The sky is not falling.....

[treewoman]

Could we be on more of a downer? Good lord, I haven’t visited Kingsfans.com since the All Star Games and it appears the world has ended!

I, for one, did not expect (although I certainly hoped) that we would make the playoffs. And quite honestly we really are a bit ahead of where I thought we’d be. Clearly this is a transition year, one of several. I foresee next year being better as we rebuild but honestly not by all that much. We have a brand new coach and staff and a lot of new faces. I think we have to give them time.

Frankly, I think we’ve done damn well. Obviously, I am not one of the forum members whose basketball savvy is going to knock your socks off but I do know I love the game of basketball and the Kings are my team of choice – not because they are “the best” or going to the play-offs, if that was the case my team of choice would vary every year.

Brad has truly impressed me with all he has done this year – he looks great! I love Reggie. I like Mikki Moore – I think he’s a great player and very intense and clearly he loves the game. Although John has room for improvement I think once he gets over his mental hump about not starting he’ll be awesome. I am not wild about Ron on a personal level – however I must say he’s a hell of a player when he wants to be. Kevin is outstanding (and as I posted on the other thread I think he’s been sick of late and that is why his game hasn’t been so hot of late). Beno I think has real potential and just needs a little time, same with Francisco. In short, I see a lot of positives and for the most part have really enjoyed watching this season. I think we are in a much better position than we were last year!

 

[Bricklayer]

a) last year we were 25-32 after 57 games. This year we are 26-31. Doesn't fit nicely in the Muss was the problem/we are getting better paradigm.

b) That said, I am not terribly upset about the last week simply because I was never putting false hopes on this season in the first place. I've been annoyed for years, so these sorts of stretches are nothing less than expected where I am coming from. Think the sky is only falling if you were insisting that the possibilities this season were endless. They weren't, and so here we are. Again.

 

[tyrant]

for the sky to fall you must have higher hopes in the beginning. which i didnt have but i didnt think for a minute we would be in the same spot as last year.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

a) last year we were 25-32 after 57 games. This year we are 26-31. Doesn't fit nicely in the Muss was the problem/we are getting better paradigm.

Brick, with all do respect, last year and this year are two TOTALLY different teams, IMO. Hell, last year, even though we were right about the same place record-wise as last year right now, last year's team was a dysfuctional mess, and I as a fan felt like I needed some prozac to watch it...not cool. This year we at least have a passionate coach who gives a damn, and is providing hope that we've found someone who will lead us to bigger things. I still say we end up around 39-40 wins by the end of the season. Reggie isnt afraid to tell it like it is, has the respect of his players(or at least it would seem), and for the most part only plays the guys who put forth effort.(the last few games hopefully is just a little hickup in this season's progress) I'm looking forward to NEXT year already...the future just seems a bit brighter than it did at the end of last season.

 

[kupman]

Brick, with all do respect, last year and this year are two TOTALLY different teams, IMO. Hell, last year, even though we were right about the same place record-wise as last year right now, last year's team was a dysfuctional mess, and I as a fan felt like I needed some prozac to watch it...not cool. This year we at least have a passionate coach who gives a damn, and is providing hope that we've found someone who will lead us to bigger things. I still say we end up around 39-40 wins by the end of the season. Reggie isnt afraid to tell it like it is, has the respect of his players(or at least it would seem), and for the most part only plays the guys who put forth effort.(the last few games hopefully is just a little hickup in this season's progress) I'm looking forward to NEXT year already...the future just seems a bit brighter than it did at the end of last season.

I completely agree. There is some rhyme and reason to what is going on the floor this year. I can't say the same about last year. Additionally, Muss had a pretty injury free year while Theus has had to deal with many (some lengthy) injuries. Last, Muss did not experience having his starting PG traded away (not that I disagree with the trade).

 

[fnordius]

the future just seems a bit brighter than it did at the end of last season.

Yeah, but then we fired Muss a few days later, which will be a tough act to follow. Things looked pretty bright at that point, and stayed that way until losing draft tiebreakers, losing good coaching candidates, getting a less than exhilirating draft pick, and swapping Corliss for Mikki took some of the wind out of our sails.

The bright side of the last year: we got an extension for Kevin, at a price that was not bad. This forced us to trade someone away for expirings, who happened to be Bibby. The other bright spots in the last year were finding Beno and Dahntay, and re-signing Justin. Unfortunately, the fact that we had no choice but to dump salary came back and bit us on the *** when we lost 2 of those 3 guys. And no way to be sure that Beno will be around after the summer. But we can be sure that we will have worse draft position this year, even if we lose 3/4 of our remaining games.

Don't get me wrong, it's been great to have a coach who is not obviously incompetent. But replacing coaches is relatively easy, you can just fire them and hire new ones. It's less expensive than waiving an average player, and it doesn't count against any cap or tax.

Now we're face to face with the fact that our roster isn't working out very well, and our FO + owners aren't doing anything beyond salary dumping and the occasional bandage. We have some flexibility in changing the roster, but only within the confines of what Geoff and the Maloofs are willing to do, which, so far, has been about as little as possible. We can flirt with the idea of hiring a more active GM, but the terrifying vision of Whisenant as successor is enough to dissuade most of us from that line of thought. That leaves replacing the owners as step 1. Since I can't afford to buy the team, I've yet to figure out how this can be accomplished.

So... what now? The team was more fun to watch for a while, but not lately, and the sorts of things which could be done to remedy that, like replacing worthless oldsters with inexpensive kids, is not being done. Maybe something big will happen in the next year, or maybe it won't, but right now our only hope is that the FO will suddenly decide to fix things. If I see some sign of that, I'll be optimistic again. But until I do, I can only expect more of the same.