Voisin: Petrie hopes to rebuild with draft, trades and current talent

[VF21]

Ailene Voisin: Kings working on transition game
Petrie hopes to rebuild with draft, trades and current talent
Last Updated 12:20 am PST Sunday, November 18, 2007
Story appeared in SPORTS section, Page C5

Editor's note: Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie recently sat down with Bee columnist Ailene Voisin for an interview in which he discussed, among other things, getting under the NBA salary cap and his assessment of the players. Excerpts from part one of the interview follow. Tuesday, Petrie talks about his relationship with Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof.

Q: Are you in full rebuilding mode or trying to reach the playoffs even though that means worse drafting position for what is being projected as a very strong 2007-08 class?

A: The team is in a state of transition. ... We're trying to develop our younger players and get the best leadership, the best productivity out of the veteran guys we have, win as many games as we can and along the way, emerge with a new core that starts to win again. ... The exact timetable for that is as quick as possible. But it's still a function of the development of your players, the draft, your trade opportunities and some salary cap flexibility.

Q: So there is a plan?

A: I think it's obvious by what we're doing that there is a plan. We have to see with Kevin (Martin) and Francisco (García) and Quincy (Douby) and Spencer (Hawes) and John (Salmons), and even Ron (Artest). Ron's only (28). He's still young. And Beno (Udrih), as a young point guard, hasn't had an opportunity to show us what he can do yet. They're all showing signs that they can be good NBA players. Now, getting around to a unit that is going to start winning again is the next part.

Q: Your team payroll can be reduced by nearly $20 million at the end of next season. Are you positioning yourself for another offseason similar to that of 1998, when you wooed Vlade Divac, traded for Chris Webber, signed Peja Stojakovic, drafted Jason Williams – in essence, obtained the nucleus for the Kings' most successful teams?

A: Yes, that's been by design to a large extent. Now, that's always subject to change, too. If something came along that made sense, talent-wise, and compromised that somewhat, we would pursue that. Otherwise, you're going to have to restrain your spending between now and then to preserve that salary cap flexibility. The overall plan is to get to the year after next and have some real cap room of significance...

The rest of the article

 

[VF21]

Further on in the article, Petrie talks about the players. Here are his comments about Kevin Martin:

Q: Starting with Kevin Martin, give me a sound-bite analysis of your young players.

A: Well, I just think Kevin is a bona fide, legitimate big-time scorer, and a very efficient one. He's getting better still. He's one of the best, quickest cutters I've been around. That's probably an area we can take better advantage of with him, going forward, as opposed to trying to do so much off the dribble. He draws a lot of fouls. He's not afraid of contact. For somebody that's 24, he has a real bright future.

Q: Can he become a special player, or just a special scorer?

A: He's still improving, so to the extent he improves in other areas, he has the capability of being a better on-ball defender. He's got great quickness. ... Again, this is only his second year of playing full time, so the strides he's made have been exceptional.

 

[nbrans]

Interesting interview, and probably as candid as you'll see Petrie. I didn't come away totally reassured, but he at least seems to be in possession of his faculties. I wondered this past offseason.

 

[piksi]

Q: I was thinking more about the power forward position shared by Kenny Thomas, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Mikki Moore.
A: I don't want to get too far in front of the coaching because I'm not the one putting people in and out of the game, but ultimately, some combination of those two – Kenny and Shareef – hopefully they'll get more productive. "Reef" is still in conditioning mode (after offseason arthroscopic knee surgery), and he's doing everything on a daily basis to get himself ready to play. I think he is moving better. He still thinks he can play.

and no one else.

Generally, typical GP interview. Talked a lot - said nothing profound.

I get the feeling that they really have no clue what direction we are going and they are in a "wait and react" mode - and that sucks.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

and no one else.

Damn it, piksi, quit being such a pessimist!













































... I'm sure his agent and his mom think he can still play, too.

 

[piksi]

Damn it, piksi, quit being such a pessimist!
... I'm sure his agent and his mom think he can still play, too.

I am sure his mom loves him but ...

 

[John Galt]

I found the interview unfullfilling. Just a bunch of typical Geoffspeak. At least he did not say "Mike is a King until he is not a King"... I was looking for that little Geoffism.

