Open letter to RA

[6th]

Dear Mr Adelman,

I am sick, sick, sick, of the Sacramento Kings giving up big leads. I also am tired of seeing a terrible lack of defense (particularly from our starters). You have said yourself that defense is about effort and hustle. Well, I have a suggestion for you.

How about we reward effort and hustle and penalize a lack thereof? We are losing with our starters playing ridiculously long minutes. So, if we must lose, then I suggest we let our bench lose. Yep! Set the butts down of every starter until they show they at least want to play defense. Teach them that effort will get them time on the court. The fans deserve nothing less than all out effort. The players get good money for that effort. Make every player on the Sacramento Kings earn playing time. Nothing should be a given.

Sincerely,

6th (a diehard...normally optimistic....Kings fan)

 

[SacTownKid]

If anything the bench has been the sparkplug when they are in, I don't think Adelman gets it.

No Tag, no win, no surprise.

 

[SLAB]

In all fairness to 'Tag, and the coaching, Cliff Robinson is an outside presence center. I'm not to sure Tag likes to defend the three all that much.

Although he could have, and should have, been in when Foyle was in.

And 6th... I agree. The starters should be penalized for lack of effort.

 

[fakie]

the only other team i've really stuided was the bulls back when MJ was playing, and phil jackson's psychology seems to work magic with his players.

maybe a class or two in psychology will help aldeman ?!!

 

[Ryle]

Bibby's defense was again atrocious. He doesn't fight through screens and basically any player on the floor can dribble right by him. This is getting old.

 

[Bricklayer]

the only other team i've really stuided was the bulls back when MJ was playing, and phil jackson's psychology seems to work magic with those players.

maybe a class or two in psychology will help aldeman ?!!

Phil Jackson's philosophy my arse. MJ would simply kick your *** if you didn't leave it all on the floor on defense, and Pippen in his prime was one of the best defensive players in history. Tremendous defensive pride and energy from the players on those teams. Wasn't Phil.

 

[SacTownKid]

In all fairness to 'Tag, and the coaching, Cliff Robinson is an outside presence center. I'm not to sure Tag likes to defend the three all that much.

Although he could have, and should have, been in when Foyle was in.

And 6th... I agree. The starters should be penalized for lack of effort.

Yeah but Tag could've stayed in the paint and let Robinson clank 'em all night long.

 

[SLAB]

Yeah but Tag could've stayed in the paint and let Robinson clank 'em all night long.

Point taken. He did make 5-10 though, but only 1-4 from three.

So, I'll revise my statement. You can give up open jumpers to an okay shooter, if your getting hustle in return.

 

[SacTownKid]

I've seen plenty of Warriors games this season and the last couple. Robinson needs to take the three out of his bag 'o tricks. He is not at all consistent.

 

[slugking50]

Dear Mr Adelman,

I am sick, sick, sick, of the Sacramento Kings giving up big leads. I also am tired of seeing a terrible lack of defense (particularly from our starters). You have said yourself that defense is about effort and hustle. Well, I have a suggestion for you.

How about we reward effort and hustle and penalize a lack thereof? We are losing with our starters playing ridiculously long minutes. So, if we must lose, then I suggest we let our bench lose. Yep! Set the butts down of every starter until they show they at least want to play defense. Teach them that effort will get them time on the court. The fans deserve nothing less than all out effort. The players get good money for that effort. Make every player on the Sacramento Kings earn playing time. Nothing should be a given.

Sincerely,

6th (a diehard...normally optimistic....Kings fan)

Only if Adelman would do it......

 

[quick dog]

I think Adelman should awaken. He stated in an interview that the starters are paid a lot of money to perform, so they ought to go out and play. He knows they are capable of changing the game. Adelman is ignoring the impact of astute coaching. The players are just humans, and ours seem to lack consistent mental toughness. The coach's job to to make adjustments in the line-up and game strategy to accomodate these mental weaknesses and idiocyncrises. (Celt, please help me with the spelling). Adelman needs to step up and make some changes before the season gets too far down the road.

I would sacrifice a few games by using the deep bench in lieu of the starters. I would limit Bibby, Doug, Peja, and Brad to about ten minutes per game and see if they have any pride left. Who knows, maybe Evans, Songaila, Tag, and the deep bench might win a game or two. It's shake-up time, indeed.

