Willie blasts Karl for the first time in his career - i.e. Karl is DONE

IfAt1st

IfAt1st

Starter
My guess?
Tonight was the first night of the rest of the Kings future without Karl.

Willie's career up to tonight has been filled with the typical aww shucks, humble, passive rookie bon-mots during interviews.
I had become accustomed to him being the King player who never questions anything - it seemed to me it was obvious that he was told to keep his head down and let the vets handle internal issues (especially coaching issues).

So imagine my surprise when the post-game interview tonight came on, and this happened:

I was as surprised as Doug Christie was when the camera came back into studio - both of our jaws were dropped and we could barely speak.

Q: "Coach talked about a matchup issue in one of those games... that'd be Ryan Anderson."
A: "That's funny. That's just funny. It's kinda flukey... cuz, um... I can guard five people... otherwise I wouldn't be here. There should be no matchup problems, EVER. So that's just an excuse, I think. However, I'm not the coach."

Later: "This is NOT happening to me again... I can promise you that."

I find it VERY interesting that Willie chose THIS game to finally say something real in his interview.
To be clear - I totally understand him keeping his head down and not making waves this season, and I totally support him blasting Karl with this response tonight.
I am guessing that him speaking freely (the shackles being taken off) is evidence of Karl not being in charge in the near future (with the related news that he will be undergoing a "non-serious throat cancer procedure").

Whenever that happens, I think it's significant that a rookie would feel comfortable enough to basically state that the acting coach that has a contract for two more years after this season will not be stopping him from being on the court after this summer.....
 
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I believe he was implying that he's going to put the work in this Summer to ensure that his coach has no choice but to play him next season. That's what I got out of it anyway.

But, regarding his comments about "matchup issues" being used as an excuse --- I wholeheartedly agree with him. Even if Willie can't guard 5 positions in the NBA, he can guard enough of them to warrant a lot more PT on a team in dire need of an infusion of defense. Sure, the kid makes his fair share of rookie mistakes, but he's still the team's best defender.

Like Brick and some others have suggested, the root of the problem is Karl's reluctance or inability to change his ways. Historically, he hasn't played rookies much. And he has little idea how to utilize a big man, let alone 2 of them.
 
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WCS is arguably the most NBA ready rookie this year. He also has the benefit of being drafted to do exactly what he is capable of doing. He's not being asked to shoulder a load offensively, he's not a PG being asked to lead a complex offense. There are really no excuses to keep him on the bench.

He's a defender who can help clean up a lot of mistakes in the paint, and on the wings, etc. How many close losses could he have helped to prevent?
 
KingsFanSince85 said:
I believe he was implying that he's going to put the work in this Summer to ensure that his coach has no choice but to play him next season. That's what I got out of it anyway.
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That's how I read those comments too. But the first comments were definitely a (deserved) shot at Karl.

If Ryan Anderson is the matchup "issue" then who on the Kings SHOULD be defending that guy? Willie would be my first choice with maybe Rudy as my second and Quincy as my third.

I'm a big Quincy Acy fan. Love his hustle, love his attitude, love his emphatic dunks. But he's a backup role player. An undersized PF who should be adding energy to the 2nd unit and encouraging his teammates from the bench and in the locker room. Cauley-Stein was drafted because he's a seven footer with freakish footspeed and defensive potential. Cutting his minutes because of "matchup issues" makes no sense.
 
Merdiesel said:
What does George Karl have to do to get fired? Nobody in that locker room has his back and he's turned this place into a toxic wasteland.

Let Corliss take the reigns for the rest of the season. We can't afford to let Karl's negativity go on any further. Start preparing for next season today.
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There's no point right now. Wait till the season rides out. We can't be looking like a circus firing coaches all the team. We need some sense of stability for people to come here this summer
 
So we see a dumb rookie criticizing his coach in open public saying he can guard five positions, saying he sure can guard Ryan Anderson. He CAN'T guard Ryan Anderson! He CAN'T guard 5 positions! That's a myth in his own mind! Oh yeah, he would be fantastic guarding Westbrook and Paul and LBJ and Durant.:rolleyes: He HASN'T even been able to guard stretch 4s this year, which was supposed to be EXACTLY what he was supposed to be able to do from Day 1. At this point in his brief stint he's a good help defender, not a one on one defender. Great Culture there Vlade! Keep it up! Let's keep the rook happy (also known as placating) and force Karl to play him 30+ minutes a game. Maybe you could take away his floor seat and have him stand for the entire game. Love the Culture, man! It's a fantastic precedent for whomever the new coach is going to be next year!
 
