Woj: Kings let Bogi go

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#61
I have a good feeling that if Bogi goes, Buddy will settle in and then boom, he'll get traded and a lot of fans will be asking why we did that because he was playing good again. And if that happens, we likely nailed it.
As painful as it is, I think the decision comes down to being able to move one player as opposed to none.

Losing Bogi for nothing sucks but that ship sailed when Bogi to the Bucks fell apart.
 
#63
yeah that part is obvious it’s just a question of how you get there. Ultimately if you can’t have both on the same team because of Buddy’s drama I don’t think that drama goes away. Buddy’s drama, stupid play and large contract will likely ever prevent you from getting a return. Not sure you want to get no return from both.
Serious question. Do you know Buddy personally?
 
#65
I have a good feeling that if Bogi goes, Buddy will settle in and then boom, he'll get traded and a lot of fans will be asking why we did that because he was playing good again. And if that happens, we likely nailed it.
If he's lighting things up I see Vivek building a shirtless statue of Buddy out front of G1 before a trade even comes into the picture haha. I mean, this picture says it all, hahaha.


 
#70
ive had my suspicions about who Amick’s source has been for all these years and that part in particular, mixed with the fact we pretty much cleaned front office house when Vlade left pretty much confirmed it.
Not sure if Vivek or Aneel are actually still meddling or if someone else in the ownership group just really really wants us/the rest of ownership to think so.
Omg I’m glad I’m not crazy. That part of the writeup really annoyed me
 
#72
no everything else is a roadmap or step in the process if handled well. OKC wasn’t planning on building around Chris Paul and got picks going in and out. Presti is the model and he doesn’t waste assets.
This is the thing though, McNair is kind of stuck with what was given to him. There were a few years to see if Buddy and Bogdan could work and they wasted it. Totally wasted it. Damage done, time to move on. And yes, I don't think anyone would disagree that it sucks that it came to this. A few of us have been pretty adamant about Buddy and Bogdan playing together for this very reason and here we sit. Neither Buddy or Bogdan off the bench in 24 mpg was a real option long term.
 
#73
#74
They don’t know whether or not Vivek or his son are heavily involved so why even bring that up? These writers love causing a stir to just to drum up drama sometimes. I respect Sam Amick but this was unnecessary IMO.
I believe Amick is getting the info from disgruntled minority owners.

It’s been no secret there is serious discord between ownership. And someone, maybe more than one, has no problem outing Vivek to the media.

Given how the franchise has been run the past 7 years and all the poor choices, can anyone blame these owners?

Vivek’s way isn’t working. And isn’t showing any signs of working any time soon.

Circling back to Amick, I don’t believe he’s stirring things up. He’s reporting what he’s being told by other owners, but just isn’t citing names for obvious reasons.
 
#75
McNair’s pitch was to build around younger players which is no duh. The question is what is your roadmap to getting there.
Look, we've waxed about this for the past several days and it has nothing to do with the fact you're a fan of Bogi and I'm not.

You're of the mind that we can't lose an asset for nothing and are willing to hold onto him in order to flip him.

I'm of the mind that not getting a Top 5 in the 2021 draft is unacceptable, and I'm not willing to risk anyone like Bogi getting in the way of that.
 
#76
They don’t know whether or not Vivek or his son are heavily involved so why even bring that up? These writers love causing a stir to just to drum up drama sometimes. I respect Sam Amick but this was unnecessary IMO.

People are searching for any reason to yell “Kangz lolz” again
Sam Amick is a professional and Vivek has a poor track record. It's a lot easier to believe all of this is the case than your feelings wanting it to not be true.
 
#77
Vivek’s way isn’t working. And isn’t showing any signs of working any time soon.
Had the MIL deal gone through most of us would be over the moon right now. Can we just hold up a second? I agree that Vivek blew it big time with his first FO hires and in order to correct that he brought in an inexperienced Vlade who massively screwed up our draft assets. But I've seen nothing so far to suggest that this new FO actually isn't making smart basketball moves.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#80
we agree but disagree for whom we could get something.
Yeah, you know the thing that we all need to remember (me in particular) is that we all want the Kings to succeed (although some of you out there... I'm not sure about lol) but that there are lots of different opinions on how to get to that road. In this particular case, I'm pretty sure we agree on the end result, just not the order in which to get there.

Rest assured, I hope people will be able to tell when I am actually being mean on purpose rather than just stress posting through a global pandemic and various international catastrophes and the Kings being terrible for the 15th year in a row.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#81
Sam Amick is a professional and Vivek has a poor track record. It's a lot easier to believe all of this is the case than your feelings wanting it to not be true.
Amick's also a sports reporter who knows what he's doing.

Pretty sure way more people are talking about this story now that "good ol' meddling Vivek" is back as a narrative than if this had just been a post saying Mcnair wants to build around Fox and isn't sure about matching Bogi's contract and Buddy issues are further muddling the process.
 