 

[vladetomiller]

Phil Jackson's philosophy my arse. MJ would simply kick your *** if you didn't leave it all on the floor on defense, and Pippen in his prime was one of the best defensive players in history. Tremendous defensive pride and energy from the players on those teams. Wasn't Phil.

I would like to differ, other than MJ and the bulls championships he also had a few with some other team. He wouldnt think twice about taking a player out if the player didnt do it what he wanted them to do. He wouldnt mind if a player took lots of shots as long as it came within the offense, and definitely there will be a timeout for a blown coverage or defensive assignment and lots of verbal abuse. I think he was the one who designed a play for kukoc which made pippen mad, i think he was the coach of those teams where last second shots were mostly taken by scrubs like kerr, shaw or harper for the lakers. He always mixed it up to keep the defense honest and give the stars a chance to win a game which they did many times. However giving those scrubs a shot even in playoff games kept the other team honest.

He was the one who kept Glen Rice on the bench almost in all last quarters in favour of fox, only for defensive purposes. It wasnt always MJ, it was phil sometimes too. And its always easy to say that the team had defensive pride and energy, but did that team have that energy before him. Was pippen or MJ that lethal in defense before phil. When did kukoc play defense other than the bulls era. When did shaq play defense other than pj's era. There is a big coincidence and i am not sure if its all coincidence that his teams played good defense.

 

[Bricklayer]

I would like to differ, other than MJ and the bulls championships he also had a few with some other team. He wouldnt think twice about taking a player out if the player didnt do it what he wanted them to do. He wouldnt mind if a player took lots of shots as long as it came within the offense, and definitely there will be a timeout for a blown coverage or defensive assignment and lots of verbal abuse. I think he was the one who designed a play for kukoc which made pippen mad, i think he was the coach of those teams where last second shots were mostly taken by scrubs like kerr, shaw or harper for the lakers. He always mixed it up to keep the defense honest and give the stars a chance to win a game which they did many times. However giving those scrubs a shot even in playoff games kept the other team honest.

He was the one who kept Glen Rice on the bench almost in all last quarters in favour of fox, only for defensive purposes. It wasnt always MJ, it was phil sometimes too. And its always easy to say that the team had defensive pride and energy, but did that team have that energy before him. Was pippen or MJ that lethal in defense before phil. When did kukoc play defense other than the bulls era. When did shaq play defense other than pj's era. There is a big coincidence and i am not sure if its all coincidence that his teams played good defense.

Michael Jordan was the Defensive Player of the Year two years BEFORE PJ took over that team.

 

[vladetomiller]

Its about the team, DC was in the all nba defensive teams but still the kings team is not known for defense. I dont see the relevance between MJ being the defensive player of the year and his team being good at defense. However PJ has had good defensive players on his team

 

[Bricklayer]

The point would be, as you well know, that MJ did not start defending because of PJ. That PJ did not have to sell defense to his star players because they already played it at an extremely high level and were doing so before he took over.

He is a good coach and he brought organization and confidence to teams lacking them. But he did not make a mountain out of a molehill. He did not take poor defenders and magically transform them into some of the greatest stoppers in history. Mike Bibby does not become Gary Payton because PJ coaches him. (hell Gary Payton didn't even look much like Gary Payton with PJ coaching him).

 

[vladetomiller]

Phil Jackson's philosophy my arse. MJ would simply kick your *** if you didn't leave it all on the floor on defense, and Pippen in his prime was one of the best defensive players in history. Tremendous defensive pride and energy from the players on those teams. Wasn't Phil.

MJ tried it with the wizards, it doesnt always work that way. As usual with those championship teams you can always either way saying that it was the coach that made the difference or that it was the players and the coach was just there watching the proceedings. Offcourse we would never know either way cos we can go back and change history.

But one thing that is clear is that MJ couldnt kick the wizards players *** and get them to play offense or defense. Whereas PJ was able to get that another team 3 more rings and they were mentioned to be a good defensive unit under him. The 2000 lakers team didnt change significantly from the 99 team except for the addition of harper, however they became a good defensive team under him, and offcourse the 01 and 02 teams were known for defense too. Maybe it was Tex Winter that is the reason

 

[Bricklayer]

You aren't seriously using a 38yr old on a bum knee as an excuse why MJ couldn't do something are you??


He couldn't lead his team consistently on the court anymore, and that rendered his words moot -- he was an old gramps and a bit of a hypocrite. Do as I say, not as I do. During his prime he was NOT, and was infamous fro tearing his teammates new *******s in practice if they didn't leave it all out there.

