Petrie mishandled SVG matter

[NYKingsfan]

For the record, I am a huge Geoff Petrie fan. I have followed the Kings, albeit from quite a distance (NY), for many years. Most of the earlier years were awful. Geoff Petire turned things around and had the team on the brink of a championship. For that I will forever be greatful.

However, in my opinion, he mishandled the SVG matter. Cutting right to the chase, if that is who he wanted, then go get him signed early on. Don't waste your time with all the other interviews with coaches you will never hire. Stay on course. If it's SVG you want, then go get him early in the process. Think how differently this would have played out. SVG hears whispers that Donovan is going to Orlando; SVG is heavily courted by Sac; SVG plays the sure card and takes the Sac job early on. Instead, Petrie wastes his time with other meaningless interviews; Donovan gets hired and then renegs on Orlando we rush to try to swoop in last minute, but to no avail.

On a side note, I don't have anything bad to say about SVG. I feel he showed class and respect for the SAc organization even if he felt deep down that he was going to Orlando. He must have realsized that Petrie/Maloofs were class acts who treated him well and liked him alot. He also realized that out of respect he should have a final meeting with them before any offical decision is made. I don't think that's sleazy on the part of SVG..I kind off find it classy.

 

[PurpleHaze]

For the record, I am a huge Geoff Petrie fan. I have followed the Kings, albeit from quite a distance (NY), for many years. Most of the earlier years were awful. Geoff Petire turned things around and had the team on the brink of a championship. For that I will forever be greatful.

However, in my opinion, he mishandled the SVG matter. Cutting right to the chase, if that is who he wanted, then go get him signed early on. Don't waste your time with all the other interviews with coaches you will never hire. Stay on course. If it's SVG you want, then go get him early in the process. Think how differently this would have played out. SVG hears whispers that Donovan is going to Orlando; SVG is heavily courted by Sac; SVG plays the sure card and takes the Sac job early on. Instead, Petrie wastes his time with other meaningless interviews; Donovan gets hired and then renegs on Orlando we rush to try to swoop in last minute, but to no avail.

On a side note, I don't have anything bad to say about SVG. I feel he showed class and respect for the SAc organization even if he felt deep down that he was going to Orlando. He must have realsized that Petrie/Maloofs were class acts who treated him well and liked him alot. He also realized that out of respect he should have a final meeting with them before any offical decision is made. I don't think that's sleazy on the part of SVG..I kind off find it classy.

I think one explanation since we don't know the "inside" story is that the Maloof's are still calling the shots to some degree (maybe a lot behind the scenes) so Petrie gets hamstrung once again. It's all speculation until more is known. Of course, all this will be old news if the Kings get a new head coach who does well.

 

[sidney]

It's a balancing act. You want to make sure you get the right guy but you want to make sure you act with urgency to get him in.

Last year their hiring plan was flawed and they paid for it. This year they must have wanted to do it very differently, be very methodical, and hope for a better result.

I agree, they acted too slow this year.

 

[nbrans]

Look, the Kings had their shot. It came down to SVG's decision. If SVG had made a different decision yesterday it wouldn't have made Geoff any smarter, nor does SVG's decision make Geoff any dumber. SVG made a choice. C'est la vie.

 

[VF21]

Look, the Kings had their shot. It came down to SVG's decision. If SVG had made a different decision yesterday it wouldn't have made Geoff any smarter, nor does SVG's decision make Geoff any dumber. SVG made a choice. C'est la vie.

Exactly!! The idea that simply wanting something will make it happen is just silly. Yes, some people became totally convinced - which was silly in the first place - that SVG was going to be the Kings' savior. As such, they set themselves up for a big disappointment.

 

[uolj]

Look, the Kings had their shot. It came down to SVG's decision. If SVG had made a different decision yesterday it wouldn't have made Geoff any smarter, nor does SVG's decision make Geoff any dumber. SVG made a choice. C'est la vie.

You're right that Van Gundy's decision is irrelevant, but that doesn't mean Petrie didn't mishandle the situation.

