Our FO/Ownership Has Let The Fans Down

rainmaker

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
You don't get points for trying on this league. That's a cold hard fact. You either get the job done, or sent packing. Our FO, and ownership, has simply not gotten it done. Any way you slice it.

What happened to Chuck was tragic. It was horrible. Chuck would have been a decent addition, but should not have been our "bigtime" frontline acquisition in the first place. What happened to him, just makes the entire chain of events seem worse. By chain of events, I really mean the lack of going out and getting anyone else, when we had the most cap space in the league!

As we stand today, our ONLY off season acquisition is Travis Outlaw, a backup sf. That's it! Thorton was not an acquisition. Don't fool yourself thinking that. A monkey is smart enough to resign a RFA.

I don't know where we go from here. Sure we have a talented young core, but that isn't what cap space and free agency is about. It's about ADDING to our young core. Well, we lost a key piece in Daly, and have failed to replace him in any way. If you consider Daly part of our core, which I did, or instead a mobile shotblocker as part of our core, than our core actually got worse, not better, and on top of that, we didn't add jack s*** to our core.

This was a monumental failure of an off season. We had the most cap space in the league, were told we'd spend, spend, spend, and all we managed to do was watch a key piece of our core walk, not replace him, and not add anything else whatsoever to our core. When that is the end product of such an off season, when we had so much money and flexibility, I'm turning straight to our FO and owners.

They have royally F'd this up. Thank you.
 
Maloofs are broke and Petrie does his "wait and see" thing too often....BUT...

The Hayes thing was unfortunate, the arguement could be made that a physical should have been done earlier, but it would have been a great signing had it worked out.

Dally just played Petrie and the Kings to get more money in Houston, but the writing had been on the wall since midseason last year, he didnt want to resign here. Cant blame the FO on that.

Disappointing offseason for sure, wish we went after one of the defensive bigs that were on the market (Jordan/Gasol/Chandler), but all those guys got REAL paid. We need to have Reke/Cousins resigning money in a couple years, hence GP going the Hayes route (which backfired).

This has been a disappointing offseason, but we still have Thornton, and all 3 of our Rookies look like they have bright futures in the NBA. It could have been a lot worse.
 
I'm going to have to wait a bit before I get on the 'FO Fail' bandwagon. The season hasn't even started yet and we don't know if there is a chance to bring in AK or make a move prior to the trade deadline.

I will acknowledge that this year is a critical one. If we are able to make a run and reach the play-offs, jumping over a couple of these Western Conference teams, I think it makes it more likely that we do retain our guys, as well as making the team more attractive for other FA.

The loss of both Dalembert and Hayes is devastating. If we don't do something to add to our core bigs, I don't think we have enough to make the play-offs or make a legitimate run.

In my opinion, going into the offseason my top three priorities were:
1.) Retain Dalembert or get replacement. (Chandler, ect.)
2.) Retain Thornton. (Easiest to do due to his restricted status)
3.) Make a big upgrade for our SF position.

We retained Thornton and we got Salmons' who I think is a clear upgrade over our other SFs, and we still could land AK, which would be a massive upgrade compared to last year. So, for me, they met 2/3 of their goals, though the one they didn't land was the most critical.

I do want to point out something in regards to Dalembert. I think that the FO and coaching staff all understand that we are going to have to ride Tyreke and DeMarcus either to contention or bust.
I get the feeling that the FO wasn't particularly pleased with Dalembert as Veteran Leader, especially for Cousins. Now this is wild speculation, but that is what I think.

In bringing in Hayes I think that they felt that though we might be missing an important skillset on the court, that if he could help mentor Cousins, bring him the right attitude, show veteran poise and leadership, in the long run (5+ years) it would do more for Cousins and therefore more for the team, than having Dalembert back.

So I think they went and got their guy and were very happy with it.

I don't personally believe that Hayes was an upgrade over Dalembert, but they might have felt that the long-term benefits were worth it.

The problem is that now we'll never know if they were right or not. All we can do is speculate, and most are going to say that Hayes is a definitive down-grade to Dalembert, and to end up loosing both is a massive failure.

But if they got the guy they wanted, then I'm not going to give them a complete fail. I wouldn't give them a complete fail, if they landed AK, then were unable to sign him due to a heart condition.

I am a bit worried about the season though. It's a critical one, and I don't think we have what we need.

So I'm now looking at Veteran Bigs who can protect the middle. And I still think that our best option is to throw pieces at New Orleans and take on Okafor's massive contract, especially if we can't land AK.

