What would I do if I were a Maloof?

I have no idea with the exception that I’m pretty dang sure there would be a lot more young women in my life (that’s assuming I wasn’t married honey), my car would be fly, not a 10 year old Toyota van (which I love) and I wouldn’t be getting my hair cut at Supercuts.

The one thing that stood out for me in the recent scrum is that with relative ease, KJ and helpers were able to sell an additional $10 mil in corporate sponsorships. I know they had the benefit of the well publicized urgency but still…….I wonder if any of the MS & E sales reps ever left the office or made an outbound phone call to potential sponsors. It sounds like they were there to answer the phone in case a potential sponsor decided to call into their office.

So what that tells me is that the Maloofs and their organization were not even trying, they were just going through the motions and that may be overstating their effort level. The league office must have come to the same conclusion which is why they have loaned the Maloofs 9 sales and support staff (high level) to help continue the sales momentum.

From my own business experience (one man’s observations) I have never seen a business or businessperson go from a negative or neutral level of effort to full crank it out mode. Once the state of inertia has become acceptable it’s very difficult to reverse. As an old boss of mine used to say “it’s possible for people to change but they rarely do”.

What would I do if I were a Maloof? I’d sell the team and spend the rest of my life hanging with the chill hip youth and playahs who still go to the Palms to party and rub shoulders (metaphorically speaking) with all the pretty young girls that SoCal and Vegas have in abundance and who are naive enough to be impressed that I was a minority owner of the Palms and used to own a NBA team.

That’s an easy one! I would do everything I could to ACT like I wanted to see the Kings stay in Sacramento….all the while making sure I EXECUTED my plan to have it all fail. Another losing season, waiting for my relocation plans to be approved.

• I’d not spend any money in Free Agency. I’d tell all the fans that the labor unrest and quality of the FA class caused me to wait another year and keep my strong financial flexibility. Sure I might get a role player or two…but not a difference maker…either in trade or Free Agency. Just enough to get me over the minimum cap.

• I’d bring back Paul Westphal as a lame duck coach. I’d let him deal with another rookie being added to a roster full of young guys. I’d let him know through the media, that the strong finish to the season has me expecting 45 wins in 2012. That lets me CRTL+ALT+DEL when I move to Anaheim in 2012 and bring Phil Jackson out of retirement to coach my team in LA.

• I’d bring back Marcus Thornton. Otherwise it would look like I gave KMart away for nothing. Not to mention, there’s nobody in FA that is better than the player I already know and have seen (from my house in LA, not at an actual game)

• I’d let Sammy go to New York and not resign him. No reason to spend the money on him, when I can bring in another MIkki Moore type player to band aid the roster. Can you say “Etan Thomas”

• I’d put all the pressure to get an arena built immediately on Kevin Johnson’s shoulders. If he can’t do it, I’ll have no choice but to take the team to Anaheim.

I don’t trust that the Maloofs have any intention to do the things necessary to make Sacramento work. I doubt they appreciate being told that they couldn’t move, and if they are the spoiled rich brats I believe them to be…they won’t settle for anything less than getting their way.