I hope the rest of the interview is better on Tuesday.

btw in an article in today's Business section - about Scott Adams the Dilbert creator, they had a quote which seems to be relevant to Geoff's "plan":

"The purpose of a plan is to disguise the fact that you have no idea what you should be doing".

 

[JoMama]

Glad they ran this interview. Does give us an idea of what is being cooked up in Petrie's mind. As always, he's very safe in his comments, but he does allow us a general direction of his thoughts. Nothing about Justin Williams, or did I miss that part?

 

[Bricklayer]

Q: Your team payroll can be reduced by nearly $20 million at the end of next season. Are you positioning yourself for another offseason similar to that of 1998, when you wooed Vlade Divac, traded for Chris Webber, signed Peja Stojakovic, drafted Jason Williams – in essence, obtained the nucleus for the Kings' most successful teams?

A: Yes, that's been by design to a large extent. Now, that's always subject to change, too. If something came along that made sense, talent-wise, and compromised that somewhat, we would pursue that. Otherwise, you're going to have to restrain your spending between now and then to preserve that salary cap flexibility. The overall plan is to get to the year after next and have some real cap room of significance...

Note this bit.

Ailene says/implies hey, you can have cap room after NEXT year, i.e. the summer of '09 (she's wrong BTW). Geoff responds that the "plan" is to get to the year AFTER next, which the best reading would imply means not summer '09, but summer '10, and means THREE years. Which is an eternity and sems to indicate the back half of the load us up with crap contracts "plan" is to sit around and wait for them to run out one day. Unless of course another MLE All-Star becomes available of course. Or more flexible pieces. Or...

 

[Vlade4GM]

Note this bit.

Ailene says/implies hey, you can have cap room after NEXT year, i.e. the summer of '09 (she's wrong BTW). Geoff responds that the "plan" is to get to the year AFTER next, which the best reading would imply means not summer '09, but summer '10, and means THREE years. Which is an eternity and sems to indicate the back half of the load us up with crap contracts "plan" is to sit around and wait for them to run out one day. Unless of course another MLE All-Star becomes available of course. Or more flexible pieces. Or...

I have no idea why this org. is so freaking opposed to rebuilding, I've never seen a team reject rebuilding with such passion. We're lucky Bibby is injured and Artest started the season suspended because they will never trade them because they're still in delusional land where they can rebuild and compete. It's stupid, they try to do both and they end up not doing either.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Perhaps the perennial pessimist Piksi would have wished for an answer more like this from GP.

Q: I was thinking more about the power forward position shared by Kenny Thomas, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Mikki Moore.

A: We're just 10 games into 82 and it's painfully obvious our PF production has been horrendous. Our Kings fans deserve better and we want to thank from the bottom of our hearts the handful of fans that have been showing up at Arco so far this season. While I'm not trying to coach the team, I suggested to Reggie using Ron Artest more at the 4 spot. I think we're going to be seeing a lot of quicker small ball from this Kings team - no doubt. Kenny was out injured last game and Shareef has been slow to recover from his knee surgery. Moore, Hawes, plus Williams and Watkins are probably more viable on the court for our up-tempo style than either Reef or Kenny. Of course, it's a long season and who plays will be based as Coach Theus has said, 'on who is playing best and hardest.' We know Kenny is still a good rebounder in this league for his small size, Reef is moving better lately and still thinks he can play. However, if you know any NBA teams remotely interested in their immediate services please have 'em give me a call. Tell 'em to call collect, anytime 24/7, and here's my private cell phone number (916)***-****

 

[kupman]

I thought it was a nice article/interview. We are well into the "rebuilding" mode, despite what many around here would like to believe. It can take a long time to build a championship contender and I think that we will be there in about 4 years. I also think that we will continue to get better from now until 4 years from now.

We have a very nice nucleus of young players at the 2, 3 and maybe the 5 spot. We will replace Bibby with another PG after he leaves and frees some money. The only thing that we are missing at this point is that elusive 4 spot which will obtained either through the draft and/or trade and/or free agency in the next 3-4 years.

We are well are on way to getting better.

