So when did this rebuild actually start?

K

Kings Fan Gerard

Bench
Hey guys, I know GP has done a very good job so far in stocking up on young talent and keeping our team well below the salary cap. If Cousins pans out, this would be one of the best rebuilds in recent history.

I'd just like to ask what year did this rebuild actually start? I know there were a few years where our team was actually winning 30+ games but of course they weren't enough to get into the playoffs.

And with Bibby, Artest, and Kevin being traded one after the other, I think our 'actual rebuild' just started last year after our 17 win season.
 
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Once he drafted Evans and saw what kind of player he was. GP then had to decide what players we had that he could build upon around Evans and what players had to go. Obviously Martin had to go. With the theme of our team now being toughness he just keeps pounding away with that mantra in drafting Cousins. Lets put it this way I don't see us being near the bottom of the leauge in rebounding and defense for a while. I also see our opponents fg% in the paint droping a bit. Evans, Garcia, Casspi, Greene, Landry, Thompson all have a don't give up attitude. thats something that couldn't be said for Martin, Hawes, Miller. I don't think Dalembert, Whiteside, or Cousins will have a give up attitude either.

Even before the Cousins draft. I thought with Dalembert we had a legit frontcourt again and with the development of Greene, Thompson, Evans, and Casspi and the health of Garcia I saw us winning 30+ games. Now with Cousins also in the frountcourt I see us venturing into that 35+ win area. Now if Cousins developes quickly hell even if he puts up the numbers he did in college maybe 40+.
 
I think we tried to start it as soon as Bibby was moved, but our future started looking bright after this past Evans season. Hawes and Thompson are good prospects, but Evans finally gave us a new person to build around.
 
I consider it to be the Bibby move which was the first indication that the franchise was going to be clearing out all the questionable contracts and starting from scratch rather than trying to make moves geared towards immediate improvements in the W column.
 
MassachusettsKingsFan said:
I think we tried to start it as soon as Bibby was moved, but our future started looking bright after this past Evans season. Hawes and Thompson are good prospects, but Evans finally gave us a new person to build around.
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I came here to post this. The Bibby trade marked the end of GP's and the Maloof's attempt to sneak into the playoffs as a perennial 45-win team. Evans marked when the rebuild started working well, while JT and Hawes were more lateral additions. Cousins, hopefully, is the beginning of the end.
 
I thought we were gonna rebuild when we traded Webber to the Sixers. That didn't happen though. After that we ended up getting Bonzi and Ron Ron but we all knew that wasn't a Championship squad. But definitely when we tossed Bibby out for scraps was the moment we "blew up the clown".
 
While I agree Bibby may have been the start, it was the Artest trade and its aftermath (17 win season) that I think fully committed us.

I think Geoff himself used the word "shocked" to describe how bad that season became, and that tells you something -- we didn't come into that season planning on losing that much, and accordingly didn't come into that season with the aim of getting the top lottery pick that became Evans and turned the franchise.


P.S. And yeah, the Webber trade and that whole year was where it really went wrong for us. And its not about trading Webber. Its about going through all the emotional wrenching of tearing up the old team, and quickly -- in the space of 12 months the entire leadership quartet of Vlade, Webber, Christie, Bobby was moved -- thus clearly signalling a rebuild (and a nice dramatic let's rip the bandaid off all at once and get this over with rebuild too). And...we didn't. It was from that moment that our franchise became complete nonsense for the better part of 4 lost seasons. Lost our momentum, our reputation, and our fans. And then 4 years too late we finally committ to the rebuld and voila!, what do you know, there is life again just that quick.
 
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Yeah, Ron was the last person to be traded. I think the 17 win season really made everyone realize that there was a need to start from scratch and rebuild the roster.
 
The Bibby and Artest trades were obviously huge steps, but I know when I finally felt the team was committed to the rebuild. That came during the '09-'10 trade deadline with Petrie dealing Miller, Salmons, Shelden Williams and Bobby Brown for Nocioni, Gooden, McCants, Booth, Diogu, Solomon, Cedric Simmons and Sam Cassell (seven expiring deals) in the span of three frantically breathless days.

Reading through the roster on Feb 20th that year felt like going through the hollowed out remains of a scorched high rise. And you just knew the crews had finally arrived to salvage what they could before tearing the whole thing down and starting from scratch.

And think, only JT, Cisco, Donte and Beno are still with us from the morning after.
 
