Vlade Divac

SLAB

Hall of Famer
I tend to agree. I think Burks size, versatility in terms of running the point and 3pt% is appealing, but is it more important than trading than being a team leader. Hope it all works out
I hope it does too... but this one leaves me with a pit in my stomach.
 
Willie has always been a brutally honest dude. .
If he is so brutally honest, how about a little self-honesty? He is defensive over his own play, doesn't own up his shortcomings or take necessary steps to address them through effort and focus. He gets rebounds and shot blocks once every blue moon "to shut up his critics" not because it is part of his job description or something to take pride in. The guy is low IQ, emotionally immature and has a diva complex. He's not a winner. He has no leadership ability and has not improved in five years. He was a better rim protector and low post threat in his rookie year. He was a better face up shooter last year. And by the way being honest implies conveying truth. In one breath he "don't get attached to nobody" and in the next breath " he got "brotherhoods and friendships". He can't even organize his own thoughts. That's not brutal honesty, that's a confused dude.
 
The Shumpert trade showed something else went down at the same time and the players we sent away to certain teams had to be in alignment with the deal they wanted and how everything fit together.

Because I really find it hard to believe we would trade Shumpert for burks and a second and it would of made us a lot better team.
 
Everyone keep in mind: the Kings make a TON more money if they make the playoffs. Tens of millions more in revenue, even for just one series. Playoff tix will be crazy expensive, plus tv... etc... there is massive financial incentive for teams to make the playoffs. Think about it: your labor costs stay the same (the vast bulk of it) but you get to sell a whole bunch more product. When you're close like the Kings are, you don't soft pedal it in the name of "playing the youth". The youth is fine. You go hard.

When I realized this, it was like... uh yes of course they were always going to be trying to make some big moves THIS trade deadline.
You left off the most important part. Players get playoff share pay. The cost to teams in the playoffs in salary is huge part
 
We can all agree that Vlade has made this team exciting again. 4 of my dad buds and assistant coaches from little league last year are gathering for the March 17th versus the Bulls...

We are all excited, despite 2 of them being formerly long suffering warrior fans from the Bay Area...they still support our Kings though!

You know how long it’s been since this city and basketball fans have been this excited? Not since I was in high school, and I am old!
 
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I think the majority of us would have been happy to see Willie traded.

End of the day, the continuation of having him here for our defensive and offensive sets means we don't lose any efficiency from a systems perspective.

We have to integrate Barnes and press forward to the playoffs
 
I give Vlade credit for the Hinkie tactics, 10 second round picks in the next 3 years.

But with 9 in the hand, don't think it was worth moving Shump to get the 10th.
 
My grade on Vlade's trade deadline moves is nothing other than A+

Barnes move is borderline genius, and I don't know how long Vlade had been planning it, or if it was just lucky (Mavs getting Pzngs), or what... but Harrison Barnes is probably the best SF we could have hope to attain by ANY means. Not only that, he fits perfectly into what we're doing, has championship experience, and is a total professional. He'll fit RIGHT in. The W's connection doesn't hurt. We can use the grudge factor he may have against them, similar to the Cousins thing vs. us.

I like the Burks move the more I think about it. Tough losing an emotional leader, but, like many people say, Shump gave his gift here, imparted his wisdom, trained our guys, and, as Buddy said, "I'll have to be that guy now"... great to hear. So talent wise, minor upgrade. Fit wise, definite upgrade as we need his slashing. It's tough losing Shump's defending but our guys can pick up that slack and Burks isn't a horrible defender. Worst case, we picked up another 2nd rounder and imo that alone would make an even swap worth it. And, this may sound counter intuitive, but Shump leaving now is kind of addition by subtraction because it forces these younger guys to take on leadership themselves.

The last little Swanigan move just shows Vlade is trying to improve by any incremental measure possible. It's not a high impact move right away, but it is smart, smart, smart. There could be injury, etc. In that case, we'd need the rebounding more than playmaking.

I second @Iced Espresso in crediting Vlade accumulating 2nd rounders... and I admit that snuck up on me. I looked it up to verify:

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/team

Amazing. Now we'll get to see Vlade's real drafting skills. I have a feeling this is going to be where he is really good. And to have so many shots a plucking that diamond from the rough... pretty amazing. It really is literally TEN second round picks in three years, including FOUR next year.

We're making the playoffs. Vlade is running away with gmoty.
 