 

[PoundForPound]

The team is in a state of transition

Guys, notice how he can never flat-out say that the Kings are "Rebuilding". Why? Because they're not, transitioning is different than rebuilding. the Maloofs are the kind of guys who want to win no matter what. They're trying to go young but at the same time believe it or not they're trying to make the playoffs. They are not rebuilding, we would have gotten rid of some guys long ago if that were the case.

 

[KCKingsCountry]

I have no idea why this org. is so freaking opposed to rebuilding, I've never seen a team reject rebuilding with such passion.

Dont worry I know another one in a different sport that has the same mentality has the Kings, ironcially in the Kings' old city - Chiefs. Same way mgt is scared to death to rebuild.

 

[Glenn]

Note this bit.

Ailene says/implies hey, you can have cap room after NEXT year, i.e. the summer of '09 (she's wrong BTW). Geoff responds that the "plan" is to get to the year AFTER next, which the best reading would imply means not summer '09, but summer '10, and means THREE years. Which is an eternity and sems to indicate the back half of the load us up with crap contracts "plan" is to sit around and wait for them to run out one day. Unless of course another MLE All-Star becomes available of course. Or more flexible pieces. Or...

Were they on the same page? What is the year after next in Petrie's mind? Summer 2010 seems to me like the only option other than tanking this season which I am philosophically opposed to. You don't hire a rookie coach and tell him to lose or undercut him with bad trades.

At my age, I can wait but I understand everybody else's impatience. I just think they are backed into a corner AND ... isn't it a Petireism to say almost nothing is happening before something happens?

I hope no one expected some grand revelation.

 

[fnordius]

I found the interview unfullfilling. Just a bunch of typical Geoffspeak. At least he did not say "Mike is a King until he is not a King"... I was looking for that little Geoffism.

I hope the rest of the interview is better on Tuesday.

btw in an article in today's Business section - about Scott Adams the Dilbert creator, they had a quote which seems to be relevant to Geoff's "plan":

"The purpose of a plan is to disguise the fact that you have no idea what you should be doing".

Yeah. There was one thing I would have really liked to see in this interview, which was any indication that Geoff has ever questioned any of his past decisions. Like loading us up with deadweight vets until summer, 2010. Eating crow isn't very fun, and I wouldn't expect him to start wolfing it down or anything, but some clear expression of doubt about the wisdom of that "plan" would have been refreshing. I already know that he's a fallible mortal, so I wouldn't have been crushed by that news. Some sign of remorse would let us all know that he is in his right mind, that spending several years going from the best team in the NBA to one of the very worst, is not something that he thinks is spiffy and would gladly do again given the same circumstances. Instead, he cheerfully assures us that watching the team drown in slo mo is all according to plan.

I'm faced with a couple of possibilities. One is that he still has no clue about how to blow up and rebuild a team. I hope that this interpretation is incorrect. The other is that he has little or no ability to gauge what the public reaction will be to anything that he says. This would be consistent with his rep as one of the NBA's most uncommunicative GMs, and it's what I would rather believe. If that is the case, he should seriously consider talking to the team's PR person. Better to have people think that you erred, than to have them think that you are incapable of even noticing your own mistakes, let alone learn from them.

------

Interesting Pavarotti quote. Pavarotti went through most of his career staunchly defending what might have been considered horrible blunders on his part. When , for example, eyebrows were raised at his performing with pop acts, he counterattacked, saying that there was nothing wrong with pop music, that there were two kinds of music -- good and bad -- and that nothing else should matter. Considering that he was playing with Ricky Martin and The Spice Girls, one was left wondering what the hell he was thinking when he said that, because they were not good. Later on, his voice had clearly gone around the bend, but he kept performing despite the boos. To quote LA Weekly, "His last opera appearances constitute a study in pathetic overreach." I guess we'll never know whether he was milking the last money out of the fame he had earned earlier in his career, or if he simply enjoyed performing too much to stop, even though he wasn't very good anymore. Either way, I find it a disconcerting parallel.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Were they on the same page? What is the year after next in Petrie's mind? Summer 2010 seems to me like the only option other than tanking this season which I am philosophically opposed to. You don't hire a rookie coach and tell him to lose or undercut him with bad trades.

