Sacbee's Season Preview/Petrie Interview

[Bricklayer]

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/story/2279756.html

Wherein Sam Amick sounds a lot like me in questioning things that have gone on, and an unusually candid Geoff more or less admits that I was right.

 

[piksi]

"I'll be honest," Petrie said in looking back on the Kings' franchise-worst 17-win season. "It wasn't on my radar, and I don't think it was on a lot of other people's radar that we would go from 38 wins (in 2007-08) to 17 wins.




"I could've seen us falling back some, maybe, but not (that much)."

Even my dog knew we weren't going to win 20 games with that roster. We won't win many more than 20 this season either.

 

[AriesMar27]

wow, who wouldve guessed that signing beno to a 5 year deal was a bad idea? petrie just isnt the gm that he used to be... for some unknown reason he likes to make reqally bad mid-season trades which have now completely screwed up any chance at building a good team. there is almost no need to count thomas' expiring contract as anything worth mentioning since we wont have the cash to sign any players that could help this team win in the future.

i was looking at our roster on realgm trying to think of a way to get a back up center but we dont have any tradeable pieces... no one will want garcia, beno or nocioni... unless we trade martin, the rest of our players are on rookie contracts. unless petries master plan is to suck so much that he resigns all of our young players to cheap contracts and then signs a big name player later on.... genius... if we keep losing there is no way that we will have to give thompson, hawes, evans and sergio fat contracts... now thats thinking outside the box.

wait, why does that sound so familiar?











(scratches head)














(smokes half of a newport 100)







damn, im light headed now.... stupid menthol cigarettes....





(scratches head again)






oh yeah... now i remember thats what donald sterling used to do with the clippers. thats not gonna work geoff... youre gonna need a better plan than that...

we might have to trade martin. i dont want to see him go but i dont see any other way to improve this team short of a miracle and hawes grows a pair. unless hawes somehow becomes a straight beast, this team will suck for the foreseeable future. we wont have the pieces or the cash to improve and keep this team intact as is...

its like trying to look to your left and right at the same time. either youre cross-eyed or you are looking into a mirror, no matter how you do it you arent going anywhere. we're just stuck. our beloved gm had a brain fart last offseason and threw away 60 million dollars (over the next 5 yrs) on beno and garcia. no matter how much some of you may have hated miller, nocioni doesnt make for the fact that we would be sitting on miller and thomas' expiring contract if petrie hadnt made that dumbass trade. atleast then we would have some cash to spend next offseason.

after our lottery pick(s) we'll have just enough money to sign a player to a mle type of contract. wow..... but it wont be mle because we will be under the cap by 6 or 7 million. like it makes a difference.... if we cant trade beno or nocioni this season i have a feeling that they will be here for a long time. just like thomas x 2=no playoffs for a long time. the grizzlies will make the playoffs before we do.

 

[Prince_XY]

Even my dog knew we weren't going to win 20 games with that roster. We won't win many more than 20 this season either.

So, it only means one or the other: Petrie is dumber than your dog, or he really knew beforehand he was making a series of mistakes and now trying to pretend to be that dumb not to know.

Could it be that he wanted to sabotage the Maloofs basketball franchise?

 

[fnordius]

Could it be that he wanted to sabotage the Maloofs basketball franchise?

Maybe the answer is that he's not comfortable saying, "Yeah, well, my bosses wanted me to do some dumb things, and I didn't realize just HOW dumb they were at the time."

I'm not a big fan of laying all blame on the Maloofs, but I think that some combination of Maloof pressure + Geoff errors is a credible explanation, and one which doesn't stretch the imagination to the breaking point while trying to explain motives.

 

[TheFifthMookie]

wow, who wouldve guessed that signing beno to a 5 year deal was a bad idea? petrie just isnt the gm that he used to be... for some unknown reason he likes to make reqally bad mid-season trades which have now completely screwed up any chance at building a good team. .

I stopped reading after this. I know its a message board and all, but yikes.

 

[AriesMar27]

I stopped reading after this. I know its a message board and all, but yikes.

you really missed out on a good post....

 

[Kingster]

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/story/2279756.html

Wherein Sam Amick sounds a lot like me in questioning things that have gone on, and an unusually candid Geoff more or less admits that I was right.

...and that I was right...

What gives me confidence going forward is that I think the Maloofs and Petrie are trapped by finances right now. They HAVE to go with young guys because they are cheaper. That means they will have to go the slow route with the draft rather than high priced vets through FA. They'll probably wait until the economy turns to spend some real money.

 

[Kingsguy881]

you really missed out on a good post....

Kinda sorta. A lot of it was you expressing your frustrations in a very whiny way. But I've got the cheese for that....