On the surface it seems that he did, although I'm not really going to complain about it since it really isn't that big of a deal.

 

[PurpleHaze]

But, do we really know that "now it's Petrie's turn" as VF21 quotes is the reality and not just more BS from the Maloof's behind the scenes?

 

[VF21]

But, do we really know that "now it's Petrie's turn" as VF21 quotes is the reality and not just more BS from the Maloof's behind the scenes?

Do we really "know" anything?

There is a different feeling this year. The Maloofs did, I firmly believe, learn a bit of a lesson about usurping Petrie's power. Petrie is still going to involve them to some extent but from everything I've seen and heard they are NOT going to make the head coach decision in the same way it was made last time. Which is very, very, very good for us.

Did Petrie mishandle the situation? Perhaps. Was there really much less of a situation than some people would want to believe? Probably. The main thing to remember IMHO is that this isn't the 2001-2003 Kings. While there are pluses about our coaching position - like it's open - there are negatives, too. We aren't the jewel in the NBA crown.

Geoff Petrie has a very difficult job and I'm sorry but I'm just a little tired of everyone acting like they could do it better. Most of us couldn't even begin to do it, regardless of what we might say or even believe. There's a reason there's such a small pool of GMs and head coaches to select from when an opening occurs. They are TOUGH JOBS.

VF21 gets off soap box and drags it back to the corner...

 

[kupman]

Perhaps GP did not aggressively pursue SVG because he was not certain that he was the right man for the job. Perhaps GP is not all that bummed how things turned-out.

 

[Backlash]

Why all this crap about SVG anyway? What has he done in this league? I mean besides looking like a porn star and having one good year...

I'd rather Petrie hold out for Carleismo or Porter.

Although the lack of contact with Mario Elie has me baffled.

 

[VF21]

And perhaps SVG, honorable person that he is, had told GP early on that his first choice would obviously be Orlando but that he was interested in Sacramento if things didn't pan out.

I don't know, of course, but there could be a lot of stuff that just hasn't been made public. Not everyone has agents who flap their jaws at the media at the drop of a hat.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Do we really "know" anything?


VF21 gets off soap box and drags it back to the corner...

I appreciate your soap box since I'm semi-retired and have nothing better to do at the moment that be alternately inspired and depressed reading this banter.

I mean spending time debating on KingsFans.com a helluva lot better than arguing why Paris Hilton got out of jail in 3 days instead of serving her full sentence, not unlike some special treatment a certain former NBA head coach got not long ago...

 

[nbrans]

And perhaps SVG, honorable person that he is, had told GP early on that his first choice would obviously be Orlando but that he was interested in Sacramento if things didn't pan out.

I don't know, of course, but there could be a lot of stuff that just hasn't been made public. Not everyone has agents who flap their jaws at the media at the drop of a hat.

Yeah, exactly. Indiana jumped the gun and offered him the job and look where that got them. Maybe the same thing would have happened to us. Orlando was clearly going to come open, and I think it's likely that we were his backup plan all along.

 

[Warhawk]

Yeah, exactly. Indiana jumped the gun and offered him the job and look where that got them. Maybe the same thing would have happened to us. Orlando was clearly going to come open, and I think it's likely that we were his backup plan all along.

My feeling too. Everyone needs to explore their options....including SVG. I wanted him here, but not if he'd really rather be somewhere else.

 

[BudWright]

I dislike playing the "blame game" when NOBODY knows what happened throughout this whole process. Maybe he was offered the job a while ago (I don't think so)--you see, we don't know. Let's move forward! Annie.