At my age, I can wait but I understand everybody else's impatience. I just think they are backed into a corner AND ... isn't it a Petireism to say almost nothing is happening before something happens?

I hope no one expected some grand revelation.

Nope, it's just a good thread to start rehashing grievances

 

[kingsfan101]

Yeah. There was one thing I would have really liked to see in this interview, which was any indication that Geoff has ever questioned any of his past decisions.

One problem with doing so publicly, is that one might run down the players. Even if he believes that some of his decisions were bad (e.g. signing Mikki or Reef), he shouldn't be saying so publicly, particularly, as long as these guys are with us. Similarly, if he suggests that he should have picked Lee, or Millsap, or Farmer, he is showing lack of faith in Cisco and QD. These should not be done publicly.

Of course, there are things that can still be admitted. For example, if GW was let go due to some oversight, or lack of planning, or an inadequate realization of his potential, it would be good to acknowledge it. While it won't change things, I think the fans shall appreciate a candid admission of mistake.

 

[Kingster]

Note this bit.

Ailene says/implies hey, you can have cap room after NEXT year, i.e. the summer of '09 (she's wrong BTW). Geoff responds that the "plan" is to get to the year AFTER next, which the best reading would imply means not summer '09, but summer '10, and means THREE years. Which is an eternity and sems to indicate the back half of the load us up with crap contracts "plan" is to sit around and wait for them to run out one day. Unless of course another MLE All-Star becomes available of course. Or more flexible pieces. Or...

Good pick-up. I still get the ambivalent passivity that's been Petrie's hallmark over the last couple of years. His plan is to wait three years before going big into the FA market. Other than that? I don't see a plan, just the fact that he wants to win, and he wants to rebuild, and if they have a chance at winning (getting close to the playoffs), then they will postpone the idea of the rebuild some more, and he wouldn't mind having a top 5 pick in next year's draft, and he sees the possibility of rebuilding with 28 year old Artest. That doesn't sound like a plan to me - just a wish list.

 

[Kingster]

I have no idea why this org. is so freaking opposed to rebuilding, I've never seen a team reject rebuilding with such passion. We're lucky Bibby is injured and Artest started the season suspended because they will never trade them because they're still in delusional land where they can rebuild and compete. It's stupid, they try to do both and they end up not doing either.

EXACTLY. Petrie will leave it to outside events (Bibby/Artest) to force him to rebuild. Heaven forbid, if he takes the bull by the horns and proactively rebuilds....

 

[NewArena]

EXACTLY. Petrie will leave it to outside events (Bibby/Artest) to force him to rebuild. Heaven forbid, if he takes the bull by the horns and proactively rebuilds....

Yeah because its sooo easy to get rid of our big men right? Come one, could he have a made a couple more moves? Of course but the rumors that i have seen so far have not impressed me at all. We can trade artest and bibby but what will that do exactly? We would STILL have the dead weight that were all complaining about.

 

[fnordius]

Yeah because its sooo easy to get rid of our big men right? Come one, could he have a made a couple more moves? Of course but the rumors that i have seen so far have not impressed me at all. We can trade artest and bibby but what will that do exactly? We would STILL have the dead weight that were all complaining about.

Well, there are a few ways to look at it. One is that Geoff has so thoroughly painted himself into a corner that he's now helpless to make any positive changes. This seems to be your stance, and it's a reasonably persuasive argument for firing the GM. Another position is that he hasn't completely painted himself into a corner, and that positive changes are now overdue. Or one could take some sort of middle ground, I suppose that's where most fans are. What you think should happen next, from showing Petrie the door to making some blockbuster trades, largely depends on where on that continuum you are.

Why trade Artest and/or Bibby? Their contracts will be up soon, Artest can walk at the end of this year, Bibby will be gone at the end of next year. Due to the last few years MLE signings, we couldn't offer them tempting extensions if we wanted to, at most we could let one expire, and give the other an extension from the money left over. So we can totally forget about keeping them both. Now the question is whether or not we get anything for one or both of them, or if we let them walk and get nothing in return.