Realistically, trading away an underachieving and annoying as hell Brad Miller plus Salmons and his ball hogging MLE paved the way to play JT and Hawes to see what you have. You bring in Noc who adds toughness, something you have been coveting on your team for a while (well, SANE toughness anyway). Noc is still a moveable piece, after all, here he is!

Signing Beno, in hindsight which is always 20/20, was a lethally bad move. But honestly, Beno was coming off a solid season in his first chance at a starting gig, who knew he would regress. All signs pointed to him progressing and instead he went backwards. How often does that happen? And at the time there really wasn't much to choose from. Petrie made what at the time was a solid move, not paying Beno starter bucks but giving him a healthy contract as it appeared he was going to become a solid player.

Garcia is a whole different evil. People love the way he plays, fearless, at full tilt, in your face. And his signing was and still is a good signing. Garcia, if he could stay healthy, would be a wonderful addition to any competing team as a 6th man. The thing about Cisco is, let him make one of those dumb decisions on the court with LeBron or Wade or Kobe and watch his *** get chewed. His problem is he has to be a leader on a team where he has no business trying to lead. Doesn't make him a bad guy, just puts him in a place where he is ill fitted to be.

 

[swisshh]

Even my dog knew we weren't going to win 20 games with that roster. We won't win many more than 20 this season either.

That really is the most telling and depressing quote of the interview. If you can't tell that roster was going to be bad then you really have lost it as a GM.

 

[piksi]

So, it only means one or the other: Petrie is dumber than your dog, or he really knew beforehand he was making a series of mistakes and now trying to pretend to be that dumb not to know.

Could it be that he wanted to sabotage the Maloofs basketball franchise?

My dog is pretty smart and well trained

 

[swisshh]

Your Dog can sniff out a turd. Obviously, Petrie can not.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Apparently only ten percent of us here can smell a turd, though:

Last year's win prediction poll

Only 10% selected less than 30 wins. More people selected 41 wins+ (that's over .500, kiddies) than that.

I love the revisionist history and all, but we didn't think we would be that bad.

 

[AriesMar27]

yeah but that was before miller and salmons were traded... we only won 5 games after that trade. i thought that they would win 37 games, without that dumb trade and martin missing 30 games we probably wouldve won more than 30 games for the season.

 

[AriesMar27]

Kinda sorta. A lot of it was you expressing your frustrations in a very whiny way. But I've got the cheese for that....

Realistically, trading away an underachieving and annoying as hell Brad Miller plus Salmons and his ball hogging MLE paved the way to play JT and Hawes to see what you have. You bring in Noc who adds toughness, something you have been coveting on your team for a while (well, SANE toughness anyway). Noc is still a moveable piece, after all, here he is!

Signing Beno, in hindsight which is always 20/20, was a lethally bad move. But honestly, Beno was coming off a solid season in his first chance at a starting gig, who knew he would regress. All signs pointed to him progressing and instead he went backwards. How often does that happen? And at the time there really wasn't much to choose from. Petrie made what at the time was a solid move, not paying Beno starter bucks but giving him a healthy contract as it appeared he was going to become a solid player.

Garcia is a whole different evil. People love the way he plays, fearless, at full tilt, in your face. And his signing was and still is a good signing. Garcia, if he could stay healthy, would be a wonderful addition to any competing team as a 6th man. The thing about Cisco is, let him make one of those dumb decisions on the court with LeBron or Wade or Kobe and watch his *** get chewed. His problem is he has to be a leader on a team where he has no business trying to lead. Doesn't make him a bad guy, just puts him in a place where he is ill fitted to be.

the beno signing was stupid... there is no hindsight with him. he is a career scrub. the spurs didnt want him after winning a ring. the twolves waived him even though they didnt have a pg on their roster at the time. we were the only team to offer him anything... we outbid ourselves on a back up pg and paid him starter money. he is garbage as a player unless he is coming off the bench behind a star pg. playing behind tony parker he looks okay. starting on the kings he is garbage.

trading miller wasnt a bad move, what we received for him was... millers contract would have been more valuable to this team than the player himself. i find it hilarious that thomas sits on the bench being paid 8 million a year yet we trade miller. why didnt we just bench him as well? he didnt have to play. we couldve waited to find a better deal for him. maybe trade him in the offseason.

petrie sucks at making mid season trades.... period. he's really good at drafting players with low 1st round picks but thats about it. his trades are pretty bad unless we are getting a totally one sided trade like webber for mitch or bibby for jwill....

