Paul Westphal Approval Rating - Feb. '10

But my knees are wobbling just a bit. ;)

Mainly because you can at least tell that the guy knows what he’s doing most of the time, at least in coaching the players. On rotations, he’s still trying to figure out who deserves minutes. Nobody’s a clear cut winner for Playing Time except Tyreke really.

I am in no way saying he should be fired. I think it a very hard task for a coach to take a 17 win team & turn them into even an average team. That being said with the aquisitions of Reke & Omri & our early season success it is not to much to ask for significant improvement. I know we had an easy schudule but last year that wouldn’t have helped. So why did it help this year?
By now there should be a set starting line-up & a set rotation.
JT & Spencer have regressed while Donte has progressed but Tyreke hasn’t gotten any better & might be regressing
The team is frustrated
Our former star was unhappy & had to be traded
These are all major concerns.

And all he does is yell, “ATTACK! ATTACK!”

PW should know by now what the main problems are and have them on the way to being corrected. I also think that there is not an identity with this team. I thought they were going to be a running team? Then they tried to be a half court team but they aren’t posting anybody up!! How dumb. Time to become a run and gun team or a half court team. If you are a run and gun team, then you have to be willing to let players loose and let them play like Nocioni – whoever touches the ball can let it fly or go 1-on-1 ala the Lakers and Suns. If you want to be a halfcourt team, then you HAVE to START the offense in the post and work your way OUT and use pick and rolls ala the Jazz or pick and pops like the Celtics.

Also when a player makes a mistake, they have to be left in the game to learn! No player is going to thrive by worrying about being pulled out every time they make a mistake or get scored upon. How would you like it if you got repremanded, replaced and taken off the task every time you made a mistake at your work?

Because we have seen some improvement and are even younger than last year (overall).

The early season surprise .500 ball has made a lot of us want to see more and more improvement and while I can bag on Paul’s lack of set rotation. It seems to me that (in reality) we don’t really have that much to work with. A bunch of guys who have been in the league less than 3 season and (most) of the team is under 25.

All we have to do is look at the teams that win championships. The average age is generally something in the 18-30 range. And while I agree that other teams (such as Memphis and primarily OKC) are achieving (or over-achieving) they have been in full rebuild mode longer than we have.

In OKC brooks has a pretty set rotation of players who have played together several years. They are familiar with eachother and that makes it easier to get familiar with the coach/system (it helps that Brooks emphasizes defense as well).

I am very interested to see how we end the season in terms of progress and W’s L’s.

Go Kings.

Because I like how Omri, Donte, and Tyreke are playing. Whether I will vote Yes in a month remains to be seen… HighTops makes some excellent points above and his basketball knowledge far exceeds mine!

Young team, exceeding expectations.

I still don’t think that Westphal is the coach of the next great Kings team, but he’s fine for now.

So, no – though I still have hope that he can begin to turn this around.

Also, his popularity is due more to his likability than to anything he’s done with the team (and perhaps some leftover good-will from the team’s excellent start).

But as someone mentioned here above, I don’t think we should change coaches.

I still believe he is the right man for the job, but the team has been sliding (4-22 since New Year), and I just don’t see any identity on the team right now. Even if the bad play can solely be attributed to the players (and I don’t think that’s the case), it’s the responsibility of the coach to shape the team’s identity. And there are no excuses left to postpone forging an identity.

We need an established rotation. The offense has to become less stagnant, and should have some solid bread and butter plays. Defensively, rebounding and to a lesser extent perimeter defense should become a priority, IMO.

Paul Westphal went from crafty chemist to mad professor in two months. The confidence is low as the losing has killed much of the hustle and bounce that the first two months brought.

The Kings are a young team with below average talent. They have an up and coming star in Tyreke Evans who has much to learn and is showing the will and aptitude to improve. All is good but the process is slow, long and painful. Patience (the patience preacher has spoken), next year will be better (more talent, more maturity).

Paul Westphal went from crafty chemist to mad professor in two months. The confidence is low as the losing has killed much of the hustle and bounce that the first two months brought.

Still feel this way?