Brad Miller was the last piece that was added to the team with the intention of helping the championship contending team. A sort of methadone for Vlade. So I think it took 4 years to finally demolish the contracts of the failed championship run; and with Evans the rebuild was nicely accelerated.
 
Insomniacal Fan said:
Brad Miller was the last piece that was added to the team with the intention of helping the championship contending team. A sort of methadone for Vlade. So I think it took 4 years to finally demolish the contracts of the failed championship run; and with Evans the rebuild was nicely accelerated.
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I don't think you can really say that Evans accelerated the rebuild...without Evans, there can be no rebuild. Until you get that number one, franchise player kind of guy, you end up like the Wolves or Clippers where you are perpetually in a state of rebuild. I mean, until you have a real star, you have nothing to rebuild around.
 
Entity said:
Once he drafted Evans and saw what kind of player he was. GP then had to decide what players we had that he could build upon around Evans and what players had to go. Obviously Martin had to go. With the theme of our team now being toughness he just keeps pounding away with that mantra in drafting Cousins. Lets put it this way I don't see us being near the bottom of the leauge in rebounding and defense for a while. I also see our opponents fg% in the paint droping a bit. Evans, Garcia, Casspi, Greene, Landry, Thompson all have a don't give up attitude. thats something that couldn't be said for Martin, Hawes, Miller. I don't think Dalembert, Whiteside, or Cousins will have a give up attitude either.

Even before the Cousins draft. I thought with Dalembert we had a legit frontcourt again and with the development of Greene, Thompson, Evans, and Casspi and the health of Garcia I saw us winning 30+ games. Now with Cousins also in the frountcourt I see us venturing into that 35+ win area. Now if Cousins developes quickly hell even if he puts up the numbers he did in college maybe 40+.
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Agree.. Once he drafted Evans, and realized what he had then he cleared out Martin, and Hawes as soon as he could and got some players that would not hinder Evans. Martin needs the ball too much, and Hawes isn't an inside presence to compliment Evans like Cousins is.

So the rebuild started exactly after he realized what he had in Evans.
 
So was it Evans presence that trigger the thought of "We should get tougher and better on defense" and kinda started giving up on the Princeton offense? Or was Coach Westphal? Or were the Evans picking and coach hiring both from a plan of getting tougher the organization had before?
 
No the metality shift to tougher, defensive, started BEFORE Evans was drafted. That was clearly our whole draft strategy in getting Evans, Casspi and Brockman, and the front office talked about it ad nauseum.

Now whether that would have meant diddly or squat if we had not had our 17 win collapse and not been able to draft Evans is a good question, but the mentality change I think really was brought on by what even to our softie loving front office must have been shocking lassitude and pathetically soft play from the 17 win team. And the fans all left the building and wanted no part of it either. So as I have mentoned before, I am actually damn glad we had a 17 win season and am glad those bums couldn't be bothered to care, because without such a shocking punch to the nose for our franchise I don't know if we make the abrupt right turn that has revived us and brought hope again or not.
 
It had to be when we traded Webber and stuff. It was Official when we traded Bibby for junk. We could have gotten way more with Bibby.
 
I believe that the Bibby trade signified the end of 'the team' and the desire to begin looking in a new direction. Though we certainly did not get much back from a talent perspective, that trade did help financially.
Though that trade signified the end, I don't consider it the first move of the rebuild. I believe the first move of the rebuild began with the Artest trade where we got an expiring contract in Bobby Jackson, Donte Greene, and the Rocket's 1st rounder which ended up being Omri Casspi.

We traded our best talent, who still has a number of good years of production in him, for an expiring to clear up cap space, a very young SF who would need to develop in Donte, and a 1st Rounder.
I liked this trade at the time, as I just didn't see Artest as part of the King's future. Though Donte really disappointed in his first year, and we had no idea who we'd get with the Rocket's pick, I still felt it was a good trade. Now, after two seasons, and the dramatic improvement Donte made from his 1st year to his 2nd year, and the selection of Omri Casspi with the Rocket's pick, it turns out that this was a trade I can easily give an A grade for. If Donte and Casspi can both reach their potentials then it could be an A+ trade.

Regardless, it was that trade which I feel really showed Petrie trying to start from scratch to rebuild this team. Of course, the drafting of Tyreke is what is going to truly make this a successful rebuild, but the Artest trade was the first in line of what has been staggeringly good moves by Petrie to turn this franchise around.
 