 

[Kingsguy881]

the beno signing was stupid... there is no hindsight with him. he is a career scrub. the spurs didnt want him after winning a ring. the twolves waived him even though they didnt have a pg on their roster at the time. we were the only team to offer him anything... we outbid ourselves on a back up pg and paid him starter money. he is garbage as a player unless he is coming off the bench behind a star pg. playing behind tony parker he looks okay. starting on the kings he is garbage.

trading miller wasnt a bad move, what we received for him was... millers contract would have been more valuable to this team than the player himself. i find it hilarious that thomas sits on the bench being paid 8 million a year yet we trade miller. why didnt we just bench him as well? he didnt have to play. we couldve waited to find a better deal for him. maybe trade him in the offseason.

petrie sucks at making mid season trades.... period. he's really good at drafting players with low 1st round picks but thats about it. his trades are pretty bad unless we are getting a totally one sided trade like webber for mitch or bibby for jwill....

So Peja for Artest was bad? What trades were bad? The Webber trade? We ended up spending less money and having more flexibility after that trade. The Bibby trade? Well, the net result of that is Evans and he is going to be better than Bibby ever was. The DC trade? Got a useful Mobley to finish out the season and DC was out for the rest of the year after that trade. The Hedo - Miller swap? If Adelman woulda stuck to his guns when Webb came back from injury that trade would have put us back in the championship. What trade was so bad?

 

[TaxMan]

The Bibby trade? Well, the net result of that is Evans and he is going to be better than Bibby ever was.

I understand your point, but this example is a little silly. Using this logic, the only way the bibby trade would have been bad was if we actually got better.

 

[TaxMan]

his trades are pretty bad unless we are getting a totally one sided trade like webber for mitch or bibby for jwill....

So he takes the blame for really bad trades but doesn't get the credit for really good trades? That doesn't seem very fair.

 

[piksi]

Apparently only ten percent of us here can smell a turd, though:

I was one of them and it was easiest call to make ever.

You can't teach talent.

A 5 bench players - Bobby, Hedo, JJ, Pollard and Clark make a lineup that is way better than what we had last season or what we have right now. That used to be our bench about a century ago

 

[VF21]

So he takes the blame for really bad trades but doesn't get the credit for really good trades? That doesn't seem very fair.

Ah, but in the "Bashing Petrie" handbook, fairness doesn't enter the equation.

I agree with Capt. Factorial about revisionist history. Way too many people around here like to take some kind of credit for being right and wrong after the fact... like it matters or somehow justifies any future assessments they might make.

We have a new young team, we have a new coach, we have excitement and potential for a change and some people still want to argue old news? Isn't that why we have TDOS?????

 

[King Baller]

re·build (r-bld)
tr.v. re·built (-blt), re·build·ing, re·builds
1. To build again.
2. To make extensive structural repairs on.
3. To remodel or make extensive changes in: tried to rebuild society.

No where to go but up

KB

GO KINGS

 

[fnordius]

Apparently only ten percent of us here can smell a turd, though:

Last year's win prediction poll

Only 10% selected less than 30 wins. More people selected 41 wins+ (that's over .500, kiddies) than that.

I love the revisionist history and all, but we didn't think we would be that bad.

You should have checked the threads in the Personnel forum, where a number of us were talking about a shot at the #1 pick on Nov. 4th, and an 18-win season by a few days into the new year:
http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29276
http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29699

Those *were* the top-2 most read personnel threads last year, so I know I wasn't alone in there... it was the triumph of optimistic pessimism!

I don't know why, but everytime I visit this tread, I feel like I'm going down dark stairs into the basement and then through the dark, to a hidden room, filled with scientists with thick glasses, developing a secret weapon to used in the future. And somehow, it brings me comfort.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

You should have checked the threads in the Personnel forum, where a number of us were talking about a shot at the #1 pick on Nov. 4th, and an 18-win season by a few days into the new year:
http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29276
http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29699

Those *were* the top-2 most read personnel threads last year, so I know I wasn't alone in there... it was the triumph of optimistic pessimism!

I know perfectly well about that - I was a part of it. My point is that although the general sentiment was to hope to get a good lotto pick, the expectation, especially before the season started, was that we would do better - in the low 30s for wins. Martin losing time, Theus being fired, and the deadline trade of Miller and Salmons helped cement a 17-win season, and certainly by January 1st we knew we were in for it. But looking at the roster before the season, I don't think it's accurate to say we had nailed the team as a real stinkburger. Unlikely playoff team, yes. Worst record in the NBA, no.

I guess I'm really just objecting to the characterization of Petrie as being "dumber than piksi's dog" (paraphrase) for not expecting us to drop to 17 wins. Before the season started, the fans by and large didn't see it coming either. Perhaps we're all dumber than piksi's dog, but that would seem to be more a reflection of piksi's dog's intelligence than of our idiocy.