 

[sactownfan]

dont get me wrong SVG was not going to be the savior. But it would have been one thing gone right in the myst of a nose dive back to the bottom of the nba. nothing is going right with the kings and nothing is going our way. it just keeps getting worse and worse. the only thing i can think of that has gone right with the kings in the last year is Muss being fired. which was a no brainer. other than that we got nothing.

and if the person that said ron has trade value reads this. and used the fact that the Knicks and Heat were mildly intrested in him. lets get this straight any team interested in him is looking to steal him for close to nothin. there will be no Peja for Ron deal this time. the clips have the best chance still wit Corey M. but that is even doubtful. maybe a pick will be involved if we take on a bad contract for him. who knows the best deal i heard was for C. Frye and although i can believe the knicks are dumb enough to give a young talented big away for ron. i still think its a reach

 

[CaminoChaos]

Who's to say the Kings didn't make an offer. Maybe it was Van Gundy holding out. Nobody knows. He had a handful of suitors but just happen to take the one closes to his family and home. It's over. We move on.

Rambis?
Porter?
Carlisemo?

 

[Vlade4GM]

Do we really "know" anything?

There is a different feeling this year. The Maloofs did, I firmly believe, learn a bit of a lesson about usurping Petrie's power. Petrie is still going to involve them to some extent but from everything I've seen and heard they are NOT going to make the head coach decision in the same way it was made last time. Which is very, very, very good for us.

Did Petrie mishandle the situation? Perhaps. Was there really much less of a situation than some people would want to believe? Probably. The main thing to remember IMHO is that this isn't the 2001-2003 Kings. While there are pluses about our coaching position - like it's open - there are negatives, too. We aren't the jewel in the NBA crown.

Geoff Petrie has a very difficult job and I'm sorry but I'm just a little tired of everyone acting like they could do it better. Most of us couldn't even begin to do it, regardless of what we might say or even believe. There's a reason there's such a small pool of GMs and head coaches to select from when an opening occurs. They are TOUGH JOBS.

VF21 gets off soap box and drags it back to the corner...

So what if he has a difficult job? That shouldn't excuse anything. I haven't seen one person acting like they could do a better job than Petrie, just because someone is criticizing someone else doesn't mean they think they could do a better job than them.

 

[bloom]

If you want to talk about something going wrong, it would be the fact that we let Rick go. Especially when the maloofs didn't want to spend money on peices that we needed. Didn't the Jazz keep Jerry Sloan? And didn't the Jazz also go through a rough patch? But they kept Sloan and understood he didn't have the players and that he still was a good coach.

and if the person that said ron has trade value reads this. and used the fact that the Knicks and Heat were mildly intrested in him. lets get this straight any team interested in him is looking to steal him for close to nothin. there will be no Peja for Ron deal this time. the clips have the best chance still wit Corey M. but that is even doubtful. maybe a pick will be involved if we take on a bad contract for him. who knows the best deal i heard was for C. Frye and although i can believe the knicks are dumb enough to give a young talented big away for ron. i still think its a reach

Strage things happen in the nba. Doesn't Ron have a players option at the end of the year? So I'm sure someone who wants to win right now, will give him a shot. Even the Lakers are in a tough spot with Kobe telling them that they need players now. I'm not ruling anything out, anything is possible.

 

[Bricklayer]

I would generaly agree with the original poster -- while the rock star treatment he was getting near the end was over the top, SVG was clearly one of the stars of this coaching class. Even the casual fans could see that. And having three separate teams make him an offer in one summer pretty much confirms it.

I've mentoined in other threads that I see our whole coaching process this summer as nothing more than an insecure reaction to last summer. We went to one extreme last summer, so this year, as much for show as anything else, we have flown off to the other extreme. See, watch us do our due diligence again and again and again, that way we can't be accused of being too hasty! Next thing you know we'll be interviewing the janitor, just in case you know. Nothing wrong with the general concept of covering your bases and taking your time, but its a competitive industry. Nobody else is going to sit around and wait for you to work through your emotional issues because you got burned last year. Quite to the contrary, teams with more focused searches have snapped their guys up.