Record with Shump : 24-18
Record w/o Shump (including last night): 4-8
This is a little misleading considering that a few of these were on a backend of a back to back. Also, other players were sitting out on some of these games and at least on a few ocassions they were "planned" losses for the Kings. Given that, however, it does seem like the players liked and respected Shumpert, so there is a loss there. The product on the court should be better and more consistent without Shumpert, however.
 
I think the majority of us would have been happy to see Willie traded.

End of the day, the continuation of having him here for our defensive and offensive sets means we don't lose any efficiency from a systems perspective.

We have to integrate Barnes and press forward to the playoffs
We could set up a poll to test this theory, but I don't think a majority of posters would be happy to see Willie traded/gone. I do think a vocal minority would, however.
 
My grade on Vlade's trade deadline moves is nothing other than A+

Barnes move is borderline genius....
I wouldn't call it "genius". I would call it being fortuitous and exploiting the opportunity that arose with the Mavs getting KP and the components of that deal. The Mavs were not getting KP w/o taking on the salary of Lee and Hardaway. They had to send out two key players to make the dollars match in Jordan and Matthews. That effectively ended their playoff chances. Additionally their pick is conveyed to ATL unless it is Top 5 so they are motivated to extend KP's rehab and see if they get lucky in the lottery. They will likely lose their pick but the possibility of getting Zion has to be tantalizing. Moving Barnes helps them to lose more games. Sidelining KP (even though there was rumor he is ready now) gives him more time to get that knee right and improve the lottery odds. All of this worked to our favor. If the Mavs happened to retain Matthews and DJ in the trade for KP, I could see them activating him, keeping Barnes and making their playoff push. Still I am not discrediting Vlade. The good to great GMs are patient and opportunistic and those are the traits Vlade exhibited.
 
This may deserve it's own thread (was surprised I didn't see one), but Vlade held a press conference just now. The link is here for anyone who missed it like me:

I like that he envisions Burks as a combo guard. We need a guy like that to create shots especially because we could not get Lin. Shump could not create shots for others. It is important our offense run smoothly with Fox off the floor and Burks can hopefully help with that.
 
We could set up a poll to test this theory, but I don't think a majority of posters would be happy to see Willie traded/gone. I do think a vocal minority would, however.
A poll would be good but it would be hard to set parameters given that we dont know what we would have coming back and its pure speculation. It would almost be like the Otto Porter - what would you trade thread.

I would have liked him moved but am glad he is here given that clearly the market was non receptive to him being moved for what Vlade deemed equal or greater value. No point setting an asset alight in a fire sale but if we could have gotten a positive return for him id drive him to the airport myself.
 
I second @Iced Espresso in crediting Vlade accumulating 2nd rounders... and I admit that snuck up on me. I looked it up to verify:

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/team

Amazing. Now we'll get to see Vlade's real drafting skills. I have a feeling this is going to be where he is really good. And to have so many shots a plucking that diamond from the rough... pretty amazing. It really is literally TEN second round picks in three years, including FOUR next year.

We're making the playoffs. Vlade is running away with gmoty.
I think Vlade is accumulating those 2nd round picks as a way to move back into the lower 1st round, in this year's draft.

With all these premire Free Agents and teams trying to clear cap space to sign them, I'm sure some of these teams are looking to move their 1st round picks (with guarenteed contracts) to preserve their cap space to sign a couple of max free agents, (i.e. Lakers, Clippers, Philly, etc).

I think Vlade's plan is to swipe a late 1st rounder in exchange for 2 or 3 of the 2nd round picks (which are non-guaranteed contracts). ;)
 
I think the majority of us would have been happy to see Willie traded.

End of the day, the continuation of having him here for our defensive and offensive sets means we don't lose any efficiency from a systems perspective.

We have to integrate Barnes and press forward to the playoffs
As tiresome as Willie can be, absent bringing back a Center in the trade, getting rid of WCS would have likely made us a WORSE team this year. Going forward, that's debatable, but with the current composition of the team, we need Willie to produce the rest of the season in order to make the playoffs.
 
I think Vlade is accumulating those 2nd round picks as a way to move back into the lower 1st round, in this year's draft.

With all these premire Free Agents and teams trying to clear cap space to sign them, I'm sure some of these teams are looking to move their 1st round picks (with guarenteed contracts) to preserve their cap space to sign a couple of max free agents, (i.e. Lakers, Clippers, Philly, etc).

I think Vlade's plan is to swipe a late 1st rounder in exchange for 2 or 3 of the 2nd round picks (which are non-guaranteed contracts). ;)
Feels like you rarely see teams looking to flip a first rounder for multiple seconds. More likely they could start selling those second round picks to earn some extra coin for Vivek.