Petrie Poll, Part II

I want to see what he does with this. I lliked the Noc move in that it’s a start. I don’t expect Noc to be moved, ala Kenny Thomas, but I do like the deal as in it fits better with the direction the Kings need to move in by saving money next season, and 2011, and it will only haunt them monetarily if John Salmons doesn’t exercise his option.

I like the other 3 minor deals, namely the McCants/Booth tandem coming in because it gives them a shot to audition McCants, and see how hard he plays. I’m glad the Nate Robinson deal fell through; I’m not convinced that you take a player like Jared Jeffries on to get rid of Kenny Thomas. That’s why I knocked the grade down to 75%. I didn’t like that deal under any circumstance, because now Kenny Thomas is an asset. That’s the first time I really think any of us can say that. Now it’s time to get stingy. So if he was actually willing to deal Thomas to get Jeffries, I just can’t endorse that.

I like the Cassell saving money deal; it makes sense. I liked the Solomon money saving deal. Again, it made sense. If you’re losing money, then try to make a little by bringing on players who don’t great impact their future. I think the Kings saved themselves about a million dollars, maybe a million & half with the moves they made, and every little bit helps. When you factor in Reef’s retirement, and Moore’s waiving, that could be something that could work out to push the savings this year of close to 2 million dollars. Again, every dollar counts.

Maybe the deals weren’t earth shattering, but Petrie effectively changed the mix, kept his young players as the core of the team, and is looking to keep them as the main pieces moving forward. I give him an “A” for the deals he made, but I don’t endorse him 100. I do endorse him 90 for the moves he did make though. I might go up to 100% depending on what happens during the summer.

I like Nocioni. I guarantee he exceeds some of our negative expectations just like John did.

100% if he gets us a starting PG and Def. C in the draft ,FA,Sign & Trade or anywhere!

But it had nothing to do with the deadline deals. As a whole, I like the deals and I think GP did as good as he could have, and probably better than could be reasonably expected.

I dropped only because it suddenly struck me this week that our huge PG problem and C problem are mostly Petrie’s fault (due to faulty strategic planning or faulty optimism?), though I know that’s a bit of an over-simplification and fixing those problems surely would’ve come at the expense of some of our current assets.

1. We dumped a lot of salary which was our main priority. (Mission Accomplised).

2. We didn’t receive any picks or a young talent except McCants who’s not to be trusted until proven otherwise.. but he’s expiring anyway so no biggy. (Could have done better in a fan’s mind but I like it).

3. We did get Nocioni’s 6.5-8/year mil contract which expires in 2012 when the guy will be 33. (Bad move until proven otherwise).

Overall, we made no major breakthrough like landing Amare or acquiring Wiz’s 1st round pick but that was almost impossible anyway. We did solve our main problem to a big extent which was salary cap. We’ll give McCants a chance to prove himself without any burden to the team’s salary/future. And we got the veteran Argentinian who I believe has more chances to play well than bad and as far as I understand we’ll have enough cap space to sign a big name(s ?) in the next couple of years.

I think this trade deadline marked the 1st phase of our rebuilding process which is dumping salary and I think it was the relatively easier part.

Now the real building begins.

Why did we waive Moore and not K9?

Same contract length. Moore has enough value to get traded be a backup somewhere, K9 not. Is it the 2 million salary difference?

Does anyone think the Kings will actually SPEND the money they are saving next year? That seems like foolish optimism, all things considered. My bet is that they sit on the roster they have, add the 3 draft picks, and pick up or resign a couple minor players biding their time for 2010 to 1-year contracts. The Maloofs aren’t going to spend until they have a new arena (here or elsewhere), so I think there is very real probability that the Kings will be as bad or worse next year.

There are going to be a lot lot lot of vets who will struggle just to get that next year.

But our team was terrible, so the fact that we’ll be fielding a D-League team for the rest of the year isn’t as bad as it could be, I guess. Hopefully ticket prices go down next year with all the money saved.

I think we could have gotten better for John still. I would have liked that New Jersey deal more, but apparently Petrie likes Nocioni a lot. If he turns out to be good for the team, maybe I’ll get back to 75%. Admittedly, there wasn’t much Petrie could do.