I want to be optimistic that things will work themselves out, but we'll just have to see. Maybe somehow Hickson really steps up on the defensive end? Maybe Whiteside is further along than what we saw in his brief appearance in the 1st pre-season game.
Maybe Garcia and Greene were held out for a reason, or Honeycutt put on a display for a reason.

All I know is that I really wanted to have a complete roster, one I felt confidence in, going into the new season, and at the moment I don't. I think that uncertainty is one of my biggest frutrations with this team at the moment.
 
Get real, people. Nobody wants to sign in sactown. Freaking Crawford ditched us for Portland. Guys would rather take less than to play in sactown. It's a cold hard fact.
 
Uncia, good post.

I agree Salmons was an upgrade at sf, eventhough one I'm not that high on, but I don't include it in FA acquisitions for good reason, it happened under the old CBA, prior to this FA period. So even after than move, we still had more cap space than anyone, and were told after that draft day trade, we'd be spending big. So while Salmons was an upgrade, he sure isn't part of this free agency period.

I think you're right about Daly's lack of leadership. I actually commented on it yesterday, but either way, this team needed him, in a bad way.

As for AK, I'd love to sign him. Wanted him for awhile. If we do, I'll retract some of what I said. But I'm not giving our FO any credit for a speculative move which has yet to happen, and is increasingly pointing to not happening. I can only go on what we were told our off season goals were, and how our accomplishments stack up to those goals. We've failed miserably up to this point.

Again, if we sign AK, than it's a better off season than we're currently looking at. But that isn't what I'm judging. I'm not judging a move which hasn't happened. I'm looking at what has happened to this date, during this free agency period, and we have Outlaw to show for it. That's it.
 
By all the reports I have seen, Crawford and Dalembarf both took more money to play elsewhere. The Kings organization need players who want to play here; Hayes did, but something terrible happened. In a time-crunched free agency period, the front office upgraded the overall roster talent and made competitive offers to 3 players that fit specific needs and could have helped this squad. You can't pin this one on Geoff.
 
Trying IS all you can do when it comes to sighing FAs and the Kings tried.

They made Crawford an offer, he didn’t take it.

They made AK an offer, he didn’t bite.

There was obviously more going on behind the scenes between the Kings and Dalembert than we know about.

They didn’t screw around when it came to Thornton.

They signed Hayes, no way they could have foreseen the outcome.

Anyone who knows me even fairly well knows that I’ve been as harsh a critic of the Kings as anyone these last few years. That’s because they weren’t even trying. They were trying this year though and that makes a big difference for me.

What more do you want them to do?

Put a gun to someone’s head to make them sign?

Pay someone like Gasol or Nene 15$ million plus just to get them here?

I just don’t know what else they could have done.

And, it’s a bit premature to start declaring this off-season a bust because it’s not over yet. AK may end up signing. They may make a trade. I’m sure they don’t expect anyone to be content with what’s happened so far.
Oh yeah, and at least we still have a team to ***** about...
 
Uncia03 said:
I'm going to have to wait a bit before I get on the 'FO Fail' bandwagon. The season hasn't even started yet and we don't know if there is a chance to bring in AK or make a move prior to the trade deadline.

I will acknowledge that this year is a critical one. If we are able to make a run and reach the play-offs, jumping over a couple of these Western Conference teams, I think it makes it more likely that we do retain our guys, as well as making the team more attractive for other FA.

The loss of both Dalembert and Hayes is devastating. If we don't do something to add to our core bigs, I don't think we have enough to make the play-offs or make a legitimate run.

In my opinion, going into the offseason my top three priorities were:
1.) Retain Dalembert or get replacement. (Chandler, ect.)
2.) Retain Thornton. (Easiest to do due to his restricted status)
3.) Make a big upgrade for our SF position.

We retained Thornton and we got Salmons' who I think is a clear upgrade over our other SFs, and we still could land AK, which would be a massive upgrade compared to last year. So, for me, they met 2/3 of their goals, though the one they didn't land was the most critical.

I do want to point out something in regards to Dalembert. I think that the FO and coaching staff all understand that we are going to have to ride Tyreke and DeMarcus either to contention or bust.
I get the feeling that the FO wasn't particularly pleased with Dalembert as Veteran Leader, especially for Cousins. Now this is wild speculation, but that is what I think.

In bringing in Hayes I think that they felt that though we might be missing an important skillset on the court, that if he could help mentor Cousins, bring him the right attitude, show veteran poise and leadership, in the long run (5+ years) it would do more for Cousins and therefore more for the team, than having Dalembert back.

