[News] Scott Perry is the new GM of Sacramento Kings

[pdxKingsFan]

Perry had significantly more information than we did about the value of our assets around the league. If nobody is calling... sorry Domas. Sorry Zach. We have to build up what we have here. We can't add to a potentially big problem (as we've seen here) when there's 3 or 4 situations to already have to figure out and sift through.

If Monk can't do it, then you throw Keon or Dev out there. You figure it out. All Perry did was take a problem that was at a 72 and bump it up to a 89. That's not smart GMing

Nobody saw any of those guys as viable starting PGs. And frankly none of them are.

We got Hunter. It's not a homerun, maybe not even a double. But I think he's an improvement for next year even if we get a draft pick that sends him to the bench. We will be far better off with Keegan and Hunter than Keegan and Demar assuming both are healthy next year. Schröder didn't really cost us anything in the end. It appears we were always going to have to choose between Keon and Carter, and none of the other 10 teams that showed interest in Keon made an offer we couldn't say no to.

Nothing about this season makes me happy mind you. At least in theory we finally brought in the sort of player Monte whiffed at bringing in for 3 years.

 

[hrdboild]

Well, as @Padrino stated earlier, let's remember that Perry didn't necessarily inherit the greatest set of assets in the world, so asking him to turn things around in less than a year is/was likely a bit too premature.

I'm not ready to accept the fact that he sucks at this job.
Vivek, on the other hand...(don't even get me started.)

No, but he did inherit a 40 win team and judging by his off-season he most likely did not expect that roster to be 12-40 at the trade deadline. I was pretty pessimistic about the direction the team was going and still expected them to win 40% of their games this year not 23% of them. And the only trade he made mid-season brought in a player who made the roster older, is only signed for one season before he'll hit free agency, will cost the team more in guaranteed money in that year then the players he sent out, and he also had to throw in two future second round picks to get Chicago to take Saric (who he himself traded for last summer). That's the exact opposite of what a last place team should be doing.

 

[eleventy]

Ok but if he called and was told our offer was stupid, does that make it better or worse for you? This is such a silly complaint. Giannis was never on the table for us, call or no call. This is not the question Perry needs to answer.

well, i'd rather hear that from Perry, as opposed to "from you".

i've asked before if we have any statements from giannis or his agents that he would not go to sacramento.

no one has provided me with anything in video, audio or print - do you have such verification of your stateement?

it may be true but i don't know if it is KNOWN to be true.

 

[Padrino]

Didn't the back half of last season show Monk is not a starting PG?

That's why I think we had to bring one in. There was apparently pressure to do so from both Domas and Zach's camps. And I also heard some felt it would be unfair to Doug to not have one. I hated that Schröder signing but I don't know who the PG we should have targeted was.

Who cares if Monk is not a starting PG? Similarly, who cares if Domas or Zach effing LaVine want a PG? Why is the front office listening to players who aren't likely in the Kings' long-term plans in the first place?

The Houston Rockets never bothered to acquire a PG after Fred VanVleet went down and they're 4th in the brutally tough Western Conference with a .633 win percentage. If a successful, well-run franchise like that sees no value in adding salary and putting lesser veteran talent in front of its young, developing players, then the Kings are certainly in no position to be doing otherwise.

Again, this is where the Kings constantly err. They decide they "need" a PG, so they go out and add unnecessary salary that they'll ultimately decide to dump later instead of just trusting in their developmental program to determine what they have in the youth already on their roster by ensuring those players see significant time on the court.

Would it have been a mess to trot out a "PG" rotation of Monk/Nique/Carter? Probably. But again... who cares? What did anybody expect the Kings to even be playing for this season?! It seems like the Kings are consistently in the business of tanking the value of their own assets by refusing to commit to the ones that matter in the long-term.

 

[The_Jamal]

Nobody saw any of those guys as viable starting PGs. And frankly none of them are.