Start of seriously blowing it up: Bibby trade.
End of blowing it up: Kevin Martin trade.

There's no clear start of the actual rebuild in my opinion, since we've been doing it through the draft, which happens regardless. It might be reasonable to conclude that we began rebuilding when Geoff decided to blow things up so completely that it'd significantly help our draft position. I'll arbitrarily say that it began with the trading of Artest, which foreshadowed the canning of Theus, and seems like as good a point as any. It was the beginning of the sequence of events that got us two top-5 picks in a row, so... why not?
 
There were two rebuild attempts. I think Petrie did not understand what he had or what he was doing with the first rebuild. That team desperately needed a playmaking PG and uptempo style, but instead Petrie kept signing MLE tweeners and never got the guy to make it all work. When the 17 win season happened and it shocked him, then it really felt like management had a disconnect with near everything.

The second rebuild was far quicker and starts with Evans, obviously. They are still trying to figure out what previous rebuild pieces fit with Evans, but it seems they have some idea of what they are doing this time. I am still worried that they still haven't figured out what Evans really is yet, but I'll give them time to show they realize what they have.
 
swisshh said:
There were two rebuild attempts. I think Petrie did not understand what he had or what he was doing with the first rebuild. That team desperately needed a playmaking PG and uptempo style, but instead Petrie kept signing MLE tweeners and never got the guy to make it all work. When the 17 win season happened and it shocked him, then it really felt like management had a disconnect with near everything.

The second rebuild was far quicker and starts with Evans, obviously. They are still trying to figure out what previous rebuild pieces fit with Evans, but it seems they have some idea of what they are doing this time. I am still worried that they still haven't figured out what Evans really is yet, but I'll give them time to show they realize what they have.
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We have been rebuilding since 2004-2010
 
swisshh said:
There were two rebuild attempts. I think Petrie did not understand what he had or what he was doing with the first rebuild. That team desperately needed a playmaking PG and uptempo style, but instead Petrie kept signing MLE tweeners and never got the guy to make it all work. When the 17 win season happened and it shocked him, then it really felt like management had a disconnect with near everything.

The second rebuild was far quicker and starts with Evans, obviously. They are still trying to figure out what previous rebuild pieces fit with Evans, but it seems they have some idea of what they are doing this time. I am still worried that they still haven't figured out what Evans really is yet, but I'll give them time to show they realize what they have.
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Gee it sure sucks that our superstar isn't a conventional 1 or 2 guard.:rolleyes:
 
swisshh said:
There were two rebuild attempts. I think Petrie did not understand what he had or what he was doing with the first rebuild. That team desperately needed a playmaking PG and uptempo style, but instead Petrie kept signing MLE tweeners and never got the guy to make it all work. When the 17 win season happened and it shocked him, then it really felt like management had a disconnect with near everything.

The second rebuild was far quicker and starts with Evans, obviously. They are still trying to figure out what previous rebuild pieces fit with Evans, but it seems they have some idea of what they are doing this time. I am still worried that they still haven't figured out what Evans really is yet, but I'll give them time to show they realize what they have.
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I disagree with the part about there being two rebuild attempts. The first rebuild attempt that you speak of was more like patch work than a rebuild. The rebuild actually began once Bibby was traded. That made it obvious that Miller was next. When you look at the 10+ year history of Geoff Petrie moves and drafts....hes a sneaky guy.
 
They kept trying to build around descending talents. Build around Peja? No. Build around Bibby/Artest? No. Build Around Kmart and Artest? No, but this was the semi start to the first rebuild. The youth started playing more with Theus(not as much as others wanted, but Theus was told to win and play youth when young unproven talent loses, thus the vets still played minutes.) It was by no means a good rebuild, but it was still a separate rebuild. The team type and idea was a different idea than now. When you are trading young talent like Martin and Hawes then you are showing that you are bailing out on the previous plan.
 
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Im really glad this team finally went for the rebuild. It seems like there are alot of teams that are content with doing the necessary patchwork to just make the playoffs.
 
swisshh said:
When you are trading young talent like Martin and Hawes then you are showing that you are bailing out on the previous plan.
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To be fair, they both gave up on the Kings before we gave up on them. (At least, K-Mart did)
 
Geez, some people still need to throw out the "not sure what Evans is" comments. Get over it already, it's so old.
 
The Artest trade. That was the capitulation moment of the Kings org. At that point they trashed the "refurbish" in favor of the rebuild.
 
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