Sacbee's Season Preview/Petrie Interview

[Kingster]

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.

Totally agree. Petrie (and we fans) lucked out because his team was a lot worse than what he thought. As a result of his fortune, he got Tyreke Evans, who could be the best player in the draft. His mediocre vet/youngins schitzo approach to cobble together 30-35 wins was totally repudiated by what happened last season. Finally, Petrie said, "Uncle!" and gave in to reality. And that's exactly when we hit bottom.

 

[AriesMar27]

yeah thats kinda sad that even before the season started last year petrie thought that they would only win 30-35 games for the year. so why didnt he do his job and try to improve the team? thats his job.... if he knew that this team couldnt compete why didnt he try to change that?

 

[Kingsguy881]

the artest peja trade was stupid....

I stopped reading after that. WHAT? So we would have been better off letting Peja walk at the end of that season, or more realistically signed him for whatever the Hornets signed him for and watched him totally decline in productivity while missing a ****load of games? I guess Petrie is ****ed, any which way YOU look at this his moves have never benefitted the team (like their resurgence to make the playoffs and provide us an exciting and disappointing 1st round loss to the Spurms).

Get your application in there. I'm sure you are the next coming of Jerry West hearing you tell it

 

[kennadog]

yeah thats kinda sad that even before the season started last year petrie thought that they would only win 30-35 games for the year. so why didnt he do his job and try to improve the team? thats his job.... if he knew that this team couldnt compete why didnt he try to change that?

Uh, unlike Captain Picard, things don't automatically happen when he says "Make it so."
GP has made good moves and some bad ones. I think most here would say the rebuilding should have started sooner, but at least we have started. It's not going to happen quick just because we want it to.

I'm not against a new GM and GP may decide to do something else after this season, anyway. Since the Maloofs offered him a contract extension, it's GP's choice to not sign one to this point.

I remember a large number of vocal people around here wanting Adelman gone. It is possible to jump from the frying pan into the fire.

 

[Dime Dropper]

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!

Skimming over the first couple pages of the first thread you quoted, I found some posts I'd forgotten I'd posted. Quite happy that I did now

Anyway, if we get the top pick, or just a top pick for that matter, I'd be happy with any of Rubio, Jennings, DeRozan, and particularly Tyreke Evans. I think he'll be a star. He won't have the franchis tag coming out of college, but I think he'll be a franchise player. Reminds me of D-Wade in both aspects (kind of unheralded). He's got a good handle, very strong, very good athlete and can finish under heavy pressure at the rim. Under-rated passer and possibly a better shooter than Wade.

Of course, the Wade comparisons are a stretch at best. But it shows how highly I've thought of him for a long time!

And again, BIG on Tyreke Evans. Really think he can be a star.

 

[bajaden]

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.

OH YEAH mr. smarty pants.. Just how good would your prediction have been if you didn't have that damm dog!! Huh? Go ahead and answer that one. And no consulting the dog...

 

[bajaden]

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.

You do realize that before he brought Webb back into the lineup the Kings had the best record don't you. There's no denying that the team just didn't play as well after Webb came back.