So I think they went and got their guy and were very happy with it.

I don't personally believe that Hayes was an upgrade over Dalembert, but they might have felt that the long-term benefits were worth it.

The problem is that now we'll never know if they were right or not. All we can do is speculate, and most are going to say that Hayes is a definitive down-grade to Dalembert, and to end up loosing both is a massive failure.

But if they got the guy they wanted, then I'm not going to give them a complete fail. I wouldn't give them a complete fail, if they landed AK, then were unable to sign him due to a heart condition.

I am a bit worried about the season though. It's a critical one, and I don't think we have what we need.

So I'm now looking at Veteran Bigs who can protect the middle. And I still think that our best option is to throw pieces at New Orleans and take on Okafor's massive contract, especially if we can't land AK.

I want to be optimistic that things will work themselves out, but we'll just have to see. Maybe somehow Hickson really steps up on the defensive end? Maybe Whiteside is further along than what we saw in his brief appearance in the 1st pre-season game.
Maybe Garcia and Greene were held out for a reason, or Honeycutt put on a display for a reason.

All I know is that I really wanted to have a complete roster, one I felt confidence in, going into the new season, and at the moment I don't. I think that uncertainty is one of my biggest frutrations with this team at the moment.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, but no surprise there. Great minds think alike! :D Its a shame about Hayes, but it is what it is. On the Dalembert front, WoJo just tweeted that the two best offers that Dalembert got with guaranteed money came from the Kings. So apparently he had his heart set on going to Houston, and I don't know what Houston's original offer was, but he must have gotten them to sweeten it enough to where he was able to take less money, and be happy.

I know everyone wanted the Kings to make a big splash in the market, but just who was it that they could have gotten. Both Gasol and Jordan resigned with their original teams after they matched offers. So we wouldn't have gotten them. Chandler wasn't about to come here since he had he heart set on New York. We made a serious bid for Crawford, and he went to Portland for less money. Of course he's from that neck of the woods. We still have an offer on the table for Kirilenko, or at least did.

Its all well and good to say go spend, but if the players you want don't want to come here there's not much you can do. Unfortuantely this was a very weak freeagent class, so after the top few were gone, the pickings were slim. So it looks like we have to dance with the one we brought, at least till the next offseason.

As an aside, Hickson, who I thought played rather crappy in the first preseason game, looked very good last night. If he can do that everynight, I'll be happy with the trade.
 
If trying is all that can be done, don't promise you will actually do something. Simply promise that you will try.
 
You're a year late. When you should have made this rant was last year when they were sitting on their money and using the BS excuse that they were waiting for the new CBA when they were really waiting for Anaheim. That really stung because last year was perhaps the best FA class in history. This year's FA class wasn't so hot so I don't honestly know what anyone could have been expecting. There wasn't even any true big name stars available this year. This year's FA was dominated by role players and overpaid bigs.
 
Let me know when the pity party is over.

Honestly, it seems like there are very few around here that remember just 3 short years ago. You know, toiling in the back end of the draft? I'm just glad the team is in the position it is.

The Maloofs went out of there way to spend money!!! And in all honestly, the fact that they were turned down by a few extraneous pieces is probably a positive. Petrie is doing the smart thing, sign lower cost, high quality players and then make your move. This was not the free agency to be tossing huge money around, not at the eventual signing prices of some of the free agents out there. You think Petrie may have learned his lesson with Brad Miller? That was the type of impact talent there was in this free agency period.
 
Petrie's idea of low cost, high quality is going to bite him in the ***. Ok, so you get some stars that shine. Sure. But now you just look cheap. You can't do that every single year and expect results. Sometimes you have to pay the piper.
 
RookieOfTheDay said:
You're a year late. When you should have made this rant was last year when they were sitting on their money and using the BS excuse that they were waiting for the new CBA when they were really waiting for Anaheim. That really stung because last year was perhaps the best FA class in history. This year's FA class wasn't so hot so I don't honestly know what anyone could have been expecting. There wasn't even any true big name stars available this year. This year's FA was dominated by role players and overpaid bigs.
Click to expand...

It's all part of my frustration. Last off season, not spending then because we were waiting as you said, for the new CBA, and then not spending this off season either.

