Eric Musselman is going to snap, and it's all your fault.

by Ziller on Feb 27, 2007 8:18 AM PST in Commentary Comment 16 comments

By all accounts, no coach in the league will outwork Eric Musselman. Part of the prestige of Musselman's figure is that he's an absolute gym rat, a guy who would rather break down tape and pore over box scores than engage in any sort of recreation. To Musselman, breaking down tape and poring over box scores is recreation.

Yet Musselman gets hammered by all corners. Us fans, we hammer him. Joe Maloof, hammers him for not winning the close ones. Ron Artest hammers him for paying too much attention to numbers. Other players, like Mike Bibby and Shareef Abdur-Rahim in the New York Times, hammer him for being too intense. Pundits near and far, in newspapers and on television, in bars and on blogs - everyone blames Musselman.

Color me joyful, then, to see Musselman fight back with some daggers of his own:

"I need to do a better job teaching rebounding. Obviously, to get beat on the glass like we did tonight is hard to overcome on the road. Technique-wise and coaching-wise, I need to get us to rebound the ball a lot better than we did. ...

The fatigue games, you've got to somehow find a way to win them. And we haven't done that this year, so it's my fault. Maybe we need to be in a little bit better condition to win these types of games."

Make no mistake - Musselman's no dummy and he's not gracefully asking for the stones. He's taking all that blame we all keep pressing down on his midget shoulders, after every blown lead and close loss and disappointing night, and he's relishing the opportunity to make us look like fools.

Because we are fools if we blame the Kings' rebounding troubles on him. Let's see: Brad Miller (a poor rebounder, wholly unathletic, aging), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (a poor rebounder, not particularly athletic, aging) and Kenny Thomas (undersized, uncoordinated, sucky) are his frontcourt pieces. Mike Bibby is a poor rebounder for his position, and always has been. Kevin Martin is an average rebounder for his position. Ron Artest has rebounded better this year than ever before. Yet, the Kings cannot rebound the ball. They are #28 in offensive rebounding and #16 in defensive rebounding. Yes, this is definitely Musselman's fault. He should definitely be able to take these undersized, unathletic, and/or sucky frontcourt players and make them rebound, dammit!

On the close games: Some of you (not you fine readers particularly, more 'the world at large') may consider this heretical, but studies have shown close games in basketball are essentially won and lost at random. John Hollinger of ESPN.com has the best summary of this idea. The truth is: The Kings are about an average team with a below-average record. Their expected winning percentage based on scoring margin is .479, which would have them in the playoffs as the 8th-seed. Actually, their scoring margin suggests they are the 12th best team in the league.

Yet, the close losses matter in the real world. The Kings have an 8-11 record in games decided by five points or fewer, and famously 0-5 in overtime games. Essentially, Joe Maloof is asking Eric Musselman to get a rabbit's foot or a leprechaun or a damn four-leaf clover or something, and turn some of those tight losses into tight wins. It doesn't work like that.

Despite all these sneering missiles fired at Musselman, the coach hasn't exploded. He isn't even dealing with a full deck - Star Player #1 could pull himself out of the starting lineup any given night, and reportedly decides when he should come in and out of the game. Star Player #2 admits to not listening to Musselman during crucial timeouts at the end of games because Star Player #2 knows how to play ball.

Yes, it is all Musselman's fault. Yeah. Uh huh.

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TZ,
A nice post; however, your thinking somehow fails to link to the even more thoughtful post right below it that discusses KMarts lack of touches in last night's game versus the game in Indiana where he dominated the ball, drawing mulitiple fouls calls. How can the same person author these two insightful posts and fail to make a connection? True, Muss can't make Miller be able to jump over a telephone book or block out; and he certainly can't heal Reef's cranky (and prematurely) old knees. And not even the the Lord God Almightly could suck the suckiness out of The Poodle. However, Muss could try playing his athletic new center in situations were it is dictated - like last night. On offense, he could insist that the offense be run for Kevin Martin and design an offense that made certain this happened. But he won't.

Coaching does matter. Do you really think that the Kings record would be the same - especially in close games - if Popovich were coaching this team? There is not enough talent on this team to be a contender, but there is enough to be a 6 - 8 team.

Muss isn't totally to blame for this lousy year; but, he is certainly part of the problem.

by Kusian on Feb 27, 2007 9:44 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: connections

I should've inserted a disclaimer in there that said, "Yes, Musselman makes some infuriating decisions, such as benching Kevin Martin at incredible times and keeping Justin strapped to the bench."

