VLADE!!

#1
It’s early but this pisses me off and gets me sad this team is all vlades picks and coach. He got fired for a bubble season instead of just letting him get another chance considering we were on the way up before the bubble as well. Now to see the team play this good when he constructed it hurts and to see that Porter jr a guy he wanted will be a star hurts as well.
We owe vlade an apology
 
#4
It’s early but this pisses me off and gets me sad this team is all vlades picks and coach. He got fired for a bubble season instead of just letting him get another chance considering we were on the way up before the bubble as well. Now to see the team play this good when he constructed it hurts and to see that Porter jr a guy he wanted will be a star hurts as well.
We owe vlade an apology
Do you think that perhaps the new GM being an analytics genius is applying some analytics suggestions to game management, such as maybe suggesting switching up of defenses which was not happening last year, and also perhaps the signing of Whiteside to disrupt the offense of the other team? My spidey senses are telling me high level analytics are being applied. And by spidey senses I mean the spirit of my great great uncle Angelo Basketballerino.
 
#9
It’s early but this pisses me off and gets me sad this team is all vlades picks and coach. He got fired for a bubble season instead of just letting him get another chance considering we were on the way up before the bubble as well. Now to see the team play this good when he constructed it hurts and to see that Porter jr a guy he wanted will be a star hurts as well.
We owe vlade an apology
To be fair, Vlade definitely deserves some credit, considering that 7 of the 10 rotation players are from Vlade tenure.

To be sure, Luke is showing some coaching chops so far this season. But Monte also brought in two top notch assistant coaches in Alvin Gentry (for Offense) and Rex Kalamian (for Defense). Together with Luke, the Kings are looking like a team that may make a run for the playoffs.

The team needed to be turned over to a GM that main skill set is talent evaluations and drafting. Vlade blew too many draft picks to give the fan base hope that he would turn this thing around. Enter Monte and he effectively picked a Fox level talent at #12. Haliburton for sure is making Monte look like an extra smart GM, but there is no guarentee that Haliburton would be a King today had Vlade stayed the GM. Monte picking Haliburton is one of the main reasons that the Kings are 3-1.

Monte also declining to match Bogdan at $18 million a year and letting the SG position settle out for Buddy to start again, cleared the line up for our new backcourt. Vlade likely would had matched Bogdan and we would of had a mess of bodies and salary in the backcourt. Signing vets like Whiteside and Robinson and Kaminski (now waived) for peanuts is what sets Monte apart from what Vlade would had done.

For sure, the Kings are in better position right now, because Monte made some smart and shrewd moves. I'm not confident that Vlade would had pulled those same moves to put the Kings in the position they are in right now.

Kings fans will always love Vlade and he deserves some credit for putting in some of the pieces on the Kings today. But, TBH, I'm glad the Kings brought in Monte to guide this team. I'm confident that Monte will make the right move the majority of the time, something I couldn't say about Vlade's decision making.
 
#14
It’s early but this pisses me off and gets me sad this team is all vlades picks and coach. He got fired for a bubble season instead of just letting him get another chance considering we were on the way up before the bubble as well. Now to see the team play this good when he constructed it hurts and to see that Porter jr a guy he wanted will be a star hurts as well.
We owe vlade an apology
Yes and no. I think Vlade would have matched Bogi. Vlade would have probably given Harry a 2-3 year deal for 2-3 million and proclaimed how smart he was when the market for him was a 1 year minimum. I believe Vlade would have made some reaches in the 2nd round and Monte is a better scout/GM and I think he put together strong defensive minded roleplayers to fill out the roster and they are all on 1 year minimums. Vlade may have tried to make one more splash.

I agree that last year was a few bad injuries and a pandemic that hurt us and not as bad as it seemed, but we are better off for moving on.

I will say this is why I argued against the Vivek worst owner thing a few weeks ago, because I think that the year prior the team was perceived a lot differently than it was this offseason, and again, it may be a team perceived to be back on the up.
 
#15
nah... Vlade is probably somewhere in So-Cal watching this, smiling, and yelling at his friends "I told you Marv's good!" after he chowed down some gabagool...

... in my head-canon, at least.
 
#16
yep, vlade would probably pick some big guy, not hali.
matched bogdan's offer, signed kaminsky to at least 5 mil per season, maybe keeping bazemore at some high price...

but he deserves credit because of a holmes, bjelica, maybe even barnes, guys who supposed to be our new bench mob.
they ended up in our starting 5 and that's a fail.

dunno what's your opinion about barnes at this moment, is he earning his salary or not? i would say yes, but not sure if this worth's 20 mil per season...
 