Kingster said:
So we see a dumb rookie criticizing his coach in open public saying he can guard five positions, saying he sure can guard Ryan Anderson. He CAN'T guard Ryan Anderson! He CAN'T guard 5 positions! That's a myth in his own mind! Oh yeah, he would be fantastic guarding Westbrook and Paul and LBJ and Durant.:rolleyes: He HASN'T even been able to guard stretch 4s this year, which was supposed to be EXACTLY what he was supposed to be able to do from Day 1. At this point in his brief stint he's a good help defender, not a one on one defender. Great Culture there Vlade! Keep it up! Let's keep the rook happy (also known as placating) and force Karl to play him 30+ minutes a game. Maybe you could take away his floor seat and have him stand for the entire game. Love the Culture, man! It's a fantastic precedent for whomever the new coach is going to be next year!
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Too bad you can't even prove he can't guard those players because Karl doesn't ****ing play him anymore.
 
Kingster said:
So we see a dumb rookie criticizing his coach in open public saying he can guard five positions, saying he sure can guard Ryan Anderson. He CAN'T guard Ryan Anderson! He CAN'T guard 5 positions! That's a myth in his own mind! Oh yeah, he would be fantastic guarding Westbrook and Paul and LBJ and Durant.:rolleyes: He HASN'T even been able to guard stretch 4s this year, which was supposed to be EXACTLY what he was supposed to be able to do from Day 1. At this point in his brief stint he's a good help defender, not a one on one defender. Great Culture there Vlade! Keep it up! Let's keep the rook happy (also known as placating) and force Karl to play him 30+ minutes a game. Maybe you could take away his floor seat and have him stand for the entire game. Love the Culture, man! It's a fantastic precedent for whomever the new coach is going to be next year!
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Dumb rookie? This is how I see it. If my coach uses the media to tell the world that I can't do something and that I'm getting "tricked", then I'll use the media to tell the world thst I CAN play. The coach is choosing to throw players under the bus in the media. Coach has set the ground rules for communication. There is only so much a man is going to take before he defends himself. I'm extremely impressed by WCS standing up for himself.
 
Bosnian Diehard said:
Too bad you can't even prove he can't guard those players because Karl doesn't ****ing play him anymore.
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NBA player tracking stats that look at FG% allowed actually don't have WCS tearing it up on defense this year. He's slightly better than league average at the rim, but nowhere near as good as either Cousins or Koufos, and once he steps away from the rim he's consistently slightly worse than league average. He has his spectacular moments, but this matches with what my eye sees - in general he's not terribly effective contesting jumpers and he still needs to work on keeping the perimeter man in front of him. In time I'm sure he will be an amazing defender but I'm not sure he's there yet.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
NBA player tracking stats that look at FG% allowed actually don't have WCS tearing it up on defense this year. He's slightly better than league average at the rim, but nowhere near as good as either Cousins or Koufos, and once he steps away from the rim he's consistently slightly worse than league average. He has his spectacular moments, but this matches with what my eye sees - in general he's not terribly effective contesting jumpers and he still needs to work on keeping the perimeter man in front of him. In time I'm sure he will be an amazing defender but I'm not sure he's there yet.
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Cauley-Stein has been what I expected this year. Even great college defenders usually struggle as rookies. Guys are bigger, stronger, faster and usually get their shots off quicker. He's still adjusting to the speed of the game, to the extra distance needed to close out on three point attempts and the physicality of guys in the post or taking it hard to the rim. I expected him to be solid this season with flashes of greatness and that's pretty much what we've seen.

But he's not going to develop sitting on the bench. And he's slightly better than Acy as a defender in most areas of the floor.

http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/1626161/tracking/defense/
http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/203112/tracking/defense/

Hard to justify not playing hm and letting him grow versus playing a smaller guy who doesn't really offer any more on either end of the floor than WCS does.
 
