Voisin: Westphal agrees with Petrie

[VF21]

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/story/1991403.html

Ailene Voisin: Westphal agrees with Petrie

By Ailene Voisin
avoisin@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jul. 1, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 8C
Last Modified: Wednesday, Jul. 1, 2009 - 9:22 am


Geoff Petrie hasn't completely lost his mind. It just seems that way. His edgy, new in-your-face, elbow-to-the-ribs, forearm-to-the-hip approach makes perfect sense.


Mental toughness? Physical toughness? Blue-collar workers?


Granted, these are not concepts normally associated with the Kings basketball president, whose conversations are dominated by references to backdoor cuts, ball and body movement, and the fluid beauty of the game – all elements he still values.


But after watching his club's incremental descent to a 17-win season, coupled with its amazing capacity to chase fans out of the building with feeble, uninspired performances, Petrie underwent a not-so-subtle offseason change in philosophy.


You can feel it. You can sense it. You can look at the three players drafted by the Kings last week – Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi and Jon Brockman – and understand his thinking. The plan is for the Kings to be competitive and entertaining and endearing enough that earplugs once again will be required at Arco Arena...
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Be sure and read the rest of the story! I don't care if it's a change in Petrie's philosophy or a change in the Maloofs, but I'm liking the hints I'm getting about our 2009-2010 Sacramento Kings.

 

[Bricklayer]

I mentioned this in one of the other threads -- Petrie finally got aorund to reading my stuff.

It is amusing how sudden and abrupt this change is though. Not a gradual change in philosophy, but rather a night and day wuss to tough guy transformation all in the space of 6 months. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Now the thing I am watching for is whether we sustain it at all (an interior defender would be a good start), or whether we just had our "tough guy" day and now with that taken care of, will revert right back to wussy chasing. Far far too often in the last half dozen years we've slapdashed a bandaid over one of our various problems and then gone right back to the preferred program. You want this to stick you have to do more than just draft 3 rookies, only one whom is even guaranteed starting minutes. You need to swap out some of the existing problems. You need to find a leader. You need to find that defensive wall in there inside. You can't just quit and pat yorself on the back for being a tough guy for one day of the year. There is still a lot of work to be done. I wanna see where this goes.

 

[VF21]

You just can't quit gnawing on that bone, can you?



I don't care if it was reading your stuff or if he got a message from little green men while he was pointing at the moon or if it was the hen oodling that got through. None of that matters.

What matters most to me is it looks like Petrie once again is calling the shots. That could be much more important in the long run than how Petrie came to see the light, so to speak.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Hmmm...are those cowbells I hear?? Might the old barn be set to rattle again?? Stay tuned, overnight might only be a couple short years away!

 

[fnordius]

It is amusing how sudden and abrupt this change is though.

In retrospect, though, I think we got a little taste of it last summer. Maybe JT convinced him about the correctness of that general direction.

 

[hrdboild]

Something positive from Voisin? Has someone else in Sacramento seen the light? What's particularly promising about that article to me is the continued evidence that Petrie and Westphal are already thinking like a team. Westphal has certain philosophies about how to win in the NBA and Petrie is getting him players who fit. Petrie seems much more comfortable with a veteran coach than he ever did with any of the young guys.

 

[VF21]

Kind of interesting what happens when the GM actually gets to pick a coach that fits his vision, isn't it?

BTW hrdboild? You might want to change your signature.

 

[kingsfan101]

I mentioned this in one of the other threads -- Petrie finally got aorund to reading my stuff.

It is amusing how sudden and abrupt this change is though. Not a gradual change in philosophy, but rather a night and day wuss to tough guy transformation all in the space of 6 months. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Actually, it might not have been this sudden. In retrospect, the trade for Noc, and the reported refusal to trade him to Boston might have been driven by these considerations.

Now the thing I am watching for is whether we sustain it at all (an interior defender would be a good start), or whether we just had our "tough guy" day and now with that taken care of, will revert right back to wussy chasing. Far far too often in the last half dozen years we've slapdashed a bandaid over one of our various problems and then gone right back to the preferred program. You want this to stick you have to do more than just draft 3 rookies, only one whom is even guaranteed starting minutes. You need to swap out some of the existing problems. You need to find a leader. You need to find that defensive wall in there inside. You can't just quit and pat yorself on the back for being a tough guy for one day of the year. There is still a lot of work to be done. I wanna see where this goes.