I’m saddened K-9 is still on the team but next year he’ll be our version of RLEC. And we will probably trade him unlike Portland.

Here’s hoping for Ping Pong balls.

Also, what is Washington thinking? There not going to be able to afford any of their players.

The Maloofs won’t worry about filling seats at Arco Arena if they’ll be playing in KC or SJ in 2012. This all starting to look suspiciously like the Seattle Sonics circa 2007.

I’m gonna try to reason this through since I seem to be in a small minority……

I don’t really care about the quality of play of any vet on this awful team this season (ours or those we trade for that expire), only how they are perceived in the market. I felt that Brad this year was worth expirings; next year he would be worth more. We got an expiring for Brad. I felt that Salmons this year was worth at least an expiring if not something else better; we got a longer term MLE + contract for a mediocre vet for Salmons. That is not better. It’s possible/probable that we overvalued Salmons, but just because we made the trade we made doesn’t make that so. We’re not saving any money with Noc.

Saving lots of money this year is fine I guess. I feel that if you own an NBA team that makes money some years, you have to expect to lose money some years. I’m not moved by the Maloof’s financial difficulties. These guys were all over the TV bragging about their wealth just a couple years ago. They own a huge casino. They owned an NBA team in their 20s. If they forced Petrie to make these cost-cutting moves, that doesn’t make me feel any better about them or Petrie.

Today’s deals were salary dumps. Those are fine, I don’t care about the quality of vets coming back if they’re just gone next season.

We would not have been in the situation we’re in had Petrie planned better in prior years. Not just the good years, but the 2005-2007 period. If we plan better then, we don’t sign Beno to his awful contract. We don’t sign Mikki Moore to his. If it’s a given that we had to dump salary, we have to examine why we had to do that.

Things like “Petrie likes Nocioni a lot” are scary to me. I like stars a lot. I like role players on playoff teams a lot. I don’t like middling vets on horrible teams a lot.

Taking a shot with a guy like Diogu is a good idea. I liked the Artest deal. I think the Bibby deal was not terrible. I’m not a Negative Nicholas. I just question what our plan is, what it’s been, and what our situation now says about the quality of our front office.

The remodel is still in progress. However, I can certainly understand anyone that voted in the 25-50% region. This season is beginning to feel like a decade.

I’d vote 75-100%. Petrie needed to blow the team up and change the chemistry, and he did just that while keeping his young core intact. We didn’t lose any player who will still be with us when / if we get good again, and we set the table for a continued youth movement while adding a couple of pieces that might work out.

My score overall would still be closer to the 50s due to the mistakes he has made that got us to this point. But I am encouraged that he is actively engaged in making needed changes.

The Kings have gotten worse every year for the past 5 or 6 years on his watch, and we may not have bottomed out yet.

to 50% post deadline.

My feelings on the Nocioni deal I made clear, I don’t like it as a basketball deal, I understand it as a financial one, though that doesn’t score many points with me.

If the reports are true that GP had the chance to dump Nocioni on Boston today for mostly expiring stuff and didn’t because he “likes” him, well, I’ll never know a fraction of the basketball GP does, but I think that decision sucks and will be happy to be proven wrong over the next few years.

I agree with coolcat, GP gets points for the sheer volume of the turnover. The lockerroom has to be more pleasant and conducive to a rebuilding team now.

I really think GP overplayed his hand the last couple of months with Miller. Of course we’ll never know what was actually real, but its reasonable to think there were better deals early in the process for Miller than “we’ll take him but we want Salmons too and are going to give you back a horrible contract”. GP’s legendary patience, from the outside, without the full story, seems to have cost us this time. Supposedly we turned down Miller + K9 for Marion and dealing with Banks’ crappy contract. If we did that, we made a mistake.

And how I feel going forward really depends on how this opportunity is utilized. We’re now under the cap next year, if barely.

Will we throw a bunch of young players against the wall and see who sticks? Will we sign another Mikki Moore? Will the Maloofs insist we sit on the cap space?

This is why Gallup polls have +/- margins of 4%.