We need to be a playoff team soon, or the likelihood of Reke leaving in a couple years skyrockets. So if people are happy blaming this on being a small market, and we can't fill out our team because we're in a small market, and our FO does no wrong, and doesn't take blame for it, I hope you're at least remain consistent, and if Reke does leave after next season because we're not a playoff team, than those who are happy with this off season are just as calm if/when Reke walks. Don't turn around 18 months from now and say we should have done more before. The before, when we should do more, is now. If he walks, it damn well will most likely be because we're not a competitive playoff team.

As Brick has brought up, we don't have the time to just sit back and patiently wait. Well, not if you want Reke past next season.
 
If i hear one more fan say that they did their jobs becuase they made offers, im going to explode. Its not their jobs to make offers. Its their job to put a winning team on the court. The past 5+ years have been spent trimming salaries and adding the best possible player at our well deserved high draft spots. Thats part of the process. The rest is to go out and acquire players that fit into a winning formula. Sometimes you get lucky and the players you acquire that didn't work elswhere do here (ie thornton), sometimes not but it takes persistence, work and creativity.

The fact that we were turned down by ak and dally sucks, but it doesnt mean the jobs over. Hayes was a poor replacement at center, crawford wasnt a good fit here anyway so I dont know that those efforts are to really be applauded. Geoff gets a pass far too frequently and frankly after watchung other gms around the league do far better work plus the rumblings that we seem less aggressive/proactive than other teams out the frustrates me.

I know geoff may pull off some magic and I'll happily eat crow but its been too long since he did his complete job as effectively as he needs to and time is running short.
 
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TehSwimGuy said:
Petrie's idea of low cost, high quality is going to bite him in the ***. Ok, so you get some stars that shine. Sure. But now you just look cheap. You can't do that every single year and expect results. Sometimes you have to pay the piper.
Click to expand...

We just had a lockout on the primary basis of "players are getting way too much money and we need to do something about it." What do you mean, "pay the piper"?

The Clippers will regret the Deandre Jordan contract. The Knicks are paying an injury-prone and one-dimensional Tyson Chandler $15 million a year for the next four years. Nene (also injury-prone) will be making $17 million+ in the final years of his contract. Kwame F. Brown got a $7 million deal for one year. Teams are overpaying for big men.

I was expecting Dalembert to get four years, $40 million. I don't know why his market value didn't hold up, but that's what the going rate has been for players like him for the past three or four years. It hasn't changed. We could have done two years, $15 million, and that would have been worth it. I don't know what they offered, but it sounds like he didn't want to come back here and was leveraging our offer to get a better offer from Houston, so we pulled our offer and told him to go screw himself.

All these are the reasons I thought we should have tried to showcase him early last season, and then trade him before the deadline to a contender (Miami, Chicago, whoever). I didn't think he would ever re-sign here, and because I thought he would be commanding top level money, I didn't really want him to re-sign here. Call it cheap, but I don't think you should overpay for players like that. I think that's the reason players are being overpaid right now. I think that's a big part of the reason there was a lockout in the first place.
 
rainmaker said:
It's all part of my frustration. Last off season, not spending then because we were waiting as you said, for the new CBA, and then not spending this off season either.

We need to be a playoff team soon, or the likelihood of Reke leaving in a couple years skyrockets. So if people are happy blaming this on being a small market, and we can't fill out our team because we're in a small market, and our FO does no wrong, and doesn't take blame for it, I hope you're at least remain consistent, and if Reke does leave after next season because we're not a playoff team, than those who are happy with this off season are just as calm if/when Reke walks. Don't turn around 18 months from now and say we should have done more before. The before, when we should do more, is now. If he walks, it damn well will most likely be because we're not a competitive playoff team.

As Brick has brought up, we don't have the time to just sit back and patiently wait. Well, not if you want Reke past next season.
Click to expand...

I believe they have the pieces now to be a playoff team and I'm sure their first priority is to solve the C problem.. If they aren't in the playoffs this year or next, it will be largely due to Tyreke not fulfilling expectations. With Thornton, Cousins, Jimmer, Hickson, and Salmons around, you can't say Tyreke doesn't have plenty of help. It's up to him now to step up and show he's capable of leading this team. If he's not, then I honestly don't think it's a bad thing if he walks when his contract is up.
 
sdballer said:
If i hear one more fan say that they did their jobs becuase they made offers, im going to explode. Its not their jobs to make offers. Its their job to put a winning team on the court. The past 5+ years have been spent trimming salaries and adding the best possible player at our well deserved high draft spots. Thats part of the process. The rest is to go out and acquire players that fit into a winning formula. Sometimes you get lucky and the players you acquire that didn't work elswhere do here (ie thornton), sometimes not but it takes persistence, work and creativity.