What could we get in return? Some combination of:

1) Younger players
2) Draft picks
3) Less of the above, but use Bibby and/or Artest as sweetener for unloading an aging PF or two
4) Worthless players with expiring contracts that are happy to wave towels

Our franchise has a past we can be proud of, but it has no present, and whether it has any near-term future is in doubt. Doing any of the above would be an investment in the team's future; even the worst option (#4) gives us an opportunity to improve our draft position and get more PT for the youngsters. Let's say that we took that worst case route, and traded Bibby for someone like Theo Ratliff, and traded Artest for Primoz Brezec, Othella Harrington and Jeff McInnes, and immediately waived/bought out at least 2 of them. These are trades where one could argue that we're getting totally ripped off. Yet we still win in this scenario. We end up with a 22-win season, Derrick Rose, a year of major PT to develop our younger players, and $22M in cap space when contracts expire at the end of the year. So even though we have NOT gotten anything close to fair value in the trade, and still have Mikki, Gimpy and Grumpy on the payroll, we suddenly go from being a 35-win team with no future to being a very promising young team with no salary cap headaches.

That's not to say that we could get Ratliff; Minnesota is rebuilding, so they will hang onto him for exactly the same reasons that we would want him. But many possible trades (which do not include taking on vets with long contracts) would be consistent with rebuilding, and would help reverse the errors that have been made.

 

[Spike]

The problem is you don't dump money just to dump money. There has to be some net positive effect, whether it is draft picks or youth. Being under the cap is one thing, but to truly rebuild, you will need a core with which to work. Ask Boston how well tanking in the draft worked out for them. (FA signings aside)
Rebuilds are done with intelligence.

 

[Bricklayer]

The problem is you don't dump money just to dump money. There has to be some net positive effect, whether it is draft picks or youth. Being under the cap is one thing, but to truly rebuild, you will need a core with which to work. Ask Boston how well tanking in the draft worked out for them. (FA signings aside)
Rebuilds are done with intelligence.

Boston has no complaints right now. The secondary beauty of high picks and young players is that they often have greater value than their true value when it comes to trades. The potential throws the calculations off.

I generally agree that you don't dumpt o dump, or would have agreed in the good times when the benefits were marginal. I beleive in conserving your talent base. But times have changed a bit -- and the big key is that the worse we play this year, the better off we are likely to be next year (high lottery pick). So all of a sudden those salary dump type moves aren't pure salary dumps -- they are basically salary dumps combined with moving up 10 spots in the draft or some such. Put another way, if on draft day we were able to trade our #12 pick and Mike Bibby to Seattle to get the #2 overall pick, and used it to grab Derrick Rose...that's not a bad or unreasonable deal at all. An early season salary dump could well have that type of effect. And seen from that perspective, any other kids or picks or extra cap room we could secure form the deal is almost gravy.

 

[AyeCarly]

The problem is you don't dump money just to dump money. There has to be some net positive effect, whether it is draft picks or youth. Being under the cap is one thing, but to truly rebuild, you will need a core with which to work. Ask Boston how well tanking in the draft worked out for them. (FA signings aside)
Rebuilds are done with intelligence.

That's why the Maloofs should let Petrie do his thing.
Sure they may be intelligent businessman but not in engineering
basketball teams. And they did stick their hands in this team.

And just getting one draft pick won't do it alone, it's amazing how many people think one player can make such a difference. The only one's that do are the "freaks" of nature (the Shaq's, Duncan's, Garnett's, Nowitski's, LeBron's, Barkley's, Rodman's, Drexler's, Malone's...). And how many of these players actually are champions about half. And that took having two "freaks" on one team(Kobe/DWade, Tony Parker/David Robinson, Jordan).

Like you said it takes intelligence.

 

[Jerryaki]

And just getting one draft pick won't do it alone, it's amazing how many people think one player can make such a difference. The only one's that do are the "freaks" of nature (the Shaq's, Duncan's, Garnett's, Nowitski's, LeBron's, Barkley's, Rodman's, Drexler's, Malone's...). And how many of these players actually are champions about half. And that took having two "freaks" on one team(Kobe/DWade, Tony Parker/David Robinson, Jordan).

having low/no draft picks basically means you don't even have a shot at one freak, then. the rebuild is a process. the franchise seemingly refuses to take that first step.