 

[Mad D]

Michael made a psychological study of how to turn Scottie Pippen into a trustworthy sidekick. Michael mentally broke Scottie down and built him up and learned how to play to Pippen's strengths.

 

[vladetomiller]

Well if MJ was able to get on the players arse and get them to play in chicago he can do that in washington too i guess. I dont understand the knee issue here, about why he cant kick some players *** as he did in chicago. He still played around 38 minutes a game and scored 23ppg and 20ppg in the two years there. Not that big of a difference and offcourse when a 38 year old can do that he has every right to kick some players *** to get them to play. He was even a part owner who gave it up and the players knew that very well and knew that he is kinda the owner too.

So MJ was the reason in your opinion i guess and lets leave it there. I am not sure if either one of us would change our stance

 

[gocmen]

I really don't understand why Adelman does not play his bench more. OK, maybe you do not have the best bench. But even when you had it (when you had Pollard, BJax, Hedo), he was not playing others. At most 8 men rotation, not more. For a season 82 games long, this is very dangerous. To me, having major injuries is not just an unfortunate, pure luck event. The more you play, the more you increase your probability for injury.

I think it is all right to lose 5-6 games in a season because of playing the bench. The bench should grow anyways. Because when time comes, you may need to rely on them and if you don't play them at all, then you do not have anybody to depend on. These guys cannot keep them ready all the time. I have read, (and believe it or not) talked to some NBA players. They all say that during the regular season, since they have many games with so little rest time between them, most of the practices are really very light, mostly tactical. It is really difficult for a player to keep himself in shape and more importantly ready for a game. Well, anybody can argue that the player is professional and he should always be ready, but there is also a coach, who should make sure that his players are ready. Yes, there are assistant coaches as well. But they can just improve a player individually, not in the team.

I like our Nate in that sense a lot. We have 15 players (12 + 3 IR). All these 15 players saw court time this year. Only 3 of them got into the game during garbage time (Mateen, Swift, Ibo) and the rest were put in the game when they could have a real impact to the game. I don't understand why Adelman connot do this. I still remember how Webber went down against Dallas during play off game. Kings were trailing like 20 points in the 4th and the starters were still in the game. Yeah, you can always argue that it is a freak accident, but why would you keep your starters still in the game at that time of the game??

Many people said it here. Adelman is very good in taking a group of players, detecting the nice ones in that group and creating a very good team out of those nice players, but the remaining group of players will stay like that. No improvement, no playing time, nothing... If something happens to the core group, then it is better to sign a new guy, since he won't be playing the others.

One more thing. You have great 4 scorers in your starting 5. So instead of 4 scorers, why wouldn't you start with 3 scorers and 1 hustle guys (+Christie)then put in the other scorer along with BJax (I know he is injured now) so that the second unit will also have scoring punch as well. Players will stay in the flow and when the end of the game comes, you'll have more rested players on the field. Because of attacking, your players don't have the stamina to defend anymore.

Sorry, maybe I am too harsh on your coach and I know that he is like a family to you and nobody wants to hear bad things about their family but I really think Adelman needs to fix this.

 

[6th]

gocmen, some Kings fans will agree with you and some will not. Either way, you stated your opinion with tact and respect, and I, for one, appreciate it. Thanks!!

 

[Kingsgurl]

Adelman's philosophy has always been to put the players out there that give you the best chance of wiining the game. In his mind, that is usually the starters/main rotation guys.

I still remember how Webber went down against Dallas during play off game. Kings were trailing like 20 points in the 4th and the starters were still in the game. Yeah, you can always argue that it is a freak accident, but why would you keep your starters still in the game at that time of the game??

They were in the game at that point because it was the PLAYOFFS and they had cut a 29 point lead to 18 in about 4 minutes. Dallas was notorious for not holding large leads, the game was hardly over at that point.

 

[CruzDude]

Warrior game perfect example of this

If anything the bench has been the sparkplug when they are in, I don't think Adelman gets it.

In the warrior game the bench got us back in and ahead as I remember. The 3 starters came back in and down we went. No energy, not much hustle (even CWebb diving for balls didn't seem to stir them up), flat.