The fact that we were turned down by ak and dally sucks, but it doesnt mean the jobs over. Hayes was a poor replacement at center, crawford wasnt a good fit here anyway so I dont know that those efforts are to really be applauded. Geoff gets a pass far too frequently and frankly after watchung other gms around the league do far better work plus the rumblings that we seem less aggressive/proactive than other teams out the frustrates me.

I know geoff may pull off some magic and I'll happily eat crow but its been too long since he did his complete job as effectively as he needs to and time is running short.
Click to expand...

Building a winning team isn't like building an engine or something. There are no proven formulas, exact blueprints, etc. It's basically a gamble involving lots of educated guesses, a bit of luck, and timing. The timing sucked this year because this year simply wasn't a very strong free agent class. The time to try and make big FA moves was last year.
 
RookieOfTheDay said:
I believe they have the pieces now to be a playoff team and I'm sure their first priority is to solve the C problem.. If they aren't in the playoffs this year or next, it will be largely due to Tyreke not fulfilling expectations. With Thornton, Cousins, Jimmer, Hickson, and Salmons around, you can't say Tyreke doesn't have plenty of help. It's up to him now to step up and show he's capable of leading this team. If he's not, then I honestly don't think it's a bad thing if he walks when his contract is up.
Click to expand...

So now this is going to be tyreke's fault. Let's see we currently lack:

A coach
Interior d
Veteran leadership
A true point (not necessarily a starter but soemone that excels at getting guys shots)
A high level starter next to cousins
Perimeter d
Basketball iq
An offensive system

Tyreke needs to improve and him doing so could take this team into the playoffs, but right now I think its highly unlikely we make the playoffs and it can not all be tyrekes fault
 
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I just can't agree with the premise of this thread.

I have no problem calling out this team when they do something wrong. I hated the draft day trade. I hated the trade that got us Nocioni a few years back ...

But what else can you do aside from offering the most money?

We offered the most money to Hayes, he signed, and every knows where that went.

We then offered the biggest contracts to Jamal Crawford (who I didn't even want) and Dalembert - They both said no and took less money elswhere.

We made a 'substantial' offer to AK and his status is still in limbo.

That offer was out to AK when we though Hayes was on the team. That would have put us well over the salary floor.

There are PLENTY of things wrong with this organization. Plenty, but we I honestly believe we tried this offseason. Everything went wrong.
 
RookieOfTheDay said:
I believe they have the pieces now to be a playoff team and I'm sure their first priority is to solve the C problem.. If they aren't in the playoffs this year or next, it will be largely due to Tyreke not fulfilling expectations. With Thornton, Cousins, Jimmer, Hickson, and Salmons around, you can't say Tyreke doesn't have plenty of help. It's up to him now to step up and show he's capable of leading this team. If he's not, then I honestly don't think it's a bad thing if he walks when his contract is up.
Click to expand...

This team as currently constructed is not a playoff team. That isn't Reke's fault. We have a superior winning % with Reke, even an injured Reke, than without. Blaming a 22 or 23 yr old for not carrying a non playoff team to the playoffs, in the WC, is not something you'll see me participating in. And if we don't make it in 3 years, is it then Cousins fault, and we should let him walk to?
 
sdballer said:
So now this is going to be tyreke's fault. Let's see we currently lack:

A coach
Interior d
Veteran leadership
A true point (not necessarily a starter but soemone that excels at getting guys shots)
A high level starter next to cousins
Perimeter d
Basketball iq
An offensive system

Tyreke needs to improve and him doing so could take this team into the playoffs, but right now I think its highly unlikely we make the playoffs and it can not all be tyrekes fault
Click to expand...

Way to twist what I actually said. I didn't say it'd be his fault, I said it's be largely due to him not meeting expectations. If your team still sucks in your supposed best players 3rd, 4th year, you have to start questioning whether it's really everyone else's fault or if maybe a lot of it has to do with tyreke himself.
 
I think everyone should just back away from the edge:) Dally wanted to be in Houston. Hickson, Jimmer, Salmons, Outlaw, Honeycutt, Isaiah and Whiteside (who did not play last year) are all and improvement in talent. Tyreke and Cousins are a year more experienced and appear to be in great shape considering the lock out. Thornton is ready to play BALL. JT, Donte and Cisco all look pretty good. Give the fellas a chance to play together before you all jump:)

The glass is half full!

Later,
KB
 
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