The question, as always, is just whether that was Geoff's decision, or the Maloofs, or a combo. And this is of course the game the Geoff apologists always play -- good = Geoff, bad = must have been those Maloofs meddling. Maloofs = great behind the scenes scapegoats, sometimes deserved, sometimes not. But in this case it really was potentially a factor. Ownership is going to have to sign off on a new coach anyway, but in this case who knows who is dragging the feet, who said "take your time, follow the process". Certainly sounds like Geoff's bureaucratic mentality, but the Maloofs could easily have been involved in the plodding too, not wanting to expose themselves like last year, and so this year determined to take their time, not hurry etc.

In any case there are still some promising names fitting what was apparently our original qualifications -- young, former player, minimal experience. But just as clearly, we missed on our first choice. The question would be why it took us so long to realize that he was the first choice and to react to it. Moving slowly at something can indicate being careful, or it can indicate being systematic, or sometimes it can indicate a lack of confidence.

 

[nbrans]

^I would agree with that if there were some indication that SVG would have taken the job earlier had it been offered earlier. But everything I've read suggested that he really wanted the Magic job, and unless we got his signature in the window of time between Donovan signing and renegging (which basically seemed like three hours), I just don't know that haste/urgency would have been enough.

And this all sets aside the fact that there were all kinds of scheduling issues, Petrie going on a scouting trip, the pre-draft camp, other interviews etc., and getting Petrie, the Maloofs and the coaching candidates in one room may not have been possible earlier. But that's just a side matter.

So, barring some sense of the Kings dragging their heels being a factor, and without knowing any of the particulars, I have to give the organization the benefit of the doubt. SVG had a choice to coach here, he got his first choice, and I think at the end of the day I don't think it's worth agonizing over.

 

[Warhawk]

^I would agree with that if there were some indication that SVG would have taken the job earlier had it been offered earlier. But everything I've read suggested that he really wanted the Magic job, and unless we got his signature in the window of time between Donovan signing and renegging (which basically seemed like three hours), I just don't know that haste/urgency would have been enough.

And this all sets aside the fact that there were all kinds of scheduling issues, Petrie going on a scouting trip, the pre-draft camp, other interviews etc., and getting Petrie, the Maloofs and the coaching candidates in one room may not have been possible earlier. But that's just a side matter.

So, barring some sense of the Kings dragging their heels being a factor, and without knowing any of the particulars, I have to give the organization the benefit of the doubt. SVG had a choice to coach here, he got his first choice, and I think at the end of the day I don't think it's worth agonizing over.

Agreed.

 

[Bricklayer]

^I would agree with that if there were some indication that SVG would have taken the job earlier had it been offered earlier. But everything I've read suggested that he really wanted the Magic job, and unless we got his signature in the window of time between Donovan signing and renegging (which basically seemed like three hours), I just don't know that haste/urgency would have been enough.

The Orlando job did not even open up until May 24 when Brian Hill was fired. That was 5 weeks after we had been eliminated, and I am not sure we had even conducted a first interview with SVG at that point.

 

[nbrans]

The Orlando job did not even open up until May 24 when Brian Hill was fired. That was 5 weeks after we had been eliminated, and I am not sure we had even conducted a first interview with SVG at that point.

Right, but anyone following that situation could see it was almost certain that he would be fired, it was rumored for weeks.

 

[BMiller52]

I don't think Petrie handled it wrong. I would have preferred we were actually less agressive about this. Maloofs pulled out all the stops(they got him on their freaking private plane for example), we stopped interview, it was obvious he wasn't going to come, and now we look like that person in the movies getting married whose partner says "hey actually you're not good enough, that guys hotter im gonna go marry him" while we go "wtf!?"

 

[kingsfan101]

While it would be good to zero down on a candidate and sign him up, no worthwhile coach is coming to us unless he knows our plan.

Artest factor aside, which shall automatically scare lot of coaches away, there is no indication yet, if the plan is to blow up the team, fill it up with young guys and enders and play for the future, or if the plan is to try and make the playoffs. Unless we decide on a course of action, and make the candidate buy into it (again, not many star coaches shall be interested if we are building for the future), we are looking at young prospects with limited former head coaching experience.