Watching it you could see what happened. They flattened out in a few minutes But darn if I could point to one person as the cause of it. The valiant run late in the fourth, was veterans patience, increased hustle (but there was only 3 minutes left), experience. Some said we missed 4 FT in the last 2 minutes to loose it. That meant we still didn't score enough from the floor.

In the last 2 years they were good enough to come back from almost any deficit. Maybe is is ingrained so much they still think that way now but without the role/bench players to make it happen. What to do! What to do!

 

[BigWaxer]

but I really think Adelman needs to fix this.

You made a nice argument GOC.

I think Adelman is pretty set in his ways and we won't be seing a change in how he develops players. I agree with RA in the fact that its the main guys that are gonna win games for you not the bench players. But... the arguement you made for giving more min to the bench actually makes a lot of sense.

 

[Bricklayer]

Major difference between Rick and Nate is that Rick has 4 excellent near All-Star starters that individually demand 35mpg no matter what team they are on. Nate does not.

When you see teams using a lot of bench guys, its normally because their starters suck or are platoon players, not because they would intentionally bench their star players. Indeed, except for the Hubie experiment (which seemed to be failing BTW) the teams playign deep benches last year were all teams with weak starters opening up minutes, or injuries opening minutes. And all of them continued to play their STRONG starters, their stars, 35+. Only difference is that for years we have had a whole starting lineup of stars and near stars.

Easy to play a deep bench when you've only got two guys who deserve 35+ min and then a bunch of part time starters and role players. NOT easy to play a deep bench when you entire starting lineup is a thret to make the All-Star game except for your OG, who has only been the captain of your defense for years now.

Does anyone seriously think that if Darius and Tag were our starters that Rick would play them 38-40min a night, every night, no matter how they were playing?

You can see the same thing having happened with Larry Brown in Detroit, where the Pistons have a rock solid starting 5 and weak bench (starters minutes are 39.9, 39.2, 37.7, 36.8, 34.3). In fact he only played 5 in winning the NBA championship last year too. Pretty much if a coach has got big minute guns, he's going to play them.

 

[nAj jAn™]

One more thing. You have great 4 scorers in your starting 5. So instead of 4 scorers, why wouldn't you start with 3 scorers and 1 hustle guys (+Christie)then put in the other scorer along with BJax (I know he is injured now) so that the second unit will also have scoring punch as well. Players will stay in the flow and when the end of the game comes, you'll have more rested players on the field. Because of attacking, your players don't have the stamina to defend anymore.

Sorry, maybe I am too harsh on your coach and I know that he is like a family to you and nobody wants to hear bad things about their family but I really think Adelman needs to fix this.

Couple years ago, when Hedo was still a King(especially in the '02 playoffs, when Hedo was contributing while Pedja was injured), I strongly believed and wanted him to be the starting SF all the way and place Pedja in the bench...So Pedja could make a sparkplug or a scoring punch with Bobby of the bench...That's what the old BenchMob famous of! The spark and scoring more points than the starters...

And it never happened 'coz Pedja was an All-Star and Hedo would be just good in the bench! But looked what happened, they wasted Hedo's playing time with the signing of JJ, then they traded Hedo for Miller but they wasted JJ again this time....

If that would have happened, Pedja and Bobby would be the '03 Co-Sixth Man of the Year!

The first in the History....
And that's what the Kings are made of, The 6th Man(the fans)...

 

[Gargamel]

Dear Mr Adelman,

I am sick, sick, sick, of the Sacramento Kings giving up big leads. I also am tired of seeing a terrible lack of defense (particularly from our starters). You have said yourself that defense is about effort and hustle. Well, I have a suggestion for you.

Rick Adelman and Rudy Tomjanovich should have a beer.

 

[Ryan]

Chris Webber averages the most shot attempts in the league. Now this is fine on a BAD team like the Hornets or Bulls, where Webber is thier only good player, but not on a team like the Kings-Miller, Bibby, Peja-all better shooters than Webber. Rick needs to do something.

 

[Evenstar]

Chris Webber averages the most shot attempts in the league. Now this is fine on a BAD team like the Hornets or Bulls, where Webber is thier only good player, but not on a team like the Kings-Miller, Bibby, Peja-all better shooters than Webber. Rick needs to do something.

your kidding! more then AI??!?!

*runs to check*

 

[vladetomiller]

i am not sure if that statement is true, that webber takes the most shots in the league. I am sure selfish guys like kobe/AI/Pierce/ etc will be the ones taking the most shots