Next season’s scapegoat.

Who will be the scapegoat?

  • Total voters
    61
SLAB

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Willie’s Gone.

So we all know there will be a lot of new blame game around these parts. Who’s your early guess who it will be, and why?
 
Yeah will be Barnes I think a lot of us were extremely already disapointed in Bogi last season with his style of play and seemingly incredible fall in basketball IQ so we have already been accustomed if he does the same again where as Barnes is a freshie who there has to be a lot of hope for. I could also see Bjelly being on the end of the wrath if he starts off well again and takes playing time from Bag/Giles.
 
It will likely be Bogdan. Last year of his contract with the team so fertile ground for “I don’t want him back next year” comments and he was already becoming somewhat of a scapegoat last season. Not Willie level but pretty bad.
 
Nokidding said:
Yeah will be Barnes I think a lot of us were extremely already disapointed in Bogi last season with his style of play and seemingly incredible fall in basketball IQ so we have already been accustomed if he does the same again where as Barnes is a freshie who there has to be a lot of hope for. I could also see Bjelly being on the end of the wrath if he starts off well again and takes playing time from Bag/Giles.
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I don’t think Coach will be stubborn enough to stick with Bjelly for too long if he starts struggling though. If he legit earns minutes away from Bagley/Giles that’s a good thing.
 
Kingz19 said:
It will likely be Bogdan. Last year of his contract with the team sonfertole ground for “I don’t want him back next year” comments and he was already becoming somewhat of a scapegoat last season. Not Willie level but pretty bad.
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I want to hope his IQ will return to normal this season. His two seasons were so different, I don’t know which one is the “real” Bogdan. Lol
 
SLAB said:
I don’t think Coach will be stubborn enough to stick with Bjelly for too long if he starts struggling though. If he legit earns minutes away from Bagley/Giles that’s a good thing.
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I actually think he's vital to the teams success not only cause of his shooting but his ball movement on the floor which very few of the players on the team are good at.
 
Willie Cauley Stein. we will find a way :p

I think it will be Dedmon. The expectations, I feel, are that we have fixed our rebounding/interior defense problems by replacing Willie and if this is not so we will blame Dedmon. Having a defensive guard such as Joseph will help the bigs look better as they will not have to cover as much as before, but I think we will still have our issues. And Dedmon will take the heat.
 
sergmatt said:
No he doesn't. As pompous and loose with running his mouth as Grant can be he doesn't effect players coming and going from the Kings. He doesn't drive away coaches or GM's either.
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It wouldn’t shock me if Grant talked his good friend Vlade’s ear off about what a horrific human being DeMarcus is.

Not saying it had any impact on what happened at all, but you know he would see those seeds any chance he got.
 
burekijogurt said:
Willie Cauley Stein. we will find a way :p

I think it will be Dedmon. The expectations, I feel, are that we have fixed our rebounding/interior defense problems by replacing Willie and if this is not so we will blame Dedmon. Having a defensive guard such as Joseph will help the bigs look better as they will not have to cover as much as before, but I think we will still have our issues. And Dedmon will take the heat.
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The thing with Willie it wasn’t because of his natural shortcomings, it was with his (perceived?) lack of effort in what he should have been great at.

I don’t know Dedmon’s game at all, but I doubt he’s going to appear to be loafing around. If he’s appearing to give it his all at all times we’ll love him.

Seriously, if Willie tried as hard as someone like JaVale McGee did (at least last season) he’d be a beloved figure in Sacramento, shortcomings be darned.
 
SLAB said:
It wouldn’t shock me if Grant talked his good friend Vlade’s ear off about what a horrific human being DeMarcus is.

Not saying it had any impact on what happened at all, but you know he would see those seeds any chance he got.
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He probably did but Vlade is a big boy and can make his own decisions (especially since he gets paid to). Vlade was also around the team plenty before he became the Vladfather and knew plenty of other people who work for the team. He would have had ample time to make his own decision and take into account multiple decisions. No matter how misguided or hypocritical, Grant also has the right to have an opinion on DMC.