We got Hunter. It's not a homerun, maybe not even a double. But I think he's an improvement for next year even if we get a draft pick that sends him to the bench. We will be far better off with Keegan and Hunter than Keegan and Demar assuming both are healthy next year. Schröder didn't really cost us anything in the end. It appears we were always going to have to choose between Keon and Carter, and none of the other 10 teams that showed interest in Keon made an offer we couldn't say no to.

Nothing about this season makes me happy mind you. At least in theory we finally brought in the sort of player Monte whiffed at bringing in for 3 years.

I know you've been on an anti-Monte kick, but Hunter's stat profile is not good. He's a wing with a big standing reach, but he's got A LOT of work to do to get back to being a positive value player.

If he can spin Hunter into draft capital or make use of his expiring, I'll give props then. But it seems like we're bringing him in to be a feature core player the way they've talked about him. That's.... concerning if we don't see a big statistical swing over these last 30 games.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I know you've been on an anti-Monte kick, but Hunter's stat profile is not good. He's a wing with a big standing reach, but he's got A LOT of work to do to get back to being a positive value player.

If he can spin Hunter into draft capital or make use of his expiring, I'll give props then. But it seems like we're bringing him in to be a feature core player the way they've talked about him. That's.... concerning if we don't see a big statistical swing over these last 30 games.

Because the players we are stuck with are all from Monte and he made this roster. I can be frustrated with Perry who clearly was brought in to offload some of the 5 SGs he stuck us with but the guy who put them there is why we're here.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Who cares if Monk is not a starting PG? Similarly, who cares if Domas or Zach effing LaVine want a PG? Why is the front office listening to players who aren't likely in the Kings' long-term plans in the first place?

The Houston Rockets never bothered to acquire a PG after Fred VanVleet went down and they're 4th in the brutally tough Western Conference with a .633 win percentage. If a successful, well-run franchise like that sees no value in adding salary and putting lesser veteran talent in front of its young, developing players, then the Kings are certainly in no position to be doing otherwise.

Again, this is where the Kings constantly err. They decide they "need" a PG, so they go out and add unnecessary salary that they'll ultimately decide to dump later instead of just trusting in their developmental program to determine what they have in the youth already on their roster by ensuring those players see significant time on the court.

Would it have been a mess to trot out a "PG" rotation of Monk/Nique/Carter? Probably. But again... who cares? What did anybody expect the Kings to even be playing for this season?! It seems like the Kings are consistently in the business of tanking the value of their own assets by refusing to commit to the ones that matter in the long-term.

Clearly it was a gamble that didn't pay off but the thought of just letting the players run the show without a PG doing whatever really hangs Doug out to dry worse than we did. I think the hope was it would show some of these guys we want to trade can play in the flow of a normal offense and obviously that didn't happen. We don't have close to the young talent Houston does. They also have more picks coming. They are where we want to be 3 years from now not where we are today.

 

[hrdboild]

...

Would it have been a mess to trot out a "PG" rotation of Monk/Nique/Carter? Probably. But again... who cares? What did anybody expect the Kings to even be playing for this season?! It seems like the Kings are consistently in the business of tanking the value of their own assets by refusing to commit to the ones that matter in the long-term.

Exactly. The Kings always seem to be the last to know who they even have on their roster. And they just traded away another young player for an expiring vet. We're not building anything here, all we're doing is shuttling players in and out because we are technically an NBA team and have 15 roster slots to fill like everyone else.

 

[AaronPDX]

What super bothers me about Perry is he (in my opinion) committed GM malpractice in not extending Keon and locking him down when he had every opportunity to do so. To then add insult to injury, he has to use Keon, a HUGE fan favorite and the kind of guy every team can use, to get himself out of the utter mess that HE HIMSELF CREATED signing and overpaying (also my opinion) Dennis. So irritating.

 

[hrdboild]

Because the players we are stuck with are all from Monte and he made this roster. I can be frustrated with Perry who clearly was brought in to offload some of the 5 SGs he stuck us with but the guy who put them there is why we're here.

Perry inherited a guard heavy roster and he (1) traded the only backup C for a salary filler player who never played (2) drafted yet another SG -- trading away future draft capital to get back into the first round in the process (3) refused to trade Ellis or Carter for Kuminga over the summer and instead let both of them rot on the bench and lose value (4) signed Schröder and Westbrook making the roster even more unbalanced to the point where Doug was starting Russell Westbrook at PF early in the season.