#83
I think if fans were allowed the Kings REAL sixth man would rain BOOO's on Buddy opening night and rightfully so. I agree Amick is likely getting his info from another owner it just reads that way to me. I dont think Vlade passed on Luka I think it Vivek or his boy but what's done is done. Still I would have traded Bogi the moment he didn't sign that extension and hes likely gone for nothing now. McNair is in a tough spot but I think hes up to the task but the heavy lifting has to be done in the draft.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#84
I think if fans were allowed the Kings REAL sixth man would rain BOOO's on Buddy opening night and rightfully so. I agree Amick is likely getting his info from another owner it just reads that way to me. I dont think Vlade passed on Luka I think it Vivek or his boy but what's done is done. Still I would have traded Bogi the moment he didn't sign that extension and hes likely gone for nothing now. McNair is in a tough spot but I think hes up to the task but the heavy lifting has to be done in the draft.
Nothing about the rest of Vlade's track record would suggest that but whatever helps you sleep at night lol
 
#87
Nothing about the rest of Vlade's track record would suggest that but whatever helps you sleep at night lol
I've convinced myself that Vlade was so worried about drafting a Euro guy in the event he didn't pan out he'd be accused of having blinders that he talked himself into 100 reasons to draft anyone else. But that said, if everyone else wanted to draft Doncic I believe he'd have been overruled, so it would be nice to know who all was where.
 
#88
I've convinced myself that Vlade was so worried about drafting a Euro guy in the event he didn't pan out he'd be accused of having blinders that he talked himself into 100 reasons to draft anyone else. But that said, if everyone else wanted to draft Doncic I believe he'd have been overruled, so it would be nice to know who all was where.
I agree on the worried for 'drafting the Euro guy by a Euro GM, who already have 2 Euro stars (Bogi and Nemanja) in his roster'. If Kings picked Luka, headlines would easily be Kings turning into a softest Euro squad in the league. But Marc Cuban is like the crowned Euro player breeder of the league, so he has all the reason for the media to praise his draft choice of Luka.

Anyway, Doncic is already a Mavs for life maybe. So move on. Remember Orlando traded Webber on draft night just a year after they picked Shaq. Kings were lucky there never was a Shaq-Webber combo in the league and instead got the real good years of C-Webb in the later years.


For Buddy/Bogdan, I would keep Buddy. He clearly just wants the starter spot. He will be good eventually. His game and physique will keep him a good 15 year career.
 
#89
As painful as it is, I think the decision comes down to being able to move one player as opposed to none.

Losing Bogi for nothing sucks but that ship sailed when Bogi to the Bucks fell apart.
Painful was losing FA Brian Grant to Portland for nothing just when we were starting to look good.
Glad I never got too invested in Bogdan because I’m officially too old now to get worked up over players that aren’t all that great and don’t want to be here.
As far as Buddy goes seeing he feels he needs to start curious how many teams out there feel the same. If any I would think there is a market for him.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#90
If passing on Doncic was some kind of front to avoid the perception of favoritism toward the son of a former teammate of Vlade's, that's just about the worst decision in the history of professional basketball. Either a player is talented or not. There may have been some snickering going on about Luka ending up on the team with two famous Serbian players in the front office but none of that matters when he gets on the floor and either he lives up to the hype or he doesn't. Winning the Euroleague MVP award as a 19 year old should have been evidence enough that he was a prospect worth more than just a passing interest. And I have to believe that anyone who did their homework on Bagley and Doncic would have seen what was clearly apparent which is that one of them was a solid prospect and the other one was a freaking gold mine. Having seen the way Vlade's front office evaluated talent year after year, though, the answer really does seem that simple. They just didn't know what they were looking at. Also they were way behind the curve in recognizing how the league was changing.

Most of what Amick wrote in that tweet can be extrapolated from information we already know. I made a similar comment 6 hours ago on this forum even using some of the same language (something's gotta give) and I have no front office connections. It's just a matter of connecting the dots of what's been said by all parties involved. The only real newsworthy nugget smuggled in there is the insinuation that Vivek continues to meddle even after hiring a new GM and while I'm skeptical whether this is actually news instead of a recycling of past headlines in the absence of it -- I will grant that it is easy to believe Buddy Hield is the one player Vivek would not be willing to budge on. He was the guy he asked Vlade to deliberately target in the DeMarcus Cousins deal, the guy anointed with the glow of our owner's favorite player, the guy who brought the three-point trophy to Sacramento this year. And in light of the fact that Buddy did manage to shoot 43% on a high volume of threes for two and a half seasons in Sacramento before whatever happened last season happened (and it's not like plummeting to 39% makes him a liability) there's more reasons than simply keeping the boss happy to give him another chance.

McNair may indeed have to scrap everything and build the team around a Fox/Haliburton pairing and if his first draft is any indication, I like our chances if he does take that approach. But Vivek stepping in and requesting that we give Buddy another shot to prove he's for real is equally believable and I'm not sure he'd be wrong to request that either. Kings fans have a bad habit of turning on players who violate their blue collar code of ethics. Asking for more money, complaining about minutes or touches, insinuating that Sacramento isn't exactly the center of the cultural universe -- these are all surefire ways to get this particular fanbase to turn on you. Which is funny because down the road in LA those actions would all be celebrated on the Lakers as evidence that a player is worthy of their highest honor -- the Mamba Mentality. But not everyone is a politician. I don't think managing perception and putting a ball in a hoop from 24 feet away are overlapping skillsets and you have to admit, whatever you may think of him, there's no arguing that Buddy is pretty damn good at one of those things.

So as we wait and see what the verdict is on the Bogdanovic contract offer, I would just caution fans to remember that the last time this team did anything of note it was with a relatively unknown executive and coach and a string of under-the-radar and even unpopular moves that somehow came together to produce a legendary group of teammates seemingly out of thin air. Grumbling online is all well and good, but let's not forget that we all want the same thing here. McNair may be the right man for the job but he's not going to transform the Kings into contenders in a couple weeks. The rise to the top is the best part of being a fan so let's all remember to put the past behind us and enjoy it when it happens okay?