#17
I think you have to give Vlade some credit. Most of this starting team he brought in. But I have to say this team looks different. They look smarter and hustle all game. They make good decisions most of the time. They are getting the best out of what they have. Maybe Haliburton does not fall to us if we don't have the current GM and staff. I think finally we have a proper front office and leader.
 
#18
Some credit might be due to vlade, but I think some of it might be do to actual team chemistry. There has been so much turnover over the years that we never got to see consistency. Multiple coaches, multiple starters. When’s the last year we had a starting team play consistently together under the same coach? Was it the year Rudy dmc and IT finally were clicking under Malone before dmc got meningitis? We got off to a good start then started up the carousel again and ended up back at the bottom of the conference. Sometimes I feel the players just need more than one year together before we start taking it apart.
 
Last edited:

gunks

Hall of Famer
#20
Uhhhh... no.

As others have mentioned, there’s no way Vlade doesn’t match and keep Bogi, which would have completely killed team chemistry. He and Buddy would be back to playing musical chairs with the starting role as they play bad, forced basketball.

No way he drafts Halliburton either. Vlade would pull the trigger on some random big slotted as a 2nd rounder and talk a bunch of crap about how “we’d have drafted him #1”.

As for the rest of the starters.... Fox was a no brainer pick, and even then Vlade might have blown it if Phoenix didn’t pick Jackson just before us. Bags might turn out alright, but even then he’s still a horrible pick considering “the other guy” was available. Barnes is playing better but he’s still overpaid. Buddy wasn’t a Vlade move, that was all Vivek, and I still hate the Cousins trade, even though we lucked into winning it. Holmes.... I’ll give Vlade Holmes, that was a great signing.

Vlade gets no thanks from me. No way. I’m just gonna try to forget his GM tenure and remember him as one of my favorites from the golden years.
 
#22
Or Poku.

He meets Vlade's requirement of "Euro player but not best Euro prospect ever" needed to be drafted.
I don't think Vlade would've touched him. He did seem to have an affinity for players that had some type of physical prowess. A trade down was possible. I would have seen Vlade trading that pick for a middling vet if anything. After his failure drafting in that same range I think he would have ended up tapping out for something more guaranteed.
 
#23
I think you have to give Vlade some credit. Most of this starting team he brought in. But I have to say this team looks different. They look smarter and hustle all game. They make good decisions most of the time. They are getting the best out of what they have. Maybe Haliburton does not fall to us if we don't have the current GM and staff. I think finally we have a proper front office and leader.
His biggest mistake was always who he decided to let run his team and stacking players in FA that realistically were just going to cause issues and didn't fit next to his young "superteam" because many of them played the same position. However Vlade wasn't bad in determining talent or need. He was actually the first sign of someone in charge that did at least acknowledge need. Need shooting in the frontcourt? Got it. Need a SF? Got it. It's just how he chose to go about filling that need that was the issue. He basically sold FA's a bill of good and gave them an inflated contract then watched them die on the vine. To his credit though, he also didn't wait to attempt to correct the mistake. Petrie would have held onto Dedmon and Hill for years if his history is any indication. When Vlade F'd up he didn't just sit and wait.
 
#24
Vlade definitely deserves credit for his contributions to this team and he doesn’t deserve criticism for the speculation about Bogdan and Haliburton. I was happy with Vlade in the GM job. I like Monte. He was a good hire IMO. Team has played some great basketball so far. Keep on going Kings!
 
#25
Call me crazy but vlade not picking luka might have been the best mistake he ever made for this franchise.

In a couple of years the mavs will be stuck paying luka 50 mill a year with no money left to build around him and Porzingis.

Dodged that disaster.
 
#29
Broke: Vlade passing on Luka was a horrible decision

Woke: Vlade passed on Luka because he knew Tyrese Haliburton would available in the 2020 draft and he is secretly the best GM ever.
That looks fun, let me try...lol

Broke: Vlade and the FO passed on Luka because he wanted his super team (just young) to be led by Swipa, not his best decision ever (Space Jam clearly was his best)

Woke: Vlade felt a tremor in the force in the vicinity of Iowa...or he learned of a prophecy from a ghost while playing his harp in an old castle ruin. (Prince that was Promised prophecy)