Normally I would agree that we need to give a GM two years before we start pulling out the pitchforks but there certainly should be a standard of conduct which is so undeniably awful that an exception needs to be made. If I owned this team, I would already be looking for a new GM because I don't want Scott Perry anywhere near this year's draft which will (for better or worse) define our future for the next 5-10 years at least.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Perry inherited a guard heavy roster and he (1) traded the only backup C for a salary filler player who never played (2) drafted yet another SG (3) refused to trade Ellis or Carter for Kuminga over the summer and instead let both of them rot on the bench and lose value (3) signed Schröder and Westbrook making the roster even more unbalanced to the point where Doug was starting Russell Westbrook at PF early in the season.

Normally I would agree that we need to give a GM two years before we start pulling out the pitchforks but there certainly is a standard of conduct which is so undeniably awful that an exception should be made. If I owned this team, I would already be looking for a new GM because I don't want Scott Perry anywhere near this year's draft which will (for better or worse) define our future for the next 5-10 years at least.

5 SGs and not one PG.

It's a distinction that mattered.

 

[QWERTYLICIOUS]

Again, this is where the Kings constantly err. They decide they "need" a PG, ...

Yeah, this has been one of my biggest peeves when it comes to Vivek...His desire to see this franchise play a similar style to that of his kid's youth basketball team.

 

[Padrino]

Clearly it was a gamble that didn't pay off but the thought of just letting the players run the show without a PG doing whatever really hangs Doug out to dry worse than we did. I think the hope was it would show some of these guys we want to trade can play in the flow of a normal offense and obviously that didn't happen. We don't have close to the young talent Houston does. They also have more picks coming. They are where we want to be 3 years from now not where we are today.

A gamble? On what were the Kings gambling? That 32-year-old Dennis Schroder and 37-year-old Russell Westbrook were going to join 36-year-old DeMar DeRozan and keep the Kings competitive enough for a play-in push? That's not gambling. That's just throwing dice without understanding the odds.

Scott Perry has called this a "gap year". If it's a gap year, then you give your head coach some slack as you sort out the value on your roster. You don't go sign two over-the-hill PGs and stick them into an already-crowded backcourt, making it impossible to evaluate which of the pieces you just pushed down the depth chart is worth keeping and depressing the value of any backcourt assets you possess that you may want to offload at the trade deadline. It's just bad GMing, and there's not any other way to describe it that doesn't come across like a coping mechanism for the disastrous season in which the Kings have found themselves.

Houston has way more young talent than the Kings do, yes. And that's my point. A team positioned to "win now" because it just traded for Kevin Durant still bet on its youth to carry the day. The Kings are in no position to play keep-away with their own effing assets. If they ever want to be a serious NBA organization again, they need to leverage every bullet they have in the chamber; they can't be wasting incredibly valuable developmental opportunities (which are, by the way, also value-building opportunities) to "gamble" on the likes of... Schroder and Westbrook.

 

[The_Jamal]

5 SGs and not one PG.

It's a distinction that mattered.

Even if I accepted this positional premise (I don't), then you make sure you clean out 2 or 3 of them before you bring on Russ and Dennis. You don't make a bad mess, worse.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Sticking a new (and by just about everyone's opinion questionably hired) head coach with a roster with no true PG is a recipe just to make things worse. I realize apparently everyone hates Doug now, can't wait to fire him too. But like really, maybe he wanted one?

 

[The_Jamal]

Clearly it was a gamble that didn't pay off but the thought of just letting the players run the show without a PG doing whatever really hangs Doug out to dry worse than we did. I think the hope was it would show some of these guys we want to trade can play in the flow of a normal offense and obviously that didn't happen. We don't have close to the young talent Houston does. They also have more picks coming. They are where we want to be 3 years from now not where we are today.

Perry's guys lead us to the worst offense in basketball. I don't think it'd really be possible for Monk/Dev/Keon/Nique to be worse in that spot.

