My Actual Letter I Mailed to Geoff Petrie

I somehow imagine GP as the pig with his hands and feet tied with the apple in his mouth, forced to watch in horror as the Magoofs cackle maniacally and have their way with the team.

Strongly disagree we have the talent to fight for a playoff spot, but everything else seems fair

geoff might not want to look at the mirror too hard however – he is the one who drafted tyreke and obviously drafted him as a point guard – and hasn’t brought in another rotation point guard since

(isiah might be – i don’t think petrie sees jimmer as a point guard)

I would like to take a few moments out of you day to reach out to you and express my concerns as a life long fan of the Sacramento Kings. As I’m sure you are aware, many of the fans have become increasingly frustrated with the direction of our young team. I am not a basketball genius as many claim you are (myself included). I have however followed basketball in general, and the Sacramento Kings in particular, for the last 15 years.

is completely undermined by

I have never seen a clearer example of a coach needing to be fired.

Even Petrie knows we had it way worse with Mussleman/Theus/Natt.

In regard to player development, that strikes me more as a franchise weakness and not simply a coaching one. Look at the players the organization has had to try and develop since 2001:

First round guys only.

2001: Gerald Wallace – The obvious choice to leave unprotected in the draft. The pick showed Petrie knew what he was doing, but there was never a chance to turn Crash into more than just a freakish athlete.

2002: Dan Dickau – played 300 games in the NBA, not one in a Kings uniform.

2003: No draft picks

2004: Kevin Martin – A steal late in the draft, and a pure scorer. An excellent offensive weapon, better when a team has one or two others as well.

2005: Francisco Garcia – Solid rotation guy, but aside from improving his deep shooting, he’s largely the same player he was when he was drafted. Good player, but I don’t think anyone ever thought he had a ton of untapped potential. My recollection is that picking him was something of a “fuck you” to Martin for not showing more improvement in his rookie year.

2006: Quincy Douby – Anyone want to step up and blame this one on player development issues?

2007: Spencer Hawes – Chosen too high at 10. Spencer is going to have a serviceable career if he stays healthy, but he’s also pretty much the same player he was when he came into the league. This lottery pick is never going to put a team on his back. Spencer is about as good as he’s ever going to be.

2008: Jason Thompson – I think Thompson is one of the better examples of players improving while with the Kings. JT has added a wrinkle or two to his repertoire each season, including vastly improved shooting and game smarts. Thompson will never be the best athlete on the team, but I get the impression he can outwork almost anyone.

2009: Tyreke Evans/Omri Casspi – A great deal of initial excitement about both, as they over-achieved early in the season. Casspi could top out as a Hedo type of player, but I’d guess that’s too much to expect. Good player, better for ticket sales than for wins.

Evans, I would argue, has not improved appreciably in any facet of his game, save perhaps perimeter shooting, where at least we don’t immediately start sobbing when he pulls up. Now, we wait until after the ball prangs off the iron to lose our shit. He gets to the rim as well as before, but still has no left hand. He over-dribbles and bogs down possessions. He seems to have no court awareness and runs the fast break as poorly as anyone I’ve seen outside of high school.

I’m not certain I’d believe that the Kings’ staff hasn’t emphasized and tried to work on these weaknesses in Evans’ game. They’re glaring. It’s entirely possible that his rookie season was as much as we can ever hope for from him, and as I think we all agree, 20/5/5 was a nice marketing tool, but didn’t and won’t result in better Kings basketball.

2010: DeMarcus Cousins – Far too early to have an indication of progress from his rookie year, but if he can keep his head out of his ass, there are few who doubt his ceiling is very high. Which is good, because a cathedral ceiling makes shouted trade demands much more difficult to hear through the door.

Will that development occur in Sacramento? Can it occur in Sacramento, even if he settles down and gets with the program? Looking back? Odds aren’t great.

2011: James Fredette – Way too early, but it’s fairly easy to speculate where he’s going to be an asset, and where he’ll be a liability. Kid can shoot, and he’ll likely get even better as he learns some new tricks playing against the elite. Seems to have a good court sense, but I don’t think I’d like him running the point. He may develop that kind of awareness, but I wouldn’t bet the bank on it. Defensively? Again, still very early, but without serious training to add quickness, he’s going to make Beno look like Doug Christie.

I’d summarize by suggesting the organization is either bad at drafting players with a ton of potential, or they have no capacity to bring out that potential. My estimation is that it’s a lot of the first, and a bit of the second. I don’t mean this as a defense of Westphal, but of the five coaches we’ve had in the past 10 years, aside from Martin, whose offensive game did improve here, and Wallace, who developed elsewhere, and was definitely a project, the men with the clipboard haven’t been given a hell of a lot of clay to make things with.

Of the draftees still in town, Cousins is the only one I feel could be a leader and an all-star. It’ll be entirely dependent on his attitude, work ethic, and willingness to be The Man.

Is it in him? I don’t know, and neither did the front office when they chose him. All I can tell you is that whomever is the Kings’ head coach isn’t going to have much impact on a player like Cousins. Our problems are systemic, not simply coaching-related.

P.S. The assertion that Westphal ran Dalembert out of town is ludicrous. Sammy had a very nice season, and I got the impression the coach and franchise would have been happy to have him back for the right price.

The Maloofs aced the mail room in 2008 with budget cuts.