To be fair to Grant too, he has praised Cousins charity work and things he does for the community time and time again. He just trashes him incessantly for his on court and locker-room behavior.

And remember as Grant has often said, everything bad he says about DeMarcus he would say directly to his face.....................................like 10% of it while sitting at his radio booth courtside protected by security and a few cameras around.
 
SLAB said:
The thing with Willie it wasn’t because of his natural shortcomings, it was with his (perceived?) lack of effort in what he should have been great at.

I don’t know Dedmon’s game at all, but I doubt he’s going to appear to be loafing around. If he’s appearing to give it his all at all times we’ll love him.

Seriously, if Willie tried as hard as someone like JaVale McGee did (at least last season) he’d be a beloved figure in Sacramento, shortcomings be darned.
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If he is playing poorly, effort will buy him the first 5 pages of the game thread max, then it will be gloves off ;)
 
I brought up Ariza in the other thread, but I totally forgot about Bogi!

If he plays as garbo as last season he's catching flak.

I'm surprised so many voted for Barnes. He's not good enough to raise expectations, nor is he bad enough to disappoint. Just an over paid 4th option who is solid on both ends.

Also, shout out to VF21 who is probably going to come in here to scold all of us participating in this thread! :p
 
Willie wasn't a scapegoat. A scapegoat is someone wrongly blamed for something. Willie was literally not worth the money the Kings were paying him last year. See his recent contract with the Warriors and then see what the Kings were paying him. He was rightly blamed for some of ills of the Kings. (Certainly, no reasonable person is going to blame the failure of getting to the playoffs on one person).

Reframing the question: Who is the player who has been getting the playing time and the pub, but doesn't perform up to expectations? Based on his first two years, Bogs deserves honorable mention. The key with him is consistency. He's not a youngin anymore. If he plays with the same inconsistency as the first two years, he's on the bubble going forward. Another player might be Bjelica, but if he doesn't get the playing time of last year, and if fans' expectations have already been adjusted downward, nobody will much care about his game one way or another.
 
I think in likely order:
Bogi (if he struggles people will call him dead weight, urge to trade, not re-sign, etc)
Barnes ($$$ - even if he does everything asked, someone will cry because Fox and Bagley are carrying more weight for less)
Walton (if team is not above .500 book it)
Ariza (someone will gripe about him guaranteed)

And of course throw in a dash of whatever-the-hell-Luka is doing if Bagley isn't an all-star :mad: although Dallas is going to suck rocks next year.
 
I was gonna pick but Barnes but I went with Ariza. If he proves as disinterested in playing as reports said last year then we are going to hate him. He's not making chump change.
 
Meant to choose Bogdan and not Buddy, but I could very well see Buddy ending up as the scapegoat. He’s a very very good shooter, but he has lots of dry spells.. I think he relies a lot on momentum and rhythm. When he’s hot, he’s hot. But when he’s off, he’ll miss and even mix in a few TOs. Despite being as good of a shooter he is, just compare his shots to Klay in the playoffs who was extremely clutch. He made all of his shots when they needed it. Buddy is more of the type to will you back into games, but not necessarily make shots down the stretch.

I think his role will change next year. I don’t think he’ll have as many shots as last year to be able to shoot his way out of a mini slump. I think we’ll force him into a more JJ Redick offense which doesn’t really suit him. Last season we relied on him because he was the only player willing to step up. Next season, I think we’ll see a clear emphasis on trying to run the offense through Fox and Bagely.
When Buddy misses a few key shots here and there, fans will be so quick to scapegoat him. It’s really unfortunate but that’s what I see going down..

Our fan base can be extremely cruel imo... Bogdan will be the main scapegoat if he has another inconsistent shooting season.

Cory Joseph is going to disappoint a lot of fans because they think he’s going to be Darren Collison 2.0, but he’s not a good shooter and he’s only an average playmaker.

Lots of scapegoat replacements for Willie. Don’t worry!
 
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