Yes, but this is the tough part. We might want to find a tough interior defender, get a leader and more. How do we do it? We do have some assets (cap space, KT's ender, some young guys who might have trade value), but we have to be willing to spend. I am not even sure if that is the best thing to do right now. We need a franchise level player, and we aren't getting that via trade/FA. We better get lucky in next year's draft.

 

[VF21]

By staying under the cap this year and not acquiring much in the way of contracts, the Kings could easily be positioning themselves to be major players in the 2010 Free Agency market. THAT's where we might be getting our next franchise player...

 

[kingsfan101]

By staying under the cap this year and not acquiring much in the way of contracts, the Kings could easily be positioning themselves to be major players in the 2010 Free Agency market. THAT's where we might be getting our next franchise player...

Possible.

But half the league seems to be positioning itself for that class. We are not a traditional top FA market. If the kids show promise, some FA might think he has a chance of championship with us (instead of say, NY). Else, we might get some good player, but not necessarily a franchise guy.

 

[VF21]

Possible.

But half the league seems to be positioning itself for that class. We are not a traditional top FA market. If the kids show promise, some FA might think he has a chance of championship with us (instead of say, NY). Else, we might get some good player, but not necessarily a franchise guy.

True enough, but we do have a good reputation as an organization players like to work for. Maybe there's another player like Vlade Divac willing to come take a chance. Hope still springs eternal.

 

[beb0p]

Petrie has always had an affinity for the tough physical player, only now are people noticing.

Hopefully, this put the silly notion that GP only likes shooter to rest once and for all.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

There really isn't a Vlade-type player available next year unfortunately...of the 'franchise' players available, we really have no chance...of the 2nd tier guys, like Michael Redd, would you really want him when you have Martin? We're probably going to have to work on some sort of trade to get another 'franchise' player.

 

[VF21]

I did not mean another player with the same skill set as Vlade. I meant another player who could see the vision of what Petrie is trying to do, recognize there's a place for him - whatever position he plays - in the project, and sign up for the ride.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

I did not mean another player with the same skill set as Vlade. I meant another player who could see the vision of what Petrie is trying to do, recognize there's a place for him - whatever position he plays - in the project, and sign up for the ride.

I knew that's what you meant. . And what I was saying was there really isn't any 'franchise' players available outside of the Wade's and Labron's...the only guy I'd really want to give a bunch of money to is Ginobili, but what do we do with Noc, Casspi, Martin, Greene, and Cisco? We have a logjam of all relatively young guys at that size.

 

[hrdboild]

Kind of interesting what happens when the GM actually gets to pick a coach that fits his vision, isn't it?

BTW hrdboild? You might want to change your signature.

Oh, you noticed? I'm 100% in favor of Tyreke Evans and excited about next season, but I thought I'd keep up the Jennings line for a little while longer because I was one of the first ones on the bandwagon and I still wanted to show my support. I suppose I could revise it a bit though.

 

[USNAVY15]

The team was good last year. But, Beno was injured, and Kevin Martin had a month long slump after coming back from injury. Spencer was treated like a dog with a short leash. Thompson was a bright spot, but he could have scored 20ppg had he finished at the rim. 17 wins was more like 24 wins if you don't count the tanking at the end of the season, and 24 wins was more like 35 wins if you don't count all the problems and injuries that occurred. 35-47 is not a bad record, add three rookies who are all hungry to play, one represents his country, and the third is going to play like a mad dog without a leash. a potential 35 wins last year could easily turn into 44-38 this year. We still might not make the playoffs, but if my calculations are correct, and we stay healthy, the team should go .500 .

 

[Bricklayer]

The team was good last year. But, Beno was injured, and Kevin Martin had a month long slump after coming back from injury. Spencer was treated like a dog with a short leash. Thompson was a bright spot, but he could have scored 20ppg had he finished at the rim. 17 wins was more like 24 wins if you don't count the tanking at the end of the season, and 24 wins was more like 35 wins if you don't count all the problems and injuries that occurred. 35-47 is not a bad record, add three rookies who are all hungry to play, one represents his country, and the third is going to play like a mad dog without a leash. a potential 35 wins last year could easily turn into 44-38 this year. We still might not make the playoffs, but if my calculations are correct, and we stay healthy, the team should go .500 .

You forgot the sprinkling of magic pixie dust that would have made us NBA champions.

 

[VF21]

It's my fault.



I lost the purple slippers...