Well, I'll disagree with your premise a bit here. An owner can think whatever he likes when it comes to offense vs defense and style of play. It's on the GM and FO to ensure the strengths of the roster and style of play are conducive to winning. It's not a problem, what the owner thinks, if your GM has a backbone and clear plan.
The larger issue here IMO is that Vivek obviously wants to and will judge this team on wins/losses this year, but our GM and FO haven't done all that much to address the defensive side of the ball or overall lack of talent, where make no mistake about it, we're one of the less talented teams in the West. The West is stacked. I can see us finishing ahead of Utah, LAL, Den and Minn, but after that it's going to be tough. And I don't think it's a Vivek problem but more a culture problem thus far about the lack of attention towards the defensive end. And what's worrying is not what Vivek says, but that both PDA and Malone recently have only been talking about offense, although Malone did say Collison and Hollins were brought in for their defense, although they're likely to be disappointed if that's how they feel.
The philosophy coming out of our FO is up and down, positionless basketball. That's not a recipe for winning. But whether Vivek thinks it is or isn't, it's on PDA and our FO whether to implement that philosophy. PDA is the one providing the tools for success. It's Malone's job to use those tools effectively. If they're the wrong tools to win, it's on PDA and our FO. If they're the right tools and we don't win, it's more on Malone. Right now I don't see the tools needed to win more than 30-35 games. After winning 28 in each of the last two seasons, 30-35 wouldn't really be much of an improvement and when decisions like passing Lopez onto Por, offering Landry a big deal and drafting two SG's back to back falling on our FO are part of the reason for being in this situation, they've contributed to what appears to be the prospect of only modest improvement.
We've got two legit or proven NBA starters and barely any defensive presence. We're in the West. Our "positionless" basketball usually requires going small. If Vivek is going to judge this thing on wins/losses, he's going to have more grey hair come the winter.
This morning isn't the first time he's said this either. There's no fudging about it, he clearly is judging this team on wins and losses.
“Last year, when the season started, I said it wasn’t going to be about wins and losses,” Vivek Ranadive stated. “When I came here and we bought the team, there was dysfunction in the locker room, there wasn’t mutual respect, the arena was literally falling apart, the roof was falling down. So we brought in a new team, we restored stability, restored respect, we put in a strong culture. But this year, let’s be clear, it is about wins and losses.”
http://aroyalpain.com/2014/09/28/vivek-ranadive-says-sacramento-kings-season-wins-losses/
I will say, this strongly appears very similar to past incarnations of Den and GS. It wasn't until GS realized they needed defense, physicality and 3&D role players that they saw real improvement.