Livinthedream said:
Dumb rookie? This is how I see it. If my coach uses the media to tell the world that I can't do something and that I'm getting "tricked", then I'll use the media to tell the world thst I CAN play. The coach is choosing to throw players under the bus in the media. Coach has set the ground rules for communication. There is only so much a man is going to take before he defends himself. I'm extremely impressed by WCS standing up for himself.
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The Rook needs to keep his mouth shut! And Vlade, the fount of Culture, needs to tell him to keep his mouth shut. The rook has no standing whatsoever. This is sooo typical of a corrupt feckless Kings Culture. If Vlade doesn't do something here he's tacitly undermining the coach and undermining the tatters of what we call Culture. And it's not just about Karl versus dumb Rook, it's dumb Rook vs. this coach and whomever the next coach is. This is the way to screw up the development of your players. You let them get away with crap in their first freaking year. And I don't give a **** whether the Dumb Rook is justified or not in his search for justice. He's still a Dumb Rook and he needs to keep his trap shut!
 
Kingster said:
The Rook needs to keep his mouth shut! And Vlade, the fount of Culture, needs to tell him to keep his mouth shut. The rook has no standing whatsoever. This is sooo typical of a corrupt feckless Kings Culture. If Vlade doesn't do something here he's tacitly undermining the coach and undermining the tatters of what we call Culture. And it's not just about Karl versus dumb Rook, it's dumb Rook vs. this coach and whomever the next coach is. This is the way to screw up the development of your players. You let them get away with crap in their first freaking year. And I don't give a **** whether the Dumb Rook is justified or not in his search for justice. He's still a Dumb Rook and he needs to keep his trap shut!
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I can't tell. Do you think WCS is dumb?
 
Capt. Factorial said:
NBA player tracking stats that look at FG% allowed actually don't have WCS tearing it up on defense this year. He's slightly better than league average at the rim, but nowhere near as good as either Cousins or Koufos, and once he steps away from the rim he's consistently slightly worse than league average. He has his spectacular moments, but this matches with what my eye sees - in general he's not terribly effective contesting jumpers and he still needs to work on keeping the perimeter man in front of him. In time I'm sure he will be an amazing defender but I'm not sure he's there yet.
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It's interesting, both Defensive rating and RPM don't like him either.

He has the 2nd worst defensive rating in the team (only Caron Butler is worse) and he is ranked 274th in the league (69th out of 75 centers) in DRPM with a negative -0.70.

The potential is obviously there, but I think he is still very far away from having the defensive impact some already attribute to him.
 
miltonap said:
There's no point right now. Wait till the season rides out. We can't be looking like a circus firing coaches all the team. We need some sense of stability for people to come here this summer
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The circus has cemented the big top stakes in the ground years ago... Who gives a **** what people think? It's not like firing him in the summer will have any positive affect on FA signings. Potential coaches were probably scared off last year anyway. By firing him now it shows the players you've got their back and you're not worrying about your "image".
 
I don't see any point in continuing the George Karl experiment. His time here was an abject failure.

Let him go. Make Corliss interim coach. Get a head-start on the coaching search now.
 
In any functioning NBA franchise a rookie shuts up, mans up, keeps his head low and his focus on working as hard as he can to improve his game.
The kings, however, are not a functioning franchise...

And as for coach Karl - yes, he is done. But it has very little to do with WCS (out of place) comments.
 
Kingster said:
The Rook needs to keep his mouth shut! And Vlade, the fount of Culture, needs to tell him to keep his mouth shut. The rook has no standing whatsoever. This is sooo typical of a corrupt feckless Kings Culture. If Vlade doesn't do something here he's tacitly undermining the coach and undermining the tatters of what we call Culture. And it's not just about Karl versus dumb Rook, it's dumb Rook vs. this coach and whomever the next coach is. This is the way to screw up the development of your players. You let them get away with crap in their first freaking year. And I don't give a **** whether the Dumb Rook is justified or not in his search for justice. He's still a Dumb Rook and he needs to keep his trap shut!
Click to expand...

I always love the insecurity of authoritarianism.
 
Kingster said:
The Rook needs to keep his mouth shut! And Vlade, the fount of Culture, needs to tell him to keep his mouth shut. The rook has no standing whatsoever. This is sooo typical of a corrupt feckless Kings Culture. If Vlade doesn't do something here he's tacitly undermining the coach and undermining the tatters of what we call Culture. And it's not just about Karl versus dumb Rook, it's dumb Rook vs. this coach and whomever the next coach is. This is the way to screw up the development of your players. You let them get away with crap in their first freaking year. And I don't give a **** whether the Dumb Rook is justified or not in his search for justice. He's still a Dumb Rook and he needs to keep his trap shut!
Click to expand...
Did you actually listen to his interview that was posted? Just because a fan says he "blasted" Karl doesn't make it so. He answered a question, deferred to the coach and said next year would really take off. I don't want a player who isn't confident in his abilities.