 

[Krunker]

Perry's rookie talent has been decent (Nique, Cardwell, Raynaud) but everything else has been a dumpster fire. We definitely don't have competitiveness, team-oriented, professionalism, accountability, and discipline.

 

[Padrino]

5 SGs and not one PG.

It's a distinction that mattered.

Why? Mattered to whom and to what? What's the worst that happens if the Kings don't rather stupidly sign Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook? They discover Devin Carter isn't a viable NBA player and certainly not an NBA point guard? Well, good. That's a useful data point. Signing Schroder and Westbrook offered the Kings no useful information-gathering opportunities, which is what you're supposed to be using your "gap year" for in the first place.

 

[The_Jamal]

Sticking a new (and by just about everyone's opinion questionably hired) head coach with a roster with no true PG is a recipe just to make things worse. I realize apparently everyone hates Doug now, can't wait to fire him too. But like really, maybe he wanted one?

Define "true PG" for me.

 

[SacTownKid]

Nobody saw any of those guys as viable starting PGs. And frankly none of them are.

We got Hunter. It's not a homerun, maybe not even a double. But I think he's an improvement for next year even if we get a draft pick that sends him to the bench. We will be far better off with Keegan and Hunter than Keegan and Demar assuming both are healthy next year. Schröder didn't really cost us anything in the end. It appears we were always going to have to choose between Keon and Carter, and none of the other 10 teams that showed interest in Keon made an offer we couldn't say no to.

Nothing about this season makes me happy mind you. At least in theory we finally brought in the sort of player Monte whiffed at bringing in for 3 years.

For a team trying to rebuild you certainly don't compound the issue with shortsighted moves which Perry did. Fact is Perry is tighter in a corner now financially. If his answer is to bleed cheap talent then this is off the rails 100 percent.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

A gamble? On what were the Kings gambling? That 32-year-old Dennis Schroder and 37-year-old Russell Westbrook were going to join 36-year-old DeMar DeRozan and keep the Kings competitive enough for a play-in push? That's not gambling. That's just throwing dice without understanding the odds.

A gamble that would make some of our less desirable players look more friendly to teams we want to trade them to. I've stated that consistently since we made these signings.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Define "true PG" for me.

I don't know that I have a definition but someone that can get out of a trap, facilitate the offense, has top tier handles and some court vision. None of the proposed PG solutions meet those basic requirements imho. Does Schröder, not really, not defending that signing other than we needed a player who has shown some ability to run point.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Why? Mattered to whom and to what? What's the worst that happens if the Kings don't rather stupidly sign Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook? They discover Devin Carter isn't a viable NBA player and certainly not an NBA point guard? Well, good. That's a useful data point. Signing Schroder and Westbrook offered the Kings no useful information-gathering opportunities, which is what you're supposed to be using your "gap year" for in the first place.

To the coach? To the players on long term contracts? certainly to the coach.

 

[SacTownKid]

5 SGs and not one PG.

It's a distinction that mattered.

Lets see, Carter and Clifford look to have potential there. It's low reps but per 48 Carter looks to be developing nicely as a PG. Clifford is low but his role has been wing all year. Carter is now at 6.6 assist per 48. If he keeps playing like he did last night that could very well climb. Perry went with "PG's" and it didn't do jack diddly.

 

[hrdboild]

5 SGs and not one PG.

It's a distinction that mattered.

Ellis, Monk, Carter, LaVine -- that's 4 SGs. He drafted the 5th -- Clifford. Unless I'm forgetting someone?

LaVine is all but untradeable, I don't blame Perry for that. But Monk, Ellis, and Carter all should have drawn some interest if he was willing to deal them in a roster balancing move. And both Westbrook and Schröder turned out to be disastrous signings which can only be defended as "he was secretly trying to tank". For the record, I do hold Vivek more responsible for any of this than Perry since he obviously made the decision to get rid of the last GM and he handpicked Scott Perry in with the idea of fixing things not making them worse.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Ellis, Monk, Carter, LaVine -- that's 4 SGs. He drafted the 5th -- Clifford. Unless I'm forgetting someone?

