What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander...if you blame Petrie for the cost-cutting measures then he deserves credit for the Artest deal even if it was done over his head...why? Because the cost cutting measures are done over his head.
OK, fine, we'll play it your way and see how it goes. Petrie hereby gets credit for Artest and for all cost-cutting moves.
Look at Petrie's ability to assemble talent when given the green light. Hedo Turkoglu was the best player available when he drafted that year.
He was if you ignore Michael Redd, but still, nothing shameful about getting second-best. Petrie tends to do well in horrible draft years, often finding guys who are worth keeping when the options are looking pretty bleak, like Hedo ('00), KMart ('04) and Garcia ('05). In years when the draft is good, like '98 and '01, he passed on superstars to get guys management didn't consider worth keeping. But enough dwelling on the draft already, that's an area where even the greats blunder, and the lousy sometimes do well, so it's kind of pointless to agonize over very much.
He picked up Pollard off waivers. Signed Keon Clark
And promptly traded him and a second-round draft pick to Utah, in return for absolutely nothing.
And let him walk, too.
brought it a fiery Jon Barry
And traded him plus a first round draft pick for Mateen Cleaves!
and basically put together one of the best assembled rosters of all-time.
Then threw much of it away. Vlade cut for Ostertag -- neither contributed as players, but without Vlade keeping morale up the team started falling apart, for a total savings of a million or so. Gerald Wallace -- given away. And what did we get for Webber, whose contract expires in 2 years? KT, whose contract expires in 5. Corliss, who per minute he's played has been one of the best-paid players in NBA history. He may finally get some minutes now, before becoming a FA this summer. Skinner -- team option after this summer, traded for a seemingly worthless Potapenko whose contract also ends this summer. Webber may be well past his prime, but he still averaged 20 and 10 last year, which is miles better than KT + Corliss + Skinner/Potapenko did for us. All in return for exactly one year of significant payroll cut -- followed by a bonus 3 years of KT's contract, which more than offsets the year of savings. Christie traded for Mobley, who we got nothing for. BJax traded for Bonzi, who we got nothing for. Songaila signed, then allowed to walk. Mo Evans, same. Anthony Peeler, same. And the really good years were paid for by trading away a pile of future draft picks, which is now coming back to haunt us. So, for the draft from '01 to '06, all we have to show are Kmart, Garcia and Douby -- Wallace was squandered, and all our other draft picks that hadn't already been traded away were used on Ricky Minard, Maurice Jeffers and Corsley Edwards. Other teams have as many guys playing from our '02-'06 draft picks as we do.
While we were having a great time watching a top-notch Kings team, we didn't notice that Petrie was getting it by borrowing against the team's future. Now it's all Petrie can do to keep us a game or two above the lottery, getting guys like Mobley and Wells to try to keep us going for one more year. But now the best we can do is Salmons, and the end of draft pick debt is not yet in sight.
WHile Petrie is NOT perfect, much of his limitations stem from the restraints placed on him by the ownership group. Petrie plays by the same rules as any other GM(the CBA), but if Mark Cuban or Jerry Buss were the owners Petrie would win exec. of the year EVERY year with his shrewd manuevers. THe Maloofs are good owners, but they have their limitations which is the limiting factor on Petrie.
You just broke your own rule. You said that Petrie should get credit for Artest, along with all cost-cutting moves. So, fine, now we'll try to blame everything on the owners being too cheap.
The Clippers, Pistons and Bulls have payrolls which are, on average, over 10% lower than the Kings, and the Heat, Spurs and Suns all have payrolls which are no more than 5% higher. The Maloofs have only limited Petrie to within spitting distance of luxury tax, which is clearly sufficient to fund a serious contender or a championship team if spent wisely.
Petrie did a magnificent job of getting us from punching bag to the team of 2001-2003, but he didn't do it in a sustainable fashion. Even going 10-72 this season wouldn't help, because he already traded that draft pick away to get us Mateen Cleaves. I'd like to think that he'd perform a miracle with the FA market this summer when Corliss, Potapenko, Price, Taylor and Hart expire, but pretty much everyone has done what reasonable managers should do, and signed their best guys to extensions, so I'm not sure what he's going to spend it on. Five replacement benchwarmers, I suppose.
I mean, holy crap. Best draft in...well one of the best ever supposedly. And what could be our best draft position (i.e. fewest wins) in a decade, and we have no pick?? That really pisses me off if that's true. Nothing to be done, but that really hurts. If our pick is in the teens, the theory this year is that there's almost guaranteed to be a star level player still on the board.