 

[piksi]

fans aren't dumb

they are mostly optimistic and hope for the best

they are also very subjective - "my garbage is better than someone else's garbage" style

GP is not a fan. He does this for living and has a lot of experience. He MUST be objective evaluating his team.

A team that has Salmons, Miller, Martin and such is a bad team. No PG, no inside presence, no coach, not enough shooting no dept at all. Even all the "experts" from BSPN had us last.

Again - it is not our job to see things the way he needs to see them.

 

[Bricklayer]

This is coming at the whole 17 win thing from the wrong direction. Other than the dubiousness of a GM not knowing himself how his team would perform. I have mentioned several times before that I took Hollinger to task for saying we'd win 23 -- think my own prediction was 30-32.

But the fact is that we are far BETTER off now, because Geoff didn't know what the hell he had wrought. If Geoff had KNOWN he had put together a 17win squad last year I would have lauded him for it. Finally a rebuild, a shot at a top pick, and a chance at the future. The problem isn't that he put together a 17 win team, the problem was that he INTENDED to put together a 30-35 win team. Anyone who intends to do that, with old vets littering the roster to boot, just deserves to be slapped. That is the absolute armpit of all aspirations. And to continue to do it after year after year of grinding decline and mediocrity...that's just asinine.

His tacit admission that maybe there's an argument for starting the rebuild earlier (really Geoff? duh), but that he, or they, couldn't bring himself to do it, was more revelatory.

 

[rainmaker]

It also didn't help any with the Maloofs coming out and saying they expected us to be a playoff caliber team before the season started. Not letting petrie off the hook... but the maloofs didn't make his job any easier with their unrealistic expectations.

 

[Heuge]

So Peja for Artest was bad? What trades were bad? The Webber trade? We ended up spending less money and having more flexibility after that trade. The Bibby trade? Well, the net result of that is Evans and he is going to be better than Bibby ever was. The DC trade? Got a useful Mobley to finish out the season and DC was out for the rest of the year after that trade. The Hedo - Miller swap? If Adelman woulda stuck to his guns when Webb came back from injury that trade would have put us back in the championship. What trade was so bad?

I thought Peja for Artet was good, but every armchair gm in America was asking for that trade and if it was made a year earlier one can only imagine the outcome. I think it could have meant another legitimate shot at a championship. the Doug Christie trade was great, although sad. I so loved that player.
The bibby trade and the Webber trade really sucked. In both instances it would have been better to let their contracts run out then deal with what we got in return.

 

[AriesMar27]

So Peja for Artest was bad? What trades were bad? The Webber trade? We ended up spending less money and having more flexibility after that trade. The Bibby trade? Well, the net result of that is Evans and he is going to be better than Bibby ever was. The DC trade? Got a useful Mobley to finish out the season and DC was out for the rest of the year after that trade. The Hedo - Miller swap? If Adelman woulda stuck to his guns when Webb came back from injury that trade would have put us back in the championship. What trade was so bad?

the artest peja trade was stupid... if petrie intended on trading peja he shouldnt have traded webber the year before. if it werent for the brawl in detroit im sure that peja wouldve been traded instead of webber.

trading doug was lame, it basically cost martin his rookie season. doug was tired and injured, we had martin but instead of benching doug and letting martin play. they trade him for mobley who was basically a rental. we couldve lost to the sonics with martin in the lineup instead of mobley. who we lost in the offseason anyways...

the hedo/miller trade was an offseason trade. i said that he sucks at midseason trades. the bibby/jwill trade and the webber/mitch trades were offseason moves.... the bobby/bonzi trade was a good offseason move as well. same could be said about the sergio/#31 pick trade too.... when he has time to plan for deals he has done a pretty good job. but during the season all of the trades hurt us in the long run... how long have we had thomas? how long will we have nocioni? the only good part of the bibby trade was that we didnt take any bad contracts back.

adelman bringing webber back into the starting lineup isnt what hurt the team, miller breaking his leg during the all-star game is what killed us.

 

[kennadog]

adelman bringing webber back into the starting lineup isnt what hurt the team, miller breaking his leg during the all-star game is what killed us.

He hurt his foot at the All-Star game. He broke his leg doing a layup in practice. It just snapped as he went up. Very weirdinjury.

 

[AriesMar27]

He hurt his foot at the All-Star game. He broke his leg doing a layup in practice. It just snapped as he went up. Very weirdinjury.

yeah, there you go.... i knew he hurt himself at the all-star game and i knew he broke his leg. just forgot that they were separate events.