LaVine is all but untradeable, I don't blame Perry for that. But Monk, Ellis, and Carter all should have drawn some interest if he was willing to deal them in a roster balancing move. And both Westbrook and Schröder turned out to be disastrous signings which can only be defended as "he was secretly trying to tank". For the record, I do hold Vivek more responsible for any of this than Perry since he obviously made the decision to get rid of the last GM and he handpicked Scott Perry in with the idea of fixing things not making them worse.

I'm counting DeMar. Don't care how he's played, him forcing Keegan into the 4 spot has left us crippled defensively because of Domas's own shortcomings.

I'd hardly consider a one year vet min deal and a FA signing that nets a wing who might be useful next year "disasters" even if they didn't result in winning games this year. Neither will be here next year.

 

[The_Jamal]

I don't know that I have a definition but someone that can get out of a trap, facilitate the offense, has top tier handles and some court vision. None of the proposed PG solutions meet those basic requirements imho. Does Schröder, not really, not defending that signing other than we needed a player who has shown some ability to run point.

I mean, do we REALLY think between Monk/Dev/Nique they couldn't have figured this out to some extent? All 3 would be perfectly capable of dribbling the ball up the court and getting the ball in Domas and DDR's hands (as we pretty much do now).

And again, if this was Perry's true thoughts that we HAD to bring someone on... you don't get to eat your cake before your veggies. He should have see how adding 2 ball-dominant ball-handlers would severely diminish everyone else in the back-court. And they have, including LaVine. So the "veteran presence" effectively killed everyone's value lol because they aren't starting caliber big minute players anymore.

 

[hrdboild]

Sticking a new (and by just about everyone's opinion questionably hired) head coach with a roster with no true PG is a recipe just to make things worse. I realize apparently everyone hates Doug now, can't wait to fire him too. But like really, maybe he wanted one?

I don't hate Doug. Like I said, he was handed a roster where he had to play Westbrook at PF and mid-season free agent signing Precious Achiuwa at C. That was a brutal situation for any coach to have to deal with. And the way he got the job in the first place has evidently burned bridges with two of his previous co-workers judging by the way they've failed to even acknowledge him the sideline. My point was, Perry has only made a bad situation worse since he took over the job. And Doug may never be a head coach in the NBA again because of it.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't hate Doug. Like I said, he was handed a roster where he had to play Westbrook at PF and mid-season free agent signing Precious Achiuwa at C. That was a brutal situation for any coach to have to deal with. And the way he got the job in the first place has evidently burned bridges with two of his previous co-workers judging by the way they've failed to even acknowledge him the sideline. My point was, Perry has only made a bad situation worse since he took over the job. And Doug may never be a head coach in the NBA again because of it.

Almost certainly Doug seemed to have input into requesting to have a PG. It was mentioned on twitter. It was mentioned in the exit interviews last season. The issue is the roster Perry inherited.

I'm not suggesting he's good, I said I can't give him a passing grade. But the instant fix was never happening.

 

[Padrino]

To the coach? To the players on long term contracts? certainly to the coach.

To your neophyte head coach whom you likely hired as a stopgap to appease your owner? What GM worth his salt cares what Doug Christie wants in a gap year? The guy's not Tom Thibodeau. He doesn't have that kind of clout, to be forcing roster decisions in a critical season for evaluation. More to the point, Perry gave Doug his PG when he signed Dennis Schroder... and then he went out and signed Russell Westbrook just for kicks! He doubled down on the bad decision-making! If you're the GM walking into this mess, you simply cannot be driven by whimsy or caprice. It's madness to waste your first year the way Scott Perry has.

The fans feel cheated for a reason. Many of them might not even know why, but it's because, to this point, this season has meant nothing. DeRozan and Westbrook have had their fun, and it's amounted to nothing. Both remain on the roster, and the Kings are no closer to understanding what they have in some of their young pieces. They've got 30 games left, but that amount of time is not helping you answer the kinds of questions you're meant to ask yourself when you're the GM of an NBA franchise.