Collins and Ingram are low IQ players. Neither of those guys was going to be the answer either. What we needed then and still need now is a guy who shows up every day to do the dirty work that doesn't win you personal accolades and huge contract extensions. A good old fashioned bruiser who just lives for rebounds and screens and making the other team miserable. Those guys exist -- the good GMs and coaches want them.
What's notable to me is that Fox is one of the guys who did not quit on Mike Brown during that rough stretch in December. And he stuck around long enough post-firing to get blamed for it while his teammates slunk back into the shadows. That's when all hell broke loose with his agent telling the Kings he wasn't eager to re-up to be the face out in front of the clown show for another 5 years. I defended him the way I did because I completely agreed with his reaction to all of that. There was a struggle for power behind the scenes and the wrong side won.
The whole focus with Keon was on his team defense. He's capable of making brilliant individual plays when matched up on the ball but he's not always making the right reads to help out his teammates and I saw Mike Brown pull him from games at times and talk to him about it. I agree that Mike Brown gave lesser defenders a lot more rope with a lot more egregious mistakes but that's part of his M.O. He coaches the best players harder because he sees their potential to be great. Maybe that was the source of the resentment behind the scenes? Inadvertently creating factions within your locker room by coaching some players and ignoring others is never going to go well. He certainly is not the most diplomatic of leaders either and that more than anything seems to be why he keeps losing his head coaching jobs.