But every coach makes some questionable moves. Some work, some don't. We, as fans, will always focus on the ones which don't. Like when we play Risk, we'll always remember the remarkable times we lost seven men acting f*cking Siam, who had two defenders while we had 11 attackers. We seem to forget when our two defenders in Northern Europe do the same thing to that rat bastard from Iceland.

by Ziller on Feb 27, 2007 10:13 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: connections

But yeah, Musselman is not perfect, obviously. He is part of the Martin problem. But this problem is also a product of Bibby as point guard, Artest and Miller as captains and ballhandlers, Petrie as personnel chief, and Martin himself.

by Ziller on Feb 27, 2007 10:15 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: connections

Yup, plenty of blame for this infuriating season.

by Kusian on Feb 27, 2007 10:59 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: connections

Did you really just bust out a Risk example?! :-)

You're either a military aficianado or a geek - which is it, TZ? :-)

by Kusian on Feb 27, 2007 11:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: connections

I'm not a military expert, so... :-D

by Ziller on Feb 27, 2007 12:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

I'm with Kusian here in comparing one (brilliant as always) piece to another. The thread below screams awful coaching and this one is quite symathetic. You are a softie at heart, TZ. : )

Your neon sign needs to be really big and parked in front of Arco. Just to be sure Muss sees it, we need to get some of those guys dancing with cardboard arrows. Let's hire a blimp too. Hell, I will paint "GO TO KEVIN" on my breasts and shimmy if it will work.

I don't blame the players at all except for on effort. Last night they quit early. We know what the team's limitations are. So do they. We also know that we have some really nice individual strengths that are not being used well. Muss needs to figure out how to work with what he has just like every other coach. But he won't do that consistently and tries to force this team's large butt into a Speedo thong thinking someone out there will think it is hot. Little dude is not getting it.

He's pesky I tell ya.

by pyro on Feb 27, 2007 11:52 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

Hell, I will paint "GO TO KEVIN" on my breasts and shimmy if it will work.

Please let me know if I can assist in any way. :)

Back to the topic at hand, I agree that there is plenty of blame to go around. You have to throw Petrie in there as well, since he didn't move either Bibby or Artest. One of these guys NEEDS to go - since it didn't happen by the trade deadline, it should happen during the offseason.

by otis29 on Feb 27, 2007 12:40 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

In your opinion, of the current Kings players, who goes and who stays? Do both Artest and Bibby go away?

My preference is to build around Martin, Garcia (i.e. our youth). I could even handle non-playoff seasons if we were building towards something. We abosolutely have to acquire better rebounding a more reliable outside shooting.

by Kusian on Feb 27, 2007 1:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

That's a good question, and I waver back and forth game to game.

If it had to be a straight-up choice between Bibby and Artest, I'd prefer they keep Artest. In a perfect world, he'd also tone down his ego a bit and accept that the offense (and world) should not revolve around him.

I like the idea of building around our young players, but I just don't see Kevin as a real leader out on the floor. So if Artest and Bibby are gone, who fills that role?

by otis29 on Feb 27, 2007 1:49 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

I don't think Bibby is or ever has been a leader. Artest is this team leader for better or worse at this point. (Some argue that Corlis is a locker room leader; but, I'm not in there so, I don't know.)

by Kusian on Feb 27, 2007 2:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

I agree with the tone of your post TZ. I don't think everything can be pinned on Muss this year. I think if Rick was still coach we would be in the same boat. This team is an unathletic, small squad. A lot of NBA games are going to come down to the last 4 or 5 possessions for each team and generally the team that can get stops and rebound the ball is going to win. The Kings can't do any of the 2 so its no surprise that they struggle to win close games. I think the biggest feather in Muss' cap is that the team generally plays hard. If that should falter as the chances to get into the playoffs get slimmer and slimmer than we have another conversation. With Bibby likely declining his opt out this summer chances are very good that he is traded. Ron-Ron is fifty fifty to still be on the roster come fall. Our biggest weakness, the small front line will be the biggest challenge to fix. Brad, Kenny, and Reef all have loooooooooonnnnnnngggggggg contracts. The only one I see able to be moved is Reef, he has the smallest contract. Anyone have a list of free agents this summer?

Damn you Robert Horry!!!

by chupacabra on Feb 27, 2007 1:48 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Eric Musselman is going to snap

here you go http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_13008.shtml

by dun on Feb 27, 2007 10:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Marty Mac calls for Musselman's Dismissal

After the current season:

http://www.sacbee.com/351/story/130949.html

Just more proof that I'm right and Kusian is wrong. ;)

by otis29 on Mar 1, 2007 12:02 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Marty Mac calls for Musselman's Dismissal

I didn't realize that you had snuck this comment in on me. Devious....very devious indeed....

Yes, one of those time when I'm not very happy with the company that I seem to be keeping. I'd much prefer that Marty disagree with me as much as possible.

I think one of the main reasons that I don't like Marty is that he sounds like he's fucking stoned out of his mind all the while having several marbles in his mouth while talking.

by Kusian on Mar 2, 2007 5:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs