Time for patience

[Catalyst]

I know patience is a difficult thing to have right now. Especially after acquiring Artest. Some of you may have thought he'd pick us up a lot and we'd starting winning a ton more games.

The reality of the situation is the Kings have a lot of injuries and a lot of bad habits. Sacramento has dug themselves a big hole this season, and it will take some time to dig out of it.

You can quote a number of problems the Kings have -- when you have a team 8 games below .500 you can find plenty. Defense, rebounding, turnovers, etc. There are plenty of problems.

The good news is this. Artest is learning a brand new system and brand new teammates. He's a team player who makes those around him better, on both ends. Plus we have two guys who are injured, but are both impact guys who are on their way to recovery in Bonzi Wells and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

It's hard to say where the Kings are going to go this year, but the good news is we now have a team on it's way up. This might simply mean we win a few more games and have some light at the end of the tunnel, or it could mean we grab the 8th playoff spot.

Regardless of where we end up and how we get there, try to keep in mind that this is a rebuilding process for the Kings, and try not to set your expectations too high.

New teams take time to build and it's not going to happen over night. Remember to stay positive because we have a truly gifted player in Ron, and it seems also like a team that cares a lot more if they win or lose now than they did before the trade.

That's all. Go Kings.

 

[Ryle]

I'm not much for patience but I'm interested to see ho they do this week. Winnable games with some time off. Hopefully Bonzi will be back and all will be well. If not then I could start to worry. This team is having to rely way too much on Bibby and since he needs to be on the court our defense suffers tremendously.

 

[tyrant]

i told myself that we could not get any worse by acquiring artest. boy was i wrong. dropped 2 straight. it's not rons fault; he's playing great. but this team is just too far behind. our bench is HORRIBLE. i wanna say hang up the jerseys for the season and let the pistons,spurs and heat duke it out. we're done.

 

[DeAtHrOw]

i told myself that we could not get any worse by acquiring artest. boy was i wrong. dropped 2 straight. it's not rons fault; he's playing great. but this team is just too far behind. our bench is HORRIBLE. i wanna say hang up the jerseys for the season and let the pistons,spurs and heat duke it out. we're done.

Come on you can't judge based on 2 games. Let's see what happenes when everyone is healthy and go from there

 

[tyrant]

by the time everyone gets healthy there will only be 10 games left in the season.

 

[KingKong]

Come on you can't judge based on 2 games. Let's see what happenes when everyone is healthy and go from there

At the end of the a six game road trip, nonetheless. Patience is all I got, and since there isn't anything else I can do about our situation, I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[DeAtHrOw]

by the time everyone gets healthy there will only be 10 games left in the season.

I know we have not had much luck with the injuries but hopefully that will change too and maybe we can finally turn it around.

 

[Folsom Al]

Plenty of time ... if not this year, then it won't be this year

 

[Bricklayer]

The problem for THIS season is the hole is so damn big that we are almost out of time. If it was November 30, sure, no prob, time to gel. (of course one of mistakes this year was waiting too long for that to happen, but that's another story). But on January 30, these are the numbers one more time. Assuming, and its a bit of a dubious assumption, but even assuming that .500 will get you the #8 spot...well, first of all that means that you are looking at a first round dismissal at the hands of the Spurs -- that's your big hope for acheivement this year. But just to get there we have to go 23-15 from here on out. That's a 50 win pace. And if anybody has looked ahead to our schedule in March and April you will see just how hard that looks.

So its entirely possible that we are maybe a month away from having nothing TO do but show patience, hope to get lucky in the lottery, and hope Geoff can refocus and find a new vision in the offseason. Not the end of the world, but especially when you have Ron Artest on your team, and another competitive guy as a FA (Bonzi), it is worrisome.

With patience I do think that we can be respectable, but respectable won't get us anywhere this season given how far back we are starting. I think this team is two moves from being quite good. A big shotblocker/rebounder up front, and a lightning scorer off the bench. That won't change with patience unfortunately, and those pieces need to be found sooner or later. Might as well be sooner so we can get this show on the road. Rebuild violently if you're going to do it -- get all of the major turnover done quickly, and THEN break out the patience and settle in and let things comes together.

 

[gman23]

Patience has now passed this team. I've even in my playing days have played with 4 other strangers and won against people who played together for awhile. So to me it's not patience ,but DRIVE that is needed with this team.
They all seem CONFUSED on what's going on while on the court, no one has any responsiblity. Maybe next year.......

 

[love_them_kings]

Well, I'm feeling patient in a sense. I know that Ron is not going to solve our problems over night, and while he will help this team, there is no way he can solve all of our problems. In a way I was sad to see Peja go (sadder than I thought I'd be), but I'm glad that something was done to change things up. I don't expect this team to do much in the playoffs, even if they find a way to make it, although I would love it if they proved me wrong.

I am, however, excited. I think as Artest gets in better shape and Bonzi gets healthy we are going to see some exciting basketball. The way the team plays is changing, and I'm ready for it to change, because the old way wasn't working anymore.

I'm going to try to enjoy the rest of the season, and take things one game at a time. It's not easy to do, but hey, I'm a 49er fan, so if I survived football season this is a piece of cake.

 

[SK23]

how could there be patience when we're going past midway through the season with a record that will soon not even let us dream about making the playoffs this year. Changes have to be made now!!!

 

[Bricklayer]

how could there be patience when we're going past midway through the season with a record that will soon not even let us dream about making the playoffs this year. Changes have to be made now!!!

Patience would be understanding that not making the playoffs is not the end of the world. Different for people relatively new to the Kings. But maybe ok as long as we can keep Artest and maybe Bonzi focused and ok about it.

 

[love_them_kings]

Patience would be understanding that not making the playoffs is not the end of the world. Different for people relatively new to the Kings. But maybe ok as long as we can keep Artest and maybe Bonzi focused and ok about it.

Yeah, that's how I look at it. As much as making the playoffs has been a given for the Kings, there were many years when making the playoffs wasn't even a possibility. If we make it, we make it. If we don't, at least with Artest and Bonzi we should see some interesting basketball this season. I hope that at least we will start winning more games, so that Artest feels like he's making a difference and keeps a positive attitude.

Then, when Petrie trade our flexible trading pieces for KG this summer we will be in good shape.

 

[VF21]

This group of players is only a team because they're wearing the same uniforms. They haven't had an opportunity to really bond together as a team. As much as some don't want to admit it, that takes TIME!

When you have Kevin Martin as the third most veteran player on the team, you have to realize this is a whole new ballgame...

If you don't want to be patient, you might as well get used to even more frustration. OR you can accept the truth for what it is - this is the transition team and you'll never know what to expect from one game to the next.

Personally, I'm just going to continue to root for them and wait for the day when we actually have the whole starting five healthy and on the court at the same time before I start getting too critical of them.

 

[Catalyst]

It would be nice if we could make moves that would improve us 'now', but I don't think those deals are out there. Who exactly could we get right now that would improve us?

If you look at our team from top to bottom on paper, we're pretty decent.
Not the best team in the league, but should be a playoff squad.

Assuming Sacramento keeps on their current pace, we finish this year in the lotto. I think Adelman will not be re-signed and we'll get a lotto pick.

I've enjoyed Adelman for all of these seasons, but defense isn't his area of expertise, and this is a squad that has a much higher defensive focus. Hence, you have a need for a coach that fits the players more.

More than likely, he's the next guy to go, but not without having a chance for the rest of the season to make something happen.

One of the big reasons I'm saying patience right now is because Petrie is generally known as a patient guy, so it's unlikely we'll be doing another trade here this season.

Unless we can get some other GM to accept Kenny Thomas' deal that lasts until 2039.

 

[kingsfannPDX]

our bench is HORRIBLE. i wanna say hang up the jerseys for the season and let the pistons,spurs and heat duke it out. we're done.

the heat have no chance! shaq is done!!

 

[ParniValjak]

It would be nice if we could make moves that would improve us 'now', but I don't think those deals are out there. Who exactly could we get right now that would improve us?

If you look at our team from top to bottom on paper, we're pretty decent.
Not the best team in the league, but should be a playoff squad.

Assuming Sacramento keeps on their current pace, we finish this year in the lotto. I think Adelman will not be re-signed and we'll get a lotto pick.

I've enjoyed Adelman for all of these seasons, but defense isn't his area of expertise, and this is a squad that has a much higher defensive focus. Hence, you have a need for a coach that fits the players more.

More than likely, he's the next guy to go, but not without having a chance for the rest of the season to make something happen.

One of the big reasons I'm saying patience right now is because Petrie is generally known as a patient guy, so it's unlikely we'll be doing another trade here this season.

Unless we can get some other GM to accept Kenny Thomas' deal that lasts until 2039.

Please tell me how you arrived to that conclusion

Apart from Artest there isn't a real defensive presence kind of player on the team. Skinner is VERY poor man's dfensive presence. Hart is a scrubber and Martin and Garcia are known more for their offence than their defence. They are OK defensively but they are much better offensively than defensively. Bonzi is another decent defender.

Our current roster doesn't have much higher focus for defence. We still allow teams to have lay up drills against us. We still can't stop penetration and we basically get molested every time because we can't play a lick of defence.

This team is still more offence oriented than the other way around. Apart from Artest no other player on our roster is really known for their defence.

 

[Catalyst]

Please tell me how you arrived to that conclusion

Sure thing. Where Sacramento used to have guys pretty much just known for their offense in Webber, Vlade, Peja, etc. They now have guys that have more defensive ability.

How well and to what extent are certainly debatable, but as a team the Kings have more defensive players than they've previously had, except the year they have Jimmy J, Keon and were healthy...

I'm not going so far as to say these other guys are 'known' for their defense, outside of Artest that simply isn't the case, but these guys have a better defensive ability than our former core team did.

I've followed most of these guys before they got to Sac, and while they're nothing to write home about on the defensive end, most of the new guys hold their own.

Also, my remark about a 'much higher defensive focus' meant on the talent end of things. This squad is capable of playing better defense than the last 2-3 seasons, which of course isn't saying a lot, but there it is.

 

[thesanityannex]

I believe Ron will show patience with this team, especially under the circumstances he came here on. During their meeting, I remember reading that Petrie told Ron that he was bringing in more players. I doubt Petrie breaks his promise.