and still have 14 players.

So I find dropping $4.5M with 12 players on our roster to be less than unique and exciting. Hire one Salmons to fill the mandatory 13th slot, and you have no savings at all. Many teams will do much better this year.