 

[NYKingsfan]

Timing is everything!. When SVG was ripe to be hired we were wasting our time interviewing everyone under the sun. When SVG was all but hired by Orlando, we decide he is our guy. I'm sorry, but I view this as being mishandled.

By all accounts SVG seemed very interested in the SAC job. I recall reading quotes from him in the Bee reflecting his interest. Furthermore, he didn't have to be hired by SAC during the brief window that Donovan had the Orlando job. I am sure that SVG heard the whispers of Donovan to Orlando before the Donovan hiring. SVG had to realize that coaching positions were being filled and if HE didn't act, he might get left out in the cold. If Petire wanted SVG he should have snagged him then.

This is not intended to be a thread to priase SVG or assume that his hire would result in immediate greatness. The abilities of SVG as a coach can be addressed in another thread. My point focuses solely on the handling of the SVG hire..or lack thereof. Remeber..timing is everything

 

[BRad1055]

What do we want though the Kings to take there time and interview 5 or 6 guys and take it slow or do we want them to say SVG ur our guy lets hire him before we interview any other people? I mean we did the quick hire thing last year with Musselman and look where that got us. Nowhere. I think the Maloofs and Petrie this time wanted to take there time and not rush things like they did last summer in the coaching search and with the way the season turned out who can blame them.

 

[Venom]

Right, but anyone following that situation could see it was almost certain that he would be fired, it was rumored for weeks.

I agree with your take. We may very well have targeted Van Gundy from the start, but it was apparent, and possibly even stated by him in interviews, that he wanted to see what happened with Orlando before signing elsewhere. Petrie is an astute guy, and I am positive he played this to the best of his ability. If Donovan had not changed his mind then SVG would be our coach. We continued to pursue SVG while the Donovan situation was on-going because you never know how SVG may feel about things once he gets here. He may have liked the organization, the owners, (some of) the players, the town and decided that Orlando was too much drama and taking too long. It didn't work out, and we move on. We're still going to get a good coach.

 

[ParniValjak]

While it would be good to zero down on a candidate and sign him up, no worthwhile coach is coming to us unless he knows our plan.

Artest factor aside, which shall automatically scare lot of coaches away, there is no indication yet, if the plan is to blow up the team, fill it up with young guys and enders and play for the future, or if the plan is to try and make the playoffs. Unless we decide on a course of action, and make the candidate buy into it (again, not many star coaches shall be interested if we are building for the future), we are looking at young prospects with limited former head coaching experience.

Just because everyday Joe Bloggs on the street like you and me don't know the plan, it doesn't mean that the coaching candidates aren't aware of it!

I distinctly remember reading a quote from SVG after his second interview with us that he was greatly impressed with the ownership, GP and the plans he has for this team. To me that suggests that coaches in their 2nd interview were filled into what the plan is. Just because we don't know what the front office thinks, it doesn't mean the coaching candidates don't either.

I think people are pissed off about this because SVG was the best available candidate there and he apparently turned down the Indiana job to focus on us, until the Orlando job opened up. I think its a fair criticism to say that we are moving at a snail like pace in this search.

Oh, while there were rumours that Hill might be on the way out, not coach, especially SVG would put his other coaching option on the back burner on rumour and inuendo. This was a guy who was tentative to agree to terms with Magic before they officially settled the contract with Donovan and everyone knew it was only a matter of time that was going to happen.

People are pissed off because SVG was easily the best coach on the market and the beauty of him is that he was potentially a long term hire regardless of whether you are rebuilding or retooling. SVG has proven that he is a good coach with vastrly different teams in Miami. He took a young players and moulded them into a play-off team in his first year. Next year he took a different team into a deep play-off run.

SVG would have been a coach who was capable of rebuilding this team and then once that is done, we still had a coach who was capable of taking us all the way. No other coaching candidate has a resume thats even close to SVG's.

Anyway, time to move on now and hopefully find a diamond in the rough that can help rebuild this team and still be good enough to take us all the way.