If you want to look at culture and what is wrong with it, take a good hard look at the coach's seat. He's lived up to his reputation except with the wins and playoffs.
 
R2D2 said:
In any functioning NBA franchise a rookie shuts up, mans up, keeps his head low and his focus on working as hard as he can to improve his game.
The kings, however, are not a functioning franchise...

And as for coach Karl - yes, he is done. But it has very little to do with WCS (out of place) comments.
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Oh, if what I have heard about the comments streaming out of the Kings own media crew, Bobby, Christi, Ham etc., I would say that this is a hotly, not even debated topic. That basically the whole Kings world is mocking Karl about this issue.

Let's take an extreme case just to establish that there is in fact no principle. Let's say we had drafted LeBron this year. Or Shaq. Whoever. Then let's say that George Karl had said "I don't trust rookies", and was barely giving Bron/Shaq 10 minutes off the bench. Would anyone like to stand for the principle that LeBron/Shaq should "keep their head low" say yessir/nosir, and thankyyousir when actually given a 5 minute stint?

I suspect even 90% of the auithoritarian clan can see the ridiculous of that situation. Now WCS is not those guys, but once you establish its not a principle but rather an evaluation, the rules go out the window. WCS is not asking fro more me things, more shots. He's not asking a winning coach coaching a winning team for these things. He thinks he can help a losing team and losing coach quit losing. So does 90% of the rest of the non-George Karl world.
 
Bricklayer said:
Let's say we had drafted LeBron this year. Or Shaq. Whoever. Then let's say that George Karl had said "I don't trust rookies", and was barely giving Bron/Shaq 10 minutes off the bench.
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On your next paragraph you had admitted yourself that this "what if" scenario is baseless, but just to articulate the point I am making: in such a scenario, in a functioning franchise, the coach would have been shown the door, and way before said rookie would even think about talking to the press. So yes, he would still be expected to concentrate on improving his game instead of calling out his coach.

But the sad truth is that:
1. The kings are not that type of a franchise.
2. We had yet to draft a LeBron. Or Shaq.
 
Glad to see WCS standing up for himself. His inconsistent minutes are ABSURD. They're not winning, so why not develop him? He's not a liability out there. Please let's just get rid of George Karl asap.
 
SacKings384 said:
Glad to see WCS standing up for himself. His inconsistent minutes are ABSURD. They're not winning, so why not develop him? He's not a liability out there. Please let's just get rid of George Karl asap.
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Anybody surprised a rookie speaks out like he does? He's an intelligent guy and also has promised to have an offensive game. Interesting guy and I'm glad we have him. I'll bet Boogie is happy also.
 
Not very often do you see a rookie speak out about his playing time like this, but he has every right. He was a starter at some point in the season, that has to count for something. He was one of the reasons for the five game win streak, so the fact that he hasn't been playing is understandable. However, I don't like going out in the media and telling the whole world about it. I'd like it to remain internal and discuss this with the coach himself, but based on the fact that Karl communicates through the media, Trill did the same. I don't agree about the part of him being able to guard all five positions, but I dig the confidence. He definitely isn't lacking any of that, the question now remains is is he going to get any playing time so he can try some of the things hes been working on in practice or does he really have to wait another 18 games, plus a whole off season to show off what he has in his repertoire.
 
He said we wouldn't see any of this next year. I presume he meant the small playing minutes. In college he was advertised as being ably to guard all 5 positions. In the NBA there are PGs that will eat him alive and maybe a few centers. Still, he can play out to the three pt line and chase guys from behind. Let him figure out who he can guard and who he can't. That's what playing time is for. Free Willie.
 
How do any of you continue to watch this dumpster fire known as the kings? Why do you insist on making the playoffs? Why does grant continue to talk about the new g1 center instead of the rwal issues with the kings (karl)
 
Big Cuz 15 said:
How do any of you continue to watch this dumpster fire known as the kings? Why do you insist on making the playoffs? Why does grant continue to talk about the new g1 center instead of the rwal issues with the kings (karl)
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He talks about the G1 center because thats all the kings have to look forward to.

As bad as this team is, the honeymoon might only last a couple of months, if that.
 
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